Two sisters

The Two Sisters (two sisters), also called Three Sisters (three sisters), are a myth from the dream time of the Australian Aborigines . It's a creation story myth.

At the beginning of the dream time, three wonderfully beautiful sisters went from their stars to earth to look at them. It is believed that the three stars are the Orion constellation . One of the three sisters met two men, who are always depicted as snakes in Aboriginal paintings, and fell head over heels in love with both of them and became involved with them. Since she had contacts with human beings, she could no longer return to the stars as a supernatural being. The two sisters returned to the stars and, in the opinion of the Aborigines, could be recognized in the constellation of the now Two Sisters. It is the fall of man that is portrayed differently in the Bible.

The sister who stayed on earth took the form of an emu . The emu is a bird that cannot fly, it is a "prisoner of the earth". He got the role of the earth mother and is still connected to heaven, the father figure, as he protrudes into the sky with his long neck and can observe the stars. For the Aborigines, heaven is male and earth is female. Between its featherless neck and legs is its feathered body. And this body between "heaven and earth" stands for the decision about the sexuality of the birth of humans. When the wind blows or the emu runs, it loses feathers. If the feathers are blown to the right, the feathers become male and female to the left. For the Incarnation, the Emu created a star, the so-called Tnjatanja Pole , on which the process takes place. The emu also stands for the incarnation in the dreamtime.

literature

• R. Lewis: The Beginner's Guide to Australian Aboriginal Art. The symbols, their meanings and some Dreamtime stories. 3rd edition 2004, Publisher: Fountainhead Press, Canning Vale DC.