The following is a list of Australian Indigenous Australian deities and spirits.
The following is a list of Australian Indigenous Australian deities and spirits.
{{citation}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)The serpent, or snake, is one of the oldest and most widespread mythological symbols. The word is derived from Latin serpens, a crawling animal or snake. Snakes have been associated with some of the oldest rituals known to humankind and represent dual expression of good and evil.
In Karajarri mythology, the Bagadjimbiri are two brothers and creator spirits. They arose from the ground as dingos and made water-holes, sex organs for the androgynous first people, and invented circumcision. Taking human form, the Bagadjimbiri began an argument with Ngariman, a quoll-person. Ngariman was annoyed by the Bagadjimbiri's laughter. He killed the brothers underground, but was drowned by Dilga, their mother, who flooded the underground murder-spot with her milk, which also revived her sons. The Bagadjimbiri eventually turned into snakes and went to live in the sky as clouds.
In Gamilaraay mythology, Birrangulu or Birrahgnooloo is a fertility spirit who would send floods if properly asked. She is said to have had a long thin face.
In Gubbi Gubbi mythology, Dhakhan is an ancestral spirit. He is described as a giant serpent with the tail of a giant fish. He often appears as a rainbow, as this is his way of travelling between the watering holes which are his homes. He is also the creator of the snakes and serpents that live within the waterholes.
In the mythology of the Wunambal people of northwestern Australia, Ungud is a snake god who is sometimes male, sometimes female and sometimes androgynous. He is associated with rainbows by the fact Ungud may be an symbolic representation of rainbows and the fertility and erections of the tribe's shamans. In the beginning, when only the sky and the earth existed, Ungud lived underground as a giant python. Ungud is associated with earth and water and is credited with causing rain to fall and also has connections with monsoons. At night, Ungud and Wallanganda, the sky deity, created living beings through their dreams. The Mother Goddess Kunapipi who is also at times is called the Old Woman is connected to Ungud. The Rainbow Serpent made paths for her to walk around creation. Both The mother goddess and Rainbow serpent are the embodiment of creative powers that live within the earth. Through Ungud Dreaming itself into new forms natural species making it part of what life is based on becoming an archetype of life.
The Wawalag sisters, also written as WauwalukWawilakWaggilak, Wagilag, or Wawalik, are ancestral creator beings whose story is part of widespread sacred rituals in the Aboriginal culture from Arnhem land, Northern Territory, Australia.
Nehebkau was the primordial snake god in ancient Egyptian mythology. Although originally considered an evil spirit, he later functions as a funerary god associated with the afterlife. As one of the forty-two assessors of Ma’at, Nehebkau was believed to judge the deceased after death and provide their souls with ka – the part of the soul that distinguished the living from the dead.
The rainbow has been a favorite component of mythology throughout history among many cultures around the world. Abrahamic traditions see it as a covenant with God to preserve the world from a second flood. Whether as a bridge to the heavens, messenger, archer's bow, or serpent, the rainbow has served as a symbol for millennia. There are myriad beliefs in a complex diversity with several repeated themes.
The Rainbow Serpent or Rainbow Snake is a common deity often seen as the creator God, known by numerous names in different Australian Aboriginal languages by the many different Aboriginal peoples. It is a common motif in the art and religion of many Aboriginal Australian peoples. Much like the archetypal mother goddess, the Rainbow Serpent creates land and diversity for the Aboriginal people, but when disturbed can bring great chaos.
Snake worship is devotion to serpent deities. The tradition is nearly universal in the religions and mythologies of ancient cultures, where snakes were seen as the holders of knowledge, strength, and renewal.
Snakes are a common occurrence in myths for a multitude of cultures. The Hopi people of North America viewed snakes as symbols of healing, transformation, and fertility. Snakes in Mexican folk culture tell about the fear of the snake to the pregnant women where the snake attacks the umbilical cord. The Great Goddess often had snakes as her familiars—sometimes twining around her sacred staff, as in ancient Crete—and they were worshipped as guardians of her mysteries of birth and regeneration. Although not entirely a snake, the plumed serpent, Quetzalcoatl, in Mesoamerican culture, particularly Mayan and Aztec, held a multitude of roles as a deity. He was viewed as a twin entity which embodied that of god and man and equally man and serpent, yet was closely associated with fertility. In ancient Aztec mythology, Quetzalcoatl was the son of the fertility earth goddess, Cihuacoatl, and cloud serpent and hunting god, Maxicoat. His roles took the form of everything from bringer of morning winds and bright daylight for healthy crops, to a sea god capable of bringing on great floods. As shown in the images there are images of the sky serpent with its tail in its mouth, it is believed to be a reverence to the sun, for which Quetzalcoatl was also closely linked.
The sky often has important religious significance. Many religions, both polytheistic and monotheistic, have deities associated with the sky.
Australian Aboriginal culture includes a number of practices and ceremonies centered on a belief in the Dreamtime and other mythology. Reverence and respect for the land and oral traditions are emphasised. The words "law" and "lore", the latter relating to the customs and stories passed down through the generations, are commonly used interchangeably. Learned from childhood, lore dictates the rules on how to interact with the land, kinship and community.
A weather god or goddess, also frequently known as a storm god or goddess, is a deity in mythology associated with weather phenomena such as thunder, snow, lightning, rain, wind, storms, tornadoes, and hurricanes. Should they only be in charge of one feature of a storm, they will be called after that attribute, such as a rain god or a lightning/thunder god. This singular attribute might then be emphasized more than the generic, all-encompassing term "storm god", though with thunder/lightning gods, the two terms seem interchangeable. They feature commonly in polytheistic religions, especially in Proto-Indo-European ones.
