After a necessary break, but prior to me re-emerging into the world weaved web, I am feeling an erge to share my solitary motions. Adjusting, experiancing and then mostly mourning, for the Orca of the Gibraltar straight.

THE ELEMENT KNOWN AS PLUTONIUM

Im using this page for its original intention, today anyway, which was to give a ongoning unheard voice to my astrological musings.

The most common story told and studied to gain a deep understanding of Pluto’s astrological meaning is the story of Hades and Persephone, and for good reason! Particularly when the mythology of their progeny is also enveloped.

Historically when the ancient Greek mythologies became well accepted by the Romans, the Greek Gods and Goddesses become integrated and merged with the existing Roman pantheon, becoming the Romas improved understanding. Which the Romans where open to with all cultures they invaded, not just the Greeks.

This is what occurred at the time when the mythology of Hades replaced the old Roman myths of Rex Infernus (Latin translation: to make king) who was slung back to where he belonged, while re-aligning the Roman God Pluto with the characteristics of Hades.

With the discovery of the dwarf plants and the subsequent re-classification of Pluto in the Nasa mission control internal chaos of the post 1992 era. This reclassification, marks the largest power shift Pluto has seen since his previous enculturation into a newly versed Roman society.

As what was once elements which Pluto may or may not express, had now emerged with such a powerful force that these elements can now be recognised and understood as single units, as above so below, or likly released to prolificate on mass.

I don’t know……. But looking at the picture my join the dots puzzle produced, it seems like a possible possibility.

But today, I choose a different story, well before this modern era slicing and dicing of plutonium forces.

A story from the years just prior to Pluto’s discovery and therefor on the verge of Pluto’s local breeding and farrowing in our daily lives.

THE LORE

Our story begins in the small coastal town which goes by the name of Eden, on the east coast of Australia.

This Area inhabited by the Whiteman for over two centuries, has one of the longest continuous histories known to all of humanity. The First Nations people of Australia and the Torres Straight are supported by science, in their proud linage of being the longest continuous culture known on earth.

And this beautiful coastal town, a place of such beauty it was named by the European settlers ‘Eden’ after the biblical garden, was a place which had been long inhabited by the Thaua (Th-ow-are) people of the Yuin Nation. (U-in)

Prior to the colonial invasion, Australia was not one single country, this land was and is the home of 250 individual language groups, which were defined as their own Nations. Long ago property lines didn’t divide anyone in this world, we were only divided by language barriers and cultural customs.

It is now accepted that at the time of the colonial invasion, all adult First Nations people where Bilingual and could speak the language of other Nations who also called this sacred land, home. These language groups would come together in cultural gathering, celebration and knowledge sharing, as although they were from different Nations they shared the same cultural foundations.

(Please note the term ‘Aborigine’ is considered a racial slur, please refrain from its usage).

As masters of communication, the First Nations People of Australia and the Torres Straight had not limited this to human interaction. The Yuin Nation in particular had established over thousands of years what came to be known as the “Lore of the Tongue” with the Apex animal of the Ocean – The Orca.

From the outside, the Lore of the Tongue was a multispecies collaboration, in which the Orca would approach the shallows of Twofold Bay and get the attention of the Indigenous, who would quickly launched their canoes, the Orca would lead them to the location of the pod, while other Orca push to the surface their exhausted pray, the aboriginal hunters would spear the whale bringing about its early yet inevitable death. They would let the body sink, so the Beowas, as they called the Orca, could feast on the lips and tongue. Once the body of the whale had started to bloat, usually the following day or two, the body would float and the indigenous would pull the Whale ashore and harvest their share of the catch.

‘The Thaua people and the Orca had this really good relationship long before the whaling, that relationship was very strong, not as working as a whaleman down there at Twofold Bay, but culturally, because they’re part of our dreaming’.

In Australian Aboriginal culture, The Dreamtime explain how things came to be.

The bond between the Thaua people and the Beowas was not transactional, and was nothing like the commercial whaling endeavour that Eden came to represent, the Beowas belong in the Dreaming of this ancient Nation of people, the Beowas and the Thaua are kin, they are joined in sacred kinship, and via a process outsiders may align with reincarnation they will live as the other in the next life, one pod on land and one pod in the sea and together they are one, one pod united through all of time.

Indigenous knowledge sharing includes the story of a Thaua blind man who would walk up and down the beach singing to the Beowa, and the orca would swim alongside him in the deep waters of Twofold Bay returning his song. They were so loud that everyone could hear their shared song. This is not storytelling, this is ancient knowledge sharing.

The Thaua people, with their pure strength and determination had survived the prior 80 years of ongoing genocidal attacks from the colonisers, and took action to protect their Kin when the Whalers descended on Eden in 1857, notably with the Scottish immigrants Alexander Davidson, his son John, and grandson George as they began a shore-based whaling operation at Twofold Bay.

The Thaua shared their knowledge with the whalers, as the Aboriginal’s were insisting that the orcas be spared, showing the Davidson’s and other whalers the Orca could be an asset and shouldn’t be harmed.

With the guidance of Thaua crew members, the whalers went from treating the orcas as pests to seeing them as partners, agreeing to the pact with the local First Nation’s people and agreeing to The Lore of the Tongue. Scientist from all across Europe visited Eden to witness and learn about this cooperation and it became very well documented across the world of Natural science, although more often than not, the Aboriginal people were left out of the record.

The collaboration continued in what was the closest way possible to the way it always had, the orcas cornered whales in the bay and sent their orca scouts to the whaling station to signal to the men it was time to hunt. The orcas would then guide them to the trapped whale. Once the whale was harpooned and killed, the whalers would let the body sink, so the orcas could feast on the lips and tongue. Once the body had bloated a little bit and floated, the whalers could pull it ashore and harvest the oil.

Quoted from one of the many Eden documentaries “Even though it may appear to be far-fetched, it happened in front of my eyes, and there’s so much evidence here in Eden,” said an immigrant settler Douglas Ireland.

He further explained the whalers even found they could fish the rough seas at night, guided by the fearless pods of Orca. There’s plenty of reports of the Orca guiding the whalers away from danger he insists, such as guiding a row boat away from where a large Great white was hunting and one recorded event where the Orca’s aided in the finding and recovery a dead fisherman’s body. And this is just the beginning of recorded acts of altruism displayed by the Beowa.

Today we know Orcas are not whales, they actually belong with the same Mammal genus as dolphins, and even though it’s not recorded, I am personally a believer that the Thaua people would have known of this lineage.

The whalers of Eden such as the Davidsons and the Logan’s became very wealthy, and were the envy of other whaling stations. The Raine family, established their wealth from Eden whaling, which financed the joint venture Reign and Horn, which still stands as one of the largest Real Estate agencies in Australia.

The agreement between the Thaua people and the whalers had included the condition that any Orca who had become beached had to be helped and all efforts made to return the troubled Orca to the ocean, yet in 1901, an Orca known as ‘Typee’ had become beached. A local whaler murdered the beached Orca, and broke the pact that had been made!

Although there were countless other reasons, it was this betrayal of the pact, which was unforgivable and the Thaua people of the Yuin Nation left the bay. A decision which I could not even imagine the pain it would have caused them, leaving the lands they had embraced as a part of their physical being and their ancestors had done before them for tens of thousands of years. While also painfully seperating themselves from their Kin the Beowa. Given the inherent racism of the times, it was necessary for them to leave, to ensure the enforcement of their refusal in assisting the whalers again. The Beowa who surely noticed their Kin hadn’t finish out the prior year, did not arrive as the whalers had expected at the beginning of the next season.

Although there was one exception, not a pod but a mature buck who had been named ‘Old Tom’ would occasionally return to the Bay. Old Tom continued helping the Davidsons even without the Indigenous presence, leading them to whales he had hunted, exhausted and lead into the waters of Twofold Bay.

The greed of whalers globally had lead to many species of whale being driven to extinction or to the edge of extinction within a very short period of time.

Due to the lack of food availability for Orca, over the following years Old Toms random appearances become increasingly rare.

In 1923 a few years prior to Pluto’s discovery, by surprise Old Tom showed up, while George Davidson was out on the bay with friend and local whaler, John Logan. John Logan is largely believed to have been the betrayer of the pact with the Aboriginal people and the person responsible for killing the beached Orca, Typee.

On this day, George Davidson followed Old Tom into the bay and harpooned the catch, a small right whale which Old Tom had surfaced right in front of the whalers boat. As the story goes, John Logan was insistent that George was being a fool! That he was stupid to leave the whale their anchored to the bay. A storm was coming, you could see it brewing on the horizon and Logan was insistent, George would surly lose everything!

George, against his better judgement agreed with John Logan and started towing the harpooned whale back to land.

Old Tom become so enraged that he started attacking the side of the boat and bitting at the harpoon rope that still dangled in the water. John Logan picked up the other end of the rope and angrily started winching it back in!

According to settlement folklore at that very moment, Old Tom immediately let go and George Davidson dropped to his knees crying out “Lord, No!….. What have I done…… What have I done”

As in the years prior while being educated by the Aboriginal people who had shared their knowledge of the Beowa. George had learned that if the Orca bit into something hard injuring or breaking their teeth, this was a fatal injury to the Orca. At all costs the Orca would protect their teeth. The Orca only ate the soft meats and discarded the rest of the animal as the Orca knew that if they bit into bone, this would result in irreversible damage to their precious teeth, and that injury would cost them their life.

In the same year as Pluto’s discovery, on 17 September 1930, a settler of Eden discovered the body of Old Tom washed ashore while out on their daily walk, Old Tom was processed across the bay at the Davidson Whaling Station. As feared, Old Tom’s gums had become infected after losing teeth in the betrayal and breaking of the Lore of the Tongue by George Davidson and John Logan. The oral abscess had rendered Old Tom unable to eat and slowly and painfully Old Tom starved to death over the course of those seven long years.

According to local settler folklore, John Logan, after seeing Old Tom’s suffering with his own eyes. And being confronted with the truth of what his actions had caused and seeing evidence of the Aboriginal knowledge, which he had previously disputed, felt so overcome with shame and guilt that he financed the Eden Killer Whale Museum. John Logan didn’t survive to see the opening of the museum nor did he ever profit from it. The museum displays Old Tom’s skeleton and is still operational today. The lands that surround the coastal town of Eden are now protected lands, and are named the Beowa National Park.

So what has this heart wrenching story got to do with Pluto?

This is the story of Pluto and how eventually, or more accurately continuously, the truth denied by our own illusions or delusions rise up from the depths. The truth is constantly in motion rising and falling just like the lunar pull on the tides, and with each rising and falling of the tides we are given an opportunity to embrace the primordial truth or continue the self deception of our own incarnus.

I give my respectful acknowledgment the Yuin Nation as the First People and Traditional Custodians of the land and waterways from which the story and knowledge I have shared originates. I acknowledge the sacred connection between Land and Sea shared by all of the Yuin Nation, and honour the wisdom of Yuin Nation Elders past, present and emerging. I give my utmost respect to your ancestral heritage and its powerful overcoming of the primordial beast.

Please note, to be respectful of Indigenous culture but also having uncertainty of the complexities associated with naming those who have passed, I chose not to name the Thaua people who I have quoted, as I am unsure if they are present or if they have joined their Kin, the Beowa.

The below map is a First Nation’s Map and is available to explore in detail and also available for purchase at www.aiatsis.gov.au

The Yuin Nation can be found on the coastline in the south east of the Mainland island, highlighted in light Yellow, directly to the west of the ocean name tag “South Pacific Ocean”. Twofold Bay and the settlement of Eden is located just above the southern border made with the Bidwell Nation, which is highlighted in pale Lilac.

And

As this is my Blog and I will say and do as I please here, I would also like to make a suggestion to the local council of Eden…… for fuck sake would you rename that Museum!…. They aren’t even Whales!