#DIY30 #17

17. What political situation existed 500 years ago, and how does its fall affect the world of today?

We should specify here that the question doesn't state that the political situation stopped working 500 years ago...it could have been strong 500 years ago, and just as strong one year ago, only recently falling and causing an impact politically. But while that plays with the wording of the question, it probably isn't fair to the spirit of the question. 

Let's look at something that was strong 500 years ago, but fell during the century after that point. This would be a political situation that may have kept someing in check for centuries, maybe even millennia, but once the political situation had been eliminated, problems gradually crept into the world leading to issues that we now face. 

Words are power, but energy is constant in the universe. So perhaps it is better to say that words are a specific means by which power and energy can be controlled. 

While the last great Ice Age thawed, and the ravenous mystics of the Asian and European continents sought to harness the wild energies of magic through carefully aligned buildings and stone circles, the spirits of other lands were allowed to roam free, their energies free for all to access rather than limited in the hands of a few. In time the lands of northern Africa and the near East lost their invigorating magic due to the sheer greed of those who had claimed the magic. Fertile lands died and deserts spread across the world. The spirits of the region needed magic from other sources and the powerful dynasties transformed themselves into the religions of today...this meant the dynasties would maintain temporal power in the world, and under the guise of angels and saints, the spirits would gain the soul energy of the faithful. Thus the religions spread to Europe, to Asia, and across Africa. The Americas were another story completely, but this is not their tale.

The spirits and magic of Australia remained unfettered by the restrictive words and aligned geomantic magic of an elitist cabal. The people of Australia were more attuned to the ways of nature and there was a more careful balance and deeper understanding between the mortal and the spirit world. The mortals maintained the land, and the spirits cloaked the continent from power hungry explorers from the near East and Europe. For centuries, Australia could have been discovered if not for the cloaking effects of the spirits. But something happened, five centuries ago... something that fractured the goodwill between the Spirits of the Dreaming, and the mortals of the continent. The cloaking effects were negated, and shortly thereafter, the first Portuguese explorers laid eyes on the land, then with Willem Janszoon, Dutch explorers set foot on the northwest coastline of the continent.  With every exposure to the power hungry eyes of European explorers and the ravenous spirits they prayed to under the guise of patron saints, the defences were worn away further.

The Indigenous communities of Australia (both mortal and spiritual) had never encountered such militarised spiritualism and ravenous hatred. By the time the spirits had consolidated their plans and prepared a strategy to deal with the interlopers, the continent had been ravaged. The words of the Indigenous mortals had been obliterated as "benevolent missionaries" brought civilisation to the people, disrupting their cultures and languages, and preventing many of the mortal tribes from communing with the spirits in languages they had used for dozens of millenia. The magic of the land is still being desecrated to this day, along with the natural minerals and resources of the physical world, the spirits of the Dreamtime know that something drastic has to happen soon before they are forgotten and it is all too late.