The Rainbow Snake is the Creator in the Dreaming, which is the infinite period of time that “began with the world’s creation and that has no end. People, animals, and Eternal Beings like the Rainbow Serpent are all part of the Dreaming, and everyday life is affected by the Dreaming’s immortals,” in almost every Australian Aborigine tribe.

In these tribes (there are over 50), actual rainbows are gigantic, often malevolent, serpents who inhabit the sky or ground. This snake has different names in different tribes, and has both different and similar traits from tribe to tribe. Themes consistent with most Australian tribes, is that the Rainbow Serpent is the creator of the world and all beings.

During the dry season, the Rainbow Serpent retreats to deep waterholes. Another common theme among all aboriginal tribes is that the Rainbow Serpent has no gender. And while the Rainbow Serpent can give fertility by creating rain, it can also loose blindness and disease. “The Aboriginal Rainbow is humanity, because it causes the ‘energy’ and the ‘breath’ that gives people life.”

Ngalyod, first-born son of Yingarna, who is the Rainbow Serpent creator of the Kunwinjku in western Arnhem Land in Australia — sucks up water during the dry season and spits it out as rain during the wet season. Like Iris, Ngalyod helps to ensure fertility with rains, however he can destroy as well as nurture. Yingarna, the creator of the Kunwinjku people, is “nominally female” and androgynous like her son Ngalyod. She possesses cunningly ambivalent form; as she combines elements of snake, fish, crocodile, catfish, emu, and kangaroo.

Source: Wikipedia

Organ. Duration: 14′