Dreaming, The – In Aboriginal Australian English, or in translations of Aboriginal traditional terms, the Dreaming refers to the process by which places and emplaced life was created, ordered, and socialized. It is only loosely related to terms for dreams and is not a time-related concept like “creation” in Christian and some other cosmologies; that is, it does not refer to past acts of a Creator but to present responsibilities of all life. Many Aboriginal culture teachers prefer to speak of “the Law” rather than the Dreaming to avoid misunderstandings of a similar nature to these. The concept is related to shamanism in that “clever people” are those who live most closely according to the Dreaming.
SOURCE:
Historical Dictionary of Shamanism by Graham Harvey and Robert J. Wallis 2007