Edge
When you are hunting you look for the places where opposites overlap, because you know that is where to find the highest concentration of life. This is a basic truth in nature - when opposites meet, a dynamic synergy occurs. Where high ground meets low ground, where sea meets land; all through nature, when opposites mix, they create something new that is better than either. It is not a compromise. Sperm and egg have no conflict to resolve - only new life to create.
Seasonal Dynamic
On Cape York in Australia there are eight seasons, each depending upon a dynamic balance between opposites. For example, in the Um Kaapak season freshwater comes down the rivers and mingles with the salt, forming a line of foam that indicates brackish water. This new kind of water is the source of a lot of creation at this time. Apart from the biological things that go on in there with micro-organisms and so forth, it creates a whole new kind of energy that everything responds to. Like at that time the tuwoo, a stormbird, calls in the nyiingkuchan, freshwater shark. They hear the bird calling and travel up the river. Flowering, fruiting and peak fat times in this season are all determined through dichotomous relationships.
Nothing Is Fixed, Rigid
But still, this truth is not fixed. In nature, all things are constantly moving, changing. Habitats shift, evolve. All ecosystems migrate about 100 metres every year (which is why "national parks" are temporary fool's paradises - just little islands of death). Tides, rainfall, fire - such things are fluid, never fixed. Thus the edge between opposites, the "sweet spot" that is the magic behind all creation, is constantly in motion. In my mind, this is the essence of Rainbow Snake Dreaming.
This is why, in Aboriginal science and Indigenous knowledge systems, knowledge cannot be "owned" or held by individuals. Knowledge flows in the land from and through ancestors, through spirit, and is constantly in motion. Any who try to hold or keep this knowledge become sick, as the energy becomes stuck in their bodies and stagnates.
Western Worldview
Western discourses are different. The dominant culture positions us to believe that knowledge must be acquired, collected and built up to increase personal power. It holds that truths are "self-evident", fixed and eternal. It establishes binary oppositions that promote an unnatural state of conflict between opposites. Male/female, east/west, black/white, good/evil - all dominant cultural texts seek to position us on continua between conflicting opposites. Instead of working with the creative energy between these, all are expected to take one side and defend it in a way that results in conflict and destruction.
