Silent, still, serene, immense, stupendous, beauteous, wondrous, ancient, awesome, humbling, striking, powerful, profound, primal, magnificent, majestic, munificent, mysterious, unique, constantly changing yet ever the same, the closest thing we have on our physical earth to “Eternal” – Uluru has stood for millions of millennia, since before some continents were formed and long before mankind was ever dreamed of.

Uluru presides over the largest stage on earth. Flying from any direction for hours over flat and seemingly limitless desert expanses, the enormous red rock looms into view from afar, turning heads and hearts in one direction, transfixing all with its sheer magnitude, ineffable beauty and uplifting majesty. Far from being intimidated by the unimaginable vastness of its setting, Uluru is serenely at ease at the centre of a continent, a companion for the sun, moon, stars and infinite sky.

Every inch is unique – no feature symmetrical, uniform or in any way ‘usual.’ From close up, from any distance, from any angle at any time of day, Uluru offers limitless aspects, moods and personalities. Peerless, The Rock is a world, a cosmos in itself, spanning heaven and earth and strongly intimating the Beyond.

Outwardly mute, yet teeming with teachings, stories and wisdom, Uluru connects us with our core, imparts to us a new and eternal sense of self and being. At once massive and intricate in her physicality, her resonant power to release sympathetic emotion, to awaken aspiration and ignite inspiration in our hearts and minds has permanently established Uluru in the inner landscape of all who have connected with her – either in person or in their creative imagination.

If there is any one place where the soul of Australia resides, it is surely here.

Thus the World Harmony Run 2008 “Journey Around the Continent” commenced here, at the very heart of the world’s most ancient land. A team of runners from around Australia gathered at Uluru on 18 March for a symbolic start to the epic journey that will take them over 15,000 kms between April and August.

After sunset, with tourists and flies dissipated, in the soft soothing silence of moon and starlight, the team jogged with the Harmony Torch around the track encircling the base of Uluru, towering gigantic above. These soft footfalls in desert sand marked the real commencement of the journey, a 9 km (5.5 mile) inner circle that will be extended step by step into the full 15,000 km outer circuit around the continent.

Astonishingly, most of Uluru lies beneath the surface of the sand, unseen and unmanifested. Even so, these steps around a continent with a flaming torch hint at a far greater and glorious future of mankind – the “oneness and fullness of tomorrow’s sun.”

– Prachar Stegemann

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