Just over three months ago the Wairua (Spirit) moved me to open a Group on Facebook called Matakite Maori - Seers, Prophets and Psychics. Hesitant about adding the first few friends, in just two and half days we hit 1000 adds - it was like a runaway freight train!
The group is open to anyone who has an interest in Maori Spirituality. It is also open to anyone who has Maori whakapapa (ancestry), whether they know anything or not about their indigenous spiritual heritage. Spirituality and psychic abilities is something we all have to a greater or lesser degree, but it is present naturally to a pronounced degree for most Maori. An 'awakening' of the gifts can happen with terrifying swiftness and force. If the mind isn't prepared for it, it can break - unless there are other people available to guide the newly awakened into acceptance and discipline of their gifts.
It was no surprise at all that the majority of members had been living with their gifts hidden from their families and friends, workmates, and our wider westernised society, on average about 20 years from the time of their first conscious awareness that there was something 'different' about them. Where once it was an utterly proud heritage to be called 'Matakite', or 'Tohunga', where one was set apart as Tapu (sacred) and special, thanks to colonisation and the Tohunga Suppression Act, the Art and the Schools were driven deeply underground. Worse than that, Maori spirituality became demonised, as did the language and the history that our Sages had preserved from time immemorial.
The knowledge also appeared to have been lost - yet the wairua (spirit) is not a product of the hinengaro (mind). The wisdom of the spirit transcends time and space, and is a direct gift of our Tipuna (Ancestors), and IO - the Source. To reconnect that which was 'lost', some of us were called to wake up by Atua (beings in Spirit). Others sought to find the Source through western awareness - some through Church, some through New Age awareness and the adoption of other Indigenous cultures spirituality - and it appeared that never the twain should meet! Te Wairua Tapu (the Holy Spirit) apparently had other ideas - hence the birth of the Matakite Maori Groups. For a start, no one group, or nation, or culture, or religion holds 'The Truth, and nothing but The Truth'.
To this day we have those who consider all Tohunga to be Witch Doctors and Black Magicians, and all Matakite either demon possessed or mentally ill. Sadly far too many of our people also believe this of themselves - 'cultural hegemony' and 'cognitive dissonance' are a couple of phrases that can be used to describe what we suffer today, as we struggle to fight or stifle the rising awareness of our genetic heritage. For our whole planet, this is the time of Awakening - and Maori no less than other peoples and Nations.
Of course, one thing that many of our people are anxious about is the forces of Neo-colonisation. Our Visual Artists have already strongly reclaimed our native artforms, which sure beats the plastic tiki and souvenir brown dollies. Spirituality isn't like a cup of instant coffee and a weekend workshop to become a Tohunga! So one can hardly blame Maori for being anxious that our greatest Taonga (treasure) should be cheapened
by fakery and monetisation, or that the pearls of wisdom that we share freely should be treated as a commodity to enrich those who are already 'rich' as the world counts wealth.
Yet at this time it is increasingly obvious that we must learn to grow treasures of the heart, and richness of spirit - and that furthermore, we must share it. We cannot hold on to Wairua. At the simplest level Wairua translates as two waters, and can be symbolised with the two kinds of water on this planet - fresh, and salt. Try hanging onto a handful of that! The problem is actually with our perceptions - our Hinengaro (Mind and Emotions), as we struggle to make sense of our perceptions and 'supernatural' gifts, and to place it in the context of our daily lives.
Matakite Maori - Prophets, Seers & Psychics is a first landing and resting place for those who have been on their spiritual journey alone and lonely for far too long. Here's the link, if you would like to join this Group, or any of the other Groups that have grown from this parent vine:
http://www.facebook.com/groups/156799391061444/ - please copy and paste to your search bar if this link doesn't work first time!
