| Maori Healing |
| April 24, 2009 |
Atarangi Muru Reveals the Ancient Art of Healing Her healing arts have touched many families, but her humbleness keeps her grounded. With much common sense and with feet firmly planted on the ground, Atarangi Muru tackles issues and fears head-on. She grew up in an environment where healing was a natural everyday event, learning the skills and tricks from her uncles and aunts. She eventually passed her knowledge on to her son and grandson, and today, the entire family shares the gifts of this ancient art of Maori healing. We're enchanted by Atarangi's wisdom and sense of peace, as we speak to her to find out more about the amazing healing technique. The Maori Healers will be holding sessions in Hong Kong in May.
Te Oomai Reia is one of the many names given to the way the old people used to do their healing. It speaks about the attitude of the healer, his clarity and purity of the mind, as well as his body, his environment and the healing session. Te Oomai Reia is about acknowledging that you are not the healer, the person receiving is the true healer. We have techniques and knowledge that we share openly and willingly in order to support and aid someone in pain, making us the educator/teacher of this particular issue. Within Te Oomai Reia there are techniques like mirimiri (to massage) and romiromi (to stir up the body from a space deep within). The use of tools also comes into this, so we use the tools of nature. Herbal medicines, seaweed, sand, specific kinds of mud, leaves, branches, stones and sticks to name a few. Te Oomai Reia is the recognition of the lore of healing, meaning the natural arts.
This is for anyone who wants change, movement and openings within the heart, who carries old emotional blocks, cannot or does not want to move forward, has sustained any kind of injury that is still held in the cellular memory of the body and has not moved on. This kind of healing is open to anyone, at home in Aotearoa, New Zealand, we work on babies to young children to the elderly. In fact the oldest person I've worked on was 97. She had fallen and broken her hip, her road to recovery was long and painful, and she had virtually come to a standstill because of the pain. We got her moving again, through reminding the body of its capabilities, using methods that sometimes did require us to move her body, because her mind couldn't take her there. Birdie is now 99 and still going strong. We've also worked on babies, who are still in the womb, or ones that are giving Mum a challenging time, to babies just born. Age is only what people want it to be.
A whole range of ailments, from broken bones to twisted ankles, tight muscles, sore backs, legs, teeth, neck... any part of the body is fair game. All throughout the work, there is not a time when we are not attending to all the other dynamics going on in the body, so it's not just the physical that gets attention. We look for the emotional pain in various parts of the body. We look for the mental pain in the words and attitude of the person. The physical shows up almost immediately, as long as someone knows how to read the body like a book and can attend to the issue. For example, we have a keen sense of smell and taste. As soon as we touch someone (and not always having to touch a person either) we can taste what is in the body. People who have a lot of heavy metals within, taste very metallic, acidic, salty. If someone has been doing drugs, then the taste is very sour, and the internal smell is one of the body rotting from within. A woman who has been sexually abused, her body too starts to emit a specific odor. Our old people believed this to occur because the chemicals within the body changed, the smell was like a request for help.
For example, when someone is in a depression, one of our beliefs is that it's because one has lost sight of the original blueprint of why he is here, not necessarily our purpose, but definitely our need to feel that we are benefitting ourselves, our family, our society. All the ancient writings talk of the soul and the happiness and the nirvana we should be experiencing, yet when someone is in a place of depression how can they bring joy to their soul, body, mind and heart when the path is hidden from them. It is easier to work on the young, than on someone in their middle to later years, for the conditions are rampant and rabid. The young let their hearts open faster, their inhibitions have no place to settle. We are taught to listen to the language a person uses. If there is much judgment in the language, then this is a reflection of the inner workings of the consciousness, and it blocks optimal functions of the internal organs. We listen to the sound made when talking, for it can indicate where one's emotional growth was interrupted.
The healing arts that we take out to the greater world are the arts that have been passed down from generation to generation. An example is that we have an array of moves that we will put the body through, and in that array of 30 moves (a figure I chose) there will be five specific moves that will open something within the body to trigger a release. If the release comes from the work on the legs, the back, the head, the frontal chest area or the pelvic area (front) then we know the cause of the issue. Sometimes we will share that with the client, other times it's not necessary. In many tribal areas there were key children who were brought up being taught these techniques because they came at the right time by destiny or it was foretold. There was an alignment of star patterns that indicated the gifts of this child, and something alerted the elders to them. In the days of old, people had time to sit and watch what was going on in nature, they would know when and who was birthing and seeding (implanting a child). They would sing the chants and songs of healing to this child (Papa Joe spoke of knowing 1200 chants by the time he was born due to this process), while still in the womb. They would be handpicked and raised accordingly. You would be taken on ‘journeys', not only in your physical lands, but in the universal galaxies of our star systems and beyond. There would be storytelling. In fact one of our tribal tohunga (medicine man, witch doctor or healer) is spoken of like he has only just passed away, for his healing sessions were great, and his ability to shape shift, move objects, heal were unsurpassed. He died in the 1600s.
My son has been doing this work since he was three years young. My grandson has started his 'training', he began when he was three, he's nearly six now. He comes and goes from this, when it suits him. No pressure. I have knowledge of being taught when I was that young. My husband Bill had no prior knowledge of healing, yet his journey with us has accelerated his skills to make him absolutely competent today, and we've only been together ten years. We all work as a family when together. We are blessed to still have elders in their 70s, 80s and 90s who still teach, hence wanting to be home in our summer time for when they feel ready to do so.
There is so much to share. Maori as far as I know is not a culture. It is a way of life. There are some people, who were born to this family, yet their essence is not Maori. Then you get those who are born of other cultures and they resonate with more Maori within them. Ma is pure, white, clean. Ori is to vibrate. Maori is the pure essence or vibration within. Many of our rituals are still alive and are used in everyday situations. I think many would have seen it in Hong Kong at the Sevens each March. They do a kind of dance called the HAKA. When done to such a cathartic level, the body becomes so full of light, energy, joy, that negativity and fear have no place to go. Nature is an intrinsic part of who we are. When you fell a tree, especially the giants of the forest, the Totara, the Rimu, the Pohutukawa, it is felt, because everything is connected. The smaller plants and trees that had life because of the trees now have no place to gather sustenance. They needed shade or grew on the trunks because they needed sun. The ability of these plants to live together were what our ancestors lived like, simple yet harmonious. We knew balance. Take too much, and you have no more or little for the next season. Take too little and the overabundance in the pipi (shellfish) bed could not sustain itself for there was too many to feed. Seasons meant the right time for cropping, harvesting, hunting and gathering.
Because I do not know a lot about Chinese Medicine, meridians, acupressure points, I don't know how they differ or are similar. What I do know is that the human body is the same no matter the land and the understanding that you come with. I feel that we have similar ways of working the body, albeit some are more technical than others. I know we work with similar energy points, although we call them different things. We use the foot to diagnose ailments, we look into the eye, the tongue, the hands, they all 'talk'.
I don't fully understand what clairvoyant and clairsentient are. What I do know is that when you listen to someone's body, it is telling you loud and clear what needs to be done. The body has sign posts that show symptoms. If the eyes are yellow, then look to the kidneys or the liver. If the taumata o te pokohiwi (highest point of the shoulder) is tight, stiff and sore, look to the middle lower back. Legs transport information from our past lives. We sense the level of pressure from the person's body, and then we add another 5% on top. What we're doing is getting the mind out of the way, so that the body takes over its healing. We are challenged by the pressure we use, most times it's exactly what someone's body is asking of us, yet their mind cannot let go or get out of the way, so we push them over their own boundary fence. The work we do is that of recognition. Re-cognition. We recognize an experience and there may be discomfort of reliving that experience. The energy that was holding the experience is released and with it comes the flood of feelings previously denied. So yes, sometimes there is a discomfort during that period of undoing.
Only in the hands or feet of someone who does not know how to use them properly. Like everything else, it is common sense. That is our biggest factor in the healing we do, as well as having a whole repertoire of moves that make it safe for you and the person your supporting in their healing.
All of it. That we have to start teaching, loving and supporting the young. That each person is the gift. All people are healers.
I want to create a global healing centre in New Zealand, where people can come and stay. Sit with the wisdom of the elders. Play with the joy of our children. Learn to be. Continue to travel and do our healing, albeit in an easier capacity, like teaching the work. Start teaching the children.
Yes. I am writing a workbook of our healing techniques. We do workshops when we travel, although our workshops at home have more depth to them, because our bush, sea and land are here, as well as our elders and the ancient knowledge.
I thank God/Goddess. I laugh a lot. I thank God/Goddess. I give of myself. I thank God/Goddess. I remember who I am. I thank God/Goddess. I heal one person at a time, they heal their family, their family heals their community. I thank God/Goddess. I will pass this information on.
The Maori Healers will be in Hong Kong and available for sessions in May, 2009. VENUE AND BOOKING INFORMATION
Location: 10/F, Flat 2, Block C, 42/44 Kotewall Road, University Heights, Midlevels Time: Sunday, May 10, 3:30pm to 6:30pm / Monday, May 11 - Thursday, May 14, 1:30pm to 6:30pm Exchange: Suggested Donation of HK$1200 Contact: Irene at (852) 9155 9478 or by email at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it Related links: www.maorihealers.wordpress.com
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Dates: Sunday, May 10 - Thursday, May 14, 2009
