Aotearoa, New Zealand
November 2010
Who would have thought I would find myself here? I had no money ($7.00) and just a week to get a passport.
But all things worked together and suddenly I was on North Island; one of the Grandmothers from Hawaii and Turtle Island, meeting with the Grandmothers of Aotearoa!.
The first day of the Huihuinga Hakui (Gathering) convened on the Marae, Ancestral Tribal Meeting House of the Maori in Auckland.
The Traditional Welcoming Ceremony, the Powhiri, was sung and we entered and took our seats.
The walls were lined with carved panels depicting both male and female Ancestors. A group of Elders from this Marae, men and women, sat facing the congregation of about 100 people who sat in rows of chairs and filled the building.
A film crew discreetly recorded the proceedings, and traveled with us throughout the three days documenting the Gathering.
As is traditional, each of the male dignitaries opened with a lengthy speech in Maori. From there the women took over and they spoke in English. There were dances, and songs and it was beautiful.
We were told on the Marae that we were there in fulfillment of Prophecy. The Maoris, as all Indigenous people the world over, are aware that we are at the final stages of this chapter in our Earth Book. These are the days we have all looked toward, and as the Hopi say "we are the Ones we have been waiting for."
The first night I was in Auckland I read a paragraph from a book lying on a table at the Sharda Sufi Center where some of us stayed, speaking about the Temple of the Four Winds.
The Elders have said that at this time many from all over the world will travel to this Great House, built in perfect alignment directly beneath the Southern Cross, and that there a great celestial beam of light will be sent to the earth to both awaken many who are still sleeping and bring forth the memory of this place in those who are awake.
I have always felt a kinship to the Southern Cross. When I flew to the Cook Islands years before with my son I stepped off the plane and asked to be taken to the beach so that I could look for it. I found it, but for some reason had been disappointed, it felt just a bit off kilter. Now I know why, and I know why it is important.
There are actually five stars that make up the Southern Cross star system. The fifth is very small and known as the jewel. It is through this fifth star that all souls move through to enter into the world of man. The southern cross is only visible in the southern hemisphere.
Now in New Zealand I once again felt strongly called to see it.
During the first Gathering day on the Marae, Ayla, my beautiful Maori sister and Trustee of Sharda, introduced me to the "Katiaki" or Caretaker of the Temple.
She invited me to accompany her the following afternoon (it was a 4-5 hour drive) and spend the night. We would return in time to finish the Gathering the following day. Ma'ata, our Tongan Grandmother, offered to take my place in the Circle while I was gone.
We thought just three women were going with us, but as it turned out there were several New Zealand women from the Gathering who had heard that we were going and wanted to go too. This brought our total of women to the sacred number of 13!
They arrived in caravan at almost the same time we did. The area was remote and unmarked, high in the green rolling hills of sheep and dairy cow country, and we had to pass through several farm gates to reach the site. The sun had gone down, and the beautiful newly built log Hogan (!) was filled with candles. A wonderful dinner had been set out for us and I felt strangely comfortable, like I had just come home.
The Temple of the Four Winds is a mysterious place, a storehouse of ancient knowledge which truly honors all cultures. People have visited it from Asia, Africa, Europe and the Americas. The ancient lore shared by the Elders speaks of many people of many colors settling in this land long ago. They predate the Maoris by thousands of years and are known as the Waitaha. They were a peacful people, a Matriarchal Society who had no weapons. Even when their prophecies told them that they would be overcome by their enemies, they refused to raise arms against them.
The Maori language and that of Finland are very similar. The Maori relate strongly to the native languages of both Peru and Chile. The Hindu people of the five great rivers of Northern India followed the ways of peace and sent thousands of their people to many parts of the world in one generation to pass on these teachings, and they too came to this land.
The Star Temple that once stood at this site was called by the old name Te Mriniga Te Kakara and means “The Fragrance of Heaven”. This original Great House was made of logs and was shaped like the Aztec Cross that was given to me at our first Gathering on Apache Lands by my brother Carlos Provencio.( In fact, I gifted it to Puawai the Katiaki, as it clearly belonged with her. She told me later that on the first day she met me on the Marae, when I felt compelled to give her the beautiful green necklace, she had been told someone was bringing her something to wear over her heart, and so she had deliberately worn no jewelry that day to receive it.)
The Temple, of unknown age, built with huge beams locked into place in an intricate pattern of Sacred Geometry, was deliberately burned to the ground in 1983 so only the posts remain. It is said that even without the Star Temple, all we need to know to unlock the secrets is already within us.
This is the spiritual home of the Four Winds where all comes together in oneness. It is the tu ranga wae wae which means, “the place where we stand tall” and where we remember who we are; and where we remember our connection to the stars through the stones.
The Elders say that there is a crystal buried deep in the Earth below the place where the Great House once stood. It was put there by the Star People of the Pleiades. This ancient site, so sacred to the Maori, holds the magic of the land.
The day I met the Katiaki and gifted her the Aztec Cross, I was also holding my Crystal in my hand, wrapped in a purple scarf. I had strongly felt that the Crystal should come to the Marae as this was to be our Ceremonial Welcoming to Aotearoa.
As I put the Aztec Cross necklace around Puawai's neck, the Crystal was in my hand, and I felt myself without thinking (it surprised me as much as it did her) take the Crystal and put the pointed end deliberately into the small hole at the center of the Cross and turn it to the right. As I did so I felt a distinct click, and at that moment an understanding passed between myself and the Katiaki, and it was then that she invited me to Te Mriniga Te Kakara with her.
That night as we gathered under the stars at the Center of the Cross where the Great House once stood, I held the Crystal in my hand and spoke to everyone who had come there with us.
I told them about Leon and his work and I clearly felt him there with us. (Others later said the same thing; he had been there with us and now they felt they knew him. Even a woman on Oahu who I stayed with on my way home, told me that she had "seen" Leon there with us. She described him perfectly and she didn't even know him!)
In the Circle I told them that Leon's People "were there in the beginning and will be there in the end". I told them other things too that I don't remember, I just recall being surprised when I heard myself say that "they" had been there before! I guess I always knew that Leon was a Star Being.
The next morning I was up with the sun and out at the Temple site in awe of the physical beauty that had been cloaked in darkness the night before. A large four directions Celtic style Cross is carved into the Earth about 6 inches deep, each arm about 20 feet long, with a slightly raised mound in the Center.
A long low hill just a few hundred yards to the south was awash with the flaming golden brilliance of flowering bushes. Behind a fence 5 or 6 black cows lazily grazed without seeming to notice us. The deep emerald glow of the surrounding pasture was unlike anything I have ever seen, and the lush grass beneath our feet was like walking on a luxurious carpet of sponge.
Within a few minutes most of the group, including the four men who had accompanied the women the night before, entered the Circle and sat with us in silence. Several pipes were filled, and I softly sang the pipe loading song of the Lakota to mine and blessed it for bringing me here to this land.
When the pipes were passed and finished each one in the Circle quietly shared their feelings about this sacred experience. We all felt the reverance of both the place and the moment. We all realized that we were indeed sitting in the Center of the Four Winds, and that we were One.
After the last person had spoken we all stood, and without any words of discussion or agreement four women walked outward to the end of each arm of the Cross and faced away from the Center.
Dove was first, and facing West began to softly tone a note which grew in strength and volume, gently undulating, seeming to flow from her like a River. Standing there in the radiant morning sun her voice went outward from the Center of the Circle and across the pastures and up into the hills. Suddenly, from behind the hills cattle streamed over the ridges and down into the pastures. They came running to the fence line, ears perked up as though each were responding to her own name being called.
Dove, standing there with her eyes closed, did not see them, but surely she had brought them, and if they, then who else had heard and was now with us to hear our song?
Ayla in the East was next, and then Billie in the South. Then it was my turn. Feeling self-concious and unsure of my ability to sing as these women were doing, I started anyway. I took a deep breath and began to tone. As my voice grew stronger I remember thinking that this wasn't quite as bad as I had feared, and then something wonderful happened. Just as I realized that I would soon have to take a breath, a voice from behind my left shoulder joined with mine and the need to breathe disappeared. I forgot my fears and my voice grew stronger and stronger as I felt myself riding the wave of sound as I had heard the other women doing!
If I weakened the sound of the woman behind me brought me strength and courage. She held my note when I needed a breath. Finally when my song was finished I turned to thank her, and no one was there. Puzzled I looked at my friend Dee who was at the Center of the Circle and asked her softly who had been behind me. She just raised her eyebrows and shook her head. No one. And yet I knew. A Grandmother had been there.
The story is that there are 13 Grandmothers in the sky who are there to help us bring this work forward into the world. At the Gathering the day before I had been told by a Shamanic Healer that the 13 Grandmothers of Mu were sitting beneath the waves of the Pacific, helping us, speaking to us, singing to us.
One of these Grandmothers now knew my name and was there to help me, and she will be there whenever I need strength and courage and stamina beyond my own to do this work. She will bring power to my Voice. She is my Grandmother. She is the Grandmother of all Women. She is sitting in me.
"Grandmother, I see you sitting in the North, you are sacred, you are sacred, and you are looking at me".
So there we are. I hope that I have been able to share some of the magical feeling that I and others experienced that night. As a Grandmother, I have woven my words here to gift you this message. Maybe one day you can go there too! There is a place in the Circle just waiting for you!....
Love,Susan
