Rūaumoko, the Maori God of Earthquakes

In light of the devastating earthquake that hit Christchurch, New Zealand's second largest city and the largest on the South Island, I found it interesting that prior to the arrival of Europeans, the Māori had experienced what they called "rū whenua", that is the shaking of the land.

In Māori legend, it was the God Rūaumoko who caused earthquakes. Rūaumoko was the son of Ranginui (the Sky God) and Papatūānuku (the Earth Goddess). 

Rangi had been separated from Papa, and his tears had flooded the land.  In an attempt to ease their grief and sorrow, their offspring turned Papa face downward so they could not see each other, however in doing do, Rūaumoko was still at her breast, and therefore was carried to the world below. To keep him warm there he was given fire. He is the God of earthquakes and volcanoes, and the rumblings that disturb the land are made by him as he walks about.

In some other traditions, earthquakes were also to the taniwha, dragon-like monsters. For example, it was said that a taniwha travelled north from Porirua, near Wellington, to Te Aute in Hawke’s Bay, and left a trail of destruction. At Te Aute it battled with the god Tāne, the thrashing of its tail creating a sandbank island in Lake Roto-a-Tara. Although this small lake is now drained, the sandbank remains. The Te Aute area also has two other lakes dammed by earthquakes – Poukawa and Hātuma.

Source: http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/historic-earthquakes/1

Now for something completely different

Recently I received an email from someone commenting that whilst my diary entries here were informative, they weren't all that personal as they had hoped ... however they failed to explain more as to what or even how "personal" they expected me to go on this internet forum.  However, with that in mind, here is a personal blog ...

Celebrating the Leo Full Moon

Make quiet time to contemplate about how often you are divided between the heart and mind when making decisions or taking actions.

• How does it feel?
• What types of emotions arise when you are stuck in this conflict or divide?
• How often do you find yourself at this juncture?

Find one thing or area that you are willing to change by bringing the heart and mind into greater harmony. Write this down as well as any emotions and indicators you have noticed about the conflict between heart and mind in your journal.

Find the middle point in the conflict, this is the neutral space where you honor both the heart and mind. Follow this up with clear Intention and then action in terms of habit, mental attitude, behavior.

As you are consistent with this simple process even in meditation, you will begin to see the natural sync and habit settling in.

Source: Celestial Space

What We Can't See - The Unseen World

Just because we can’t see something doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.

Just because we can't see something doesn't mean it doesn't exist, although this is a common way in which people deny the existence of spirit guides, angels, and other unseen helpers in our lives. However, anyone who has encountered such beings can attest to the fact that they do, indeed, exist, just as our breath exists, keeping us alive, even though we can't see it. The wind exists, too, but we only know this because we feel it on our skin and hear it moving the leaves on the trees. All around us and within us are things we can't see, and yet we know they are just as real as the grass beneath our feet.

Lifes Transitions - Death and Rebirth of Self

Sometimes a part of us must die

before another part can come to life.

Sometimes a part of us must die before another part can come to life. Even though this is a natural and necessary part of our growth, it is often painful or, if we don’t realize what’s happening, confusing and disorienting. In fact, confusion and disorientation are often the messengers that tell us a shift is taking place within us. These shifts happen throughout the lives of all humans, as we move from infancy to childhood to adolescence and beyond. With each transition from one phase to another, we find ourselves saying good-bye to an old friend, the identity that we formed in order to move through that particular time.

Adonis – the Image of Masculine Beauty

“The fairest thing I leave behind is sunlight

then shining stars and the full moon's face,

and also ripe cucumbers, and apples, and pears"

(“Hymn to Adonis”, Praxilla of Sicyon, ca.5th century BC)

With Valentine's Day fast approaching and our attentions being encouraged to turn towards love and beauty, I thought I would share part of an article that I wrote for "Insight" magazine either last February or even February 2009.



We are told that our devotion to our partners is measured in the number of long stemmed red roses we buy, whose price almost miraculously skyrockets around the 14th of this month. Aside from roses, when we consider love and beauty, it is the Greek Goddess of love, Aphrodite, (or her Roman counterpart Venus) who quickly comes to mind. For the purpose of this article, however, I would like to focus on another Deity, one whose extraordinary beauty even had Aphrodite herself distracted by feelings of passion, that being the beautiful youth, Adonis.

At the Feet of the Divine - Laying our Burdens Down

We weren’t meant to carry such heavy burden alone;

visualize yourself laying down your burden and feel the lightness.

We all know the feeling of walking through life as if we are carrying the huge burden of our worries and stresses on our backs and shoulders, struggling to keep moving forward.

There is no real way to move freely and fluidly in such a situation, and we are all longing to lay our burdens down. Just imagining that it would be possible to do such a thing can be enough to elicit a sigh of relief and a feeling of lightness.

Ending the Cycle - Start Today

Today we can make the choice to end a cycle or way of being

that is not in alignment with our soul's desire.

One of the hardest things in life is feeling stuck in a situation that we do not like and want to change. We may have exhausted ourselves trying to figure out how to make change, and we may even have given up. However, each day offers us an opportunity to renew our resolve and to declare to the universe that we are ready for change. We may even say out loud that we have tried and struggled and have not found a way, but that we are open to help, and that we intend to keep working to create change for ourselves. Making this declaration to the universe, and to ourselves, may be just the remedy for the stagnation we are experiencing. And, it can be done today, right now.

Gathering Intelligence - Different Ways Of Knowing

No one way of knowing things is better than another way,

and they can all be useful at different points in our lives.

We human beings have many ways of knowing what we need to know in order to get through our lives. One way of knowing things is to engage in a course of study in an academic environment. Another way of knowing things is simply to go through the experiences that come our way, making a conscious effort to learn from them.

A third way in which people gain knowledge is through the vehicle of intuition, a gift some have more than others, but which can be developed in anyone.

No one way of knowing things is better than another way, and they can all be useful at different points in our lives.

Aquarius New Moon: Call and Response

by Dana Gerhardt

It’s another new moon (3 February @ 1:01pm here in Adelaide) when the magically minded make wishes and astrologers attempt to divine this cycle’s intentions. But fates are personal. Even if a new moon chart could be forced to describe them all, no single astrologer could tell that many stories. The wishes you make now may indeed be super-powered, but if you don’t have a strong relationship with the archetypes, don’t expect special favors. If you rarely visit your eccentric Aunt Ella, don’t expect her to gift you with an iPad on your next birthday.

New Moons are potent times to forge alliances with the gods. Visit the invisible world. Bow and open yourself to their touch. Make an offering. Humans have been rendezvousing with these archetypes for thousands of years. When you call out to the gods, they do respond!