A story:
Uruarangi is the highest sitting star in the cluster and is the whetu connected with the winds of Tāwhirimātea and is able to foretell their movements. What we know about the winds of Tāwhirimātea is that they can bring great destruction but also potential for healing as reflected in the following whakatauaki.
Hoki atu ki tō maunga, ka purea ai koe i ngā hau i Tāwhirimātea.
Return to your mountain, and be cleansed by the winds of Tāwhirimātea.
A reflection:
Yesterday morning, I got up to watch the hautapu on TV. I made my 18 year old get up as well. I was able to experience the wairua in this moment. There were so many beautiful karanga and karakia. And I felt like I was engaging in all of the moment and intention.
My reflection is about the idea of returning home. I wasn’t at the hautapu. I was watching it through a television screen. Does it diminish my experience of the hautapu? Which I then wonder about the concept of returning home. How can that be applied? I have been returning home to my writing. Returning home to me. My son’s have returned home for Matariki. This is my home. But my whakapapa home is up North. I am contemplating relocating up North. To return ‘home’.
At my son’s Māori graduation ceremony, I heard Te Ururoa Flavel korero about the concept of returning home. Speaking our language. Singing our waiata. Telling our pūrākau. These are manifestations of returning home. To our being. To our identity.
A practice:
“Hoki atu ki tō maunga, ka purea ai koe i ngā hau i Tāwhirimātea.”
What are the manifestations of ‘returning home’ for you? So that it will feel like you are being cleansed and replenished by the breath of Tāwhirimātea.
When have you felt that you had “come home” to yourself?
I’d love to hear back how the Matariki period is landing for other people out there? How are you connecting to the environment? What is opening up for you over this time?
No reira,
TIHEI, Tāwhirimātea
TIHEI, Uruarangi
TIHEI, Mauri Ora!
Arohanui
Lisa