Birthday flowers from one of my daughters. Lucky me.
I love Rocktober!!
The month of Libra. Oh, and as a Libran, October is also my birthday month. Mum. and my youngest sister are also Libran, and two other sisters are Scorpios, but are still lucky enough to be born in Rocktober ( I really do have a lot of sisters).
I am the most Libran person that I know, due to being a double Libran: sun and moon. Aquarius ascendant, so I'm very airy, and somewhat woo-woo. Yes, I admit it. I'm quite okay being this way, because, of course, I know no other way of being.
It's like one's own new year each birthday, this is when I like to make life decisions, dreams and schemes. It just makes sense to me.
The Maori expression for birthday is Born Day. The day in which you became one of your family. I really like this. and I love the Maori culture emphasis on family and one's ancestors, for we all have family and ancestral DNA as part of our being. And they are part of our descent into this life. It actually takes away the "it's all about me", because it is acknowledging that we are part of a much bigger picture. We belong.
I don't know about High School here, but definitely with extra education, such as University and other studying, part of the curriculum is doing one's pepeha. When I did it, I went back through my Mum's family line, her mum, and Nanna's parents, to find my tribe. I could have gone through one of my other three grandparents lines, but I chose this particular one. Luckily there is lots of information on ancestry.com, plus I also had two books of some of my family lines. Recently, two nieces asked me for family information, which I was so thrilled to comply.
Our pepeha is used as an introduction. It involves our ancestral lineage (tribe) as well as our links to the land (whenua), mountain (maunga), river (awa) where we were born or where our family lineage is from.
We're all from some tribe or ethnicity somewhere in the world. Most of us belong to many ethnic groups.
Doing my pepeha as well as knowing that we absorb energy through the soles of our feet, made me realise just important the land, ocean, water, connections are.
I tell you, it all makes one feel part of the whole. I'm pretty much over the "me, me, me" culture, which always felt is so selfish, and just too First World and privileged.
It was fascinating doing my pepeha. I already knew quite a bit, but there was also a lot that I didn't know.
For example, I have some Polish ancestry. My hairdresser is Polish, and she said that when I first walked into her salon, she knew that I was part Polish. Actually, it's only a little bit but it was enough for her to recognise it. It's not the first time that this has happened with other parts of my ancestry (whakapapa).
If you ever get the urge to investigate your family lines.... you may well be surprised.
You might also enjoy: this post here
and this post about healing here
Link to a post explaining Global Unity Festivals here
Happy Belated Birthday to you! Those flowers are beautiful.
ReplyDeletePolish people are so lovely, we have a large community in the UK. Not so sure about the way their country is going though, the rise of the Far Right and the gradual erosion of women's rights, scary stuff! xxx
Thanks, Vix xxxxx OMG what is happening around the world. That Far Right business is so scary.
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