41. Waka Wairua

It was a warm afternoon and I found myself steering a waka (canoe) in a fast flowing inlet where the river meets the ocean with a Māori woman on board as our navigator and several other people as well. Everyone sang uplifting waiata (songs) to gain the attention of those on land. As we moved through the water I noticed faceless people and other entities standing at jetties waiting to get onboard and then it struck me that as the steerer - these people were our passengers.

I looked at my own task as steerer and noticed my rudder was made of dark wood and was fashioned like a chicken wing extending into 3 parts to a sharp point at the end. Once fully extended it could be dug deep into the riverbed to push off, turning it the other way and stabbing it into the riverbed would make the waka stop against the current.

Folding it into two and left in the water acted like a proper rudder to maneuveur the waka or to create drag to slow it down, and folding it into one piece enabled it to be used like an oar for better maneuveuring or lifting it completely out to go fast.

I eventually realised the role of the Gatekeeper of the East or Kaitiaki of the East - in one respect, is to steer the waka wairua or waka of all the spirits which come to the whenua (land) each day from the East, and who must be called back onboard the waka towards the evening as it leaves to go into the West.  Those spirits or energies who deliver all of God's gifts through us each and every day.

* Waka wairua (Waka of Spirits)

40. The children of the gods

Laying his head down on my chest
with longing and intent deep in his eyes
He yearns once again for the touch of his mother
last felt eight times a thousand, years, ago

But his gaze doesn't fall upon my own face
nor is the longing or yearning for me
It's for his mother who lies by my side
whose spirit lies dormant as she sleeps, as she slumbers

My partner - a male
continues to sleep
as the children of Isis
draw close, draw near

Anubis the jackal still lies on my chest
but his hazel brown eyes are fixed on his mother
Sobek is here, a shy timid croc
and so too is Apis, the bull in the corner

For the time being, until she awakes
I will give comfort, I will give love
I scratch under chins, I rub under bellies
and blow warm sweet kisses into hair and to bristles

If she is Isis who lay with Osiris
then I'll be her sister and aunty to these
I will take care of the children for now
Until their own mother can love them once more

39. Eyes of an owl

Large round eyes peer unblinkingly
As I wonder what message is brought in the night
A bird of the dark most often brings
a message of sadness at least just to me

And sure enough, the periphery widens
and a silhouette comes of a lonely figure
of one who is walking ahead in the dark
with one single street light showing the way

No more than 30 and the build of a man
that would turn heads in the street
as well as the changing room
But dimly lit is his path ahead
filling him slightly with trepidation

I call to him, I run to him, I surround him with love
He goes on, ignoring me - not even to face me
This challenge is his, to face albeit alone
with courage and acceptance fueling him on

Then my last final attempt is to brighten his World
to walk out of the Darkness and into the Light
The scenery changes from dimly lit streets
to pastures and meadows with green and gold grasses
He now turns to face me, with a beautiful smile
and waves as he turns back, to run down, a new lane..

39. Watching

Security cameras come to the front of my mind
as my eyes close, settling in for the night
Lenses zoom in and lenses zoom out
watching me unaware that I've noticed you

Up through the lense now can I see
Splitting the camera in two like a cray
It's shell and its legs, all its working parts split
and revealed, there you are in panic and fear

What on earth could posses you to spy apon me
just a simple young fulla on a path of discovery?
But the parts of the camera now fall down around me
like bridges of iron, like knives made of steel?!

This path had its dangers, was fraught from the start
by envisioning fears manifesting the dark
But now people like you are appearing before me
spying and watching, but running when caught?!

Whether curious, stalking, recording or spying
You'll eventually come within plain visible sight
So approach me directly or ask what you will
Or come walk beside me and learn as we go

38. The Medicine Man

To a backdrop of stars and the plains of the dessert
did the Medicine man, move and dance before me
Wearing a grey headdress, of wolf on his head
with his own long hair braided into those of the wolf
they swirled and unfurled as he side stepped and moved
and swung out to lure me and capture my gaze

Over his body did my own eyes now fall
over a body both tanned, chiseled and strong
Over his legs were tied leather of buffalo hide
stitched at the sides down to moccasined feet

But his eyes shone like stars drawing me in
Capturing, luring me to my own feet
He'd endear me, then turn and draw me in more
Until I myself danced and was stepping and swaying

He drew me in close till I held onto him now
and made me surrender - dancing together
I felt free, I felt light, I felt beauty and love
as the two of us danced to a backdrop of stars

37. Gatekeepers

Well, my first meeting with a Gate Keeper almost made me think I was gonna die?! I had three hitch hikers at the time who decided to use me to try and get home to the light but the Gate Keeper wasnt having a 'green as Māori boy' coming in where he didnt belong so I got the big 'KAORE' with my hitch hikers laughing at me from off to the side.

At the end of this episode, and with the help of a tohunga - I learnt how to cleanse myself properly, slough them off, and then send them properly into the Light. Enter David Kukutai Jones into mahi wairua (July 2011).

Then at a spiritual hui several months ago we're all holding hands in a circle and channelling, praying, being love, and I turn around to see one of the nice kuia from the hui standing just off from me. Someone goes, 'here whaea, come and join the circle' to which she replies, 'No, I am the Gate Keeper of the West'. Where I spin around and she's looking straight at me?! I was feeling the love at that moment though and blew her a kiss which made her laugh and smile. We good now LOL

A month ago I met my next Guide in my moemoea and found out she's a Gate Keeper too, and then last night had another meeting with another one. It seems the Gate Keeper is an energy that inhabits different vessels so although it might be a different person standing in front of me during the day, or visiting me at night - it's still the Gate Keeper. Churrrr.

In the beginning I was terrified of the Gate Keeper but have now come to realise they have a specific mahi, a specific task, and I guess without them the Universe would be all a muck. I met another one last night as I inadvertently wondered through the Gate into Rarohenga (Hades) and when I realised I doubled back to the Gate and behind me the Gate Keeper - this time a Māori fulla in his late 20's - early 30's, shut it properly lol.

Arohaina ēnei pou e tiaki ana i tō tātou Ao nē
 Love these ones who safeguard our Universe aye x

36. Waddling off into the night

Well, I was shocked the other night to get a call for help from Tangaroa or at least the ocean itself in trying to cope with the Rena oil spill - shocked because this was the first time the natural elements came forward to ask for help as it had been people who had come through initially. Last night saw this new trend continue.

As I lay in bed I saw a black silhouette appear behind my closed eyes and on peering closer all I could see was a head with spikes?! I asked, 'What are you?' and the silhouette began to take on greater form until I saw spikes turn to tufts of feathers in dissaray, an eye and a beak, and then there was a penguin standing before me?!

It didnt take me long to figure out why there was a penguin eyeing me up - obviously asking for a little tautoko to cope with the oil disaster as well so I opened my peripheral vision even more to see what the situation really was or make it easier for the penguin to show me what they wanted.

Before me I saw tatty penguins standing on oil covered beaches looking all sad, forlorn and uttely exhausted. Another vision came of oil soaked and covered bodies of birds and other penguins strewn across the beach, but what concerned me even more were the black or grey whisps of smoke darting around the bodies of what must have been their former tinana. It concerned me cause I figured these must have been the wairua of the penguins and because of the confusion, suffering and death they mustve been in heaps of turmoil.

First things first - I went back to the living birds and penguins and envisaged them being showered with clean, fresh water and the oil coming off their coats. This was met with a vision of a penguin now shaking itself off all nice and clean.

Next thing was imagining that I was bringing all the wairua of all the suffering bird life together - hundreds of them, and of envisioning a bright, beautiful and warm light for all of them to see and go into. Funny though, I stood just off the beach and saw them all moving together and all waddling into the light.

What was even more funnier was when they entered the light they walked back out into darkness on the otherside. I guess nocturnal wildlife just have a different idea of what paradise is aye?!

Funny...