ANCIENT PATHWAYS
GREENSTONE- POUNAMU
Greenstone or Pounamu is a member of the Jade family and is mainly found in the west of the South Island of New Zealand, “born of the timeless turmoil of the Great Alpine Fault. Once a soft stone, it has been bonded by fire, and shaped by shifting mountain and earthquake over hundreds of million of years to take on a hardness greater than steel”.…(a)
The ancients carried Pounamu over the “peace trail” in the Southern Alps of New Zealand and then laid it to rest in the waters of a sacred lake “across the high passes”.(b)
It is said that the “Creator” anchored peace and love into this stone therefore imparting healing to the people it comes across and the lands it rests in. (c) “Io.. (the creator)..did not leave the spirit of Aroha ..(love) drifting in the tides of space but gave it a place.
As Pounamu was created and shaped within the great mountain fault the spirit of Aroha was woven into its core to be carried there for ever more and because it was birthed deep within the mother we know as Earth, Io bestowed on women the guardianship of the stone and Io called on men to walk with them in the strength of the father who cares”
Quotes between ( ) are our own interpretation.
It is always gifted in love as it is the stone of the Wairua, “the unseen realm that surrounds all”. (d) We call this unseen realm… spirit, the Q’ero of the Andes call it… Salka.
Whatever it is named it calls to us to trust our intuition to follow our hearts for the betterment of ourselves, the earth and all who reside on her. This is what Paul and Phoebe have chosen to do and also to share it with those who wish to know.
Finding the piece of greenstone that Paul was to carve is a whole journey with its own trials and tribulations. Needless to say he found it at the end of an exhausting search and on the last day (down to the last few minutes) of a trip back to N.Z. in 1997. Before it left the country it was blessed twice by Elders of the Maori Nation.
"The Bull Roarer” pictured is being made from a piece of the same sacred stone that Paul brought back from which the symbols are carved. It shows both sides so you can see the patterns of the spirits that dwell within.
This bull roarer is a work in progress and will be “sung” on the “Ridge of the Wisdom Keepers” possibly in February 2010 after the last symbol has been placed in a sacred lake high in the Southern Alps of New Zealand thus completing a circle of symbols carved from the sacred Pounamu. We believe that when this ancient sound is heard it will “fire” up the symbols and connect them, the 12 ancient tribes we have visited and their lands with filaments of light, hopefully helping in some way to see us and Pachamama more gently into a wonderful new way of being.
*Barry Brailsford M.B.E “The Story of Pounamu the Sacred Stone of Aotearoa”. (a b &c). Archaeologist and author of “Song of the Stone, “Song of Waitaha” and “Song of the old Tides” among many others. *(d) Barry Brailsford “Song of the Old Tides“ pg 147 www.stoneprint.co.nz
The Sacred Greenstone Symbols and their Journeys
The reason that the symbols are hand drawn is because they cannot be photographed. We have tried all sorts of ways to do it but they never come out. We have realised that this is to keep their energy intact so they can do “the work” they have been designed by spirit to do in the place they have been designed to be.
FRONT OF THE BULL ROARER BACK OF THE BULL ROARER
