Women are the Source of Power
By Rhonda Tibble Baker Reid
Jun 2014
Women are the source of life and power in their Whare Tangata. What were you told about the power of this? If you don’t have a name for your Whare Tangata – your power centre, then you are looking for power in all the wrong places.
Powerful yoni image by Hermann Foersterling
Where is the health in womens health? Not health screening, in this, every bit of your body is like a colonised third world country.When women stand up and say I am powerful from their Whare Tangata, when you feel your power there, you are doing your life purpose and it’s a turn on.
The clitoris has 8000 nerve endings which is connected at the g-spot behind the pubic bone. It’s the sacred spot in ancient Sanskrit, this sacred spot connects to the Clitoris the North pole and the sacred spot the South Pole. Those nerve endings in the sacred spot are connected through channels called Nadis that go up to the pineal gland and to enlightenment, to spirit. When you are connected with that, your leadership ability, and your power increases astronomically. There is as much erectile tissue in the clitoris as in the penis. It’s just that it’s on the inside.
The clitoris is the only organ in the male and female body, which is primarily about pleasure, it is connected to erectile pleasure. When it is turned on by life. The body gets turned on in part by Nitric Oxide. It is elicited by the endothelial linings of the body, when you pursue something meaningful to you, pleasurable or connecting you to your soul it will increase the flow of nitric oxide. Aerobic exercise will increase its fix for 24 hours. It’s the uber transmitter for women. It raises endorphin levels and serotonin levels. All balanced out by the pursuit of joy and pleasure deliberately. So, addictions keep you out of sustainable health and sustainable power. If these addictions did not exist – to put us out of our own power, then hospitals would not exist. Absolute leadership and physical health is being in your power.
Photo of the red crater on Tongariro National Park, by Lian Pansino
I am of Ngati Porou and Te Whanau a Apanui descent. I am married to Aaron and am a mother of two daughters aged 21 and 9 and, soon to be a grandmother in October. Very excited about reaching this milestone in my life. I was raised completely iwi-centrically as a Ngati Porou-ite from Ruatoria, Tikitiki, Rangitukia. I was schooled and domiciled in Gisborne. The eldest of four siblings, two boys and two girls. I am a highly competent bilingual bicultural citizen of Aotearoa. I enjoy immensely the fruits of my dual heritage where I can actively participate and contribute to the development of our nation through the work I do. I love to be a bridge between my intersecting world views Māori, Pākehā and the others. I have spent the past 20 years as an employee in the state public and private sectors of education in tertiary, secondary, primary, and early childhood institutions. Over that time, I have held coal face positions with students, union positions, advisory and specialist positions across the nation as well as senior management responsibilities. After all that, what I most enjoy is to teach both teenagers and adults. My specialist areas are, ICT Technologies, Te Reo Māori, Māori Culture and practice, Task deconstruction and reconstruction, accelerated learning technologies and Māori Traditional Healing (taking something old and making it new for today’s needs).
I had the great fortune to witness 18 births before in Gisborne Maternity hospital during my summer holiday of 1986 -1987 student job search position of Maternity Aide. I was straight out of 7th Form, Year 13 on my way to Waikato University. In that job, I had full exposure to the birth process and was solely responsible for cleaning up theatre in those days post birth. Another interesting job I had was to check the placenta and ensure that all the lining was there in the sack and note any unusual features in it to tell the Matron. Oh boy I so loved that entire job. The screaming, the bearing down, the mess, the smell of brand new baby, the emotion – all of it was straight pure delight for the young girl in me. Having seen full on the realities of birth I was under no illusions as to the effort required to bring forth a child that women have to endure. Since then, I have birthed my two daughters both naturally without medication other than oxygen. I was very mindful to be fully aware so that I could have the complete visceral experience of their, my daughters’ very different birth journeys. I believe it is part of the sacredness of the birthing process to connect the mother and her entourage (medical and non-medical) to the intuitive knowledge field of birthing. This knowledge belongs to us all and is in us all. We have forgotten to connect to it. Our bodies always have total physical responses to all the stimuli we are environed by. Yet, our senses in this area have become dulled. Unfortunately, much of how we learn today is counterproductive to that kind of knowing. I wanted a water birth for my first child in 1992. Gisborne didn’t do that kind of thing in those days. Even so, I lived in my parents’ spa pool while I was carrying her. So, I delivered her knees up bearing on her father, on a bed. My youngest was always going to be a water birth. This is my preferred birthing mode. Recently, I have been very bestowed with the responsibility to carry the gift of “Haputanga” handed down from lineage to lineage through the chosen ones of our Māori ancestors from the Tairawhiti (The eastern seaboard). I feel very privileged and honoured to be inducted in to the sacred work of Traditional Māori Pregnancy massage. It was not something I applied for. It feels surreal to have the editor ask me to contribute and then have this teaching arrive to me. I have had my own clinic of Māori healing for the past six years. The excerpt you see here comes from a face book post I shared on Marama Davidsons page some months ago. It came to the editors’ attention and so it is shared here. It gives you another take on the way I see the world and the majesty of what it means to be a woman today. Mauriora wahine mā. Kia noho a Ohinewaioranui ki a koutou katoa. May the life force be with you, by you, in you and for you.
May the Spirit of the Great Divine Feminine be with you all. Rhonda Tibble Baker Reid BMPA, BA, Dip Tch, Dip Te Reo Māori, RSA Celta, Dip Massage HoD Māori Edgewater College Pakuranga Auckland
