Our choice of words and their vibration can be key to how we view our world.
The following glossary explains my understanding of terms encountered in my writing, social media, sessions, and work. The undercurrents of my worldview assist me to describe energy. I will continue to add to these as I am able.
For me, everything is energy. Energy can be moved, lifted, expanded, or even dimmed as we interact with each other.
Many of the terms below come from my Māori worldview and bodywork practice, RomiRomi. However, I also draw on yoga and Vipassana philosophy which I also practice and informs my work.
These terms may also be helpful for you as a healing practitioner or coach. When we are consciously working in this area, being reflective and aware of how we share of energy and the impact it can have can inform our clients and the space we hold.
In alphabetical order:
♡ AHI TAPU
Sacred fires. These also represent specific points in our bodywork practice, located under the ribs.
♡ AIO / IO
Our divine creator, the point of precise creation. When we open space during a session, we connect Pāpatuanuku, Mother earth to the energy of Io to create a strong energetic pillar to allow your wairua, or spirit to travel where it needs to, for the purpose of healing. Returning to this point of creation, healing allows us to reconstruct the energy of our body template.
♡ AKO TOROWHĀNUI
The Māori Healing Training that I offer is called Ako Torowhānui. The word Ako means to learn and Ako Torowhānui means “Holistic learning.”
This training is shared in Wānanga, a Māori space of higher learning that also encompases some Western and mentoring approaches. Whenever a group of people meet, they create their own energy field where they receive the knowledge they are destined to receive.
♡ ATA MĀRIE
Good morning!
♡ ATUA
Godly energies, lightbeings, gods, vibrations of the elements. You will hear me saying this term often when I chant during openings, closing and clearings. I often call on these energies to open up pathways for people to express themselves to their highest ability.
♡ AO
Depending on the context this word is used, it can mean light, day, dawning or world. You will often hear Māori people speak about Te Ao Māori, or the Māori world. Although we each create our worlds through the energy we bring and share.
♡ AOTEAROA
The Māori word for New Zealand. Ao-tea-roa translates as land of the long white cloud that was spotted by navigators when they first spotted the land from their waka, canoes.
♡ CO-CREATION
All the work I share from RomiRomi, Coaching, Lomi Lomi or poetry is intended to be a partnership between you and me. The relationship between yourself and a practitioner or healer is not one of hierarchy, nor is it one of pandering. We both show up as equals both working with our own energy, owning our own triggers, pain and express what needs to be expressed in a safe space.
Each session we bring a different energy. Sometimes we need to be temporarily held during a healing, but with sovereignty is one of my values, I will continually return your own essence to you. Reminding you that you have the power to heal. It is your choice to show up, this work does not work without you. Although each individual way that presents will be unique.
♡ CO-REFLECTIVE COACHING
The coaching style I use draws on co-reflection in recognition that you already know how to reflect on your own experiences. You have the answers about your own life solutions and you have the ability to work towards the future whilst also excavating the past. The role of a coach is to share a framework and provide a space to discover your own path.
This acknowledgment of the past helps you to move into the future and achieve your goals by understanding how choices made in the past are informing your actions and ability to move in the present.
I use meditation in coaching and occasionally I will suggest a RomiRomi session as part of a coaching package to ensure any shifts occurring in the cognitive or emotional body are filtered through the full somatic system.
♡ CODES
When I speak of codes I speak of energy patterns, but they are different aspects of energy or “archetypes.” In this practice we are working towards integrating the codes we need to be fiercely connected with our own path.
As we grow, we come into contact with different aspects of the human experience and may be called to move into an archetype that we may not have had as much access to. As healers we are consciously or unconsciously enabling or disabling people’s energy (codes). This is often a covariance between the receptiveness of another and our own awareness of the energy being activated in the moment.
Codes can come from goddesses like Kali or Athena, Mary Magdelene and so on. Archetypes such as the Maiden, Mother or Chrone. They can also come from identities like the artist, the healer or the business woman and many that go beyond description or boundaries.
I view that all the different spiritual practices have different codes, each encouraging different aspects of our divinity to come forth for our higher alignment. We all have unique divine codes, or aspects of these dormant or resting inside of us and sometimes they need activation of sorts. This is possible when someone else has “embodied” or able to c
hannel these aspects, this can activate those dormant strengths within you and open access. If you are interested in yogic philosophy, see also shaktipat, shivapat, pranapat.
♡ HAA, or HĀ
Breath. Also a sound that indicates a healthy connection between the co-creator, client and practitioner.
♡ HAEMATA & ROIMATA
Internal and external vital points – also known as pressure points in some modalities. Roimata ~ external points also translates as tears.
♡ HAPU
Pregnant. Also used to indicate a close family group. (There are many hapu within an iwi ~ tribe).
♡ HINEMOANA
The feminine energy (Atua) of the ocean. MiriMiri, the gift of loving healing energy is said to be the same vibration as Hinemoana.
♡ HINENGARO
Mind, consciousness, awareness, thought.
♡ HINENUITERĀ
Goddess of the sun, divine spark.
♡ HINEMOTU
The feminine predecessor/Counterpoint of Io, the time before this time
♡ IHI
Conscious and sub-conscious realities.
♡ KA HEKE IHO
To descend downwards, fall down (from above).
♡ KA HEKE IHO
To ascend upwards, raise up.
♡ KAITIAKI
Guardians
♡ KARAKIA
A prayer or blessing.
♡ KARA PUTURO
One’s first thought, intuition or calling that you follow on the body when you see the Tohu or signs. Healers are encouraged to follow this, even if it seems out of sorts. Over time, one builds their trust muscle with using this ability.
♡ KAUPARE
An incantation of practition, an ancient energetic korowai, or cloak that protects us as we do this sacred work.
♡ KIA ORA
Hello & thank you.
♡ KEHUA
When I was growing up, the term kehua was often translated as “ghost/s”, but I now use the term to refer to energies that are not sovereign to the divine human expression and body temple. This can include anger, guilt, addiction or karma that has expired.
♡ KOHA
The word “koha” is a Māori word that means “gift” and for these sessions, you can pay-what-you-feel to allow anyone and everyone to have access to this healing work, regardless of their background.
Koha exchanges helps to raise the Mana ~ internal and external strength ~ of the giver and the receiver. The exchange also provides strength to support more people in the community and on their journey.
♡ KŌHATU
Stones, blocks, stories, energies that do not allow our Mana ~ dignity & strength to shine. Energies that block our flourishing.
♡ KOHU
Mist.
♡ KOREKORE / E KORE
The nothingness before Io, our divine source creator. Before there was light, there was e kore.
♡ KŌRERO
Speaking, sharing, talking.
♡ KŌRERO MIRIMIRI
The use of soothing words, songs and sounding during a session to assist the movement of energies out of the body or into alignment.
♡ LOMILOMI
A form of Hawaiian massage that translates as “soft hands massage,” there are many philosophical similarities between LomiLomi and RomiRomi. Although the contemporary expressions differ somewhat I believe the two come from the same origins. The current expression of LomiLomi as soft like a hula dance and RomiRomi as fierce like a haka. I often combine the two during sessions depending on what energy is activated.
♡ MĀRAMATANGA
Enlightenment and understanding. The clarity received when non-sovereign energies are released from the body.
♡ MĀNAWA
The physical heart, permission is given from this space. The first phase of listening within.
♡ MATAMURI
The name given to my Tā moko, my 5th eye that looks backward, so I can look forward.
♡ MATEKITE
Seer or psychic abilities. Also a tohunga lineage within Māori families and the lineage I grew up knowing the most about.
♡ MATEREHU
Fog, blocks, tiredness that is not “natural.”
♡ MATUA
Father or uncle. Often used as a sign of respect to indicate when someone is a teacher, or a man who is older than you, who you respect.
♡ MĀUIUI
To feel sick. (This can also be sick in the spirit, or soul).
♡ MAURI
Your lifeforce energy which is a unique expression in this lifetime. In many ways it is your personality expression energy. This is not seen as a “bad ego” in Maoritanga. But a cherished resource of energy that we can use in higher ways or lower ways (I sometimes consider Mauri in her higher force to be a little like dharma). RomiRomi is a practice that links the mauri and wairua energies to collaborate in a healthy way.
♡ MIHI
A greeting, to pay tribute, acknowledge or thank.
♡ MIRIMIRI
MiriMiri is a soft hands form of bodywork. Clients lay on the table like they would receive a massage and their body is worked upon with specific attention on the muscles, blood and energetic points. The word MiriMiri is broken up into two components, Mi – to stimulate, and Ri – to agitate. I’ve written a post about MiriMiri, here.
♡ MOKEMOKE
Loneliness.
♡ MŌTEATEA
Ancient chants that record and share our genealogy, this acknowledgment of our ancestory allows us to pass into the spiritual realms.
♡ OPU HULI
Hawaiian stomach massage and clearing practice that I often incorporate into a session.
♡ ORA
Health, liveliness.
♡ PAPATŪĀNUKU
Our earth mother, Gaia, Boodjar, the energy that keeps us grounded as we do this work. We usually connect down into the core of Papatūānuku before beginning a session, so our etheric bodies can find their way back to the body after we journey.
♡ PITO
Belly button, umbilical cord, central connection to source.
♡ PŪMANAWA / POUMANAWA
In the physical sense, the pūmanawa is the gut. Yet this is also the space which begins to activate the 3-hearts in the central pillar (pou). Energetically, this area is extremely subject to programming, if the ability to trust one’s intuition is not fostered. To draw a long breath, emotional space that resets cellular energy and DNA.
♡ PŌ MARIE!
Good night!
♡ PŌHATU
Stone, block. Pōhatu can be physical or energetic and this term is often used in relation to blocks in the stomach area.
♡ PŪREA
A reiki-like (purely energetic, rather than physical) form of energy healing.
♡ PŪRE / PUURE
Cleansing, energetic clearing, also a feminine water cleansing ceremony.
♡ RANGINUI
Our sky father. Ranginui and Papatūānuku are one of the lineages of the ancestral parents of RomiRomi. Ranginui, the sky father and Papatūānuku, the earth mother, were woven together in a tight embrace. Their love for each other was so intense and they had many children. However, their many children felt suffocated and began to discuss what it would be like to live in the light, rather than the darkness.
Tāne, the guardian of forests and birds suggests the children push them apart so that the elemental atua could know the light. Their plan was to place Ranginui in the sky above, so Papatūānuku could remain below to nurture all the children, the elemental atua.
Although Rongo, the god of cultivated food, Tangaroa, the god of the sea, and Haumia-tiketike, the god of wild food try to push their parents apart, Rangi and Papa remain close together in their loving embrace.
Instead of standing upright and pushing with his hands as his brothers had done, Tāne lies on his back and pushes with his strong legs. Tāne uses all his force until with cries of grief and surprise, Ranginui and Papatūānuku are pried apart.
Not all the children were supportive of the decision to split their parents and fighting occurred between the sibblings, Tāwhirimātea, the god of storms and winds and the others. Over time this fighting ceased and Papatūanuku committed to nourishing her children and grandchildren across generations (us).
Ranginui and Papatūanuku’s continued grief for each other can be felt to this day. Ranginui’s tears fall towards Papatūanuku to show how much he loves her. Sometimes Papatūanuku heaves and strains and almost breaks herself apart to reach her beloved partner again but it is to no avail. When mist rises from the forests, these are Papatūānuku’s sighs as the warmth of her body yearns for Ranginui, even though she continues to nurture mankind.
Through our bodies, we often open ourselves up to the love between these two guardians. We are portals, sending love and healing to the earth. As we clear our own blockages, we heal the relationship between the earth and sky and the hurt of our ancient ancestors.
In this time, our collective healing feels particularly important, potent, and timely. To all of us moving through our collective emotions.
♡ ROMIROMI
The grounding of my practice and a bodywork practice from my homeland Aotearoa ~ New Zealand. RomiRomi works directly with Roimata and Haemata (vital meridian points) that each have different physical, spiritual, emotional and interdimensional gateways attached to them. The movement of energies between the different somatic energy bodies helps to heal across dimensions, lifetimes and have outcomes for this current lifetime.
In all instances, the practitioner works towards becoming as noa ~ neutral as possible and opens themselves up to your guides, angels, archangels, masters, tipuna ~ ancestors who need to come through. Doing this without judgment and with deep discernment.
I come from a lineage that was matakite and rongoa and had exposure to MiriMiri growing up, yet when I found RomiRomi in my 20s it spoke to me in a way these other practices did not. I have studied with a number of healing and RomiRomi teachers, and I also draw on energy work, and forms of massage such as LomiLomi which is from Hawaii.
♡ SANKARA (SAMSKARA)
Energetic patterns that are directing our actions. These energy templates have been accepted by the body temple as a “truth” and are not sovereign to our divine selves. Sankara are difficult to separate from our authentic self as the denseness has been so familiar across lifetimes.
Traditionally, the seeds of samskara lay dormant until they are triggered and said to be best extracted through meditation and disciplines like yoga, or medtation. However, we are in a period of our human evolution where we are collectively clearing sankara from the collective consciousness and our samskara are coming up whether we are doing this work or not.
There are many practices like meditation, yoga, and RomiRomi that can help ease the fear the nervous system may feel as it filters through dense vasanas. (For those who are interested in knowing more, this is an outside source that described some of the nuances in a yogic tradition) .
♡ SOVEREIGNTY
Sovereignty indicates responsibility and ownership over all elements of one’s energy.
This includes owning one’s strengths and weaknesses. Taking ownership of one’s pain and therefore being able to experience all of your joy.
Sovereignty indicates freedom from others expectations and from the greater society. We are so often unknowingly intertwined and programmed by society and the collective consciousness to respond in certain ways, to expect certain things at certain ages and to own certain things.
Some of these programs may be sovereign to your soul essence, yet examining these and beginning to excavate your actions and understanding what is most aligned with your human story, and what is a false belief that was adopted to survive is a movement towards being “sovereign.”
♡ TOHUNGA
An expert in the arts, this word is often used as a sign of respect for the ways of those who had undergone the sacred training in healing.
♡ TRAUMA
Trauma is a very individual experience emotionally and psychologically. When you first begin spiritual or personal development, deep wounds can arise. It is important to acknowledge these to the healer or coach you are working with and they can provide you with additional resources or refer you to trauma specialists.
In your session, we will talk about the past to understand how decisions and experience in the past are impacting the present. However, it is important to do any deep trauma work with trained psychologists or professionals.
At an energetic level, trauma causes a distortion to our divine blueprint and understanding of ourselves. Often we mistake the reactions, emotions and results of trauma as our own essence. There is no “quick fix” for healing from trauma. However, practices like RomiRomi and Co-Reflective Coaching can support you to re-program some of these elements.
We are so lucky to be alive in a time where we have MANY resources available to us to support you move and refine your insights and a holistic approach where coaching or healing supports the trauma work can assist the cognitive, somatic, and emotional balance.
♡ WAIRUA
The essence of your universal spirit that expresses as you, through you. This is the energy that calls people towards you and is said to exist beyond this lifetime. The wairua expands beyond our physical bodies, and despite being all-encompassing can also feel sick or misaligned. Practices like RomiRomi can help to realign this spirit.
♡ WĀNANGA
Good morning!
♡ WHAEA
Mother or Aunty. Often used as a sign of respect to indicate when someone is a teacher, or a woman older than you, who you respect.
♡ WHAKANOA
Whakanoa is a concept in Māori that means beyond Tapu, or beyond utu. I use this term in a healing context to denote the healer holding a neutral, non-energetic position to release or activate certain centres or portals in the body of the person in front of you. This means not taking on the energies that are either channelling out of the client’s body, or the energies that may be coming through from other dimensional planes to heal or activate the person.
♡ WHAKAMANATIA
Is a recognition of the light within each person. Mana ~ Your energetic strength. In surrounding the word “mana” with whaka and tia. Mana becomes an active word, “whaka” demonstrates the “doing of” and tia is also to do, but also signifies the umbilical cord. I use this word as a sign off to indicate our collective sovereign uprising where everyone (in their highest self) has codes, strengths, and prestige that could not and would not exist without all of us rising.
♡ WHARE TANGATA
The space of the people, the womb and feminine area.
♡ WHATUMANAWA
The seat of the emotions and heart. Some people translate this as your gut, yet I see it as the deeper crevices of our heart. And where we access our healing and visionary ability. This becomes more refined as we deepen our heart grounding to this world.
Bowing deeply to each of you seeking your unique river, your individualised expression.