Chapter 24

This chapter is dedicated to my beloved great grandmother, Tuame Lonatina Sinalepua, whose indomitable spirit infused me with the inspiration to write. The act of writing the following piece has truly been a co-operative venture.

The title for my chapter is part of the Salani tini (traditional Salani marriage chant), and feels very resonant with the beautiful and evocative Song of Solomon. Mafa is an actual place in Samoa – it is on the top of a mountain. Mountains have always held great spiritual significance for humankind, a mystical location that’s felt to be closer to God. There’s also the altitude; the height that gives one an overview of the surrounding landscape. Mountains are therefore often equated with the realms of higher knowledge. This is the place to expand one’s perspective by having a view from the top – a view that encompasses all four directions. Mafa is thus a physical and metaphysical location, and so ‘le ala i le mafa e’ could also be said to be a pathway leading up the mountain, the path of one’s tofā sa’ili (search for divine wisdom).

‘Le ala i le mafa e’ is also a sexual metaphor, translated as ‘the path into the vagina’, which is most apt considering the context of the marriage chant. The god of love, Palapu, arrives upon the scene moments before the words ‘le ala i mafa e’ are spoken. His appearance affirms the sacred nature of the union, reminiscent of the ancient Greek heiros gamos or holy marriage. The sacrament of marriage, like the canoe that crashes into the coral reef, is the beginning of a journey into the unknown. Entering into the physical and psychological landscape of another is truly one of the great unknowns. Thus ‘le ala i le mafa e’ heralds the beginning of new life.

It’s my honour and privilege to write about the beauty of the ancient knowledge of Samoa; a beauty and wisdom we need now. Not just because it’s interesting but because this precious knowledge is part of our heritage and entrusted by the custodians to His Highness Tui Atua Tupua Tamasese Ta’isi Efi to bring it forth into the light of day.

My professional background is in the field of transpersonal counselling and psychotherapy, with a special interest in mythology and spiritual traditions. While writing my chapter I tried very hard, for the most part, to put its various parts into nice, neat categories, but found this just didn’t work. Without realising it, my western training in conjunction with my analytical mind had taken over. At the eleventh hour I felt so frustrated that I stopped to meditate and opened myself up to my inner place of deep stillness. My inner self gently reminded me to allow the words to flow like water. Water flows where it flows; its flow is easily and naturally shaped by the contours of the land. All I need do is to allow this flow to find its own form. So I’ve done my best to allow the flow of this contribution to find its own form, one that feels more congruent, and perhaps more sensitive, to the nuances of Tui Atua’s message.

Within the Samoan religious tradition there exists the God Tagaloa, progenitor of mankind. He is revered by Samoans not as the feared creator but as the paternal progenitor of all things. All life-forms are issues of Tagaloa: from the heavens, moon and stars through to the sea, the trees and land, and including all animals and mankind. Tagaloa is both male and female.259

The universe of God the progenitor feels very different to the universe of God the creator, who is distant and separate from creation. With God the progenitor there’s a deep underlying kinship between all God’s creations; a deeply felt knowing that the substance comprising every single thing, large and small, is Divine, formed by Divine intelligence. The human being has a place of dignity and responsibility in this universe. Tui Atua outlines, in his paper “In Search of Harmony”, 260 the central elements of the Samoan indigenous worldview: the relationship between man and the environment, man and fellow men, man and the cosmos, man and self. The core is relationship – a premise shared with other indigenous cultures.

While surface details may vary from culture to culture, there are deeper understandings that are remarkably similar. In African culture, a person is thought to be connected to all living things and to the whole of consciousness, past and present.261 The words of the Muskogee Creek medicine man Bear Heart express the same understanding: “The Sacred Hoop is the circle of all life. Everything is part of the Sacred Hoop and everything is related. Our existence is so entwined that our survival depends upon maintaining a balanced relationship with everything within the Sacred Hoop”.262

Leading edge discoveries in quantum science align with the reality of a vastly interconnected field of existence. Mind and matter are part of what physicist Victor Mansfield describes as a “radically interconnected and interdependent world, one so essentially connected at a deep level the interconnections are more fundamental, more real than the independent existence of the parts”.263 When reading and re-reading “Whispers and Vanities”, I had a very real sense of what Mansfield is describing. I felt that Tui Atua had not simply transmitted dry knowledge from the past, but that his words emerged from a living stream of life and consciousness, one that nourishes and heals – in Spanish, rio abajo rio (the river beneath the river).264

Orthodox theologian Jean-Yves Leloup writes in praise “of all the vital fluids of the world”. He says:

To see all things in their origin, their beginning, puts us in kinship with all that lives: Trees, birds, stars seem foreign to us only in as much as we perceive them outside of our common origin with them. To drink at the source of all that loves and breathes expands the heart and makes the blood sing, echoing the song of all the vital fluids of the world.265

In “Whispers and Vanities” the reader is invited to dip into all the vital fluids, rio abajo rio, to experience a living tradition that existed a long time ago and yet still vibrates deep inside the bones, blood and tissue of the Samoan people today. What comes through so clearly is a moral and ethical attitude to life that emphasises the right use of energy and directs how to conduct oneself in relation to others. There is great value held in our shared history and much cause for pride. As Tui Atua reminds us in “Whispers and Vanities”:

The Samoan indigenous religion is not to be ashamed of, and especially not by Samoans. It is core to our identity as Samoans. Without it the traditional foundations of Samoan culture become untenable and easily replaced.

In the Samoan creation myth of the sun and a human woman, the sun sees a beautiful woman and desires to mate with her. The woman is at first coy, resisting his advances – aloalo. She then feels attracted to the sun and desires him. The woman nets the sun and then “gives herself to him”, delaying the setting of the sun – tolo la. Through their union a child is born, who later becomes one of the original forefathers of Samoa. This creation story transmits a fundamental appreciation of the relationship between human and cosmos, female and male. A relationship that’s playful and lively; intimate and fruitful. The woman in the myth is powerful. She chooses to accept the advances of the sun, and then chooses to capture him in her net. The myth is imbued with a feeling of loving, mutual desire and of the tremendous energy created by their sexual union.

The indigenous Sami people of Lapland have a creation myth with similar themes. In the Sami myth, the son of the Sun leaves his home in search of a bride. He enters into the unknown territory of the land of giants. During his journey he catches sight of a beautiful giant maiden and falls deeply in love with her. At first she’s coy and resists his advances, as in the Samoan myth. The son of the Sun courts the maiden and eventually wins her heart. She helps him to trick her father, who’s blind but extremely strong. They marry and joyfully unite in the marriage bed. Their children become the forebears of the Sami people. In these two myths, one from the Pacific and the other from the northern circumpolar region, there’s a very natural coming together of the cosmic and the earthly; the female and the male. There’s equivalence between all parties. The women in both myths are not pushovers; they know their own minds and are in tune with their desires. There’s much pleasure in the sexual act, which is seen as natural and good and essential for the continuation of human physical life.

In the west, the collective view of reality has been greatly influenced by Newtonian science. This worldview is the basis for concepts such as ‘the human being as a genetic survival machine’ and ‘human beings as isolated from their environment’.266 There is no God or human soul in this mechanistic universe. The transcendent simply does not exist. This whole belief system is only now beginning to break down, or to be reconsidered, with very recent research in the field of quantum science that proposes a brand new paradigm of reality, based on a completely different and life-enhancing premise – the relationship. Why is this relevant to the Samoan indigenous reference? It is so because the ancient knowledge of our forebears seems very much in harmony with this new paradigm.

There is an interesting paradox here in that by re-integrating the best of our cultural roots we are really going forward, rather than backward. The essence of this newly emerging worldview is beautifully expressed by science researcher Lynne McTaggart, who says, “all living things are connected by an invisible web, living consciousness is not isolated and there’s nothing that is not God”.267 Tui Atua writes about the traditional practice of seeking pardon from the god of the forest before a tree or any part of a tree was cut down for human use. This was done through the ritual of a prayer chant seeking forgiveness from the tree for causing it pain.268 In the western world today, people do not believe that trees are aware or that they are sentient. New research, such as that by Lynne McTaggart, is challenging these modern-day (mis)perceptions.

Professor of Forestry, Suzanne Simard of British Columbia, recently made a remarkable breakthrough regarding the role of ‘mother trees’ in a forest system. She discovered that throughout a forest’s extensive underground root network, the roots of the large old trees (mother trees) reach across the whole forest, assisted by particular kinds of fungi. The mother trees send nutrients and information to the young trees to help them survive. Suzanne Simard explains that a very grave mistake modern people have made (and continue to make) is to cut down the largest trees for timber before they (the mother trees) have time to pass on their legacy to the next generation of trees.269 The International Council of Thirteen Indigenous Grandmothers (“the Grandmothers”) sends a plea to people in the modern world to protect trees and animals. They remind us that we are connected to all things; that what we do to the Earth and its inhabitants, we do to ourselves: “Every one-legged – the Tree People – needs our voice. The animal kingdom and the swimmers in the water need our voice. They are crying out for help”.270 Bear Heart reminds us that we’ve miscommunicated with our environment for a long time.271 It is time to put this right.

When reading about the ritual of singing to the shark, honouring the shark as a welcome guest and brother, I’m reminded of similar rituals in other indigenous cultures that held great respect for the animal about to be killed for food. For example, rituals of the North American Plains Indians and the buffalo; the Sami people and the reindeer; the Inuit people of the Arctic Circle and the seals. It was understood that the hunter and the animal shared a deep experience of communion, whereby the hunter honoured the body and spirit of the animal. The animal was not simply seen as prey but as an equal who had chosen to allow itself to be caught and killed for the nourishment of humans. A skilled hunter knew how to kill an animal swiftly to minimise the animal’s pain and suffering. The understanding that human beings lived co-operatively with the natural world is one of the vital elements of the indigenous worldview, and it is needed back today. We urgently need compassionate farming practices where animals are honoured and respected as physical, spiritual beings like us. However, for this to happen would require a whole new mind-set, a different kind of ego that doesn’t objectify the Other.

Mythologist Joseph Campbell once said that the ego that looks out on to the world and sees a thou is very different to the ego that sees an it.272 The words of the Grandmothers are especially meaningful here: “The power of indigenous teachings is that we remember and revitalise our connections. And from this set of teachings we are better able to care for our communities, whether this community has wings, fins, roots or paws”.273 Tui Atua’s words are instructive:

The way in which Samoans draw links between man and his earthly environment is by equivalence. The harmony between man and the environment involves, in the main, the relationship between man and plant and animal life ... In ancient Samoa, protocols were developed to ensure that the environment was preserved. During times of re-growth certain trees were prohibited from being cut or picked. These protocols and the tapu associated with them provided a conservation plan that dictated what man could take from the environment, when and how much.274

When I first read about the elderly Samoan women dancing naked in the sa’ē, I felt deeply moved. What an incredibly awesome sight that must have been! Then I felt sad. In the western world, where youth is worshipped, old age is viewed as an unfortunate and often ugly decline. The west has much to learn from Pacific cultures regarding the care of and respect for the elderly. Grandmother Bernadette from Bagon, Africa, says of the immense value of the elderly: “Our wise people, our elders are like libraries. We consult them whenever we have to make a big decision”.275 I asked my great-grandmother Tuame what she remembered about the sa’ē. This is her response to me:

(Deep sigh) … How we lived back then! Now the people are frightened. The normal feelings given to the human person by God, now very big shame. We did not understand. We saw the white man [watching the sa’ē] go red in the face. We were angry and disgusted! What kind of person is this who has not seen a vulva? Is this really a man? Then we were afraid. Maybe this man is not a real man? A ghost man who came from the big boat? There were so many of them. They talked to the men. They looked at the women, they did not see. I told you before when the priest came to my father. I hid behind the fale. I was afraid. In my stomach I was afraid of the black book [the Bible]. I asked my mother why does my father listen to the Papālagi man? My mother told me, “these men, these Papālagi men have a great powerful God. We must listen to them but not obey in our heart.276

Our mental and spiritual relationship with our physical body has become disturbed in the west. The (Cartesian) concept of the mind-body split, together with the belief of the sinful body (Original Sin), have played major parts in this disturbance. Psychoanalyst Susie Orbach, who specialises in the area of somatic disturbances, writes in her book Bodies about anxious embodiment and bodily instability among large numbers of westerners seeking psychological help.277 In exploring research for this chapter on the phenomenon of aging bodies for this chapter, I came across her work and that of Dr Tien Hsu (physician and psychiatrist).

Dr Tien Hsu has written about the phenomenon of a ‘second adolescence’ which occurs around the age of seventy years old.278 During this phase, new life-force energies infuse the body and mind. This new influx of energy activates bodily changes, including softer skin and an increased sex drive. Dr Hsu explains that the new energies bring feelings of well-being, vitality and creative energy for new interests or projects. I recall one of my uncles who, around the age of seventy, became a volunteer at the zoo, did a couple of university papers and joined a tai chi class. Now I know why! As Tui Atua has said, “The body and all its movements and/or performances reflect at all times God’s divinity, from the most physical and ceremonial to the most mundane … A harmonious body was therefore one that exhibited physical dexterity and symmetry and enabled sexual and reproductive prowess”.279

Obsession with body image and body shame is widespread and is, as Susie Orbach describes, a “pervasive cultural body dysmorphia”.280 It is unsurprising that the disconnection to one’s own feeling body has enormous repercussions. It’s through a deeply felt connection to the physical body, as a physical body, that a person gains the feeling of aliveness. The quality of sexual experience has been significantly affected by this disconnection: how can a disconnected mind and body experience the fullness of authentically embodied sex?

While the full impact of early missionary bias has begun to weaken as Samoans search and learn more about their indigenous history, we have yet to find a way to move beyond our Augustinian guilt so that we speak of our ancient religious beliefs without fear of reprimand.281

What is the nature of this Augustinian guilt? How does it exert such a powerful influence in the modern world? In the above quote, Tui Atua specifically identifies “our Augustinian guilt” as a barrier to open discussions about traditional Samoan beliefs. I’ve chosen to explore this guilt in relation to Augustine’s ideas about Original Sin and the Adam and Eve story.282

The Adam and Eve creation myth, one could say, is at the opposite end of the spectrum from the Samoan and Sami creation myths. In the Adam and Eve story, the sexual act is cloaked with guilt, shame and blame. Eve is born not as Adam’s equal. She is created from Adam’s rib for the role of his helper. Elaine Pagels, Professor of Religious Studies at Princeton University, discusses in her book Adam, Eve and the Serpent how it is “that Christian tradition came to find sexual desire sinful and to claim that infants, from the moment of conception, are infected with the disease of original sin”.283 Elaine Pagels attributes much of this view of guilt and original sin to Augustine’s teachings. This resonates with Tui Atua’s claims about Augustinian guilt. Pagels also attributes the radical shift in the Christian message on freedom to Augustine’s influence. She states:

… I came to see that for nearly the first four hundred years of our era, Christians regarded freedom as the primary message of Genesis 1–3, freedom in its many forms, including free will, freedom from demonic powers, freedom from social and sexual obligations, freedom from tyrannical government and fate, and self-mastery as the source of this freedom. With Augustine … this message changed.284

For Elaine Pagels, Augustine’s teachings on original sin and freedom created a legacy of sacrifice and bondage. Because of Adam’s sin, humans were tainted and this could not be changed, only ameliorated through a rigid adherence to acts of atonement, including celibacy. According to Elaine, Augustine’s attitude to women, stemming from a fear of his own sexual desires, was judgmental and unbalanced: “We must conclude says Augustine that a husband is meant to rule over his wife as the spirit rules over the flesh … Being closely connected with bodily passion, woman, although created to be man’s helper, became his temptress and led him into disaster”.285 Furthermore, she argues that there is a suggestion that Augustine believed sexual desire even in marriage to be wrong.286 In his book The Gospel of Mary Magdalene, Leloup writes: “This kind of guilt-ridden sexuality can make us truly ill. Thus the very origin of our life, in its physical sense – ‘in the image of the Creator’ – is logically transformed into an instrument of death. Could it be that westerners, driven by our collective unconscious guilt, are still suffering the consequences of this logic today”?287

At the deep, collective level, westerners carry this form of Christian conditioning in a psychological structure, a kind of ‘shadow’ or sub-personality. I call this sub-personality the ‘mea culpa self-identity’. This inner structure contains a whole boxload of negative beliefs and feelings about being unworthy; fearful of one’s own weakness; fearful of making a mistake; fearful of being judged by others; believing in punishment to redeem guilt; not trusting oneself; and being ashamed of one’s body and sex. These attitudes were transferred by the missionaries to Pacific peoples as part of the Christian message, and later became ‘indigenised’ into the culture. It’s really not that hard to see the source of taumusumusu.

This seems very far from the emphasis on harmony and equivalence in the Samoan indigenous religion. In the creation myth of the woman and the sun, and in the marriage chant, the relationship between male and female, masculine and feminine, is balanced. The Grandmothers speak very strongly about the importance of the feminine in safeguarding the future: “In today’s world the power of the feminine, the most patient, loving and creative of forces on Earth, is severely suppressed, and if not honoured the imbalance between the male and female energies could cause the destruction of humanity, if not the Earth Herself”.288 They continue that, “Today’s civilization has been cut loose from the essential roots that formed humanity”, and that these roots “reach deep into the Sacred Universe, the domain of Spirit where feminine and masculine energies are in perfect harmony, and where the unity and connectedness inherent in all sentient beings is revealed”.289

The concept of original sin is also foreign to Eastern spiritual traditions. In the early 1960s a young Tibetan Buddhist monk, Chogyam Trungpa, arrived in the United Kingdom after fleeing from Tibet. He had to make perilous journey across the Himalayas to escape from the Chinese genocide. Most of his group did not survive the gruelling ordeal. With other monks, he opened a meditation centre in Scotland and undertook studies in comparative religions and philosophy at Oxford University. Although still a young man, Chogyam Trungpa had reached the level of spiritual master. In his book The Sanity We Are Born With he writes about his astonishment upon discovering the Christian notion of original sin.290 He could not comprehend such a belief. He writes:

… it seems that this notion of original sin does not just pervade Western religious ideas; it actually seems to run through Western thought as well, especially psychological thought. Among patients, theoreticians, therapists alike there seems to be great concern with the idea of some original mistake that causes later suffering – a kind of punishment for that mistake. One finds that a sense of guilt or being wounded is quite pervasive. Whether or not such people believe in God for that matter, they seem to think they have done something wrong in the past and are now being punished for it. It seems that this feeling of basic guilt has been passed down from one generation to another and pervades many aspects of Western life.291

Chogyum had been raised in Tibet, where it was understood that the foundation of the human being was “basic goodness, sanity, warmth and openness”.292

Christianity also has a long history of suppressing women and repressing knowledge of the Divine Feminine. Jean-Yves Leloup finds that the Holy Spirit, originally understood to be the Feminine aspect of God, was turned into a gender-neutral entity. Furthermore, Mary the mother of Jesus continues to be venerated, while Mary Magdalene (known in the gospels as Miriam of Magdala), who was also present at the cross, and who was the first to witness the risen Christ, had her reputation savagely attacked. The re-discovery of the Gospel of Mary Magdalene and the Gospel of Philip by writers such as Jean-Yves Leloup bring to light Christian whispers and vanities. Excerpts such as the following, raised by Jean-Yves Leloup, shock many Christians:

The church, not surprisingly, was quick to condemn the gospels of Philip and Mary Magdalene as heretical. The Gospel of Mary shows that Mary, far from being a penitent sinner, was highly advanced in spiritual matters and shared a very special relationship with Jesus. Jean-Yves Leloup asks: “Why do most people know her as a reformed prostitute, rather than as what seems more likely – a ministering priestess with a deep understanding of the thresholds of the spirit world?”294 He shares that the gospel records that Jesus taught esoteric knowledge to Mary alone before the crucifixion, which greatly upset Peter and Andrew, whose chauvinistic attitudes reflected prevalent attitudes in Jewish society at the time. Peter had, the gospel records, said:

It is perhaps not widely known that in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, the final stage of spiritual englightenment can only be attained through sexual union with a ‘wisdom consort’. The consort is ideally another spiritual practitioner of the opposite sex who has reached a similar level of spiritual development. Contemporary Buddhist scholar and teacher Reginald Ray speaks of one of the greatest spiritual teachers in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, Dilgo Kyentse Rinpoche, who spent twelve years in (silent) retreat. During this time he attained great spiritual awareness. However, Rinpoche’s teacher advised him that in order to go further he would need to engage with a consort, which he agreed to do. Rinpoche went on to become an exceptional meditation master and a teacher of the Dalai Lama.296

In a loving and committed relationship, the sexual act has the potential to facilitate the expansion of consciousness and spiritual growth. Very relevant to this topic is a beautiful excerpt from A Letter on Holiness, attributed to Nahmanides, a 13th century Jewish mystic:

The sexual relationship is in reality a thing of great elevation when it is appropriate and harmonious. This great secret is the same secret of those cherubim who couple with each in the image of male and female … If you understood the secret of the cherubim, and the fact that the divine voice was heard in their midst, you will know that which our sages, blessed of memory, have declared: In the moment when a man unites with his wife in holiness, the shekhina297 is there between them.298

The greatest suppression of early Christian writings began when Constantine, Emperor of Rome, declared Christianity to be the religion of the whole Roman Empire. From the time of the Council of Nicea, 325 AD, all Christian literature that did not fit into the new ‘offical version’ of the Christian message, including the gospels of Mary and Philip, was banned. According to Jean-Yves Leloup, the bishops at the Council who disagreed with Constantine’s choices were exiled on the spot.299 John Chrysostom, who took a very different view to Augustine on free will, was later to suffer the same fate.

The gospels of Mary and Philip provide us with glimpses of a very different perspective regarding the female–male relationship and the spiritual power of women at that time. There are hints regarding the possibility of a very normal and deeply loving marital bond between Jesus and Mary Magdalene. Why would such a possibility be so shocking?

The Augustine doctrine of original sin depicts a grim view of human sexuality. By its logic, semen is already “shackled by the bond of death”300 and during sex transmits the damage incurred by sin. This seems to be in such stark contrast to traditional Samoan ideas of semen, sung about in marriage chants like that of Salani, where it is sacred and where its coming out honours the divine creative forces of life: “sacred sperm spew out, sacred sperm spew out”.301

The children born of this sperm, the Grandmothers’ believe, are children born not of or with original sin but of and with original sanctity. They are gifts from God and reflect the balance and equality in the mother–father principle of Creation and the source of life.302

I asked my great-grandmother Tuame if she would be willing to speak about the topic of the spirit world, because this often causes a lot of fear among Samoans. This is what she said:

We are waiting. We keep calling to our family. We send signs. We talk to our family in their dreams. We are sad. There are some who speak to us but they do not tell the others. Ask the people, why are they afraid of their family? When we had our beautiful brown body they were not afraid. Now we are wearing our spirit body from God, they are afraid. Why are they afraid? We love them more; we know more things than before. We want to help them but we cannot because they have closed their hearts to us.

I asked her about the best way for someone to communicate with their ancestors. She said:

Ānapogi [fast and meditate], ānapogii in the evening, this is the best time to talk, quiet, away from other people, very easy!

I then asked for her guidance, as people are afraid of the supernatural. She said:

There is nothing to be afraid about. We only speak to our family in loving ways. If you hear a mean voice, this is not your family. Call God and the angels. Say a prayer. There is nothing stronger than God and the angels. That is all!

The Grandmothers believe that the teachings of the ancestors will light our way through an uncertain future.303 Perhaps in Samoa, the ancestors can be compared to the white manusina birds. Flying high above us, soaring across the blue dome of Lagi’s realm, they see the path, le ala i mafa e, in all directions. We need only, through ānapogi (fasting and meditation), to ask them for support when we need it. Our ancestors, elders and leaders can help us in our search for the essential.

In honour of my great-grandmother I have chosen to finish with a plea for ānapogi. In my ānapogi I hear the wise words of the very gifted 12th century Christian mystic and Benedictine, St Hildegard, and of Tui Atua, who is himself I believe one of Samoa’s gifted mystics. First I hear Tui Atua:

Peace exists when harmony exists. Harmony in the Samoan indigenous religion finds equivalence and balance in all living things. To respect nature is to respect man; to respect one’s fellow men is to respect one’s self; respecting the soul is to respect the body and mind; respecting life is to respect death. Each and together they provide the pii pii ama vae vae manava for mankind.304

And then … I walk le ala i le mafa e. Blessed is the unfolding path that leads to new life; blessed is le ala i le mafa e.

258 Taken from a Q’ero Indian Shaman. (n.d.). Q’ero prophecies: prophecies of the Q’ero Shamans. Retrieved from http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/profecias/esp_profecias_inca.htm.

259 Tui Atua, T.T.T.E. (2009a). In search of harmony: Peace in the Samoan indigenous religioin. In T. Suaalii-Sauni, I. Tuagalu, N. Kirifi-Alai, N. Fuamatu (Eds.), Su’esu’e Manogi: In search of fragrance: Tui Atua Tupua Tamasese Ta’isi and the Samoan indigenous reference (pp.104–114). Le Papaigalagala, Samoa: The Centre for Samoan Studies, National University of Samoa, p.105.

261 McTaggart, L. (2011). The Bond. London, England: Simon & Schuster, p.163.

262 Heart, B. (1996). The wind is my mother. New York, U.S.A.: Penguin, p.190.

263 Radin, D. (1997). The conscious universe. New York, U.S.A.: Harper Collins, p.189.

264 Estes, C.P. (1998). Women who run with the wolves. London: Rider, p.9.

265 Leloup, Jean-Yves. (2004). The Gospel of Philip: Jesus, Mary Magdalene, and the gnosis of sacred union. Vermont, Rochester, U.S.A.: Inner Traditions, p.65.

266 See work by Lynne McTaggart which explores these arguments. She has published books and writes for the Resurgence & Ecologist magazine. Information on this can be retrieved from http://www.resurgence.org/magazine/article2895-remaking-the-world.html.

267 McTaggart, L. (2007). The field: The quest for the secret force of the universe (Audio CD). Colorado, U.S.A.: Sounds True Inc.

268 Tui Atua, T.T.T.E. (2009b). Bio-ethics and the Samoan Indigenous Reference. In T. Suaalii-Sauni, I. Tuagalu, N. Kirifi-Alai, N. Fuamatu (Eds.), Su’esu’e Manogi: In search of fragrance: Tui Atua Tupua Tamasese Ta’isi and the Samoan indigenous reference (pp.173–188). Le Papaigalagala, Samoa: The Centre for Samoan Studies, National University of Samoa, p.177.

269 Simmard, S. (n.d.). Mother trees connect the forest. Retrieved from http://www.karmatube.org/videos.php?id=2764.

270 Schaefer, C. (2006). Grandmothers counsel the world. Boston, U.S.A.: Trumpeter, p.162.

271 See Heart (1996).

272 See Joseph Campbell in Schaefer, C. (2006).

273 Schaefer (2006), p. ix.

274 Tui Atua (2009a), p.107.

275 Schaefer (2006), p.136–137. See also the wise words of Sobonfu Some in Some, S. The spirit of intimacy. (2002). New York: Harper Collins, pp.13–14: “The spirit of an ancestor has the capacity to see not only into the invisible spirit world but also into this world, and it serves as our eyes on both sides. It is this power of ancestor that will help us direct our lives and avoid falling into huge ditches. Ancestors can see future, past, and present. They can see inside of us and outside of us. They can see cross-dimensionally. And they’re lucky not to have physical bodies as we do, because without the limitation of a body, they have the fluidity of an eye that sees many different ways, many different directions”.

276 My great-grandmother Tuame’s words were said to me in a dream, in my unconscious if you like. Many readers may find this difficult to digest, make sense of, or believe. But it is precisely this type of difficulty that this dialogue on the culture of whispers seeks to bring to light, and in as loving and open a way as possible, to reflect on and discuss. One of the most whispered Samoan practices is that which tells of our conversations with our ancestors.

277 Orbach, S. (2009). Bodies. New York, U.S.A.: Picador

278 Hsu, T. (2011). The secret to healing cancer. New York, U.S.A.: New Awareness Network.

279 Tui Atua (2009a), p.112.

280 Orbach, S. (2009), p.176.

281 See Chapter One of this book.

282 See Pagels, E. (1988). Adam, Eve and the Serpent. Toronto: Random Press; see also Leloup, J-Y. (2002) Gospel of Mary Magdalene. Vermont, U.S.A.: Inner Traditions.

283 Pagels (1988), dust cover.

284 Pagels (1988), p.xxv

285 Pagels (1988), p.114.

286 Pagels (1988), p.130.

287 Leloup (2002), p.37.

288 See Schaeffer (2006), p133.

290 Trungpa, C. (2005). The sanity we are born with. Boston, U.S.A.: Shambhala.

293 Leloup (2002), p.65.

296 See Ray, R.A. (2012). The Tantric Consort – awakening through relationship (Video). Retrieved from http://www.soundstrue.com/shop/The-Tantric-Consort/4215.pd.