Intuitive Ritual: A Mana Wahine Sourcebook

Intuitive Ritual is a sumptuous work of art, full of ancestral Māori feminine wisdom, original artworks and lavish photography by acclaimed wahine Māori artists. QR codes embedded in the work link to audio-visual recordings of ritual chants (karakia). A pull out gatefold highlights rituals for each night of the lunar calendar (māramataka). Poetry and creative writing sits alongside robust scholarship to inspire and illuminate. Designed pages invite the reader to journal and create their own sacred ceremonies and healing practises of self growth from the knowledge and tools provided in the book.

The book showcases traditional and contemporary Māori sacred feminine knowledge. There are sections of the book that celebrate the Atua Wahine, offering stories and understandings not widely shared in print. Other sections relate to the different phases of womanhood, to feminine sensuality, beauty rituals, meditations, and creative exercises to inspire personal growth. Through the practice of ritual, meditation, and creativity, the book encourages readers to nurture their well-being and develop a stronger relationship with themselves and the divine. This is a source book, a self-help guide and a toolkit for healing, empowerment and self-acceptance. It can be read and applied by anyone interested in deepening connection with the Atua Wāhine and feminine divinity through the portal of their own intuitive wisdom.

About the Author

Dr Ngahuia Murphy is from Te Urewera in Aotearoa. Through her father she descends from Ngāti Manawa, Ngāti Ruapani ki Waikaremoana, Ngāi Tuhoe, and Ngāti Kahungunu. Through her mother she connects with the ritual feminine traditions of Ireland. 

Ngahuia is an award-winning scholar, author, artist and public speaker committed to reactivating Indigenous women’s sacred knowledge and ritual practice. Her research, described as ‘groundbreaking’, ‘revolutionary’ and ‘incendiary’ by critics, has been instrumental in reviving ‘lost’ Māori menstruation rites of passage and women’s ceremonies that were deliberately erased through patriarchal colonial processes. Ngahuia has worked with Indigenous Peoples around the world in reclaiming matrilineal knowledge through scholarship, theatre work, activism and art.

Ngahuia’s work is guided by mana motuhake, tino rangatiratanga and the resurgence of the divine feminine to restore the sacred laws of balance.