Earth Treasure Vase: Global Healing Project
Linking our world in a practice of planetary protection & renewal.

South East Coast, Yuin Country, Australia

South Coast Australia Aboriginal Dreamtime 
Earth Treasure Vase Pilgrimage 
with Ben Manbulloo Emery 
March 16 – 24, 2018 
ETV burial on the Equinox

If you were ever interested in experiencing Aboriginal Culture and learning directly from the Elders this trip is your chance. Benjamin Manbulloo is opening doors for us and bridging worlds. Through him we will have the opportunity to know his people and immerse ourselves in “Country” in a way few outsiders have. This ETV pilgrimage is truly a journey of a lifetime! (Ben will join us on the Full Moon call on the 31st to share more.)

Earth Treasure Vase atop its handmade box along the shores in Walbunja Country

From Ben Manbulloo Emery, ETV steward, pilgrimage leader and guide:

My life purpose is to listen more deeply to the words and lessons our ancestors and old spirits are speaking and teaching. Through building, allowing and honoring connection to my Aboriginal Elders and Teachers and deepening my connection to Country, I have become more able to hear and embody these ancient ways. It has been my honor to have this “Old Man Vase” hanging out with me and my family. He has seen many places and many things, and now it’s time for him to return to his Mother and bring with him all our stories and prayers which he can pass on to Her. It is my commitment to return him back Home.

This tour has been inspired by my love of my Country and designed to give thanks to my Ancestors who have walked the Country we will be seeing and walking on, travelling through and over – and let them see that I and we all, are once more, listening to them. We bring our hearts back to them again. The Country is rich, both culturally and environmentally and home to the local Walbunja People where I have walked with my Elders all my life. The spirit of this area is strong, alive and beautiful. I look forward to sharing it with you.

Join us as we follow the fresh water to the salt water starting high in the Alpine area of Southern NSW and following the song lines of the ancient Alpine fresh water & its guardians as it, and we, make our way to the stunning Southern coastline. We will be joined all the way with Elders and Family from the Ngunnawal and the wonderful Grandfather Moon. We travel with their blessings and guidance as we enjoy the natural abundance of food, stunning countryside and deep connections to Country.

Clyde River at Shallow Crossing

The South-East region of NSW is a rich cultural area commonly known as “Yuin” Country which is a term that a number of South Coast Aboriginal people use as a collective term when referring to various traditional groups between Nowra and the Victorian border. It is derived from the language of the South Coast region and literally translates as “Man.” There are many smaller clans/groups within this region. Some of the groups we will be connecting to and learning from on this tour are my mob, the Walbunja people, Black Duck mob, Ngunnawal mob and others. We will be following pathways and song lines that have been travelled for millions of years and will have a taste of what my ancestors experienced as we camp in many areas they have camped before.

Didhihul Mountain

The culmination of our journey is a most important Earth Treasure Vase placement held on the Equinox to be carried out in the shadows of the wondrous Dithihul (Pigeon House) Mountain. Join us as we offer and share these gifts and give thanks to our Old Ones, Elders and to our Mother Earth as she sheds a tear of gratitude for the heart and the healing we offer to her.

The Earth Treasure Vase practice is all about bringing our heart’s love and blessings back to the people and the local areas. This practice brings an opportunity to re-connect with Mother Earth. The ETVs bring healing powers wherever they go. The Australian Aboriginal Culture is this to me, in the purest essence. Our people are totally connected to our Mother all of the time; her power, blessings and teachings runs through us every moment we breathe and through the ETV practice we are able to give back our gratitude, blessings and prayers.

Benjamin “Manbulloo” Emery,
ETV Steward, Pilgrimage Leader and Guide

 


 

Old Man Vase Enters the Dreaming

Sacred Didthul Mountain in Yuin Country where the ETV was placed.

At dawn on the Full Moon of October in Australia’s Yuin Country, the Earth Treasure Vase stewarded by Ben Manbulloo Emery, his wife Brooke, son Judd, and a group of dedicated ETV pilgrims, buried the “Old Man Vase” at the base of an old Ironbark tree, facing SE on Didthul Mountain in the Budawang wilderness of Walbunja Country, Yuin Nation, southeastern Australia.

As the trip began, Ben wrote:
We are now together! The group is now a mob! Through all the challenges we have faced getting here with weather, illness, aviation difficulties and energetic imbalances to address, we have prevailed to bring us all together, with the wisdom, the dedication, the heart, the blessings and the guidance of the “old man vase“ and we now are as One. With a good night’s rest and full bellies we begin the wonderous journey from the mountains and fresh water to the saltwater sea. I thank my ancestors, I thank my fellow travelers, I thank my family, and I thank my sister, bungann, Cynthia for the honor to embark on this pilgrimage.

Ben, who is a storyteller, promises he will write more about the journey soon. Meanwhile I know that Wombat, Kangaroo, Moth and Whale all made appearances and the Old Lady Tree called the group for a big blessing.

Ben Manbulloo and Julian Silburn (playing didjeridu) in ceremony with Old Man Vase

The Vase had been stewarded by Ben and his family since our first ETV pilgrimage in Australia in 2013. When he got back home to Yuin Country with the Vase after that life-changing time, Ben’s elder, Aunty Helen spoke to him:

Now” she said, “Your sister gave you something real important to her and to her spirit (the Earth Treasure Vase). So when its time, and when that Old Man Vase you are carrying needs to come to me, you tell me, my boy, and we will start to prepare. You know where it needs to travel to, and you know who needs to be there. Our country has been waitin’ for you to come back home, back to your place, back to where you belong.”

It took five years and many life changes to bring the Old Man home. This journey was a great fulfillment for all. The burial place was located high up on a ridge on Didthul Mountain (meaning, ‘woman’s breast’) in women’s country sacred to the local Walbunja People. It was buried deep in the base of an old ironbark stump facing southeast, dug in by all hands, accompanied by the sound of Julian’s crystal didjeridu.

Placing the Old Man at the base of the Ironbark tree

Ben invites everyone to, “Take a moment to feel into this big event in the life of our community and take a breath into both the Old Man Vase and the Country he now rests in. Feel how his call sings out strong and true.  He, myself, my family, my country and my ancestors all thank you deeply for helping us during this special time doing such special work. It has been spectacular trip – deep, connected and wonderful. Old Man Vase has now joined his sisters, aunties, grandmothers, in the whole Earth Treasure Vase global mandala. Thank you! Thank you all for your support, love and grace, and the privilege to have been able to lead this journey.”

Murramarang ?(meaning ‘ceremony’) Camp where the saltwater and freshwater meet at the end of the Old Man’s journey. Photo by Julian Silburn


The Continued Tales of Old Man Vase

 

To the placement on Mt. Didthul – photo by Julian Silburn

  1. A New Dreaming by Magi Whisson

The Earth Treasure Vase pilgrimage to south coast Australia was the fifth journey here in Australia, culminating with the burying of the fourth Australian Earth Treasure Vase. Following the burying of the first of these Australian Vases, which was also the last of the original, first generation Vases, indigenous elder, Aunty Margaret Katherine knowingly said, “A new Dreaming has been created”. Whilst each journey taken has been profound, beauteous and world-changing there was something particular, accumulative and inexplicable about this recent journey.

Photo: Ben Manbulloo Emery offering a kata scarf to the old man vase in its handmade burial box.

From the opening of our first circle there were present with us a vast number of ancestors, spirit beings.  Whilst their presence is always part of each pilgrimage, on this particular journey, their gathered numbers were beyond measure and included the overarching Great Ancestor or Spirit of Australia; that Being that guides the destiny of this ancient land in relationship to the planetary whole. From the very beginning and continuing throughout the journey there were also obstructions to be managed.  This land was where the colonizers first landed, there was the ever present world pain of our times and the polarised forces of resistance that come to bear when a “new dreaming” seeks to enter. But in a very informal, quiet and graced way our group held an enduring place of coherence, unity and direction. We each seemed to be and to bring that which formed and held the whole.

With right relationship held by this small group representing greater humanity, with hearts and souls open to the gathered ancestors and the work of transformation, this Old Man Vase was buried at the base of an old ironbark tree. Yet even here there was some initial resistance to the Earth receiving this Vase.  It lingered within the surface layer of the Earth.  The chanting and the playing of the Didjeridu (Mago) had to gather in greater intensity and duration to further initiate its penetration.   The group continued until all was ready, until the moment came when “it was done”.  Old Man Vase was deeply received into the depths of the Earth and into those other realms. It was then that a deeper Mystery began.

Burial of Old Man Vase

It has been quite difficult for us all upon returning home to integrate, to move out of this Mystery and its enshrouding mists. The unknown lingered.  There is that which is beyond our understanding that has proceeded from this placement. Personally the most that I can perceive is that this Vase has been received, taken by ancient, ancient, ancestral, primal, beings; that whilst they can be witnessed and honoured from the edge of the veil it is not appropriate to seek or follow them further. The Mystery is to be honoured. Yet sitting on this side of the veil and tending the Earth fire, it is my heart sense that indeed this “New Dreaming” that Aunty Margaret named has, with the placement of this Vase and supported by the many Vases, incepted something quite wondrous and exceptional; that the alchemical fires of transfiguration have been ignited and are being woven into the fabric and consciousness of Mother Earth.

Milli’s Smoking Ceremony with Ochre – photo by Eva Iken

 Whilst at the burial of another of the Australian Vases at the ancient 60,000 year-old rock shelter of Gabarnmung, the ancestors whispered to follow and understand “white fire”. I do not profess to know the truth of “white fire”.  I see it acting like a koan, a mystical question or puzzle, ushering an invitation to us to explore and reveal. About this, these words seem significant and revealing;

“The day will come when after mastering the winds, the waves, the tides and gravity, we shall harness for God the energies of love. And then for the second time in the history of the world, man will have discovered fire”. (Teilhard Chardin)

Perhaps within the Mystery of this Earth Treasure Vase placement the workings of “white fire” are being gifted as part of the Great Solution.  A new Dreamtime story in Creation. May it be so.

  1. The Heart of the Journey is a Powerful Little Container of Personal and Global Hopes
    By Louise Gilmore

Yuin Country Earth Treasure Vase – photo by Magi Whisson

 Taking the vase to bed with me in Canberra and allowing the dream to arise enabled its message, or opened me to receiving it—and showed me the vase not only as receptacle, container, hub of the mandala of light, but also as a being of light. It seemed to ’switch it on’. The vision was the radiating light, which, of course is in the meditation, but I hadn’t felt/seen it before. An ancient flaming torch lighting the vast cave that is the energy field of Mother Earth; holder of things as yet unknown, unseen. This opened me up to a sense that the vase not only holds healing and protection, but is also fierce; no nonsense. Having the vase as my nightly companion enriched the practice. Light, mandala, songlines, constantly changing—enlivened, re-spiritualised by the heartfelt love of the monthly meditators.

The first night camping at Charleyong, beside the Shoalhaven River, started out warm then by morning there was a thick, cold mist. Although my tent flap was oriented east, the sunrise hid in a disorienting curtain of swirling, thickening patterns and hollows, suggesting unseen energies. Concealing not only the day but maybe the past? I gradually felt drawn more fully into this land, which has been inhibited by the violent history. It seems significant that this area is the place of ‘first contact’ with Europeans and that the local tribes saw the ships, knew this meant trouble and lit signal fires to warn the other tribes further north.

Kangaroos at Charleyong Camp in the morning mist – photo by Eva Iken

I’m reminded of the ancestors in the far off high plateau who first conceived of containers for ‘treasure’ and their always mystical and sometimes very practical contents. “Our” vase brings mystery and teachings that seem to be specific to each of us. The mist plays with the mind, offers mysteries, suggests stories. Surely the tribes were here or the ancestors of tribes, or the ancestors of the ancestors. We go for a swim and a king brown snake drops into the river, signaling transformation. Look out for change as time shifts. A mob of wallabies emerges through the mist on the nearby rise. They look steadily at us, then disappear.

Great Mother Tree, a 500 year-old Spotted Gum (left) Great Mother Tree blessing Milwanga Wurrben (right)
Photos by Julian Silburn and Eva Iken

 

  1. The Sacred Treasure of the Practice by Julian Silburn

Julian and his crystal Mago – photo by Magi Whisson

Being the ceremonial musician for all the sacred Earth Treasure Vase placements in Australia has been an absolute honor. Since 1997 I have been involved in Earth Healing using my Mago (Didjeridu) to send healing vibrations and heart centered prayers into the collective field. This was the same year I was living in the Northern Territory with Aboriginal people and learning the ancient Mago and Yidaki sound traditions from my teacher, ceremonial Elder David Blanasi. It is my experience that he Earth Treasure Vase practice creates an amplification of this healing energy by the involvement and cohesion of like-minded individuals who come together as a team to care deeply for the collective health of our family of light. We come to be of service for our beloved Mother Earth. When we chant the Tara mantra and I support this through playing the Mago, I feel the Earth receive our prayers. I sense all the beings connected with our shared prayers for healing are with us as an Earth Treasure Vase family—the Ancestors, Lineage Masters, Elders and many more. I feel the vibration go tangibly deeper and deeper through any layers of resistance until it reaches the light grid of the other Earth Treasure Vases. Once it joins this collective grid the feeling of resistance subsides and the feeling of completion gains in energetic strength and perceptibility. Then the feeling is clear: the healing is done.

I made a prayer as a child that if I could somehow be of assistance to relieve the suffering in this world I would do my part. I believe many of us feel this calling. These Earth Treasure Vase journeys are so reassuring as we get to meet our family of fellow caretakers who are so deeply called to Country. It is really a joy and so very rewarding to share this service and love for our Great Mother, giving back and offering our highest prayers and healing for all beings. This is the sacred treasure of the practice. Our hearts are healed in the process as we listen, resonate and feel the heart prayers of others. It is a deeply moving and empowering journey to be part of.

 

 

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