The Spiritual and Aboriginal Significance of the Placenta

A Profound Journey into Life’s Deep
Mysteries and Richness

When I first started working with placentas, as I opened up each container to take the placenta out, I would have to take a deep in breath as I was awed by the power of it. Every time I thought “wow placentas are so powerful!” It impacted me deeply and I felt a deep awe and respect. One time I received two placentas by the same mother, one had been frozen for some time. What I noticed was that feeling of awe was there but it had a different quality for each placenta.

As a body centred therapist since 2006 I have many years of experience of listening to bodies. Our body holds all of our experiences, memories, traumas, genetic material and wisdom. I have come to deeply respect that wisdom and trust the information I receive while working with each person.

I applied this practice of listening and trusting the information I received from each placenta. The type of things I noticed were feelings like love, strength, power and I also noticed other thoughts that seemed to be about the birth such as feelings of being stuck, undecided, keeping going when I wanted to give up. I can sometimes sense what is about the mother, what is about the baby and what information is about the birth itself.

I started sharing this simple information with my clients and they reported back that the information I received matched their feelings and experiences. So I have come to know that the placenta not only holds incredible nutritional content, but it also holds incredible spiritual and personal richness.

The placenta starts growing at the point of conception along with the embryo, it is part of the consciousness of the whole mother baby unit. It offers sustenance, support and much more than we can imagine. This is one of those things that if we don’t know it doesn’t seem to matter very much, but when we do know, when we connect with this deep significance in our lives it brings richness and satisfaction.

Birth is one of the most profound things we experience in life. Conceiving, growing and birthing a child connects us to our past, our ancestry and our future. It connects us to the miraculous nature of life and our part in it. The placenta plays a deeply important role in this and connecting to the significance of the placenta adds to the overall appreciation of how amazing we all are and the miracle of life.

Here is one example of a woman who was surprised to find how important this was for her.

While pregnant I had heard about the health benefits of placenta encapsulation, particularly for preventing post-natal depression. I wasn’t particularly fussed about any of the additional items when I booked your services, I was just interested in the capsules. I hadn’t given my placenta much thought throughout the pregnancy.

When we arrived home from the hospital, and I saw your precious gifts waiting for me on the doorstep, I was very surprised to feel an overwhelming swell of emotion about my placenta. To see and hold Kendra’s precious umbilical cord… And your beautiful letter with a photograph of my placenta… And the placenta print… I wept.

The placenta print is my favourite part of the package! I am going to get it framed. I love it so much! When I showed it to my cousin, she spontaneously broke into tears as well. I was very, very surprised to experience such a powerful energy around my placenta, and I am very grateful to you and your special work.

About 2 days after we came home from the hospital, by partner came down to the bedroom because he could hear both Kendra and I crying in our sleep (strangely, we were sleeping next to each other in the same position). I was having a dream that my placenta was being taken away from me, that it couldn’t be with me anymore, and I was saying goodbye and crying because I was going to miss my placenta. When Matthew woke me I could hear Kendra whimpering too, and picked her up to comfort her. I believe that I was sharing her dream – of letting go of the precious placenta that nourished her inside my belly, and welcoming this new experience of life on Earth. It was a tender moment. Your placenta work (the capsules and artwork) helped me to attune to the power of the placenta, and the intuitive connection that Kendra and I share.

Georgia and Kendra

This spiritual significance is expressed in the aboriginal understanding of the meaning of placentas. I have a deep respect for the Aboriginal culture that is fundamentally connected to the land (Nungeena-tya/Mother Nature), nature, ritual and the deep mysteries of life, so I am fascinated, moved and inspired but this information.

My understanding is that aboriginal people see the placenta to be a hologram of a person’s soul and that it contains the life map of your soul. When you plant the placenta in the Mother (earth/ground) then Mother Earth understands that you have arrived and can take care of you.

When you reach puberty and spill your first blood or seed then your soul map is activated and The Mother can support you in your life’s journey. As the placenta is holographic, i.e. a part is equal or contains the whole; a part of your placenta can activate your map.

Of course when you consume your placenta it ultimately ends up in the earth.

…every person on the planet has a unique Miwi (spirit/soul) print on his/her placenta and that this holds the instructions for their life’s journey. So when you are born your placenta needs to be buried in the arth, in Nungeena-tya (Mother Earth), on its own. Then your journey is anchored and your Miwi print waits there until you become a wanai (puberty)…. extract from Under the Quandong Tree by MinMia.

When asked about consuming the placenta and placenta encapsulation MinMia is all for it as it does not diminish the activation of the energy in Mother Earth. What can be profoundly negatively impacting on a person is the mangling and mixing of their placenta with many others as happens when it is discarded at the hospital. This creates deep confusion at a cellular level.

To lose your spiritual map is like being in a row boat and having to get from one side of a massive lake to the other. There’s a storm coming, you’ve lost the oars and you have to get across using your hands. Your hands are no match for the storms. You get tired rowing the boat with two little arms. From the exhaustion your boat just spins and spins, often you lose direction and go backwards. You might give up and die, you might commit suicide. You don’t know your journey, You’ve got no instructions.

I find this understanding of the soul map deeply touching and it rings true for me on a very deep level. This is why I provide the dried sac for people to have a piece of your holographic placenta to conduct the profound ritual of planting with.

My intention of providing the whole package including capsules, artwork, cord keepsake along with a letter describing the energy of the placenta, is to go beyond providing the medicinal aspects of the placenta capsules. The letter offers a confirmation of what women already instinctively know about their baby and the whole package honours the placenta and provides a simple access point to a deeper nourishment of the soul.

References:
MinMia, Under The Quandong Tree, Quandong Dreaming Publishing, 2007. Page 96.