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Patience is key

Mer: Light | Ka: Spirit | Ba: Body

Together, they form Merkaba.

The Vision for Merkaba

Our Earth is abundant and healing. We simply need to learn how to live in tune with it.

Here at Merkaba, we do just that. We reconnect with the roots that all humans share.

Born out of the laidback seaside village of Raglan, New Zealand, Merkaba Hemp Collective was formed to share the abundance of hemp with everyone. Every day, we celebrate hemp’s many properties and uses and do this through the vision of healing and nourishment for all.

Our wonderful Collective is made up of friends and whānau (family) among Whaingaroa’s community and throughout the country. They share in our vision and hope to live in harmony with the environment around us.

Hemp: a panacea for our planet and people

Hemp is a plant that’s been celebrated for thousands of years, so our passion for it is nothing new. Instead, it’s an act of coming home. Of embracing nature’s bounty, whilst honouring and taking care of the Earth in the process.

From skincare to medicine, and food to fibre, hemp has a vast potential. We envision to normalise its use in the everyday; with a growing curiosity towards the plant here in New Zealand, we see Merkaba Hemp Collective as a strong pillar in the hemp movement.

Hemp not only offers incredible health benefits for people, being packed with protein, fibre and essential fatty acids (including omega-3s and omega-6s), it is also a wonderful purifier for the planet. This miraculous plant has been found to be more efficient at capturing carbon than trees, consumes less water than most crops, and benefits the environment in which it is grown, making it a wondrous tool for protecting our planet.

Most importantly, our hemp is all grown here in Aotearoa, before the seeds are cold-pressed to produce our oil. The high quality oil is then bottled here in Raglan, our friendly little town. We make all of the skincare products you’ll see here on our website, and you can also find them in the heart of the collective – our store here in Whaingaroa.

About Our Collective

Synergy | noun | the cooperation between people to produce an effect greater than the result of their separate parts.

Back in 2016, Dan Leishman decided to start a collective that would honour and celebrate the abundance of hemp. His idea soon blossomed into a collective that sourced high-quality New Zealand hemp and lovingly crafted it into different remedies and creations which he brought to various markets throughout the north island, including the Raglan Creative Market.

In 2019, our collective hub and store opened in Raglan’s main street.

Collaboration is central to the Merkaba philosophy and Dan’s prowess for hemp expanded even further when he met his partner Amanda in 2020. Their lives fell into sync and Amanda’s background working with medicinal herbs enabled her to infuse foraged and cultivated herbs with the already nutrient-dense hemp oil.

Now, Dan and Amanda make all of their hemp skincare products in small batches right here in Raglan.

Growing their product range from bottles of hemp oil, lip balms, and soaps, to now incorporating botanical perfumes, sunscreen, hair serum, beard oil, love oil, hemp balms, raw pour soaps, and more. In addition, Merkaba is expanding its range of hemp fibre, and even designing and sewing a new line of hemp threads. Working with some very talented people in the Raglan community, we are stoked to introduce our first Raglan-made hemp threads: the hemp and organic cotton corduroy bucket hat, released early December 2021.

‘Support local’ is a massive part of our philosophy.

That’s why we use local beeswax from Raglan bees, native botanicals foraged ethically and sustainably from the area, and medicinal herbs grown using organic methods within the Merkaba Collective.

We are deeply grateful for our partnership with Raglan Sign Co, Raglan Chocolates, Ulo’s, Raglan Honey, as well as the sewers, herbalists, and gardeners of the Collective. We couldn’t do what we do without the support and kinship of our town.

We’d love to welcome you into our collective. Merkaba is for many, and we welcome all.

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“Reach for the stars, and you might touch a cloud“

Daniel Leishman

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