A Hui Hou © Martyn Kahekili Carruthers

To Papa Henry Auwe & Mona Kahele: kumu and kupuna … my Hawaiian teachers

Auf Deutsch . Po Polsku . Hrvatski
Hawaiian Spirituality . Hawaiian Shamanism

‘Oi kau ka lau, e hana i ola honua
Live your life while the sun still shines

Let’s start with a Hawaiian perspective that illness reflects a lack of balance between pono (living right) and mana (life energy). Imbalances between pono and mana can result from unjust acts, limiting beliefs, displeasing your living and dead ancestors, obsessions, etc. Disease reflects unhealthy relationships and true healing requires healthy relationships and healthy food.

Aunty Mona Kahele was the grand-daughter of a Hawaiian kahuna and grew up near Kealakekua Bay on Hawaii. She was cousin to Aunty Margaret Machado, from whom I learned Hawaiian lomilomi massage, and hanai mother to my friends Chet and Suzanne Kamaluhia Woolley. (Chet and Suzanne operate the Hale Ho’ola health spa near Hawaii Volcanoes Park.)

Aunty Mona lived a very active life as a social worker, and was honored by the governor of Hawaii for her work. (She gave me the task and pleasure of integrating many of her comments and handwritten notes about ho’oponopono into a useful document for her students.)

Aunty Mona helped me develop my knowledge of ho’oponopono gained from other teachers, and guided me as I integrated hooponopono with the information about working with dead spirits from Uncle John Kaimikaua of Moloka’i, with the angel work (awaiku) of Aunty Miriam Baker and with the methods of couple coaching and family therapy that I had learned from family therapist Annegret Hallanzy in Germany. This strange brew became a basis for my Soulwork systemic coaching.

Aunty Mona wrote the book Clouds of Memories, a personal account of life in South Kona from the 1930s to the 1990s. Her hanai (adopted) daughter Suzanne Kamaluhia Woolley continues Aunty Mona’s healing traditions at the Hale Ho’õla health spa in Ka’u.

What is Hawaiian Healing?

He loli ‘ole ke alo a’e, he paio koho – (Change is inevitable, struggle is optional)

Huna is a Hawaiian word for hidden or tiny thing, a word popularized by Max Freedom Long to refer to the philosophy and skills used by pre-Christian Hawaiians, particularly the mystics and healers, although no accepted Hawaiian sources refer to the word huna as any tradition of esoteric learning.

Max Long wrote that he derived huna from the word kahuna, a priest or master craftsman, although kahu means keeper and na means balance. An older Hawaiian word for magic is ho’omanamana, literally “creating life force”.

‘Ohana – Community

‘Ohana is a Hawaiian word for community, which were often remote villages. The old Hawaiians developed healing techniques and their rituals for the health and harmony of ‘ohana. Here I attempt to describe ‘ohana life. But first … slow down … relax, take a deep breath … imagine an older time … on a tropical island … back in time … to a small Hawaiian village …

… where we live together in a small community surrounded by a mysterious world and an endless sea. We have known each other since birth, and most of us are related. We believe we are descended from the same gods. We know the best qualities of every person in our ‘ohana, and we know their problems.

Our highest goal is that we live in harmony. Our basic wisdom includes aloha, pono and kala. Aloha literally means, “we share breath” – and we share most things. Aloha is our guiding principle for living together in harmony. Aloha includes that we accept and acknowledge each person in our community. Pono (living right) and forgiveness (kala) are also important parts of our daily life.

We recognize and thank our ancestors (kupuna), our gods (akua) and our guardian spirits (aumakua) for all that we enjoy. We each have a guardian spirit and each personal spirit is part of our ‘ohana guardian spirit (po’e aumakua) that guides our community. Sometimes we ask our ancestors or guardian spirits for help, and they often visit us in dreams.

Our wise elders (kupuna) and experts (kahuna) help and guide us. We want harmony amongst ourselves, with nature, with other tribes and with the strange spirit worlds. Our chiefs (ali’i) are our wisest and bravest warriors; they provide stability and order within the daily life of our ‘ohana.

Our daily life is our religion; and we use many rituals to guide and help ourselves. We are careful not to offend spirits; instead we try to please them. Our elders help us by telling us what is right and what is forbidden (kapu). We need life-energy (mana) for all our actions. We create this life-energy (ho’omana) by living right. We use old rituals to create our highest energy (ho’omanamana) for special tasks of healing and power, with the guidance of our kupuna elders and kahuna experts.

We respect our elders as the keepers of our wisdom and as the teachers of our children. Our elders teach us the songs and chants (mele) of our wisdom, and we must carefully learn them. Our elders may choose children with special talents to be trained to become kahuna – experts.

We make our essentials, or we trade for them, and we build canoes and buildings together. We often hunt and work together, and we can communicate well without words. We are sensitive to details and know who has been in a place, or whether strangers have passed by. Our navigator-kahunas know every star and every current. On cloudy nights, away from land, they can navigate by tasting the seawater!

Disease shows imbalance in our ohana. Perhaps the diseased person has offended a family member, or an ancestor, or a spirit. We call illnesses caused by relationships mawaho while diseases caused by body imbalances are maloko. Mawaho illnesses require ho’oponopono with the living and the dead, while maloko disease require herbal remedies (la’au lapa’au) and massage (lomilomi). Both may need the huna knowledge (ho’omanamana and awaiku) of our healer-experts.

Our chants teach us our traditions. We chant to the goddess (Pele) in the volcano, and her lover (Kamapua’a) in the forests. Pele’s sisters, Hi’iaka teach us to dance (hula) and to heal many diseases. The high god (Kane) lives in the clouds, with wild Ku, civilized Lono and the god of the underworld (Kanaloa). There are four hundred thousand gods, we are told, all created by the first god, I’o.

We believe that Lono left and our kahuna-experts say that he will return, on a floating island with white trees. We await this eagerly, as Lono will bring us gifts. We thought that he returned once, but that was a haole man who died at Kealakekua Bay, near the village now called Captain Cook. We wait for Lono the god.

We need to be accepted and respected by other ‘ohana members. If we invite you into our ‘ohana, we have simple rules: Do not insult anybody – instead, respect our traditions. Do not violate our taboos – instead join us in our rituals. Do not make the ancestors or nature spirits angry – instead work with us in harmony, to keep balance with our ancestors, with local spirits, with nature and with each other.

You are so civilized, and to you we may be ignorant savages. You might call our traditions witchcraft. However, we can show you how to live in peace with yourself, how to live in harmony with each other and how to find your place in this world. We can teach you how to connect to nature and the universe.

There are few of us left; most of us have been lost to the diseases of mind, body and spirit that you call civilization. We are exhausted – and we are nearly extinct. This is sad, because our planet needs our love and our respect.

Do you believe that your life purpose is to save us from our ignorance of your ways? We who yet remain struggle to survive in remote places that you do not want … yet. And when we are gone – we will be gone forever. Can you help us come back?

Our heritage is harmony and balance. Your heritage is technology and information. Will you help us work with you, to make a technology that reflects a love of life, and information that helps us love this living planet? We can learn how to live together and create a global ‘ohana. Too soon it will be too late.

Mahalo a nui loa (great thanks) for your great gift of attention. A hui hou!

‘Amama ua noa lele wale
The taboo is over, may my words fly free

Hawaiian Spirituality . Ho’oponopono . Healing and Ohana . Kumulipo . Soulwork

Awaiku . Hale Ho’õla . Hawaiian Shamanism

Hawaiian Shamanism

E komo mai. Welcome.
We teach in many countries – usually on secluded beaches, forests or parks.
We can meet and work online – or in beautiful places.

We bring this wisdom to the world under the name of Huna Kalani.
We seek people who wish to bring back this ancient magic.

We offer experiential introductions to Hawaiian shamanism. Experience its beauty and power in our workshops that can expand your perception of reality. Hawaiian magic refers to a technology that few understand. Within this old magic are some of the roots of the systemic magic of Soulwork coaching.

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