This year's

We started it off by some of us, Kahuna Keonaona, Kahuna Ulana, Niele, Opu`ao, Kuo`o, and I, going to a Techno-Rave Cosmic-Mass led by Rev. Matthew Fox. An Ordained Roman Catholic Priest, whom the Pope defrocked for his "Creation Spirituality" and then he was cheerfully refrocked by the Episcopalian Church. So from my POV, this is one third a Medieval Christian Mass where everyone stands, and receives the consecrated Host and Communion, and a Rave where everyone dances to Techno-Rave music, and a Pagan Ceremony with the chant of opening of the Four Corners, etc. The Pope would stay awake at night if he knew what religious joy really was about.

For me, it gives me a chance to wallow in religious power without having to be the kumu (source) or facilitator!!! Hey...

Christianity in their hands is a benefit to all, there are good Christians, and bad ones. Just as there are fine Hunians and bad ones. Go figure. Hey...

MAKAHIKI:

The one day a year we get up at the crack of midnight to travel to the hills, as a hui (Congregation), to do the Huna Dawngretting Ceremony passed onto to me by my kumu, Kahuna Fred Kimball. To greet the first dawn after the Vernal Equinox with chanting and prayers.

Then out to a communal breakfast, Kahunas, lala and honored malihini and all.

Then back to the Huna Heiau Church for hours of Vows and the giving of the Ki`i Kukui healing icons to the lala (members), then the Invocation, one of the two ones which permanently change the relationship you have with your Aumakua happens, I was initiated into the Invocations by Kahuna Fred Kimball himself, and I'll pass on the Initiations to another kumu and Kahuna before I die. Each Makahiki we switch between the two, so in order to receive them both, a Hunian has to make the Pilgrimage to a Makahiki two Makahikis in a row. This year was The Mantle of Protection, with its physical feeling of added weight as one's Aumakua places a lei on the haumana. So next year it is the Invocation which makes one immune to the effects of Evil or Possession, the Descent of the Aumakua.

Then a break where the Mo`i (me at this time) takes a nap. Then in the afternoon, the formal `Awa Sacramental Drug fellowship, and the taking on the `Awa, made in our Hunian Kanoa, and served to everyone, the lala in their `Apu`Awa (cocoanut shell cups) and the malihini in paper cups the Huna Heiau Church supplies to them for that purpose.

Then the Firewalk. The people all take off their shoes, a partial cord of hardwood has been burning down to bright red embers for hours. The Kahuna I Ke Umu Ki, Kahuna Ulana this year, her first time, sanctifies the fire, and renders it partially supernaturally cold. The people gather at Ka`ole, the "step before the first step" and have a wall of sheer terror form in front of them. Fire burns. Finally their courage breaks and they turn away, or they give up to their God as they understand Him/Her/It, and stop themselves from not-walking. And then there is a vagueness comes in the mind, a "soft focus" or a far-away look in the eyes. And then they are standing on the far side of the firebed, only vaguely aware of how they got there---for it was God who walks safely through the fire, not our little, but necessary, egos.

(photography by Manawanui)

Everyone walked in peace and safety into the fire this year, Hunians, and a good Christian guy (any friendly half-way decent person is welcome to join us in `Awa and the Firewalk) and others of unknown devotions.

So then, "what does this mean"? This world we Hunians live in is NOT the same world most others live in---it is the real world. Most others live in a world of false limitations appearing real. Sometimes limited to protect them from hurting themselves, or being scared of the darkness. Sometimes limited by crafty people to give themselves an advantage. The world of the Hunians isn't exceptional, the world everyone else seems to live in is the exceptional.

Fact is, fire doesn't burn if blessed by a competent Priest of the Fire. Just doesn't. We proved it again last week.

In the middle of a tract of homes, one with its backyard on fire, and a Fire Priest (Kahuna I Ke Umu Ki) there, a god, a known messenger of the Huna Goddess of the Firewalk took on flesh and came to the Firewalk Priest and her Fire Attendant and communicated with them by his mere presence. The gods exist. One took on its wild animal-form body and came to our Firewalk last week. Normal, mundane. But an unusual experience, certainly. Yet Pueo has walked at our side several times now.

A fire which doesn't burn flesh because it has been effectively blessed by a Kahuna? Mundane and normal stuff. We do it every year. The gods come for a visit when holy stuff is being done which affects them? Normal mundane stuff. Its happened to us three times now. A Jumbojet, crashes with evil intent, into a huge building in the shape of the Pentagon, the ancient Pagan symbol of protection...and it dematerializes? Normal and mundane, but unusual.

http://www.freedomunderground.org/memoryhole/pentagon121.swf

And that's the meaning of the Firewalk. The world we live in is a magical place, where normally, a blessed fire will NOT burn flesh, and the shadows have eyes and the gods walk with men, and Wyrd unfolds.

This world exists for everyone all the time, but most are asleep, or deliberately blinded by others at birth---who are also blind, and they too were blinded at birth... They can look until they are blue in the face on the facts of the dematerialization, and NEVER see the dematerialization. But like a child, wonder where the coin came from, the nice man just pulled out of their ear.

Nice and wonderful and precocious as that child might be.

The Firewalker knows that something is up. Almost everyone else must guess. Not everyone though. He is an adult, he tithes to his clan or tribe to make it strong, to outlast his mortality, so that it will be there for his mamo (descendents). He or she prays the TMHG or any large ritual prayer, for the good of others, and are themselves blessed by that action each and every day. They have their Ki`i Kukui healing icons so that they may heal the wounds and harm done to others. They have been initiated into the Kalo so that they can speak directly to their god. They have their GaR Packs (Grab and Run) so that in any emergency they can help their community, and not just be a drag on it.

And they are learning to be happy, a party animal and a cheerful warrior. A self-sourcing Crewman here, and not a needy Guest who must be served, and whose soul remains unawakened.


Four people asked me to name them in Hunian language names, and four were named, Jim became Opu`ao, Cody became Kuo`o, DeShae became Niele, and Noosha became Makanani; The Wise One, The One Who Stands Up for the Truth as he knows it, no matter what the cost, The Curious One, Beautiful Eyes.

The next day, two new Firewalkers who had taken lala Vows (became Hunian members) got their Hunian Tribal Firewalker's tattoo, and the Kahuna I Ke umu Ki (Priest of the Fire-made-sacred) Ulana got a circle tattooed around her Malamaka`opuahiki tattoo to mark her first firewalk led.

(Lani's Malamaka`opuahiki ho`ailona`aku)

Then there followed the "Beat the Kahuna" Makahiki games (well, game at this point). Everyone there managed to memorize more cards in order than I did, but Kahuna I Ke Umu Ki Manawanui won the Bonnie Bark (Trophy) this Makahiki! Next year, he is ineligible to contest again, but he'll be the Judge of the contest. Of the three unique custom boxes for the Cards I had made some years ago, one is mine, and the next is Manawanui's, and the third will be given out at the next Makahiki, if anyone can memorize a greater number of random cards more than I can that day.

Then there was the training in the unique Hunian Grace, and the Aha`aina (Ritual Feast), to heal the wound in the chain-of-life discovered by Kahuna Nui Max Freedom Long and one of the Huna Kupuna (Elders of Huna), Kahuna Fred Kimball. For they both discovered that all the life-forms we use as our food, and most others have turned their backs on humankind. They said that we have lost our Way and they don't want to become us anymore.

The Hunian Grace was created by Kahuna Fred to heal that wound. Our individual Hunian people's actions will not stop the falling of the world for long, but that isn't what our God, Oiai`o (to use a name or kainoa) calls us to do. We are not called to Win, but only to Serve. Winning is in God's (Oiai`o's) hands, or in the unfolding of Wyrd and not our own. Not our concern. What others do is none of our business, but ours is to move our own lives in such a manner that we become an exemplar for others. Not a critic of others.

Our fine new lala, Kuo`o was a great kokua to Kahuna Keonaona in making the Aha`aina. Mahalo nui, Kuo`o.

And then the secrets of the Hiwa Ceremony follow and cap the night. Hiwa, the welcoming warm darkness, i.e., Shamanistic Ceremony only for tattooed Hunian Firewalkers who are also lala. A most private thing.

The next day, I took several advanced Kahuna Koa Haumana (Spiritual Warriors and Exorcists in training), thorough a complex training which is the Kala (Exorcism) of the Hunians, with which I have ended insanity in others with over the years. A training of some year's commitment for them, and an act of courage as well. I am honored by their attendance on me.


And so, I'm exhausted, but feeling as if I had just made love to a dozen people, all of real worthiness, and I am justified and happy.

Much gratitude is held for Kahuna Keonaona, without whose great service, this would have been a much smaller and disjointed event. Mahalo nui loa Kahuna Keonaona!

Aloha,

Kahuna Ho`anoiwahinenuiho`aLani

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