Posted by Lani on October 22, 2000 at 23:09:50:
In Reply to: Firewalk Initiation posted by Lani on October 22, 2000 at 07:22:07:
Firewalk #2
The: "Are you an idiot?" Test
The body of the course of initiation seems to have been based on two major activities a day, nearly all of which are terrors. And unlike Disneyland thrills, the dangers were all too real.
I'm going to describe to you some of the things we did, but in doing so I am deliberately leaving out major and utterly essential material, without which a person trying these tests will be hurt or harmed or mutilated or killed in an awful way. Why?
Because that's what would probably happen to you anyway if you tried these things on your own. If you want to do the things done in the initiation of a Kahuna I Ke Umu Ki, then find one to initiate you!
So to be redundant: Don't try to do these things without the spiritual guidance of someone who can already do them, and is willing to initiate you.
If you do try it without a spiritual master to guide you, then you ARE an idiot. Don't bother writing to me from your hospital bed, if you should survive, I will be unsympathetic.
Synchronicity
"Paranoia strikes deep" the old hippy song says, and you know, reality is so complex that you just can't but wonder if something isn't going on sometimes.
I say things sometimes which make me wonder about myself. One can always resort to the idea of e ho'oulu ia, your Aumakua or Divine Nature whispering things into your unsuspecting ear. But even that begs the question.
The Poe Aumakua of Huna exist. They have existed since the last three Kahuna I Ke Umu Ki prayed to them to find someone to carry on their lineage.
They found Dr. William Tufts Brigham and tricked him into coming to the islands where he eventually walked on the fire of a recent lava overflow.. Then when Dr. Brigham was about to check out, they found Max Freedom Long and tricked him to coming to the islands, where Dr. Brigham eventually initiated and adopted him into the sacred lineage.
Then when Max was about ready to pop the cork, Dolly Ware, and E. Otha Wingo and I popped in and Max adopted us, although we didn't know each other. There are others too, William Glover being one who could make that assertion in the Dreamworld, and be sustained.
But the plans of the mighty often go astray. Same for the Poe Aumakua who are our guardians. Dr. Brigham dropped the ball. He passed on the stories of his initiation, but not the Firewalk itself. He had let our fire die out, and no one had the courage to approach the sentient fire again.
Max felt the loss of the sentient fire like an itch from an unknown place in his mind. Like the fear that you can't find your car keys.
Then the Poe Aumakua was antsy and frustrated. In all of Polynesia the sacred fires went out one by one, and there was nothing they could do about it.
Then by 1949 there were only two Kahuna I Ke Umu Ki left in all of Polynesia, none of them Hawaiian. So Te-nui Arii-peu, one of the two came from the Society Islands to make a Firewalk to try to raise money for passage to get his stranded Island folks home. Another trick and trap by the Poe Aumakua?
This was to be a series of Umu style Firewalks. Which means they are done of white hot rocks instead of glowing embers. Which means that they invalidate David Wiley's thesis about fire not burning because of low conductivity. Many HRA (Huna Research Associates) came for it. One of our members, Charlie Kenn was chosen by Te-nui Arii-peu to be initiated into the lineage, and a good start was made, but the Kahuna died before it could be finished. And Charlie never walked on fire again as far as anyone knows.
He wrote up his experiences in a little book, "FIRE-WALKING FROM THE INSIDE", by Charles Kenn, which Max Freedom Long published under the Huna banner.
I pretty much knew from the get-go that I had been called to return the sentient fire to Huna, but I could never see how to do that. Never dared to dream that I would actually pull it off.
The major thing which blocked me was the fear of what would happen to those who followed me into the fire. Afraid of their pain, their loss of respect for me and therefore my ultimate disservice to Huna itself.
Then a Methodist Minister friend of mine, Rev. Larry talked to me about it. While I was scared for my own self, I was far more scared for the others. I had Charlie's book, I had been named after the goddess of the Firewalk, I knew my intention-but saw no way to proceed. I didn't, and don't yet know how to protect anyone from being burned.
Larry asked me if I could build the fire, do the chants, and get myself to walk. I said that I could do those things. Then he asked me what part I intended to God to play in the whole thing?
And the only answer is that after a certain point you have to give up and let yourself fall into the arms of your Aumakua or Divine nature or allow yourself to be hurt of even die. But if you are sustained than you actually know what anyone else can only speculate on. Although many will tell that they "know" about the religious or spiritual, but these are only speculations for the most part.
That opened the Path for me to enter into the sentient fire as a priest of it. To search out, finally, a kumu to initiate me into the Firewalk.
Now it seems so far away, yet only a few days ago, I sat listening to my kumu while he played a videotape by the number one leading debunker of the Firewalk. On the screen is a photograph of the 1949 Firewalk in Honolulu, and led by Kahuna I Ke Umu Ki ,Te-nui Arii-peu! That's pretty damn strange, don't you think? The camera which took that photo was being held by a member of my religion. That photograph was copied from an obscure publication published by my religion, and created by Max Freedom Long. With whom I sat and talked over matters with in 1968.
In my lap was the Firewalk Handbook my kumu made up for us. In it, and not for that reason, is a photograph of the founder of my religion-Huna-Kahuna Nui William Tufts Brigham.
Surrounding the photograph is an article written by my kumu Max Freedom Long himself on the Firewalk!
Makes me feel strange or as if you I am caught up in a drama far greater than yourself. Like going into a stranger's home, and knowing everything that is in his refrigerator without looking, since it is the same as yours. You don't say anything, of course. If he didn't believe you, you'd lose respect in his eyes. And if he DID believe you, he would have to be awfully gullible.
So I sit there in class and gripe about David Wiley improperly using that photograph, but don't mention the impact of having all these Huna icons surrounding me. Like a crazy man, I am seeing Huna vectors everywhere I look now. How did I end up being the temporary focus of something beyond me? I just wanted to be a Chiropractor. Or am I or am I just Paranoid with delusions of grandeur? Lala land for sure for the Lanimeister.
But this all continues anyway...
a hui hou,
Lani