Posted by Lani on October 24, 2000 at 07:49:15:
In Reply to: Re: Firewalk Initiation 4 posted by Lani on October 24, 2000 at 00:26:23:
Firewalk #5
Opening night-Our First Firewalk
I'm writing this backwards in time for some reason.
In the main, I have been recounting the terrors for your amusement. There was a lot that wasn't terrifying. Although I think that this is because Michael just couldn't think up BOTH how to make it fearful and still actually do it.
This is one such thing which we did that wasn't life-threatening:
How to Unshrivel a Raisin
God has killed every animal that has ever lived. I ran into a militant vegetarian in my Firewalk initiation last week. He asked Keonaona if her compassion went down to the animals. She said yes. He then asked her how she could eat meat. She asked him if his compassion extended to Carrots? He went ballistic and blew up.
During the initiation we had a meditation of transformation involving our relationship with a raison. We each had to put a single raison in our mouth for half an hour and pay attention to it. We could do anything with it that we wanted to but swallow it.
First it was all wrinkly. Then it began to expand into an almost grape sized mass. Then when I bit on it, it filled my mouth with grape juice!
During the quiet of the half hour, my mind saw an image of a dinosaur chomping on a bunch of vegetation of some sort. The voluntary sacrifice of the vegetation's life to sustain a higher life struck me. And how it goes all the way up to us, layer after layer of clean and honorable souls sacrificing their temporary bodies so that others might live. Libido (The Good) all the way down.
And our Doctrine of EVO-CON, and how this chain of sacrifice leads up to us. And McDonald's fast food restaurants. The many twists and perturbations of our lives. And how one reaches out to the souls of the bodies-both animal and vegetable-which were sacrificed to sustain us.
"I humbly bless and recognize and appreciate every being who has given it's life to sustain me and everything else throughout all time."
Opening Night-Our First Firewalk cont'd
Well, now that I'm almost at the end of this series, I'll start from the beginning of our trip. We had flown up for this to the State of Washington, next to Microsoft, in Redmond. It was late at night. We really had no idea of where we were going. And we were hungry. We started to pass a Denny's restaurant, and stopped for dinner.
I asked Keonaona if she had brought her cell phone. I wanted to call our kumu and let him know we were late but still coming. She had brought it, but it was WAY out of its useful territory, she said. A different phone company entirely. She can make and receive calls only from California and Nevada unless she makes a special arrangement.
I felt more antsy, so I asked her to call him on it anyway. Our kumu Michael McDermott answered immediately. She was nonplused, it shouldn't have worked. Michael drove down to lead us back to the hideaway camp where we would be for the week's initiation.
The next morning is a blank to me. That night our kumu put on our first Firewalk. I had walked on fire before under the auspices of Tony Robbins. She had never walked on fire before.
He prepped us as well as he could.
I stood at the edge of the firepit. I was barely in control of myself. Odd. I thought I would be more in control of my mind.
There was a full moon, it was directly behind the end of the firepit. It looked as if the moon was pulling me forward. Wahinenuiho`alani was pulling me into the fire. I could feel the spiritual wind, and I didn't stop myself. I walked across the fire. The sentient fire lovingly accepted me. The coals were glowing red hot, and the hot heat on my face, but the embers felt cold. Everyone else walked too. I walked a second time. This time the embers were warm. I walked a third time, and the heat nipped at me. Lightly hurting me. I decided that the fire had decided that I had walked enough for that night.
Another haumana, a lady, also walked three times that night. Her experience was the exact opposite of mine. Her first walk had been hot, the second warm, and the third, which almost burned me, was cold.
On another night, which one I no longer remember, our kumu wanted to have a very deep layer of embers. So he made it about 6-8 inches deep.
It was the first time when the hot coals rolled over the tops of my feet, they felt very hot. At the end of the Firewalk, I accidentally walked into a Bramble Patch and the tops of my feet were badly scratched.
Later on that night when we were all in a hot tub, The soles of my feet began to hurt. I reached down and felt a thorn in my sole. Keonaona got it out. In doing so, she discovered the blisters on my feet. I had been unaware of them, there was no pain.
In her first Firewalk, she had received a small symptom, so had our kumu.
At 3:00 am she suddenly awoke because the pain had suddenly ceased. Reaching down, and then later by light, there was no trace of the blister.
She had not received it in the Firewalk itself. The moment you finish, you lose the fireimmunity. If there is a "Clingon" or spark clinging onto your foot, it will burn you at that point. She had had a small clingon.
Now I had my first symptoms. I could now feel the water-filled domes. In the morning there was no trace of them; neither visually, nor by sensation.
The First Huna Firewalk since 1949
There is a fine Huna Practitioner, Steven Varro who has held Firewalks at some Huna (HRI) conferences. He even tried to get Otha's wife to walk on fire, she refused.
When I talked to him about it, it was clear that it wasn't a Huna or Polynesian style, but a sort of Tony Robbins style of a Psychological presentation. Not anything to do with Huna, apparently. But he is really a fine gentleman.
One of our members of the Huna Heiau, Lamaku Schmall drove all the way up from the San Francisco area to offer service to us in the Firewalk I was scheduled to lead, scheduled by our kumu.
Kahuna Keonaona and I spent the morning of the initiation by giving a seminar on Huna. She led in the afternoon a process of "Conscious Dreaming", a technology she is proficient at.
We built the fire, and set it. We all went back inside, and the three of us put on a formal `Awa Ceremony. I did the chief part, Keonaona made the `Awa. Our kumu was gifted with an `Apu`awa (a cocoanut shell cup especially made for `awa), and Lamaku served it.
The type of `Awa was the "Mokihana" which was picked out for us by the farmers who supply the `Awa used in our Huna Heiau Church, John and Rebecca Fowler at Nuka Hiwa Farms in Hawaii. It served us well.
After everyone had had the `Awa, we all went out to the Firewalk-the fire now sentient.
Two of the haumana did the actual raking out of the glowing embers. As my health is irregular, they chose to help me. They helped me so much that they ended up doing it all!
Keonaona and I chanted into the fire.
Several other people had showed up for the Firewalk. I handled this is the same as all the Firewalks I put on. I will make no effort to get the public there, but if someone comes, they will be welcome and I won't charge them or turn them away. (Or maybe they showed up for the first Firewalk, I'm not sure now.)
I tried to set their minds into lokahi with Wahinenuiho`alani, and their Aumakuas.
This was the first time I was to lead it and be the first to cross it. If all went well, I'd tell the others how the fire had responded to me.
It went well. It welcomed me with great love and kindness.
It the first of the truly sweet fires.
It was wonderful.
No one had any symptoms from it. It wasn't rambunctious.
Why?
When you walk to the other side of the sentient fire, you will have found something which no one else who has not traveled that path can ever know.
The plans of Io are advanced both in peace and in war. When it is time to party-down and have fun, and when it is time to be the courageous one. In the Light and in the Darkness, Io abides. -Kahuna Lani