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William Reginald Stewart, who found in the keeping of a North African Berber tribe the same secret magical lore as that possessed by the Hawaiians, was told by his native teacher that a special language was necessary to the discussion of the elements of the Secret Lore.
While it is true that such a language is very handy for this use, we can coin words or combine common words in any language to approximate the meanings of words and word symbols used by the kahunas.
Of course, a century ago many words were still lacking in modern tongues, such words as: vital force, subconscious, conscious and superconscious.
If we were confronted today by the need to make up a list of terms descriptive of the various elements in Huna psychology, we would, undoubtedly, have recourse to symbols to cover more general meanings, just as did the ancient discoverers of Huna. It is to be supposed that the discoverers used psychic powers of observation to reach their conclusions. For instance, they found that the electro-vital force in the human body flowed, much as water flows. It followed a thread of shadowy body substance as electricity follows a wire or as water follows a pipe. Like water, it also flowed in a mass formation through the hands of the healers into the patients. Like a vine, it divided itself in its flow, going from the low self to the middle and to the High Self. Like the vine, which bore clusters of grapes, this
climbing, dividing vital force carried clusters of thought forms upward to the middle self or High Self from the low self.
The Hawaiian word for water is wai, which is shorter than the word mana, for vital force of the voltage used by the low self. Mana-mana means to branch out and move upward or outward as a growing vine. It symbolizes the vital force when raised in voltage and used by the middle self. Mana loa translates strongest vital force and represents the high voltage of force used by the High Self. By using the short wai, the kahuna indicated vital force in a general rather than a specific way.
The word mana, for vital force is made of the roots ma and na combined. Ma means to entwine as a vine does a tree. The root na has a meaning not entirely clear in this connection, perhaps a formative or an "ing" meaning as in English (see ana), but for the purposes of this study it is sufficient to be able to identify in the word mana the symbol of the vine.
Each of the three selves of man has its own invisible body. These were spoken of by the kahunas simply as shadowy bodies, disregarding the fact that there were three spirits in man and therefore three kinds of these invisible bodies. Aka means shadowy and kino means body, while lau means to spread out, four hundred, or signifies many, so, in the word kino-aka-lau, we have the term applied to a ghost or spirit, the word simply describing the ghost as one with several shadowy bodies, therefore a normal ghost having three selves. Other words for ghost, are: wai-lua, translating water-two, or a normal ghost with two voltages of vital force, and, it is taken for granted, the usual two selves and shadowy
bodies. (It was customary to leave out the High Self in the construction of these terms as it was not believed to be closely associated in a physical sense with the two lower selves and was not visible to psychic sight); kino-wai-lua, translates, ghost-of-two-waters (voltages of vital force); aka-lau translates shadowy (bodies)—many.
The foregoing will give an idea of how words were built up through the use of both clearly defined words and roots and symbol-words.
Many of the words used by the kahunas to describe the elements of Huna were made of combined roots which gave the words a general meaning, while the roots gave other meanings which described the nature of the thing named in the larger sense of the term. The word aka for shadowy, is a good example. From its roots we get an excellent description of the manner in which the shadowy body of the low self sticks to everything it touches, pulling away only to leave an adhering thread of its shadowy substance stretching out to an endless distance and remaining as a permanent connecting thread of contact or communication. This thread is not filled with vital force and is, for this reason, not activated under ordinary conditions. But, once such a thread has tied together any person and thing or any two persons, it may at any time be activated by sending along it a flow of vital force, and by projecting a small portion of the shadowy body to follow the thread and make it large and stronger for the moments of contact. (It is to be recalled that sensory organs may be projected in part with this shadowy substance, and may get and send back sensory impressions, or thought forms of memories or
other impressions may flow back and forth, as in telepathy and mind reading, or, as in prayer to the High Self.) The root ka in aka also means a vine whose branches run and divide, linking the meaning of the word directly to the idea that the mana flows along the shadowy substance masses or threads. Ka also means to radiate out like rays of the sun, symbolizing the radiation in all directions of the numberless threads which connect every individual with the people and things he has touched. An alternate meaning is that of moving from one place to another, which points to the movement of vital force and thought forms along the aka threads. (The very similar root ka-a means a thread or cord, also a branch of a vine.) The root ka, doubled to make ka-ka means a cluster as of grapes, and is the symbol of the cluster of thought forms which compose a prayer as it is moved on a flow of vital force along a shadowy thread from the low self to the High Self.
The word for "to think" is mana-o (or it may be divided into its roots to give mana-ao or ma-nao). From a study of the meanings to be derived from the root formations it is to be seen that the kahunas believed that all thinking involved the use of mana or vital force which divided itself in reciprocal flows between the low, middle and High selves, but primarily between the low and middle. The component root o holds the meaning of carrying something, in this case, thought forms on a flow of vital force. It also means to reach out and pierce something, as the shadowy body of another to whom telepathic thoughts are sent, or of the High Self to whom prayer thought forms are projected. As a symbol, o means to reach into a dark opening, feel about,
find something, and pull it out. This is the kahuna way of symbolizing the manner in which the middle self causes the low self to find the stored thought forms of memories and present them to the middle self. All thinking is done by recalling memories. Without memory there is little or no thinking ability, the materials of rationalization being lost. Still another meaning for this important little root is that of calling for a desired thing, as for a memory, or as in making a prayer. The root nao has a similar meaning, particularly that of the symbolic reaching into a dark receptacle to find and pull out something. The root na is often used to replace the root ana, which gives the meaning of small round balls of substance, this being the symbol of the thought forms, which are made of shadowy body substance by an action of vital force, so that thinking (m-ana-o) includes the work of manufacturing permanent thought forms which can be stored as memories or can be duplicated and sent along shadowy threads in telepathy or prayer.
Because of its importance to Huna, vital force received much attention from the discoverers of Huna when formulating definitive words. Mana also means strength, power, intelligence, divided or branching out, and, with the causative hoo (as hoo-mana or make mana), to worship or reverence. This latter word, hoo-mana or ho-mana, has, in reality, little connection with either reverence or worship, both these things being rather foreign to the kahunas. The o meaning in hoo was probably the secret one, and ho stresses the meaning of transfer or carry, pointing to the carrying of thought
forms on the flows of vital force. Aho, including the same root, means a thread, cord or line, as does the word aha. Another meaning of aho was patience, suggesting that working with the prayer mechanisms demanded much patience on the part of the person who made a prayer and depended on the low self to send it along a shadowy thread to the High Self.
The most complicated task confronting the makers of the original words in Huna must have been that of uniting roots to describe in one short word the many things composing the low self and the many things done by it. The result of their early labors has come down to us in two interchangeable words, unihipili and uhinipili. From these two words, both of which mean the low or subconscious self, come an amazing number of direct descriptions of the self in question, and also pointers indicating elements and characteristics not so fully defined. Many of the roots involved have as high as a dozen meanings. Only the ones important to this study will be considered.
U: This root is a shortening of au as found in the word for the High Self, Au-ma-kua. It means a "self" or spirit or entity, as a separate and independent unit of consciousness, not as a part of another consciousness. The root u also begins the word for the middle self, uhane (which has but three roots). The secondary meanings of u (and these are particularly applicable to the low self) are (1) to project, indicative of the projection of threads of the shadowy body and flows of vital force along them; (2) to impregnate or tincture or intermingle with something else, which tells the story of
how the low self and middle self are intermingled in the physical body as well as in their shadowy bodies; (3) to drip, leak or drizzle a slow drip of water, this meaning symbolizing the manufacture of vital force or mana by the low self, and its slow use in the work of living and of supplying the middle and, at prayer times, the High Self.
Nihi: This root means to be thin and weak so as to appear almost broken. It embodies the symbolic description of the shadowy threads when they are not filled with vital force or activated—when they are as nothing. Hi: Here we have the symbol of the flowing of vital force. This root means to flow away, as water. Doubled to make hi-hi, the meaning becomes a vine, and points directly to the other meanings held in the vine and water symbols.
Uhi: This double root has the meaning of a veil, skin or other covering. It symbolizes the covering of the lower selves by both the physical body and the shadowy bodies. After death the shadowy bodies of the low and middle selves remain interblended and act as a covering to contain the selves or conscious entities, low and middle, but not the High.
Hini: Like Nihi, this root combination gives the meaning of thin and weak, as an unused thread of shadowy substance. It has a secondary meaning of speaking with a weak voice, as ghosts are supposed to do. (Both roots, especially nihi, give the meaning of silent, careful and secretive action, also that of refraining from certain actions for fear of displeasing those in authority. This indicates the way in which the low self does much of its work without its activities being brought to the attention
of the middle self. It also points to the manner in which a complex causes the low self to refrain from certain actions.)
Pi: This root has several meanings, but the one important to understanding the kahuna concept of the low self is that of water flowing drop by drop, symbolizing vital force in the water symbol, and, in the drops, which are small and round and almost invisible in rain, the thought forms carried on a mana flow. Rain has been used as a symbol combining this double meaning in prayers, and a further meaning has been included, that of a return downpouring of vitalized thought forms from the High Self—these taking the form of such conditions or events as compose the answers to prayers. Pili: This root has the meaning of sticking to a thing, as the shadowy body of the low self sticks to whatever it touches. Upon drawing away after the touch, the threads of shadowy substance are pulled out much as when one touches the sticky balsam on flypaper. There is also the meaning of attaching oneself to another as a servant, companion or close associate. This is a very definite and direct statement of the relationship of the low to the middle self.
The word for the middle self is uhane, and from the shortness of the word and the little descriptive matter carried in its roots, it is to be seen that the kahunas of old did not believe that the middle self had much native ability other than that of using inductive reason. It was the guest in the bodily house, the teacher, guide and master. The root u has the meaning of a self, already discussed; ha is a pipe or channel for water, and indicates the ability of the middle self to take and convey
the vital force made by the low self; ni means to talk or whisper. It may be noted that the ability to talk is peculiar to human beings and sets them off as apart from the rest of the animal kingdom. The idea of "talk" is found in the words used to name both the low and middle selves.
Au-ma-kua for High Self, is one of three terms, the other two being, akua-noho or "the god who dwells with men," and akua-ulu, "the god who inspires men," as when a prophet sees the future and describes it. In Au-ma-kua, au is a self, also a period of time, a flow of water, an action of mind, and a condition in which one is entirely engaged in a certain course of action or in a course of conduct. Ma is to entwine as a vine. Kua is the high point of a land, as a mountain, giving the symbol of the High Self as higher or more evolved than the middle or low selves. The combined roots makua give the meaning of parent, so we have in the full word, Aumakua, the "older, entirely trustworthy parental self." The word akua has been translated "god," but it has more nearly the meaning of a higher being, thus a being supposed to be a step higher in the evolutionary scale than the Aumakua is called the Akua Aumakua. In Aumakua the root word akua stands out clearly (Au-m-akua, a formation which might give the word aum or om used in Oriental religions. It is to be guessed that in their travels from near Egypt to the South Seas, the kahunas left behind them some of their Huna ideas as they touched various lands on the route).
The root la is part of many words used as symbols. It means the sun or light. It is the symbol of the normal
condition when a man is free of complexes of guilt and his low self is in proper contact with the High Self, delivering to the High Self the prayers of the man as well as the vital force to be used to make the "seeds" or thought forms of the prayer "grow" and become the prayed-for condition. Spirituality (to use the word in the Western sense) is symbolized by light. La-a is to be consecrated and holy. A-la is a path, and symbolizes the normal path of connection along a connecting shadowy thread, with the High Self. Ka-la is to cleanse ceremonially to remove guilt fixations which "block the path." Ka is to radiate or reach between two places, and la is the Light, so this cleansing is a process that involves reaching to touch the source of the symbolic Light, the High Self. La-la means to branch out or divide, which is a pointer toward the vine and the general symbology of vital force, indicating the relation of vital force and the connecting shadowy cord leading to the High Self. Hoo-lala in which the first root is the causative, gives the meaning of to make or lay a foundation for a work—this suggesting that a prayer with the division of vital force lays the foundation for an answer to the prayer.
Ho-ano is translated, "to reverence in the highest degree," and this meaning was given the word in translating the Bible into Hawaiian over a century ago. From the roots of the word comes a meaning quite unlike the Christian idea of "reverence." The meaning derived is, from ho, to transfer something from one place to another, and from ano, seeds. To transfer seeds symbolizes sending thought forms of prayer along
the shadowy cord to the High Self. Ano also has the meaning of "immediately" which connects this prayer process with immediate or instant healing.
Hoo-la means to heal. From the roots it translates, "to cause light," and this causing of light or restoring the normal relation to the High Self, symbolizes the basic element in healing. Two very similar words are used for "to pray for something desired," these are wai-ha and wai pa. In both may be seen the word for water, wai, symbolizing vital force. In the first word the root ha means the tube or channel through which water is made to flow, showing that prayer is a process in which vital force flows to the High Self, and the expanded root a-ha gives the meaning of the thread or cord. In the root pa as used in the second word given for "to pray for something desired," we find the meaning of "to divide," which is the symbol of dividing or sharing vital force as between the low and High selves.
There are many, many other words in the language used by the kahunas, which contain the direct or symbolic root meanings. One may safely conclude that such a closely interlocked set of meanings could not have been accidental. Modern usage follows the pattern laid down by the early Missionaries to Hawaii, who knew nothing of the science of Psychology and were not initiates into Huna. For this reason it is very natural that modern students of the Hawaiian language should object to root translations as used in this study. However, until such students can also show why hundreds of similar words should not have been translated according to the meanings of their roots by the Missionaries and by Lorrin Andrews when making his dictionary in 1865, it seems
safe enough to use root translations so long as the general meanings average up.
Without such root translations it is impossible to see the slightest reason for certain meanings having been given certain words. As an example, there is the word for "prophet," ka-u-la. This word means a rope, a cord or a string. Such meanings seem utterly foreign to the secondary meaning of "Prophet," but if one has a knowledge of the kahuna belief that a prophet gets his information concerning the future from the High Self, by way of a shadowy cord of connection, the implications become clear. The root ka has the familiar meaning of to reach from place to place as the shadowy cord. The root kau means to put something in a high place, as thought forms of a prayer for vision of the future, in the shadowy body of the High Self. The root la completes the picture by symbolizing the form of enlightening knowledge which comes only from the High Self.
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The various steps in the healing processes of Huna may be traced through the terms used by the kahunas. These terms, when translated through their root meanings and given additional meanings through the symbols used, furnish an insight into the theory as well as the practice of healing and related rites.
To heal a person of physical or mental ills, or to cause his future to change for the better, the preliminary step is that of the ka-la or cleansing away of guilt and other fixations which block the path of free contact with the High Self of the patient. Hurts done to others must be stopped and old hurts made good. The attacks
of spirits seeking to avenge the ones hurt must be stopped, if there are any. The cleansing rite of ka-la reopens the path of connection with the High Self.
With the symbolic "path" opened to its normal condition, the prayer for the desired condition is to be made. This is a step involving three elements or actions. (1) A surcharge of vital force must be gathered by the officiating kahuna. (2) The prayer must be decided upon in detail and then thrice spoken to cause it to be made into a strong cluster of thought forms to be sent to the High Self, and (3) The High Self must be contacted and the prayer sent to it on a flow of vital force along the connecting shadowy cord.
Action No. 1 is hoo-mana or "make mana." The dictionary translation for this word is "to worship," which is not at all what the roots suggest. Action 2 is hoo-ano-ano. The dictionary gives this word the meaning of "to solemnize the mind as for worship." The root translation gives several most important and illuminating meanings: (A) To make seeds, which symbolizes the making of the thought form cluster of the prayer. (B) To make an image, likeness or form, which is exactly what the making of the thought forms of the prayer accomplishes—a mental image of the thing desired. (C) To make a change or transformation of something, in this case a change from the present unwanted condition to the desired condition prayed for. (D) To make something new, which would be the purpose of a prayer for a new condition instead of a change in a condition already present. Action No. 3 was described in the usual prayer endings of the kahunas when
they said, "Amama ua noa. Lele wale akua la." The external translation of these two phrases is given by Thrum as, "The prayer takes flight. Let the rain of blessings fall." However, the roots tell another story and show that Thrum reversed the sequence of the phrases. Amama means to give to the gods; ua is rain, which is the symbol of the vital force or thought forms (small balls of water symbolic of thought forms), and is the thing given; noa means to finish a prayer rite and has the translation of "release," in this case meaning to let the vital force and the thought forms pass from the low self to the High Self. In the second phrase, lele means to take upward flight, and symbolizes the movement of the prayer to the High Self. Wale has a strange meaning which cannot be translated by any English word. This is to act or do something without limitations being put on the means to be used. It means, also, to exist in a state of being not limited by time or space—in short, it describes well indeed the fact that we lower selves cannot understand the ways in which the High Self works to produce for us answers to our prayers. Akua la tells to whom the prayer has been sent, the High Self in its realm of symbolic Light. A secondary meaning in this phrase is to be found in the combined words giving lelewale, which has the general sense of asking for the "falling" or return descent of thought forms from the High Self to act as an omen to tell whether or not the prayer will be granted.
When a prayer has been made, faith in the outcome is demanded in Christianity, so we look for the word for "faith" to see what the kahunas believed about faith.
[paragraph continues] Their word was pau-lele, which means "to stop flying upward," and indicates a condition of confidence in which one stops praying.
The condition of being healed is called hoo-la which means that the normal contact with the Light or High Self has been reestablished. A variation of the word is hoo-ola meaning "make life." In o-la the roots show that life depends on the symbolic action (o) of touching the High Self (la). The kahunas recognized no Salvation and no Savior, such as are found in many religions. For them salvation was a normal condition in which normal intercourse with one's High Self was maintained, either in physical life or in the after death state in which life continued in the shadowy bodies amidst the dream-like images of familiar surroundings.
If a prayer had been made for a supply of worldly goods, the supply was called by the kahunas, la-ko, which, from the roots gives "to possess Light." It was believed that the High Self could provide all the necessities for the life and well-being of the lower selves, provided the normal contact was maintained in workable condition.
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It is evident that many words and phrases used by the kahunas are now lost. They do not appear in the dictionaries of Polynesian dialects, and there are no longer kahunas who know the whole of the ancient Secret.
No word has been found for fire-walking, to give one example, although this ceremonial demonstration of the power of prayer to the High Self was part and
parcel of the lives of the Hawaiians less than a century ago.
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The stage magician who used genuine magic in his performances, came to see from my questioning that I would understand him if he told me the truth about his training and his performance. He had been born of white parentage in India and left an orphan in an isolated district. Native fire-walkers adopted him and set to work to teach him their art at an early age. He sat for a time each day before a small butter lamp trying to sense the god behind the flame. His elders frequently demonstrated their ability to pray to the god of the flame and gain fire-immunity. They held their hands over the flame without injury and, under their protection, the boy also did. Little by little he became aware of a conscious something connected with the flame but invisible and intangible. In due time he became able to ask for fire-immunity and get it. He underwent no purification process or ritual, observing only the rule that he do nothing to injure others or to make himself ashamed. In adult life he observed these rules and, upon beginning his fire performance did not need to make a prayer. At contact with the flame or heat he seemed automatically to make an inner prayer and receive the usual protection. His wife had learned to climb a ladder of naked sword blades from Japanese religionists. (These magicians who roll on broken glass
and whose cuts are healed instantly by a word from the master of ceremonies, have been mentioned in the text of my report.) Both these performers had been given a form of "introduction" to High Self types of Beings in their early training, much as had the student kahunas in learning weather control.
THE DEATH PRAYER (see note at end of Chapter 4). This is called ana-ana in Hawaiian, but the word can apply to any form of divination or sorcery. The word has also a meaning of "tremble from great fatigue" indicating the fact that death is brought about through a loss of vital force. The root ana means to be "satiated with food," and indicates the fact that the attacking spirits draw their fill of vital force from the victim and become satiated as they bring about his death. The full word has also the meaning of something occurring "in small balls," which is the standard Huna symbol for the thought forms, which, in the death prayer were given to the attacking spirit to implant in the center of consciousness of the low self of the victim to force him, as with superhypnotic suggestion to allow the attackers to fasten themselves to his shadowy body and drain away all vital force. (Quoted phrases above are taken from the Hawaiian-English dictionary.)