Huna is a Hawaiian word for "hidden" and refers to the philosophy and methods used by pre-Christian Hawaiian mystics and healers. An older Hawaiian word was ho'omanamana meaning "creating life force."

Ohana is the Hawaiian word for community, usually referring to a village community. The old Hawaiians developed their mystic rituals and their healing techniques for the health and harmony of ohana. Here I attempt to describe ohana life. But first - relax, take a deep breath, and imagine another time and place - imagine to go back in time ... many years ... 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 survive in harmony. Our basic wisdom is Aloha, which literally means, "we share life's breath" - and we share most things. Aloha is our guiding principle to live together in harmony. Aloha includes that we accept and acknowledge each person in our community. Forgiveness (kala) is an important part of our daily rituals.

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 the 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.

We have wise elders (kahuna) to help and guide us. We want harmony amongst ourselves, with nature, with other tribes and with the spirit worlds. Our chiefs (ali'i) are our wisest and bravest warriors, they represent stability and order within our ohana.

Our daily life is our religion; so 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 actions. We create this life-energy (ho'omana) by living right. We use special rituals to create our highest energy (ho'omanamana) for special tasks of healing and power, with the guidance of our elders.

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

We make our essentials, or trade for them, but we build canoes and buildings together. We often hunt and work together, and we can communicate very well without words. We are very 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 even navigate by tasting the sea water!

A disease shows an imbalance in our ohana. Perhaps the diseased person has offended a family member, an ancestor or a spirit. We heal disease with herbs and forgiveness rituals (ho'oponopono) and the hidden knowledge (huna) of our healer-experts.

We need to be accepted and acknowledged by other ohana members. If we invite you into our ohana, we have some 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 spirits angry, but work with us in harmony with each other, and in balance with nature.

We believe that we are the true humans. You are civilized, and perhaps to you we are ignorant savages. But we can teach you how to live in harmony with each other and how to find your balance with nature and with the universe. There are very few of us left, so many of us have been lost to the diseases of mind, body and spirit that accompany your civilization. We are exhausted - and we are nearly extinct. This is sad, because our planet needs our love and our respect. We struggle to exist in the remote parts of the world that you do not want. But perhaps you can help us to come back!

Our heritage is harmony and balance. Your heritage is technology and information. Can you imagine bringing these together with a love of life and a love of living? Perhaps we can learn to live together to create a global ohana. It is not yet too late.

About Martyn Carruthers: After a career in health physics he turned to accelerated learning and expert modeling. This lead to modeling the psychotherapeutic aspect of healing rituals used by native healers in Hawaii, to find an effective methodology for working with psychosomatic disease. Martyn now teaches Huna healing and Soulwork coaching. More in-depth articles about Polynesian Huna healing & soulwork by Martyn Carruthers are available at: Human Consciousness and Decision-Making, Soulwork and Soulwork Institutes International. Please email Martyn at: soulwork@gmx.de 

Website of the Month: The Arts & Healing Network
In the beginning, art didn't exist for itself, as a hobby or for monetary barter. Art was magic. Art was ritual. Art was a religious experience, sometimes done as necessary prayer for the community, sometimes done as part of a healing ceremony for an individual. After centuries of very secular art, creative artists are again honoring the very healing presence & necessity that artistic processes bring to the individual & community. Art - both process and product - is a way for the creative artist to bring themselves back in touch with the "Source" as well as bring their audience & community closer to that rejuvenating "Source" from which all of life flows. The Arts & Healing Network is dedicated to celebrating the connection between arts and healing. Their focus is their Web site which serves as an international resource for anyone interested in the healing potential of art, especially environmentalists, social activists, artists, art professionals, health care practitioners, and those challenged by illness. Their hope is that the information presented will educate and inspire. ArtHeals.org offers many resources, such as links to related artists, organizations, books, videos & audio tapes, resources & grants for artists, conferences, lectures, exhibitions, classes, workshops, call for entries, and a bulletin board so that artists & organizations interested in the arts & healing can stay in touch, post messages, and be a part of a growing community & movement.

Quote of the Month: John Fire Lame Deer
"A medicine man shouldn't be a saint. He should experience and feel all the ups and downs, the despair and joy, the magic and the reality, the courage and the fear, of his people. He should be able to sink as low as a bug, or soar as high as an eagle. Unless he can experience both, he is no good as a medicine man." - John Fire Lame Deer

Updates on aquafemina
It's been a busy few months. The site is now credit-card enabled, and I have posted many of my finished writings up on the fiction page. There are a few new paintings up. The hybrids/mixed media gallery is also finished.