November-December, 1967

The Source of Christian Beliefs

 

AS THE NEXT HUNA VISTAS will not be sent until well after the holidays, may I take this opportunity to WISH YOU ALL A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS. We will be celebrating the birthday of the leading player in what is, undoubtedly, the most famous and important DRAMA the world has ever known. Whoever played the character of JESUS in the great initiatory drama, saved for us and coded with hidden meaning in the Four Gospels – whoever played that stellar part had the Star of Bethlehem to mark his dressing room door for all the ages.

With what love and what a glow of deep understanding must ancient players have approached their parts in making ready to present the great drama before their little audiences of candidates standing for initiation into the fun lore of the Huna “SECRET”. With what care they must have gone through the intricate performance so that all the coded Huna might appear between and in the lines as the candidates watched. What a labor of love the players must have performed in their effort to share the wonderful secret wisdom with the chosen ones who would carry on after them …. when the curtain was rung down.

You and I sit before the curtain that was lowered, and  for some reason or other which we cannot fathom, never raised again. Yes, it was raised in its small way in modern times and the outer husks of the drama brought to a semblance of life in plays based on the Gospel story, and the motion pictures came to give the story fine life on the screen, but the heart was gone and the dramas were played on what, to the student of the Coded Huna, was and is a dark stage. But for us, Huna floods all stages with the brilliant LIGHT, and we rest content. We come happily to Christmas, and become ourselves minor players as we light our candles and remember the hidden lesson behind the Crucifixion and the Transfiguration that led to the wonders of Graduation into the realms of the Aumakuas.

May you enjoy the celebration of Christmas all the more, knowing as you now do, the great truths that lie hidden behind the Drama of which the Birth of Jesus is a part. And may the New Year be marked by the coming of the Magi –  the Magic of Huna – to bring you gifts of the incense of humility and wisdom, and the gold of your reward for labor and loving service. May you receive the bright jewels that will decorate you for all the good you have done and have attempted to do.

Look to the heavens for the Star of LIGHT that will guide and show the way ahead into the safe world where the great command is NOT TO HURT OTHERS.

SPEAKING OF THE “DARK STAGE” and of the light thrown by Huna on it, we must not forget for a moment the brilliant and illuminating work just done by Dr. Martin Larson in his book, THE ESSENE HERITAGE. (Offered still at below cost to HRAs for $3 post free by Dr. Larson. If you have not yet sent for your copy, his address is 4108 East Stanford Drive, Phoenix, Arizona 85018.) In this book we have the curtain raised and the lights turned on, NOT with the drama beginning with the Christ child born in a manger, BUT with the beliefs and teaching of Jesus being formulated step by step long before the play starts. Christianity has, down the centuries, been based upon the belief that Jesus originated the doctrines which he taught. Dr. Larson shows that he did not. He shows that the beliefs were borrowed or made from whole cloth by the Essenes. The impact of this evidence on the tottering Christianity of modern days may not be felt for a little while, but eventually it will force a revolution of thought which will make it of little importance whether the Church of Rome comes to terms with the Greek Church or not.

In his book, after careful assembling of the material, Dr. Larson lists 25 points at which one can see the Essene origins of the doctrines set forth in the Four Gospels. For fear some of you may have missed this history making presentation, I take the reviewer’s liberty and quote rather more than custom allows.

C. THE ESSENE SYNOPTIC PARALLELS

Among the more important and obvious similarities which bind the Synoptics to Essenism, especially since these are to be found nowhere else in Judaic life, we list the following:

1. The concept of the Son of Man, an agency separate from the Supreme God, who would appear as the all powerful eschatological judge and establish the Kingdom of God or Righteousness on earth.
2. The doctrine of two divine manifestations, i.e., the Parousia.
3. The persuasion that the apocalyptic catastrophe was imminent, and that the subsequent kingdom would supervene during the then existing generation.
4. The belief that personal ownership of property is inseparable from social injustice.
5. The conviction that property owned individually constitutes moral contamination but that, when possessed collectively, it does not.
6. The demand that, as a prerequisite for membership, all applicants divest themselves of all private property and give the proceeds to the communion.
7. The doctrine that married life or sex activity of any kind is incompatible with sainthood, and that chastity and celibacy are prerequisites for redemption.
8. The injunction that family and relatives must not only be abandoned but that, so long as they remain unconverted, they must be regarded with repugnance and hatred.
9. The belief that charity should be given to strangers in dire need, and to them only.
10. The conviction that every soul has a single eternal life and destiny, for which the present is a preparation and a prelude.
11. The doctrines of predestination, election, and reprobation; the belief that sinners are tempted and led into destruction by divine plan and decree.
12. The dogma of the two great spirits and the consequent metaphysical and spiritual dualism.
13. The ritual of sacramental baptism.
14. The repudiation of all animal sacrifice in favor of a symbolic divine drink and food – the wine and bread of the eucharist.
15. The belief in everlasting torture in Hell or eternal bliss in “Paradise” consequent upon the acceptance or rejection of the doctrines of the communion and membership in it – in short, the dogma of the exclusive salvation.
16. The proclamation of complete pacifism.
17. Love for brethren, but rejection for outsiders and extreme hatred for unbelievers.
18. The condemnation of all persons who practice thrift or accumulate wealth, and toleration and forgiveness for those whom society conventionally considers to be criminals.
19. Technical civil obedience coupled with the practical avoidance of all normal social burdens or responsibilities.
20. A refusal to take civil oaths.
21. The practice of healing by exorcising evil spirits, which are believed to be the cause of all mental and physical diseases or afflictions.
22. The use of parables to conceal esoteric meanings.
23. The Jews to be punished for persecution of prophets and saints.
24. The production of a new corpus of sacred literature, which supplements or replaces the existing canon.
25. The acceptance, but complete re-interpretation, of the old and established Scriptures.

In addition to these exclusive and obvious parallels, we believe that we have also established, or at least produced strong presumptive evidence to support our theses that the Synoptics and certain Essene documents:

1. say substantially the same things concerning Jesus and the Teacher of Righteousness in regard to their suffering, place of execution, cause and purpose of death, and miraculous resurrection,
2. contain the same theories and doctrines concerning the dual Messianic manifestations,
3. state that the Teacher and Jesus were both divine personages, whose passion and sacrifice constituted an atonement for the elect of all nations,
4. declare that the Jewish authorities, wholly unaware of the enormity of their respective deeds, rushed upon those divine personages to do them violence and,
5. emphasize that the temple was desolated, the holy city laid waste, and the people scattered among the Gentiles as a punishment for this atrocity.

Finally, we have shown that in the Interpolations written into The Testaments after the fall of Jerusalem to Pompey, Jesus may well have found the model for the later portion of his career and that, when he embarked upon his drastically altered destiny, he found the concept of himself as the Son of Man explicitly described in Enoch FIVE.

D. CONCLUSION

That the Essene cult had fully developed most of the doctrines found in the Synoptics cannot reasonably be denied, nor can it be maintained that anything remotely similar existed elsewhere in Judaic culture. Furthermore, the esoteric teachings of the Essenes were so well concealed that no one could learn them except through full membership, attained only after a long period of examination and probation. How then can we doubt that Jesus had been an Essene? Or are we to assume that he developed an almost identical system by pure coincidence or that there was a previous and identical divine revelation?” ………….  (End of quotation mfl.)

THE SOURCE OF THE CHRISTIAN BELIEFS has been identified by Dr. Larson to the full satisfaction of the students who have open minds. These beliefs were the outer ones. Thanks to Huna and the Code used in the writing of the Four Gospels, we have the inner beliefs as well, even if we cannot say that because the outer beliefs certainly came from the Essenes, the inner beliefs were derived from the same source. As we can trace Huna back to a far earlier period in Egypt and India, it is a foregone conclusion that Huna was a borrowed or inherited system of secret beliefs held sacred by the Essenes and preserved at great cost of labor in the writing of the Gospels.

The secrecy surrounding the outer beliefs of the Essenes, all considered, must have been practiced with equal fervor in keeping “THE SECRET” hidden. It would appear that the Gospel Drama may have been constructed and coded with the purpose of making doubly sure the Huna beliefs would not leak out, even if the outer beliefs of the order were to become known to the public.

When one examines the 25 parallels or points of belief and practice which we have just had from Dr. Larson, one can hardly fail to be impressed by the absurdity and anti-social nature of many of the doctrines. The picture which is presented by this hammering evidence is one of an order of most impractical and deluded bigots. One is tempted to say that they must have been fools. But, on the other hand, we are confronted by the fact that as writers and users of the initiatory Gospel Drama, they believed in and must have greatly valued the Huna lore. It is difficult to understand how men who were fully familiar with Huna could ever, at the same time, have accepted the divinity of the leading character in the Drama, for they knew that Jesus was simply a fictional character. In trying to see in Jesus a living man who acted out the Drama in detail in his life, the time lapse is such that we cannot say that the Essenes lost the knowledge of the Drama suddenly and accepted one of their own members as the character come to life.

Dr. Larson hesitates, for some reason or other, to come out openly and say that Jesus was only the leading character in a Mystery Play. Perhaps it is because he hesitates to hurt the many who would be hurt if their cherished belief in an actual Jesus were taken harshly from them. (I had the same period of hesitation when I was forced by the finding of the Code to give up all slightest belief that Jesus had once been a living person, even if not divine.) However, the evidence now in hand against a historical Jesus is so strong that Dr. Larson states in simple terms the beliefs to be met in accepting the historicity. As this is of great importance at this point, let me quote again, picking up where the last quote left off in the summing up.

“…….. We believe, then, that Jesus had been a member of the Essene Order; that, frustrated, he left it and preached its basic principles in the byways and the villages; that he drew his inspiration and his ideology primarily from this source; that he consciously modeled his own career on that of the martyred Teacher of Righteousness and upon passages to be found in The Testaments and in Enoch; that he forced his enemies to execute him by making statements contrary to those he made to his own disciples and which, when thrown into the teeth of the authorities, constituted accusations or confessions calling for capital punishment; that he made the most careful preparations to accomplish his own execution in a climactic and spectacular drama; and that he understood clearly that only by this means could he accomplish his world encompassing objectives. Because of all this and because he brought about his self-immolation after a brief ministry and at the peak of early manhood, he stands solitary and unique among the founders of religious movements; and he is, therefore, without rival in purposeful intensity, personal conviction, and individual grandeur.”

ONE OF THE MAJOR DIFFICULTIES with the grandeur of Jesus as a real man is that while he preached the secret beliefs and taught the Order’s way of life, he was insane. There is no other way to explain why he believed that he was divine the Son of God, and that he would rise even from the dead and sit on the right hand of God to judge the wicked Jews. If we are to credit the belief in the divinity of Jesus, we have then to give a reason to explain WHY the expected “Last Day” did not come on schedule after the Crucifixion.

These difficulties are only those encountered with reference to the outer teachings of the Gospel Drama. When we come to examine the story in the light of the Huna Code, the difficulties multiply so greatly that the last semblance of a possible historicity must be given up. Just the fact that the Code shows that the crucifixion was a failure to meet the most simple test of humility throws the whole of the churchly train of dogmas out of line. The event which the Church accepts as providing the sacrificial act that “saved the world” becomes only a lesson in the dangers of self-aggrandizement. The climax is hidden in the Transformation of Jesus on the mountain top of progress. And, what could we possibly do with the outer doctrine of the Drama in which men and women are separated? How can we explain away the “Graduation”, so beautifully and constantly presented in the Code of the Drama as the ULTIMATE GOAL – as the graduation of the male and female mates into the stage where they are no longer held apart, but are united to become one – one Aumakua.

Gradually we arrive at a clearer understanding of what must have happened at the time of the birth of Christianity. Dr. Larson’s monumental work in his books (The Religion of the Occident and The Essene Heritage) has made possible the new understanding of the outer sources of Christianity while our rediscovery of the Huna Code in the Gospels has laid bare major parts of the inner teachings. There may be fresh discoveries in the way of Scrolls, and I would not be surprised at any time to hear that one had turned up giving us the Drama AS drama instead of as the history of a crazed member of the Essene order who was in some odd way allowed to run free and give all the secret teachings to the world. The Drama may, of course, be even now in the hands of the gentlemen who hover the collection and refuse to allow outsider savants [to] see even copies of them.

The dates given to the supposed writing of the Gospels varies. Some say it was a century after the death of Jesus before the accounts were written. However, we may find that in the years following the supposed death of Jesus, the Roman attacks on the Jews ended by the breaking up of the Essene centers and that in the hurry to hide the Scrolls, the ones containing the DRAMA fell into the wrong hands and were soon mistaken for historic accounts of something which had really happened. By the year 70, counting from the supposed birth of Jesus, Pompey had raised Jerusalem and the Jews were scattered far and wide in the Diaspora. With them, it is to be seen, went the Drama as historical fact, and Christianity was born. It was shared by the Gentiles, who added bits of their religious beliefs to the ones embodied in the Drama, and in due time the CROSS – the gruesome symbol of the dramatic failure of Jesus to pass his first great test, became, not the symbol of dismal failure which it portended, but the symbol of man’s only possible chance to escape the fires of Hell and win through to Salvation. How much better would an emblem of the SUN [have] been to replace the cross and stand for the LIGHT.

THE HONORABLE JUDGE DECIDES

The James Kidd estate, valued at around the tidy sum of $50,000, was left in Kidd’s will to anyone who could give scientific proof that there was a soul and that it survived death. Many individuals and organizations hired lawyers and brought such evidence as they could muster to lay before the learned judge and make claim to the money. All this has been happening in Phoenix, Arizona during the past year. Oddly enough, not a single church organization of Christian holdings bothered to try to prove that the soul exists. None of the contestants could offer anything better than the good evidence common to the field of Psychical Research, and none could come into court with a soul safely sealed in a test tube and demonstrate its death and return to some form of different life. Amusingly enough, the one outfit which based its claim on the fact that its researchers did not believe that there is a soul, won the estate. This fortunate outfit is called the Barrows Neurological Institute, and it is located in Phoenix and partly supported by the donations of Phoenix citizens. And so, the learned judge decided that as no contestant could offer the needed material proofs, he might as well give the money to the home boys and keep it at home. It leaves one wondering whom James Kidd was kidding, and why. Certainly he must have known that no court of law where oaths are taken on the Bible, would tolerate the idea of there being such a thing as scientific proof of the soul.

A PREDICTION OF HELP? DISASTER? WHICH?

One of our British HRAs writes that a medium who has had all of her (or his) predictions come true to the last detail for a period of over six years, has now announced that a very powerful and effective extra terrestrial intervention is to be expected immediately before Christmas, 1967, to avert nuclear catastrophe. (I am quoting from the letter.) It will be visibly demonstrated throughout the world.

I gather that this prediction came as part of the service offered by, “Universal Link” of 1 St. George’s Square, St. Annes on Sea, Lancashire, England.

What I am anxious to know is how the threat of nuclear war is going to be stopped. There is also the question of whether the ones who do the stopping will be friendly to earthlings or bent on teaching us a lesson. I can think of a lot of most unpleasant things a “Power” of this supposed kind might decide to do. It might touch off all the bombs we and the Russians have made ready to use reciprocally. Or it might send in a few million saucers and police with death ray guns to jail the lot of our world leaders and put a ring in the nose of each of those of us who are allowed to remain out of the jails.

The nostalgic hope of the world has always been that the Great and Good and Supremely Wise KING would appear out of the clouds and set up the ideal kingdom, with all our man made problems solved with a wave of the septet, and all God’s chilluns provided with shoes, a hamburger and a bottle of pink fizzy water.

Well, let’s hope for the best and get the most we can of happy expectation until Christmas is come and gone – after which, if nothing has happened to help us solve our many problems, we can begin watching for the next hopeful prediction. Incidentally, power and know-how do not automatically go with kindness, as we see in the case of our world scientists who go happily about making more and better bombs, not giving a whit who they may blow up. They are so bent on their tasks that they even ignore the fact that if they manage to arm the men who can press the buttons, they, themselves, will also suffer. Sometimes it seems to me that we have all gone mad and are inviting outside intervention, even if we do not know just how such intervention might end. It could end, one may suppose, by having the outsiders take over and do away with us willy nilly to clear the ground.

OUR PROJECT OF A PLAN FOR A BRAVE NEW WORLD might be taken from our uncertain hands should the Saucer People or others descend on the world and begin to put their plan into action. In my correspondence with various HRAs who have had ideas on how to plan to better the conditions that confront us today, there has been little agreement. The ideas for correcting the troubles in our own riot torn land range from stopping all efforts to help the never possessed and letting them starve if they can’t find jobs to setting up a complete socialistic state with everyone cared for and something after the Communist pattern followed. The Gentlemen in Washington who have been greatly agitated by the problem of WHAT to do have been stopped almost in their tracks by the inability to find the funds to [do] anything at all without taxing those who have something to tax to help those who have nothing. None of them, not even the President, has seen fit to inquire of me what plan we of the HRA have worked out, and it is just as well that they have not, for every plan that has been proposed has the basic objection that it would take away individual freedom and establish a form of government in which all are forced to conform to a general plan. Moreover the running of things would, inevitably, fall into the hands of the small officials who would play favorites, if nothing worse, and cause constant resentment. Men can, however, be forced to accept a way of life, even if they cannot be made to like it. Old Mother Nature has been expert since the beginning of time in acting the Great Dictator and exerting force. The little human Dictators are able betimes to get seated solidly in the saddle with a few henchmen, and apply force to gain their ends. The way things are going now in the U.S.A., writes one HRA, promises to bring us a military dictatorship in which the Minute Men and the Birchites will happily join hands to run things – decidedly for the haves, not for the benefit of the have nots. All who have written agree that we are skating on very thin ice and that SOMETHING needs to be done if we could just decide WHAT, and find money to use without taking it away from those who have it to use for the questionable or temporary benefit of those have not. (If the head of the Saucer People should drop in and divulge his plans for straightening us out before Christmas, I will hasten to get out a bulletin to warn you all what not to do, and to suggest anything I can to help you get on the inside track of the new shuffle – granted, of course, that the Saucer Boss does not confiscate my bulletin making equipment and stamps as a precautionary measure.)

MY FAITHFUL TAROT CARDS, when consulted just now, either believe in the predicted take over of the outside power or else see some other great change in the offing. (They may also – and this is very likely – be reflecting my frame of mind brought about by writing about the possibilities of such a change.) My cut revolves around the Magician or No.I card of the major Trumps, this card predicting a new beginning, and the King of Swords, predicting the use of military force and the possibility of war. The Magician is not unfriendly, but the King of Swords is lacking in any gentleness or compassion. His is the materialistic power and he uses it ruthlessly to gain his ends. Whatever these cards are trying to tell us, there is one thing that stands out unmistakably clear. This is that we are NOT going to be able to keep on just as we are indefinitely. Change is in the air, and we can only hope that it will be for the best instead of the worst.

The Five of Cups opposed by the Page of Pentacles turns up to help explain the other cut, and here we have the man dressed for travel kicking over the cups of earlier hopes and making ready to leave. The Page of Pentacles brings in a new set of money practices for the new beginnings of the Magician. (Or you read them.)

THE STORIES FOR CHILDREN have had no new installment added to them of late owing to time taken out to rerun Huna Vistas No. 1 through No. 25, these being kept in stock for newly arrived HRAs who wish the back issues so that they may retrace our steps and see what may have been missed in writing the last book, Huna Code In Religions. All the Huna Vistas are to be had in bound books, these each containing 25 issues. There are now three full books and Book Four is gradually growing.

Another reason for the delay in story installments is that Uncle Max has found himself facing a dilemma. He doesn’t quite know how to wind up the series of yarns. The little Adams and Eves have been reared in a nice home with running water and electricity – probably T.V. dinners frozen and waiting to go into the oven. How can the children, when matured a bit, be turned loose to begin life with only the things the original Adam and Eve had in Eden? One way out would be to teach them all about camping, but even then the stories would have to jump the gun and allow fire and weapons and tools to be already at hand. Of course, children will be very lenient with the story teller and allow some absurdities, but even at that there are grave problems. Would one of you HRAs, perhaps, care to have the pleasure of finishing the stories? Or perhaps suggest a good way out? Tell the children (if you have some following the yarns) to be patient and Uncle Max will get going again, one way or another. Perhaps Santa will bring him an idea for his stocking.

IN MANY OF THE LETTERS WHICH ARRIVE in my mail, HRAs speak of “the Christ Spirit” and appear to accept the verity of such a Being without question. I have noted, over the years, that as the belief in a man god in the form of Jesus begins to weaken under the impact of modern thought, the character of Jesus fades in importance and the god becomes a man. But at the same time the idea of the Christ Spirit has gradually grown. It is used almost exclusively in the Religious Science group of churches, and in what is roughly classed as the “Metaphysical Circle”, the Gospels appear less and less while the Christ Spirit expands to fill the need for a Power superior to man.

In Huna we have this need filled by the Aumakua. It is the “anointed” or “graduated” Self, and it is divine in comparison to the lower pair of selves which belong to the triplicity. It is a very close and loving and parental self, and it has superior wisdom to guide us and superior power to cause events to take shape to match our Huna type prayers. It is connected to us through the “silver cord” of the Old Testament and the Aka cord of the kahunas. It takes little strain on the imagination to understand the concept. It is the least abstract and “afar yonder” of all the proposed concepts of a divinity. God, as we must now think of such a Being, is go great and so vast to fill the Universe, that the mind shrinks from the effort to make of this concept a near and dear and personal god.

For those who find God too vast to work with religiously, and who find the Aumakua too small for their expansive needs, the Christ Spirit has come to fill a useful purpose. It is brother to Universal Mind, which has so long been the best bet in some Metaphysical or psychological circles. It has the advantage of vagueness and can be thought of as saturating everything and everyone, thus being on call at all times. It is unlike the Aumakua in that it demands nothing. A prayer to it can be said or thought without preparation and without following a ritual. It can reflect back on one as much worshipful adoration as may be. It can be all things to all types of religionists. It is a God which man can easily make in his own image, whatever that particular image may be.

For those who accept Huna reluctantly, however, The Po`e Aumakua, or Great Company of High Selves, may come closer to the idea of the Christ Spirit or Christ Consciousness. The difference here is that while the Great Company covers much wider ground and ministers to its own larger groups, the individual is always served through his own Aumakua. Contact is not directly made, the Aumakua being the inter-mediator (which the Coded information in the Gospels affirms in the instructions of Jesus acting at the moment the part of the Aumakua. “Pray in my name”.) One contacts the Aumakua, makes his prayer, and if the Parental Spirit deems it to be necessary, the prayer is laid by IT before the Great Company. And, if a still higher Tribunal is needed, the Akua Aumakua or God High Self level and Beings are, in turn, presented with the prayer. Such a prayer would be one for world benefits rather than for help for the individual whom the Aumakua can help if he is open to such assistance (which many are not). In Huna the higher levels of Beings are taken on faith, for the human mind is incapable of understanding things relating to such far up levels of evolutionary progress. The kahunas had a modesty seldom exhibited by founders of other religions. They admitted that they could not grasp the fact of an Ultimate God at the top of the ladder, and so remained content to work with the level just above them – that of the Aumakua.

All this leads up to a letter recently, received from a good HRA in England who writes:

“It is extremely difficult for most people to distinguish between Jesus and the Christ Spirit, so any criticism of the former will be very likely to be transferred by the Aunihipili to the latter, with damaging results. Even with the advanced students, the idea of the Christ Spirit might be subconsciously tainted and so the power of the Spirit to work through that student be impaired. Criticism makes love more difficult.

“The Eastern and Western traditions of occultism do not mix. A famous and fairly recent Hindu mystic had both the time and the extraordinary ability to work both and found that both gave the same results in the end, but the processes had to be kept separate. (I have forgotten his name).

“Now it seems to me that in adopting Huna we are willy nilly grafting it onto our Christianity or Christian roots because we have found Christianity so ineffective compared with what it ought to be. Huna has filled many gaps in Jesus’ teaching so neatly that the fillings cannot be regarded as alien material. But Huna has one limitation which is not acceptable, at any rate to me, and this is that we can have no direct access to any spirit higher than our own High Selves. True, it teaches that our High Selves can enlist the aid of the other High Selves and perhaps still Higher Ones, but this is not the same thing. It does not teach that one can, when necessary, act in the name of, and with the authority of, far higher Beings. Some evil spirits may yield to the superior power of our own High Selves, but others only to higher power and authority of still higher entities such as, say, the Christ Spirit, Holy Spirit, or whatever you are accustomed to call It. Hence Jesus’ explanation to his disciples after their failure, ‘This sort cometh not out only for prayer …..’

“Mystics who have experienced God consciousness do not relate these experiences to their own souls or High Selves, but to some unimaginably higher Power they call God, Christ or Holy Spirit. I think that it is the absence of this direct appeal to the Christ Spirit, coupled with absolute confidence in His Presence, which results in failure.

“I come now to the practical part and a formula or simple rite which has been found to be effective. About two years ago I was introduced to a Ceylonese gentleman and his wife who came here some five years ago to live. They belonged to a serious spiritualistic circle in Ceylon and found the spiritualist church here hopelessly superficial. They are interested chiefly in healing and found your books, which I lent them, very helpful indeed. We became close friends. Their experience in Ceylon, and to a lesser degree in England, included the expulsion of evil entities.

“About a month ago I took part, in fact, a leading part, in one of these rites. Leading because I knew the victim and the house – which was miles away – and the victim was too ill to travel. ‘No matter,’ said my friends. ‘You picture yourself as vividly as you can, entering the house, then the sick room and standing beside the victim. Then repeat the words aloud and vigorously here and now and go through the motions exactly as if you were with the victim. It will work.’

“I am not at liberty to give details, but it is a fact that since then. all attacks by the entity have ceased, although previously they occurred at intervals of a few days to a few weeks for several years. The victim, though physically crippled, is far more cheerful.”

(I am not quite sure whether HRA D.R. intended me to share with the other HRAs the details of the exorcism ritual or not, but as he did not expressly forbid it, and as it is a ritual covering many points of value, I take the liberty of giving it as he describes it in his letter. mfl.)

EXORCISM PROCEDURE

“Apparatus: One candle or lamp burning vegetable oil is placed unlit on a stand or table in the middle of the room so as to shine all around when lit.

“Procedure: When all are assembled, the leader says in a confident and commanding voice – and he must feel it to be true, ‘In the name of the Eternal Spirit and in the name of God, I light this lamp (or candle).’ He does so and then says, ‘Let no evil or evil influence cross the rays of light.’ The leader places his hands on the patient’s head. (This is to protect the patient from possible violent reaction.) He prays aloud for God’s help to release the patient and then, knowing he has now full authority and power, he says, ‘In the name of the Eternal Spirit and of God, I command you to depart in peace and never more come nigh this person.’ The command is made three times with all the forcefulness and authority and confidence which the leader can now rightly assume. Finish with a prayer for the protection of the patient henceforth. The ceremony should be explained to the others present (but not the patient) beforehand, and they should be asked to support the leader by mental prayer so that the maximum spiritual power is available. There should be no idle spectators. It is of course obvious that the leader must have no blockages between his low and High Selves.”

The writer has also told me that he has observed some very fine healing and exorcism done by ministers of the Pentecostal Church. Their methods vary, but the central point in all healing efforts is the prayer to a Higher Power. In Huna it is agreed that all prayer goes to the Aumakua of the one who makes or takes part in a prayer – there being no other  place for it to go. If the prayer is passed on to the next higher level, that is also well. The kahunas advocated the thrice repeated prayer. The use of a physical stimulus such as washing with water as a symbol of cleansing, or the lighting of a flame. as the symbol of “Light” all are good Huna. Thekahunas also “spoke for the god,” or Aumakua, in commanding spirits to leave or patients to be healed. That has a powerful hypnotic charge of mana and with the circle augmenting the mana of the leader, the method is good. The laying of the hands on the patient by the leader or by all of the circle together makes for a good physical stimulus to impress the Aunihipili of the patient and feed it mana. (Our thanks go to you, HRA D.R. for the good research effort.)

A PLEA FOR HELP

Almost every day I have the painful task of explaining to one or another of my greatly valued HRA friends WHY I am asking one and all NOT TO CALL ON ME. This is very difficult for me and embarrassing for us both. I love seeing my friends or even strangers and visiting with them, but it has now come to the place in my life that things have piled up on me, and there is never more than a minute of free time. Since my wife passed on I have taken over her part of the work of running the book business, also the housework and marketing. Our partner, Miss Doherty, now walks with difficulty so I have taken over from her the cooking. What with chores and so many letters to read and answer daily – to say nothing of the book business, packing, billing etc. – the time for visiting has gone out of the window. I have, as you all know, had to cut down on the Huna Vistas and get them out only every other month. Now that you all know my difficulty, I am sure you will help me by not asking to call. Some day I hope to retire, and then, perhaps, I will have time to visit to my hearts content.

BOOK REVIEW

J. Cecil Maby has sent his latest hand made book for review. Like his earlier book, reviewed in the last H.V., this one is a fine example of what can be done with typewritten copy and Xerox reproduction, with the cloth binding and stamping done by a professional binder. This one is titled A Naturalist At Large and runs 213 pages. Mr. Maby, best known to me for his fine books on dowsing and his efforts to identify the forces measured in that art, is a scientist in his own right and his interests are many and varied. In a series of slightly connected essays, he comments on life around and about him in today’s England, and in this way gives the reader a most delightful look at what has been going on in the British Isles in the past few decades. He describes the social and economic changes with an impartial eye, and considers the many problems as a naturalist, making little studies of the people around him who form a cross section of English society. His book is noteworthy for his detailed and careful study of the nature of women and their part being played as the old ways pass and change hangs heavy in the air. Order direct from the author at Brooke House, Frocester, Stonehouse, Glos., England. The price of this book, like his last, is 36 shillings post free. Buy an International Postal Money Order or a bank draft to send along. Most instructive and entertaining reading. No married man should miss it. (But keep it away from your wife if you wish to keep peace in the family.)

HRA M.W. writes from Maui, Hawaii:

“You seem to be really IN these days Max.

The hippies in Hawaii are really digging Huna. It is very interesting. One over from Captain Cook on the Big Island says Daddy Bray apparently has every Huna Vista you ever published, and the young people are really eating it up. We aren’t hippies, even middle aged ones, but my husband meets many of them here in Lahaina. The young people certainly have many refreshing ideas, I don’t really go for the whole philosophy, but at least they are seeking. And I must say that I feel they are much brighter at say 20, than I was at 20, brighter and much more aware of truth.

HRA J.P. also writes from Hawaii: “I have talked with a number of old time Hawaiians who have told me of the use of color in healing and that is the first place I heard of its use. They meditate, then concentrate on the color to be used for the particular healing process and then transpose it to the person to be healed.” (I comment that this is the first time I have ever heard of the old Hawaiians using color in healing. The language has a very poor vocabulary to list colors or shades of them. However, enough colors are to be found named to allow the kahunas to work with the primaries and light or dark shades of each, also brown and black. I trust we can eventually get more information on the subject. Visualized colors would certainly act as a physical stimulus to help direct the Aunihipili in the healing efforts – efforts made at the command of the healer. It is interesting to learn that the actual colors were not used – simply the mental picture of one or another. Perhaps the visualization of white light, as the symbol of the Aumakua, may have been used.)

STRANGERS OFTEN WRITE TO ME OR SEND BOOKS which they think will help me to make progress in the work of Huna research. (All too often I already have the books or have read them, and so wish that the generous strangers had written first to ask whether or not to send one or more books.)

A few days ago, as I write, a stranger, who appears to be very well educated and able, wrote to ask whether or not I had investigated a CODE used by Avalon in his translations of Yoga originals which deal with the serpent fires. He told me that a modern writer on occultism, named Bromage, in his book titled, Tibetan Yoga, has commented (on pages 214 thru 218) on Avalon’s (Woodruff’s) book, Serpent Power. It would seem that a code had been identified – a simple one made by taking only every other word into consideration when reading the material.

As I have not seen the Bromage book, but have the big one by Avalon, I at once wrote back to ask the loan of the former for a few days so I could form an opinion on the possibilities. I also have some of the earliest Yoga writings in the original Sanskrit, and a good modern Sanskrit dictionary. Let me quote from the letter:

“As you will read – Bromage, on first reading Serpent Power, sensed ‘real’ information thru the intentional double-talk and difficult style, and as he suspected, discovered a consistent code of alternating meanings of the Sanskrit words in the English translation.”

As a form of code, such a practice would seem, on the face of it, to [be] useless, but I will certainly reserve judgment until I have gone into the matter and have a chance to be sure. I’ll report in the next H.V. if we strike pay dirt. Meantime, the prospect of finding coded material in translations of Yoga literature is most exciting. Let me give you a line or two from the Avalon book so you can see for yourself what might be possible with such a code.

Page 275. “The Tantrik seeks to remain in the body, and thus to obtain liberation cheaply, just as the Brahmos and Members of the Arya Samaja have become Brahmajnis at a cheap price.” And beginning on page 493. “I adore the abode of Shakti in the place where the two pericarps come together. It is formed by the lines A, Ka and Tha, and the letters Ha, La, and Ksha, which are visible in each of its corners, give it the character of a Mandala.”

(I comment: This passage contains the word Ha which matches the “Forty Breaths” of the kahuna Ha Rite as revealed by the code of Huna in the Gospels. The word La is “light” in the Hawaiian and has the code meaning of the Aumakua. A is “fire, and Ka, in the Hawaiian, has a long list of meanings and could be short in this case for “aka” or the “Ka” meaning as in the Egyptian. The “Tha” may be a variation of the “Ha” unit. I also suspected a hidden meaning, but did not suppose it was covered by a code, but rather by the early use of the same words and basic symbol-meaning as the original Huna. Any of you know how to locate words written in Sanskrit in the Sanskrit Dictionary?)

Well, have a Good Christmas!     MFL