Impresionismo y Neoclasicismo - Impresionismo

Late in 1969 there came to hand a brochure with the arresting title "Ke Anaina O Ka Hoomana Hawaii Ponoi Offers a Pathway Through Life." The author assembled from it a comprehensive picture of an organization whose objectives revealed it to be a classical example of the modern-day revival of Hawaii's ancient religious rites, language, and culture, yet differing markedly from the late nineteenth-century revival in that it deemphasizes the dark hoomanamana kahuna practices in favor of spiritual and physical healing by prayer (calling) and the application of herbs. Equally arresting was the initiating of a return to communal living in an unspoiled rural ambience wherein organic garden-ing would supply food and medicinal herbs to the members.

That the older revival was for dissimilar reasons and took place within a profoundly different political climate than prevails today is in a sense a valid statement. But, had King Kalakaua or his sister Liliuoka-lani during their reigns read this brochure, which is herewith quoted as a prelude to the aforementioned picture of the organization and its objectives, one can imagine that they would have quickly recognized the similarity of the Hawaiians' plight then and now, and agree that still today one remedy is a return to the best elements of traditional culture.

The following is taken from the brochure:

"Ke Anaina O Ka Hoomana Hawaii Ponoi is essentially a theological foundation empowered to train and ordain its own priesthood and estab-lish assemblies throughout Hawaii. The name of our assembly is in itself as ancient as time and powerful with mana: 'The Assembly of Hawaii's True Faith,' or 'The Assembly of Hawaii's True Power,' found its origins in the first temples built in our land, and has been borne through aeons

86 The Kahuna Sorcerers oj Hawaii, Past and Present of time by the priests of our temples. Its use in our time has been sanc-tioned by relation to our kahu, Lanakilakahuokalani.

"Our theology is based on Hoomana Kahiko, the title by which we moderns identify our ancient worship. Since many generations before the birth of the Christian Jesus Christ, it has been the Polynesian's time-tried and proven vehicle through life, our tested pathway to spiritual, physical and psychological well-being, transmitted faithfully to us by our fore-fathers, through the knowledge and powers of Na Mamo Kahuna, the generations of priests of our ancient rite, and through Na Haumana Hawaii, our Hawaiian scholars.

"Educated, thinking leaders among our people recognize that, unless we Hawaiians take immediate, vigorous action to preserve our ethnic heritage, and keep it a living culture, it shall soon be totally submerged in the flood of foreign influences; completely obliterated by profit-and-loss oriented outsiders, who have exploited and raped our land, and our people for 150 years, and continue to do so at an ever-increasing tempo . . . cold-minded people for whom the Hawaiians are pawns in a game and Hawaiiana and Aloha are gimmicks to sell their merchandise the better.

"A local politician once sneered: 'What Hawaiian political power?

The Hawaiians don't have any. They're like leaves blown this way and that, which ever way the strongest wind carries them!"

"And you know, he is right.

"For proof, all one need do is survey the membership of the County Council or the Legislature, take a look at the ethnic balance in State and County executive positions, count the number of Hawaiians employed in any government agency, and the truth becomes self-evident.

"Hawaiians have been and are still victims of intensive discrimination, socially and politically. We are victims of a continuing campaign to denigrate our people, to strip us of our ethnic identity, make us further subject and subservient to foreign domination.

"We propose to alter this situation by making the Hawaiian a power to be reckoned with. We shall restore to our people the standing that is rightfully ours, in our own land.

"We are aware that thousands of acres of Hawaiian-owned land have been, and are still being legally condemned, claimed, and otherwise seized by government agencies and by private developers, largely because of the ignorance of our (Hawaiian) people of the workings of land laws, of their legal rights, and of avenues of recourse open to them. Therefore, we propose to set up a counseling service, providing machinery with which our people may recover their lands, or hold onto that which they have, so that today's and tomorrow's Hawaiians may enjoy the rightful fruits of their royal heritage.

The Kahuna 87

liKe Anaina is a foundation with the primary mission . . . to elevate the Hawaiian once again to a position of relevance, spiritually, politically, economically and socially throughout Hawaii nei."

Lanikilakahuokalani Brandt, D.D., a learned practitioner and teacher of the ancient healing art of la'au kahea, is founder and spiritual director of Ho'omana Tahito Temple and Academy, located near Kealakakua, Hawaii, in Kona. Dr. Brandt, who is a graduate of the University of Hawaii, and has two doctorates of Divinity (one from the Brantridge School of Divinity at Sussex, England), was born in Kaimuki, Honolulu, fifty-three years ago. His mother is of Hawaiian-Portuguese descent and his father, Horst G. Von Brandt, of Austrian. Two grandparents and both his parents spoke the Hawaiian language fluently. His maternal grandfather, whom he knew as "Tutu" Kehau, was named in full Kehauleo Wa'owa'eole, or "Victorious Keeper of the Gods." He had been a canoe-carver and hula master, and was most of his life in intimate communion with the ways of the sea, the soil, the mountains and the creatures of Tane {Kane). Writing in 1970, Lanikila Brandt said of himself and his group of Revivalists:

"I have been called Kumu Hula for many years, having been quite active in teaching chanting (both religious and hula) and the dance.

When it comes to the prayers and rites of our temple, I am well versed because I have worked with these media constantly over the last twenty-odd years. You are aware, no doubt, that the Hawaiian spoken by cul-tured people today, as in ancient times, is rather a far cry from the language of the priesthood; the interpretations drawn from identical words differ greatly when employed by the priest and the lay scholar. I also teach the language and thereby come in contact with both sides of the coin, which makes me acutely aware of the differences.

"I am doubly fortunate in the above regard as I have associated with me in our foundation the noted kahuna la'au kahea and kaula, Kamuela Hart, a man who is now about seventy-five years of age with a tremend-ously powerful mana and most acute intellect who has followed no other pursuit in his life. He is the cousin of the great temple dancer, Iolani Luahine, who also lives here in Kona, at Napo 'opo'o. We are gradually recording and collating the peculiar terminology of the priest-hood; we are both of the order of Tahito (Kahiko). This should, ulti-mately, prove to be an extremely valuable work.

"I want to pay particular tribute to Peter Caddy, his family and those who labor with them at Findhorn, Scotland. It was this group and their wonderful dedication to the Three Kingdoms, of God, of Nature, and of Man, that fired our own determination to seek our own path to the Light and to Peace and Harmony in the Hawaiian way. We called upon our

88 The Kahuna Sorcerers of Hawaii, Past and Present traditional gods, upon the Sacred Triumvirate, HIKA-PO-LOA, upon the Provider, LONO-MAKUA, upon the Lord of the Land, KANE-PUA'A, upon the gods great and small and upon the Nature Spirits in their many forms. And with this pact our Temple began.

"We started our Foundation and laid plans for the Temple soon after acquiring a lease of 14.3 acres at Ho'onaunau from the Bishop Estate in January of 1970. In September of that year the land had been cleared and the first plantings made in a five-acre section set aside for our organic farm and an arts and crafts center.

"The first plantings were solo papaias, Bluefield bananas, hula and other gourds, taro, hybrid corn and green vegetables, all for both our own table and the market. Soon our planned herb plantings got underway, with awa (Piper Methysticum), popolo (Solanum nigrum), Mamaki (Pipturus spp.), ko (Saccharum officinarum), noni (Morinda citrifolia), mai'a (Musa Paradisiaca), laukahi (Plantago major), and many others.

Eventually we have planted, used and experimented with perhaps 200 more native and foreign herbs and remedies, for our principal gifts to humanity will be those of herbal remedies and knowledge of la'au lapa'au and la'au kahea, Hawaiian healing.

"Kahanahou, the name which graces the portals of our tranquil fourteen-acre retreat at Ke'okea Ho'onau-nau, South Kona, is strong in portent. Filled with poesy, the philosophic interpretation is 'The Re-making (of man and things).' The kaona or esoteric definition of the name would demand the following root-division, Ka ha na-hou, and may be interpreted, 'The sacred breath (of Tane) for the thrust forward.'

"The Tahuna Rapa'au Ra'au, Doctor of Medicine, member of Te Oihana Tahuna (The Priesthood), was and is an integral member of Hawaiian society. Healing is the mission of Ke Anaina. We shall pursue it for the salvation of mankind.

"While in everyday employment, we habitually speak the postmission-ary patois (else we should not be understood), we of the Taurima (The Inner Council) have decided to follow the example of the contemporary theological commentator, the late Leinani Melville (Jones), author of the book Children of the Rainbow, and couch all of our theosophical texts and liturgical matter in that idiom traditional to Te Oihana Tahuna, 'The Priesthood since time immemorial.

"Our Hawaiian language is, at first encounter with it, simple because it contains no gender groupings and is almost entirely material (not abstract) in its concepts. Upon deeper investigation, one encounters the problems inherent in any 'limited' language or dialect. Hawaiian offers approximately 4,000 words, compared with a minimum of 125,000 in English. Perhaps the greatest problem in speaking Hawaiian is one of

The Kahuna 89 stress and accent. Moreover, Hawaiian is an intriguing and truly mystic tongue.

"It is one of the important mystic tongues of the world, though known to only the few. And it is a form of speech still in daily use by thousands of Hawaiians and part-Hawaiians and others enchanted by its musicality.

Contemporary semanticists may quarrel with the feasibility of our ancient usage. However, practiced Hawaiian theologians, priests, and thauma-turgists readily verify that ancient rites, rendered in the terms of an-tiquity, are electric in their force.

"Ho'amana Tahito, the title by which we moderns identify our ancient worship, has been transmitted faithfully to us by Na Mamo Tahuna, the Generations of Priests, since that day when the Lords, Tane, Tu, and Rono, breathed life into the first man, Tumuhonua, and created the first woman, Rarohonua, in the birthplace of the race called Tapa-tapa-ua-aTane in the primordial continent of Tahiti-tu in the heart of Polynesia.

"This sacred philosophy has always been the Polynesians' time-tried and proven vehicle to Ta Ra'a Tea. It is our key to spiritual, physical and psychological well-being.

"The all-powerful mana of the Gods of Tradition has enabled prac-titioners of Ho'omana Tahito throughout the ages to be renowned as the healers of the Pacific world. All may join these exalted ranks. But, before one seeks to heal others, let him first heal himself. Let him restore to as near perfection as possible that Primary Temple, Te Tino La'a, the 'Sacred Body,' through the practical philosophy of living offered by Ho'omana Tahito. Let him absorb the vibrant philosophy of Hita-po-Roa, then apply it daily to the practical problems of living in this triune king-dom of gods, nature, and man.

"Ours is, insofar as it is possible and practical to make it so, an accurate reconstruction of the ancient hoomana. However, we are not lecturing on history as much as teaching Hawaiians of today to live and survive in this increasingly alien and alienating world. Therefore, we have been compelled to gear our teachings to today's scene. Our people are not all that involved with circumstances and conditions that prevailed in the days of Hewahewa and Paao; they are concerned with making our religion relevant to life today for their families and themselves. When you know that our Hawaiians are so young—at an average age of from twenty-three to twenty-five—it becomes more clear why it is imperative that everything be relevant to the here and now!

"Regarding the Kanawai (laws) of our sect: The Kanawai as stated in our literature do not, of course, take into consideration the intimate rites and obligations of the Kapu periods; these we teach only in secret to ordained priests.

90 The Kahuna Sorcerers of Hawaii, Past and Present

"In fine, we are attempting to prepare our hoahanau (families) for the rigorous task of surviving, as our old world completes its 360-degree cycle and threatens us all with destruction within the decade. We are trying to build one of those Centers of Light such as in ancient Tibet, at Findhorn, Scotland, in Wales, in Japan, and, I suppose, many other areas of the planet. On the one hand, we teach Hoomana Kahiko, and on the other . . . survival, retraining our people in the splendid techniques of our ancestors."