Temple of an Ancient Truth
& Kii Pohaku

February 1, 1951

For Huna Research Associates
Covering the experimental approach to the use of Huna in HUNA and related religious and psychological fields.
From Max Freedom Long
P.O. Box 2867, Hollywood Station, Los Angeles 28, California, U.S.

CIGBO’S “BIRTHDAY PRESINKS” will have attracted attention as soon as the envelope was opened, so I obey his imperious “MEOW!” of instructions from where he sits by his box on top of my desk, and hasten to point out the fine points of the two important pictures which, as Cigbo remarks dryly, “Aren’t boss.” (In his personal letter he has told of the treatment of the little peach tree and how it grew. One more thing he wishes said, and this is that in the big picture of boss, if you will look closely in the shrubbery below and at one side of the hand, you will see Cigbo’s face. These snaps were taken last Fall for HRA Charles Stone, who furnished the film.)[See his letter at the bottom of this bulletin.]

TEMPLE OF AN ANCIENT TRUTH

THE TEMPLE INTERIOR is one of my treasures, here in the Study, and although no information of any kind accompanied it when it arrived third-hand from China, the symbology is such that because of our knowledge of Huna, we may understand it better than most.

The central figure stands in flowing waves of water in which seaweed and a snouted fish appear at the lower right. In this we have the symbol of the earth and the level of the animals as well as the human Aunihipili. The water is its form of mana – the vast and wave-powerful “low” mana of that level of life. The sages who stand also on that level are spectators of the scene in which the central figure symbolically lifts the low mana through the middle level of life – that of the Auhane or conscious mind self – the region of air or lesser spirit or “breath.” Almost hidden in the waves at their feet are the people who, unlike the sages, are unseeing and unable to understand. (Heads, arms and bodies may be seen on close inspection at the lower margin of the picture.)

If you follow up along the magically extended arm, you will find that it ends in an open hand with the fingers bent back and curling flame rising from the palm. This is the low mana graphically being presented to the Aumakua, the latter being represented by a globe suspended before a mirror high under the roof. The roof is held up by massive rafters into which are worked the crosspieces shaped to symbolize the support of heaven by the things of earth – the support of the na Aumakua by the dense and powerful mana from lower or earthy levels.

As the flame rises from the palm of the hand, it increases and is enlarged by the globe – the low mana becomes changed to the more powerful vibration of the high mana used by the na Aumakua.

The enlarged flames reach out to touch the mirror, but do not stop there. They go on through it, making a significant symbol. This represents the world of the Aunihipili and Auhane. It is a world which is not in itself real. It is a reflection only. A reflection of the perfect reality of the world of patterns of the na Aumakua. Here below, we never attain to the perfection of the pattern, so the symbol of being an imperfect reflection is used. It is a symbol hoary with antiquity, and we must remember that the mirrors of old were crude and imperfect.

The flames – the “LIGHT” – were, in this symbolic set, shown to pierce the mirror. This was the indication of the power of the na Aumakua, once empowered by the gift of low mana, to go through and past the barrier of the mirrored lower world and to play the creative fire and Light directly into the lower world, correcting and perfecting – causing all things touched to conform to the Perfect Pattern.

The globe in the midst of the creative fire is the visible side of the invisible Aumakua self. The Perfect Pattern reflects and becomes the visible and real to us of the levels of Aunihipili and Auhane combined in the lesser man. The globe is not only the Perfect Pattern, it is the perfected set of thought-forms made by the thinking and prayer-actions of the na Aunihipili, once they have learned the proper methods of construction. When a perfectly constructed thought-form is repeatedly presented to the na Aumakua, and has been refined in the fire to a golden globe like the symbolic sun, it then gives pure light in the heat of the fire and is reflected by the mirror to make a more or less perfectly reflected image or reality on the lower levels. The thought-forms of the prayer must be tried like gold in the furnace. As long as there is smoke to obscure the light, no reality can reflect – no answer be given to our prayers,

The smoke is caused by imperfections, by new and raw additions to the thought-picture, by doubts and fears and all the changes of desire and purpose. We are all learning gradually to do the things done by the na Aumakua. This is our practice. Eventually we will learn to make the perfect plan which becomes the perfect pattern for events and conditions mirrored down into the heavy lower level of consciousness, force and materials.

In nearly all of the elder religious systems, we find that water is given as the opposite of fire. In the picture, note the effect of the breaking wave in the flames. Water is low mana, fire is the low mana changed to the more active, swiftly creating and powerful high mana.

There is also an ancient symbolic meaning which helps in getting a working understanding of the relation between the Perfect Pattern or set of ideas and the form in which they are “realized” or crystallized below. This is the symbol of the fire which melts the gold. In the melted form it can take any shape on the High level, but, once the image is reflected in the mirror, it cools and hardens to fill the mold of the prayer-idea-pattern, and becomes solidified and an unchanging real thing on the lower level. The word used by the na kahuna for mirror was ani`ani. This has the meaning of a smooth surface such as the reflecting surface of a mirror, but when used as a verb, it has the unexpected meaning of “to cool” – that is, the unexpected meaning if one does not know of the old symbol of the cooling and hardening-into-the-mold as the greater reality becomes made into the lesser and imperfect image on the dense level of life. The tomorrows remain ever in flux and therefore subject to change in the hands of the na Aumakua. They only assume the hard, brittle and unchanging form of today as they come down to this level. The future can be changed, given the right use of power and thought. The past remains forever unchangeable. We can always go forward – never backward …

… Now we are initiates of this Temple of An Ancient Truth. We have been allowed to see behind the veil of meaning and know the truth for which the symbols stand. One is constrained to wonder what those who have been initiated century after century ahead of us did with the knowledge gained. Did they stop after that one first initial step? Were they like the scholar in the picture at the right – one who only wishes to know? Were they like the bearded sage who fingers his prayer beads and does nothing? Were they like the richly clad young server standing behind and below the sage-priest? Or did they go with eyes cast down to the lower levels with back bent until overtaken by age? How many, with no robes of high standing, no prayer beads – nothing – managed to build up their strength until they eventually were able to reach up to heaven? To call down the divine fire to light the flames on the cold, dark altars of the earth?

KII POHAKU

The picture of the little stone image is another Study treasure which is being shared with you. The original is a little over a foot long and was carved from stone, but let me quote from the article in an Australian paper which was sent by an HRA, and with which article came the original of the present picture.

(From Sydney Morning Herald, October 9, 1945)
“Possibly the most important of all the native curios brought back from the islands north of Australia during the war is a unique stone image found recently in the Ramu Valley of New Guinea by Lieutenant P.R.N. England, of the A.N.G.A.U. Scientists regard it as a valuable find, because it is the first of its kind ever discovered in that region. Moreover, it adds materially to what little evidence exists of the unknown people who inhabited New Guinea long before the present natives.

“It has been loaned to the Australian Museum in Sydney, where it is to be placed on exhibition. Carved from a solid slab of stone, it weighs many pounds, and is about fifteen inches long. The local natives knew of it, but would not dare to touch it because they believed that it had the power to move about, and might cause injury or damage.

“‘It is definitely prehistoric,’ according to Mr. F.D. McCarthy, anthropologist at the museum, ‘and could be many hundreds or even thousands of years old. Its origin is a mystery since nothing is known of the people who made this and contemporary relics found previously. To the ancient and extinct people who made it, it probably had a ritual or sacred significance.'”

As no one else seems to understand and accept this lost little God, I join Cigbo in giving her to you HRAs – to each his own, so to speak. Her name is Kii Pohaku to us, although what her name may have been in ancient Mu or Egypt or Atlantis, we cannot tell. Her distant relatives or possible descendants have been found all through Polynesia, and many and wild are the tales told of their activities. They are famous for the ability to move themselves from one place to another. To some they are very gracious and helpful. To others, especially the evil or those who have offered insults, they are a danger. It would appear that they reflect back to one what is presented to them. So be careful how you conduct yourself or your task of forming mental pictures when you have pinned Kii Pohaku to the wall or added her to your little Huna shrine – the one before which you sit or stand when making your prayer-actions.

(If you have none, now is your chance. To these two symbolic pictures you may add any other that appeals, such as a Christ’s head or a bronze Buddha, or the Oahspe symbolic signature of Jehovah. All of these things have at least two purposes and perhaps more. They act as physical stimuli to help get the Aunihipili be quickly reminded of the work in hand and of its part in it. They serve to recall in vivid and universal symbols the great truths that lie under and behind Huna and any valid part of religion. One may select any part of the symbology and begin to meditate on it as an exercise which will quiet the turning and churning of thoughts and emotions so that order and calm can return – making prayer possible in its effective form.)

Kii Pohaku – which means “Image of Stone” – may be the “Old Earth Mother” herself, the one who came and was worshiped ever so long before the “Father” type of gods arrived. Her primary job is to remind us of the aka thread, which, like its symbol, the umbilical cord, joins each mortal with its Aumakua standing as the Divine Mother Self. The umbilicus of our Kii (pronounce those “i” s as long “e”s as Key-ee) is very prominently displayed to keep everyone reminded. And, lest we forget that all things are “on earth, so in heaven”, Kii repeats three times, on three levels, the symbol of the three selves – the symbol of the very greatest basic secret of our lives in human form. On the low level she presents the age-old symbol of the triangle with its point up. The three sides are the three selves with their three manas and three aka bodies. The position of point being up is the one copied in all church spires. “Up” is the symbol of “heaven” where the na Aumakua have their level of being.

The triangle is on the level of the Aunihipili and all earthy things. It is the symbol of the most perfect working out of the creative pattern.

The Auhane symbol is very simple. It takes the form of the three circlets around the upper arm of Kii. This suggestion of the “Thrice Repeated Three” is enough for the Auhane to have. It can think in more abstract terms and needs a less definite symbol to remind it of the basic things.

The Aumakua level is placed on the face, the highest part. Here the mouth represents the Auhane, we may conclude, as the word uhane means “the spirit who talks.” Standing between the Auhane and the Aumakua is the second circle, the Aunihipili, which is the mediator between the Auhane and the Aumakua and which carries the mana and the thought-forms of the prayers. Just above is the third circle, to represent the Aumakua, and above it runs the classical symbol of lightning – the symbol of mana in its highest form. The nose? What does it stand for? Admittedly, it is most unusual in form and must certainly stand for something. Suppose you ask Kii about it, meditate on its possible significance, and see what SHE may have to tell you. (And when you find out anything, be sure to let the rest of us know.)

Incidentally, as “home work” for any HRA with time for study, I suggest that efforts be made to see what can be learned about the possible origin and history of the family represented by our newly adopted Kii Pohaku. It would be most interesting if some one or other of us found accounts of others like her – with the same peculiar nose. I have checked such sources as have come to hand for almost five years, and am still keeping a weather eye out for information. Some anthropologist may have unearthed a near relative, perhaps in Egypt or Yucatan or India.

“WHAT’S THIS ALL ABOUT?”

… asks one of the HRAs who became confused after reading some of the back bulletins. It is a good question to consider at almost any time.

Perhaps the best answer is this. We have discovered an ancient psychological religious system and either it is correct in its teachings or it is not.

Or, if it is correct, have we come to understand it properly and can we prove our rightness or wrongness – or anything connected with it – by experimental use?

In the bulletins, I keep hammering away on what I find that seems to indicate (1) that Huna is basically correct, and (2) that we have the right understanding of it as far as we have managed to progress.

So seldom does an HRA say whether he or she has been convinced to a large or small degree by my efforts at proof, that I often feel that perhaps no one other than myself is being convinced by the piling up of evidence through the root words of the na kahuna or the symbols to be found around the world and going back to the dim past.

I am reminded of the story of a small girl who saw a very odd animal at the zoo and asked her father what it was. “A badger,” he replied, and they moved on down line of cages. Some time later, the little girl asked thoughtfully, “But, Daddy, do badgers have anything to do with us?”

Do you suppose that if we found incontrovertible evidence that Huna was correct and that we perfectly understood it, it would make any real difference – “have anything to do with us” – or with the world at large? Undoubtedly every self-appointed leader or teacher from the time of Adam until now has had the same question in his mind after “telling the world” and after observing that nothing much resulted.

As almost all HRAs are advanced students in this field, I imagine that many can share my feeling that what they have to say is not heard, or, if heard, is not heeded. Of one thing we can all be sure, and perhaps of only one – that unless we can demonstrate the practical use of our collections of beliefs and ideas, the preaching of them will be lost in the discordant rumble created by thousands of “teachers” all shouting at once. Will Levington Comfort once said in a letter to me that he had decided that the first duty was to demonstrate in our own lives the truths we feel so certain are absolute, workable and ultimate. That done, he surmised, one might then be justified in trying to teach others – teach first by example, and later by precept.

Time often seems so short – so pressing in the face of world need for Light. Fortunately we can console ourselves with the thought that whatever Powers created the problems now faced, the same Powers created sufficient time for the working out of the solution.

I sometimes wonder how many – how very many – centuries it took for our forebears to work out the Huna system in its amazing and all-embracing explanation of human consciousness and forces. The history of Egypt always impresses me because, there in the valley of the Nile, almost no progress in thought or invention was made in five thousand or more years. One asks, “How could they have been so dumb!” And here in the modern world we find that, despite our tools of learning, we make painfully slow progress.

COULD HUNA HAVE BEEN A REVEALED SYSTEM?

If so, where are the Revealers now?

THE REVEALING HIGH ENTITIES may be with us now, as in past ages they seem certainly to have been. Because they instruct in a universal language which may be understood the world over by those who are ready for the instruction, the things that are picked up by the earthy mediums appear in symbols. A picture is said to be worth a thousand words, and we might add, IF the picture is filled with symbols and we know the meanings of them.

I have before me on my desk a marked and worn copy of Oahspe over which I have puzzled in spare moments for ten years or more. I have long been convinced that in the symbolic and hidden meaning of the countless tales purporting to be simple history of past happenings in earth and its heavens, there MUST lie great truths to be recognized by those who have been initiated into the meaning of symbols of words or word pictures.

Several HRAs have questioned my conclusion that the na Aumakua must be given mana from our lower level of dense-material-life, and I know that many more of my Associates have questioned the findings, even if they have not written about it. The idea of mere little lowly man being able to help a Higher Being in any way has become more and more lost in the dust that has settled over crystallized religions in the past several centuries. Modern Church as well as older Church, teaches that man is a lowly sinner – a worm beneath the god-awful and all-powerful Higher Being’s symbolic feet. We, as men, are said to be cut off from the gods who sit isolated, all-powerful and untouched on their heavenly heights.

In modern “‘spiritual science” types of religion, the same idea has been carried over. In New Thought I once strove to “hold the thought,” which was excellent. But I also followed Troward and tried to exert a form of mesmeric “suggestion” to force the Universal Subconscious to materialize on this plane the thing I visualized and affirmed as “here, here and now.” And sometimes it worked when I seemed accidentally to touch the right button. However, never once did I think of doing anything to help the Higher Powers help me.

Many new HRAs come in via these “science” groups and Theosophy, also through the “courses,” lodges and groups headed by “masters.” Like those who come in through the older standard religions, they find it difficult to accept the concept of a Aumakua who is not self-empowering and able to perform miracles at will – endlessly.

All of which brings me back to trying again (I am always trying) to present a proof that Huna is correct in one point or another.

This time I draw from a story in Oahspe, which may be part plain history and part symbol, but which tells in the plainest possible words the fact that the na Aumakua, in the guise of the guardian angels or “ashlars,” draw force (mana) from their living charges or the Huna Aunihipili and Auhane, when there is great need for it.

In Oahspe, Chapter XX, page 396, one may read that a great force of powerful spirits planned to attack and drive away the guardian spirits of a certain large group of humans who worshiped the true God, Jehovih. The guardian spirits were warned and this is what is written about what they did.

“And every ashar laid his hand on the sleeping mortal in his charge, for by this his power was multiplied a thousand fold, and raised the other hand, thus addressing the All Highest: By Thy Wisdom and Power, 0 Jehovih, circumscribe Thou this, Thy sleeping heir, that whosoever toucheth the mortal part shall cut himself off from Thy everlasting kingdoms!

“And, with the words, a circle of light fell about the place.” (And the attack was warded off.)

Every mediumistic person is a potential outlet for spirits, often spirits of evident wisdom. The Imperator Group of Stainton Moses revealed what they thought might be ultimate truth. In late years “Betty,” the mediumistic wife of Stewart Edward White, brought across the teachings of her “Invisibles”. Perhaps tomorrow there may begin to come, through some exceptional medium, a complete restatement of the basic facts of Huna – and the exact steps to take to put it to use in either slow or instant healing. It is worth our while to study each new revelation as it comes through, no matter what the source or how strange the material.

BOOK REVIEW

Slowly and surely, the psychologists are catching up with Huna. In his new book, HYPNOSIS THEORY, PRACTICE AND APPLICATION, Raphael H. Rhodes presents a new, simple and direct theory to explain hypnosis. To do this he becomes one of the first in his particular field to treat the conscious and subconscious as two separate entities. He does not insist that the reader believe in this basic separateness, but with quiet logic goes on to show how such a condition allows a fresh and more complete insight into the mysteries of hypnotic control and reaction. The author makes no use of fuss and feathers to impress the reader. He knows his subject down to the ground and is as well experienced in practice as in the study of the literature of Suggestive Therapeutics. Many HRAs have, in the past, asked me to name a good book on the subject. Here is one which covers the old ground with swift ease, and goes on to break new ground in several directions. The section on auto-hypnosis is excellent. The detailed steps to be taken in the use of hypnosis under his theories are easily understood by the average reader. (The Citadel Press, 120 East 25th St., New York 10, N.Y. 176 pages. Price $3. Published November, 1950.)

SPECIAL NOTICE

During the latter part of December and through January, I again took to answering all letters from all HRAs, using “tinned letters” again and Cigbo letters of thanks to his friends who sent gifts. It was grand and I enjoyed it, but now I must get back to the bread winning. This means that instead of having all day and evening nearly seven days a week to read and answer letters and get out the bulletins, I will now have only the evenings and the part of the week end not taken up by lawn and garden “musts.” As Cigbo remarks, “Boss is about to crawl into his hole again and pull it in after him so he can be an income-uno-cadoor again.” If you wish acknowledgment of those good letters you are going to keep right on sending me, will you please send along a self addressed post card to help me keep up? I’ll greatly appreciate it. The TMHG work will continue on the regular hours, 3 and 7 California time, and with the “Wall” building following the regular ritual. (I will soon send out special instructions to those who have claimed a part in the project of building the protective walls around those in the fighting forces and their families – or other loved ones who may be in danger for various reasons beyond their control.)

All letters not marked “URGENT” on the envelope will be read with the delighted, even if greedy and selfish, pleasure that comes from NOT having to send an answer. For the time being I will be rushing the work of painting and repairing to get our house presentable for sale or trade of the equity. Guidance still has not appeared to show the right place in the rural part of Southern California to which to go. It may be, of course, that Guidance will be to remain right here in Hollywood and give up the idea of country peace and quiet – also the dream of a garden plot without such a lawn as we have here to care for in those scant spare moments when I would so much rather be planting or weeding turnips and posies. (Cigbo adds from his shelf, “And plenty of catnip to help me keep up our scratching.”)

REPORT ON THE DREAMS OF THE FUTURE

A number of dreams bearing on future conditions have come in, some with good tags given by the Aunihipili upon awakening and being asked for the meaning. In trying to average the dream significance by and large, I have concluded for the moment that none of the possible disasters are close upon us

I would say that the worst may now be over in Korea and the stalemate seen in three different dreams may soon come. One HRA succeeded in getting a dream of a newspaper headline with an identifying date. This headline read, “Russia and U.S.A. Sign Peace Treaty.” The date was February 14th, 1951. No flash on the meaning of the dream was requested of “George” or given. This is the most encouraging dream of the lot.

SPIRIT FRIENDS of various HRAs agree that things are moving on their side on a great scale and that there is now a strong hope that actual war on a world scale can be averted. One communicator said that between now and June was the period of greatest uncertainty, but that unless something unexpectedly caused the powder barrel to explode, we might get into calmer waters.

SEVERAL NEW THINGS are being considered here at the Study, usually in connection with experimental projects started by HRAs. Tests made with a small radionics instrument have been most exciting and seem to point to a rather new and different idea of how such an instrument actually works. We just might be able to change a very small electric current into low mana by an action of mind in conjunction with the usual exercise of accumulating surplus mana.

In this connection, the new theory of a “cloud of energy” filling space and acting as “cosmic glue” to hold the atoms of matter together has been under discussion. The importance of the new scientific concept for us is that if it is true, we may find that mana can be accumulated out of the air about us to a certain degree. This would match Baron Ferson’s theory of the “Universal Life Force” which he thought came entirely from outside the human body during the exercise used for accumulating a surcharge.

YOUR MANY AND MUCH APPRECIATED LETTERS continue to accumulate in my files. They contain much material which I plan to pass on through the bulletins, although there are so many fine letters that it would take a fat book to reproduce them as I might wish. Even if the major part of them never are used in the bulletins, my own efforts to locate and understand elements in Huna and related subjects are constantly assisted by reports on experiments, speculations and all the things that are submitted through your letters for my study and consideration. I may say that I feel that we are working rather well together in this way – that we are making what may be considered exceptionally good general progress. My thanks to you all. MFL