Magic

December 1, 1954

THE SUBJECT OF “MAGIC” was taken up recently by HRA Charles Pitts, of the Sunnyvale, California Huna Group, and as a result of some discussion through tape letters, it was decided that this subject should come up for examination in the light of what we now have learned of kahunas as they worked and taught from Egypt through Asia and into the Isles of the Pacific. A tape talk was made here at the Study and sent to HRA Pitts to be played for the group.

THE OCCULT ARTS OF ANCIENT EGYPT is the title of a 1953 book dealing with Egyptian magic in particular, and with other forms of the art in general. It is from the pen of Bernard Bromage, an English traveler and occultist. (A copy was sent to me recently by one of my good friends in Africa.) Another book sent in by still another good friend, is titled MAGIC and is by W.E. Butler. (Both are put out by The Aquarian Press, Denison House, 296, Vauxhall Bridge Road, London, S.W.1. The first mentioned book lists at 16 shillings, the second, at 3 shillings, 6 pence.)

In both of these books we can see a switch of approach from that of writers of the earlier years. Mr. Butler has stripped away most of the gaudy trimmings so long associated with magic, and gives it as his opinion that, “the best definition of magic is that given by another modern magician who has defined it as ‘the art of causing changes in consciousness at will.'” He goes on to mention what he considers the four possible or probable kinds of “consciousness” in which changes may be brought about by the use of magic. These kinds are: (1) The Conscious Waking Mind, (2) The Personal Subconscious, (3) The Collective Subconscious, (4) The Superconscious. He describes the purpose of “the magician,” very evidently having in mind the modern cult members, not the magicians of old. He writes:

“To be able consciously to become aware of the set of the hidden currents and turn them to the task of directing our life into the ways of wisdom and the paths of peace is the fervent desire of the magician, who, looking into the depths of his being and seeing therein the spark of eternal light which is his own true center exclaims in the name and power of that spark, “I have Omnipotence at my command and Eternity at my disposal.”

Mr. Bromage, in his much larger book, may be said to play the field. He is more interested in what the magicians of various ages tried to do, what they claimed to be able to do and how they said they went about doing it. He mentions the many books that have come down to us from Egyptian times as well as surviving texts and rituals dating back a century or two but still containing much of the more ancient beliefs and practices.

In my first book on the subject of Huna, RECOVERING THE ANCIENT MAGIC, (long out of print), I gave my own definition of magic as, “That system of practices which results in the production of effects entirely contrary to the present-day ‘laws’ of Science; that body of practices using super-physical forces, or the aid of super-physical beings to accomplish physical results.”  I pointed to several cases of fire-walking or fire-handling and fire-eating to illustrate my meaning. From that I went on to the evidence that spirits of the human, subhuman or superhuman level were also responsible at times, and under certain conditions, for other kinds of physical effects. I also pointed out the fact that effects might well be brought about by changes caused in the action of some form of consciousness, as in the mind of one involved in the working out of the effects. I noted the fact that magical actions seldom stopped with a change in the mental outlook or activity of one helped or hindered by the use of magic. Thought is almost invariably followed by some corresponding physical action, restraint or change.

For our present purpose of making a short examination of the standing of magic in the light of Huna, we may safely say that all efforts to bring about changes without the use of the ordinary means known to men in general and to science in its own field fall under the classification of MAGIC. This includes all of religion except pure worship for its own sake. It includes all work done involving spirits of dead things, be they above or below the human level, and work done by the living when the Aunihipili and Auhane are outside the body, as may be the case in trance conditions or during sleep when astral travel is used consciously or unconsciously.

Mr. Bromage would agree to this and would add such things as prophetic ability, making this into a small unit of its own. In touching on this angle, he mentions something I had not known before, and which is of enough general interest to deserve a new paragraph. I quote from page 24 of his book:

“The fact then, that according to the pyramid measurements, a COLLAPSE OF OUR CIVILIZATION SHOULD BE EXPECTED ABOUT 1955 need not detain us here. Such calculations are contingent on the laws of probability, and a general exertion of our talents and our Will should do much to forestall the tragedy. If a civilization is worth saving, it will be saved!”  (The caps and underline are mine, not his. MFL)

In the standard chart of the Pyramid measurements, the end of the distance being measured in “pyramid inches” which represent years of time in this system, August 23rd of 1953 saw the line of measurement reach the far wall of the King’s Chamber where it was supposed to stop. I take it that the line must have been extended in some way by the advocates of this system. In any case, the present struggle to prevent World War III and the use of the H-bomb would seem likely to come to a head during the coming year. If a degree of sanity and of the spirit of cooperation can be found in a world, half of whose political leaders seem to have become blinded by prejudices, we may not only survive, but may even see the dawn of the NEW Day for which some of us have prayed so long and so earnestly in the TMHG these several years past. (At this turning point, I urge you all to join in this prayer for world sanity and progress. The TMHG time is at 3 and 7, California time, daily.)

Perhaps the best way to present the Huna angle on “magic” will be to give a tentative “course” covering the art. At least it will make reading easier, and, as all writers and sellers of “courses” are allowed to make statements and claims without taking time out to offer proofs, let us proceed.

HOW TO BECOME A MAGICIAN

A complete “course” in one lesson.

TO LEARN TO BECOME A MAGICIAN you will need to learn to use some of your native talents which you may not as yet have taken time to develop. There are several of these talents. Men and women have demonstrated them all about us. Hardly anyone lacks latent psychic abilities, which may be trained and made to work in the performance of magical operations. Telepathy is so easy to develop that many use it without training. Ability to sense the presence of the beloved “dead” is very common, and many have excellent mediumistic powers which could enable them to perform that part of healing magic which depends largely on spirit aid.

STEP 1 – DEVELOPING THE HYPNOTIC WILL
Begin at once to learn to use hypnotism, mesmerism and the two in combination. To do this you will begin at once to practice accumulating mana surcharges. When you can accumulate a very large surcharge, you can then begin practicing to learn Mesmerism, which is causing the mana surcharge to flow through your hands or along your line of vision into a subject, carrying with it well-made mental pictures or thought-form-clusters (which you will have made ready in advance by the use of your “will.”) If your mana, which is the vital force of the body, is sufficiently accumulated and is discharged strongly into the subject, it will overpower the Aunihipili in him and force him to accept the mental pictures as his own, then to react to them.

Healing magic is performed in this way. The subject can be made to relax, to sleep, and so on. If the shock of mana is sufficient, and the thought-form cluster made with enough power, it can break up and replace complexes in the Aunihipili of the subject. If there are spirits fastened to the subject, and if he has been brought to turn over a new leaf so that he will refuse to respond to the promptings of the spirits, they may be driven out of him and hypnotically commanded to stay away, after first being broken away by the Mesmeric shock of the mana you have projected.

Be warned that if you project a surcharge and hurtful mental pictures at a subject, and these fail to be accepted by his Aunihipili or are blocked from action by his Aumakua or by his spirit friends who may be watching over him, the force and the mental picture will rebound, often with greatly increased power, and lodge in your own Aunihipili, making it the victim. Use the evil eye or spell-casting methods at your peril. Also be warned that all about you are witting and unwitting magicians, who, may be conciously or unconsciously projecting mana and mental images at you weak or strong, good or bad. Begin at once to practice becoming hurtless and helpful in your every thought and deed. Learn to radiate good and helpful and loving thoughts and do all you can to do good. In this way you will soon build a permanent wall of radiation around you which will act as a great magnet, of which you are the center. It will attract the good by its positive pole and repel the bad.

If you suspect that many bad thought-form clusters of sickness, bad luck, etc., or many spirits of an evil nature are already bothering you from former projections against you by magicians, or because you have been bad enough to attract to yourself equally bad spirits, begin at once to use this affirmation frequently. “GOOD, GOOD, GOOD! I AM good. I think only good and helpful thoughts. I do good and reject all hurtful deeds. I try to find and throw out daily any thoughts of hate, anger, greed, jealousy, and the like. I now prove my unwavering determination to swing completely over to the side of GOOD, by DOING some good deed, no matter how small, before continuing my day’s activities.”

The aspiring magician will do well to remember that most of his or her daily tasks are performed to help others to some degree. If each task is approached and blessed as a SERVICE or a good deed lovingly done for others, the good will be true coin of the realm.

STEP 2.
This is a continuation of the step you learned to take earlier. After you have become proficient in the use of the Mesmeric force or low mana, begin to strengthen your Auhane WILL, or the mana mana. You must first take on a fair surcharge of low mana because, without this being present in your body, the Auhane cannot get enough of it to make up a batch of strong WILL power. This power is developed by daily use of exercises in holding your mind and full attention on something for as long as you are able. Make a mental picture of the face of a loved one and hold it before your mind’s eye without allowing the face to change in any way. When it “slips” and begins to change or fade, rest a minute or two. Accumulate a little more mana, and try again. Keep a watch by you and note how long you can hold mental pictures. At first you may find a few seconds your limit. When you have practiced daily for several years, you will be able to hold the Aunihipili to the task for as long as five minutes, and will by then have developed will power strong enough to create by a few minutes of this concentrated attention on a mental picture, POWERFUL THOUGHT-FORM CLUSTERS which can be projected by the Mesmeric method described in STEP 1.

If you wish to know whether you have a strong will now, test with the Biometer. Tests made at intervals will show whether your practice is getting results. Be warned that if you develop your hypnotic or Auhane WILL without at the same time developing the ability to become GOOD and BETTER day by day, you will soon have a very badly unbalanced Biometric pattern and it will begin to cause you much moral breakdown and trouble. (Some imitation magicians – those not having been trained thoroughly in Huna – use hypnotism openly. Beware of these unless you have obtained their signature, written with their own pen and with ink, and have tested it on the Biometer to learn whether they are “black” or “white” magicians. The “black” will show a perfect will pattern but almost no personality circle, or, if a circle shows, it will be counterclockwise and usually far from round.) In your own work as a budding magician, avoid the use of hypnotic suggestion as something apart from the Mesmeric element. Use Mesmerism as in STEP 1, with the hypnotic will simply as an adjunct to aid in creating the very strong mental picture of the GOOD condition, which you wish to implant powerfully in the Aunihipili of those whom you help and heal. Never admit that you are a magician; just say that you have a natural gift for healing and will be happy to try to use it if the ones needing help will turn over a new leaf, etc.

Helping others to turn over a new leaf and to become ready to be healed is the GOOD DEED at its best. Remember this, always,

TELEPATHIC OR PROJECTED MAGICAL HEALING is an important part of this work. Contact must be established with the one to be helped. A handshake will string an aka thread between you, which will make it possible for your Aunihipili to make contact at any time. Or the Aunihipili can follow the aka thread that is fastened to a signature written in ink. This contact is telepathic in its nature, and you can send with Mesmeric force a mental picture of healing which has been constructed through the use of your WILL. Practice will enable you to become more and more powerful as you go along. Also, results build up slowly if the magical treatment is repeated over and over.

STEP 3. RUBBING ALADDIN’S LAMP
No magician should be without a good Aladdin’s Lamp. Go to a junk shop at once and buy one. Take it home and accumulate as large a surcharge of mana as you can. Then build up your will to a high point of concentration and create a mental picture of what you wish to have the Genie of the Lamp do for you when you rub the lamp and he appears to do your bidding.

Millions of people in the past twenty centuries may have rubbed a Lamp without getting the slightest response. Their trouble has been that they did not know that the “oil” needed to fill this type of Lamp is not oil at all, but is a large surcharge of mana. So build up your surcharge, make your mental image, and then rub your Lamp. If you do not have a Lamp, remember that it is only a symbol, the symbol of LIGHT. Just think of a genie who embodies all the goodness and so all the LIGHT you can imagine. Then rub — something. Rub your hands together and affirm: “I am now calling to the Spirit of Light who remains ever aware of me and ever ready to come to me at my request when I fill myself full of the mana which is the force or oil which enables the Lamp of the Light to become lighted and cast its rays down to enlighten me on this darkened level of being. I affirm with full faith that I now believe that my call has been heard and that the Spirit of Light above me has come and stands ready to receive the oil to be used for helping and guiding and illuminating me and those whom I will help. I now send flowing upward along the connecting shadowy cord a strong flow of mana. With it I send my carefully and powerfully constructed mental picture of the condition which I ask be brought about.”

Many aspiring students have given up at this point because they could not see the Spirit of Light. This is greatly to be regretted, for the Spirit is always there and will always accept the oil and begin shedding helpful light. A daily replenishing of the Light, which stands before the altar of your Innermost Being, may be needed if the request you make demands much magical work. All experienced magicians know that the instant and complete performance of a task by a Spirit of the Lamp is possible only at rare intervals. They are content to work for many days to get the full task completed.

Be warned, at this point, that if you attempt to use the magic of the Lamp without first purifying yourself with many lustrations and fumigations, drawings of signs and magical circles about you, there will be grave danger that you will evoke the spirit of a dead person – a spirit just as uncleansed and tainted with evil as you may happen to be. If you are greedy and plan selfish gain, the spirit may be equally so and may take your surcharge of mana and turn to bite the hand that feeds it. Keep in mind the fact that all fumigations, incense burning, washings, and rituals of cleansing are, just as are the oil and the Lamp, symbolic. These things, when read about by a magician in a book of instruction, tell him that a cleansing of his thoughts and heart are indicated. Go back to STEP 1 and check what was revealed to you concerning GOOD.

Down the centuries, magicians have written out their knowledge in the form of “evocations” and “incantations,” also “invocations.” Invariably, they have veiled the inner meanings. For this reason, the student must take care not to be caught in the foolish trap in which so many have been caught. In the semi-secret orders in Europe and America, even today, they are drawing magic circles, performing strange physical rites, making fumigations, compounding absurd mixtures of frog’s eyes and the leaves of plants gathered in a cemetery on the night of a full moon – and so on and so forth. Rare books containing rituals and formulas bring hundreds of dollars, and men and women gather to study and to try to use them, always ending with nothing accomplished.

If the student has seen such books, and there are many of them, dating from the times of early Egypt on, be warned that the long repetition of invocations with the exact pronunciation of Names of Power and Words of Power are quite useless to the uninitiated. The magicians of all ages have piled one absurdity upon another in their writings, all for the purpose of causing the greedy outsider to waste his time, if he is that foolish, trying to perform rites which cannot be performed, and to learn to recite unpronounceable “names” without number. The famous “Seventy-two names of God” are part of this blind. So are the endless names given to supposed gods and demons and spirits, good or bad. Look behind this veil of secrecy for the three elements, which are symbolized in all true magic and alchemy. Watch for veiled mention of the three selves and of their three mana forces. Watch for the inner cleansing rather than the outer. You can call a spirit, be it bright and good  and helpful or bad and strong and dangerous, provided you have made a contact with it and so have established an aka thread along which you can send a telepathic call – a flow of mana with the picture of its hearing and coming to you. But just to know the name of a spirit and to speak it, is a waste of time. There may be a thousand spirits bearing that same name, and besides, with no contact already made, your call will be empty. Be warned, however, that if some spirit happens to be near, be it good or bad, it may hear and accept the call, taking all you have to offer, if it is bad, and perhaps, in the end, taking your body away from you. Evil spirits may remain bound to the earth for centuries, and may become most wise in the matter of doing evil for and against the living magician who is even a fraction as evil.

You have read of “sympathetic magic” in which like produces like – a sprinkling of water causing a rain, and the pouring out of an oblation of wine to the gods bringing an outpouring of good things to you in return. This is also a blind to veil away the ignorant. Like brings like only when a powerfully constructed mental picture is presented with much mana to the Spirit of Light so that on this likeness the Spirit may construct for you a reality. The old fertility rites supposed to bring increase in crops and flocks were only if they served to picture the desired things and to furnish, through emotion, some mana to empower the gods.

STEP 4. AMULETS, AKA WALLS OF PROTECTION, ETC
Having told you that all drawing of magic or ritual circles, pentagrams, and such things belongs to the outer or symbolic side of magic, it needs to be said that a few physical things can be used by the magician as points around which to build mental pictures or images with a mixture of aka substance, thought-forms and mana.

TO MAKE A RABBIT’S FOOT effective, for instance, it is not enough to preserve such a foot and carry it on your person. The foot must be gazed upon and concentrated upon a few minutes each day for a number of days, and the student must picture the foot as a center about which he is building layers, day after day, of that plaster made of thought, mana and aka substance. As all mental pictures are made of these three ingredients, and as a mental picture is as enduring as any strong memory (which is, in actuality, constructed of these three elements), the picture of a radiating center of GOOD surrounding the foot of the rabbit soon becomes a very real thing. But the foot must be encased in thoughts of GOOD for all, not just for its owner, or it will be valueless. This is secret which few know. To become a center which will attract good and ward off evil, the foot must be used in connection with the bringing of good to others as well as to the owner, and it must be used when possible to ward off or remove evil in the same way.

Any object, lucky piece or amulet may be treated in the same way. Shrines are centers into which GOOD has been poured in this way by a saint or magician and made strong and enduring to radiate back to the worshiper all the good he radiates to it in worship. Such a center maybe filled daily with fresh mana, and the good spirits may be invited to come to it daily to obtain enough mana to give them power to perform good deeds on the mental and physical levels. Like birds coming to refresh themselves in the bird bath in your garden, and then going to clear out hurtful insects, so the good spirits will soon begin to come, taking the water of mana and looking to see what requests you have left with the mana for them to fulfill. Your requests are mental pictures of things you desire the spirit friends to bring about if they can. Pour a mana surcharge into your magic center, along with the mental pictures of good conditions desired for yourself and friends. The spirits will soon be coming daily to take the mana and to assist. But try not to disappoint them by forgetting to leave mana and good requests for them daily, otherwise they will soon scatter and go elsewhere.

Just as a center of good can be made in this way, a center of bad may be established if one is not careful. The student who makes a rabbit’s foot center with the desire to get more than he gives is guilty of breaking the first rule of magic, that of being greedy and hurtful to the extent that he wishes to take things from others so that he may enjoy benefits. Keep cleansed yourself. Keep your center clear of all things not fully GOOD for everyone. You cannot steal and hold good things for long. Payment must eventually be made. On the other hand, one can buy almost any good thing with the coin of good thoughts accompanied by good deeds. A “wall of protection” can be built around you or a loved in the same way with the help of the Spirit of the Light. Put only good into the wall and it will allow only good to pass in and out through it…

And so ends the lesson. Here is MAGIC for you, for the taking.

SCIENCE DISCOVERS THE AKA BODY!

HRA C.H. Murphy calls attention to an article in FATE magazine in which it is related that some years ago a group of Yale scientists, in measuring the electrical potential in the water surrounding a tadpole, found that, just before the change into the frog stage, the surrounding electrical charge had the shape of a frog, not that of the tadpole. A similar aka body, charged with measurable amounts of vital force, can be located, according to some investigators, around a plant seed, the “emergent field having the shape of the plant to follow, not that of the seed. Science is slowly rediscovering what kahunas had learned in some mysterious way thousands of years ago, and are describing elements in more exact terms, at least in so far as laboratory measurements are concerned. See the fine book, THE SOUL OF THE UNIVERSE by Dr. Gustaf Stromberg, for more along these lines. (David McKay. Co., Washington Square, Philadelphia 6, Pa. $3.50 plus postage of 12¢. 312 pages, 1948.)

HUNA GROUPS

Huna groups have recently been formed in Chicago, and one in and one near Boston. The First Huna Group in New York, often mentioned in the Bulletin, has started a beginners’ section and is going strong with a growing membership. The Sunnyvale, California Group has been growing rapidly and now rents a small hall for its meetings – kitchen attached so that refreshments can be served. This is the group which will furnish duplicate tapes of the lectures and talks made up for it but suited to any group. The tapes are the 5-inch size, 3.75 speed and give two talks of one-half hour each. Tapes can be furnished for $6 post paid, and the tapes may be sent in to have fresh lectures run on them for $2.50 each (two sides), including return postage. (Add sales tax in California.) The address for tapes is Mr. Charles Pitts, Box 526, Sunnyvale, Calif. For the addresses of the leaders of other groups mentioned above, drop me a line and enclose a self-addressed post card.

WOULD YOU LIKE TO HAVE THE TAPE LECTURES MIMEOGRAPHED?

Those who do not have tape recorders, but who would like to have the lectures made available to them, should drop me a line. If enough call for them comes in to justify the expense of taking them from the tapes and running them as $2 mimeo units, something will be done about it. Each unit would contain a lecture, edited and perhaps better presented. There are six tapes as of November 15, 1954 and others will be made up from time to time. Group members are also giving excellent lectures, which are recorded, and duplicates of which are well worth hearing. The Sunnyvale group has a new Hawaiian member who will teach the group a little about the Hawaiian language and whose work may soon be recorded to give the pronunciation of the words used by the old kahunas. If Detroit HRAs are thinking of organizing a group, I have on file the name of a prospective member, Lysle E. Burgess, 5065 Neff Road, Detroit 240 Mich. He would help organize a group if asked.

LETTER QUOTES: From HRA Andrew Hastings: “The mystical zenner was a cord of three threads… these refer back to Brahma, Vishnu and Siva, the triune deity of early India.” Also this, from A.H.’s pen: “Love without work is futility; work without love is slavery; love with work is freedom; work with hate is defeat.” HRA O. de Borde writes: “Do you know of the obsolete Jainism of Gosala in India, with its 8,400 unavoidable and irrevocable births – the most dismal doctrine of which I have ever read.”
MFL