June-July, 1966

Huna Research

 

A NEW HRA MAY HAVE MADE A GREAT DISCOVERY. Dr. Bild, HRA, who lives in Austria, ran into Huna recently through the published German translation of my first book, SSBM. He got in touch with me and soon had the new book, THE HUNA CODE IN RELIGIONS, and from it the detailed instructions covering the making of a Huna type prayer action after the Ha Rite prayer method discovered coded in the New Testament. He set about making use of the method by which mana is accumulated at the pace of taking four long, deep breaths in series, then repeating. I do not have his permission to pass on his letter to you, but am taking the chance that he will not object. I am sure that he also realizes the great importance of what he has run into.

Dear Mr. Long:

Thank you for your letter, which was as gospel to me. I owe you any amount of gratitude.

I am something like an expert in using the pendulum, so had no difficulty in testing my normal amount of mana, which was a circle about as large as a thumb nail. (Note that this was rather small by our standards, but as he did not have our illustrations of the Huna Vistas to go by, his Aunihipili may have used the smaller circle as normal, then built up in size from that. mfl) After breathing in the Four rhythm way for one hour, I had accumulated so much mana that the pendulum was swinging over almost the whole area of my palm. I stopped then, and transmitted the accumulated power by meditation to my Aunihipili and on to my Aumakua with the prayer to restore the health and strength of my mother who suffered awfully as the consequences of a terrible shock caused by a motor car accident. After about five interventions by me her state is nearly normalized. So I DO owe you my debt of gratitude. Aftei some accumulation I did not need any more so much time as a whole hour, but about three quarters of an hour were sufficient for about the same amount of mana, for the accumulation of which I needed one hour in the beginning.

I regret that I am not yet able to accumulate mana in a short time and that I do not know how to do it. Please give me the necessary instructions on how to do it. In time I shall gather quite a lot of experience and I shall let you know about it all. Please do help me now as well as in the future. When I am sure that I have reached a certain high standard in Huna, I shall act in public and do my best to help mankind where help seems needed more than ever before.

When breathing for accumulation of mana, I am concentrating naturally strongly as well as I am able to. I suppose a still stronger way of concentration should enable me to gather mana in a shorter time … (Signed) H.W. Bild

MY COMMENT: In replying to Dr. Bild I told him that this was the first time such a length of time had been used in accumulating mana, so far as I can recall. In my own work, the accumulation, as indicated by the growth of the pendulum circle over my palm, is something that takes about four minutes. Once the circle stops growing in size, I begin sending the mana to the Aumakua, and the circle slowly becomes smaller until, in a matter of perhaps four more minutes the pendulum stops moving and I take it for granted that the mana charge has been completely delivered and accepted. It is then that I make my request for whatever it is that is needed at the time. If I desire evidence that the Aumakua has been touched and has responded, I hold that in mind as I finish the accumulation, and the pendulum then changes twice to mark out a plus sign over the large circle which has been traced. Again the swinging stops as of its own accord. I may then ask permission to ask questions to gain Guidance, and the usual yes-no-doubtful swings of the pendulum give the answer. I have never been denied the privilege of asking questions, but must admit that from time to time the answers which seemed to come from the Aumakua were (as it later turned out) evidently colored if not all dictated by my Aunihipili in passing on the answers.

We have always supposed that more mana was needed by the Aumakuas to make great changes in our bodies or circumstances than small ones, but perhaps have never been sufficiently aware of the need for long continuing sessions in which mana has been accumulated and sent minute after long minute. Dr. Bild may well have been sending the mana all the time as he had definitely in his mind the purpose of supplying it to gain healing for his mother. If this was the case, the steady use of the mana by his Aumakua may have kept the charge from showing in a large circle until the healing of the sitting was sufficiently progressed.

The prayer which is continued for a long time is not new to us. The Catholics may be sending mana charge after charge unwittingly when performing a “Novena” in which the prayer is repeated at short intervals for a considerable period of time. We know that at least one mesmerist took up to fifteen minutes of concentration and work to accumulate a mesmeric or low mana charge large enough to use when he walked into a room where subjects sat waiting and knocked one or more of them out by a sudden and silent projection of the force. We have rather definite information that the kahunas of old used to charge throwing sticks with mana so that they held it and when the sticks were thrown at enemy warriors, their touch was enough to cause temporary unconsciousness. It may have taken some time to accumulate the necessary amount of mana  to charge the throwing sticks.

In the middle years of Christianity there seems to have been remembered a need on the part of the Aumakuas for mana to use, and there were established religious centers where monks or nuns prayed night and day in relays. If I remember rightly, this practice is still being carried on.

A Huna code word which I have just unearthed throws a strong light on the “Ha Rite” in which the accumulation of mana for the prayer use is carried out in the four breathing steps, then repeated. Ha is “four”, also to breathe strongly. But in looking for evidence of a lengthy repetition of the use of the rite, I have found ka na, meaning, “to see; to appear; to get a sight of; to obtain what one wished“, the underscored part of the definition giving us just what we want in connection with the idea of repeating the Ha Rite when the root ha is added, as in kana ha, meaning forty in number; used for counting ropes, cords etc. In the Hawaiian of the Code the number forty is use to mean any still larger number. So there we have the idea coded for us: the idea that we can repeat the HA or breathing (rite) forty or any number of times in order to get what is desired. The word kana also has the meaning of “possession” as in a possessive pronoun, so all meanings join to complete the general one. (Kana lua means the number twenty, also “to be in doubt”, from which we may guess that the lesser number of repetitions of the Ha Rite may not be enough to get positive results.) The counting of ropes or cords in the first given definition points strongly to the aka cord along which the mana is sent to the Aumakua to be used by it to materialize the answer to the prayer.

The root word, kana, is most significant when added to the word wai for “water”, as water is the symbol of mana. We can translate kana wai “to obtain desired water”, but the general usage is “that which belongs to water”, in which case the possessive pronoun comes into play. The “possession” works both ways, if we accept the hidden or coded meaning. The lesser man accumulates or possesses the mana at the beginning, then gives it to the Aumakua. It is used to create the conditions desired and pictured in the prayer, or is changed in some way and a part of it returned to the lesser man as “the rain of blessings” – a flow which often feels as if fine rain were falling on one.

A very significant common meaning of kana wai is “to put under law”, and here we meet the idea of “the Law of God”, and of a vague general concept of “Law” as a force which guides and controls our lives and destiny. Because of the “water” part of the word, the maker of the old dictionary which we use remarked, “The ancient system of regulations for water courses contained almost everything the ancient Hawaiians formerly had in common in the form of laws.” It was supposed that the Polynesians must have come from a land where irrigation was practiced and laws were made and observed covering water rights and uses. From the Code point of view, a “water course” immediately brings to mind the aka cord along which the mana is made to flow to the Aumakua –  and this, indeed (as we begin to see), is covered strictly by the thing we might call “The law of the correct use of the Ha Rite. “

The word for “miracle” in the language of the Code is hana mana, literally, “to make or create mana”. Another word used is kupaianaha, with a secondary meaning of “sending something away by water” – in other words, “sending the prayer along the aka cord on the water or mana flow to the Aumakua.” The root ha, at the end of the word is our root from the Ha Rite.

So, now that we have worked out the formula for the bringing about of a miraculous answer to prayer, I suggest that as an HRA research assignment we try the prolonged sending of mana, with the breath drawn in slowly and fairly deeply to the count of four, held a bit, and then released on the four count. A pause of perhaps four counts should follow, and then the breathing cycle repeated, always with the command held over the Aunihipili to accumulate mana for the purpose of sending to the Aumakua. We might test making several prayer actions with a space of time in between, say from a few minutes to an hour. This would be the “Novena” way.

I am trying against great odds to get time to run a test myself on a case which will call for a real miracle to heal. After the first few short tries I think I have seen a very slight increase of strength on the part of my patient.

A note of warning may be in order here. If one trying to generate and send mana to provide enough for the working of a miracle is not in fair health, the effort might prove to be too much of a drain. Where there is mana being generated there is always the danger that some evil spirit may take the mana without permission. Ask for Protection and also that if too much mana is used, some be returned to keep you going. In seance circles the mediums usually ask to have mana returned to the circle at the end of a sitting.

A significant report on spirit healing through a circle and medium was given by Rev. Marion Owens, in the New Cosmic Star magazine for June. I quote a little of the report which bears on our discussion. “The healer, on the other hand, reaches out from within, developing a channel through which the inflow of healing may issue from a perfected instrument. At all healing services the congregations were to a high degree contributing factors in that they united and responded in meditation, prayer and thought. The healing results were phenomenal and each successive meeting brought additional numbers to the group. In some instances, the individual healing lasted as long as four hours or more, and if fatigue ensued for the instrument it was evident from the attunement that all recipients and contributors were in harmony and thankful that such healing is made available and that an instrument so gifted is willing to submit himself to this mission.” The writer says that white ectoplasm is drawn from flowers or plants to be used in the healing, and there is a photograph of a white cloud rising from flowers used at a seance, with seance members to be seen standing beyond. This group seems to be based in Puerto Rico but to be affiliated with the Temple of Light in New York. I have no address for use in reaching them. (New Cosmic Star, Lawndale, Calif. $3 a year. It seems to be a take over of the old Cosmic Star, but with a new outfit in charge.

PO Box 729 … In the same issue, Vol. 1, No. 1, there is an illustrated article telling of the work of Terte, the Filipino healer. (No success as yet reported in the efforts to get one of the Filipino healers over to U.S.A. to demonstrate.)

IT IS HARD TO REFUSE HRAs who ask that an ad or notice of their businesses be inserted in the H.V. Fairly new HRA, George H. Hepker, D.D., asks that it be stated that any HRA who hankers to be ordained as a minister of THE CHURCH OF BASIC TRUTH, in which Huna is the basic thing taught, may enroll for study leading to ordination. The address is P.O. Box 6084, Phoenix 5, Arizona, U.S.A., and Rev. Hepker will answer inquiries. I have only a very vague idea of what one may run into here, so make no recommendations.

A RESIGNATION WAS TURNED IN BY AN HRA, showing why some people join in the first place. I quote from the last letter: “Since last I wrote I have been caught up in various things along Buddhist lines. I am trying to build up a correspondence course. I have decided that I’ll have to drop Huna for a time as I can’t embrace everything with limited available time. To be honest, I am a little disappointed that the Huna Vistas have a great deal more to say on the origins of various lines of thought in Huna than on techniques and practical matters. In other words, Huna seems to be a little too naive in comparison with Buddhism, Thesophy and Quabalistic philosophy, and while it makes a good starting point, it does not seem to arrive at a good finishing point. If you ever veer around again to the practical angle of it I’d like to take them up again.” The writer is a resident of Australia, and in due time I expect to see his “course” offered for sale, with “techniques” drawn from everything BUT Huna for use in outdoing even the Scientologists with their ever new offerings of brand new “techniques”, usually at about $500 per Tecq. I fear that in this resigning HRA we have lost what may have been the original “Horse’s Mouth” – from which is supposed to flow the sum total of wisdom backed by the magnificent authority of  “it is so because I say it is so!” Few people have the patience to do the work of research. All too many want everything already cooked and served – served so that they can offer it under a fresh name to suckers for a price. (Forgive me if I am a bit sour on the self-appointed would be “teachers”.)

RESEARCH WORK OF A SURPRISING CHARACTER was reported to me in a letter of April 1, by HRA Marian E. Jager, of Michigan. Her findings are so much over my humble head that I can hardly venture an evaluation of either her method or her results. If I get it right, the yes-no-doubtful method of pendulum conversation was the beginning of a psychic effort to recover the original alphabet of the supposedly lost continent of Moo in the Pacific. Once the alphabet was worked out, its individual letters were found to have many meanings, while by redoubling one or two or three letter roots, a much more complete set of meanings can be made to appear. M.J. explains: “MU was really MOO before the corruption changed it to MU or consciousness of separation MUO instead of MOU, consciousness of OU, the Light. I am sending my precious copy of your book (Huna Code In Religions) back to you (with hundreds of marginal notes to show how the Moo alphabet and language she has worked out confirm or change or add to the coded meaning drawn from the Four Gospels, for I could never write out all the places of verification and differences. Please look it over and send it back. It has hours and hours of pendulum work noted in it.

“As I went through your book and came to any statement, I used the bob before I went on to see if old Moo and Hawaiian agreed, and astonishingly many times they did. …. As nearly as I can figure it out, we are OHOHOH or Holy Spirits. 0: God in H: mind expression  human mind that is. 0 is God, so called, The All, All there is OM.

“U is energy coming from and returning to 0. OU is Light, Christ, energy, power – in all things – atomic, manifesting is POU, earth power. KOU, cosmic power. LOU is love. MOU is consciousness. TOU is truth. GOU is choice or will. HOU is mind. JOU is joy. NOU is emotion or health. ROU … ? SOU is sound. VOU is speaking the word or divine imagination.

“The creations we made by putting self and separation first, reversed the polarity thus changing OU to UO and in its use the POU of earth became PUO and KOU power became KUO or lust for power. LOU or love became LUO or lust of flesh. MOU or consciousness of oneness, became MUO or separation. HOU, mind of God, became HUO, or human tiger man. PUO eventually created a stinking PU or clay body of flesh. And apparently all because of experimenting in using POU, creative sex power in adulteration or adultery. The many readings of Edgar Cayce, the pictures he took of men who had invisible tails – invisible to the eye but not to the camera. I took pictures of my roses that have two spirits plainly visible, not tails, of course, but I can believe Cayce. Talking dolphins, suckling whales, dog faced boys. flippered babies all tell something of man’s errant experimenting along with the Temples of Light where the ancients went to be treated for the removal of their tails, feathers, appendages, etc. Maybe these were curses or maybe of their own creation – but all are facts. They were there.

“Now, when we as OHOHOH Holy Spirits lopped off more and more of our Sons of God power, we created bodies to manifest what we ARE   OHOHO, pride, i.e. a dominating patriarch with power of life and death ‘Off with his head!’ attitudes. And the other side of the picture OHO, ‘fear for my head’ and life. These are the three parts of man today. Overly positive, overly negative, needing balance. His Aunihipili, OHO; Auhane, OHOHO, and Aumakua, OHOHOH, pushed out of the driver’s seat.

“When he has recovered the misspent energy in OHO fear he can operate from his OHOHOH self – Jesus’ birth song of the angels was Fear not. Then as he relinquished his competitive, domineering, prideful wish to make others over – moving in force, not in love – he becomes all his OHOHOH holy spirit filled self and is ready to unite with OU, the Light, the Christ self and the other half of his own self. For OU is both positive and negative, undifferentiated, and since two started out as one before separating to experiment in creativity, the OU part is one’s own dear other self.

“Higher than that would be final union with 0 or the All. All consciousness regained. So in both ways, Huna and Moo come to a reuniting of OHOHOH, you, and OU, the beloved parental pair of polarities, both positive and negative in one and able to answer a call for construction of good or destruction of evil.

“I have a card file of a couple of thousand words of the Bible that all have the MOO meaning. Actually I believe they are the cipher used in ALL the Mystery Schools since MOO, and the commonest of common words had the inner and outer meaning. For instance: Son, nation, hand, foot, city, country, etc. I am sure we are to be reunited (the mates), but from a different premise than Auhanes graduation – more like Sleeping Beauty – release from self-created Fears and Prides. Many different grades: Pippi, ippi, illi, pilli, but Ogoi (?) is good enough for beginners. Illi are germs of illness. Where did words come from anyway if not divinely inspired by vibratory movement? … and …”

FROM THE MANY NOTES IN THE BOOK (Huna Code In Religion), which she sent for me to study, I will try to give a sampling of how the Moo (or MU) code words give changed or added or contradicting meanings to passages I have presented with the Huna code meanings. In the last part of her letter, which I did not quote, M.J. stated the fact that her code from Moo insists that redemption of the religious kind is to be gained through a system similar to that taught in later Yoga – the idea being that to retain the male semen and convert it into a form of energy to be lifted to the higher self via the kundalini and running as a channel (the idea of mana running upward along the channel of the aka cord to the Aumakua was the original idea) upward along the back bone and through chakra centers – all this to be done ritualistically – being the secret of redemption. She feels that women, by refraining from sex orgasms can gain the same ends. This is NOT Huna, as a study of the Code in relation to the custom of circumcision shows. With this point held in mind, we can inspect some of the Moo cipher meanings offered.

“Worship”, as in the middle paragraph on page 97 of HCIR, which reads: “But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him.” The Huna code for “worship” is hoo mana, “to make mana”, and has nothing pointing to semen or sex whatever. M.J. has a marginal note on the paragraph reading, “OHOHOH phort (?) (perhaps meant for “part”) fed through continence.” In the next paragraph on the same page we have “true worshiper” given by the Huna Code as one who knows the Ha Rite of prayer. Her marginal note reads here: “One who has pinned OHOHOH and redeemed the waste semen through continence.” The word TRUTH from the phrase, “worship in truth”, gets this note: “OU: I Am, Christ, Light, Way, Truth, Bread, water. ” This does not match the meaning given by the Huna Code except in a very distant way. If you are interested in the meanings in my book, read the next page, No. 98. On page 125, at the bottom, we have helu, the Hawaiian for “to count, explain or relate. ” Her note on the word is: “HUILU. LU to lust to HUI how many.” (The last two words seem to refer to the book phrase there of, “the hidden truths of Huna”.)

On page 127 below center, we read of the “enslaved” who were to be made free, and see the Hawaiian word pio used, with the coded meaning of “those who are held captive or obsessed by evil spirits”. Her note reads: “PIO, same word. Sex stimulated practices”. In the same paragraph we read that the blind were to be made to see. The marginal notes here give: “POU totally robbed by ever present MO consciousness of KO copulation. The next step on the pyramid is to bring it under mind HOU even as female-male resentments HIO, and KIO but less animal.”

The extracts given above will serve to show the methodology and the trend of conclusions as offered by HRA M.J. in her surprisingly protracted research efforts. Perhaps she can some day put it all into proper form in a book which will give a clearer and. more comprehensive picture of the material.

A BIT OF VERSE

Since I’ve learned that you are near, my dear,
I keep glimpsing you as from the corner of an eye,
Twinkling at me in mirth.
Tell me, have you a secret you can’t share?
And, just now standing close behind my chair,
reading the profoundly wise words I wrote down,
Why were you so moved by silent laughter?
Perhaps that answer I can guess,
But why, oh why, still standing there,
did you twist a baby curl into my gray hair?
Are you remembering something I’ve forgotten?
Something that we did together lives ago?

Dear Max:

I am still reading with pleasure and profit HV #70. I shall never cease to be grateful to you for the encouragement given. Page 4. This is MY story. The loneliness is now being replaced by hope. I have seen the Light in the middle of a black and zero night in Northern Illinois. I awakened to find the room filled with the wonderful whiteness of heatless light. (At a later time) I saw it again, this time with a blueishness, impossible to describe … ecstatic ……… ” B.B.

WHILE REVERTING TO “MATES” AND “GRADUATION”, here is a poem sent in by Mary M. The original is by Christian Morgenstern, the translation by Mabel Cotterell.

TO THE OTHER

Aloft among the mountains I had striven,
The rocky world around a magic sight,
Yet not a glimpse of outlet was I given,
Nor any way to reach the sunlit height.

Then I met thee, in utmost need, the Other.
Now linked with thee new courage I could find:
I raised myself with thee to wander further
And lo! our destiny proved good and kind.

We found a path all clear, there was no other,
And mounting up, we saw a Temple stand;
The climb was steep, we ventured it together,
And still today find courage hand in hand.

It may be that we stand where life is ending,
The goal unreached – enough – the way is clear.
We met each other, that was the great turning,
From two confused ones grew a light filled pair.

HRA Mary M, in sending the poem, writes, “Thanks for sharing your very wonderful experience with us. I will never forget it. It is very beautiful and very wonderful.

MORE LETTERS

Dear Max:

I just finished Dr. Larson’s book, Religion of the Occident. It was like an atomic bomb! Religion is dead. Where is God? Where is love? Why did God create sex if it was so sinful – as Jesus and others preached. Religion seems a farce. Do we make up the idea of reincarnation as a solace for suffering? There’s a missing link to everything. We must find the secret to healing, love and wisdom. I don’t seem to be able to feel the Aumakua. Dr. Larson puts up a good case for Jesus as a man. You put up a good case for Jesus as a myth. I was shocked after reading in Larson that we must give up family etc. – become beggars – to follow Jesus. I just can’t believe it!!! God did not create us to begl How sick the world religions have been – or am I the one?” (Signed HRA Beth)

I COMMENT that the reaction of this new HRA in the East is painful to her because she has come to the new information very suddenly and has not yet had time to adjust her former beliefs. We of the HRA who have come gradually to see the new angles she mentions have had full time for adjusting to each new bit of information and it has been much easier for us. Fortunately for us all, Huna gives us what we need to replace older faiths when they are swept away from us by the new information. Dr. Larson’s source book on Christianity remains priceless. When one has been through it and has seen Jesus as a man, not a divinity, one is ready for the approach to the Huna angle of Jesus as a mythical character in the mystery plays.

Dear Max:

We have been so busy catching up (via a set of the back issues of the H.V.) on the remarkable work you and the HRAs have done over the many years and have been so happy to find ourselves a part of something we feel to be worthwhile and important that we have given little time or thought to your letter.

Perhaps A. and I – and other newcomers – who are not complicated by our own efforts to find the truth in Huna, have feelings which will have some worth and special validity. Perhaps we can apply Huna with its great fund of knowledge in a way, to our own lives, just because we didn’t do the work of digging it out. Perhaps we can apply it more objectively to our own lives just because we were not involved in the search.

I think it is only fair to give you a rundown on the last six and a half years of my life – only that you may understand why I feel as I do. Six and a half years ago I was able, through ‘The Grace of God’, to arrest the disease known as alcoholism. If you know little or nothing about this illness take the first convenient opportunity to learn more about it. No one knows better than the alcoholic about demons and evil spirits. These last six years have been a search for an understanding of the spiritual side of my own nature. At the time of arresting my illness, I turned my ‘life and will over to the care of God as I understood him’, only to realize that I didn’t understand Him at all – hence the search. Because I realized that my getting sober was a ‘gift of Grace’ and having received this gift, I came to know that I had a responsibility to maintain my sobriety. It didn’t take me too long to realize that I had to grow and learn, to love and share what I had learned or I wouldn’t stay sober. So I began a long seeking out.

In the Huna Vistas you mention Spiritualist HRAs, Subud HRAs, Science of…. HRAs, etc. I’ve been through them all before I became an HRA. Without any intent to criticize, I say that I think they have the ‘cart before the horse.’ In H.V. 70 you say the HRAs are a unique lot, coming up through layers on layers of teaching and indeed you are right. Have they not also come up through layers of living? Can they not look back on their own lives and see where their own beloved Aumakuas have always brought them back to the secret knowledge – always with more advanced understanding – without depriving them of their free will: no matter how far afield they have gone, but that it takes an act of self will, or surrender of the will of the Auhane to make a living arrangement in which the three selves are united and work together under the guidance of the Aumakua – the Aumakua knowing what is right for one – sending into one’s life those things that are necessary for growth and sending this information thru the loved younger brother or sister, to the Auhane who will use its good and constructive will to carry out the orders of the Commander  in Chief?

This is not an easy state of mind to reach. It is not an easy way to live since it requires a daily surrender of the will of the Auhane. I have been struggling to do this without knowing what I was doing until I found your books and the wonderful Huna Vistas full of the work of so many fine people. Perhaps my understanding of Huna is fairly complete because my struggle was one of living – not of research. Each step being taken thru and by an act of faith out of desperate necessity rather than thru intellect and knowledge. But how wonderful to find that there are those of you who are searchers thru the kitchen midens of history finding and putting into words, for the likes of me, the great truths of all times. My debt of love and gratitude is great. (Signed) HRA J.S.

The “Grace of God” or the Aumakua is never more certainly seen at work than in cases where such help as is described above is given.

I AM REMINDED by HRA Donna Rogers, that Huna is being preached and taught in the Church of St. Michael, 11070 Oak St., El Monte, Calif. HRA Rev. Wm. King is the pastor. There is also a strong Spiritualistic element there, and messages are given.

THE BOOK REVIEW IN H.V. #71 of the two volumes of work on The Tarot and The Kabala (A Practical Guide to Quabalistic Symbolism by Gareth Knight. Helios Book Service Ltd., 8 the Square, Toddington, Nr. Cheltenham, Glouchestershire, England, Price Vol. 1 $7, and Vol 2, $8.) brought a most interesting letter from the author. I will pass it on to you here.

Dear Mr. Long:

I write to thank you for your comprehensive review of my book in No. 71 of the Huna Vistas which has been passed on to me by Helios Book Service.

Your point about pontification is well taken and were I in the position of writing the book today much of this would come out – the original manuscript was written about five years ago when I accepted on faith a number of things which I would now question more closely. Mind you, faith in certain unproved and unprovable hypotheses is at times necessary in esoteric work, as long as one is capable of a cool clearheaded re-assessment of them from time to time. However, I think I have stressed sufficiently in the foreword and elsewhere in the book that no statement should be treated as authoritative so any who take my own particular working hypotheses as incontrovertible fact will have only themselves to blame – I hope.

I am glad that you have siezed on the fact that very little of the Quabalah, as we know it today, is original material. The primary source books are the SEPHER YETZIRAH and the ZOHAR, neither of which are particularly easy to cope with. From my reading of Professor Scholem’s Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism it would appear that present day Quabalistic philosophy as filtered via the Golden Dawn and early Christian translators of the Zohar such as Ficus Mirandola, Knorr von Rosenrath etc., stems primarily from the interpretation of the early texts associated with the school of Isac Luria, which were committed to writing by Luria’s pupil, Chaim Vital, 1543-1620.

To sort the wheat from the chaff in all the early stuff is virtually impossible without a scholar’s grasp of Hebrew, Aramaic and Latin – to say nothing of a high degree of mystical perception. Thus the only practical thing to do is to go back to first principles, which is the diagram of the Tree of Life and the principal Hebrew Names. All else is speculative commentary and should be treated as such. It may be useful and it may not. In my book I have tried to provide a guide line through these latter day speculations and commentaries.

In such an approach a great deal of contradiction comes to light of course, which can be upsetting or off putting to many people. However, my view is that virtually any symbol system is valid if one believes in it. It is a useful crutch which is later discarded when direct perception of subtler reality is achieved. The two things which must be avoided at all costs are (a) the elevation of the inventor of a particular symbol system into an authority, and its converse, (b) the denigration of the inventor and/or his system because it does not fit in with one’s own ideas. Both attitudes are  widespread of course, but the only thing one can do is to try to avoid falling into them oneself, for in the last analysis, they are simply irrelevancies to the work in hand.

With regard to Huna and the Qabalah, I am with you all the way in your view that the first essential is simplification. The Tree of Life, used as a yard stick, can be applied in many ways of course, but as a tentative beginning I would try regarding the seat of the Aumakua consciousness at Tiphareth, the seat of the Aunihipili consciousness at Yesod, and that of the Auhane in Malkuth, the physical world. The side Sephiroth, Hod and Natzach, would represent the positive and negative functional possibilities of each self, and the Sephiroth above Tiphareth as latent powers of the Aumakua.

I have followed your work as described in your books with interest. I cannot go all the way with you on a number of points but it is heartening to see someone trying to make a systematic experimental path that verges neither into esoteric or materialistic dogmas and preconceptions. At present I am experimenting myself with a small group on methods of utflizing the Qabalistic system as a means of contacting inner worlds – of Aumakua or Aunihipili. I hope it will provide the basis for another reasonably useful book one day.

If I may finish on a digression, raised by your very interesting opening to Huna Vistas No. 71. You may find it interesting to refer to Vol. 2 of my book, principally page 41, paras 7 & 8   for “Individuality” substitute “Aumakua” – and the whole section on the 28th Path generally. The point is referred to in various other parts of the book – where, I cannot exactly say, you are quite right in saying it badly needs an index, but probably in relation to chapters relating to Netzach, Tiphareth and Yesod.

You are at liberty to quote any or all of this letter in the HUNA VISTAS if you think any would be interested in it. Any help I can give at any time, please let me know. Yours sincerely, Basil Wilby (Gareth Knight).

IT WAS A PLEASURE to have the above letter. I cannot see how his placement of the three selves as he has suggested would fit the ten unit tree which I suggested a time ago, especially as Huna knows three aka bodies and three manas, but not the positive and negative suggested to cover Hod and Natzach, however, any suggestion made by so sound a student of the Kabala must be taken and examined most carefully. The passages mentioned as paragraphs 7 and 8 of Volume 2 of the book under discussion need to be quoted so that those of you who do not already have the volumes in hand may see the meaning. I will insert the Aumakua at the points suggested.

“7. Whether Jung realized it or not, and it is possible he suspected more than he cared to admit, the archetypes of the unconscious, particularly the contra sexual image, are images of the Individuality (Aumakua) of man. The tremendous power of the anima image over man is a frequent motif in literature, perhaps as well as anywhere in Marlowe’s Dr. Faustus:

“‘Was this the face that launched a thousand ships
And burnt the topless towers of Illium?
Sweet Helen, make me immortal with a kiss.
Her lips suck forth my soul; see where it flies!
Come Helen, come give me my soul again.
Here will I dwell, for Heaven is in these lips,
And all is dross that is not Helena.”‘

“8. In this passage, Marlowe, with great poetic insight – and artistic inspiration is also a factor on this Path – shows the ease of confusion between the image of the Individuality (Aumakua), which is subjective, and the objective projection of that image upon another person of the opposite sex.”