February-March, 1965

The Word “Kahuna” and More on Tarot Cards

 

MY MOST HEARTFELT THANKS to all of you for your cooperation in letting me stop the Huna Vistas for a few issues so that I could have straight time to work through the final writing and rewriting of the new book. I am happy to report that at this writing, January 22nd, the final copy of the main part of the book is in the hands of typists who are striking a fresh copy which can now be used for the final editing. A few changes may be needed, and then the “copy” will be ready to go to the printers so that the type can be set. In the meantime, the list of words taken from the century old Hawaiian  English dictionary will be gone over carefully to see what words were used in the text of the book that had not been placed in the original list when it was made up by the cut and paste method from the photocopy sheets of the full dictionary. As you might guess, the new angles which continue to turn up each time one works over the material, cause more code words to be found, and so an additional list is needed even before the first one to printed by offset to be inserted into the book which will be printed on other presses from the type. (Between slower work on the book, I will try to get out this edition of the Huna Vistas, leaving the date on it to put in when it nears a finish and I know what the release date will be.) Proof will have to be read on the final draft before it goes to the printer, of course, and later, when the proof sheets come back, they will have to be read, and then the corrections later checked.

Between these activities we will be getting a cost estimate from the printer for the small initial printing, and the price of the book will have to be set, then advertising material of sorts made up. The “blurb” for the dust jacket must be composed also – and in my enthusiasm over the material as it has shaped up, I fear that I shall write a whole page of “Eurekas!” and be unable to tell what I am “cheering” so loudly about. The title of the book has been decided upon, and will be THE HUNA CODE IN RELIGIONS. The selling price is estimated now at $6 owing to the higher costs of printing and the inclusion of an offset section in the regular part. The publication or “ready” date is estimated at about the first of July or August, according to how long we have to wait for a place on the printer’s schedule. (Please do not order yet. I will announce repeatedly and in plenty of time the release date and price.) Five thousand copies will be struck for the first edition, and without the old direct by mail advertising method of selling being used this time (what with high postage and such poor name lists available) the edition may last for a long time. Of course, if there was a way to get the word to the general public of the really amazing discoveries concerning the secret teachings behind Christianity, Buddhism and parts of the Gnostic writings, reprints might soon be needed. Eventually word of mouth advertising will shows its slow effects.

ADDITIONAL PROOF KEEPS APPEARING, to show that the conclusions we have reached concerning code meanings in our research work together have been generally correct, even if we have often not gone quite far enough to get the full implications from words and roots. As many of the fine points cannot appear in the new book, it may be well to give them from time to time in the VISTAS, and some day in the far future, we may have students turning to these old pages to dig for additional material – providing, of course, that a few sets are preserved here and there, as have been the sets of the earlier HRA BULLETIN, the stencils of which have gone the way of all flesh.

TAKE THE WORD “KAHUNA”, for instance. In Polynesia, the attitude of the early missionaries, and of the later “authorities” on the native culture – these pretending to adhere to the “scientific” point of view – was the strong tendency to class all native beliefs as black superstition. The learned gentlemen who have recently been heads of the Bishop Museum in Honolulu have all elected to look in the other direction when code meanings were suggested. They have been careful to avoid being found even looking at the material from the corner of one eye lest they be accused of non-missionary and anti-scientific sins. Even the very learned and kindly lady, Mary Kawena Pukui, who shared with Samuel H. Elbert the glory of revising the new Hawaiian Dictionary, has preferred to remain silent on the matter of the possibility that there could have been coded meanings. Long since, amateur “authorities” such as my friend Charley Kenn, turned thumbs down on the use of root translations to explain the full meaning of longer words, except now and then when that practice had been resorted to by earlier dictionary makers. I have been told by several HRAs who have visited the Bishop Museum and have tried to discuss our version of Huna with the attendants there, that no one seems ever to have heard of our work or the books long available from my pen. They are polite, but that is all. A typical description of the meaning of the word kahuna is given in one of the old books. It is said to mean “a cook” or a “nurse for children”. The reason for ascribing this meaning is that the root kahu has that meaning. But my “authorities” object strongly to having me take the root huna for my use, although it means “secret” and although a recognized language authority, Thomas Thrum, gave the meaning of kahuna as “Keeper (or nurse) of the Secret”. The root, ka, usually means “the”, and so ka huna would be, “The Secret”, leaving out the man or priest, which would not do, of course. In the dictionary, however, we find the word ka given to mean “the” and also “of or belonging to”. There then are listed 15 other variations of meaning, and in our search for the coded or hidden meanings in the words used by the kahunas, we have found that by selecting one or two meanings from such lists, the easily apparent secret implication comes to light, at least it does for one who has been sufficiently initiated into the Huna lore to know what to look for.

THE PROOF OF THIS KAHUNA PUDDING, using our overlapping root system and the basic idea of a code, is self-justifying in my opinion. Watch what can be done to try to learn what a kahuna is and what he does and why and how. The missionaries admitted that he had a religious belief in so far as he “worshiped” something – even if he was a benighted heathen and by no stretch of the imagination could be worshiping God in the necessary way, through the Son, Jesus, as the one and only intermediary. When the kahuna worshiped, he “made mana” (hoo man). Which, to the missionary, was simply ascribing power to some heathen divinity – imitating in a very bad way the ascribing done in the Lord’s Prayer in the line, “Thine be the power, etc.” But the kahuna was not simply ascribing power to a divinity, he was manufacturing the power as the low mana and sending it to his Aumakua to empower it to create the answers to his prayers.

The root ka, in ka huna, is a most picturesque code word in one of its meanings, that of “to bail water from a canoe.” Here the mana is represented as water which has seeped into the canoe which represents the body where mana is accumulated. The bailing is done with a scoop and the water thrown forcefully upward away from the boat, or to the Aumakua.

As if to make certain that the work of a ka hu na was described in the word, the second root used was hu, which means “wet, moist, overflowing”. Here the kahuna is symbolized as filled with mana (water) to the point of having it “overflow”, this duplicating the idea of “bailing out water”. Huna means secret, and the kahunas kept their “Secret” with great care. The word also means “fine particles of something” and in this we have the symbol of the thought-forms, as tiny invisible particles which carry the pictured conditions for which one prays to the Aumakua on the flow of mana sent as a part of the prayer action, or “Ha Rite” (a term I am now using because ha, or “four”, symbolizes the action from beginning to end.)

The final root, na, has the meaning of “by, belonging to,” or it may be short for the “ing” ending as used in English. In this we see that a kahuna is one who does the things symbolized by the combined roots of the word. Na also has the meaning of “nursing, satisfying, quieting, soothing pain, comforting” – all things done by a healing kahuna.

In the Tongan dialect of the Polynesian tongue, the root word hu includes several additional meanings which are significant. One is that of “worship, sacrifice, or pray.” The kahuna worships by sending the mana as a sacrifice to the Aumakua and he then makes his prayer request. A secondary meaning is “to enter within”, and this may symbolize the making of contact with the Aumakua. (In the Gospels we find the kahunas inserted the code idea of this contact when they made Jesus say that “the kingdom of heaven is within.”) A related idea is found in the word pa hu hu, which means in Tongan, “to run a wet rope through the hand to strip off the water”. The rope is the symbol of the aka cord, and the connection with water which is to be taken from it, points definitely to the sending of mana along the cord to the Aumakua as part of the prayer rite.

A STRANGE NEW LIGHT ON HAWAI`I, the cradle land of the Polynesians, has been supplied by the Huna word code. For years there has been speculation as to the location of the original Hawai’i, which in Maori is spelled Hawaiki, the “k” being used instead of the glotal catch as used for the letter sound in Hawaii. Using the Maori word we have the roots – ha wai ki, and we can take the first root to stand for the Ha Rite of prayer and all that it implies. The second root, wai, stresses the meaning of water or mana, which is all inclusive of the uses of the mana forces from low to High. The meaning of ki is that of “to be full” as with water, and also refers to high tide, the code idea being that the Aumakua is filled completely full of the water mana. The Hawaiian for ki is ii , which is “to collect together small things”, and which may refer to the thought-forms which are collected as the prayer picture to be sent to the Aumakua. So, we may have, instead of a home land in actuality, a coded reference to a place where the Huna Ha Rite was known and practiced. I vote strongly for this meaning.

THE HIDDEN LAND was another title for Hawai`i, and it was usually associated with the god Kane, who was one of the four high gods of the Polynesians. Kane means “man”, and this suggests the Aumakua, while the word “hidden” is huna or “secret. In this far land was to be found Kane’s “water of life”, in which one could bathe and be renewed – possibly reincarnated as a renewal. This “Water of Life” was called also the “rain” (ua) of Kane, and as “rain” is the symbol of the high mana when sent back from the Aumakua during the Ha Rite of prayer, the evidence is strengthened to show that Hawai`i was a state or condition of being or action rather than a definite land.

Tregear, page 57, of his dictionary of the several dialects of Polynesia, says that there was a tradition that this “Land of the Divine Water of Kane” was a paradise. He writes, “It was a sacred land: a man must be righteous to attain to it; if faulty, he cannot go there; if he prefers his family, he will not enter into Paliuli (“Land of the Dark Mountains”, another name for the Land of Kane and the Divine Water). The traditions of this paradise have singular resemblance to the ancient legends of Eden. In the midst of Paliuli were the beautiful waters of life, transparent and clear; and from hence the Hawaiian Adam, Kumu`honua and his wife, Ola`ku`honua (meaning life-arising-beginning) were driven out. This pair was supposed to have been exiled on account of their having done some evil, not plainly stated, but connected with the sacred apple tree, or the ‘tabued breadfruit tree’ (sacred to Kane) and the man is often alluded  to afterwards as ‘the fallen chief,’ ‘the mourner’, ‘he who fell on account of the tree’, etc. Allusions are also made to the moopelo, some kind of lizard or reptile, as a lying animal, and a chant speaks of it under the name of Ilioha.” (Translating “wormy” plus ha, or the Ha Rite, indicating possibly that this “tempter” did something to prevent the proper use of the Ha Rite prayer method.) (From other evidence, I have concluded that the Serpent of the Garden of Eden prevented the Adam and Eve couple from sending mana to the Aumakua as was their duty, and because of this the help of the Aumakua could not be given to keep them normal and progressively growing or evolving. The word for breadfruit is ulu, and this also means “to grow” or “to be wet”, the latter meaning reminding us at once or water or mana, and its possible need in the normal growth of the pair. Still another meaning of ulu, and in this case perhaps its most significant one, is “to be possessed by a spirit”. In this we have the “eating companion” or spirit obsession as the cause of the “sins” and the expulsion from the Garden. In this case, also, the evil spirit causing the pair to do evil would be the Serpent.)

AN ECHO OF THE HUNA THEORY OF EVOLUTION is to be heard in another tradition mentioned by Mr. Tregear on page 58. He writes that the Friendly Islanders had no legendary land such as Hawaiki, but believed in a place in which there stands a “speaking tree”, from which comes the  commands of the “divinities”. It stands near the “Water of Life” pool or spring. This land or place is also called Bulotu. We read: “As only the nobles have souls, they alone pass to Bulotu … The petty chiefs go to Bulotu as servants, but the common people cease to exist with the death of the body.” This may be compared to the stages of evolution in which man reincarnates several times until he has learned the lessons of life and is ready to “graduate” or become united with the mate and made into a new Aumakua. The “nobles” would stand at the head of the line, and the commoners at the bottom. It now appears that the average number of incarnations needed to finish the life’s schooling is about a dozen. This would indicate that one out of twelve humans have learned to be basically kind and helpful and so are ready to “graduate”. In making up a list of one’s friends, one can pick out about one in twelve who would qualify. But as long as the Aunihipili is part of the man, it may, despite the training it has received, upset the apple cart now and then and cause the Auhane to join it in hurting others. However, if the advanced individual has come to know that there is an Aumakua, and that it can be asked to give help through its “grace” to “perfect” him and help him to mingle with the mate and become an Aumakua in the “graduation” process, all will be well. I am now convinced that the whole inner meaning of the vicarious atonement is to be found in this aid which one can obtain after a dozen or so incarnations.

Going back to the idea that only the nobles or high chiefs had souls, we find that in the Hawaii of yesterday the very highest of the chiefs were supposed to become “Aumakuas” soon after death, and were worshiped as lesser gods or “Parental Spirits”, the commoners not knowing that a female element must be joined to the male in this upward step into godhood. The lesser chiefs who were said to act as “servants” of the dead “nobles” can be classed symbolically as the Aunihipili and Auhane who are “servants” on the earth level of living in their relation with the Aumakua. It was a mistake, of course, to deny any human being a soul, no matter how lowly.

IN WRITING THE NEW BOOK it has, at last, come to me clearly that in all of the religious systems which were based on Huna or in which there were retained Huna elements, even after the first insight had been lost by advocates of the religion, THERE ARE TWO UNIONS. The first “union” is for those well along in the business of growing or evolving through the average of twelve incarnations. In this the individual becomes aware of the fact that he has an Aumakua and eventually manages to make contact with it at times when he wishes to worship or to pray. This is the lesser union. It is a temporary contact, not the permanent “union” with the vague “Real” Self of Yoga in which the lesser selves vanish or are swallowed up in the Greater or into Nirvana.

The Greater UNION is not absorption into the Aumakua, as is mistakenly believed by occult students today, but is the interblending and “mingling” of the two Auhane mates, male and female. This is a permanent and complete union in which the rib is put back into Adam and the two halves of the divided man are again ONE. There cannot be a complete mingling or absorption of one self by another, only a temporary contact, otherwise each self would be lost in the identity of the other and neither would remain the Real Self or the Lesser Self. And, in the case of graduation and the blending union of the mates, the Auhanes do not remain themselves – or as they were. They become one Aumakua, with very different ingredients, powers and perceptions. If you have a piece of chalk, write in large letters on your most intimate wall, “THERE ARE TWO UNIONS”.

In the Hawaiian of the code we have pili for union, and it is contact, like the edges of two planed boards placed together temporarily, it is a union such as we see between the Aunihipili and the Aumakua. It is a contact that may be held or broken for a time. The word hui is for Union and it has the meaning of a permanent mixing or interblending, as two cups of water poured together. It is the word for things “stitched together”, and the symbol of sewing together stands for uniting the mates. When united, their shadowy bodies are also worked over in some magical way so that there is made for the new Aumakua a “seamless ROBE OF LIGHT”. In this new shadowy or aka body the permanently re-united two selves become “one”.

TAROT CARD SYMBOLOGY

A FRESH LOOK AT TAROT CARD SYMBOLOGY seems to be in order, what with the new identification of TWO unions instead of just one. Those of you who have in hand Huna Vista No. 1 with No. 2, containing the sheets reproducing the Major Tarots, (or who have your own packs from which the Majors can be sorted out and laid before you in the secret Huna order) can check the cards as I discuss the new angles on the old symbology.

Where the cards are laid out in opposing pairs, we have the Hierophant V, opposite Temperance XIV, and in the first we have the priestly figure seated between two pillars, one for the male, the other for the female. The two kneeling figures should also be seen as male and female. In other words, we have here the state of life in which the individual, be he male or she female, are separated as from the first incarnation in the series (when the rib was taken from Adam to make Eve). This individual is triune in nature and has an Aumakua, so the figure wears a crown having three tiers, one for each of the three selves, and the top tier of the Aumakua having extending from it two rods standing for the two selves, with a single rod between indicating perhaps their state as a united pair: the Father-Mother Parental Pair. We may look upon the lower tiers as containing a dozen or so crosses extending in a circle around the crown, giving us the symbology of the Twelve Disciples of the Gospels, or the 12 incarnations needed from the start as a new Aunihipili, then, with graduation into the Auhane level, another round of 12 lives, after which the Auhane graduates to become a new Aumakua. There are three crosses on the front of the robe of the seated figure, whose face is neither male nor female, but a combination, indicating the Aumakua as the one standing ready to initiate the growth of the lesser pair of selves. This figure raises a hand in blessing, and shows two fingers united, the symbol of the highest state of blessedness still to come, that of graduation in which male and female Auhanes are united to make a new Aumakua, which, in its turn will take charge of the Aunihipilis who have stepped up a grade to become new Auhanes and to start a fresh circle of about a dozen incarnations. At the feet of the figure are two keys, the handles of which are marked with a circle bearing a plain cross made like a plus sign. This indicates the fact that at this stage of progress, the individual has become aware of the fact that he has an Aumakua and has learned to make contact with it for short periods in the FIRST UNION – which is the temporary one in contrast to the SECOND UNION which is complete, lasting and permanent (that of the male and female Auhanes). As I reported in an earlier Huna Vistas, this cross and circle which has been used as a symbol by various religions and as a halo behind the head of Jesus, Gautama (who was thought to be one of the Buddhas, and of assorted saints, appears to have been connected from ancient times with  the use of the pendulum to find out whether or not one was making contact with one’s Aumakua when generating and sending mana. The pendulum is suspended over the left palm while one begins breathing more heavily and accumulating mana, at the same time holding the command over the Aunihipili to contact the Aumakua and to begin sending the offering of mana. The pendulum begins to swing on a vertical(?) line, then slowly changes over to the horizontal, thus marking out the cross before changing again, swinging in a large circle. The pendulum soon comes to a stop, and the indication is that the contact has been completed and the mana accepted. (After that the prayer picture can be presented.)

Compare this cross and circle with the plain cross which appears on the breast of the High Priestess II card, in which the lack of the circle may mean that the early progress of the individual through the cycles of incarnation falls under the rule of the Aumakua as “Nature”, with no definite knowledge possessed of its being there and no correct way used to make temporary union with it for the Ha Rite of prayer.

TEMPERANCE XIV, as the card opposite the Hierophant, shows a figure with wings and with the sun on its forehead – the sign of “LIGHT” and so the Aumakua. This figure wears a triangle on its breast, indicating again the triune nature of the man. Going up the mountain to a rising sun is the symbolic “path” of life which has been traveled almost to the end by the Auhane pair. The figure holds two cups, these symbolizing the Auhanes, and it unites or “mingles” them by pouring the contents of one cup into the other. This is the act of “Grace”, symbolic of “Perfecting”, then uniting the Auhane mates. It should also be noticed that the mountain peak at the end of the path, usually having but a single point, now has two points, and the sun rises between them. On the right of the figure we see two iris blooms, giving us probably the Aunihipilis which in their blooming symbolize their graduation to the Auhane level.

THE SUN XIX, Major, shows a rising sun with straight and waved rays coming from it, symbolizing the male and female elements of it as an Aumakua. Its light is shed upon a naked child holding a red banner (red for the physical, and Aunihipili), and mounted on a white horse, representing the new Aunihipili coming up to be the Aunihipili of the man at the time of graduation and to be a part of the triune man beginning the fresh cycle of incarnations.

THE WORLD XXI, the last major card in the pack, gives us the end result of graduation. The new Aumakua, which should not be either too male or too female in figure, floats through the air, carrying in either hand a magician’s rod such as we see held only in one hand by the Magician I, and perhaps indicating the power of a new Aumakua to use the dual powers of male and female polarity – the high mana in all probability. Around the floating figure is the three layer Victory Wreath of one who has successfully passed the graduation and  initiation point.

JUDGEMENT XX, shows the angelic figure of the Aumakua sounding a long horn above father, mother and child, who are rising from their graves for the last Judgement, symbolizing a fresh incarnation. A flag fastened to the trumpet has on it the plus cross, but not the surrounding circle, so we conclude that only when the fact of the Aumakua is realized and contact with it is made, do the reincarnations cease and the time of graduation arrive. The same angelic figure, with the same flames for hair, appears in THE LOVERS VI, hovering over the ideal pair of lovers, hands raised in the “lesser blessing” in which all fingers are extended, not in the “blessing of union” in which two touching fingers are extended (as in V).

STRENGTH VIII, opposed by THE STAR XVII, shows the  Auhane using its hands to force closed the jaws of a lion, or so we can read the symbols, and with the figure 8 sign laid on its side as the sign of evolutionary progression, placed above the head of the figure, we may say that real progress in the direction of graduation is made when the Auhane begins seriously to take charge of the Aunihipili or animal self and train it to be hurtless instead of savage, greedy and impulsive.

WHILE WE ARE ON THE SUBJECT OF THE TAROT CARDS, let me pause to run them to see for the fun of it what I get concerning the future. (It is now February 7th as I work on the N.V., and news has just come in of retaliatory air strikes against North Vietnam following the killing of eight Americans and the wounding of 62 more by the Red guerrilla forces. The Russian, Kosygin, is visiting those parts and is warning us not to extend the war, while we are openly blaming the Chinese and Ho Chi Min. The Chinese have developed the bomb, and, if allowed to continue developing it, will in time be able to threaten the world, but to try to stop them now would mean a new World War, this time with radiation released to wipe out all life on the planet.)

The cards are a most sensitive instrument which, in the hands of the Aunihipili, often reflect the hopes and fears of the operator instead of giving fairly true predictions of the future. (I ran the cards not long ago for one of the HRAs who was very anxious to sell her property in California and move to Oregon. I had been asking in the TMHG for the success of the plan, and when I ran the cards they gave the information that the place would sell at once and the trip north come almost at once. As nothing happened, it can only be concluded that the “wish” colored the fall of the cards.)

It may be recalled that in the November H.V., written before the presidential election, the cards showed such strange and tangled events to follow the election that I judged that whoever won would regret having to face the events which were to come rather soon. So far nothing unusual has happened, so I will check with a fresh card run to see what light I can get on things as they now stand with L.B.J. in the White House.

The cards no longer show the “preposterous mixture of events” which showed in the run before the election. They have gone back to the main theme for that time for the world – that of the desire to get on with business, trade and commerce. The situation in South East Asia, in so far as the American position is concerned, reads stalemate for both sides, and defeat for the USA, while the South Vietnam heads of government show sympathy with the Reds and a desire to beat the USA out of all possible funds. I find the Russian run showing efforts to find a peaceful settlement rather than to promote an expansion of the trouble. A run for China brought up, quite unexpectedly, the card of DEATH and the Five of Pentacles, which shows beggars in the falling snow outside the warmly illuminated church. I read here largely trouble in Red China, but cut no USA cards which would indicate that the trouble is to be caused by us. “Change for the worse” would be the reading for the cards cut, and whatever the internal changes are that may come, Red China will suffer as a result.

Asking about the USA and European trade balances and the leaving of the use of gold as the value standard, the cards show no panic or upset, but planned and careful changes. I judge that we will slowly replace the value behind currency with something more modern than gold – something that is based on commercial usefulness rather than on [a] useless and too scarce metal which can be manipulated for the benefit of those who can get control of the current supplies. An odd indication of the cards, through a question and the coming up of the Magician, is that soon we will have gold being made artificially in such quantities that it will no longer be of value as a standard on which to base world money and credits. Asking about a possible world quake or other disaster, the FALLING TOWER came up flanked by three water cards. Not California, but near seas and at a distance from here.

“I AM NOT TOO CONCERNED ABOUT proving Huna by the Bible”, writes one HRA, “for if Huna works for you and others, there must be truth in it. To use the Bible as ultimate proof of any religion or truth is to limit truth itself.” Another HRA writes: “For MY PART I must confess that I am not following your work on decoding the Bible. But don’t let that deter you, I’m sure most HRAs find it most interesting. I find that I have my hands full in making contact with the world of here and now. However I suppose you might say that that is everyone’s problem. Somewhere between the past and the future is reality. Where all good kahunas should be found. And if the mind is the repository of the past and the creator of the fanciful futures in which to escape, what shall we call that part of us that comes into being when we have momentarily been freed from the mind?”

FOR THE RECORD let me try to state my position on these matters. I quite agree that we can prove nothing by the Bible or other holy books from other religions, old or new. Nor can we prove or disprove the beliefs found in Huna by recourse to books, whether spirit dictated or “inspired” or simply giving the opinions and beliefs of certain great leaders, be they religionists or scientists.

My intention, in trying to decode the Bible, Gnostic literature, Yoga texts and Buddhist writings, is not one of finding proofs. What I am after is the knowledge of what was hidden in the great religions by the kahunas of old as they moved here and there and as they initiated various people. There is a distinct difference between trying to prove that the kahunas were right in their beliefs which we find coded in several old religions, and trying to prove that their strange beliefs were coded in various writings or preserved in recognizable form in the traditional beliefs and practices of Yoga or of the Sanga organized by Gautama when he proposed to lead his “elect” on the march out of this world into Nirvana.

On the other hand, each of us feels the need to rationalize the world around him and his own part in it. Each one compares the beliefs and opinions of other men, reads the sacred writings of various religions, old and new, and from this raw material attempts to compose a tolerable explanation for the problems which cannot be answered by application of the “scientific method” because of its limitations and inability to handle the materials of Psychology and Psychic Science. I am happily aware of the fact that the HRAs are all of too high a P. A. degree level to accept the leadership of anyone – no matter what claims to “authority” may be put forward. We are, proudly, “lone wolves”, and we consider the available materials and come up with a variety of conclusions. I have yet to find an HRA agreeing completely with what I have decided or with the opinions of even one other HRA. This is as it should be. Let the followers of the blind leaders of the blind do the agreeing and following. Oddly enough, none of us want to lead. We all like to do a bit of preaching to air our views, but we seldom make the mistake of thinking that we can change the opinions of anyone whose degree reading is in our level. And, as to exerting ourselves to try to change the opinions of those of the levels below ours, we have long since seen that it is a waste of time. We will NOT work together in groups because we always bore each other by expressing our personal opinions. We are no end tolerant of the other fellow’s beliefs, but do not wish to be made to sit still and listen to them being expounded. The only one in the tight little circle who is allowed to expound is Max, and because he does it in written form, and because one can skip paragraphs or pages in the H.V., the strain of disruptive boredom is not to difficult to bear for most, although a few bow out from time to time.