Why did the ancient people of the Earth not need coaches, experts, gurus, consultants, or psychotherapists?
Why was mental disease virtually unknown in Hawai’i prior to 1820?
Why is the land of Hawai’i even today one of the most blessed spots on Earth?
What is present in Hawai’i tradition that is missing in other places?
For a long time prior to 750 A.D., there flourished a system of personal development, healing, and spiritual discipline that was known by “everyone.” The system was a balanced system — one that honored men and women equally. There were almost no secrets; in fact, there were so few secrets that the information that comprised the techniques wasn’t even organized or formally taught. It just formed the background of “how it was” in the world.
There are only remnants of this system around the Earth, because starting in 325 A.D. (it may have started as early as several thousand years B.C., but the effects were definitely under way by 325 A.D.) a wave began to sweep around the planet in an attempt to destroy the balanced systems — the original teachings of the peoples of the Earth. The wave hit Hawaii sometime between 750 and 1250 A.D. At that time, the Kahuna Pa’ao, arrived in Hawaii, and found a very peace-loving people living in a paradise.
Several years later Pa’ao returned with a number of warriors and priests, and overturned the original system in Hawaii. When Pa’ao arrived, he installed his system, and the original teaching was changed. The old order was overturned, and the current order of Ku was installed.
The Huna that we teach predates the teaching of Pa’ao. So it is very ancient — from before 750 A.D. We believe that before 750 A.D. the balanced order that existed was a balanced system that could be called The Order of ‘Io. This is true all over the world. The balanced Male/Female system in western Europe was called Wicca, and like Huna it was attempted to wipe this teaching out. The Holy Inquisition conducted by “The Church,” for example, reduced the population of Spain by more than 50% in 200 years, killing hundreds of thousands of people. In India, too, a system called Tantra was attempted to be wiped out by the newer system called Vedanta. Although Tantra fared better than Wicca, both systems were subjected to much persecution. The situation was the same all over the world, from the Native Americans, to the Aboriginals of Australia, each of the peoples bearing the original teachings were (and, be sure, still are) subjected to an attempt to eradicate the culture, and the teachings. In Hawaii, fortunately. the original teachings were hidden in the chants of the Ancient Ones — when the original teachings were overturned they went underground. The original teachings were hidden inside of the chants and the Hulahula (Hula dances), and they have waited. They have waited, hidden, for a long, long time. The newer arrivals adopted chants and Hulahula which contained mysteries hidden to them but which were simply waiting for a rebirth of the original teachings.
The teachings were buried again (to a second level) in the ancient chants when the Missionaries arrived from Boston in 1820. Their arrival was not accidental, since the more modern Hawaiian system (order of Ku), called the Kapu system had been ended by King Kamehameha VI in 1819.
Once again the new priests brought their new gods, and the original teachings were buried even deeper. The Missionaries began to do away with the old “superstitious ways.” In 1820, they passed the first of the laws that were designed to eradicate the ancient teachings:
“Section 1034: Sorcery — Penalty, Any person who shall attempt the cure of another by the practice of sorcery, witchcraft, ananna (sic), hoopiopio, hoounauna, or hoomanamana, or other superstitious or deceitful methods, shall, upon conviction thereof, be fined in a sum not less than one hundred dollars or be imprisoned not to exceed six months at hard labor.’ There is also another section of the law which classes the kahuna with bunco men and defines him as one posing as a kahuna, taking money under pretense of having magical power, or admitting he is a kahuna. For this the fine goes up to a thousand dollars and a year in prison.”
— Long, 1948
So, in a Pacific Island nation influenced by American Missionaries, the people were disallowed from practicing their original teachings until the federal government of the United States passed the Native American Religious Freedoms Act in 1979. Amazingly, in 1953 the Kahuna, Daddy Bray, was arrested for chanting a chant in the Hawaiian language at Hulihee Palace in downtown Kona — a chant quite similar to a chant we teach at our Huna seminars in Hawaii.
We believe the final law against the practice of the ancient ways was repealed in 1989. But it was predicted that this would happen. Today, the entire planet is experiencing a revival of the old teachings, where once again we will experience the return of the balanced systems of teaching.