Ho'oponopono
A Hawaiian Healing Ceremony
An article published in The Journal of Shamanic Practice Volume 3, Issue 1, Spring 2010 published by the Society for Shamanic Practitioners
Below is an excerpt from the article. To receive a copy of the journal, please click on Guestbook above.
As a ceremonial method of creating order and balance this ceremony centers around the concept of oneness with everyone and everything. This Oneness is represented by a physical-spiritual connection called aka, that connects things when they come into physical, mental, or spiritual contact. Many of us have been taught cord-cutting as a way of releasing unwanted connections and facilitating healing. It involves releasing the connections between oneself and persons, places, or things. In many cases, however, people find that the cord is cut only temporarily since cords are like telephone lines, with one wire for transmitting your voice, and another wire for receiving another person’s voice.
Hawaiian shamanic healing begins when you recognize that the connections that you have established are not always supporting your highest good. They may deplete your energy and block your path. Hawaiians consider a blockage as “a piece of baggage” or “a stone” that keeps you from fully healing. Hank Wesselman in his book Vision Seeker: Shared Wisdom from the Place of Refuge (2001), and Koko Willis and Pali Jae Lee in their book Tales from the Night Rainbow (2001), mention the Hawaiian tradition of accumulating stones in a wooden bowl that holds your mana, or life-force energy. The stones represent situations in which you were jealous, judgmental, uncaring, and even cruel. The more stones you have, the less room there is for life force, energy, or light. You can remove these stones by turning the bowl over and pouring them out; symbolically dumping your old ways of thinking and behaving.