Last month I had the opportunity to re-visit the Big Island of Hawaii, walk the volcanos, and swim with dolphins once again. I want to share an experience I had, a strong teaching on the importance of honoring the land where we are, remembering to protect ourselves, and returning the world to balance.

I was hiking on a small hill surrounded by lava flow on Mauna Kea. The hill preserves a "remnant forest" where many of the Island's indigenous, beautiful, and rare birds are found. I had visited this forest once before, remembering it for many years before I was able to return.

We hiked to the top, and on the way down I noticed a hand-twined offering around a branch. Below, at a ridge overlooking the old lava flow, there was a Ti-leaf-wrapped, traditional Hawaiian offering next to a statue of Hawaii's Queen Liliuokalani. This seemed an unusual place for statues and offerings; I took a few photos and moved on.

Shortly I began to grow very tired, strangely so. I had to sit down on a log; something was happening and I didn't know what it was. I sat very still, listening carefully to the earth and spirits. A strong ancestral presence arose, acting irritated. Then I began to feel invaded, as if this energy was trying to come into me or take over.

Right away I did clearing and protection practices, intending to release whatever foreign energies had "come in" and surround my field with a protective shield. These are practices I have shared with you and teach people because they are so essential to walking through the world in a clear way.

I listened some more. I realized I had not been respectful enough when I entered that space: I'd been in a looking-at-trees-and-birds state of attention rather than a conscious greeting-and-honoring-the-land-and-ancestors space. In fact, I felt guilty: I'd been way too busy before leaving to spend much time connecting with the land, though I'd been quite tuned into the dolphins and whales for weeks.

I called in a group of beings I often work with, the Circle From the Other Side. They are Aboriginal peoples in the Southern hemisphere, living nearly opposite Northern California where I reside. This group and the local ancestors seemed hostile at first; then we all sat together and came into harmony. My fatigue lifted. I listened some more, but learned nothing further.

Later, I asked for dreams to see how to continue to bring balance to the situation.

Eventually I understood that I needed to do a ceremony for the ancestors, the star beings, and Ho'opono'pono (forgiveness) while visiting the Island.

So, a few days later when we had left our friends and were on our own at Kealekakua Bay, I was able to journey and dream more on this ceremony. As some of you know, I have long made despachos--an Andean form of reciprocal offering that looks often like a mandala, and is usually buried or burned. I saw the form and intent the despacho offering would take; I walked one morning to collect flowers, seed pods, and whatever else jumped out at me. Then I took everything to the nearby Hikeau Heiau, a place where the old Hawaiian shamans went to die, and walked around listening for the place I should sit and create the offering. 

As I made the despacho, many Hawaiian ancestors came and joined me, along with my Power Animals, the circle of Old Ones I work with, and several other human and spirit circles. I felt surrounded and supported by Council. Two messages became clear.

In Council, the past is in front of us, inside the circle, the future behind us (as in the Andean cosmovision), spreading out like rays of light. We can learn to digest, forgive, and release the past out of our hearts and through our backs, feeding the future. We can also breathe in the star beings who came to earth, the kahunas, and other ancestors who became light beings, feeding our own transformations and initiations-taking in whatever is appropriate for us, releasing the rest. This can become a constant feeding/nurturing/releasing/transforming process. Learning to do this is "an essential step on the path."

A second message was that we are to sit in the circle as equals-no longer assuming that other wisdom keepers, teachers, or indigenous are "wiser" or more realized (or whatever terms we use). I believe this message has to do with our habits of giving away our inner authority. For me making the offering, it gave me permission to leave the despacho on the sacred Heiau itself, as Hawaiians do. It looked very beautiful.

We all--together, and individually--have so much support and energy to draw on as we weave our lives and spirits into a whole cloth. I feel blessed to be living and healing in this time of upheaval and consciousness shifting with all of you!

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