Chapter XXI. How the Kahunas Controlled Winds, Weather and the Sharks by Magic

The Secret Science Behind Miracles, by Max Freedom Long, [1948], at sacred-texts.com

p. 356

CHAPTER XXI

HOW THE KAHUNAS CONTROLLED WINDS, WEATHER AND THE SHARKS BY MAGIC

Hawaiian legendary history tells the story of how the ancestors of the Hawaiians traveled from the original homeland in great double canoes which were driven through the water by the power of magic.

This was the same magic which had enabled the leader, Hawaii Loa, to see half way around the globe and find the island group which was to be their new home. With this same magic the winds and waves were controlled so that the frail crafts of the migratory fleet were not lost.

Still another use for this form of magic lay in the control exerted over sharks and other creatures of the sea.

This work was based on the theory that when the middle self graduates to become a High Self, it serves an apprenticeship acting as a guardian (or as called in Theosophy a "nature spirit") over massive parts of the lower creation. These spirits are the seat of higher consciousness which can be seen at work in crystals, plants, insects, birds, fish and animals. They are the source of the instinctive knowledge which enables the bee to build its honey cell and the bird its intricate nest.

As all High Selves are closely in touch, an appeal for weather control can be made through one's own High Self, who, supposedly, passes it on to the High Self in charge of weather in that vicinity.

p. 357

However, there was a system of direct introduction to the weather control spirits. A kahuna who knew such a spirit and so had a connecting shadowy thread running to it to be used in sending a prayer, could introduce a student kahuna and so help him to set up a line of connection through a shadowy thread.

Case 30

White Man Learns to Control the Winds

Preliminary Notes:

In the following case it will be seen that weather control can be exerted without the use of physical stimuli such as are seen in the ritual snake and other rain dances of our Indians in the Southwest.

The Case:

N. S. Emerson, now some time passed over, was a surveyor in Hawaii for many years. His work took him to isolated parts where kahunas were still at work, and he won the friendship of more than one healer. One kahuna, who was adept in the high magic of weather control, undertook to teach Mr. Emerson the art. He "introduced" him several times to the invisible "god" (Aumakua) who controlled the weather, and taught him to recite a ritual prayer to cause the winds to increase or decrease.

The kahunas demonstrated the workability of the magic repeatedly, so giving him faith in it. Under their guidance he made the prayer and watched its answer take form. In the end he came to be able to think of the "god" and recite the prayer, getting results the same as his teacher.

The prayer is a simple one which embodies definite

p. 358

mental pictures or thought forms of the condition wanted. It is repeated aloud, and forms a physical stimulus to cause the low self to make contact and carry the telepathic request of the prayer. The prayer calls on the "Winds of Hilo" and either asks that the little winds be put back in the wind calabash and the large winds released to blow, or that the large winds be put into the wind calabash and the little ones let out to blow. Nothing in the prayer indicates the nature of its power or the mechanism of its magic. It is not so much what is said as it is what goes on in the low self that counts in magic.

Mr. Emerson retained his contact with the High Self of this level all the rest of his life. Repeatedly his friends came to him to get his help in quieting the weather when they wished to go by ship between the islands. On the annual kite day at Kamehameha School for Boys, he was invariably asked to be present, and to make the prayer for the large winds to be let out of the wind calabash (symbolic, of course) so that the big kites could go up. I have talked with a number of people who have witnessed the blowing up of a good strong breeze within ten minutes after the making of the prayer, although I was never fortunate enough to see this myself. If he ever failed the boys and their kites, I have heard nothing of the failure.

Comment:

Rain making was not a usual part of the activities of the kahunas who worked to get weather control for the reason that Hawaii was blessed with much rain in the inhabited sections.

While it is hard to imagine clouds and rain being

p. 359

manufactured out of nothing by the High Selves in response to ritual prayers, one can easily imagine a control by which distant rain clouds could be brought to empty themselves at the desired place.

Case 31

Control of Sharks and Turtles

Preliminary Notes:

While I lived in the Hawaiian Islands I did not hear of a single case in which sharks had attacked and eaten a live person, although the bodies of those drowned were eaten. The sharks are supposed to have their High Selves in each group of the islands in the Pacific, and these are thought to have the ability to take shark form at will. Many tales are told of the intimate relations established between human beings and individual sharks. Families were often intimately associated with the various creatures, and made magical pacts with their Guardian High Selves. This gave rise to a form of totemism in which certain rites were observed, and the totem beast of the family was not eaten by that family.

Children and the High Selves who watch over the lower creatures seem to have a strong affinity. Children frequently show natural psychic ability and see the "little people." In Hawaii there is a strong belief that human baby spirits may, under certain circumstances, be born into the bodies of small sharks and thus keep up the totem relations between sharks and the shark-families of humans.

(Speaking of the awareness of children—as well as primitives—to the High Self, I am reminded of Mary Austin's story as related in her autobiography Earth's 

p. 360

[paragraph continues] Horizons. As a very small girl she came to know the superconscious and called it "I Mary" in contrast to herself, who was just "Mary." She was able to obtain help from this spirit in even such small things as crossing a log over a creek which she could not cross without help. In later life she found that the Piute Indians knew the same High Self and called it Wakanda or "The Friend of the Soul of Man." All her life she prayed to this "I Mary" when in difficulty, and seldom failed to get help.)

In Samoa there was, at least up to 1934, a rite by which children repeated simple chants and, so it seems, made contact with the High Selves in control of sharks and turtles in those regions.

The Case:

In the Geographic News Bulletin, issue of December 10, 1934, (National Geographic Society) Mr. George H. Hutchinson gave an eye witness account of the ritual of "Calling the Shark and the Turtle" at the village of Vai Togi, Samoa.

The native children and adults gathered for the ceremony, then the children were sent alone to a point of land jutting over the sea. There they recited an old legend telling how a prince and princess had been changed to a shark and turtle respectively. As they chanted they beckoned. In about five minutes a small shark four or five feet long appeared in the clear water beyond the breaking waves, swam around in plain sight for about a minute, and then departed. Soon a turtle appeared in a like manner, remained for a short time, and swam back to deep water.

p. 361

Comment:

The training of the young to become kahunas began early. By the age of nine or ten it was intensified. It may well be that such training helped the low self of the child to easier and more automatic contact with the High Self or Aumakua, and we moderns may some day begin such training at a similarly early time.

In Christianity there is a hint at such a procedure in the words of Jesus: "Suffer little children to come unto me and forbid them not."

Of significance is the fact that the kahunas were "introduced" to the High Selves of weather and nature control for the purpose of establishing a connecting thread of shadowy substance between these High Selves and the student kahuna.

This may have been an ancient mechanism from which sprang the idea in various religions that new priests had to be ordained. Ordination was accomplished through the aid of an already ordained (or introduced) priest, and once the link was established between the priest and the High Being, he was ready to begin his ministry.

In India there still is a rite by which this form of introduction or thread-connecting is accomplished. The teacher acts to cause the contact, even while not knowing its mechanisms, and suddenly the pupil finds himself able to touch the High Self and becomes "illumined." This rite usually included a physical contact between teacher and pupil, sometimes a slap or even a kick, and it may be that in this act a thread of contact is established

p. 362

through the teacher's shadowy body to that of his High Self.

While these matters are still less than fully understood, the fact that a connecting thread is needed stands out clearly at all times. Various ways seem to be effective to remove complexed blockings and open the path of telepathic communication.

In due time, when we come to experiment on a larger scale to learn to duplicate the works of the kahunas, we may find a way to become "introduced" to those High Selves presiding over the lower forms of life, among which are the parasitic growths which afflict man. Through these Selves we may cause the cancers and tumors to leave. Germs may be handled in a like manner. Only recently I read an account of a person who spoke aloud to the ants in and around her home, promising them the run of the garden unmolested if they would keep out of the house. The pact was effective and continued up to the time of writing the report.