Literally translated Huna means “the secret” or “secret knowledge”. A Kahuna or master practitioner of the various arts based on Huna translates roughly as “The keeper of the secret”. Broken up into syllables, Hu means male or active energy and Na means female or passive energy. In association with the first principle then Huna means “the constant interaction of male and female energy directed by thought to create experience”.
The Huna philosophy (as taught in the Kupua tradition by the Kahili family) is based on seven simple principles and acknowledges that it is completely arbitrary and “made up” as are all systems. It is a very pragmatic philosophy and is “inclusive” in that it does not exclude any other philosophy or religion and can be practiced along side any other system.
Some of the legends of Polynesia suggest that this knowledge was brought to the people of Earth from the Pleiades thousands of years ago and spread out around the world and evolved into various forms to suit the environment in which it was applied. Even today the Maori of New Zealand and the Hawaiians recognise the season of Makahiki (Hawaiian) or Matariki (Maori) when the Pleiades is visible in the sky. However it came to exist it remains a powerful and useful system of thought in today's world.
Most of the traditions using this knowledge including most in Hawaii, followed the way of the warrior. A few, including the Hopi Indians, Kalahari Bushmen and the Kupua of Hawaii, followed the “Way of the Adventurer”. The different viewpoints give rise to different ways of working with the same basic principles and a very different approach to and experience of life.
You create your own reality. This means every part of your personal experience of reality. You create it through your beliefs, expectations, attitudes, desires, fears, judgements, interpretations, feelings, intentions and consistent or persistent thoughts. When you change any of these, your experience of life changes.
You are unlimited. Your energy is infinite. Anything is possible if you can figure out how. There are no boundaries between the various parts of yourself, you and your body, you and your spirit, you and the world or you and God. Any divisions used are terms of function and/or convenience for understanding because separateness is a useful illusion.
You get what you concentrate on. The thoughts and feelings that you dwell on, in full awareness or not, form the blueprint for bringing into your life the nearest equivalent experience to those thoughts and feelings.
You are not bound by any experience of the past or any perception of the future. The past is only a memory and the future a mere possibility. You have the power in the present moment to change limiting beliefs and consciously plant the seeds for a future of your choosing. As you change your mind, you change your experience.
The joyful sharing of life energy in the present. All realities are made up of relationships — with people, Nature, our bodies and our beliefs. Aloha is the ability to be in harmony with what we experience, without judgement or comparison. We love someone or something to the degree that we are happy with them.
The things in life that we perceive to have power over us only do so because we give them that power. We have freedom of choice in how we respond and what we do. Mana grows as we develop confidence, self-esteem, knowledge and skill. Developing these increases the power we have to influence our experience and shape our lives.
There is no absolute truth. If a concept or belief works to achieve your purpose then that is your truth. The same concept may not work for another person so they must choose another one more appropriate to their purpose. The end does not justify the means however, it will always reflect them i.e. Violent means, violent end; Happy means, happy end.
Also known as the Aloha Philosophy these ideas have never been very popular because they declare that without exception the individual is totally responsible for his personal experience. Rulers see these ideas as subversive and subjects find them intolerable. The uneasiness produced by the implication of responsibility often blinds people to the tremendous freedom the philosophy also contains.
Belief is the fundamental basis for our experience of any reality. We can only experience what we believe is possible at some level of consciousness. The more firmly we believe something, the more profoundly it affects our experience. The major task of a Kahuna Healer is to change unhealthy beliefs, into healthy ones.
The Seven Principles of Huna were formulated into their modern form by Dr Serge Kahili King. They were distilled from his twenty years of work with his adoptive Hawaiian aunt and uncle, together with seven years of work with a West African shaman, in order to make the knowledge accessible to a wider Western audience. A deeper explanation can be found in his book Urban Shaman.