| INSIGHT | COLUMNS & GUIDANCE The House of Selves and Huna Magic by Kanta Bosniak Most people think of sacred space as a church or home sanctuary, where prayer and meditation are conducted. While this is true in the outer sense, it also holds an esoteric meaning. Sacred space is the safe place you create in your own mind where you meet with the Divine. This is where you heal, receive guidance, re-energize and create your prosperity with prayer and visualization. Without this shelter and the sustenance provided within it, we are truly homeless. With it, we are always home, the refrigerator is always full, the bed peaceful and sweet dream-stocked, the companionship loyal and loving. All we have to do is tend the house for a few minutes a day. Pretty good deal! Each one of us is given a piece of property that we can turn from a "fixer-upper" to a sumptuous palace. Regardless of what you start with, you can make it what you want -- and more. As a survivor of sexual and physical abuse, I started in prison. Now I live in beauty, love and abundance near the beach. I got there by learning how to manage my property with mental feng shui and a little hands-on magic. Imagine it If we could see the "property," what would it look like? Imagine a free-standing, two-story house surrounded by a large yard on all sides. The yard and exterior of your house are your life in the world, your work, your career goals, your desires for what you want to own, enjoy and create, ways you want to contribute, your prosperity and manifestation. The perimeter of a yard is important in creating a boundary between your home and your neighbor's. We define these boundaries with fences and shrubs, setting aside a breathing space. Poets and wise men of all cultures and have counseled on the necessity for a little privacy from one's neighbor, even from one's beloved. The border of the property is what defines you as a separate being, with your own distinct dreams and gifts to express. Without a clearly defined boundary, it's easy to get caught up in pulling someone else's weeds and neglecting your own. Learning techniques to create a clearly defined "safe place" for your inner work, gives you more power in your daily life. Here are three steps: • Define the space, set the intention and invoke protection and your highest good. If you are inside, close the doors of the room you're in. Turn off your phone. If you're outside, mentally define the space that is "yours." Surround yourself with a bubble of light and expand it to fill the space. I use this affirmation before I begin my mediation: "Divine Protection, Order and Love are at work in my life. I know that this experience is for my highest good." • Focus on now. Most of us spend gobs of time in mental meandering that saps vitality. Staying "in your head" gives you a headache and it also keeps you cut off from "belly wisdom." Bring your energy down into your body so that you can access your feelings. This creates wholeness and integrity of feeling/thought, so that questions you have will be answered more effectively. • Call your guidance directly and ask for help. It's a free will Universe. Help is always available, but you have to ask for it. Take inventory In this "safe place," you will find newfound strength to take inventory and clear the way for your success with elimination of impediments. By creating a place of unconditional love, you will be able to see those blocks without self-judgment or blame. You will be able to ask yourself the questions that will open to your guidance and give you all the energy and courage you need to take the action: What do I really want? Will the way I spend my time take me there? How can I better learn to love and support myself? Do my thoughts create feelings I enjoy? Which energize me to work towards my goals? What boundaries do I need to set for myself for how I spend my time? What do I feed myself (books, film, companionship)? What ideas, thoughts and habitual feelings do I hold? Here you get to create the most potent boundary of all, the one that separates you from your own tendencies to self-sabotage. This is that inner work that transforms quality of life: healing body, relationships and finances. Inside your "house" is a set of stairs that leads to the basement, where the subconscious mind resides. Depression, illness and "accidental" adversity occur when the subconscious mind is holding on to the belief that you have committed a sin for which you need to be punished. This belief often originates in childhood in one of many ways: rigid religious training; verbal, physical or sexual abuse; and negative experiences at school. Those and other influences can all create within the inner self a belief that you are "bad," worthless or undeserving, especially if they are repeated over a period of time. The Ku In Hawaiian Huna, this part of the self is called the ku. The ku is considered to be one of our three selves that are intended to work together. The ku or low self, works with the middle or conscious self and the high or superconscious Self. Without the cooperation of the ku, human health cannot be maintained and success cannot go forward. So, if the ku is holding a negative belief about itself, it is necessary to ask for assistance of the High Self (your Higher Power) in releasing this belief. Your three selves -- subconscious, conscious and Higher Power -- are like a family, each occupying a floor: basement, first and top floors. Each member of the family has a job. And as in any family, each job is important and interdependent with the others. The job of the ku is to supply you with energy, which it gets from the Higher Power. The job of the conscious mind is to think critically, make choices, formulate goals and release those desires to the Higher Power in prayer. It is assisted in this process by both the ku (inner promptings and "gut feelings" about what is right for you) and The Higher Power, working with the ku while you sleep. When the ku is healthy and unharmed by negative belief, this job distribution works well. You stay energized and vital. The Higher Power sends guidance by ku intuition to your conscious mind, which takes the action appropriate for your part in the manifestation process. And the Higher Power does its part by using all the resources of the Universe to send you the good you ask for. When the ku is holding negative beliefs, the process becomes compromised. It's as if the family members on all three floors aren't talking. The ku won't meet with The Higher Power, because it doesn't think it deserves to, so the energy flow is interrupted, sleep is disturbed and the flow of information necessary for manifestation is interrupted. The conscious mind, feeling the lack of connection, tries to take over the job of the Higher Power, to force good to come through sheer power of thought and will. This, of course, doesn't work. The ku takes this failure as further evidence that it is "bad" and continues the self-punishing cycle until you heal it. This is best accomplished in the same way the Hawaiian kahunas did it: with suggestion and ceremony, to impress the ku that it may let go of the pattern. Heart and mind Visual images are effective in reaching both heart and mind. They anchor new consciousness by engaging the passion and power of our deep selves. When we keep feeding ourselves positive affirmation in images, we begin to make them continuous with our normal reality, rather than occasional fleeting ideas in a sea of worry. Visual archetypes -- images of Divine Feminine and Masculine, sun/moon, mandalas, teachers, fresh flowers, living plants and other objects of natural beauty -- reach beyond the conscious to heal and comfort. Placing these images of love and abundance around us provides consistent suggestion to the ku that it is loved, lovable and a valued part of the whole "family," so that it is able to heal and let go of the belief in punishment. Through repeated suggestion and persistent unconditional self-love, it relaxes and heals. Ceremonies of release and cleansing (burning bowl, bathing, herbal wraps, etc.) help impress the ku that the past "sins" are no more, so it will allow you to move forward. Using ceremony in your sacred space provides an opportunity for the three selves to come together. As with any family, celebration and ritual unite intent and provide communality. Combining sense, intent and transcendence makes for powerful, integrated experience. Anchor spiritual practice into tangible form by involving the senses: smell (Incense, smudge), touch (movement, yoga, massage), sound (drumming, chanting, singing, spoken prayer) and sight (imaging, use of selected altar objects as visual affirmation). Spending a few minutes a day in space that you have set aside for practices that invoke integration of the three selves is like investing a little daily time and energy on landscaping your garden and home improvements. The value of your property increases, your enjoyment of it enriches your life, and friends want to come over to play. Kanta Bosniak is an artist, writer and presenter of "Life Altaring Workshops." For more information, please visit The Life Altaring Institute at www.lifealtaring.com Copyright 2001 Kanta Bosniak |
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Oct 2001 |
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