"Starfire Kiva" Ho'oponopono

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Ho'oponopono 

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One of our words for sacred prayer in Hawaii, ho'oponopono is understood to be the practice of  forgiveness - a ritual cleansing of the spirit that brings things back into their own right order....The sacred healers or priests of our islands, kahunas,would serve as a guide to those who were in need of this kind of healing as well as performing the ceremonial ritual and prayers involved..

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"In order to heal the world around you.... you must first heal the world within you."   

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As we enter sacred space for ceremony, inipi (sweat lodge), kiva rituals, hanbleceya (vision questing/ dream questing)....there is a process of "going within" where we are entering the sacred both literally in the physical world and symbolically in the world of spirit....when we give ourselves over to the creative journey or open into the dreamtime during sleep- we are journeying within and healing the world around us by coming closer to the truth within ourselves....

To inhabit the worlds that live deep within, and  sometimes simply visiting for a period of time, requires courage,,,,acceptance.....and I think ultimately, forgiveness; of ourselves and of the world.... that we might find release from the weight of containment that our sorrows and fears bind us with. 

Real beauty has always had a component of ugliness, pieces of darkness, elements of uncontrollable chaos ....to recognize these and accept that they have a place in the order of things is to come closer to the true nature within ....too see that everything is connected, it is all related, it is all necessary.... and ultimately all things have their place in the world as well as within us.... Ultimately, the holy is woven into everything.

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 In honor of the Starfire Kiva, a place within for the healing prayers to be spoken.......

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A woman can't survive 

by her own breath

alone

she must know 

the voices of mountains

she must recognize

the forgiveness of blue sky

she must flow

with the elusive

bodies

of night winds

who will take her

into herself

look at me

i am not a separate woman

i am the continuance 

of blue sky

i am the throat

of the mountains

a night wind

who burns

with every breath

she takes

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"Fire" from the collected works ~ this poem among the ones that have been companion to  my journey - is one that echos deep in the roots of being and always brings me home.