The Kahuna came offer a blessing for the grand opening of the posh drug rehab center. I had been hired to do massage as part of the treatment team. I don’t remember much about the blessing. What I do remember is being inexplicably drawn to him. Next thing I knew I was standing next to him, telling him about a wedding I had been asked to do, and if he would give me some pointers. We agreed to meet for lunch in a couple of weeks.
During the interim I was asked to bless a house and a friend of mine was asked to do a wedding. I asked the Kahuna if my friend could join. He agreed. The lunch lasted three hours. As we drove away I turned to my friend and said, “Dude every time I thought of a question he answered it without me asking it.” My friend shot back, “Me too! I thought it was only me!”
A few days later the Kahuna gave me a kihe or sash, an umeke or wooden bowl, a kukui nut lei, a pū or triton shell, some chants, instructions and said “Go do the blessing.” “You’re not coming with me?” “No, you’ll be fine.” I left in a daze excited and uncertain.
The blessing was the next day. I couldn’t remember the Hawaiian chants in that short period of time so I said a chant in my head my lomilomi teacher taught me for clearing. A few days after the blessing the woman who asked for the blessing called me and said, “I didn’t tell you this before, but prior to you coming we had a Filipino healer come to the house. She told us to feed the spirits. After your blessing she returned and asked, ‘Where did they all go?” I received confirmation that the blessing was effective.
My friend and I did our weddings and later we met with the Kahuna again. During the conversation he kept feeding us information so we asked, “Are you training us?” “Yes,” he replied.
That was the opening of the door.