Recovering the Ancient Magic

Max Freedom Long

Description

Recovering the Ancient Magic presents the results of an 18-year-long study of Huna magic, detailing examples of fire-walking, spiritualism, levitation, mind-reading, instant healing, and changes in physical material.

Max Freedom Long spent 14 years in Hawaii studying the secrets of the kahunas of magic. His attempts to discover the secrets behind magical ability are detailed in this volume containing his collected data and assimilated theories. Long examines the various examples of ancient magic that he witnessed and presents profuse philosophical thoughts.

This volume features chapters on many elements of ancient magic including:

- Fire-walking

- Ghosts

- Hypnosis, mind reading, and telepathy

- Crystal gazing

- Voodoo

- Incantation rituals

- Materialisation and levitation

First published in 1936, Recovering the Ancient Magic was the first book on Huna, and Max Freedom Long’s study would make the perfect read for those interested in the secrets of magical power.

Sujets

• Spirituality
• Magick

Informations

• Publié par: Read Books Ltd.
• Date de parution: 18 avril 2013
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781447499275
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 2 Mo

Extrait

Recovering the Ancient Magic
Max Freedom Long
PHOTO OF WAX KAHUNA IN CASE AT BISHOP MUSEUM. LIFE SIZE
CONTENTS
PART ONE
C HAPTER I
C HAPTER II
PART TWO
C HAPTER I
C HAPTER II
C HAPTER III
C HAPTER IV
PART THREE
C HAPTER I
C HAPTER II
C HAPTER III
C HAPTER IV
C HAPTER V
C HAPTER VI
C HAPTER VII
C HAPTER VIII
C HAPTER IX
C HAPTER X
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
P HOTO OF W AX K AHUNA IN C ASE AT B ISHOP M USEUM
H AWAIIANS IN THE C HIEFTAINLY C OSTUMES OF Y ESTERDAY
A S LOW F LOW OF L AVA SUCH AS NEARLY DESTROYED THE T OWN OF H ILO
A L AVA F LOW
T HE P HOTO IDENTIFIED AS ONE MADE FROM THE P LATE IN V ANCOUVER S V OYAGES
M AX F REEDOM L ONG
C ITY OF R EFUGE . T EMPLE IN K ONA , H AWAII
H AWAIIAN V ILLAGE OF E ARLY D AYS
R ESTORED H AWAIIAN T EMPLE AT N APOOPOO , H AWAII
K AHUNA OF THE P AST G ENERATION
W OODEN I DOLS - THE D OGMA OF K AHUNAISM - SHOWING THE A NGEL ON THE H EADPIECES
A VERY ODD P ICTURE TAKEN DURING THE M ISSION C ENTENNIAL
RECOVERING THE ANCIENT MAGIC
CHAPTER I
AFTER an eighteen-year study of Magic in its various forms-not the spurious magic of the stage, but the genuine magic that works miracles-I come as a layman to report my findings to other laymen.
Fourteen years of my study have been spent largely in Hawaii endeavouring to penetrate beyond the externals of native magic and discover its basic secret. I have been trying to learn the very secret of secrets which is guarded so carefully by those who know it.
Nearly everyone has either heard tales of fire-walking in Polynesia or has seen moving pictures of fire-walking ceremonies. I doubt if this startling use of magic has ever been discussed, or illustrated on the screen, without arousing great curiosity. In my own case it was fire-walking which first roused my curiosity concerning the form of magic practised in the South Seas, although I must confess that I was born with a bump of inquisitiveness which always caused me to blunder in where angels fear to tread. Once intent on the magic of fire-walking, my eighteen-year study of Polynesian magic began. From that study comes the greater part of what I now have to tell.
It will seem strange to most of you to hear an ordinary American speak so casually of magic. But consider how strange it must have been to me when I came to realize that genuine magic was being practised all about me in Hawaii. My first three years in the Islands were spent at places two and three days by steamer from Honolulu-remote and primitive districts such as Kau, Kohala and especially South Kona on the Big Island, Hawaii.
Science teaches us that Magic is a remnant of superstition and that there is nothing which transcends physical matter, force and space. Our belief in this teaching is so great that it has taken the form of a complex or fixation of ideas in our subconscious minds. This complex makes it nearly impossible for us even to tolerate the suspicion that Science might be wrong in its conclusions concerning magic.
Like most laymen, I had given little or no thought to magic as a term having special meanings of its own. In my mind the word was associated, first, with the stage and, second, with the mumbo-jumbo of absurd spells and incantations. I had read of the alchemists and their search for the Philosopher s Stone and the Elixir of Life. I had smiled over the absurdities of the Egyptian Book of the Dead and over the infantile practices described in such books as Levy s Transcendental Magic . It had not occurred to me to associate magic with such things as the act of Jesus in turning water to wine or of Moses in smiting the rock. Least of all had I thought of the term in connection with hypnosis or with the mental and spiritual healing of modern times. However, I was eventually to discover that these last two things are a part and parcel of the old Magic which was once the heritage of humanity-a heritage lost in Christendom for centuries, and which we are only in recent years beginning to recover.
I had an idea that witches and sorcerers had been evil people who had rightly been burned or otherwise done away with. The churches of other days had found them deserving of such treatment, and who was I to question their findings?
The newer and truer meaning of Magic was one which came to me only after some time spent in Hawaii. Shortly after my arrival there I began to hear of the kahunas . Naturally I classed them at once with witches and sorcerers. Smilingly, I listened while my white acquaintances regaled me with stories of their activities-incredible stories, they seemed to me then. Still moved by nothing but amusement, I listened while I was told that, of course, the stories were mostly exaggerations, and that if there was any truth in them, it could be accounted for by the use of suggestion, telepathy, or by simple imposition on the credulous. It was later that I heard an old man tell how he had often seen the aged Hawaiian guides scamper barefoot across the red-hot lava which overflowed from the volcanoes on one of the far islands of the group. As neither suggestion nor telepathy could explain such feats, and as I was assured that there had been no mistake about the performances, I instantly burned with curiosity. It seemed imperative that some explanation be offered. All that was forthcoming, however, was the lame statement that perhaps the fire-walkers knew of some secret preparation to use on their feet-although no one had ever found them applying it, and although the use of such trickery was hotly denied by the kahuna guides. Nevertheless, despite my complexed belief in what I may call the Scientific Attitude-a layman s interpretation of the teachings of Science-I was able to accept as full and adequate the explanations of all stories of magic except those of the fire-walking. In this last matter I came to no conclusion at the time.
In addition to my Scientific Attitude complex there were two others lodged in my subconscious. Between the three I was rendered illogical and inconsistent without being aware of my plight. From each complex I derived beliefs or convictions which were more or less openly opposed and contrary to each other. From the Scientific Attitude complex I drew the conviction that the universe was made up of matter, force and space-nothing else. This conviction left no room for anything superphysical whether it be ghost, devil, or a Supreme Intelligence who could at will act in a way to upset the laws of physics. From my religious complex I drew a firm belief that there could be, and was, some Supreme Intelligence that could, if He so chose, overthrow the laws of physics, but who, fortunately, seemed no longer to choose to do so. From what I may call my magic complex I drew the firm belief that a ghost I had once seen was real, and that there certainly were more things in heaven and earth than scientists dreamed of.
I had read of Freud s discovery of the complex, but quite naturally it had never occurred to me to connect his discovery with myself. Never once, in those days, did I realize how complexed I was or how absurd and illogical those complexes made me.
As time passed I automatically had days when each complex was dominant in turn. One day the Scientific Attitude would hold me and I would be all but certain that either the fire-walkers treated their feet with something, or that there was some clever trick in their performances. Perhaps the magic complex would be dominant in my consciousness the next day and I would be fully convinced that fire-walking was just as possible as my old friend continued to declare it to be. At such times I began to be able to believe to some extent that my new Hawaiian friends might be right in affirming that the kahunas were daily using genuine magic. I had by then heard solemnly told stories of how some neighbour had recently been prayed to death, and that without ever being given a warning so that suggestion could have been responsible, or so that pure fright could have killed him. I talked with fine, honest brown men and women who told me how they had been miraculously healed when doctors had given them up for lost. I heard how financial ills had been overcome by magic and how great troubles had been cleared away in a family where husband, wife and children were at each other s throats.
My religious complex usually became dominant only on Sundays, but when dominant, it was all pervasive. From my subconscious would arise old habits of thought impressing themselves on my mind with a stubborn emotional force that swept all doubts away. Instantly I would be made to see as clearly as through crystal that the kahuna activities which I had considered beneficial, and therefore very admirable, were nothing but disguised activities of the devil. The faith of my childhood would rise up and demand of me how any heathen kahuna could do the slightest good when he appealed neither to the Christian God nor Jesus. I would be illogically positive that what little magic might be in use was a thing condemned repeatedly in the Bible.
I speak of these matters at length because I know that I am addressing others who have those same three complexes I had, and from which I have not completely freed myself even yet.
As my study and understanding progressed, I came, little by little, despite my complexes, to a momentous decision which could not be discounted by my complexed belief in either Science or Religion. I decided that the healing of deserving people which was constantly, though mysteriously, being done all about me, was a magnificent accomplishment in any age, regardless of the nature of the powers used. My mind wandered back to the beginnings of Christianity and I saw Jesus healing with loving tenderness and using His power to demonstrate the verity of God. I remembered the great pile of crutches and braces I had once seen at a shrine-the pile which had brought tears to my eyes as I pictured the many who