Allow me to draw from the book that my wife Jill Kuykendall and I co-authored—Spirit Medicine: Healing in the Sacred Realms—to offer you a gift. If you have a serious health issue, here is a healing meditation that you can do in your sacred garden, your inner place of power and healing (also see my book The Journey to the Sacred Garden) for 30 minutes or more, at least once or twice each day.

Before you do, it might be wise to review the nature and function of the three souls. You may find this information in the first several chapters of Spirit Medicine, or you may also see an overview under Shaman Wisdom on the Sharedwisdom website: Hawaiian Perspectives on the Matrix of the Soul.

It would also help to use the drumming and rattling CD included with either Sacred Garden or Spirit Medicine. Shamanic journeywork is a learned skill that improves with practice, and the drumming and rattling on the CDs will assist you in shifting consciousness as explained in both books.

Meditation is sustained, focused concentration. Your mental soul, your ego, derives its power from the control it exerts on your attention. When your attention is focused upon something, that’s where the power goes. Focused attention becomes intent, and your body soul, your subconscious, implements the intention. As we all discover sooner or later, the ability to hold your focus will improve with practice.

The goal of the meditation that follows is to connect with your spiritual oversoul, your higher self, and ask it to channel power to you in a healing capacity. In doing so, you will be asking your immortal self to defend the mortal. Simply knowing that this is going on will enhance the functioning of your immune system dramatically.

The CD track of rhythmic drumming and rattling that accompanies Spirit Medicine runs for an hour, so you have plenty of time. Shorter tracks are available on the CD that is included in Journey to the Sacred Garden. While listening to it, make a journey to your garden and step into your special healing place. Practice relaxation and allow the tranquility of your garden to calm you.

Now—pay very close attention to the steps that follow!

While in your garden, bring up the memory of all those in your life who have hurt you. Allow them to come up one at a time in your mind. Remember the anguish and pain that they caused you and review the incident(s) in which this happened. Then, one at a time, forgive them.

Sometimes this is easier said than done, but rest assured, the goal here is liberation. It’s about achieving freedom from all the held negativity from your own past. By offering forgiveness to those in your life for all the real and imagined wrongs that have hurt you, you are shedding burdens. And in the process, you are releasing potentially illness-causing intrusions that may be affecting your personal health in a negative way.

The first time you do this, it may take some time. Don’t worry about that. The Hawaiian elder Hale Makua was fond of observing that the one thing we have more of than anything else is time.

When you have come to the end of this part of the exercise, there is no going back—no allowing your mind to dwell on these hurts and wounds again. In order to be successful, you must practice self-discipline and release them forever. When you have achieved this, you will be free of the fears and hates, the grudges and wounds that you have been carrying around with you for all these years.

In the next stage of the meditation, you must offer forgiveness to yourself for the disharmony and the hurt that you have created in others (as well as within yourself) through your actions, your words and deeds. You can accomplish this by bringing up all those you have hurt, even those who were wounded unintentionally, and one at a time, review the incidents(s) in which the wounding occurred and forgive yourself. As you do, let these memories go.

The goal is to delete all these negative experiences from your personal account. You are reviewing your life with full awareness, and you are clearing your karmic debt. In the process, you are offering yourself a great gift—one that no one else can give to you.

Forgiveness is healing.

Then, while still in your garden, ask for your healing masters and spirit helpers to come. Greet them warmly and feel your confidence grow in response to their presence. Refocus your awareness on your body and visualize your illness if you have one. See how it appears to you, as well as where it is located in your body. What color is it? Look also for any negative thought-forms or fears about your illness. They, as well as your illness, may appear as dark gray or even black shapes.

Focus on your breathing, then turn to your spirit helpers and ask one of them to come forward with “the cosmic vacuum cleaner”. See this spirit gently running the nozzle through your energetic field from your feet to your head. As you breathe out with each exhalation, release your illness intrusions along with your fears. Release, as well, the pain of your disease, and see the dark knots and granules being sucked up by the vacuum.

When your field seems clear of any darknesses and your body soul is free of any doubts or fears, express your appreciation to the one who has served you. Then focus your awareness upwards and reach for connection with your oversoul, your utterly trustworthy, immortal spirit—the one who hovers over you.

You might suddenly see it as an angel—as your guardian angel, which it is—or it might appear as a beautiful, glowing orb of light just there, right above you. Greet it with your love. Remember, this is your immortal essence–your god-self. This is “you-there”–the one who loves you, and who will always love you, the one who listens to your prayers.

Redouble your concentration and ask your oversoul to send down its healing breath of power. Watch as the brilliant orb (or angel) directs a luminous beam into you, sweeping your body with waves of blue light. You may feel a prickly rush of sensation, like the effervescence that appears in your throat in response to a gulp of soda water or a glass of cold, bubbly champagne.

Perceive those bubbles as your white blood cells awakening and responding to the infusion of power you are receiving. Feel them percolating throughout your entire body, attacking any remaining gray wisps, granules, or fragments, and replacing them with blue light. Hold your focus for as long as you wish and enjoy the sensation.

When you feel ready, ask your oversoul to sweep your being with waves of green light to restore all those cells, tissues, or organs damaged by your illness if you have one. Allow the configurations of this healing green light to infuse your weakened body with courage, filling your soul cluster with confidence that your illness is being overcome and your body healed.

Conclude the exercise by asking the beautiful orb hovering above you to descend. Invite it to come close to you, and then ask its permission to get inside it. This permission is always granted.

Feel your oversoul surrounding you like a shield of protection. Feel the tranquility flowing within you and know with absolute certainty that you are within the field of your immortal self–that you are in a state of grace. Feel the joy of reunion and know with absolute certainty that you are loved unconditionally.

Then… turn your thoughts toward someone who you love deeply. Love is meant to be shared. Feel your love for that person flowing around and through you. Feel the deep peace of aloha within your heart and then softly repeat these words: “heal, heal, heal, heal…” for as long as you wish.

When you emerge from your meditation, express your gratitude and your appreciation to your oversoul. Maintain that feeling of love as long as you can, then let it gently go, knowing that you can reconnect with it again at a moment’s notice.

As you repeat this meditation, again and again, you will notice that the bubbles in your field will sparkle ever more brightly, and that the initial dimness of your light will glow ever more luminous in response.

This is my gift to you for the new year and the new cycle, for the future that is drawing us forward toward that which we are destined to become.

In addition, allow me to invoke the spirit of my great Hawaiian friend, Kahuna nui Hale Makua, and extend to each of you the Light and the Love of the Ancestors, The Source of Life, rejoicing in the Power and the Peace, braided with the cords of Patience, revealing the tapestry of the strongest force in the Universe, your Aloha.

PS. There is a beautiful image of Hale Makua on page 224 of Spirit Medicine.