Aloha,
I'm Reverend Cindy Palos and today I am going to talk about a subject that is so close to my heart and I thought it was a pretty simple subject to talk about until I started really looking into it deeper.
The subject is blessings and I sign all of my emails at the end with blessings and then I had to think about it.
I do blessings because I am a minister and I've done many here in Hawai'i,
Many Hawai'ian blessings.
I've done blessings for weddings.
I've done blessings for homes.
In Hawai'i here we do blessings for a lot of things including businesses,
Police stations,
Fire departments.
We love our blessings here in Hawai'i.
And I have been trained by some kahunas here and I have learned many different practices and each one is very different depending on the teacher and the way they call in their energy.
One of my teachers was from a background of Native American and Hawai'ian and had been a healer for a long time.
But that's a blessing that happens that you do,
Which I will be going into and then there are blessings that just happen in your life.
I think I'll talk a little bit about the blessings that already are present in your life right now because we all have blessings.
I love that song,
Count Your Blessings.
It's an older song.
Count your blessings before you sleep and you'll fall asleep counting your blessings.
Blessings are already present but it's like having gratitude.
Sometimes we don't remember all the gifts that we do have in our life because we may focus on the things we don't have in our life.
We may be thinking of all the things that aren't going right instead of the things that are going right.
I even heard a song this morning that was just beautiful called Blessings.
It actually talked in this song about the blessings being in all the challenges that you find that you are blessed indeed when you have the hard times because they make you learn the lessons that you need and they are the reasons that you are here.
So even in challenging times like we've certainly had,
There are blessings to be found and that is how do you look at what's really important in your life?
How do you really appreciate the good things,
The lessons that you learn,
The people that you love?
And also by that you realize that there is a higher level of being that you're going to be going to.
And that's the blessings that you are grateful for.
And I think we all do have blessings if you just take a moment to think about what blessings are already present in your life.
I'm sure you have some blessings.
It could be your family,
Your mother,
Your father.
It could be a child.
It could be a pet.
It could be someone that you have met,
A teacher,
Someone who's inspired you,
Who's been a mentor to you.
So there are many blessings already present right now that you may not be aware of.
But to be open to new blessings coming into your life,
You have to be able to receive and see those blessings.
Now when you do a blessing,
The blessings that you perform are much like doing reiki.
How many thousands and thousands of people,
Maybe millions do reiki?
But most people think of doing reiki when you're doing a healing on a body.
But you can certainly do reiki for places,
For things,
For the planet,
For a business and healing.
It's the same process,
The same process you do when you do reiki.
And that process is going to the source of where the good and the balance and the love and the light come from.
So you can then be an instrument to allow those blessings to come through you.
Now when I did a lot of weddings,
What I would do in an Iwaian blessing is I would blow a conch first.
Why would I blow a conch?
Well,
In the Iwaian tradition,
That brings in the spirit of the air.
It calls and breaks through the sounds.
It gets the attention of spirit,
Right?
And I would always blow that conch in four directions.
One would be to the north,
Then to the south,
Then to the east,
And to the west,
Calling in the different directions.
And also that's part of the elements that you do of blessings in Hawaii.
It's the earth,
The water,
The fire,
And the air.
And the water I would get from the sacred Iao stream,
It's actually a river now,
And I would take that sacred water and I would put it on my altar and I would bless it and send it light and love.
And so that's now a sacred water.
Or I would go to,
If it's by the ocean,
I would take the water from the ocean.
Many people come to Hawaii and Maui for a wedding.
So I would go and get the abole.
I'd take a beautiful koa bowl and go and get the water from the ocean and I would bless it.
You also do earth blessings,
Right?
So we have air,
We have the water,
We have earth.
With earth,
I would get a tea leaf that's spelled T-I.
It's a wonderful plant that you see all over the jungles and many,
Many places here in Hawaii.
It's a sacred plant.
In fact,
Many of the hula outfits are made from tea leaves and they make tea leafs,
Leis,
We make tea leaf leis as well.
But if you don't have a tea leaf,
You can go and get another plant that would work that is a nice big leaf.
So then you have,
I would get them from Iao Valley,
Which is again the sacred place.
And of course you ask permission of the plant before you take the tea leaf leaves.
So then I would take that tea leaf and I would dip it in the water.
I'd bring some beautiful Hawaiian salt to put in the water bowl.
And salt water of course is already there in the ocean.
I would dip the tea leaf in the water and then I would bless the people who are getting married with the tea leaf.
You'd bless them on top of their heads,
Right?
A blessing up there and I do on either shoulder as well.
And some on the ground because the earth is included in this.
And the fire can be incense or a candle.
And I sometimes take a candle to a wedding or had.
Of course you want that to be an enclosed candle and glass at that point too.
So then you have earth,
Water,
Fire and air elements,
All the elements there.
And the other thing that you really want to do with the blessing is to make sure that anything that is having to be cleared is able to be cleared.
So it's good to know or have the people that your blessing of its people tell you if there's some issues they want cleared because if you're not clear you may not be able to receive.
So it's good to clear.
Energetically,
As a person who is sensitive to energy,
You might sense certain energies naturally.
You just intuitively realize that and hope your words and your energy can clear that with their permission because it's always for the highest good.
It's a very powerful thing when you're doing a blessing.
It really is because you're calling in this energy and this light.
If you've done Reiki,
You know how powerful that is.
If you're doing it with the intention of sending it out to people,
Sending it out to land to clear because maybe there's going to be a building there or maybe something's happened on that land that is energetically negative that needs to be cleared,
You have to make sure you are protected because sometimes there's entities or life forces that are there around it that might jump onto you as you're trying to release it.
So I always say when you're doing a blessing that you clear your own energy,
You ask and have the intent to be aligned with the highest,
You extend that light around you for protection at least six feet up,
Six feet down,
Six feet across,
Either way,
Six feet in front,
Six feet behind,
And make sure you're in a bubble of beautiful,
Like an egg-like shell of wonderful,
Pure,
Energetically healing light.
I surround it with golden light on the outside so that you're protected.
I also often ask for my guides to be present to protect me as well when I'm doing a blessing.
Now if you're doing a house blessing,
What you do is you take that same thing you would do for a wedding.
You take the water that's pure blessed water,
You take salt in the bowl so you have salt in the water,
You have for me a tea leaf or some tea special energy.
In the case of a house,
What you do is have sage or incense.
I like sage.
You would carry the sage also and go around with either a feather or a tea leaf,
Saging and clearing the energy in the house.
When you're clearing the energy in the house,
You make sure all four corners of the room are clear with energy.
In the Hawaiian tradition,
You especially spend extra time in the bathrooms,
In the drain of the bathtub or the sink.
That's where outside energy comes and goes.
You do the same in a kitchen.
You make sure you bless the kitchen sinks and you make sure you bless the stoves and the refrigerator and the food and the entire room.
Special blessings in the dining room where you're going to be eating.
You bless the bedrooms especially.
Each room has their own energy.
You send clearing energy too.
Now you can do this yourself.
You just have to be aware of how you're directing and receiving and sharing that energy.
In the Hawaiian tradition,
After you go through the entire house,
Here I take the tea leaves and tie them outside the house or if it's a business on the door.
You then leave the tea leaves there till they're dried for a period of at least six or seven days.
In Hawai'i here,
We bless also animals.
We bless cars.
We bless everything.
Again,
If you're doing a house,
Take the person who's moving to the house with you in each room so they're a part of that energy and they can reinforce that energy there.
If you're building a house,
You do it on the ground structure where the building's going to begin.
A blessing is really a powerful thing.
It's truly an amazingly powerful thing.
But first and foremost,
Make sure you're able to share love,
That you're able to share that light and you can bring that energy of light and love through you.
You can do amazing things with this blessing.
It takes your intent to definitely be there in that energy to have the right intent to do a blessing.
You learn confidence as well.
You learn to trust that energy is going to come through you.
It really is ineffectual if you don't trust that it is working,
That it is there.
I wrote this poem I want to share about blessings.
And actually,
I had it made into a song,
Which I'll include at the end of this.
Blessings of love,
Blessings of light,
Blessings of joy.
The anointed one is the one who allows the essence of the soul to fill the being with the nectar of God.
The sweetest song of the Lord is the song of awakening.
The birth of this Christhood is the mantle of the ones who travel the path of God and who walk the way of the traveler in the light of the new dawn.
See the Holy Spirit come to you and feel the breath of God speak to you and renew you.
For you are newly anointed and when you release the past and embrace the heart of truth with the acceptance of love,
Smile with the awareness that you are God.
Thank God for the gift of your life and all the many gifts you've been given.
And bless all of God's creation in the entire universe and fill the entire universe with your love.
Bless the earth.
Bless the moon,
The planets,
And the sun.
Bless the stars and all celestial bodies.
Bless the trees,
The plants,
And the flowers,
The waters,
The ones who swim,
The birds,
And all the wigging ones who fly.
Bless the four-legged ones and all the animals.
Bless the insects and the ones that crawl.
Bless all of humanity and all of life on earth.
And send your love out to all things throughout all time and space,
Through all dimensions,
And celebrate the gift of freedom,
Life,
Love,
And your healing now and forever.
Hamama amama,
U'anoa,
The prayer is free.
May you be blessed and be aware of the blessings as a gift from God that are there always to call upon and to receive.
Aloha.
Let the Spirit come through me and let God's joy do its part.
Blessings of great grace protect this holy place.
Heal our lives.
Let us with peace align.
Blessings of life,
Blessings of love divine.
Sacred land,
A waterfall,
Volcanic rocks design.
Aloha.
