In his years of attempting to explain the old Hawaiian religion, Daddy (David K.) Bray has found that both haoles and Hawaiians need to clearly understand the meaning of the word kahuna.
Too many people have the idea that a Kahuna is one who practices sorcery of black magic. Daddy Bray has developed a simple method of explaining the kahuna to haole "seekers of the truth."
"A kahuna," he says, "is the Hawaiian name for a man whom you may call a minister, a priest, a doctor or a judge."
AN EXPERT
"The kahuna is an expert in some one field. Kahunas in ancient Hawaii were the educated, trained specialists.
"The man you may call a minister or a priest would have been called a Kahuna Pule (prayer kahuna) in old Hawaii.
"The man you call a doctor would have been called a Kahuna Lapa'auau' (healing kahuna) in old Hawaii.
"The Hawaiian thought of his kahuna as the human bridge between the spiritual world with its laws and the material world with its trials, sadness and problems.
"Perhaps an explanation of the meaning of the word Kahuna will help. The word may be broken into two parts 'Kahu' and 'Na.'
"Kahu is the word for an honored servant who cares for certain persons or property. He is a trusted man.
"Na is a word which means 'the calm person, one who has quieted his passions.'
MEANING
"Another meaning of the word can be found by breaking Kahuna into two other parts, ka and huna.
"In this case 'ka' means 'the' and the word 'huna' means a 'hidden' thought, knowledge or wisdom.' Again it may mean to protect or defend the secret or mystery which is key to something hidden.'
"There were many types of kahunas, all named according to their particular expert knowledge."
NEXT: Types of Kahunas
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