THE 8 WAYS
Shamanic Guidelines For Walking Consciously and Confidently
In Your True-Heart Nature
1. Ahuahu – Walk Courageously In Truth. Walk authentically and allow your True Nature to shine the best of you. (Ahu - healthy, vigorous, strength).
Often our actions are guided by the Wounded Heart that is infiltrated with negativity, anxiety, and despair, and dictated by past memories.
The True Heart acknowledges the past but is not ruled or restricted by it. The True Heart is self-compassionate, but is not self-absorbed.
This way reminds you to be true to yourself and your values, and to have guidelines and gems of wisdom in place to steer you always on a positive and empowered path. It encourages you into self-leadership through self-responsibility and requires you to step up and shine.
2. Mea Hui – Know Yourself Well. How do you walk the earth and show yourself to others? (Mea - person; Hui – to introduce one person to another).
Self-knowing leads to self-empowerment and confidence, in yourself, and your journey. This way encourages you to know and reveal who you are, where your ancestors come from and their ‘big' stories to search for what you might still carry for them.
Look too at the wisdom that comes from your own life experiences – searching for the burdens and beliefs that may hold you back at times, and the great strengths and resilient qualities.
This way calls for self-enquiry and for you to know what you are prepared to let go of so you can make room for all the gifts of the future to come to you with ease and grace.
3. Mana Wa Hele – Live In The Light. Living in harmony with time and change will allow you to stay in your power. (Mana – power; Wa – time, turn, seasons, change, Hele - come and go).
Observation of nature reminds us that existence moves in cycles as well as in a linear fashion. Seasons come and go, light moves into dark and back to light again.
Here you are reminded to step back at times of adversity and hardship and know that this time will pass, and the light will return.
Be willing to face, even embrace, changes that are essential for your growth and for the expansion of the collective consciousness, of which you are an essential part.
Let go, go with the flow. It is time for Renewal on every level.
4. Hei Le’a – Create Joy. How much joy can you bring to the world today? (Hei – to ensnare, capture; Le’a – joy).
Your attitude will determine your experience every time. Having an attitude of love and joy brings light into your world and the world around you.
At every moment, with your focus on creating joy, you have the opportunity to either expend or expand radiant light energy. Sometimes if is worth expending energy in order to expand it and to step into shadow aspects to find the light and joy. To stand your ground to reclaim your power. It is up to you!
You can make a choice to step into joy and create and shine your light, with the confidence in knowing what you are setting out to do is clear and intentional, not hidden in the shadows.
5. Ku Ala – Be Present. Are you walking consciously, in awareness? (Ku – to stand; stop; remain. Ala – to awake).
Be Present to yourself, your space, with those around you, and with time. You have an internal witness – the Observer – who observes the conscious and unconscious messages filtering through your brain at the one time. As the witness you can consciously decide how to be in the present moment and the most empowered.
The energy of your thoughts is as strong as the words you speak, and by being present with your thoughts, words, tone, actions, reactions, attitudes, and intentions, you step into a place of power and self-responsibility.
When the conscious mind illuminates the unconscious mind, the High Self mind is revealed and present.
6. Hāmama Pu'uwai – Open Your Heart. Keep you heart open, no matter the circumstances. (Hāmama – to open; Pu'uwai – heart).
Resilience is a great quality to have in order to stay in a place of power. This is the capacity to bounce back quickly after being triggered. It brings you back to the truth of who you are and you are more able to recover your power, and discern what is ok and what is crossing boundaries.
When you discover how not to shut your heart down through fear, blame, shame, and grief, your whole world will open up.
No longer trapped in the stories of your Wounded Heart, your True Heart, a blue print of your true potential gifted to you in conception, is re-activated fully and you are free to walk strongly on new and restorative pathways.
7. Kūpa’e Wai – Trust In Your Dreams. Trust in the flow of life and yourself. (Kūpa’e – steadfast, firm, immovable, faithful; Wai – water, river, to flow like water).
Every person has the birth right to have dreams and aspirations, and to pursue these with a sense of worthiness and optimism. To have faith that the Universe has their back and will support this dreaming.
At times life pulls us up and we feel like we are no longer in flow.
Learning to trust in the roadblocks and to know that you will overcome them when you follow and act on the signs that come and walk through doors that open, as well as to search for the gifts that have brought greater wisdom with opportunities for growth, immediately brings you back into flow.
8. Kuke Ana Wai – Stride Strongly To Meet Your Dreams. Step up and out, with confidence, trust, love and gratitude to meet your dreams. (Kuke – to push; Ana – used to indicate the future; Wai – flow – water – to push into the future flow).
An extension of the 7th way, this way is a reminder to fuel yourself with clarity so you have the energy to push yourself through the muddy waters.
Know your ‘why’ and let this drive you past the stuckness.
If you find yourself in the darkness, focus on what is light around you and search for all you have to be grateful for.
Remind yourself why you are making an effort to reach your potential and live your life to the full every day?
The 8 Ways Summary
A Free Gift For You of a Summary of The 8 Ways.
Shamanic Guidelines for Walking Consciously and Confidently in Your True Nature - A Summary
(Channelled from Master Po through Heather Price, 2011)
I use these 8 Ways every day, reading through them or saying them to myself to bring me fully into the present, as well as to prepare myself for what may lay ahead. They are filled with simple, gentle, and powerful insight and wisdom.
The 8 Ways are available as a downloadable EBook in our Store.
Download The 8 Ways Summary HereYou Can Find The EBook of The 8 Ways in the Store.
Thankyou for joining us here. We hope you enjoyed the free Summary of The 8 Ways today. If you would like to learn more and received further guidance from these wise ways, you are encouraged to purchase a copy of the Ebook Workbook of The 8 Ways.
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How The 8 Ways Came About
In 2009, I travelled to Hawaii to attend a course in advanced shamanic practice[1]. During the first lesson, I was intuitively guided by my teacher on an inner journey to bring back information to assist me to understand the lesson for the day and was most surprised when my message, a few words, were channelled to me in Hawaiian language. My teacher was able to translate their meaning, and they related perfectly to the lesson.
After the second time this happened, I purchased a dictionary and began to take on the task myself to translate the messages from my guide, whom I later came to know as Master Po. All the messages from Master Po continued to be relevant to what I was hearing and seeing around me at the time. My teacher didn’t appear at all surprised or interested in this experience, however two fellow students who were, like me, fascinated in what was happening, would meet with me after the lesson to see if there were any more messages and we would talk about their meaning together.
While translating each word, I seemed to ‘know’ what letters of the alphabet were excluded in Hawaiian language, and the language itself felt familiar. When I returned home to Australia, the messages continued to come to me in Hawaiian language. By this time, I could hear Master Po clearly speak to me in English, but he always spoke in Hawaiian language when I asked him a question relating to spiritual enquiries. He would only give me one or two words to study to find the answer for myself. He also gave me a chant to sing, and several metaphoric messages to work on over time. This would take weeks to come together at times, and I developed great patience. There was also frustration as each word would have multiple meanings and I would have to search for the right ones to suit the context of my enquiry or our discussion. Eventually, translating the language became primarily an intuitive process as I began to become familiar with the language and seemed to go immediately to its correct translation.
The words moved me and I longed to be able to learn them to share with others, however I found it difficult to retain them. In the end, I stopped recording them all and, simply enjoyed them and their messages in the moment they were given to me, and allowed myself to grow from them.
I felt blessed to have Master Po in my life as I was going through a particularly difficult time. My father had passed away two weeks before I had gone to Hawaii and I was grieving for him. I was also very unwell from an accident I had had in Africa in 2007, which resulted in me having major bowel surgery on my return home. The surgery left me with severe adhesions in my intestines and the passage for my food was greatly restricted, becoming blocked if I ate my food too quickly or if my stomach swelled from eating gluten. Every few weeks I would find myself in a wretched state of pain and purging. Life became more and more difficult in so many ways. I was also very tired from assisting in the care of my father for several years before he died and my work and finances were affected.
Liberation - An extract from the EBook of The 8 Ways which takes you through each Way, with stories like this one to assist you to understand how knowing and adopting The 8 Ways wisdom can build you confidence and raise your consciousness on your journey.
In the winter of December 2010, I attended the Dreaming Festival at Woodford and set up camp with a dear friend, Kath. I had been in hospital, at that time a fairly common experience due to a chronic illness, a few days earlier and was grateful to be out in time for the indigenous dreaming celebration that I loved so much. However, I was still feeling incredibly sick and unable to hold a conversation for very long as I was constantly aware of the pain, and that I might have to leave in a hurry to be sick. One afternoon it all became too much and I told Kath I was going back to rest, and asked her not to come to the camp and disturb me.
Crying all the way to the camp, I packed up my things neatly, wrote some loving messages to my family and friends on my phone, picked up my flute and medicine drum, and climbed into my sleeping bag. Then I lay down and prayed to The Great Creator, whom I know as Great Spirit, to take me home. Taking deep breaths, I would hold each one in as long as I could, and imagine myself journeying back to the light, surrendering my life over with each breath. Soon I was barely conscious and I felt my tired spirit drifting out with the winter wind, grateful to be free of a body filled with chronic pain, and heart filled with sorrow. My mind no longer intrusive, I felt peaceful and trusting that I could finally rest from trying to work out the meaning of existence and what to do next.
Now completely relaxing into what felt like a pathway home, I was awoken by someone outside my tent putting the kettle on and I felt my spirit rushing back into my body; my mind and heart now furious and bitterly disappointed with the interruption to my transition. Hearing the zip of my tent being unfastened, Kath poked her head inside my tent and soon had me drinking hot lemon and ginger tea. She asked me what was going on and then crawled into the tent and held me as I cried and told her what I was doing. She knew exactly what to say and do, and soothed me until I fell to sleep, exhausted from my near death, dark night of the soul, experience.
The next morning, I woke up with the first warm rays of the winter’s sun, and I could feel light in my heart for the first time in weeks. Rugged up in my warmest clothes, I gathered my flute, drum and ceremonial pieces, and ventured out toward the hill behind the camp, breathing in the smells and listening to the sounds of the sleeping camp as I found my way to its outskirts. Amazingly I felt pain free for the first time in weeks and my step was much easier and lighter. I had worn a green weatherproof poncho so I could be camouflaged as there were rules and restrictions about walking in the camp perimeters and I had no wish to be seen.
Twenty minutes later I was sitting up against a rock, hidden in the forest overlooking the campsite below. Taking out my essences and herbs, I prepared ceremony and began to play my drum, followed by the flute, and gave thanks to Great Spirit, to my ancestors and guides, and to dear Kath, for holding me so close and lovingly during such a dark time. Soon I felt the presence of Master Po and he guided me to sing a dreaming song from the mountain that he had taught me, in English, a few weeks earlier. Each verse allowed me to call in what I was ready for, and open to, in my life.
I have a song from the mountain,
I have a song from the wind.
I have a song from the mountain,
Calling my beloved in.
In love,
In peace,
In joy.
I have a song from the mountain,
I have a song from the wind.
I have a song from the mountain,
Calling healing light in.
In love,
In peace,
In joy.
And so on… each time calling in what I felt I needed in that moment.
After singing the song through and with me, Master Po spoke to me in length, and suggested I go on a vision quest to restore my health. He taught me a breathing technique to use every day for an hour for three months, which I was eventually to call the Magical Healing Breath. He suggested I visit my doctor, and said she would recommend some cell salts for me to take that would assist me to heal at a physical level. He guided me to journal each day to guide my mind to the truth of who I am. Master Po spoke to me with great love and humour, which was his way, and several hours later I returned to camp feeling renewed and hopeful that things had changed at a deep level.
Three months later, after putting everything in place that Master Po had suggested, I woke feeling my healing quest had been successful and complete; my final daily hum now resounding happily inside a strong belly. I kept taking the cell salts, however the pain had completely gone and my meals, still gluten free, were now much easier to digest and enjoy. My kind and wise spirit guide continued to keep me company and constantly reminded me to walk strongly in my True Nature, clear about my daily purpose, in line with the Natural Laws around me, with faith in Divine Timing and the Divine Plan. I was eventually to know this Way of walking as Ahu Ahu, the first of what I was to come to know as The 8 Ways. All was well.
A few months after my liberation and journey into wellbeing, in April 2011, almost two years after I had first met Master Po while on an Inner Journey in Hawaii, I woke early and heard him whispering to me, suggesting I get a pen and paper. To my surprise and delight, I felt a strong download of energy and Master Po channelled The 8 Ways to me. He gave me a few simple lines in Hawaiian language, and for the first time, translated these into English. When I later checked the translation, they made perfect sense to me.
For the next eight months, I read through The 8 Ways each day, familiarising myself with their meaning and essence, praying that I might meet someone nearby who spoke Hawaiian language. At the end of the year I travelled to a local folk festival where I attended a performance by a Hawaiian group who were teaching the ancient Hula dance of Hawaii. I waited patiently until the end of the show, when I was finally able to speak to the woman who narrated the dance and played the drum for her four male companions. She kindly agreed to meet me later and I told her about my journey with Master Po and The 8 Ways. The woman asked to see The 8 Ways, and then reassured me of their accuracy, finding only one correction that needed to be made, and she kindly confirmed what I already knew. She said The 8 Ways were a gift not only for me, they were for everyone, and I was to take them out to the world.
[1] Advanced Huna Healing with Serge Kahili King, author of The Urban Shaman
This personal story is an extract from the introduction in my EBook of the same name. The EBook is available in our Store.
The 8 Ways and Other Teachings
The 8 Ways are woven through everything I teach, particularly in my Shamanic Mandala Creations.
A Spirited Story
"Spirit can come at you with a great force when your spirit is ready to do the work which is why I appreciate the great loving, nurturing and passive presence that Heather brings to her ceremony and workshop space.
Do not underestimate this as soft for only someone that has worked with great spirit and understands the balance of this great work can bring this loving presence as well as strong will to the space.
Heather is a wonderful teacher and story teller. Her words hold the magic of the cosmos and bring light to the path ahead, guided by her 8 Ways.
I highly recommend Heather and her teachings to those that are on the shamanic path and seek the guidance with ease and grace".
Kassandra Scardino, Spiritual Teacher
A Spirited Story
"Wow, what an amazing evening...
This is my second time being apart of this circle, and it keeps getting better each time it gave me a chance to switch off the monkey mind, and flow into sacred space quite quickly & deeply.
I love how beautifully intimate this circle is. It's a safe place to explore the inner you deeply, guided by the 8 Ways.
The drum journey always takes me to somewhere magical, and the drum energy is such a beautiful guide. Looking forward to see what comes up in the next circle.
Thank you so much for your beautiful guidance Heather."
Keiren Paul Lowry, Sacred Mandala
