Healing for the Web of Life · Moloa'a Bay, Kauai
Each time our circle gathers for the Healing for the Web of Life initiative, our intention is to restore harmony and balance to a particular place on the Earth. Below are the results of our group shamanic healing for Moloa'a Bay.
The Place
Moloa'a is a beautiful bay and beach on the northeast coast of Kauai that has come under increasing environmental stress over the past several years. The Hawaiian place name translates as "tangled roots."
Severe flooding in 2015 and 2018 eroded the stream banks, washing debris and contaminants from upstream farms, houses, and cesspools down to the ocean. As recently as 2013, children swam and played freely in the water at the mouth of the stream. Now we skip over it when accessing the northern part of the beach, to avoid exposure to contaminants.
Marine debris, including significant amounts of plastic, pollutes the reef, ocean, and shoreline. Fishing lines and nets have ensnared turtles, one of which we found dead in the water years ago, caught by a line. A large sailboat that wrecked on the rocks dumped hundreds of gallons of marine diesel and engine oil into the water, along with treated wood, plastics, and fiberglass.
The bay naturally cleanses itself through the ocean current, but in recent years it has been unable to keep up with the volume of pollutants arriving from upstream and washing ashore. So we join together to help.
And this is what we are working to protect: a place of real beauty, still very much alive, asking to be brought back into balance.
The Journeys
I worked with a particular ancestor of the land of Kauai. We walked to the river mouth and she began to cry, many tears, as we made our way upstream. Sadness and despair were palpable. I was shown the consciousness of those who live by the stream, and the thought forms they hold about the water. Mostly they view it as a nuisance, something that floods, that breeds mosquitoes, that requires bridges to be built and repaired at cost. There is little reverence for the spirit of the stream, and little respect for the Spirit of Water as the giver of life. Even those who view the stream favorably do so largely for monetary reasons. No one makes offerings or says prayers of thanksgiving.
Then we went out to sea, where I was shown fishermen carrying the same lack of reverence for that which sustains them. Garbage thrown overboard. Cursing when the catch is small. Rarely any gratitude for the gifts of the ocean. On the rare occasions when they pray to the Spirit of the Ocean, they do so from fear, or to ask for selfish desires. It is the same disconnection from the web shared by the people of the valley.
Then the healing was done. The negative consciousness was taken up to Source and transmuted. A seed of thought was planted in all concerned, about giving thanks for the water, so that in time the water may be honored as the lifeblood of all. I was shown a great net outside the bay catching the pollution and carrying it up, where it returned as golden light. The ancestor of the land dragged a net upstream, filtering the pollution, which rose to the sky, was transmuted to golden light, and returned to the river.
The lesson given, for me and for all people, is to learn to see the sacredness in all that we do. The act of fishing is sacred. The act of farming is sacred. Anything we do for our livelihood must be seen as sacred, as must simple acts like eating and drinking. Life, all life, must be seen as sacred, and we must learn to model and articulate that sacredness. Honor the water as the giver of life. Each time you drink, hold the same reverence you would feel if you had searched all day in the wilderness and finally come upon a pure source, drinking as though it were the only stream from which you could drink.
From the Circle
Bear was standing up, waiting, very excited to do this. We went to the Upper World and I was met by my teacher and by Red Tail Hawk. I stated my intent, and immediately we were at the mouth of the dirty river flowing into the bay. Bear began to suck up the dirty water and grew enormous, then spat it into the air, and Red Tail Hawk's wings swept it up to the Sun and brought it back as golden droplets of water filled with light, dripping down into the river. They did this three times. Then Bear blew a large cloud of green and blue energy over the whole bay to awaken the people to their own pollution, to make them conscious of their habits. I saw local people coming out to pick up litter all along the bay. Then came an overwhelming sense of how much we all need to be more connected, to one another and to the land, water, and sky, because without that connection things will only worsen. Those of us practicing this work are meant to teach the people in our lives about that connection, and to teach by example. Bear blew another cloud over the municipal building, to open awareness in those who hold the regulations, so the path to cleaner systems might be simplified. And when I looked at the plastic in the ocean and asked whether something could be done, Bear chewed it into tiny particles and spat them up to Red Tail Hawk, who carried them to the Sun to be transmuted and returned as golden, light-filled, clean particles of sand, scattered over the ocean and beach.
I was shown that we have impacted the Web of Life in a way that has created turmoil and distrust for what we will do next. I was zipped right to my Spirit Teacher and power animal, shining an abundance of light over Moloa'a Bay and helping to seal in the work the group had done the week before. My Spirit Teacher gently moved me aside and asked me to be more still, showing me there is great power in simply calling to the medicine and letting the spirit helpers do the work. I was still initiating the healing, still a conduit for the medicine, but there was nothing I needed to "do." Only to be with it. This work is essential, and the collective consciousness of the group effort helps restore our relationship to the Web of Life.
Bald Eagle took me to my Spiritual Teacher. I asked for help and healing for the areas of Moloa'a Bay affected by the pollution. He saw the bay through my eyes and told me not to worry, that this was held. The message was clear and simple: advise everyone, on all the Hawaiian islands and all over the world, to put their 'opala, their trash, where it belongs. Everyone must do their share of keeping the land clean. The whole universe is affected by pollution. It harms every living thing, and that is nearly everything. Do good for the universe, and the universe will be good to you.
I went to the Upper World and was met by my spirit helpers. I relayed my intention, to restore harmony and balance to Moloa'a Bay and transmute the pollution there, and we went directly to the bay. The entire bay was covered in a thick blanket of purple mist that reached into every molecule of the land, lifting out debris, fallen limbs, garbage, all of its physical pain and wounds. This continued for most of the journey. I was shown that this area is deeply wounded, from the farms above, from the people around it, and from pollution drawn in from far-off places. This is a global wound. We have lost our way, our connection to Mother Earth. We must connect back to ourselves and live in harmony with the Earth, reducing our use of plastics and chemicals, stopping the dumping of toxic waste. After a time, the purple mist gave way to a sparkling blue cloud that covered every inch of the bay. The purple had extracted the pollution; the blue was energy returning to the land, revitalizing her. My understanding is that this blue, twinkling energy remains on the bay for continued healing. The guidance for me was to stay connected to Source and to act from that place in all I do, cleaning our Earth wherever the opportunity is given.
The lesson about pollution, healing, and transmutation was about respect. Respect for one another and respect for the Earth. I was shown a see-saw, like the ones children play on, and it was not in balance. The message was that humanity believes it is more than the other life forms on the planet, and that this is a false belief. No species is more than another, not human over nature, nor the reverse. I saw Hummingbird twittering in people's ears, trying to inspire them to help the bay, and I understood that the response should be a common, shared action, like cleaning the beach together, stepping out of thought and into action, giving the beach back its respect. Later I saw a great pearl, as though the bay were recovering its natural beauty. And I understood that this imbalance of respect lives in my own life too, in how I relate to my surroundings, something I felt very strongly, and uncomfortably, as my own work to do.
The Web of Life Journey Circle gathers regularly to bring healing to places on the Earth that need it. Learn more on the Shamanic Spirit Medicine website.