Hammerhead Shark, Two Airport Lines, and the Stairs Not Everyone Can Climb
Welcome to our sixth installment of our Summer Camp News Bulletin. This week we bring you a special visionary classroom report that delivered us some unexpected but much needed
medicine from the other side.
Before going to sleep one night last week, Hillary felt anxious and worried about earthly matters beyond her control. With her heart beating fast, it was impossible to sleep. She reached for one of her go-to prayers, Psalm 23:
The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.
He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me . . .
After cooking these lines a few times, my body and heart found peace. I marveled at the power of prayer for a moment before drifting off to sleep. Not long after, I entered a strange dream. I was with Brad in a house I didn’t recognize. We were in the upstairs bathroom which had pale blue tile floors and white porcelain fixtures. Brad said, “A man brought us this gift.” He pointed to the bathtub.
I looked down and was shocked to see a hammerhead shark that had been caught and placed there for us. It was dead, lying belly up. The ends of each side of its long head, where the eyes are located, had been sawed off. It was clear that the people who brought us the shark knew what they were doing and had cut the eyes off for a particular reason. I guessed that it was in preparation for cooking it, but also wondered if the eyes had been removed for a ceremony that took place before I saw the shark.
Not used to being around large dead wildlife, I was taken aback at the sight. It was also apparent that I was expected to figure out how to clean it, chop it up, and use it for something, which seemed to include eating the rest of it. Startled by the raw and gory scene, as well as the sudden sense of responsibility for making use of this gift, I woke up.
Now feeling anxious and uneasy from the dream, I turned again to Psalm 23. Like before, it brought me instant comfort and I soon drifted off to sleep. This time I dreamed I was at an airport with Brad and several other people we were traveling with, including my late father. The airport was extremely crowded with many people lined up at the ticket counters with their luggage. The scene was total chaos and I worried whether we would make our flight.
As we got closer to the front, I noticed that there were actually two different lines and two counters, though there were no signs to direct people where to go—everything was disorganized. I overheard someone mention something about the importance of getting in the right line and I realized that I had no idea if we were in the correct one. There was no staff directing the mass of people and I grew frustrated and annoyed that an airport would allow such confusion. Feeling angry and anxious about the whole scenario, I woke up.
Again, I prayed Psalm 23. This time I fell back to sleep even more quickly than before and had a third dream. Someone invited Brad and I, along with several other people, to enjoy VIP access to an event held in a large stadium. I was unsure if it was a concert or a sports game. The man who invited us, whom I didn’t know, recommended that I invite my mother. Having not seen her for several months, I thought it was a great idea.
Brad and I arrived at the stadium early and waited for my mother who was going to join us later. We followed the special group of people to our VIP area, which I soon discovered required walking up several flights of stairs. The stairs and stairwell were concrete and painted white. Immediately I realized there was no elevator and that my mother, who is not physically able to climb stairs, would never be able to join us.
I was disappointed that the organizer hadn’t warned us that there were no elevators, but then I remembered that people often don’t think of such things. I knew my mother would be arriving soon, and I worried about what I would do with her. In my mind’s eye, I imagined showing my mother to another room to watch the entertainment, although the thought of her sitting alone in a room made me sad and didn’t feel right. Before I could come up with a solution, I woke up.
The Shark
The next morning we discovered that the hammerhead shark is sacred throughout the South Pacific’s indigenous cultures—a kind of sea god. When dreamed by the Maori of New Zealand, it generally means that these spiritual beings are watching over you, providing protection and strength. In Hawaiian culture, sharks are “regarded as spirits of half-human beings which, rendered strong by prayer and sacrifice, take up their abode in some shark body and act as supernatural counselors to their kin, who accordingly honor them as household divinities.”[1]
In most cases, aumākua (family deities) are ancestors, a result of a deceased member of the family who returns in other forms, in a kind of rebirth.[2] Some Hawaiian chiefs were believed to have acquired their premonition of future events by consuming the eyes of a great white shark.[3] “Many Maui natives believe that when the hammerhead sharks pass by, it is a sign that the gods are watching over the families, and the oceans are clean and balanced.”[4]
Kapuna (Elder) Kahu (Rev.) Charles Kauluwehi Mexwell, Sr., also called “Uncle Charlie,” explains that their ancestors could mate with the gods and become protectors. These hybrid ancestor-gods (aumākua) come when a family relative strongly prays for help. “As gods and relatives in one, they give us strength when we are weak, warning when danger threatens, guidance in our bewilderment, inspiration in our arts.”[5] They infuse one of three kinds of spiritual energy in the family relative needing help, depending on what is needed.
One of the energies enables superhuman physical strength in cases of an emergency (like lifting a vehicle to save someone), another energy form enables a sick person to rise from bed and do the household chores, and the final energy converts a mediocre performer into a masterful one. Traditionally, all great dance performances and successful fishing trips, among other life outcomes, were attributed to an aumākua who were thanked accordingly.
One of the fascinating things about a hammerhead shark is its extraordinary eyesight that provides a 360-degree view. In addition, they have a unique kind of sensory cell that enables them to sense electrical fields emitted by other living creatures and to discern the magnetic pulses of the earth, allowing them to accurately know where they are in the sea. These sharks conduct the energy of electrical and magnetic fields. What a perfect choice of spiritual creature to provide clarity about the unforeseeable future and a direct sensitivity to God’s electricity and magnetism.
Hillary prayed for help as she worried about what the future holds, and a hammerhead shark was gifted to us. Its eyes were removed, presumably to both highlight the shark’s gift of incredible sight, as well as the necessity to not focus so much on what is seen with the eyes. The shark was meant to be ceremonially used and consumed so that we could own its spiritual sight as well as its fine discernment of electrical and magnetic fields.
In addition, its protective powers would also more deeply sink in. Traditionally, the animal that is a family totem is never eaten. However, in various cultures around the world, when an animal’s powers are given to someone, its flesh is sometimes taken into the initiate’s body—like the ancient Hawaiian chiefs who ate the great white shark’s eyes to acquire visionary premonition.
Brad, in his many adventures and experiences with secret initiations around the world, also found that violating a Second Creation totem taboo is sometimes a means of spiritual transmission and ritualistic admission to First Creation (always overseen by wisdom elders). The digestion of one form by another is also how an ancestor may become a protective spirit. For example, In the old days among indigenous Hawaiians, the body of an ancestor was fed to the sharks in order for the combination of spirit and flesh to create an aumākua. In Hillary’s dream, the spiritual power of the aumākua was to be imparted by preparing and cooking it for ritualistic consumption, which is something Brad has experienced among several healing cultures throughout the world.
At the Airport
Hillary’s next dream was of her father. As a side note, when he was a young man in the late 50s he was in the Navy in San Diego. It’s possible the myth of the hammerhead shark’s magical and protective powers had spread throughout the nautical world and that he met a sailor or two with a hammerhead tattoo. Hillary’s father actually had a nautical tattoo on his right arm that depicted a ship’s anchor. He also had a special knack for sewing up wounds so he was assigned to work as a Naval medic and encouraged to go to medical school, but he didn’t want to. He was also a skilled “pool shark” who made money on the side betting he could win a game of pool.
In her dream, she and her father were at an airport in a state of disorganization and rampant confusion. This feels a lot like the United States right now during the pandemic. Each day we feel increasingly angry and frustrated that leaders have dropped the ball for no logical reason, creating total disorganization and chaos that could have been easily prevented by simply fulfilling their responsibilities and being rational. Most of us are not sure what to do or where to go when it comes to preparing for the future that awaits after the pandemic. Even more menacing than the virus is the rising tide of fascism and the flood of white supremacist propaganda fomenting increasing hatred and a lust for violence.
At the airport, Hillary faced a choice of gate—which line she would get in. All of us face that crossroads. Will you follow the masses who emphasize whether to accept or reject a political leader, or will you join the line of saints that are marching to a higher, vaster room? Choose which saints to hang out with. If you are with an ancestor who has come back to protect and empower you, you will feel strong enough to face the ongoing tide of evil in all its ugly forms.
The ancestor may arrive in an old form you remember, like Hillary saw her father at the airport. Perhaps he came back, now having graduated from a spiritual medical school, ready to heal Hillary with a hammerhead shark left in our tub—the same exact place where former spiritual mothers from New Orleans did their mystical doctoring with healing salt, water, and other tonics.
Ancestral help may also arrive looking more like it did in Hillary’s first dream—a gift from the sea ready to be turned into a new kind of First Creation spiritual meal that provides greater sight and electrical-magnetic sensation. Trust that the perfectly designed and well-matched doctors and medicines are on the main line. Dial them up and tell them you are in need of higher intervention and better conduction. And don’t forget that this is not the time to make a decision based on fear or even logic, because there are no obvious visible signs telling you where to go. It is time to step into a new role and joyfully follow the holy ones, mothers, and fathers who can drop down from the sky or arise from the sea whenever needed.
Climbing the Stairs
In the final dream, we were invited to join a VIP group at a large stadium event. One source of our personal family humor comes from our son, Scott, who likes to invite us to big events and provide us VIP access. At a professional sporting event, we walk on the field and mingle with the stars who are his friends. It has become as hilarious as it is wonderful for us to embark on these celebrity adventures. Being VIP’s is a running joke in our family. In the dream, we were familiar with the VIP passage as a family code word for “getting into the special room.”
Hillary’s mother was also invited and in our excitement for her inclusion, we had not considered whether the passageway would be possible for her. Hillary’s mother is not physically able to climb. In addition, these were white stairs, a sign of spiritual passage. Her mother’s saturation in Trump-oriented politics infused daily by Fox News (Brad calls it “hate heroin”) is a constant challenge to us. Many people today have neighbors or family members who are also caught up in an authoritarian ideology that is toxic and leading the world to its greatest ecological disaster.
In the dream, we wanted Hillary’s mom to climb the holy stairs to the upper room, but we knew for certain that, in her current state, she is not able to do so. It leaves us sad and uncertain what to do about this tragedy with our loved ones—how to relate to them and how to help them climb higher. This is one of the most heartbreaking challenges of our time, even more anxiety-provoking and confusing than the pandemic: How do spiritually cooked people and luminous stair climbers relate to those sitting in a small room consuming white supremacist, homophobic, every-man-for-himself propaganda?
Perhaps the hammerhead shark can protect us from the insanity of Sean Hannity. We desperately need 360-degree spiritual vision and the help of former relatives who have mated with the gods and are ready to answer our prayers with extra sight, strength, and protection. If you’re going to swim among the sharks, make sure they are hammerheads. It takes a hammer to drive in the n/om nails, the only medicine that can show us where to go and empower our climb. Don’t forget that an alternating prayer current with its constantly changing form, voltage, and amperage is what brings the charge, takes care of the need, and waters the inner seed.
-The Keeneys, July 5, 2020
[1] Martha Warren Beckwith, “Hawaiian Shark Aumākua,” American Anthropologist, Vol. 19, 1917, p. 508.
[2]https://theculturetrip.com/north-america/usa/hawaii/articles/why-sharks-are-highly-respected-in-hawaiian-culture/
[3] http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2004/Sep/28/il/il06a.html
[4] Ibid.
[5] George Hu’eu Kanahele and George S. Kanahele, Ku Kanaka Stand Tall: A Search for Hawaiian Values, University of Hawaii Press, 1986, p. 83.