"Hoʻoponopono cuts the negative cords that bind us to our past and energetically releases us from all wrongdoings, giving us a new sense of freedom to live our lives in a state of reverence for one another and for all of life, essentially reawakening the Divine Goddess within."

Kahu Lāhela Johnson

Friends, soul writers, and lovers of prayer,

Responsibility. That’s not a word we welcome. Not a word we embrace. Not a word we love. It feels heavy. It signals something you must do whether you want to or not.

It began for me with childhood chores. I can still hear my mother reminding the five of us in no uncertain terms who was responsible for setting the table, serving dinner, clearing the table, doing the dishes, taking out the garbage.

Those chores were never framed as a gift we could give the family—a sacred way we could contribute to our collective wellbeing. No, it was just a task, and an onerous one at that. Someone had to do it, and it better get done, and it better get done well. Or else.

And then that word began to show up in school. And in religion.

The worst was the news that we are responsible for sin. I was utterly horrified to learn at the tender age of seven that somehow I was responsible for the grotesque execution of Jesus. I felt the weight of responsibility sink deep into my gut where it festered for six decades.

It took me a long, long time to extricate myself from this weight.

My first taste of freedom from the weight of responsibility, came when I looked at my husband and the dark addictions that were dragging him into a mean shadow of himself, and I said, no.

No. I am no longer willing to bear any responsibility for all the ways you are destroying yourself, your family, your business, your finances and your health. I am not responsible for you. I am responsible for our son. I am responsible for me. But I am not responsible for you.

And this felt very very good.

So it came as quite a shock when the first thing Kahu Lāhela said to our 2017 The Lotus and The Lily group in our first experience of Ho‛oponopono was:

“You are 100% responsible for your relationships.”

I gasped. Everyone on the call gasped. What! That’s not fair. That’s not fair! I’ll take 50% but not 100%!

I could see the shock on everyone’s faces.

But then Lāhela began to teach us about the sacred word for responsibility in Hawaiian. Kuleana. And as she talked, something began to shift in me.

After she finished teaching, Lāhela invited us to join her in a shared experience of the ancient prayer of Ho‛oponopono that was given to her from her Kumu (teacher) who received it from the royal lineage of Mornnah Simeona.

And from the first sentence, I felt a strange new feeling. Suddenly taking responsibility wasn’t heavy. It wasn’t a punishment. It was a gift, a sacred, joyous gift.

I have the power to free myself from the negative energies I’ve been carrying throughout my life.

And, as the second sentence flowed, I realized I also have the power to free my relationships from any negative energies between us.

As Lāhela led us in the closing lines of the prayer, I felt those energies, called aka cords, literally snap.

The gathering came to an end and I turned off the computer. But when I tried to stand up, I had to sit back down. Something had happened.

Forgiveness, as I was to learn as I prayed Ho‛oponopono every day, is physical. It’s tangible. And it’s so powerful, it can cut aka cords across time and space.

And yes, it can, and it did cut all negative aka cords between me and my ex-husband. And it cut them through the veil of time, a decade after his death.

So Ho‛oponopono is the perfect prayer for this time of pandemic.

It has the miraculous ability to cut cords all the back to your ancestors who died or survived previous plagues. We are carrying ancestral fears and wounds that are unconscious because they are placental. But that doesn’t mean they aren’t real. They’re real.

And we can take joyous responsibility for releasing everyone, present, past, and future from those painful wounds.

As the quarantine began, I contacted Lāhela and asked her to lead us in a healing prayer intensive on Ho‛oponopono to release three successively expansive circles:

• ourselves
• our ancestors
• the whole world

Lāhela and I are thrilled to invite you to experience the freedom that comes with embracing your kuleana to the full.

Rather than try to explain the profound opportunity before us, I asked Lāhela to speak to you directly. This is her letter to you.

We are all awakening to a new dawn, a sacred time to break the spell of slumber that has separated us from the Divine Goddess who breathes life into us, who nurtures and loves us unconditionally.

We are urged to reclaim our sovereignty and authenticity, cut the cords of constraint and control, and take back our power, our rightful Kuleana (position, role, responsibility, privilege).

For far too long, we have lived in the darkness being controlled by our fears and painful memories of our past.

In this new dawn, we are awakening to a new way of living and looking at life, and having to become more present and aware.

It’s as if someone is shining a light on our insides evoking us to ask ourselves who am I, why am I here, what is my purpose, what do I value, and causing us to question all of our beliefs. It’s because the old programming, the old system, doesn’t work anymore. It’s obsolete!

Little did we know how drastically things would change on a global scale in 2020 that would affect us physically, emotionally, mentally, spiritually, financially, and relationally. This is where Hoʻoponopono comes in.

With these changing times, we are being called to wake up, answer the call, and take responsibility of our lives, our choices, our thoughts, words, and actions, because change begins within first.

Hoʻoponopono cuts the negative cords that bind us to our past and energetically releases us from all wrongdoings, giving us a new sense of freedom to live our lives in a state of reverence for one another and for all of life, essentially reawakening the Divine Goddess within.

Through Hoʻoponopono, we are taking back our power and restoring ourselves to WHOLENESS.

Me ke aloha,
Lāhela