JOYCE HAU'OLI CARTER

Excerpts from the Book

Excerpt 1 The next afternoon, my husband Al and I met my spiritual guide Lei'ohu Ryder at the end of her school day. As we drove north in the direction of Kahakuloa village to the ancient Hawaiian temple known as Kukuipuka Heiau, she related the story of what she lovingly referred to as Kupuna Boot Camp. "Through dreams," she said, "Maydeen and I had been sent up into the mountains. The kupuna angels told is to find a particular spot, to take gifts and find a specific pohaku, a rock. We didn't know where we were going. We were just sent." Lei'ohu grinned. "Maybe this is the beginning of your Kupuna Boot Camp, Joycie," she said. Higher and higher we drove up the mountain. I could feel my heart beating uncontrollably. I was about to take that next step into a world I didn't know, a world of spirits and of the Spirit, a world both ancient and divine. Lei'ohu unlocked a gate at the foot of a large, rounded hill. I knew that beyond lay the heiau, a place of worship for all people, a place of love and healing and peace that I had been longing to experience. I watched as Lei'ohu knotted the cloak called a kihei at her left shoulder, swung another around her waist, and tied glossy green ti leaves to her wrists and ankles. She was no longer just my guide; she was the guardian of this land, a keeper of the ancient wisdom of the heiau and the ancestors. She began to execute the ancient protocols with which I had become familiar but that now took on a new and personal meaning. I felt so inadequate, so humble, so awed by what would transpire. I was about to enter into a new realm, one about which I knew practically nothing and in a place about which I understood very little. I would be walking into a new life through an ancient doorway. "What if nothing happens for me here?" I wondered. "Or worse yet, what if I'm not accepted by the ancestors, the angels of this place?" My mouth was dry, and I had to remind myself to breathe as we mounted cinder blocks that had been placed into the earth as steps. Approaching the outer perimeter of the heiau, my breath once again caught in my throat. The walls and all they contained covered a large expanse of land, much bigger than any other heiau I'd visited. I had thought it would be built of black lava as so many Hawaiian heiau are, but these sandstone walls were white. In the shape of a square, Kukuipuka stood, so clean, so regal, the land falling below to the open sea and the great volcano Haleakala to the distant east rising in all her glory. I wanted to throw myself to the ground and bury my fingers in the Maui red clay. I wanted to kiss the sacred earth, but I couldn't as I tried to take everything in. My brain ceased functioning. My senses were stuck in overdrive. I felt numb all over and could function only at a barely minimal level. I tried very hard not to cry, but I was overwhelmed with emotion and could not control my reactions. Tears coursed in rivers down my face and dripped from my chin as Lei'ohu continued the blessing. When she was done, the wisdom keeper waved us inside, saying, "Hau'oli, come." At last my bare feet were planted upon the holy soil of Kukuipuka.	Nose Flute
	Joyce & Al
	Kukuipuka Heiau
Orchid Gift The mound was covered in hardy grasses, and the feel of its leathery texture helped to ground me to the earth. Al and I stood before her as Lei'ohu finished the opening protocols. She took both my hands in hers and spoke in Hawaiian. Surprisingly, I understood most of what she said. She mentioned Massachusetts, the English word sounding foreign among the Hawaiian. I knew that the ancestors spoke through Lei'ohu, and that Al's parents and mine were there with us in spirit along with the angels that inhabited this place. I had no idea how I knew this, but there was no doubt in me at all. The ancestors then explained that the healing I would accomplish would be through words as well as through deeds. When the angel messages were over, Lei'ohu instructed me to place the gifts I had gathered wherever I chose. I found the stone that I had seen and felt in a vision, and now I touched the same spot with my hand and stroked its sun-baked warmth in the reality of this time and space. Locating an opening just beneath that stone, I tucked my gifts inside. Standing within the loving arms of the heiau walls, I felt that if I glanced out of the corner of my eye at just the right angle, I would find a place where I could slip from this timeframe into another, from one dimension into another, one universe into another. A feeling of antiquity oozed from every stone, and yet I understood that this blessed space was as much about the present as it was about the past. I felt the added pressure of Lei'ohu's clasped fingers, her beautiful hands against mine. With no thoughts of differences of religion or creed, of hair texture, eye shape, or skin color, I sensed only the meeting of two souls recognizing each other from another time and place. We rose, and she tapped my shoulders, hands, legs, and feet with the bundled ti leaves as still more ancestors entered on a sudden, insistent gust of wind, surrounding us all with their love. More tears leaked from beneath my closed eyelids. Lei'ohu said, "Hau'oli cries because she is healed, not only physically, but also spiritually." She knew that I was crying with happiness. I realized that the angels had been preparing me for this celebration all along. I was being readied for a new life. And the ceremony was over.

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Excerpt 2

As I was wandering around the kitchen, straightening up before leaving, my spiritual guide Lei'ohu Ryder rushed up to me and started humming a single phrase in my ear. "The tune came to me in the shower, Hau'oli" she said, "and it's been with me ever since. Whose favorite song is it?"

I recognized the fragment immediately as the first phrase from "Old Cape Cod," the song I had sung a few days earlier on the drive home from Vermont. "It was one of my mother's favorites," I said.

Lei'ohu took me by the hand, saying we had to talk. Looking around for a private spot, she drew me into the room at the far end of the condo. The wisdom keeper sat down in one of the leather chairs and positioned me on a stool before her. Recapturing my hand in both of hers, she asked what the room was called.

.
Lei'ohu

I was at a total loss as to why she would want to know, but sensing that something big was about to happen, I stammered out, "We call it the sitting room."

"This is no longer the sitting room," Lei'ohu said. "It's to be known as the kupuna room." She told me that all the Hawaiian angels were there--my ancestors, their ancestors, the Maui kupuna angels, the kupuna angels of the ancient temple Kukuipuka Heiau. They were all there and all the same, filling this room. I could see nothing but her face; I could hear nothing but her voice. Everything else in the house faded from view. Family members vanished. I felt as if we were the only two people on the planet.

Lei'ohu looked out the windows that face to the west as she explained, "The angels come in on the sunlight through the glass. They are here now. This room is not just a room. It is a gateway, a vortex, your Kukuipuka, your refuge of peace and harmony."

Such information was beyond believing, and I could only assume that these gateways are extensions of Kukuipuka and places like it. They exist to serve others in the same way throughout the world, and we who recognize them are their caretakers.

Lent Family

Then my guide closed her eyes and began to hum the same phrase as before. She smiled and said, "Your mother wishes to speak to you now."

My mother had passed away in 1990, and even though Lei'ohu was still sitting in the same chair, it was my mother's words that issued from her lips. For the first time I truly realized that our combined angels were speaking through Lei'ohu.

"Joycie, I am so proud of you," my mother said, using the childhood nickname that now all my Hawaiian friends knew me by as well. "You're doing such good work. I always knew you would. I am always with you. I love you."

I began to cry silently as my mother continued to converse with me. "You think you only have simple gifts, but they are multiplying. You have much work to do, and you will do it. Your gifts are strong. You will use them well. Dad and I are so proud of our whole family."

Lei'ohu hummed the phrase again. She laughed, and now she shared her own thoughts, telling me that my mother felt I was part of the Light. She knew it, and she hoped I knew it too.

There were more messages, but I was so overcome by emotion that I couldn't begin to recount all that she said. This experience was like none I'd ever had. I was receiving direct and personal messaging from the other side, from the beyond. My mother was speaking to me, and I knew absolutely that it was so. No magic trick, no voodoo hocus-pocus, no psychic phenomenon were involved; it was just Lei'ohu, my mother, and I sitting in a room together, chatting.

Maydeen

When Lei'ohu asked me to get my daughters, I thought, "Oh my. What will they think of this? How will they react?" I had been prepared by the ceremonies at Kukuipuka on Maui, and my messages received from the kupuna angels, but the girls had only my descriptions of these events to prepare them for what was about to happen. Lindy and Julie came willingly and our Hawaiian friend, Maydeen joined us as well, while my husband Al and our son-in-law Michael continued their conversation in the living room. The time for our dinner reservations had already passed, but I knew we had to do this.

I watched the faces of my daughters as Lei'ohu gave them messages from the spirit world. I might have seen skepticism or even amusement on their faces, but there was only my own wonder and acceptance mirrored there.

Lei'ohu took Lindy's hand first, and as she did, Maydeen took mine. The wisdom keeper imparted information from the angels. Then it was Julie's turn, and Lei'ohu held her hand in the strength of her own as the angels spoke again, sharing personal messages from the beyond.

Julie asked why her messages were so different from her sister's.

"The angels, whether they are Hawaiian or family spirits, use the same words they did in life, so that we will better understand them in the present," Lei'ohu replied. "Our spirit guides on the other side don't lose their personalities in the afterlife. They just become wiser and kinder."

When their messages were over, Lei'ohu's recommendation to the girls was that if they had questions, they should look to me for clarification and guidance. That kind of responsibility scared me since I was still so new to this world of the spirits, but I was willing to give it my best shot.

My feelings have always shown on my face like a movie camera projects an image on a screen, and Lei'ohu could see my concern. She told me that all I needed to do was to listen to the dictates of my heart, and everything would be fine.

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Bed & Breakfast	Excerpt 3 Again I accompanied wisdom keeper Lei'ohu Ryder and my friend, Maydeen 'Iao to the peace village in Vermont. During our stay there, the Native American elders told their stories and instructed us in the ways of peace and harmony for all people. One afternoon, we returned to the arbor where another wisdom sharing by the elders took place. At the end of the day, we were all given an assignment to "walk the corridors of our minds in dreamland, get rid of the excess baggage within, and forgive." We were told that we would share our dreams in the prayer circle the next day. As evening approached, I returned to the bed and breakfast where I stayed the year before, exhausted, and again needing a good night's sleep. Given my recent history of insomnia, I wondered if I would dream at all, and if I did, of what. The next morning when I woke, I realized that wondering had led to reality. I hadn't dreamed of anything, and now I considered what I would do or say if during the Saturday prayer circle I were asked to share the "walking." I would have to admit that my "corridors" had been empty and bare. I headed out to the compound. When I arrived at their lodgings, Lei'ohu and Maydeen were finishing up their prayers, and they invited me to join them. As a wisdom keeper, Lei'ohu was dressed all in white with a colorful cloak called a kihei tied to her shoulder. She had been invited to share her protocols with us at the sacred fire as three seventeen year old young men prepared to spend twenty four hours in the Vermont mountain wilderness dreaming dreams and finding their true selves. This day proved to be a busy one, and the hour was quite late when I returned to my lodgings. I slept poorly, waking again and again with dreams I couldn't remember. I woke for good at 4:00 AM, this time with a vivid dream embedded solidly in my mind that shocked me awake. The dream was reminiscent of one I had experienced a few months before in which Hawaiian angels known as kupuna had come to me, and I had refused them. In this dream, however, unseen angel hands held up a large, white placard, and on it words were written in huge, bold, black print. "GREETINGS FROM YOUR KUPUNA ANGELS" This message thrilled me. It was validation. It was a second chance. It was an answer to my prayers, and the angels had returned to me. The content of the dream was at once both astonishing and exciting. Now was definitely the time to put up or shut up. I grabbed the writing materials I had placed on the bedside table to record what I had received. The pencil once again had a mind of its own, an angel mind that wrote the message instead. "We are HERE WE are HERE WE ARE HERE" Again I questioned myself asking, "What should I do with this message?" Once more I thought, "What if I'm trying to mimic Lei'ohu?" This time, though, I welcomed whatever answer I would be given. In fact, a team of wild horses couldn't have kept me from it. As I left the bed and breakfast, I was grateful for the solitude that allowed me to think. I headed down the rural route to the river road as the sun was rising, this time intending to stop by a swift-flowing stream. With my head whirling in a confusion of thoughts, I wondered what I would do if I were asked at the arbor if I had traveled the corridors of my mind in dreamtime. Would I speak of the words in the prayer circle? I had not told Lei'ohu anything yet about either of the spirit dreams. What would I do? When I approached the river, I was compelled to park the car in an area lower than I had the year before. I followed a small footpath, and as I walked, I could hear a roar that became louder and louder until I found myself standing on a huge platform of rock high above a torrent with a voice of thunder. The boulder shuddered with the power of the falls. Taking a quick glance about me, I saw that I was surrounded by cliffs topped with tall evergreens. The granite walls formed a kind of natural amphitheater with the open blue sky for a ceiling. Without consideration and with legs shaking, I began to sing a Hawaiian chant. The oli or song was soft at first and then built in depth, timbre, and decibel. I expected my voice to be drowned out by the water's boom, but rather what emanated from my throat was a sound that rivaled it. This voice was huge, and it was not my own. The sound grew bigger and bigger, culminating in a final wail that filled the entire open space in which I stood.
North Haven River

PICTURES and QUOTES

All quotations come from the text of the book "In the Presence of Angels"

1. Kukuipuka Heiau Kukuipuka is an ancient heiau, a sacred temple located on the Hawaiian Island of Maui high on the northeastern slopes of Mauna Kahalawai, an extinct volcano now known as the West Maui Mountains. Kukuipuka Heiau is a place of worship for all people, a place of love and healing and peace. In the shape of a square, Kukuipuka stood, so clean, so regal, the land falling below to the open sea and the great volcano Haleakala to the distant east rising in all her glory.	Kukuipuka Heiau
2. Wash of the Waves The sand was undisturbed by human footprints. Only the tracks of the water birds were visible. I stood alone in the place where the wash of the waves converged. With the water swirling around my feet, I scooped up salt water, sprinkled it over my body, and entered the sea.	Wash of the Waves, Maui
3. Spirit Light I turned once more to Kahalawai. The early light of sunrise and the Spirit Light over the mountain were breathtaking. The colors continued to heighten until each ridge glowed gloriously in the Light of the Creator. At last the sun peeked over the rim of Haleakala, illuminating one area in a single ray of burnished gold that reached far down the slopes of its sister to the northwest. I believed it could only be spotlighting Kukuipuka Heiau, and later I found out that, indeed, it had been so.	Spirit Light
4. 'Iao Stream Torrents of rain had fallen sometime during the night, and the river was running hard and full to its banks. Except for its rushing, burbling song, all was silent here. The sun had not yet pierced the leafy umbrella of the treetops into the depths of the water. The stillness brought with it a great sense of peace and well being.	Iao Stream
5. 'Iao Needle I walked the path below the bridge that crossed over the place where the two streams joined, picking three tiny white star-blossoms that grew wild along the way. High above, the famous needle, carved from the side of a cliff face by erosion of wind and rain, pointed its craggy finger to the sky.	Iao Needle
6. Lei'ohu Ryder She was dressed in white, a long-sleeved top and trousers rolled up to just below the knee with a cape draped over her upper body, knotted at the left shoulder. She wore a second drape like a skirt around her waist, turquoise in color and patterned with black symbols. Her feet were bare. Around her wrists and ankles she had bound and knotted the tough but pliant leaves from the ti plant.	Lei'ohu Ryder
7. Wilbraham Talk Story I was amazed that words shared with honest feelings from the heart could calm and soothe, and how much people understood the meaning of the term "aloha" without ever having visited Hawai'i. In a talk that I gave at a local social club, I picked up my shell trumpet and sounded its deep, mournful tone. The room became quiet. I sang a chant Lei'ohu had taught me, and conversation ceased altogether. I gave my talk, and once again, aloha won the day.	Wilbraham Talk Story
8. West Maui Mountains (Kahalawai) As we drove east to west through the cane fields on our way to our hotel, what looked like a peaked mountain range rose in misted mystery on one side of the road--the extinct Kahalawai, now know as the West Maui Mountains.	Mauna Kahalawai
9. Haleakala On the other side of the road loomed the massive mound that could only be the dormant volcano Haleakala, mighty protector of the island. Straight ahead, the ocean swells sparkled in the hot, tropical sun like a treasure trove of precious gems, while behind, trade winds blew the slender cane into shining green waves of their own. The sight was magnificent to behold. It was Maui.	Haleakala
10. Kukuipuka Heiau The walls and all they contained covered a large expanse of land, much bigger than any other heiau I'd visited. I had thought it would be built of black lava as so many Hawaiian heiau are, but these sandstone walls were white.	Kukuipuka
11. Massachusetts Classroom I made arrangements to spend a day with five language arts classes at our local middle school. I knew that an opportunity to connect with many kids of this age was rare. Seventh graders are still young enough to be enthusiastic about things unique and special. I had given the teacher twelve topics from which to choose, and they selected history, legends, language, customs, music, dance, and geology as subjects.	Dancing Hula
12. Maui Classroom We talked about baseball, football, and soccer, and finally I said, "Has anybody noticed that when you ask me about what's different between you and the kids at home, my answer is often that it's the same there as it is here on Maui?" Heads nodded, and I said, "The lesson for today is that we have much more in common than not. If I took our kids out of my hometown and placed them side by side with you guys, they would fit right in, and you would become friends."	Maui 7th Grade
13. Seafood Restaurant The hostess approached the table and asked us as a group if we were locals. Lei'ohu responded that, of course, we were. I looked around, and our friends were the only Hawaiians in the room. I had never considered it before, but this restaurant catered primarily to tourists.	Maydeen & Aunty Mahilani
14. Seafood Restaurant In spite of the fact that everything was happening in a very public place, it was as if we were in our own little world. When we finally got up to leave, I looked around me. Every eye in the restaurant was trained on us. The patrons' faces reflected a mixture of messages. Oh, you poor thing. What the hell was that all about? Are you okay? Little did these people know that I had just been blessed. Little did they know how nurturing, how loving the experience had been, and that I had received a healing that was as much spiritual as physical.	Joyce & Lei'ohu
15. Michael - Alapaki - Julie - me Lindy, Al, Julie and Michael seemed to receive by insight and intuition. They were the realists, the doers. Julie and I seemed to receive through dreams and visions, internalizing what we were given. We were the idealists, the thinkers.	At 'Iao Valley	Lindy
16. Sunset The previous evening, the sunset had been particularly glorious, as if Ke Akua, the Creator, were painting the sky from His palette in shades of bronze and gold, deep pink and rose in preparation for the day to come.	Maui Sunset