Carla Person – Shamanic Healer

Sunning Green Turtle

We are the children of Honu. We are the fruit of her creation. Honu remakes us as she travels the globe. We are reborn with each egg that hatches. We are rescued with each turtle saved from a net. Honu has taught me that each action we take, each attitude we hold, in fact every part of our being is connected to the rest of the planet and all of life. We know this intellectually and journey work brings us direct connection to it. But I have never had the body slamming, mind expanding, viscerally complete understanding of it until Honu entered my being and made her home in my soul. This summer I traveled to Hawaii and I opened my heart to her and to all the loving ancient spirits who guide us gently from the land of Aloha. This is the story of working with Honu.

Honu thrive in the waters of the Big Island of Hawaii. Honu, turtle in Hawaiian, are ancient guardian spirits of the people and are deeply respected by Hawaiian people and are protected by law. The turtles know it. If you and a turtle are swimming in an intersecting path, the turtle assumes you will yield. If a turtle is resting happily on the beach, they expect that the throngs of camera snapping tourists will stay back a suitable distance. If you are SCUBA diving, the turtles will happily let you float along with them as they go about their business.

I actually have found this to be true of turtles in all the protected waters where I have swum. Turtles have been my guides in SCUBA taking me to magical places and sharing their world. On the Big Island, though, they are ubiquitous. Kahalu’u Beach Park, a very  popular snorkeling beach on the tourist area of Kailua Kona, is one of their favorite daytime eating and sleeping places. People swarm this place all day long, and the turtles pay no mind.  They crawl up on the shore to sleep looking every bit like stones. You have to be careful where you step! They doze away surrounded by noisy kids held back by careful parents. It is a magical union of people and wildlife, connected by mutual respect and caring.

I spent time on Hawaii this summer where I dove with them, swam with them, snoozed with them and journeyed with them day after day. What joy! My first encounter was diving where I saw a medium sized green Honu being cleaned by a school of Yellow Tang. They probed her neck and legs and scraped her shell. She loved it, floating with her eyes half closed.  Then we were bouncing in the waves at Hapuna Beach, a long stretch of white sand with virtually no rocks or algae, and a huge Honu came through casting a shadow 3 feet wide. At the Black Sand Beach in the south, famous for turtles, we saw a dozen. But Kahalu’u Beach Park is the bomb; they nearly knock you over as they chew their way through the shallow algae coated rocks.

I found that immediate communication with them was pretty basic. I sat near one turtle who had made rock camp away from the crowd, and he asked me to give him a little more space. The turtle being cleaned shared the tickly yummy feeling.  Mostly though we just had soft exchanges of honoring acknowledgement. A turtle at Kahalu’u Beach guided me through the water for many minutes, letting me know that it was fine for me to be along side. Every turtle I connected with gave me a simple message of gentle peace.

Resting Honu - happy with the world!

The big interchanges came later when I would do shamanic work. Typically when I work I call in a variety of helping spirits from the various directions. They create a sacred circle in non-ordinary reality and my client sits in the middle. The circle connects ordinary and non-ordinary reality, and my role is as an intermediary, forming an energetic bridge between the infinitely wise and loving spirits and my client. Turtle has been among my familiars since I started shamanic work in the mid 1980’s.  For most of the last 20 years Turtle has been more instrumental in helping me with personal inquiries rather than as a spirit for healing clients. This began to change when I started SCUBA diving in 2006. This Hawaiian trip brought turtle and other marine beings front and center, and now my work is infused with their power virtually every time I journey.

Honu is the centerpiece spirit connecting me to the entire ocean ecosystem. Honu heals by merging with my client and taking them deep into the ocean, holding the client’s spirit deeply and safely in their shell. Once in the water many different things can happen, but often dolphins come and share the job with Honu. I was working with a kitty named Mango who has urinary tract issues. When I called the circle Honu came from the west and asked me to bring Mango into the water. I merged with Mango and dove in  following Honu’s tail.  A pod of dolphins met us and took Mango from me, merging him onto the pod leader. That dolphin whirled like a drill, disengaging Mango’s troubles,   ejecting them into the water like a washing machine on spin. He then passed Mango to Honu, who tucked him deep into his flesh, then spread his limbs for a thorough cleaning by a flock of wrasse and shrimp. When satisfied that Mango was ready, he rose to the surface, took in air and we returned to my familiar circle in the lower world. Mango popped out of Honu looking great! My ancestor spirit, Amber, continued the healing, bringing in a team of very small faeries who cleared and cleaned the entire urinary tract system. Amber then directed a tornado power beam to infuse kidneys with life force, and to break up kidney stones. At the end all the spirits in the circle sang over Mango and covered him in glowing golden light. A white barn owl came as his power animal – such love! His Mom reported that he immediately had far more energy and a much brighter eye than he had shown in weeks.

While I was in Hawaii I did a session for a human client who really needed a fresh start in life. Honu lead the circle, rising up from the regions below the circle’s floor and becoming the surface of the earth herself. She merged my client into her body, and then carried them on a journey of time, to creation and back, imbuing them with their soul’s true story. The imagery came to me in two different form – the first being a highly personal story for the client, and the second being a quick scan of evolution from bubbling algae to our amazing selves today.  Honu is the spirit who births us. She completed the session by laying an egg in my client’s chest. As that egg hatches she will be remade, reborn and healed. This will take time. Spiritual healings for humans often  require our reshaping our attitudes and lives, and the results don’t happen overnight.

Yesterday Honu played a major role in a session for woman. I expect it now and roll with the flow of her merging, loving and healing. But this time Honu was especially vibrant and vivid and gave the woman rich information and love.  The woman said after that she loves sea turtles more than any other. Her house is strewn with turtle paraphernalia, and her life dream is to swim with them. When people ask, “Is that your power animal or mine?”, the answer is “Ours”. We are the children of Honu. We are the fruit of her creation.

Hawaiian Green Turtle

Now I find that Honu’s rich presence is in my bones, and I can feel her softness and quietness at every moment. I simply need to tune in to it. Swimming with Honu, and then surrendering to her in my journeys has initiated me into a new level shamanic understanding. I have been reborn into the world, seeing it with more completeness than ever. Thank you Honu!