![]() |
![]() |
Article The Magical Flute: Using the Hawaiian Nose Flute for Healing and Manifesting
Like most natives of indigenous cultures, ancient Hawaiians developed a type of flute, in addition to their more common percussion instruments like drums, rattles, and castanets. However, the Hawaiian flute, unlike most, was played with the nose. For details on construction and playing, see the article by Serge Kahili King, 'Ohe Hano Ihu. In this article we are going to discover how the Hawaiian nose flute can be used for healing and manifesting. Traditionally, the Hawaiian nose flute was commonly used as a form of communication between lovers. One would play a song from the heart to his sweetheart at night, and then, in the morning, play his flute at the sea shore. If the potential mate liked his song, she would greet him at the shore, an indication of acceptance. This is important, as it reveals that the nose flute was used to help manifest the intent desired, in this case, a love relationship. We can also use this principle to help manifest healings and our intentions in our lives. The nose flute was also used in conjunction with certain chants and songs. In fact, it has been reported that some skillful musicians could make the playing of the flute itself sound like chanting. The Hawaiians believe that the nose is pure and innocent, unlike the mouth which can say many things both positive and negative. So the breath entering and exiting the 'ohe hano ihu is considered to be more spiritual than that of the mouth. This goes along with the Hawaiian legend that God breathed the breath of life into man through the nostrils. Thus they used the flute for prayer and manifestation. Because of the principle of brain entrainment, where the brain tries to naturally adjust it's frequency to that of external sounds, playing the nose flute is helpful in changing the state of consciousness from a Beta, or higher, brainwave state, to a lower brainwave state, say of Alpha or Theta. The sequence of the notes played helps in accomplishing this state of consciousness change. Below you will find a technique for improvisation that helps to entrain the brain to deeper states of consciousness. In using the nose flute for healing or manifestations, one could make up a song about a situation or condition, then change or shift the song, or improve it for the desired end result to manifest. This is taking the literal, the actual physical condition, to the mythical, the spiritual level. Shamans use this technique to make a mythical/literal "song map," where they take the energy of the physical body, the breath, and put it into a symbolically mythical map, a song. They then change the mythical map, the song, to effect change in the literal or physical world. This change, the old song modified or improved, is now reflected in the new song. One way that the nose flute can be used to bring in a little more creativity, and intent into one's healing and manifesting work, is by bringing music into the secret shaman technique Dr. King refers to in his book, Urban Shaman, that of changing the position of stones to change the outcome of a divination. With the flute we can change the position or sequence of notes to do the same thing. And while doing this, one is also getting an assist from the breath. This helps take the inner thought and manifest it into the physical through the use of the flute. Many of us have experienced attracting like thoughts when we have listened to a song, and then found the song replaying in our minds over and over again. While we either play or listen to a song, even though we may not realize it, we give full subconscious attention and focus to the thought of the song. As we do that, we are attracting more of the like thoughts expressed by our song. Sound as always been considered a direct link between humankind and the "divine". As we know, music can induce altered states of consciousness, open up new levels of awareness, stimulate intuition, and increase creativity. The following process is similar to a technique taught in musical colleges as a tool for improvisation and song writing. What we do is map the letters of a word or name to the fingering of the flute. Since there are 26 letters in the English alphabet and 4 finger patterns in playing the typical Hawaiian nose flute, each finger pattern will be assigned multiple letters. The number four is highly significant. Not only is the Hawaiian form of counting founded on a Base 4 system, as opposed to our modern Base 10 system, the Hawaiian word for "four" is ha, which also means "life, breath, spirit." And it has a further use in the language as a "causative" particle, which relates to manifesting. If we assign the open fingering (playing a note without covering any of the holes) to "0," the fingering of the first (closest to your face) hole to "1," the second to "2" and the third to "3," then we can make this chart of correspondences:
|
![]() [Top of page] - Contact us |