As I continue writing about the two brothers, I realize that this story is inviting me into a deeper exploration of healing. Beyond the shadows and beliefs we recognize, there may be wounds that have remained unseen, waiting to be met with love.
Some of these wounds are personal. Others belong to the stories we share as families, ancestral lineages, communities, countries and humanity. Within my spiritual understanding, this healing also reaches into the multidimensional aspects of ourselves that we are bringing into Unity as we embody our Presence.
As we begin to live from that Presence, our awareness of the connection of all life expands. We become more conscious of how we affect others and how their experiences touch us. In contemplating this, I found myself remembering the practice of Hoʻoponopono.
Rooted in Native Hawaiian culture, traditional Hoʻoponopono is a process of setting relationships right. It brings families together through prayer, honest discussion, acknowledgment of wrongdoing, restitution and mutual forgiveness, with the intention of restoring harmony.
Modern adaptations have brought more individual approaches to a wider audience. Morrnah Nalamaku Simeona developed Self I-Dentity through Ho’oponopono, which includes a fuller process than the four phrases many of us know today:
I’m sorry.
Please forgive me.
Thank you.
I love you.
These phrases are associated with a modern approach to the practice; they do not represent the whole of the traditional Hawaiian process. I offer them here with respect for those roots, while sharing how they speak to my own spiritual experience.
For me, they are an invitation to acknowledge pain, take responsibility for my own actions and responses, and meet life with greater kindness. They remind me that forgiveness also asks something of how we live: how we listen, how we make amends and how we treat one another moving forward.
I had not intended to write about this practice in such detail, but I am learning to follow the flow of what comes forward.
As we enter the stillness, we can bring a wound or relationship gently into our awareness and consider what each phrase means in that moment.
What are we seeking to heal?
What might greater peace make possible within ourselves and in our relationships?
What are we ready to acknowledge, release or change?
In my understanding of Oneness, we can hold compassion for wounds beyond our own experience. We can offer a prayer for forgiveness and healing without assuming responsibility for another person’s choices or speaking on behalf of those who have been hurt. Our part is to meet what arises within us honestly and allow that awareness to shape how we respond.
This brings me back to the story of the two brothers.
About six months ago, during my spiritual work with the Hope Corridor and grids, I became aware of what I experienced as a fulcrum between two conflicting energies associated with the Middle East. To me, these reflected the deeper pattern I have been exploring through the story of the brothers. I asked inwardly whether there was something I could offer in service to healing.
In meditation, I felt guided to hold one energy before my heart and the other behind it, with the fulcrum resting within my heart. I visualized healing love flowing in a figure eight, or infinity symbol, through my heart and around both energies.
My role in this visualization was to witness, to love and to allow, without trying to determine the outcome.
This has remained an ongoing practice for me. When the tale of the two brothers returned to my attention, followed by the remembrance of Hoʻoponopono, I wondered whether I was being invited to revisit it with deeper understanding.
The original experience came before the bridges and gateways through which I began exploring embodiment more fully. Perhaps I am returning now with a greater capacity to be present to what I could only begin to understand then.
I must admit that, in working with the grids and corridors, I sometimes encounter more than I can give sustained attention to. Some practices seem to ask for a moment of stillness; others call me back over time. At times I have felt overwhelmed, and some have fallen to the wayside.
I am learning to meet that, too, with compassion. I can return when I feel called, without turning service into a burden or judging myself for needing rest.
Now these threads seem to be coming together again: the two brothers, the heart as a place of balance, and forgiveness as an opening toward reconciliation. For me, combining the infinity visualization with these four phrases offers a way to return to that intention with simplicity and love.
Those who feel drawn to the phrases may also choose to reflect with them, alone or with others. Each of us can begin with the relationships and experiences that are present in our own lives. We can also expand this to allow the flow of this healing practice to move through us to what may seem as opposing points of view on events in the world, family, relationships and community.
And this brings us back to an essential part of healing: forgiving ourselves.
We may ask forgiveness from others and seek to forgive them, yet continue to hold ourselves in guilt. Self-forgiveness allows us to acknowledge what happened, make amends where possible and learn, without asking ourselves to suffer endlessly as proof that we care.
Forgiveness can coexist with clear boundaries. Reconciliation asks for willingness and care from those involved; it cannot be required of someone simply because we are ready for it.
Within my spiritual perspective, ancestral wounds include patterns of grief, fear and separation carried through our shared stories. In intense moments of emotional experience, my personal belief is that the energies of these events imprint within our DNA and can be passed genetically. I believe we have the ability to help heal our lineage by releasing them within ourselves.
As I explore the integration of other aspects of my Presence, I also become aware of patterns that seem to ask for understanding and compassion. I approach these gently, allowing what arises to inform the healing available to me here and now.
Oneness reminds me that the way we live matters beyond ourselves. A response softened by compassion, an honest apology or a choice to stop repeating a hurtful pattern can change what we bring into our relationships.
Many of us feel we are ancient souls who came into this life with a desire to serve humanity, nature and the Earth. For me, that sense of purpose is an invitation to be present, to notice where love is needed and to offer what I can.
I do not need to know the full reach of a prayer to offer it sincerely. Nor do I need to direct the outcome for love to have meaning.
For now, I will return to the stillness, hold these energies gently within my visualization, and allow the words to deepen my willingness to forgive, to listen and to love.
Perhaps healing begins with this simple opening: meeting the wound with compassion and allowing love to guide our next step.
Oracle of Divine Grace 