Hawaiian Temple Bodywork
Traditional Lomi Lomi Massage
In South Beach

LomiLomi is more than a style of massage. It is a physical, mental, emotional and spiritual healing ritual wherein the practitioner's entire being is focused and devoted to building, channeling, sharing and directing healing energies. During the massage itself, giver and receiver are energetically one and indistinguishable, much as a wave in the ocean is intermingled and indistinguishable from the beach. An intimate, and profoundly transformative style of massage, Lomilomi cleanses, renews, opens, and contributes to creating a new person. It is incredibly powerful shamanic work for healing wounds, clearing unproductive beliefs and opening new chapters in one's life.

Preparing for Lomi Lomi
Preparation is simply opening to receive the work. In this work we employ rituals before and after the hands on, massage portion of the work. They are integral and essential. It is intimate work. You already appreciate the trust and risk, the letting go. These rituals, the creation of the halau, the sacred space, the prayer and symbolism are all essential safeguards. Allow plenty of time, and additional time to process after your session ends. Emotional release is not a goal, but it is common. There is no goal, but to take you to a place of complete safety where you can release anything and everything that no longer serves you.

Symbolically, it is a rebirth ritual. The massage itself is very satisfying, intuitively moving to find and fill the cravings of the body, the depth varies, as does the pace and flow, but the flow is continual, collecting and redistributing the mana, over and over. It is at times, very like being a driftwood log, caressed in the surf, surrounded by moving Ocean, both gentle as a baby's touch and simultaneously irresistibly powerful and penetrating.

The physical work is amazing, one of the most beautiful and delicious massages you can receive. If you receive it only on that level, you will be elated. If, however, you allow yourself to fall through the gates of your emotional and cognitive holding patterns, to go to that source that is both terrifying and ecstatic, that glowing place inside us where God lives, largely walled off from our everyday existence, then it will be transformational. I have had several people go there- without any of the explanation you are reading here. As I am exploring this place in myself, and knowing you can appreciate this information, I wanted to see if it was helpful to you to know this in advance. I don't think the experience can be willed, but perhaps it can be resisted. Like all the most primal healing energies, it has a knowing, will go where it is needed, and shape what is necessary.

I eagerly await our session. Thank you for your trust and confidence, I am humbled to be a channel for this work, grateful to my teachers and clients, and especially to my God.

Draping Traditionally, lomilomi is performed with the recipient nude. The work can be modified to suit your comfort level with minimal draping. It is pictured here without. With great reverence and respect, the sweeping, full strokes that wash, wavelike across the body, above and below, flow uninterrupted and unbroken. There is no judgment. Everything is perfect, just as it should be. The practitioner's unhesitating embrace, the sweeping, caring touch, assure the recipient that s/he is just as God intended, perfect and whole in every way. A Sacred Space This sacred space provides for opening and surrender to trust and receive. The complete unconditional love of the practitioner and focused intent for the good of the receiver becomes the carrier wave, the immediate manifestation of the love and grace of God. Emotions are released. Weeping is not uncommon, nor is laughter. The physical sensations as the mana, or kundalini energies are raised and directed throughout the body, are intense and sometimes overwhelming, often more than we westerners are accustomed to. A Hawaiian Temple Bodywork session begins, ends and is infused with sacred ritual, hallowing the space, setting the intention, calling in the support of the lineage of healers. Prior to the session, the practitioner dances the hula. This raises her/his mana and helps set the intention. Physically, it warms the practitioner's muscles, increases circulation, fires the neural pathways, and gets the body accustomed to the wavelike fluid movements inherent in the work. Incense and prayer is used to clear whatever energies may be present and create the halau, or sacred space. The receiver undresses and dons a sarong. The practitioner is clothed in a sarong as well. The space is warm, like a sweat lodge and perspiration is encouraged.

Anointing
The receiver stands near the table, eyes closed. The practitioner stands in front of him/her, and begins by anointing his/her own hands with essential oils, reaching skyward and praying. S/he then embraces the ethereal bodies of the recipient drawing his/her hands down, cascading without touching, over the recipient, sensing and shaping the energies present from crown to foot. This process is repeated, moving closer and closer to the recipient, until the fingertips make contact, stroking downward, like raindrops. Oils are copiously applied to the practitioner's hands, and as the hands make full contact, the oil is applied to the exposed areas of the skin, acclimating the receiver to the practitioner's touch and the sensation of being richly bathed in scented oils. After many such passes, from crown to toe, the sarong is untied and held in place by the practitioner, the receiver is instructed to breathe in deeply, and when ready, to exhale, releasing anything they no longer serves them. On the exhale, the sarong is dropped and the receiver stands vulnerable in the sacred space. The anointing continues with full strokes over the entire body, covering the receiver fully in richly scented oils. Then the sarong is draped over the shoulders and the receiver is guided to the table.

On the Table There are no sheets on the table for lomilomi, the receiver lies down, face up or down as instructed, the sarong covering them. Once the receiver is on the table, the practitioner reverently fans the sarong in wavelike motions, bringing it off the body and into the air. In this way, the past is metaphorically, and actually, removed from the receiver, bringing them and the practitioner into vertical time, the Now. As the sarong settles back onto the receiver, it is raised and drawn toward the feet, the edge sweeping down the receiver's body, removing the past, until the receiver is uncovered on the table. In a modified session, the sarong is first folded inward until it is like a cloth rope, and drawn downward until it barely, symbolically covers the pubis or gluteal crease, depending on whether the client is face up or face down. For some receivers, this symbolic covering of the most vulnerable areas assists them to open to an experience that may be beyond their current capacity to trust.
Waves In time with the music, and in the flow of the hula dance, the practitioner again and again delivers flowing, caressing strokes using their entire being and the full weight and mana of their moving body, like waves now breaking gently, now lapping, now crashing on the shore of the receiver's being. Hands, forearms, elbows and even the upper arm slide over, across and under the body, wrapping to follow the contours as a wave of ocean water wraps and recedes unbroken and continuous. The practitioner moves intuitively, not performing any "routine." The receiver's being communicates it's needs and the practitioner responds. The complete, sacred focus of the practitioner on the receiver and their highest good manifests as wave upon wave of unconditional love. It is inconceivably intense, overwhelmingly nurturing, the sense of perfection and well being is like nothing in ordinary experience.
Your Session For some, it may be too much. Prior to performing Hawaiian Temple Bodywork, or Lomi Lomi, with you, the practitioner will talk to you about your health, allergies, injuries, touch history and why you are seeking this work. If necessary, the work will be adapted to accommodate your situation. It may be that this work is not right for you at this moment, the practitioner may recommend another style of bodywork, or that you wait until something changes. If you currently have a cold, or infection, for example, it is not advisable to receive any form of bodywork, let alone one as powerful as lomilomi. If you have deep misgivings about trusting and receiving the authentic work, then a modified, "spa" version may be offered with a modified ritual, more draping and less connection and intensity, in order to meet you where you are so that you can evaluate your readiness to accept more. Sensation Many feelings and sensations may occur during the work, including sadness, laughter, unbidden memories, ecstatic sensation, altered states of consciousness, nearly all states are possible and normal during this work, but the work has no objective or goal other than the highest good of the receiver. The work is about being, completely, authentically, in the present healing moment, it is not about "doing" anything.
Closing the Session Because of the profound, intense experience of lomilomi, because of the sacred space and boundless trust required, closing the session is as important as opening it. Allow plenty of time for your Lomi Lomi session. The rituals for closing the session are similar to those for opening it, but in reverse order, disengaging gradually, ritually opening a new future, replacing the drape and billowing the it upward several times, allowing it to rest on the body as the receiver returns to ordinary reality, renewed, healed and refreshed. the receiver is embraced and thanked. They have an opportunity to share their experience of the massage, to give their impressions, relate their feelings and gather themselves. They are not abandoned or thrust abruptly back into the flow of life. As with any traditional healing art, one is on the path for many years before true mastery is attained. I am but a humble journeyman practicing and perfecting this craft, continuing my studies and my spiritual path. I invite you to experience this amazing work with me. Please contact me with any questions you may have.
Couples This amazing work is available for couples and I have fellow practitioners who can assist in couple's work. The gender combination of the couple is of no importance, we value and respect you and your relationship regardless of your orientation, background, ethnicity, color, spiritual path or other labels or attributes. To us you are fellow spirits experiencing the human condition.

Michael offers Professional Massage Therapy at your location on South Miami Beach! Enjoy an eclectic, therapeutic blend of many massage modalities and styles to relax, engage the senses, energize and feel great! Welcome to South Miami Beach! Experience incredible, delightful, transformative massage therapy. Profoundly restorative, Michael's professional massage therapy releases deeply held muscle tension, unblocks holding patterns and taps your body's own healing energy. Your South Beach Massage Therapy session will leave you feeling great! Michael deftly incorporates many massage styles, such as Swedish Massage, Esalen Massage, Thai Massage (Thai Yoga), Lomi Lomi, Multi Dimensional Movement Arts as needed into his sessions. Michael's therapeutic massage has a powerful energetic component that helps you arrive at that space of deep healing.