I am writing to you at the completion of a Huakai’i, or voyage, with Hawai’i, the Big Island in the heart-pulse of the northern Pacific Ocean. I was held and guided by Pelehonuamea, the Volcano Goddess, the primordial force of all creation that devours the land and births new earth. She of the many faces, who has appeared to us here on Hawai’i in the physical form of the Kīlauea Volcano - one of the most actively fountaining volcanoes on the planet. I was with her in the night-time, red splashes of womb-blood painting the sky in her ecstasy dance. I was with her deep within the earth, guided by Kumu Ehulani into her vagina cave. Down, down, down we went, through layers of time and space. It’s not completely proper for me to share the transmutation and rebirthing of such a place. Only, afterwards, the intimacy shared with such a Goddess is palpable, and now it is only right that I continue to tend to the relationship we have formed.
Becoming intimate with her pulsating cycles, and sleeping upon the spikey black lava rock which she thrusts out of her core, has anchored me. It’s as if, before this journey, I was a sky-person, interested in the twirls of wind, and the sparkle of distant galaxies. Pele has invited me into the earth, not just in thought, but in the sticky practicalities of pitching a tent into glassy ground, and the turbulant vitality of new-birth interfering with phone reception in remote campgrounds.
I was taken in not only by Pele, but all her sisters too. Hiʻiakaikapoliopele (also known by her shortened name, Hi’iaka) - the green earth essence, who forms new plant life upon the lava-work of her sister. Within her embrace, and that of the Banyan tree, I was taken through a portal into the underground fae-land. Not underground as in ‘shadowy and scary’, underground as in, literally the soil below our feet. The gnome places. That was truly a journey beyond words. Ten minutes curled into the soil and root structures of a Banyan tree can also be an eon of a trance-journey. When I opened my eyes, and stepped back into everyday consciousness, something deep within my being had clicked and awakened. Something that anchored me and grounded me. Something that whispered through roots. Something that asks me to keep my brain dendrites in the earth, in the root systems, in the beings who dance below our feet.
Now, at the end of this Huaka’i, I can only wait and allow the blessings of this work to settle into my knowing-place.
I was invited on this journey by the pull of the island herself, which had been coming to me in dreams and gut-knowings for months. It materialised in part due to the awesome work of my teacher, Kumu Pa’a and Kumu Hula Kawika Foster (Kumu can translate to mean Teacher/Master and Pa’a can translate to mean the Unshakeable Foundation). For those not aware, I have been learning with Kumu Kawika for several years now. His lineage is from the island of Moloka’i, and I am drawn into the profound clarity of wisdom held within the lineage that Kumu Kawika carries.
Very soon I will be sharing new and re-shaped healing offerings that have emerged from my learning and integration in Hawai’i and beyond - so stay tuned.
For now, mahalo nui, and aloha. Now it’s time for me to rest and settle!