good medicine

Raven Dancing

with Tshimshain Haayuuk Dancers

at Penn Cove Water Festival, May 19, 2012

Crusin' at Penn Cove

Photos thanks to our friend, Gary Koepplin

Serenity and stability ... A North Node in Taurus Story

Soul Purpose: serenity and stability, regaining a sense of the sacred in the ordinary, a sense of having earned and gained by one’s own efforts, honoring good traditions and preserving what is valuable for future generations.

Shadow: Looking to another for definition, self-confidence, or too much support. Taking things that aren’t yours. Collapsing into a felt sense of emotional pain from previous lives, and adapting an overly serious, gloomy attitude. Going to quickly into studying the occult and transpersonal realities, and thereby taking a spiritual bypass on your emotional life.


-Elizabeth Spring "North Node Astrology ... Taurus"

These are the 'Ole Moons before Mahina the moon becomes full; a good time to reflect and inventory the value of my life journey.  Before moving on to new ventures or projects, or as Earth People such as my Ancestors the Kanaka knew, the 'ole moons were a good time to make sure there were no leaks in the wa'a (canoe).  The week's focus in my Wa'a Mo'olelo, the storytelling workshop takes 'ole into account.  Before starting a new storytelling exercise we review the practice and process of creating and using rope or cord to remember a story.  I was stitting on the seawall steps with my friend yesterday.  We had just finished chanting E Ho Mai, the Aunty Edith Kanakaole chant asking for wisdom; we meet Saturday mornings at the water's edge giving our voice to the Akua and what answers come.  Pete was with us for the chant but as our time turned to grandmother talk he wandered on his own.

The morning was serene and the sky clear and beautiful.  The tide curled in miniature waves of such beauty.  If you did not notice you could miss the delicate movement or mistook the movement as an indication that the tide was coming in.  The eagle ate in the eel grass up shore from us.  On the seawall steps we perched and my friend asked me something about the Hawaiian culture.  She said she knew how the Maori view the topic of breath but wanted to know what the Hawaiian culture said about it.  Quickly I sorted through the index cards of notes in my mind the image of an old fashion Rolodex of cards and information remains.  What I shared with her was a compilation of stories that are culture as I understand it, bits of research and experiences that describe the why and the how of a cultural practice.  My explanation was a story rope that I had never shared in quite this way until she asked me.  The setting and sitting with time after 'oli, after having asked for the wisdom to know the seen and unseen at the moment opened the way.  Without expectation a question was posed and a story told.  "I hope this answered your question," I said when the story was pau.  She said it did.

Moments later someone called her name from the yard on the hill behind us.  A young man, the grandson of our mutual friend was there to cut the lawn.  He ended up coming to the steps with us and had a story of his own that would not wait to be told.  The two grandmothers listened to his youthful tale and more than once I was slapping my thigh and hooting with laughter at his adventure.  My friend had a phrase from the Maori to describe the tale that sought out the audience and recipient who would honor the story rope, this gift.  It slips from memory that name the Maori give.  But, the gift itself on this sacred ordinary morning is now a knot (or bead) on my story rope.  With space between us, my husband and I knot events and sacred ordinariness onto our personal story rope.  Air and ha the breath of life dances and we dance to be individual beings living a commitment to be coupled.  While my friend and I sat on the steps we were available for the youthful gift of young adventures.  Later still as I walked up the sloping steps to my friend's cottage she wrote me a check an "offering" for the work I do.  I was not expecting it, but received it heartily.

The North Node astrology for Taurus from Elizabeth Spring is one of the markers and revisted stories I call upon as I venture.  It's a healthy and helpful marker for me over time.  This 'ole moon I get this PURPOSE: "regaining a sense of the sacred in the ordinary, a sense of having earned and gained by one’s own efforts, honoring good traditions and preserving what is valuable for future generations." SHADOW:  "Looking to another for definition, self-confidence, or too much support. Taking things that aren’t yours." With space between the knots on my story rope there is room for my soul to feel at home in my skin.  And, the hooting laughter?  Priceless.

a hui hou.

"the things upon which life depends" - a tab from terri windling's blog

"The creative act is a letting down of the net of human imagination into the ocean of chaos on which we are suspended, and the attempt to bring out of it ideas...

This snip of a quote from Terrence McKenna can be read in full by linking to Terri Windling's blog here: 

http://windling.typepad.com/blog/2012/02/terrence-mckenna.html#comments

He'elele ka moe na ke kanaka

A dream is a bearer of messages to man
- Kupuna Kawena Pukui, 'Olelo No'eau

My dreams have been swhirling lately, filled with bits and pieces of information I recall some of it but more of it remains an undigested meal.  My na'au is busy, my head not content and yet there's time for the messages to seep like water where they're needed. 

2008, the open door in the making

This blog, Makua O'o is an open door with fewer updates than when this place was new.  I was learning to navigate the cyber-world while I also learned how to appreciate the messages of an illness that was quickly wiping my world out, as I knew it.  The years of blogging that began in 2008 are recorded here like my people of the canoe had done centuries earlier, and continue to do in the creation of 'oli.  When we began rebuilding our lives I was making my way through uncharted waters and needed a tool to mark my path.  Words, story and mana'o have been a navigational tool that serves.  The word Mo'olelo means the succession of words or pieces of a story; words following one after the other. 

This morning I came to Makua O'o to see whether people are still visiting and found a few still do.  Welcome, you are still very welcome.  My journey, my life and the writing and storytelling I do have feathered as I get better and better, recovering my health refreshed in body and soul.  Some things change.  Some things stay the same.  What stays the same?  The tools for living as Makua O'o remain constant.  The words to describe the tools change/evolve as I am given access to understanding 'Olelo Hawaii (Hawaiian Language) with more depth.  The internet allows me to research and learn from the brilliant lights of young(er) kumu and translation of the timeless wisdom (Kumulipo, Na Po Mahina).  I thrive on this stuff and as I learn I spread it around -- one blog at a time, or several blogs at once!

What changes?  Seasonally, Nature changes, the heavens huli, planting seasons come and go.  I age, my hair grays, my eyes weaken.  On the other end of that cord of record my pre-conceptions change as I recognize the illusions that have limited my thinking.  Recovery from long-term illness does that, and who I am now is changing.  For whatever reason (it might be my astrology or my genetic application) I share the process. 

If you have come here to read what a Makua O'o does over time, you might like reading my other blogs.

MoonTattoostories
Here is where my love of storytelling, characters and time through history weave a mythic fiction from culture, place and connections between generations.  I am writing the fiction on-line and include my thinking and my researching as I sniff out the next connection or digest a dream not yet ready for translation.

Story-Canoe ... Wa'a Mo'olelo
This is a publicly available blog for storytellers.  Behind the scenes a private blogspot houses weekly workshops where I share and teach storytellers.

Feathered Ground
This is the journal where spill my discoveries and better-and-better improvements with the Gupta Amygdala Retaining (brain retraining) Program.

Throughout the blogs I remain an elder-in-training Makua O'o.  There is always more to know, so I learn and share the navigation and translate.  The kapu moons begin tonight, with KANE (notice the underscore substitute for the kahako because I have no 'olelo software ... flexibility!)  Link here for the Ke Ala O Ka Mahina Calendar to count on the moon.

Mahalo nui loa kakou, thanks to you for continuing to visit Makua O'o.  Hope you come visit me at the other places, too.

Mokihana