'OLE DAYS AND NIGHTS OF THE HAWAIIAN MOON CALENDAR

Three days and nights of the 'Ole Cycle according to the Hawaiian Moon Calendar begin today. We will refrain from new posts (though we moderate any new comments) and spend the 'Ole Moon phases reviewing and finishing things already begun.




A hui hou (see you later) when Mahina the Moon moves through her phases.
Mokihana

The power of the word: The subtle yet powerful difference between "adjusting" and "adapting"

Ho'oponopono ... to adjust

Ho'oma`a ... to adapt

Source:  Ulukau

Almost forty years ago I boarded a plane at the Honolulu International Airport, heading for Seattle.  I was a newly married woman leaving the islands, the valley and the culture and the ways of being on the Planet familiar to me thus far.  This was summer, 1971 and this wahine was in for a major re-tooling at so many different levels.  1971 was the calm or the pre-renassaince era of cultural awakening.  The plane was taking me kela (over there) and the action of re-discovery would begin on the islands of the Pacific shortly after that.  My destiny was cast at birth, astrologically, Venus was in the sign of Sagittarius when I was pulled from the womb (a C-section; I was really not ready yet ... auwe!) and Jupiter sat close by, conjunct Venus, in the 10th house.  I would auana (wander and travel).  There were signs of the seeker in my chart and in my genes. 

My decades of life in the Pacific Northwest at that point were years spent in a very haole world.  My son and I were singular in our brownness and at that time my choice whether conscious or not, was to ho'oma'a (to adapt).  Leaving O`ahu, Kuli`ou`ou Valley and the history that I felt (at the time) confined me to a mold too tight and unyielding, I believed it right to become something or someone else.  In the definition of things, to ho'oma'a is to adapt ... as in to become something else in order to survive or acculturate.  The place that was my Pacific Northwest home allowed such incredibly pristine new realities.  It was country-living perched on a high bank overlooking Puget Sound.  Puget Sound = ocean to me even though it was not really ocean, it was big water and that was close enough.  In many ways, I grew up in the Pacific Northwest; grew to become an adult with successes in the material and working-girl world.  The culture of the times valued these successes and I was affirmed.  My hapa-haole son grew up in a place that would provide him a base that seems to suit his Libra Sun and Gemini Moon.  He is comfortable with foundation and yet his Gemini Moon seeks. 

Kaulana Mahina ... naming the phases of Mahina and being in the flow

A bit of ke'ia and kela (skipping and linking to sites of interest, and visits to our other blogs)

The three night 'Ole Cycle of Mahina (the moon) during 'Emi or Waning phase is pau, and productive fishing and planting resumes.  This link will introduce you, dear readers, to the site created by Kapi`olani Community College on the Island of O`ahu, Hawai'i.  A tremendous resource for cultural material and education.  We have been involved in plenty of internal weeding and restoration.  Click here to read how the asteroid CHIRON is doing some very deep restoration work this Winter.

CJ Wright author of the blog Auntie Moon, astrologer and curator of all things Mahina, has become one of my favorite blog stops.  Her recent article about the phases of the moon for 2010 along with activities that suit the astrology of the moon's phases is a very cool way to keep in the flow of things.  To read CJ's article click here.

Na Mea Wai Wai Hawaii

"There is life in a kindly reply"
Ua ola no i ka pane a ke aloha

Yesterday I found an email from another Hawaiian native living not far from us . 'The beautiful bird' is living in Portland, Oregon and was searching for an 'olelo no'eau (a Hawaiian proverb). She gave me a brief idea of the reason for her asking, and then the search was on. In times past I carried a library of treasured print resources. Among those books were a basic 'ohana (family) of resources that had been passed to me from teachers, purchased from book stores, and gifted me by friends and family. The decade of travel and wandering as Pete and I simplify and cull and are asked to zen down even more quickly (MCS can do that) means that library of books is minimalized. Multiple chemical sensitivities for me includes being sensitive to and reactive to the chemicals used to print and assemble books, magazines, and other print. The loss has devastated me in the earliest times. Slowly, the loss has turned to acceptance and now it does please me that those books are with my son, my niece and others who were ready for the teaching.

Yesterday's kahea (the call) inspired me and motivated both Pete and me to find the tiny library of Na Mea Hawaii (things of Hawaii) that we do still keep with us. With concentrated effort, Pete found the tiny stack of cards printed with the collection of Hawaiian proverbs assembled and preserved by kupuna Mary Kawena Pukui. The cards fit in Pete's palm, and for many years, and through thousands of wandering miles over oceans, continent and islands those tiny cards have been a daily comfort. Kupuna Kawena, scholar and teacher is among the revered and valued human treasures of culture -- music, language and living practices -- of Na Mea Wai Wai Hawaii. I used to carry and keep close the tome of a book written by Kupuna Kawena, 'Olelo No'eau to do my work with community, used it to add meaning to a project or piece of writing that I was working with, or when I simply needed a bit of wisdom to ground me.

Yesterday's kahea and search led to rediscover the value of those beautifully worn snippets of timeless wisdom. Among them was something the young wahine Hawai`i found fitting for her purpose. So cool! The search also led me to discover that archives and electronic access to Hawaiian language, and archives of Kupuna Kawena's 'Olelo No'eau are available to those who have access to cyberspace. Aue! I have included links to a few of those electronic connections. There is power in the word and to see how a culture and language that teetered on the edge of extinction can now be accessed through electronic libraries, wow, we are indeed not in control of how life will proceed in the hands of generations to come.

Three on-line resources to access NA WAI WAI HAWAI'I:

'OLELO NO'EAU Archives Selected proverbs assembled at Leeward Community College on the island of O'ahu, Hawaii

ULUKAU (Electronic Hawaiian Dictionary) A project created by Aha Punana Leo (the Hawaiian language immersion schools of Hawaii)

The Kumulipo (The Hawaiian Sacred Texts of Creation) This one the translation done by Queen Lili'uokalani, Hawaii's last reigning queen, done during her house arrest when Americans were stealing the 'aina.

The Makua O'o practices using the o'o
"Know that wisdom is found in many places … SOFTEN THE GROUND OF YOUR BEING"

Sense your place

"There are a multiple of steps that make a human Sensitive’s life less convenient and requires living by the rules of sequential access. A Sensitive lives the prototype transitional human experience…less convenience more consciousness. Like Gypsies throughout the history on The Planet, Sensitives often become Gypsies who choose to be Travellers not just because houses and walled structures create ill-ness. Sensitives like Lokea Bird find that the seed of migration has waited until the spell was broken."

-from Wood Crafting the Tale

Papa Honua (the planet Earth) is an enduring place. She is a gift and gift-giver, mother and nurturer and she is not alone in her place. She is part of Ever and Ever and is affected by the connection to all the cosmic orbs and energy of the space that Kanaka Maoli (first people of the islands known commonly as Hawaii) know as 'aina (that which sustains us; including the ground and dirt, rocks, growing plants, the sea, the waters both salty and fresh, the air, the mists, the foods that grow in the water ...) in essence Papa Honua is connected to all that is. The Kanaka have been occupied by a culture that values 'aina not. The history of the islands and the sustaining culture of the Kanaka Maoli has not only been paved over to build parking lots, hotels, mansions and multiplex every sort of thing. The islands' history and culture has been infused with the same values of commerce and over-arching greed same as much of the industrial world.

My son and I were out for a Thanksgiving Day walk in the Mill Town. He flew to Washington to spent time with me, Pete and in separate visits he spent time with his Dad. The walk we took that Thanksgiving morning included the sort of conversation a mother values as much as a good deep inhalation of fresh air. My son was born not far from this Mill Town and was raised in a community where he and I were the exception to the rule at that time: we were brown and though his father is native Northwest white, there has always been something different about us. Ultimately, that something was the seed of Kanaka Maoli that lay dormant for the first two decades of his life and mine. I made a choice to seek other experiences and these Northwest communities including the Mill Town opened a world unlike the island home I'd known. Now my son has chosen to move from the Pacific Northwest to create a life in the Hawaiian Islands. He has been there more than six years now. As I observe the life he is creating, that seed of culture has sprouted, rooted and born fruits of a new generation of creativity. My son offers me a view of what it's like for the new generation of Hawaiian who has been swirled with the genes and experiences of the continent.

The conversation that Thanksgiving morning bumped into the subject of "the aloha spirit" a phrase that is all too vanilla an expression coined by the occcupying culture of tourism and real estate

My son said something like, "They (the locals, the Hawaiians) don't even know what that means. They don't show it, act it ...I've been struck by how friendly people here are."

I thought about what he said for a few moments and offered this, "The culture has been so long occupied by the values of greed and control, it's really tough if not impossible for them to know what aloha is. Hawaii is an occupied nation, and the thing is so is the rest of the world now ..."

"Hmmm ... yah, like that's the norm now." He said.

"Yup."

Visits with my son are few, and each one more precious than the last. I think we both acknowledge the fragility of physical life because he has seen me go through many many transformations. He is always the first one to visit us where ever on Papa Honua we are. I have committed to keeping no secrets from this boy, this young man, in the hope that the depth and breath of my experiences can serve me as a sturdy yet flexible foundation. I think he will need that to make adjustments during the next two decades. Sensing his place on the Planet I witness how my son expands his roots. I also see that him testing the flexibility of his hybrid culture. I would like to see and smell him using no chemicals and fragrances and hope in time the example of my life with chemical sensitivities will give him reason to make changes.

The planets, the 'aina, the seeds of culture that remembers the truth about humans' role as part of the Earth's destiny, will know that there are seasons when beings estivate or hibernate to survive cycles of hardship. In spite of all odds, the dandelions, the ohi'a lehua, the frogs and Earth's first people carry the seeds of Grace. This piece is as much a prayer ... saying, "I believe" and an affirmation that "Yes, I have woken from the spell." Occupation is real and is a debilitating condition that too many people experience. America the Nation and its systems of "occupation" are in the early stages of spell-breaking. Cosmic cycles do for the whole what the whole seems not to be willing to do without intervention. Tiny Pluto is now occupying space in the celestial arena of the constellation Capricorn. Big intervention will have a role in doses of spell-breaking in big and small places. If you are not sure of your place, a good direction to look is inside and then out ... what seeds within your world are worth nurturing and where will you plant them?

Mokihana