This is some kinda moon!

See the Crescent just out from the longest finger of the Great Fir? (click on the image for a larger view)

 Spring has come, and with it many clear and beautifully lit skies have allowed us access to the many shapes of Mahina, the Moon. The other evening, at twilight, I was out with my camera.
"There's Moki clicking at any empty sky!" my neighbor said as she walked toward me through the orchard.
"No," I promised. "She's up there. Near twelve o'clock, just up from the tip of that tree." I was navigating her to the barely visible crescent in a not quite dark enough sky.
"Oh," she was surprised to see it. "Now which direction is the moon moving?"
"West," I said, "she's setting into the trees."

Two hours later, in a dark sky ... Hina nearly set in our horizon of Tall Ones.

A miraculous thing is happening here in the woods. Time and grit are wearing at us, and our roots are settling into the glacial silt (not much natural top soil on this island) with a lot of help from the First Beings. All around us and with us day and night we are learning so much from Tree Beings who grow to a hundred and fifty feet with roots that depend not so much on deep soil, but on reaching out to each other creating a network of confidence as their root systems flow like blood. In the limbs of those Tree Beings, Feathered Beings make their nests, lay their eggs, hunker down against the blow of winds of all variety. Songs from those Feathered Beings make such music, the tones and the signatures comforting, messaging, filling space with just the right amount of emptiness for potential.

We happy up when the Sun sends those rays alaula into our eyeballs, even as we squint against its power. During the weeks when the Moon is in the sky during the sunlight hours there is a very different point of balance. A subtle weighing is happening though most of us wouldn't notice.

Satori writes, "Thursday morning the Moon in Cancer, its own sign, sextiles the Sun in Taurus. Both quincnunx retrograde Saturn in Sagittarius. The lights line up in water and earth creating a protective exchange with each other in order to get the most from that long term, far-reaching fire. Burn off your obligations, you’re protected.[...]

After these many decades of living, this spring seems to be wearing me with new appreciation. We are reciprocal in our dance this year. I know for sure that it matters what I think, and Nature in all her manifestations responds to my thinking. The Woods, the Birds, the Wind they are getting to know us. Raven in particular loves that big turquoise truck. When we inched our way into this spot five seasons ago we were being led by forces greater than ourselves. We had begun to count on the moon for help with navigation, but my astrologer said something about that controversial planet/dwarf plant/not planet Pluto ... 'you can feel Pluto's effect long before it aspects your natal chart. But you never know how deep you'll go.'

So up in the sky the planets, stars, and moon set up a network for honing and homing in on our potential, if you believe in the wonder of all that is. It is some kinda moon, planet and symphony of energy being exchanged now, and all the time. What a life. What potential. What a moon. Notice it today.

Hula, vocalization, legacy, mahu, permeability: Kekuhi and Kaumakaiwa Kanahele

Kekuhi and Kaumakaiwa Kanahele. Watch them in a video interview-performance.
Hover over the image for a quote from that video about 'Permeability' 

On Valentine's Day Eve and Valentine's Day, 2015, Pete and I packed ourselves up, made sure I had a full tank of oxygen, caught a ferry, drove into Seattle prepared and excited to be in the Seattle Town Hall audience with mother and daughter Kekuhi Kanahele and Kaumakaiwa Kanahele. We were headed for two experiences with Kekuhi and Kaumakaiwa. One was a small(er) teaching talkstory event entitled HULA: our world consciousness. The second night, Valentine's Day, was the larger musical venue of dance and music.

We had hoped the audio record of the small talkstory event would be available to share. 'Aue, oh no, there were technical problems and that recording disappeared. We mourned the loss of that recording because its content was uncommon and powerful. That desire to repeat and re-hear the messages called. 'O kiha i ka lani. 'Owe i ka lani. Nunulu i ka lani. The effects of that night have woven into us, integrating in the na'au the gut the messages work on me, live with me, win me over. Two malama (months) have passed, and I have truly eaten the moons.*

Mahealani on Saturday night

While studying and researching, on the Mahealani Moon with the energy of the Lunar Eclipse vibing through me, I was rewarded with the discovery of this YouTube from Seattle's KEXP FM. An interview and recording with dj Darek Mazzone and Kekuhi and Kaumakaiwa fielding questions, folding exquisite, broadly poetic and cogent replies. Woven between the call and response of the interview were the vocalizations of primal, ancient and contemporary music. That interview and recording was from Friday, February 13, 2015. The mother daughter duo were in the KEXP studio not long before coming to the stage for their Seattle Town Hall presentation of HULA: our world consciousness. My kupuna were listening to my petition to hear the 'ohana for Keaukaha again. I mahalo you, my ancestors. And share the discovery below.

I have listened and watched this video four times over the weekend. It is early morning, Monday, and Hina is still bright in the northwestern sky, a Kulu moon. Hiding behind the tall bodies of the tree 'ohana in the sky of Scorpio's domain. Jupiter is already in the west, still in his retrograde motion the planet of luck will go direct on Wednesday. My astrologer says to be ready to jump forward with exuberance and positivity. Mining that with the spirit of  kilo practitioner I dig through the notes I have made as I listened and studied the mana'o of Kekuhi and Kaumakaiwa.

After their opening 'oli Ke Welina Mai Kei Kekini Lalo and incantation to Kane, Mazzone said, "Tell me everything. Tell me everything about what you guys are doing ... I wanna start with your grandmother. I guess the parallel would be she would be like the Cesar Chavez of Hawaiian Culture." That brought a roar of laughter from the Kanakaoles. Kekuhi begins to reply and describe her grandmother Edith Kanakaole. But a question pure and direct opens the way for the brilliant and esoteric program unfolding. "What is hula ... exactly?"


Kekuhi starts, "Hula is alignment of movement and vocalization. It's an environmental dance."
Kaumakaiwa builds, "It's the synchronistic form of man and nature in communion. Sometimes it parallels and sometimes it intersects. But what you can always see with hula is that awakening of the subconscious through the dance the voice through activating, the exertion of the physical body ... and the experience of transcendence."

The thirty-four minute interview is an education, a full meal deal of an offering and I will listen and dig, awakening more of me each time. It is why I love the dance that is my Hawaiian culture. So many levels and issues of hula, humanity and nature, and the power of the word, and music are encapsulated.  Kaumakaiwa blossoms with "Encapsulating [that] hum into a word ... You invoke the word. You become the word. You become the thing." Her mother punctuates, "And THAT is what our practice is all about. Kaumakaiwa concludes, "That's the basis for all our music."

Enjoy. Make room for a feast. Mahalo e na 'ohana Kanaka'ole o Kanahele.

Believe in Ke Akua, for this higher power makes all life possible … WE ARE NEVER ALONE

On the way into the woods, I stopped to notice these crocus beauties smilin' at us.
Oooolahlah.

Believe in Ke Akua, for this higher power makes all life possible … WE ARE NEVER ALONE

"Temple of the bees"
a beautiful photo taken by Nirvan Hope
www.earthrhythmphotography.com
Posted here with permission from the artist
Thank you, Nirvan

For a while let "Temple of the bees" inspire you to consider the power of creation and the interconnectedness we share with ALL THAT IS. Later there may be more words.

Me ke aloha kakou,
Mokihana