Pele - The Volcano Goddess

     In one story of the fiery volcano goddess, Pele challenges a young chief to a holua race - and loses! Leilehua Yuen depicts Pele racing her holua sled to the sea in this drawing from her currently-in-progress coloring book on the adventures of Pele. The image also is available on greeting cards in the artist's "Hawaiian Deities" series. Yuen@ilHawaiinet

Pele Comes to Hawai`i

     Seething magma pushes its way up through tons of rock to fountain skyward, spilling over the landscape, destroying everything in its path, as it lays the foundation for new life. Pele moves on the face of her land.
     One legend tells how Pele (pronounced closer to "PEH-leh" than to "Pay-lay", which would be spelled "peilei") after an argument with her elder sister, left Kahiki. Boarding her canoe, Honua-i-Akea, Pele, relatives loyal to her, and their retainers set sail for a new home.
     Pele first sighted the islands which make up the northwestern part of the Hawaiian Archipelago, but they were too small. Next, she saw Ni`ihau, but it was too dry. Kaua`i was large enough, but too wet for her fire. At O`ahu the sea rushed in when she dug her pit. Lana`i and Kaho`olawe were again too arid. Maui and Moloka`i both produced gushing springs when she dug with her magic `o`o (digging stick). At last she sighted Hawai`i.
     Sailing along the coast, she noted the snow on Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa, their large sloping shoulders, the many safe canoe landings, the forests, and the plains. She landed at Ka`u and traveled inland. At a suitable spot she dug her lua, her pit. It was dry and warm inside. Clouds rolled by, providing rain for water and cooling mists. Pele had made her home.

Ho'okupu a Pele - Offerings for Pele

     Today, many visitors to these islands - as well as many who now live here - feel drawn to Pele and wish to make offerings to her. Ancient Sites of Hawai`i provides excellent guidelines for making such offerings. The forward, by Edward Kanahele, is clear and well-reasoned. Kanahele points out:
     People who come to these islands "are of many different philosophical and spiritual persuasions. . .For the tourist or resident who is not a practitioner [of the Native Hawaiian religion], a minimal duty whould be that one has the intent of doing no harm. . . One should take a moment to reflect. . . One should not leave any [physical] offering (never leave a rock covered with a ti leaf). One should not disturb or take any souvenir rocks or other material because such an action affects one's spiritual safety. Neither should one leave a spiritual or personal object. . . since that also affects one's spiritual safety.
     "If the visitor feels spiritually compelled to connect. . . then one should offer a ho`okupu. One of the ho`okupu of highest value in the native Hawaiian culture is not an offering of vegetables or foliage; neither is it an offering of a fish or a whale's tooth or a family heirloom; rather it is one's word!. . . One's word is the ho`okupu of choice!"
     Introductory classes in the Hawaiian religion are available through Ka Hui Pa`ahana Hawaiian culture and arts study group: music@ilhawaii.net.