Elemental shrines

Sun: 14' Gemini
Moon: 08'Taurus
Dark of the Moon

A short post tonight.  Now that our home's central altar is up and running, my husband and I are in the process of putting up several small elemental shrines around the house.  So far, one is in progress, the other three are in conceptual form.

Where we live in Hawaii is urbanized, but when you close your eyes and strip out the city from your awareness and focus on what is behind it, the elements are screaming to be heard.  This land, this solid earth, is born of fire from water's embrace, kissing the sky as the winds play over the mighty pali (cliffs) under the heat of the tropical sun.  You can't miss it, if you quiet down half a second to listen.  It's easy to overlook the origins of your land on the continents: when the volcanoes that gave rise to your island are still watching over you (and are still active or potentially so!), you don't forget.

We're starting with Water as a shelf on the wall.  We don't really have a west-facing wall to put it on, so a north-facing wall will have to double as Water and earth together.  There will be an oceanic motif, particularly incorporating any items that the local waterways or the beach choose to send our way and with special honor to sharks: it is the Navy that brought me here, and it is on the shores of Pearl Harbor that I live.  Pearl Harbor is the ancient home of the Hawaiian shark deity, and Her children are still sometimes seen in the waters when the big ones come in from the sea to spawn, and the little ones hatch and go.  (The local spinner dolphins won't come into the harbor, though they'll escort ships coming in as far as the harbor mouth.)

Fire's shrine in the kitchen, honoring the hearth as the center as the home, may require a trip to the Big Island.  It is regrettable that Hawaii is so in the pockets of the airlines: an inter-island ferry service could do much for tourist revenues from residents who get tired of the same-old-island all the time (and the large local military population).  However, I will take nothing from Pele's raging home that She does not offer - and by offer, I do mean she might need to drop it on my head, literally.  Nor will I remove anything from Her home without making a gift in exchange - I am no kahuna, I do not know the traditional ways, but I know She does appreciate both flowers and fruits.  As the mother of the Islands, She holds a special primacy here and should be honored as such.  Local legend says that She is often seen around ALL of the islands, not simply the Big Island where Her active home is at (or Lo'ihi offshore, her home-under-construction, scheduled to break the surface of the Pacific in some 10,000 years), and that she takes an active interest in all of her kama'aina (children of the land).  My husband and I are not born to this land - we are malihini, newcomers - but our coming daughter will be.

Earth should be easy: it is easy to start seedlings here and I have a small lemon sapling started in the backyard already.  It's a little thing, barely two inches clear of the soil I packed into a spent toilet paper roll (to use as a starter cup), the only survivor of the eight seeds started at that time - but it is thriving and I will have to transfer it to a larger container soon.  Where it goes will serve as a temporary shrine until our garden gets going, with the garlic, tomatoes, basil, rosemary, lavender, plumeria and ti planned for the backyard, and remind us of the great threats that the Islands face from invasive (uncontrolled) species as well as from human industry and genetically-modified organisms.  If I need further inspiration, all I need to do is look north and see the mighty Ko'olau range that towers for more than forty miles over the east side of this island - the remains of a massive volcano whose northern slopes slid into the sea and created the incredibly beautiful Kane'ohe Bay and the Pali Lookout overlooking that.

Air will also be an outdoor shrine, sharing much with the fragrant plants of the garden, but also with feeders for the local butterfly life that (I hope) the flowers will attract.  The birds have no problems feeding themselves (my gods, some of the pigeons here are FAT) and some have learned to be rather aggressive.  None has yet bothered my dog, although we have had one of these avian opportunists fly INTO the house to raid her food when we left the backyard door open to enjoy the breeze and allow her free access to the yard.