PELE, GODDESS OF CREATION AND DESTRUCTION by quest writer Peony.

Pele is the goddess of fire, volcanoes and lightning, daughter of the Earth goddess and the Sky god. She is called in Hawaiian songs: “The one who shaped the world.”

Pele is a talking deity who can take on a human form. She lives in Kilauea on the most active volcano in the world. Folklore tells us that she was born in Tahiti, created the Caribbean islands and fashioned the Hawaiian islands through a series of battles and by digging with a stick.

http://mythicalrealm.com/mythical-gods-legends/pele-goddess-of-fire-hawaii/

It is amazing to see how nature shaped the world or to observe what is shaping the stage. If we observe we can see some wonderful manifestations of life around and in all things. For example we can see how very hot magma can create wonderful shapes.

Here is a picture of Pele’s hair (Lauoho o Pele, rouru o pere). There are volcanic rocks, called obsidian hair.

In Greek mythology Pele is human and a masculine character. He was married to the nereid Thetis and of their union was born Achille. Thetis was the daughter of a goddess and god of the sea (Titan), she could change appearance too. She represents the union between god and human, the creation of the hybrid human of today. Grand-daughter of Thetys the sea goddess, daughter of Ouranos (sky god) and Gaïa (earth goddess.)

One of the fourth moons on Jupiter, Io has a moon called Pele who has been formed by volcanic activity. Io has the most volcanic activity in our solar system and the lava is mainly composed of sulfur.    Volcanic activity, Pele on Io

 

When I was younger, I lived on a tiny island in the Caribbean called Martinique. In the north of the island there is a volcano called Pelée (Pele) It is one of the most destructive volcanoes and (s)he is well studied by scientists.

This volcano was called like the goddess of course, by natives Amerindians the Galibi, Kalina, or Arawak, who lived on the island. But Europeans wants to believe it is because of the peeled skin appearance (pele=peeled) of the volcano. The story tells us that when the French came in around 1600  and killed almost of the natives (decolonisation=killing)  some of them decided to cast themselves into the volcano rather than submit. One of them said : “Pelee will avenge us.”

In 1902 like most people know today the volcano had woken up.

On the 8th of May 1902, 30, 000 people died in less than 2 minutes, the entire town of St Pierre (St Peter) the capital town of the island and all of the inhabitants were destroyed. And there were many people present because it was an election day, the inhabitants still tell today that the armed forces had prevented people from leaving town. People were killed by a 500°C glowing cloud full of sulfuric gas, explosions, lack of air and lahars. Once again the tales told us that the evacuation of the population was a political issue and anyway they wanted to change the capital city and put it in Fort de France, as it is still today.

There was one official survivor (sometimes two) a prisoner saved by being in jail who later went to the United States and worked in Barnum and Bailey’s circus, and a Kapok tree ( Ceiba pentandra) which is a sacred tree. He had a symbolic importance to the ancient Maya, called Yax Che (“Green Tree” or “First Tree”) represented by a cross. The ceiba was the most sacred tree for the ancient Maya, it was the symbol of the universe. The tree signified a route of communication between the three levels of the earth. The Sacred tree who survived the 1902 eruption, still alive today. In the Caribbean islands the tree is believed to be hosted by spirits. For the Wayana shamans the tree symbolises a ladder or passageway to the spirit world.

The Lying woman and Diamond rock above her head

Pelée volcano is a scientific mystery because volcanologues today still don’t know how it really works. They were not able to predict or prevent the last eruption, or they did not wanted to. On this beautiful island, in the south, there is a hill in the town called Diamant (Diamond) which looks like a giant stone woman, she is mostly called “La femme couchée” (The lying woman).

She lies down on her back with her face looking at the sky and above her head stands the Rocher du diamant (The diamond rock.)

The hill is officially called Morne Larcher and it is an ancient and non active volcano less than 500 meters high. The diamond rock is a protected area and a bird reservation.

Under the reign of king George III, the rock has been given the title of « Battleship » and became HMS (His Majesty’s Ship) by the British army who fought to keep the rock.

« his Majesty’s Sloop-of-War DIAMOND ROC »  By Vivian STUART & George T.EGGLESTON.

Here is the beautiful face of the goddess.

I always loved this place. She looks very calm but the sea there is very dangerous, it is a spot for surfers.

This island was called by her first inhabitants Flower island or Madinina, it was a paradise with numbers of natural water resources and a very fertile ground.

I wonder if all the beauties on the island are the reason why some people are trying to destroy it:

 

 

Martinique was polluted by chlordecone (kepone or curlone) used for 20 years, forbidden in United States since 1976 and forbidden by the Stockholm convention), it is an insecticide, a persistent organic pollutant which gave the inhabitants the worst rate of prostate cancer in the world. Thanks to Mr Laurent de Laguarigue (colonialist descendant, called béké who still “possess” most of the land and money) who bought the patent in 1981.

There are gulf-weed invasions (see below), because of Amazon deforestation and Sahara dust.The dust transported by the winds contains mineral dust (phosphorus, arsenic, cadmium, sulfur, aluminium… ) which makes the island one of the 10^th most polluted places in Europe by fine particulate matter.

View on gulf-weed (sargassum) in front of the diamond rock.

 

The Song of the Sea

Not long ago I saw a cartoon that shows us an Irish story about the giants/gods. It is called Song of the sea.

In this cartoon the main character is Ben and his sister Saoirse (means Freedom) born from a human and a sea deity incarnated in human form  to go on a dangerous mission to discover who they really are, heal, learn to love each other again and help the spirit world and the giant Mac Lir who has been changed into stone…

An explanation about the story: http://warandnoise.com/analysis-of-song-of-the-sea-salvation-by-folkore/

In 2016 Disney created a movie depicting a story about Tefiti a deity whose heart had been stolen by a demi-god (who can shape-shift.) Her appearance changed and instead of creating the islands she transformed into a fire volcano and became very angry.

This is just a story of course but left the real legend behind.

The half human, half god of the cartoon is called Maui and in stories he is the one who stole fire from the mountain or from the underworld and brought it back to humans. He is Prometheus (titan) who stole the fire from Jupiter and Tefiti is Pelee.

“The possession of fire to the ancients meant all that family wealth means today. It meant the possession of comfort. The gods were naturally determined to keep this wealth in their own hands.”

Legends of Maui, A Demi-God of Polynesia, by W. D. Westervelt, [1910], at sacred-texts.com

http://www.sacred-texts.com/pac/maui/maui08.htm

Tefiti/Pelee inspired by the cartoon but drawn by Akimao artist.

The rule of this world, Order Out of Chaos is a quote used a number of times, we know it as a symbol for the “Illuminated ones”, we can read it on the dollar bill too. Chaos theory is a branch of mathematics and has applications in a number of scientific disciplines like meteorology, computer science, economics, biology, robotics and more. The fractal geometry of nature published by Mandelbrot, an older version of his 1975 French book, Les Objects Fractals: Forme, Hasard et Dimension, is a book used by chaos theorists today in computer research.

When you look at nature after an apparent destruction, like a volcanic eruption, even if everything looks destroyed, life always comes back.

Every one on earth has the power to destroy and create. It is a choice to make, and we need to accept the destruction to be able to create, especially now.

Be loving, joyous and creative.