Remedies from Papa Hanaumoku (Earth) and timing based on Mahina (Moon)

Hypericum Perforatum, St. Joan or St. John's Wort growing abundantly
along the Maxwelton Watershed roadside earlier this summer.
GATHERED: Mahealani

I introduced myself, and stated my purpose.
I asked permission, and waiting for a reply.

She said yes, I said thank you.
A jar of the beautiful yellow blossoms, some stalk and stems and seeds as well went into small clean jam jars. One jar contains olive oil, the other 80 proof vodka.
That tincture (in vodka) and oil began its makings at the end of June, 2015, Mahealani.

In the meanwhile, the forests have been burning. And during the 'Ole Po phases,
this was the color of Mahina through the Tall Ones

The other day, after waiting patiently for at least 6 weeks, I strained the Hypericum, after the 'Ole Pau.
STRAINED: Huna
 

and put the beautiful red oil into a jar.
BEGAN APPLICATION: Huna, Mohala, Akua 

As our 'ohana La'au Nui (the Tall of Growth Trees) burn, the effects 'turn' me into the Masked Woman.
Like Zorro, I step out of my cave occasionally 

The practice of Kilo (observation) becomes intimate for me when I apply the knowledge of moon cycles and phases to my everyday life. This summer as the climate not just changes, but, creates what many call 'climate chaos' I note the changes that take place in my body, mind, soul and spirit.

The physical difficulties trigger crazy thinking (crisis mode), I am a young soul in an older woman's body. Perhaps that is what Hale Makua means for I am a sensitive artist, and I am easily disheartened.

But, I was born into a body with the memories and aka (cords of attachment) to a very ancient Polynesian mother. There is a deep knowing of how to survive. I tap into it. These photos and these few words tell a short story of what can happen when remedies from the Plant People like Hypericum teach. The lessons come slowly. I am meant to learn lessons slowly, changing the crisis mode approach of fast from a lifetime ago's pre-disposition.

After years of learning to count on the moon through naming and knowing her faces over a month, I slowly become Mahina. Seven years. I rub the red oil from Hypericum onto my suffering body (neck and back) and take a tincture of Hypericum mixed with other Plant People to calm my body, mind and soul from the trauma and fear.

Between writing this small story, I have gone outside to chant Ka Ala awake. E Ala E.

When the tea kettle rattles, I walked to the hot plate outside bring it back fill my mug with the boiling water and dig my favorite Ancient Tea (Wild Forest Black) harvested from the Ancestral Home places of my Father and Mother -- Viet Nam, Burma. As I lifted the kettle from the hot burner I chanted Pule Ho'ululu to welcome my Ancestors and ask them for their continued guidance; I cannot and do not want to be alone.

The Masked Woman, like Zorro, had a legacy of help. I start the day and remember that.

Deconstructing and Reconstructing the Universe with Kalei Nuuhiwa

Kilo Practitioner, Ethno-scientist Kalei Nu'uhiwa speaks from Waikiki about the Hawaiian Moon Calendar and the practice of PapakuMakawalu (deconstructing and reconstructing the universe) found in the Hawaiian Creation Chant 'Kumulipo.'. Kalei's kuleana has influenced me and my husband to 'count on the moon' (and the regularity of our ancestors) to make sense of contemporary life. It is Kalei who is organizing the Pacific-wide Lunar Conference ('Aimalama) on O'ahu in September, 2015. Pete and I envision being part of that 'aha (gathering) focused on sharing lunar practices throughout the Pacific as a tool to understand and address in real terms the climate changes happening on our island Earth.


This short video presentation gives new-to-Nu'uhiwa's mana'o (Kalei Nu'uhiwa's operational philosophy) a sample of the practitioner's energy.

Hoku (March 4, 2015) ... one of the full moons of The Hawaiian Moon Calendar

A chevron of geese flew above us as we prepared to leave the beach. Canadian Geese or Brants? We did not agree.

She is higher in the sky here, and my brilliant in this place

THERE SHE IS! From the hazy sky, and behind the fingers of that yet to leaf tree came Mahina

Hoku Moon is a time when Mahina the moon rises just as the sun is setting.

The evidence of many different kinds of feet is one of the favorite observations I find here at Sunlight Beach.

The inside cove of brackish water where many water fowl love to be year round appeared to have a 'bloom' suggesting that which is happening above (on land) is happening below (in ke kai, the water)

The sky is hazy. The temperature cool, in the mid to low thirties at night.

Scotch Broom ... my least favorite blossom, and inciter of difficult symptoms, is already blossoming. 'Aue.

Laukahi (Plantain) is freshly greening in the parking lot of the public access

We drove to Sunlight Beach not far from our home in the woods of Langley. A few friends joined us for Mahina's rise. Hoku is considered by some Hawaiian Lunar practitioners as the full moon. There are more than one arrangements of the Hawaiian calendar, and therefore, many ways to count the phases. According to the opening notes in Kealopiko's Moon Phase Project journal "At least 34 different historical arrangements of Hawaiian lunar months have been discovered." Our teachers have been very generous in their remembering and naming of the lunar phases. And, for Pete and me "Hoku" is pretty full though if you look very closely on a Hoku night there is a very slight missing light in her left-hand lower corner. But, hey, look at her for yourself and decide.

It was a wonderful evening of unexpected conversation, accidents, appreciations and observations. We met two new neighbors and joined old friends; observed the return of one of my favorite healing herbs; noted the very early arrival of my least favorite flowering 'invader'; and spent more time with the very brilliant Mahina.

If the skies are willing we will travel the short distance out of the woods and to the South Whidbey Tilth land to view the Mahealani Moon tonight. 

What are you seeing on these full moons?

Hilo 'Ia a Pa'a ... braiding a tight cord of knowledge ... A New Year of Counting on the Moon

Aloha and Welina kakou,

Welcome (back) to the on-line workshop wa'a where we began to explore the practical, personal and collective journey of using the Hawaiian Moon Calendar to notice our relationship with Mahina, the Moon. Back in 2011 my husband Pete and I created this blog and this virtual space to share our practice of living with the Hawaiian Moon Calendar. We were newly excited and informed (in the early years of practice) by the renewed value that my kupuna my ancestors knew to be 'sustainable practices' of being Earth and Heaven influenced beings. My kupuna related to the whole of creation as surely as they understood that water and air are necessary for life.

Contemporary life has distracted us, most of us, from the values and practices that are foundational -- that is, some things are greater than ourselves, our believed entitlements. In 2007 those distractions and beliefs that were my world washed out with the tide. Homeless. Health bereft. Humbled. While we relearned what was sustainable, Mahina the Hawaiian Moon rose from the ocean over the horizon off the Eastern shore of O'ahu as we made our bed for the night. From our car which was our home for many months at that time, Pete and I literally began our journey of counting on the moon. We have rebuilt a life, and rooted ourselves in a new island-based community in South Whidbey Island in the Salish Sea (Pacific Northwest America/Washington state). Our practices as elders in training (Makua o'o) are magic made manifest like the braided cord.

Hilo 'Ia a Pa'a ... the phase comes from the Moon Phase Project. I'm using it here to describe the noticing and journaling process we wish to encourage as the Lunar New Year of the Green Goat (Chinese New Year) is freshly beginning. We will be braiding the knowledge of noticing what happens where we (you, me, all you gathering here) live while Mahina, the Moon, is in the thirty phases of light and darkness.


For the next twelve months, beginning with March, 2015 we will:

Notice
Share
Record
and then

Compare and consider the implications of climatic conditions/changes for us as Indigenous Peoples. We are all Indigenous to the place we call home. If we will notice what Nature is doing where we live we will braid a tight cord of knowledge that can become wisdom if we apply what we have observed.


On September 23-27, 2015, a Pacific wide lunar conference called "Aimalama" will be held at the University of Hawaii at Manoa on the island of O'ahu. Kalei Nuuhiwa's website describes the upcoming conference here.


What we would like to do here with this Count on the Moon blog/on-line workshop is involve people in the process of making connections between moon phases and growing/Nature's 'output' to prepare us for inclusion (in a meaningful fashion) with other practitioners throughout the Pacific.


From our community in South Whidbey Island in the Pacific Northwest we invite you to join us. Please come back often, and interact with us from wherever on the Planet you are.



How exciting it is to work hard at something that will sustain and feed you.


Aloha,
Mokihana and Pete

Begin again ... A NEW YEAR, 2012 ... The Year of the Dragon

Hauoli Makahiki Hou,

We prepare for the coming new year, a cycle of time marked by the journey of Papa Honua, our Earth around Ka La, the sun and the simultaneous journey of Mahina the moon around Papa Honua.  This blog began in 2011 as a venture into exploring the observational, first-hand experiences of 'counting on the moon' and tuning into the subtle and powerful cycles that are lunar or moon-tuned.  The stories, and storytellers included in the workshops focused on Mahina opened the way for us.  A small wa'a boarded by a few curious paddlers began the voyage that lasted six months.  All of us have grown in some measure as a result.  There is always more, but, the lessons of each present, each experience hones our destiny, shores up our connections with All, and provide us with questions we have yet to pose.


Aloha,
Mokihana and Pete

http://www.wpcouncil.org/indigenous/Indigenous_Display-1.pdf

'OLE MAHALO (Moons of Rest, Review and Repair) Begin Tomorrow, Saturday, April 23rd through Monday, April 25th

The final anahulu (week) of the month begun with Hilo Moon in the sign of Aries starts tomorrow, Saturday, April 23rd.  New ventures, new beginnings have been the talisman of this time.  COUNT ON THE MOON, a new venture has been a wa'a kaulua filled with new seed.  Each of us is living a life in process, and if we attended to the opportunity of setting our intentions for April, the 'OLE MAHALO (the blessings of the moons of emptiness) starting tomorrow offer three day and nights to get our bearings.

One of the communities that fuels and supports me over time is the Astrology Blog ElsaElsa.  Elsa Panizzon authors and operates the original astrology blog.  Ten years as cyberhostess, she has built upon her hard and diligent work and now partners with several talented astrologers and a reader of Tarot.  Dixie is the Tarot Goddess at ElsaElsa.  This post "KEEP GOING!" is timely grist for the mill.  Dixie began her post with these thoughts:

" Every personal achievement I can think of, I started off utterly clueless about the demands. All of ‘em! I wonder sometimes, how much I would have opted out on, if I’d been better informed or more realistic. Looking at it that way, I guess it’s just as well!

She sums up her Tarot Reading with this line "One foot in front of the other. Attend, adapt, advance. Attend, adapt, advance."

ATTEND, ADAPT, ADVANCE

I love this new version of an old practice I learned while in the rooms of 12-Stepping.  In those rooms we call that process the 3-A's ... Awareness, Acceptance, Action.  Wisdom works in whatever words string together, and as we consider the traditions based on the Native Hawaiian Moon Calendar, either or both 3-A's are useful tools.  This month has been a malama (month) of new beliefs and behavior.  "Believing before I see it" is a seed belief that is finding new ground.  I began COUNT ON THE MOON with exactly that same attitude, and put it out there as a preview to this workshop.  Uncertain of the outcome, I expressed the feelings swhirling around inside me; let go and let Akua fill in the blanks; and used the 'OLE MOONS just prior to launching this workshop to review, and release resistence.  Beautiful fruit-bearing outcomes are visible now.  Adjustments and adaptations may be necessary; I'll attend to those possibilities during the next three days and nights. 

The 'OLE MOONS COMING up begin in the sign of Capricorn, and moves in the sign of Aquarius Sunday evening. Natally, my moon is in Capricorn so to some extent the energy of this 'Ole time may be familiar.  Something to consider about Capricorn and Aquarius and the Moon in these signs over the 3 'Ole Moons:

from Elizabeth Rose Campbell, Intuitive Astrology: 
"Capricorn:  To Teach ... Capricorn exels at discipline and therefore, completion...Capricorn completions can be tested by time, credibility earned, standards of mastery made real.  Capriorn builds traditions that support those standards.  Capricorn creates teachers who choose a tradition to embody, as impeccably as possible."

About the Moon:  "The Moon within your inner family is the mother...The Moon's placement in your chart by house, and by sign, will reflect your optimal path of self-nourishment..."

"The Catching of Pearls"

Moon in Capricorn:  "How can I produce a pearl--beautiful and solid--from my solitude that others will recognize as my emotional autonomy, my completeness within myself?"

Aquarius:  "To liberate.  Aquarius is the undeniable truth.  Aquarius has no interest in protecting reputation, or any tradition, unless the tradition liberates one into a larger truth...Aquarius gives everyone permission to reinvent him-or herself."

Moon in Aquarius:  "How am I guided toward nourishing relationships with authentic people with whom I can be free as well?"

A hui hou, see you after the 'Ole.

The entire post by Dixie is worth reading I think, and can be read by clicking here.

KAULANA MAHINA The Hawaiian Moon Calendar

The heavens above us are family, parallel and interconnected links of communication, nourishment and guidance throughout the day and night.  The kaona (there are always more than one meaning in Hawaiian words or messages) of the beautiful wood cut Hawaiian Fisherman used as our blog-workshop masthead image is in the obvious absence of the moon.  There is the beautiful kane(the man) with his net, the rippling ocean with a reflection of something illuminating; in the background the huge pohaku (boulders) and the high reaching mauna loa (large mountains) touch the sky.  It is the bold blue words COUNT ON THE MOON that elude to Mahina's consistent presene and effects. 

We begin this journey of exploring time and keeping track of time with that image, from our places at a cyber navigational tool on Papa (the Earth).
I mua kakou (let's move forward), and meet Kumu Kalei Tsuha of Maui.

CLICK HERE to watch the video KAULANA MAHINA presented by Kumu Ethnoscience Educator Kalei Tsuha.



To help you remember key points of the Kaulana Mahina video-presentation we've created this

"Memory Log for Kaulana Mahina"

... a study guide to refresh the basics for tracking time, seasons and the moon

1. How many nights are in one Hawaiian week?
Ten

2.  What's an easy way to remember how many nights there are in a Hawaiian week?
Count all your fingers, or in Hawaiian "Anahulu ... count to ten."

3.  How many weeks are in one Hawaiian month?
Three

4.  What is  the Hawaiian name for week?
Anahulu

5.  What is the Hawaiian name for month?
Malama

6.  What are the names of the three weeks in a Hawaiian month?
Ho'onui ... the waxing(getting full) phase
Piha Poepoe ... the full moon(s)
Ho'emi ... the waning(getting smaller) phase

7.  Similar to the Gregorian Calendar, which tracks the movement of the sun and adds one day during Leap Year, the Hawaiian Moon Calendar adds:
A new month every 3 years

8.  The Hawaiian months are names of fishing terms.

9.  All the names in Kaulana Mahina are found in the creation chant called The Kumulipo.

10.  What star constellation is used as a marker to track time, and signals the start of a new year?
The Pleides, or in Hawaiian, Makali'i

11.  Why was (is) the study of Kaulana Mahina important?
The study of the cycles helped (s) us to know what we need daily so the Earth can sustain us.  "When you have to know when to plant and fish to survive, you learn fast!"

12.  What are the 'Ole Phases and when do they happen?
There are times when "you go mend your gear, or take a nap."  You do nothing.  Four 'ole phases happen in the early phases (during the Ho'onui) and three phases happen in the Ho'emi (waning).

13.  Did you hear the scientific explanation for 'doing nothing' during the 'Ole Phases? What was it, and can you relate to that explanation? 


Our workshop focuses on the 'Ole Moons, so we'd love to hear what you have to say about the video and Kalei's storytelling.

Did you hear the science of the 'Ole? Let us know in the COMMENTS. 

What other practices/ideas did you find especially interesting or something you really connected to?

***To continue with the workshop CLICK HERE to go to Moon Music ... INTERMISSION