Volcano – Where Gods Walk
author Marie Alohalani Brown, Ph.D.
Amid the modernity of today’s world, there are still places where the natural world prevails. Volcano, where the Volcano Village Lodge is located, is one such special place. This area takes its name from Kīlauea Volcano, which is located on the slopes of yet another massive volcano, Mauna Loa. Here, the awe-inspiring power of nature continues to reign supreme. The landscape is unique and dramatic—lush rainforests and stark lava plains exist side-by-side. Volcano is otherworldly. More than anywhere else in the Islands, the Hawaiian gods, who embody natural phenomena and native flora and fauna, continue to make their presence known here.
Volcano is what Hawaiians term a “wahi pana,” a place celebrated in chants, hula, poetical sayings, and stories. Most famously, it is the domain of Pele, the powerful, volatile volcano deity whose primary abode is Halemaʻumaʻu Crater in Kīlauea. Chants, epithets, poetical sayings, legends, and hula abound about Pele and her family. There are more than ten versions of the captivating epic that begins with Pele’s trip to the shore—where she falls asleep and in her spirit form, takes Lohiʻau, the handsome ruler of Kauaʻi Island, as her lover—and ends with her commanding her sisters to cover the fickle Lohiaʻu with lava. The Pele clan also figures in other oral-literary traditions not narrowly concerned with their family.
Significantly, Pele’s name denotes lava and the creation of new land through lava flows is her function as a deity—flows that also, inevitably, wreak destruction. Indeed, the entire Pele clan embodies volcanic-related phenomena—lava, earthquakes, volcanic lightning and whirlwinds, and tsunami. The clan’s genealogy varies according to tradition, but Haumea, the earth entity from whose womb volcanic activity begins, is most often cited as their mother. At times, Haumea is paired with Kūwahailo (Maggot-mouth Kū), a Kū god form to whom human sacrifices (always male) were made in connection with war. Another time, she is paired with Kāneilūhonua (Kāne who shakes the earth), a Kāne god form. In one instance, she is paired with Moemoeaʻaliʻi (sleeping rootlets). Pele’s most famous brothers are the great shark gods Kamohoaliʻi (The chiefly contender) and Kūhaʻimoana (Ocean-breaking Kū), the thunder god Kānehekili (Kāne who thunders), the lightning god Kauilanuimākēhāikalani (the great death-dealing lightning), and Lonomakua, the god who preserves the eternal fire and who is sometimes cited as her uncle. Her most notable sisters include the ocean entity Nāmakaokahaʻi (The breaking points), the hula and sorcery deity known as Kapōʻulakīnaʻu (The red streaked darkness), and a host of younger sisters whose names all begin with Hiʻiaka. The most famous of these Hiʻiaka sisters is Hiʻiakaikapoliopele, Pele’s youngest and favorite sibling.