Saturday, January 3, 2015

Pele Goddess of Vitality




Pele, Hawaiian goddess of fire, is best known for being both a destroyer and creator of land. Her lava devours everything in its path and where the lava cools when it reaches the ocean, new land is created.  One of six daughters and seven brothers born to Haumea, earth goddess, and Kane Milohai, creator of heavens and earth, she was a hothead, to say the least.  Her temper and aggression against her sister got her exiled.  Her sister sort of had a right to be nasty toward her, considering Pele had seduced her husband, or so he said.  

Her brother provided her with a good canoe and guided her to an island far away.  Being King of the Sharks, he could do that.  She carried with her, in egg form, her youngest sister, Hi'iaka, patroness of the Hula.  When she arrived at the Hawaiian island, she struck a place deep in the earth, but before she could finish she was attacked by her sister. Their battled raged on until Pele was torn apart. Legend says her bones remain at a hill called Ka-iwi-o-Pele.  

The argument can be made for or against Pele but what can not be denied is Pele propels us into vital action. She is a voice that resonates with passion and confidence. A woman’s will, thought, and mental attributes originate in the solar plexus...that place where deep knowledge of what is right, what is true, and what feeds us resides. 


It's not news to women that men devalue our feelings. When men go off script they are described as creative geniuses, deeply passionate, and devoted to leaving a giant footprint in history.  When women do the same thing, we're called nuts, sluts, whores, and hormonal mental cases. Strong women are judged to be deceptive, manipulative social climbers who need a man to get their leg up in the world.  They claim we are simply the product of our raging hormones. News flash.  We are all slaves to our hormones during our most creative and productive times during life. Both men and women are subject to the highs and lows of hormone production.  My theory is the happiest times in anyone's life are before hormones kick in, birth to eight, and after they've worn themselves down, age sixty to however long it takes to finally transition from physical life. Those times between eight and sixty are where our history is most compelling and worth reading. This is what sustains us in our old age, provides the most tears and laughter, and where our wisdom was molded, the hard way; through experience.  


I believe I am living at a time where women have the most freedom to strive, to conquer, and inhabit what ever passions drive them to break down barriers and walls built by men to keep us contained.  Men initially called it protecting us. We've since learned their true agenda was based on anything but protecting us. Men might finally be learning that women pose no more threat to their manhood by being allowed to grow into ourselves than other men have been to them in the form of creating wars to establish control and power over other men. The only problem we have now is that not all men are created equal, shock and awe, as is demonstrated in the archaic mentality inhabited in misogynous doctrines wrapped around religion that declare women to be nothing more than breeders for men. Once we can get beyond this ideology and in solidarity, take back the power these relics have abused for centuries, I think ALL women in all corners of the world will be able to shine as brightly or as discreetly as they like.  


From motherhood to board rooms, we have some catching up to do with regards to just how much has been stolen from us by men hoping to keep us from the reality that we are deserving of everything they've denied us. So if we sometimes come off as bitches when we're told we can't do what makes us happy, I hope men will cut us some slack and back the hell up.  They haven't done such a bang up job of ruling the world if you judge them by the number of wars and uprising going on around the world.  We've had just as many women working on technology and innovations to make life better, but the credit has been slow in coming.  Please don't be so quick to call us ball busters when we stand up and demand to be heard and seen for what we've been bringing to the table for centuries while men took all the curtain calls.

Pele brings action.  You will not just stand still in her presence and live to tell it. Pele compels us to move.  Passion is loud, it's forceful, it's intense, and it leaves a mark.  That's the whole point.  Be not afraid to feel, to show what you feel, and to inspire others to feel what most makes them feel alive.  This is living. This is what creates the history that will sustain you in old age.  Don't be undermined by this trend that bases wisdom and worth on beauty.  Your worth is not in how long you can hold back a wrinkle.  Your worth is not dependent upon how perky your boobs are through all the changes a woman's body naturally takes as she ages.  We age from the inside out, the same place our true beauty resides.  Live in abundance, from where your passions, your dreams, and your hopes spring to life; your will to be, to laugh, to love.  You think and therefor you are!!! Whether it's to mentor, to coach, or to actually sweat under the spotlights, your passion is calling.

Women need to understand this one principle; we are now what we have always hoped we'd be someday.  The walls around us are coming down.  I'm not saying it's a walk in the park and right there for the taking.  It's never been easy to get every thing you always wanted.  It's work.  It requires relentless faith in yourself.  The kind of faith that has you spending every waking moment preparing for that opportunity when it knocks.  If you can't relate to the idea of losing sleep because you're driven to work on a skill, then you're not operating from your own passion.  Find your own passion.  Find that thing that others call work but you call fun.  When you can't see yourself doing anything else and being totally satisfied, you've found your passion.  Now, run with it and don't let anyone change your mind.  Even if you have to subsidize your dream with some temporary form of work, stay sharp and keep your passion alive in every minute you call your own.  You'll find coincidences in the opportunities that arise to satisfy your need to maintain your passion.  When you look back, one day, you'll see that by keeping your dream alive, all roads led to finding that outlet to your passion.


Thoughts become things. Live with the truth that a thought created once has power, but a thought created repeatedly has awesome power. What was once a thought can soon be tangible. You are raw energy bursting with the ability to create!  Pele is that driving force, that need to create, that deep desire to move, to live, to inspire.  And the destructive force that Pele brings can be in a cleansing of old ways to make room for the new.  It's all in your attitude.  The world is waiting for the next great concept, performance, innovation, miracle drug, discovery, novel, art work, design, theory.....courtesy of you!