Thursday, March 17, 2016

Ka Piko O Wakea: Spring Equinox, Attending to Tides, Ceremony


Kalei Nu'uhiwa (Link to this audio podcast to hear Kalei speak about 'Kaulana Mahina' the study of the Lunar calculations of the Hawaiian Moon Calendar) keeps the 'Aimalama Facebook group updated with monthly kilo and 'atmospheric activities' for the new month. Here's what she posted the other day:

"Atmospheric activities we can expect are: Piko o Wākea - Equinox scheduled to happen on our heiau between  March 20-22. We also have a partial lunar eclipse scheduled to begin on March 22nd at 11:30pm, will peak around 1:45am on the 23rd and end around 4:00am the 23rd. Check out the website below for more information. Hawaiian names for lunar eclipses are Pō uli, Mahina Uli, Mahina ʻUla & Malama ʻUla. Chant to pray for health during a lunar eclipse: 
                  I Hiʻiaka paha ʻoe i Hiʻialo,        Perhaps it is you the perfect reflection in regarded health
I Kakahiaka nei,                        For this particular morning 
I ka lāʻau a ke kaukau aliʻi,        For Strength (through medicinal herbs) for the loving chiefs
I nui ke aho,                               So that breath of life is lasting    
A hiki i mauli ola,                        Until spiritual well-bing is achieved
I ola iā Mahina uli,                      Life granted through the dark moon (lunar eclipse)
I ola iā Mauli ola ē.                     So that your essence remains intact.                    

Mahalo nui loa e Kalei for sharing the pule/'oli and the beautiful imagery and poetic translation!
 http://www.timeanddate.com/eclipse/lunar/2016-march-23

I gather information, and timing like Kalei's updates to create ceremony on Piko o Wakea, Spring Equinox, happening in Washington, where we live, on Saturday, March 19, 2016. That means Sunday will be the first complete day and night of Spring.

But, for me, it is valuable to become familiar, and acknowledge the shifting effects of the Universe on my life. It is one thing, or one culture to say 'Spring has come'; it is another to say 'as the sun's rays hit the piko (equator) of the Earth on which I live, I create 'ceremony' consciously and respond as Pualanai Kanaka'ole Kanalele implores.

"We, as Native Hawaiians, must continue to unveil the knowledge of our ancestors. Let us interpret for ourselves who our ancestors are, how they thought, and why they made certain decisions..." 

One of the things my husband and I promised ourselves this year is to 'become more aware of the tides.' We are tidal people. We are both born water signs astrologically. We live on a very large island surrounded by large bodies of water. We live at the North-Western tip of the Pacific Ocean. So to keep this promise, and expand our kilo practice, I am paying particular attention to the tides.

tide. Au, kai. 

To give you an idea of what info and timing I'm considering

Here is tide, sun, moon and Equinox timing for Saturday, March 19, 2016



Moonrise 3:51 PM (Mahina will be up ... even if the clouds hide her, for 4 hours before sunset)
Sunset 7:22 PM
High Tide 3:00 PM (Ceremony of thanks needs to begin while the tide is flowing into full; so before 3 PM)
Low Tide 9:23 PM (Ceremony releasing all that is no longer needed/pono/useful in our lives should be offered to the outgoing tide, after 3:00 PM until 9:23 PM)

Equinox Exact 9:30 PM, Saturday March 19, 2016

The ideal ceremony would begin while the tide is flowing. I am thinking we can begin at 2:00 PM at Sunlight Beach.
 These photographs were taken at last year's Fall Equinox from Sunlight Beach, Whidbey Island.


Gather and set up shortly before 2:00
Begin chanting E Ho Mai at 2:00
Chant Pule Ho'ulu'ulu
Read the Onandaga "The Words That Come Before All Else"
Cleansing Ceremony to offer and release to the outgoing tide after 3:00
Mahalo Ke Akua e Na Aumakua

I hope this post, and the thought process involved in creating our 'homemade' ceremony inspires you to create ceremony for your self and your 'ohana.



Aloha nui,
Mokihana and Pete


Monday, February 8, 2016

Lunar New Year Celebration

 Another occasion and good time for sharing ritual ... we shared the la'i (ti leaves) and wove stories to share with one another

The Safety Pin Cafe opened it self to friends on Whidbey Island at 'the prairie front' and we had very good fun. Click here for more pictures.

Gung Hee Fat Choy! 

Tuesday, January 19, 2016

'AIMALAMA Keynote Address(es): Aunty Pualani Kanaka'ole Kanahele and More


Last September 25-27, 2015 the first 'AIMALMA Conference was held on the University of Hawaii Manoa Campus. One of the goals for our gathering place Ho'omoku was to serve as a HUB site, a remote live-streaming location where members of our Whidbey Island community could see and hear Pacific Islanders describe their traditional practices. (Whew, that's a looong sentence! Well, never mind.)

We did host and participate in this watershed occasion. And today I received a FB update and the long awaited video download of Dr. Pualani Kanaka'ole Kanahele's Keynote address. I woke early, and found the email and the link to this video. The hour-long presentation is a gift, a manifestation of Hina without doubt; Hina the epitome of the feminine.

UPDATE (2/1/2016)

Here is the link to the video presentations from the 'Aimalama Conference.  The keynote addresses include:

Aunty Pualani Kanaka'ole's opening address about who and what Hina is is such food for the mind, body, heart and soul. Enjoy it!

Rereata Makiha's presentation explored my appreciation for Hina's affects on the tides.

Lilikala Kame'eleihiwa's summary presentation provides a forward looking action plan to fold into one's personal and community vision of utilizing tradtional practices to readapt to climate change.

Mahalo nui kakou to Kalei Nu'uhiwa, Scotty Wong, and Malia Nobrega-Olivera for making this video presentation possible!!

Saturday, October 17, 2015

Taking the next step: kilo and kaona together ... practicing 'ole

My son and I were talking on the cellphone the other day. "Have you spotted Makali'i?"

"Yeah, we were in Manoa last night, about midnight. She was straight up."

"Okay, not yet. Maybe one more month for her to rise on the horizon at sunset."

"Then it's Makahiki?" he asked.

"Count one more new moon. The next one. That starts Makahiki."

"Oh!" He was still jet lagged. Long trip from Paris to Honolulu. But. He was back!

Between us my son and I have made trans-Pacific and then trans-world crossings between the moku of Hawaii dozens of times. My crossings have slowed to a crawl or stand-still. His continue and the miles between here and there increase. Still the magnet is no less powerful.

Since the 'Aimalama Lunar Conference during the 'supermoon full moon eclipse' at the end of September, I have been taking the next step (s) ... to share my kilo practice and my love for kaona. Kilo and kaona together seem inseparable for me. Over a lifetime the practice of noticing and noting what happens in my place (wherever that might be) has found its way into the writing and stories that want to be told. The way the stories have strung themselves together have, and continue, or maybe become even more supple yet powerful as metaphor, patterns, images all knot themselves with that hipu'u of kaona. The point of potential is both hipu'u where the small eye of a fisherman's net creates closure, while leaving room for flow.

The next step I'm taking at the moment is the writing of a grant for The Native Artist's Grant Program at Evergreen College in Olympia, Washington. It's the first time I've applied for a grant. And the experience is surprising me. I must admit that if I were doing it without mentorship and support from a long-time friend I would not have gotten as far as I have. (Thank you jt!) The project I'm proposing is a two-piece spoken word with guide book designed to advance my art as a storyteller who can no longer share the art through public (face-to-face) venues because of the increased severity of the illness MCS (Multiple Chemical Sensitivities).

Here's an excerpt from the grant application:
 "The project Mo'o Muliwai embeds the meaning and objectives its name. "Mo'o" means 1. Lizard, reptile of any kind, dragon, serpent; water spirit, enchanter 2. Succession, series, especially a genealogical line. "Muliwai" means River, river mouth; pool near mouth of a stream, as behind a sandbar, enlarged by ocean water left there by high tide; estuary. It's English translation "stories from the water's edge" preceded with the three dots ...  is both a Hawaiian esthetic tool and visual image. Small dots with spaces between them leave so much to the imagination and leave room for kaona the many potential meanings to feed the mo'o.
This project Mo'o Muliwai is a gift of stories, myth, everyday common journeys woven together over a lifetime. A memoir? An audio book? Na mo'olelo, these stories, will be that, but it will be more. As a makua o'o an elder still in training, the giving is the reason and it is in the telling --the oral transmission -- that story is best remembered. "If you will sit with me, I will spin for you a story told from the heart." Originally written down, the two stories for this project are the muli the tail end, the last ones or most recent babies, in a series of medicine stories that began when illness separated me from my Hawaii Islands home place..."

Makahiki begins shortly after my birthday in November. My son is on O'ahu with his cousins, near his aunty in Waimanalo, and within a bus ride to his Tutu Man and Tutu Lady's grave sites in Kaneohe. That is good news. I hope to have more good news by the end of the year, and pray for the resilience and support to feed this project Mo'o Muliwai to kanaka and venturers of kilo and kaona as a birthday gift next year. That's optimism,Saturn is in Sagittarius after all.

While I use the 'Ole Po (the 'ole phases) to consider what and why I do this, I listen to Clarissa Pinkola Estees' MOTHER NIGHT Myths, Stories & Teachings for learning to see in the Dark. It is just past noon, but, Mahina has yet to rise. Moonrise is at 1:38 PM. The pieces of my kilo practice draw on so many things. Listening and hearing the messages from MOTHER NIGHT, I re-listen to the answers on the audio learning course. Especially I wait to hear Estees' answer to the question, "What should I do when my medial nature impacts others as too big or too much?"

In essence the cantadora suggests two options:

  1. May yourself smaller, that's what a star does ... did you know that. Maybe the quieter you become you are seeding people with ideas...Doing some relationship works before. Maybe less [doing] and sometimes it frightens or are not used to it.
  2. Another way is to be exactly as you are and just be patient. Let me explain this another way. Estees gives us listeners the story of her experience of waiting 20 years to finally getting her seminal work Women Who Run With the Wolves.


Whidbey Island Tides and the Sun and Moon's rises and sets


Today, Monday between 'Ole Kukahi and 'Ole Kulua, I update this post and practice the kilo of applying the 'ole. The wait. The patience...suffering as immediate gratification is postponed. Another word, another way of understanding the 'ole for me is to hear and see my Cousin boarding the Hawaiian Airline's plane, following me as I prepared to leave O'ahu in 1971. She had a book of Hawaiian study to give me and a one word reminder, "Ho'omanawanui!" Patience, the long view.

I remember her today, and give thanks to her with this addition. Kilo and kaona. So many ways to get their messages. Mahalo Cousin. 

Monday, September 28, 2015

'Ai Malama comes to Whidbey Island: wakening the magnetic effects of Hina (the Moon)

This is the sound of Ke Kai (the ocean) reminding us that we are water, the ocean reflecting the sound of water within the Earth and in ourselves. Ahhhh ... look up, look down, look within.
Pete and I are headed for our favorite beach on Sunday, September 27, 2015. A Mahealani moon, and a night of the Lunar Eclipse in the sign of Aries. It's just after sunset (check the time on the dash clock).

It has been a fully infused and wakened time all weekend as our small group (of 10) gathering at South Whidbey Tilth for the live streaming event 'AIMALAMA.
We needed the quiet and stillness of Heron to feel the immensity and empowerment, the heroic examples of Pacific Peoples' involved in Kilo (mindful and attentive observation) of the things happening in their place.
Here's our Sign-in Sheet from the three-day conference (with harvest hiding email addresses). This and a summary of our mana'o will be sent to the organizers of the Honolulu-based Pacific Lunar Conference; adding our Whidbey Island Community into the fold as northern 'ohana also keen to the effects of climate changes and the need to readapt to what we experience now.


I will be writing a summary response sheet, gathering feedback from those who viewed the three-day conference here on Whidbey Island. There is more to come, and what next steps we take as a community is part of the future heroic and meaningful action we can take!

Mahalo to all our community members who came to be with us, and helped make 'Ai Malama on Whidbey a reality!

The South Whidbey Tilth ... for the physical space upon which we build community from this island to all the islands of the Pacific
Judy Bierman ... for the financial support to install internet cable, secure materials and pay for services needed
Joel Kennedy, The A-Tech ... for the speakers (awesome sounds!) and projector to set up lap top and desk top setup in the two spaces at the South Whidbey Tilth campus
Whidbey Telacom ... for the cable and the software bringing wifi to the South Whidbey Tilth world
Pete Little ... for his masterful meddling and physical can-do energy that made this event possible
Prescott ... for her cooperative, cheerful and consistent support with the concepts of growing community, learning from cultures across the globe
Jake Pitcher ... mahalo nui loa for hearing the kahea (the call) from us makua for a young one to come be with us! You heard, you came, you kokua us!


Check out some photos here from the 'Ai Malama weekend on Whidbey.


Thursday, September 24, 2015

'AIMALAMA: Pacific Peoples' Lunar Conference on Climate Change ... We'll be 'livestreaming'


Our collaborative efforts over the past months have paid off in a first time experience for us: 'livestreaming.' Starting tomorrow, Friday, September 25, 2015 Pete and I are excited to host two remote HUBS (places where a computer, and internet connection download live media) where dozens of Pacific Peoples share their involvement with the Moon, and her calendar.

I have been challenged with health issues this summer, and as I've described here on the blog, there have been adjustments. But in the true definition and kaona (many meanings) of the word ho'omoku
an island grows slowly. He puko'a kani 'aina.

Here is the email we circulated to the members of our South Whidbey Tilth community.


Mokihana Calizar and Pete Little are excited to share a unique learning experience with our South Whidbey Tilth Community. The 'Aimalama Pacific People's Lunar Conference on Climate Change takes place in Honolulu, September 25-27, 2015. Thanks to the collaborative efforts of many, South Whidbey Tilth is a remote hub site allowing us to participate via the internet. 
The major panels and speakers are scheduled on Friday, September 25th, half of the day on Saturday, September 26th, and then most the day Sunday, September 27th.  We will set up internet 'livestreaming' in the pavilion of the Laughing Cat Café, beginning 12:30 P.M. Friday September 25, 2015. The schedule for the Lunar Conference runs from 12:30 P.M. until 8:00 P.M. 
The pavilion set up for this 'livestream' will be strictly FRAGRANCE FREE. To accommodate those who arrive less than Fragrance free, we will have a computer and screen set up in the classroom space (in the building behind the Laughing Cat Café).

Depending upon the number of people who attend, we will keep the pavilion and classroom set up on Saturday, but will not be setup on in the pavilion on Sunday when the Farmers' Market is happening. The classroom will probably be available for those wishing to view the last day's activities. 

This is a very casual set up. We will have beverages (hot water, coffee) in the Laughing Cat. Everyone is encouraged to bring their own brown bag lunches, snacks or pot luck. Come and go as you wish; check out the schedule* for areas of most importance to you.

A sign-in sheet and feedback from all attendees will be our way of connecting with the groups and individuals who incorporate the practices of the Hawaiian Lunar Calendar in planting, fishing, birthing, healing, sailing and other day to day living. 

It is through this exchange of first hand experiences that empowerment at a meaningful level can impact our relationship with Mother Earth. Climate changing means we must adapt the way we relate to Nature. We have a chance to learn from others across the Pacific. How fortunate we are.

*The specific schedule and list of presenters is available by
 clicking here. (These times are listed in Hawaiian Time Zone. We are three hours ahead of them in WA.)

Mokihana will present a short welcome and introduction to the conference at Noon September 25th. There is no charge for the conference. Donations to the "Enclose the Pavilion in Winter Project" will be welcome.

Questions? Please email Mokihana at 
mokihanacalizar@gmail.com 

I'll post a summary of the experience after we've had it. Let's hear it for collaborations and a healthy dose of faith and grace! 

Mahalo all for your kokua,
Mokihana and Pete

Thursday, September 10, 2015

Saturn moves into Sagittarius

A new Medicine Plant introduced to me after six seasons of living where I live.
Her name is Mullein, and she is an ally of the lungs.
Summer has passed. The intensity and the generous gifts of a sun-rich season are visible; the Food Plants have given and given (a dozen quarts of applesauce), fruit and vegetables continue to feed us from our orchard and the community gardens in our neighborhood.

The forest fires that began in mid-July have had their effect, most of the burning has been calmed or stopped thanks to the rains that finally came this month. Many folk, including me, are dealing with smoke inhalation issues(lungs, sinuses,ears and ears) and how to live through it, and from it.

Integrating many sources to create effective remedy seems my best approach. Others find remedy in medication and prescription. Still others are unscathed by the fires, smoke and particulates going about their lives as they would were the forests untouched by fire. An important part of this 'integration' though is to remember to Keep it simple. Meaning it is a good practice to keep each Plant Herb separate in its use ... try one herb remedy at a time. 'Simples' in Wildcrafting or herbal medicine practices refers to making a tincture, poultice or oil with one herb rather than mixing more than one or buying mixtures.

UPDATE: (READ the bottle carefully on purchased remedies, what I thought was just mullein and garlic oil was in fact mullein, calendula, St. John's wort and garlic. If I have a sensitivity to the oil I won't know what triggered the sensitivity. I re-learned the lesson of 'simples' this afternoon).

I figured this would be a good time to summarize my experiences (Saturn is in the sky, and visible as my husband watched the planet last night) as the teacher of long-term lessons is now in Sagittarius after 2.5 years in Scorpio. For all of us, the lessons have been deeply felt. (click on that link for a long list of lessons learned). From that list I am able to affirm what Elsa wrote is true for me, too. I have learned to conserve my energy and commit deeply.

Conserve energy

Teaching classes (Ho'omoku) began with a vision for small group face-to-face teaching.
Within a week I realized this ideal would have to change. Educating people about my MCS reality takes a lot of energy, and time.
'Group' was redefined. One student, one husband, one teacher = our group
When the forest fires raged, where to teach changed from 'in person' to 'phone-to-phone'

Commit deeply

I remained committed to the process of sharing and teaching. It was flexibility that shouted for its place. As I conserved my energy, it was important that I exchange it with a student who could reciprocate. We have that in our student. She teaches us, we teach her. Once a week we had phone classes. The times changed during the process, accommodating our mutual needs. She is in the process of moving off the island, and through it we keep in touch (with short phone and meaningful conversation); the practices, chants, and 'olelo (Hawaiian words) of importance build in meaning as our relationship grows.

Saturn's transit through Scorpio aspected (affected, tweaked, 'lit-up') the 10th and 11th Houses of the astrological sky. That means, my Public Reputation (10th House) and Friendships, Hopes and Dreams (11th House) have undergone a reality check. "Oh really?" Saturn said, making sure my expectations of a style of public (10th House) interaction still worked. Consolidating, reining in my old expectations and living real life I see what I can do; what I can't do; how I relate with my Scorpio Sun; what and how I think (Mercury in the 10th) and got another experience with the 'original wound' of Chiron (also in the 10th House).

These lessons and experiences aren't easy! Physically my body has been taxed to the max, my faith bottomed out, the symptoms of MCS raged, my world become smaller and smaller; and then I found something while I re-read the pages of Braiding SweetgrassRobin Wall Kimmerer is a true medicine woman and story is part of her medicine magic. In the chapter "In the Footsteps of Nanabozho: Becoming Indigenous to Place" Kimmerer draws on her poetic eyes to write bridges between the Long Past and the past that we have just left a footstep ago. Creation story for Indigenous people thread us together, restoring fragmented experiences (personal and historic) and in the hands and heart of a storyteller the restoration is potent, poignant.

The chapter on Becoming Indigenous to Place rings my internal bells. Here's the conversation that is going on ...

"I am AN INDIGENOUS Woman," Bell One declares. And, she is not wrong.
"But," suggests Bell Two, "RWK is suggesting something so much larger. She is suggesting you might want to weigh the longing to be in that other place where you were born and indigenous to, with, becoming Indigenous to the place you are now."
"I know. I read that, and the bells and lights all started to flash." Admitted Bell One.
"How do we reconcile this? Is there a conflict a compromise an issue of loyalty breached?" Both Bells asked simultaneously. 

I took this photo of Plantain growing in the drought-brittle pea patch where we conducted summer sessions of Ho'omoku. 

Here is an Internet snap of the same species, in similar drought condition but the plant is greener.
Kimmerer anchors her stories woven in the chapter with the life and journey of an immigrant plant, a weed that came along with the immigrants who crossed at least one ocean and came to 'a new land.' Unlike so many other examples of colonial plants like kudzu who sets no limits to its thirst occupation and will take your house with or without permission; another plant followed in the footsteps of the white man. Where ever the white man went so went this potted herb. Its seed and its habits were so different than the colonial kudzu. This plant made itself comfortable in small spaces, "Its strategy," writes Kimmerer "was to be useful, to fit into small places, to coexist with other around the dooryard, to heal wounds. Plantain is so prevalent, so well integrated, that we think of it as native...Plantain is not indigenous but "naturalized." This is the same term we use for the foreign-born when they become citizens in our country."

Plantain grows everywhere in our orchard. The broad leaf and the narrow leaf plants have made themselves at home with Plants here. Back in Hawaii Plantain is called Lokahi. There, I thought of Lokahi as native. How amazed I was to find it here, where I live. But what is more amazing is to find Kimmerer's story and its broad implication as a real education. As Saturn the Lesson-Giver moves into the next sign of the zodiacal sky, it brings the lesson of real education. I have just started a four-week long workshop with Elsa Panizzon from ElsaElsa focused on what to expect and how to benefit from Saturn's transit through Sagittarius. It's gonna be a doosy of a workshop; all of Elsa's offerings are full and long-lasting value. This one has just begun as a private forum, there's still time to sign on.

One of the things Elsa promises (and she always comes through!) is How to recognize and reign in your own inflation. So, back to the conversation between the two Bells going on in my head. The question and answer(s) to my beliefs (Sagittarius) about being Indigenous and being Happy (hopes and dreams are Sagittarius' domain) are gonna get a tweak and new definitions. A real education will put me where an old woman can be of true worth. The teacher who remains teachable, and humble, can be of real value. Just look at the Plantain: called many names does the same thing where ever it lives.

Long winded blather, but, hope you got something to chew on. If you want more, join us in the Saturn through Sagittarius Workshop.