Care and feeding
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| My son Christopher Kawika, holding his son Carter Lanakila |
" Feeding your chart needs is just as essential as feeding your body." - Satori
My progressed Mars, that means, my Mars (energy) has evolved from it's natal experience of being limited/honed/disciplined by the tight conjunction with Saturn in the 8th House of shared resources and responsibility/ancestral connection/tradition to Mars in Virgo in the 5th House of creativity, the House of Play. I like this description of Mars in Virgo as "The prodigy of craftsmanship." BEing good at playing is something that makes a lot of sense to me. Caring for the humor that is at my fingertips when I begin a new sentence, a wagging fingertip turns over a stone to find the joy of being at the keys playing with words to create a world I'd love to be part of.
I've been honed by Saturn's demands for doing 'the right thing' and fired in the kilns of Pluto (or the magma of Pele the elemental goddess of fire in my Hawaiian culture). For me, this combined lifetime experience shows itself in my daily and spiraling encounters with discovering the 'right' thing has a lot to do with whose ruler is measuring the act, and the outcome. Born into a family of many lineages: my mother is Hawaiian, Chinese and my dad Filipino. I was born in 1947 at a time in Hawaii's and the world's history where war and colonialism and its on-going markers (World War II, use of post-war chemicals in agricultural Hawaii; Hawaii's occupation by the U.S.) have marked me body, mind and spirit.
Before I left grade-school, my immune system could not sort the 'enemy' from the good folk cells. Yes, it's true I was shot with so many injections of anti-biotics as a girl I learned to duck and cover to avoid making choices. Hiding in the only closet in our two-bedroom house was an old defense where I could be silent, and isolated. But wisely, my body and soul conspired by calling on my deeply investigative Scorpio mind and my love for story began to feed my immune system with other ways to understand. Love and story are nurturing medicine, and like so many of the most ancient of healing ways these are invisible. Women's work. Invisible. Invaluable. Always changing. Spiraling.. not circling into closed loops but coming close to something familiar yet taking a further step to experience something similar or completely unexpected.
Astrology became a significant and useful tool for navigating and translating life slowly when like most of my generation of boomers, the seventies was filled with the line "What's your sign?" Cocktail party talk. Yes, I was part of the cocktail party scene. Gin was my drink of choice for awhile, with tonic. A good rum with pineapple juice a treat. I was exploring the world away from Kuli'ou'ou, These decades were early times of honing and exploring with more emphasis on the exploring.
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| Christopher Kawika and Maleka Lanakila ... 'eli eli kau mai |
At this age, I'm crafty and honed, and there's still more. Pele and the planet Uranus churns the living earth in me, trenching the experiences of a lifetime of tamped down anger-energy. Passionate and compassionate. I listen to the kumu speak of hula and Pele and feel the power of the dancers' 'oli chanting powerfully day after day. The same 'oli that described the flow of Pele eons ago is chanted in today's time. The storms come. Answering. Though far from the source, the virtual view of hula at its source feeds me, cares for me and I feel my place on the back of the honu. The turtle. Honua. Earth. Can I do the work of this time of life, releasing what no longer feeds me? Can some of that burden die with me, and free, and feed my ancestors ahead of me?
Again, astrology provides me some clues for this year of becoming a tutu for the first time, living with a major infectious virus, and preparing for another move in our wagon-centered life. I see that my Sun, that instinct that says, "You must
shine to be alive!"and my Moon in my astrological chart "Is the mother.
Just as you grew in your mother's womb before you were born, you
continue to survive and thrive as a consequence of nourishment ..."
writes Elizabeth Rose Campbell. Both Sun and Moon are in the 1st House
marking my solar return (my birthday) in November, 2020 and the year being lived now. The Sun and Moon in the 1st House "announce your identity. This life arena symbolizes your choice to be someone in particular ... with the moon pulsing with the need to be at home with this particular someone.
“fill what’s empty, empty what’s full; scratch where it itches.” Dorothy Parker
“if there’s not enough of what you want, then want something else.”- Robin Wall Kimmerer
"There is no question but that all living beings experience some level of scarcity at various points, and therefore that competition for limited resources, like light or water or soil nitrogen, will occur. But since competition reduces the carrying capacity for all concerned, natural selection favors those who can avoid competition. Oftentimes this is achieved by shifting one’s needs away from whatever is in short supply, as though evolution were suggesting “if there’s not enough of what you want, then want something else.” This specialization to avoid scarcity has led to a dazzling array of biodiversity, each avoiding competition by being different. Diversity in ways of being is an antidote to scarcity-induced competition." The Serviceberry: An Economy of Abundance, Robin Wall Kimmerer
and looking north. If you look closely you'll be able to see the cornstarch marking I left to outline and position the vardo and our kitchen. The rains washed the marks away last night. But the small stones left to hold the corners stay to make friends with the moss filled grass.
'Aina in Hawaiian means land. More than that 'aina means 'that which feeds you.' We sure hope to contribute to the meaning and experience of 'aina on the land that our friend Hope Fay cares for. She's one open-hearted friend and healer who "takes the time to listen" and continues to share a quality of 'aina that her husband, Bobby Stewart lived that of "Build from the ground up, inside out," meaning don't go out into the world and try to serve others when you are unstable yourself, and not taking care of your obligations." Pete and I did not know Bobby personally, but his 'love medicine' is all around us as we camp, walk and are part of the place we call Camp Bamboo. Our friend Jude Bierman is now stewart of the place Bobby and Hope built together as part of the dream to create a Native American cultural center on the top half of a 10 acre parcel of land shared with long time friends Mari and Kevin Campbell. The spiral of 'aina keeps turning.
The land Pete and I are visiting now is where Hope lives and practices her medicine. We are at a major crossroads of opportunity. Fortunate to be cared and fed on the 'love medicine' that has sprung from the legacy we know because we are Hope's relatives. If we become stable ourselves, and take care of our kuleana (obligations), then ... we are building from the ground up, inside out. Our ancestors have met their ancestors, and we take the time to listen to the music of what is probably Bobby Stewart's 'love medicine.' Mahalo Bobby. Mahalo Hope. Mahalo ke'ia 'aina.
Click here to read the article "She strives to pay forward his medicine of love". To learn more about Hope Fay and Bobby Stewart.
The mele Kaulana Na Pua was written to oppose the illegal annexation of Hawaii by the United States. This version of the song was sung by many Hawaiians from all islands and includes our cousin, Brother Nolan Conjugacion.
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