Hi'iaka
Hi'iaka-i-ka-poli-o-Pele · "Hi'iaka in the bosom of Pele" · favorite younger sister of Pele · goddess of hula, chant, sorcery, healing, and the rebirth of vegetation after lava-flows · patron of the hālau hula schools
Volcanic / Lunar · 6 of 12
The Hawaiian goddess of *hula, healing, and the rebirth that walks across the cooled lava*. The pattern of the *younger-sister whose loyalty walks her into the underworld and back, who learns the sorcery the journey required, and returns more powerful than the elder-sister who sent her*.
The Hawaiian goddess of hula and healing — favorite younger sister of Pele, carried as a baby in the folds of Pele's bosom in the voyage from Tahiti. She is the goddess of the *rebirth of vegetation after lava-flows* — every new ʻōhiʻa lehua tree that pushes through cooled lava is her work. She is patron of every hālau hula (hula school) in Hawai'i — the dance form she invented at Hāʻena, Kaua'i, by the cave that bears her name. Her epic journey to fetch Pele's lover Lohi'au from Kaua'i is the longest narrative-cycle in Hawaiian mythology.
What Hi'iaka actually means
Hi'iaka is the *Polynesian archetype of the loyal-younger-sibling who walks the impossible-errand and is transformed by it* — the favorite of Pele who was sent on what was supposed to be a simple-fetch (go to Kaua'i, fetch Lohi'au, return in forty days) and which became the longest-narrative-cycle in Hawaiian mythology, requiring supernatural-trials, the death-and-resurrection of Lohi'au, the loss of her companion Hopoe, the burning-by-Pele of her beloved lehua-grove, and her final transformation into a goddess so powerful that Pele's lava could not destroy her. She is the *Polynesian Persephone-and-Athena-and-Inanna-and-Hi'iaka-in-one*: descended-and-returned (Persephone), wisdom-and-sorcery (Athena), survivor of being-betrayed-by-the-elder (Inanna). She is the patron of *hula* — and the canonical hula is not "entertainment dance" but *prayer-in-motion, the body-as-chant, the ritual-form by which Hawaiian sacred-knowledge has been continuously transmitted since at least the 12th c. CE*. Every hālau hula (hula school) in Hawai'i is structurally a Hi'iaka-lineage. The 19th-c. missionary-prohibition of hula (1830-1874) was specifically a *suppression of Hi'iaka-worship*; the 1874 King Kalākaua re-legalization-of-hula and the 1976 first Merrie Monarch Festival mark her two-stage modern recovery.
The canonical story
Pele's spirit-body traveled to Kaua'i in a dream and met the young chief Lohi'au at a hula performance. They were instantly bound. Pele's body slept at Kīlauea while the spirit-body returned. Pele then asked her sisters which would go to Kaua'i to fetch Lohi'au back; only Hi'iaka — youngest, smallest, the baby-sister carried-in-the-bosom-from-Tahiti — agreed. Pele set the conditions: forty days; Hi'iaka must not touch Lohi'au, must protect him from being touched, must return on schedule. Hi'iaka asked for one favor in return: that Pele protect her beloved lehua-grove at Puna and her dearest friend Hopoe (a hula-dancer) until her return. Pele agreed. Hi'iaka set out with her companion Pā'ū-o-Pala'ā. The journey north took her through trial after trial: dragon-women, shape-shifters, hostile chiefs, a kupua (supernatural being) named Pana'ewa whom she defeated in single-combat, the woman-Mahiki who tried to drown her in a wave, a series of named-chiefs whose homes she had to navigate without violating tapu. She reached Kaua'i. Lohi'au had died — heartbroken at Pele's disappearance. Hi'iaka recovered his spirit from the underworld, restored it to his body, and revived him. The return journey took longer. Pele, jealous and impatient at the delay, killed Hopoe and burned the lehua-grove. Hi'iaka returned, found the grove burned and Hopoe transformed into a rock at the edge of the sea, and in *her own act of recovery-defiance* finally kissed Lohi'au in front of Pele. Pele attacked with lava. Hi'iaka — by now having absorbed the sorcery the journey had given her — became-the-volcano-herself and could not be burned. Lohi'au was killed by Pele's lava. Hi'iaka resurrected him a second time. They became, in some traditions, husband and wife. In other traditions Hi'iaka returned to the volcano as Pele's sister and forgave her.
The lesson
The Hi'iaka-lesson is *the loyal-younger-sibling who walks the impossible-errand is not the elder-sister's servant; she is the next-generation's-goddess, and the errand is her initiation*. The journey was supposed to be a fetch-quest. It was actually an apprenticeship-in-her-own-power. By the end, Hi'iaka was not Pele's little-sister anymore; she was Pele's peer, capable of becoming-the-volcano-herself, capable of resurrection-magic Pele did not have. The work is to *let the impossible-errand be the initiation* rather than resenting that the elder-sister did not name it as such.
In love
Hi'iaka in love is the partner who *was sent on an impossible-errand by an elder-figure* (a parent, a first-employer, a first-marriage-partner) and who is now coming home transformed, no longer the little-sister-in-the-bosom but a peer with sorcery the elder-figure does not have. The shadow: the Hi'iaka-partner whose *Hopoe was killed by the elder-figure in revenge for the delay* — the dear-friend or beloved-companion sacrificed by the elder's jealousy of the journey, and whose grief over Hopoe is the unspoken-load of the relationship. The deeper shadow: the *Lohi'au resurrection-twice* pattern — the partner who has resurrected the same person twice already, once in the underworld and once after the elder-figure's lava-attack, and who is wondering whether a third-resurrection is required.
In work
Hi'iaka in work is the *next-generation-founder* — the younger-co-founder, the deputy, the trusted apprentice — who was sent on a deal/journey/errand by the senior-founder, and who returned with sorcery the senior did not anticipate they would acquire. The shadow: the Hi'iaka-deputy whose *Hopoe was killed* — whose own-team or own-project was collateral-damaged by the senior's impatience-with-the-delay. The deeper shadow: the *kiss-Lohi'au-in-front-of-Pele* moment — the moment the deputy publicly-acknowledged the power they gained on the journey and the senior responded with lava. The application: Hi'iaka calls for the *let-the-errand-be-the-initiation* discipline — accept that the journey was always going to make you the elder's peer, and prepare for the moment-of-equality without flinching from it.
The shadow — honest about modern misreadings
Hi'iaka has been *systematically eclipsed* by Pele in popular-culture — every "Hawaiian goddess" reference defaults to Pele and almost never to the younger-sister-who-actually-recovered-Lohi'au-twice. The Disney-Moana figure has *some* Hi'iaka in her (the young-woman-on-the-impossible-errand archetype), but the Disney-figure is given Māui as companion rather than the canonical Pā'ū-o-Pala'ā, and the hula-and-sorcery-lineage is stripped. The 19th-c. missionary-suppression-of-hula was specifically suppression-of-Hi'iaka-worship — and Hi'iaka's 1874-Kalākaua and 1976-Merrie-Monarch-festival recoveries are the canonical-stages of the *Hi'iaka renaissance*. The contemporary hālau hula movement is structurally a *living Hi'iaka-lineage* — every dancer at every Merrie Monarch Festival is performing a Hi'iaka-chant in some respect. The "hula-as-luau-entertainment" tourist-aesthetic continues to flatten her sacred-knowledge-transmission-role into nightclub-cocktail-decoration.
Pair with
3 key questions Hi'iaka asks of you
- What *impossible-errand* did an elder-figure send me on — that was supposed to be a simple-fetch and that became my actual-initiation — and have I let the journey make me the elder's peer, or am I still acting as if I were the baby-in-the-bosom?
- Who is my *Hopoe* — the dear-friend or beloved-project that was sacrificed by the elder's jealousy-of-the-delay — and have I named the grief, or has it been the unspoken-load I carry without permission to mourn?
- How many times have I *resurrected the same Lohi'au* already — and am I being asked for a third, or is this the moment to become-the-volcano-myself and step out of the rescuer-role into peer-power?
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