Hawaiian Goddess: Exploring the Divine Women of Ancient Tales

The Hawaiian Islands did not emerge quietly. Fire pushed them from the ocean floor. Rain cut their valleys. Snow settled on their peaks before any human being arrived to name what governed the cold. The Hawaiian people named everything and the names they gave the forces of their world were not metaphors. They were introductions. This book presents ten of the most powerful goddesses in the Hawaiian tradition: Pele, whose volcanic fire continues to build new land in the island chain today. N¿maka, the sea sovereign who pursued her sister across the entire Pacific and won. Hina, the moon goddess who abandoned earth on her own terms and never returned. Laka, who gave the hula to human hands. Haumea, the great earth mother whose genealogy underlies the entire divine order. Poli'ahu, Lilinoe, Hi'iaka, Kapo, and Papa, each governing a domain as specific and sovereign as the landscape it describes. These are not gentle stories. They are the real ones.