My friend Suzanne has led a charmed life. You may call it luck, but the truth is her success is due to intelligence, hard work, and good timing. Life has been good to Suzanne, except for one very dark period when she decided to take on the Hawaiian goddess Pele.
It started innocently enough, Suzanne was hiking on The Big Island with some friends and decided to take a lava rock home, just as a little souvenir. One of the locals tried to warn her that this was a very bad idea. It seems Pele - the goddess of fire and volcanoes - has anger management issues and tends to take things a little personally. Suzanne is a very spiritual person, but she is also practical and has never been superstitious. She thought it was a quaint story and ended up slipping the rock into her pocket, and taking it home.
Within weeks of her return to British Columbia, things went terribly wrong. Suzanne was in a very serious car wreck, broke up with her fiancé, had a sudden career change, and almost died from a ruptured appendix. The bad luck continued until someone close to Suzanne offered to make a pilgrimage to Hawaii and returned the cursed rock. At the time, I was worried about my friend, but wasn’t really sure what to think. Let’s be honest, when you’re living in a big city, the idea of a temperamental goddess wrecking havoc in your life is a bit of a stretch.
During my recent trip to Maui I met a local biologist who swears by the wrath of Pele. He told many stories of visiting tourists who had similar experiences to Suzanne. It seems that thousands and thousands of rocks are returned to his neighborhood post office - from people who are desperate to un-do the curse of Pele. He explained that native Hawaiians believe rocks are sacred, and that they hold the souls of the ancestors. In other words, pocketing a rock is akin to grave robbing.
The good news is once the rock was returned to it’s rightful place, Suzanne’s life returned to normal. As for my visit to Hawaii, I decided to stay on the safe side - and won’t be adding to my rock collection any time soon.
It started innocently enough, Suzanne was hiking on The Big Island with some friends and decided to take a lava rock home, just as a little souvenir. One of the locals tried to warn her that this was a very bad idea. It seems Pele - the goddess of fire and volcanoes - has anger management issues and tends to take things a little personally. Suzanne is a very spiritual person, but she is also practical and has never been superstitious. She thought it was a quaint story and ended up slipping the rock into her pocket, and taking it home.
Within weeks of her return to British Columbia, things went terribly wrong. Suzanne was in a very serious car wreck, broke up with her fiancé, had a sudden career change, and almost died from a ruptured appendix. The bad luck continued until someone close to Suzanne offered to make a pilgrimage to Hawaii and returned the cursed rock. At the time, I was worried about my friend, but wasn’t really sure what to think. Let’s be honest, when you’re living in a big city, the idea of a temperamental goddess wrecking havoc in your life is a bit of a stretch.
During my recent trip to Maui I met a local biologist who swears by the wrath of Pele. He told many stories of visiting tourists who had similar experiences to Suzanne. It seems that thousands and thousands of rocks are returned to his neighborhood post office - from people who are desperate to un-do the curse of Pele. He explained that native Hawaiians believe rocks are sacred, and that they hold the souls of the ancestors. In other words, pocketing a rock is akin to grave robbing.
The good news is once the rock was returned to it’s rightful place, Suzanne’s life returned to normal. As for my visit to Hawaii, I decided to stay on the safe side - and won’t be adding to my rock collection any time soon.
2 comments:
Since watching the Brady Bunch Hawaii special, I totally believe in the curse of Pele!
Her hair is black,her colors red,respect fire maiden or I warn you,beware!
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