Lava, Love, & a Peace Flag Blessing

Elvie Debrigit Mauna Loa Volcano

Spatters of lava, fountains of flame, fires sparkling, and haloes flying in the air — a volcanic eruption awes us. A vision, quite literally, like God in the Burning Bush, or Guan Yin, Goddess of a thousand arms, reaching out in rivers of fire, a flowing web of energy that moves mountains and hearts.

In Hawaii, the Fire Goddess is known symbolically as Pele, and all physical manifestation emerges from her sacred energy, so she is known as the Pu’ao (womb) of the third-dimensional experience.

Have you felt her dance? Earthquakes and tremors move the fire in your belly and the essence of flames warms your spirit. Awe, wonder — but there really is no word to describe how it feels to live on a small island with two active volcanoes erupting. Their dance of heat and light, mounds of magma – pahoehoe — expressing a cosmic power unlike anything else on Earth.

Mauna Loa’s new flow joins the 35-year-long eruption of Kilauea a few miles away. When you go to the Saddle between the two volcanoes you feel like a child in the arms of two ancient grandparents.

Viewing the hot waves of Pele at night, there is a sacred hush, what my friend Elvira described as “just thousands of people awed into silent reverence.”

Tutu Pele stretches out to give us her unconditional love from the doorway of creation itself. She makes new land, shapes our future, and asks only that we respect her, each in our individual ways. Her lava is very hot, 10 times hotter than boiling water. Standing too close to flowing lava, your eyelashes will promptly burn. At a spiritual level, she burns away old patterns and transforms them into new possibilities.

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What are we burning away? What are we calling forth? What we were calling forth only hours before the new eruption on Hawaii Island, were the spirits of this amazing island — to bless the new ArtWavEs’ Peace Flags.

We were awe-struck at the timing. Was it a coincidence? Synchronicity? Certainly, it is an inspiration: the sacred fire on the mountain rising up just as the sacred fire in our hearts was bubbling forth together with a burning desire for peace in the world, for saving the children, for nourishing our ailing planet. For blessing the beautiful flags, symbols of unconditional love and child-to-child peacemaking.

While Pele is center stage right now, I want to turn your attention for a moment to the Peace Flag Blessing on Sunday before Mauna Loa’s flow started. We blessed the Peace Flags made by keiki, families, and artists for the children of Ukraine and Uvalde.

I believe that we all have a higher power, and that power, directed in healing ways, will unify us and produce the miracles we need to transform our world away from war and climate catastrophe, and toward a peaceful, healing continuum.

My soul knows that Pele agrees and is helping us to burn away the impulses to attack, blame, and project with acts of violence and war, replacing them with empathy, kindness, generosity, understanding, compassion, love, and AWE.

The Blessing Ceremony was truly a sight to behold. Outdoors in the treehouse temple at the New Thought Center, with Mahina Saunders playing ukulele and singing with Kristie in perfect harmony. The banners and flags were suspended around us like a silken womb. Gentle breezes rustled through the banana leaf and palm trees, then touched the flags and our cheeks, carrying prayers aloft on the wind.

We called on Pele, Hina, Hi’iaka, and all the mythological forces who connect us to the mystery and magic of Hawaii. We invited all our ancestors from Polynesian, Native American, Indian, South Asian, Amazonian, and all ancient and indigenous Earth-centered tribes. Their transpersonal presences come near when we invite them, and I could feel them enhance the power of the Peace Flags, to affirm our collective good intentions.

Each flag was painted, tended, and freely given with a clear intention to nurture a peaceful planet. Like Pele’s eruption, the flags are manifestations of unconditional love. The love for peace from children, families, and artists painted on the silks over the last decade lifts us up like magic. More than 100 were arrayed that day, but globally, there are now at least 600 silk banners created through the ArtWavEs healing arts process. For the healing of the world, we’re sending ripples of peace through the air wherever they hang.

As they waved in the pacific winds that Sunday, the flags showed how a power greater than us can amplify beauty and unconditional love, the same gifts that the Fire Goddess revealed 12 hours later. Every time that Pele gives birth to new Earth, she gives without demand and asks only that we receive her gifts and expand the full circle of unconditional love.

Through pure movement, line, color, and intention, the artists paint for the elements, for the people, for the future. They paint to contribute to peace, as well as for themselves. The balance of self-care and generosity feeds the child’s unconditional love, the miracle we will need now to recalibrate human energy with all of Nature.

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We opened our spiritual hearts and made offerings of feeling, silence, dance, and prayer. Imbuing the hand-painted flags with chants and songs about the sunshine, jeweled hearts, and lotus wisdom.

Colorful forms and symbols grace the flags — the purple gorilla, an eagle, a tiger, a lotus pond, Hina as Speaking Woman at Lake Waiau, the sacred gardens resplendent with taro, whales, stars, pineapple, and mermaids – they seemed to sing back to us in whispers of appreciation, connecting us to forces so much larger than ourselves that it brought tears to our eyes.

We reconnected with the web of life, moved our bodies in harmony with the flags and brought into focus our visions for peace in the world.

What does Peace look like?

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Kinder relationships. Healthier schools and workplaces, Better people, better people skills, and more organic farms. Families well-fed and happy, and institutions that prioritize people over profits. A society that is as beautiful as the flowers. A clean environment.

We prayed big, sending our roots down into the Earth, touching and honoring the magma below, and reaching up to the sky, spreading our thought wings in our individual and collective visualizations for a greater embodiment of peace on our beautiful planet.

Inspired by the sacred fire in our hearts and the sacred fire on the mountain, we felt so much unconditional love for this island, for this life, for our shared Earth. For the great teachers who have inspired us, wisdom keepers like the Kahuna Nui Hale Kealohalani Makua and Hank Wesselman, and for the Yogis, Artists, Kupuna, and Healers who share their remarkable legacies… we are forever grateful.

They bridged the past into the present through us so we can bridge more kindness, truth, and beauty into the future. Through their benevolence, our Dreamtime visions nurture more unconditional love toward you, me, us, whatever is, here and now. That is the miracle the world needs now.

We may bless Pele, but more significant is how Pele blesses us.

We bless the flags, but really, they bless us too. All who see and feel them are blessed. Like Pele, they are an incarnation of unconditional love. You feel it, for the maker has put world peace above all else, and that thought sends a vast love toward you, confirming your inclusion in the web of life, and our shared future.

We bless and foster harmony whenever a new child or artist picks up a pencil, paintbrush, a musical instrument, or sings or dances. Whenever they ask in their heart, what will manifest more peace and unconditional love today?

We would be thrilled for you to join in the wave of peacemaking that manifests in the ArtWavEs process: intentional creativity nurturing a world at peace. Message or email us with your interest and skills. We especially are looking to hire a videographer and someone with professional office skills.

If you would like to partner with us by supporting the Peace Flag project, we need and deeply appreciate your support. To make a contribution, please go to: Contribute to ArtWavEs

Enjoy this brief video on the ArtWavEs mission and spread the good word by sending it to friends! ArtWavEs Purpose

Mahalo nui loa!
Marya

PHOTO CREDITS: Blessing Ceremony by Liza Brown Photography and Mauna Loa Volcano by Skylar Rae Dawn via Elvira Di’Brigit. Pictured among the Blessing Banner Array is Felicia Saunders. Mahalo to All!

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