Post #19261 by cynfulcynner on Mon, Jan 13, 2003 9:16 AM

From another mailing list I'm on:

RETURNED LAVA ROCKS FILL A GARDEN TO APPEASE A GODDESS IN HAWAII

Anne Chalfant
Knight Ridder News Service
The Salt Lake Tribune [Salt Lake City, Utah]
12 January 2003

Scribbled on a torn piece of paper: "Please return to soil. I have been having bad luck."

Lava rocks fly homeward in boxes, sometimes by overnight mail, to the Hawaiian islands. The rocks are sent by vacationers who have taken the rocks home, only to discover they are "cursed."

Legend has it that Pele, goddess of fire and volcanoes, is so angered when the rocks -- her "children" -- are taken from her that she exacts her revenge on the thief.

The legend has its share of believers.

"Ever since we have taken items, we have had nothing but back luck and medical problems," a note from New Jersey confessed. "We apologize for taking items, so we are returning same to Hawaii."

Often packages arrive with no return address, no name -- just one big shudder of relief. "We placed the rock last fall on a cast iron chair in our garden, this spring the chair's leg had fallen off. This is the least of the problems we have had since we have taken the rock."

Worriers, take note. Mailed lava rocks have been respectfully returned to the land for years. But now the reunion is also blessed with a sacred ceremony in a "healing garden" created a year ago at the Outrigger Waikoloa Beach resort. Once a month, kahunas -- priests descended from ancient Hawaiian priests -- perform the ceremony, Hoaka Ho'omalu, asking permission for the garden to become a resting place for the rocks. They chant for the person who took the rock to be
healed, for the land it was taken from to be healed, for the "child" rock to be reunited with its mother Pele. The garden is a large
outcropping of lava surrounded by native plants.

Kapunas, or cultural elders, were consulted in the garden's creation in fall of 2002.

The Outrigger resort's staff sends a personal letter to each penitent letting him or her know the rocks have been respectfully returned. The ceremony is held at noon the first Wednesday of every month.

The healing garden may bring relief to the poor California woman who collected lava rocks way back in 1993, yet takes the blame for the sudden illness and death of her 9-year-old grandson Sept. 11, 2001. His
death sadly coincided with the moment the first World Trade Center tower collapsed.

"I must be cursed!" the woman wrote. "Please, whatever the legend, curse or folklore is, please put these rocks back on a beach for me. I do not want one more stroke of fate to push me over the edge."

Pele's reach is clearly not that powerful, and there are surely rock thieves who have made great fortunes, found great loves and added beloved children to their families in years following the theft of a lava rock.

Still, some people don't care to mess with myth.

A visitor from Germany wrote, "The year was bad for me and my family. My wife's father died. I'm a marathon-man, have broken my leg. Later problems with my pancreas. Please give sand back. PELE -- I'm sorry to [sic] much."

If you find you are nervous about Hawaiian lava rocks now sitting in the bottom of your fish tank, decorating your garden or serving as paperweights, here's the address for returning them to Pele and the healing garden:

Outrigger Waikoloa Beach
Hoaka Ho'omalu
69-275 Waikoloa Beach Drive
Waikoloa, HI 96738