Cursed Lava

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

Yeah...I was curious about that as well....Wondering about all those lava tikis and lava wallhangings that are bought and sold...I never hear about those...are those "immune" ? Grey

Someone should send a few over to Saddamn and Bin Laddle!!!

C'mon kids, it's just DIRT! The local guides in Hawaii JOKE about how they like to scare the tourists with tall tales of bad luck.
Fact is: Life has it's ups and downs, and if you need a reason for the downs (other than "fate"), I guess lava is as good as anything.
Have you ever been out in those huge lava fields on the Big Island? Does the beach follow you with bad luck when you bring sand home in your pockets?

I consider myself in touch with the spiritual side of the human existence, I am respectful of such things as Karma, ancestor worship and Taboo, but god's earth is not there to bring bad luck.

Sacred carvings and sites were just RECEPTABLES for spiritual energy, put their by human belief and ritual. The thing itself, be it lava or Tiki, is just what you make it, otherwise it just IS.

Oh great, now you've done it Sven... Talking badly like that about the gods....We're all screwed now.

That's just it: I did not talk badly, OR make light of the gods- they had their value at their time and are to be respected for that. I do not joke about it, I am just being pragmatic about it.
The label of superstition is used by the anti-spiritual to denounce those who believe in more than just what we see. To put fuel on superstitious beliefs is to weaken true spirituality.

On 2003-01-15 08:51, bamboo ben wrote:
Someone should send a few over to Saddamn and Bin Laddle!!!

Too bad the lava-rocks’ curse is concerning the thief.

Woah. I was just kidding Sven.

I get what your saying Sven, but it is funny that EVERY single person I have known to take lava from the Islands, has either sent it back or took it back themselves. A doctor, a judge, a lawyer, a housewife and several others. I think about 7 people in all. There luck just didn't take a turn for the worst, it was pretty devastating stuff. Coincidence...maybeeee..... Dooodle..dooodle..dooo :D

[ Edited by: DawnTiki on 2003-01-15 22:05 ]

"I am just being pragmatic about it."

Oh GREAT, now your getting all pragmatic about it.
Sven, please don't post any more about the curse not being real, we are scared and do not want the server to go down. It would be another devistating blow to the GOD Bongo.
If TC is offline for one minute he won't have anything to do at work.
And Lucky, loving TIKI Central means never having to say "I,m sorry" I mean "your sorry"/ I mean "we are sorry"
OH NO it is starting, now I am cursed
THANKS SVEN
Dear PELE,
IT WASN'T ME
I have no lava
I have no sand