Image of waves at sunset in beautiful Kauai. Loving the Āina (Land) and the Sea

2. Loving the Āina (Land) and the Sea

 

Blessings for Loving the Land, Waterways, Open Spaces and Sea

 

August 12, 2020

 

Dear Hawaiian Nation (and those who are Hawaiian at Heart),

 

Today the Hawaiian Ancestors would like to speak to the need to love the āina (land) as well as the sea. Loving the land and sea and connecting with nature has been a part of the Hawaiian culture as far back as we can recall. The love of the land translates into loving the beauty around you, loving the plants, trees, insects and animals that grace the land, and loving the crops that one may till so that they grow greatly in size and nourish the body at mealtime. Loving the sea includes loving each creature, including the eels, sharks, fish, whales, dolphins and other sea critters as well as seaweed. Many a Hawaiian song is devoted to speaking of the love of the beauty of the land and sea and expresses the love that Hawaiians feel for their islands.

 

Sacred Ceremonies and the Blessings of Love

 

Hawaiians traditionally had medicine men or women called Kahunas that had a special place in association with the love of the land and sea. The Kahuna would bless the land in a special ceremony before the crops were planted to assure that nature would comply to create the harvest; this included making sure that enough rain would fall and sun would shine to nurture the seeds into plants and for the plants then to produce their fruits. The Kahuna would bless the sea and sea creatures, including the sharks, so that the ocean would also provide for the people of the land, and the sharks would not harm their people while swimming or fishing.

 

In more ancient times in the land of Lemuria or Mu, special ceremonies that involved an entire village would occur during the season of planting so that all could participate in the blessing and loving of the land. Then at harvest time, celebrations would occur, and none would forget to offer the blessing of love to the plants in exchange for the feast. It is in the ongoing exchange of love between human and plant and plant and human that all were provided for in abundance, and each was nurtured into sustaining a life of health and wellbeing.

 

The love filled the plants, mushrooms, fruits and vegetation harvested and this in turn filled each human that ate of the harvest. The love also directed the cooking of each meal in the kitchen providing nutrition through the combination of key foods to create whole proteins and other necessities to sustain the bodies of each at mealtime. Love and blessings to the land and sea have always been a part of Lemurian and Polynesian culture, even in more ancient times and it was understood that this was a necessary dance to sustain the abundance of the crops as well as health and life of the ohana (family or tribe).

 

Consumption of Flesh Forbidden in Lemuria

 

In more ancient times and in Lemuria, meat, fish, poultry and flesh in general was not consumed. This too is a part of the Polynesian truth. Flesh was not necessary to consume as there was an abundant array of vegetables, mushrooms, fruits, and nuts that provided amply to sustain physical existence, not only of humans, but of nature as well. Few animal or aquatic kingdoms consumed flesh at this time; instead, most including larger mammals, grazed upon the ample vegetation of the land. Much like the humpback whale today that subsists upon plankton, so this was also for larger aquatic mammals as well as fish of the ocean in the era of Lemuria. Read more