I drew this card last night, right before I went to sleep. It is from the Hawiian Oracle Cards*:
MOA chicken
Imagery:
Moa stands, replete, on Kane Huna Moku. A rainbow arches above the cataracts. She deserves paradise, where every creature respects every other, and so shines with its individual brillian light. Just like Moa, splendid in her patch, her pure white feathers are dotted with rainbow colors.
Interpretation (Upright):
Drawing this Bird of Rainbow Feathers means you are transforming into your pure self. Each act performed according to your inner lodestone makes the giant beak of Palamoa, god of chickens, curve upwards in a smile. Remember to respect the sacred within each being with every act you perform. Do not take life and do not participate in the spoils of taking life. You are not a god or goddess yet, and no not have the right to influence those decisions. Meanwhile, enjoy your flourishing and beneficent magic, and the fruits of it.
Mythology:
The chicken god Palamoa came to Hawai'i from Kahiki as part of the Lonopele migration, many millenia ago. Palamoa travelled with his brother Kumukahi - the god of plovers - and sister Ka Hikina A Ka La -- Sunrise. You can still see Ka Hikina A Ka La in the pale colours of the eastern sky as the day dawns.
The bird ancestress, Ke Ao Lewa, had the power to shape-shift into the form of a bird or a human. Perhaps truly, there is no difference. Ke Ao Lewa means 'the wondrous spheres of light'. Her famous offspring, Lepe a Moa, the Rainbow Chicken Girl, was 'born' from her human mother, a an egg. Born at Wailua on the island of Kaua'i, Lepe a Moa was raised by her grandmother, Kapalama of O'ahu, who gave her own name to that area of Honolulu you can go to today.
The young creature developed into a girl of great beauty and magical powers, able to live either as fowl or human and enjoying the food and pastimes of both. She combined all the colours of jungle fowl with those of all the birds. Wherever Lepe a Moa went as a human, she was attended by a brilliant rainbow consisting of all the colours of her feathered form.
The chicken of wondrous beauty is the bird of magic - magic from other dimensions to be used for good on earth. Palamoa (meaning 'dense clouds') comes from Kahiki. Ra'iatea, the most sacred visible isle of the Polynesians, is known as 'the sacred cloud of learning'. One entrance is called Awa Moa, or 'Sacred Entrance'. It leads to the bay on which the most hallowed temple is situated - for Moa also means 'sacred'.
The Sacred Isle is often associated with the 'lost islands' of the stars. In a twist to the tail, Rainbow Chicken is linked to the Pleiades. In Hawai'i, the Pleiades are associated with a hen and her chicks: for Kahiki literally means 'the arriving'- this could refer to the original arrival from the star-lit realms. The Pleiades may be the original home of our 'aumakua. One description of creation says that God and goddess breathed tiny eggs into the heights of the spheres. They 'popped open midst flashes of light, and their fruit, fledglings, sailed forth. They expanded in size, developed power, and winged their way to homes on earth.' Such a one is Lepe a Moa, born from an egg, the 'Chicken of Rainbows'.
He Ali'i Ka Moa--The Chicken is King.
I hope you enjoyed this tale as much as I did!
Aloha nui loa,
Namaste,
Reiki Doc
*Hawaiian Oracle Cards: Animal Spirit Guides from the Land of Light, Rima A. Morrell, PhD
New World Library, Novato, California
