Interpretation:
Puhi is about awakened passion. The chant above is from a passionate hula where the only accompaniment was from a chain of dog's teeth that hung beneath the dancers' knees. Dance with your desire. Make the teeth beat in rhythm. The 'lithe freedom' of the eel is there for us all. Call on the gods and goddesses to help. Feel the eel. Link your head to your heart. Marry sex with love. Eel is a sign that a great deal is about to happen for you. Make it good!
Mythology:
In the Pacific and beyond, eels are associated with 'swishing pleasure'. For instance, in Banthai of the Tuamotu Islands, the Earth Goddess Faumea is an eel woman; eels in her vagina, eels with teeth so sharp they can kill a man. Faumea has sex with Tangeroa, the god of procreation, and they have two daughters who also procreate on a world scale. This shows the importance of overcoming the fear, found in myths worldwide, of the powerful vagina with teeth.
In a myth from Samoa, the goddess Hina had sexual relations with an eel. While she was bathing in a stream, the tail of the naughty eel pierced her between her legs. The eel, knowing he had done wrong, offered to die, and drank a poison that killed him. From his buried head a coconut tree sprouted. In New Zealand, Hina's vagina brings death into the world. This shows where detachment from our emotions can get us. Kapo, the goddess who has a wandering vagina, can be known as Kapo'ula kina'a, 'red eel woman'.
It is said that the green Awa'awapuhi, 'the valley of the slithering eel' in the Na'Pali region of Kaua'i, shows the imprint of a giant eel from a time when lava covered the land. The lava was brought about by a man with an eel body, Puhi Kani Loulu. This steep and beautiful valley has to be admired from the air, as no mortal can reach it from the ground.
Illumination:
Your emotions need smoothing out. By studying Puhi's slithery ways, you can learn to connect your head and tail - when your sexual actions are in alignment with your conscious mind and sexual desires, you will become even more connected. Your mana becomes intense. Your attraction is overwhelming. So try to make an impression through your green consciousness, like the Awa'awapuhi, rather than through the burning passion of the red-hot lava. This way, the impression made by your integrated eel can continue to grow forever, rather than be stuck, alone, like the ancient eel, Puhi Kani Loulu.
Procreation leads to creation. But, what we often fail to realize is that a new way of being also leads to growth of a completely different kind. For example, all over Polynesia a coconut tree is said to grow from Puhi's detached head. The eel, whose separation between head and heart has been transformed by his closeness to the earth, has the ability to grow upwards towards the immortal realm of the heavens, bearing a new and delicious fruit. The tail also has the power to overcome death. In the story of Timaroa, aka vines grow from the sinews of the eel's tail after he loses his fight with the trickster Maui. These vines represent the consciousness of the shaman, who has the ability to link different spheres, hence, this Hawaiian proverb:
He puhi l'a pani i ka lani (the eel is a fish that moves skyward)
The meaning of the name Kani Loulu gives more clues. Kani means 'to sound' and loulu is a type of temple, used for love magic. By becoming integrated, we will draw out true love to us - and enjoy them with all the slithery passion of Puhi.
from Rima A. Morrell, PhD, The Hawaiian Oracle, Animal Spirit Guides from the Land of Light.
Namaste,
Reiki Doc
