This is a gecko on Big Island
Yesterday when I woke up, I felt it was time to look at the Hawaiian Oracle card. My last card, Puhi, felt about 'done' and there was more message for me that day.
I looked it up:
Mo'o -- Lizard
Challenge: INDEPENDENCE
Way Through: MYTHIC POWER
Gift: FEELING
O Kauhi, ka hala'a pua, maka a lani,
Ika maka o ke Akua
The body lies smothered in ferns;
Thine eye shines on high like a star.
Imagery:
With his belly lying across the warm rock that holds him so firm, the eye of Mo'o is alert. Around him the rocks are alive with meaning. The air is suffused with an amber glow and the Pleiades hang high in the sky.
Interpretation:
Mo'o is old. Mo'oinanea, 'Self-reliant Mo'o', was the first child of Kanehunamoku. Drawing this card means you are independent. The more time you spend outside, the better. Dragging your belly on the earth is good for you, because your 'old bones' remember a lot. He mo'o, he pili pohuku, he pili la'au a he pili lep. 'It is a lizard, for he clings to rocks, clings to trees, clings to the earth.'
But, don't cling to the old ways too much. While your desire to preserve the knowledge of the ancestors is admirable, it shouldn't be an excuse for you not to grow. Set aside some time to be spontaneous.
Mythology:
Mo'o actually means 'tradition': Lizard is the link. Through his jeweled eye he connects the earth and the stars. Through his ancient lineage he joins the past and the future. Through his long belly he holds the mythic power of rick that remembers a time of unity. Hawai'i was originally one island, part of the bright continent of Lemuria. Since the flood, only some rocks remain - the islands of Polynesia, the mountaintops of the land of light. Ua naha na moku. "Broken away are the islands."
Once there were dragons. When the goddess Hi'iaka was traveling through Hawai'i, she encountered many hazards. Traveling through Ko'olau on the island of O'ahu, she met an ancestor of hers, a 'kupua', or 'shape shifter', known as Kauhi ke i maka o ka lani, "Kauhi of the eyes of the heaven.' Kauhi was part of the island's rock and, alas, his eye sockets were dry. Hi'iaka chanted:
He Akua ia la, 'a'ohe 'ike mai.
O komo luahi nui no ka maka.
Ke ala hei - E ala,
E ala, e alla mai ama, e!
E alla e, Hi ka'a lani!
E alla e, He'oilo ua i ka lani!
E alla e, Ma'u wahine a Makali'i.
E alla e!
He surely is a god, yet hears he not.
Fierceness gleams from his eye.
Now he looks,
now turns -- and to me!
Awake, thou explorer of heaven!
Awake, thou sender of Winter's rain!
The spouse, Ma'u of Winter, is night.
The time of arising is come!
Kauhi does indeed wake up, but he loses motivation and becomes a new rock. Kauhi can be seen today on a precipitous hiking trail that is named after him. Some call him 'the crouching lion', perhaps showing Mo'o's shape-changing qualities.
Illumination:
The time of forgetting is over, the time of remembering is here. The long belly of Mo'o helps us reconnect our individual islands to earth - through feeling. Hi'iaka asked her ancestor to wake up and bring rain and moisture to the earth. Makali'i, the spouse of Ma'u, 'damp', is the sender of Winter's rain. The Makahiki festival of storytelling, feasting, and lovemaking took place during the welcome cold winter months when the Pleiades were in sight.
Mo'o is the explorer of heaven. Attracting Mo'o means you have an association with the Pleiades, which, themselves, need to be reunited. According to Tahitian mo'o, or 'legend', the Pleiades were originally one star so brilliant that it made Tane (Kane) angry. He chased Makali'i, who fled to the other side of a stream. Sirius drained the waters, Tane flung the star Aldebaran and broke Matariki (Makali'i) into six little pieces.
We reconnect by remembering our mythology and awakening our emotions, for we need to see with moist eyes. Having deep feeling for the past in the lesson of Mo'o, as is awakening to the truth of our current state. That is the way to reunite the islands through our sacred journey.
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You would think I would reflect on this message throughout the day, right?
I did not.
So Heaven 'sent' me a reminder--Charlie. As I worked in the garden, and I came in the house, who was on the screen of the sliding glass door but a big, fat, lizard! In Hawaii, all lizards that get in the house are named 'Charlie' according to a nurse friend of mine that grew up on the island of Oahu. You can call them that too--Charlie--any time you find them in your house on mainland too!
My house is backwards on the screen and the sliding glass door. Closing the glass would have locked poor Charlie in because the screen is on the inside! So I tapped on the screen talking to him, gently trying to get Charlie to move. He would not budge. Any harder a tap and it would have been a big fall for him because he was right at my eye level. I quickly got a small plastic bin, scooped him in it, and let him go.
Somehow I remembered to go 'take a date in the sunshine with turtle' after that. I still did not make the connection. When I was done lying on my belly in on the Mexican blanket, and also on my back, the turtle seemed 'done' with the whole sunlight thing. So I went back into the house.
After I played Clair de Lune a few times, there was a ring of the doorbell. It was time for our son to come back. Nine times out of ten this child is hungry, cranky, and exhausted. I politely asked to finish my piece on the piano as the boy listened. It was difficult to play for he was face down on the couch and acting very much like Lilo in Lilo and Stitch. But I did it.
Then came the questions. Are you hungry? No. Are you sleepy? No. Can I get you anything? No.
Out came a tirade about how I never take him to Disneyland or anything!
Shocked, I politely but firmly said, 'Your weekend with your father is his time for coming up for plans for fun with you. When you come back it is not my time to think of these things. It is time to get ready for our week.' What was it that happened with your father to upset you this time?
His father had promised to show him how to do something all weekend, but didn't and iced his injured knee the whole time instead of paying attention to his son. I am sure 'paying attention' is 'different' in the father, and the son who only sees him according to the custody, and has 'father hunger' like most children who are raised in two homes. I asked again about breakfast, when it was, and how much he ate. Mind you, at school this boy eats at eleven forty-five daily, but his father who is on the 'late' clock, gives him breakfast at ten and nothing else until he drops him off with me at two.
Sure enough, he had last eaten 'hours ago', and his blood sugar was low. I made strawberry-banana-mango smoothie ('this is good, mom!)', warmed up the other half of the breakfast burrito, and gave lots of fresh organic strawberries. (I think his micronutrients were depleted). He perked up.
I had been deep watering in the back yard, and had a ton of laundry to fold. We went downstairs. He wanted to squirt the hose in the atrium to clean the floor (I never do this. My grandfather Nannu, who is reincarnated as my boy, did this all the time. Nannu and my son also both like peaches, make the same noises to joke and get attention, walk the same walk to get jokes, and are very good with people. Both are also the same build and are meant to be over six feet.). I said, 'I will sweep the leaves up for you first'. As I swept, out came a lizard.
What happened next amazed me. It is a powerful example of the teaching power of the child: he picked the lizard up.
I never had learned how to pick up a lizard. Always was afraid of the bite. I love lizards. But not their bite. My father always picked them up for me. As he gently extracted the lizard from its hiding place, I showed him how a lizard likes to be held. Since we already had a Charlie, I named this one Edgar, for Edgar Cayce. He looked like an Edgar.
My son let me hold Edgar. I was delighted! I kissed Edgar and he opened his mouth after I gave the kiss, and looked at me like he was going to kiss me back when he had the chance. Edgar was beautiful, with a jewel-like eye, gorgeous dark green and brown patterning on his back. And as I tickled his chin I saw a flash of brilliant blue! As I talked to him I realized maybe I need a new baby or something, because I was making a big fuss and Edgar was enjoying it very much. He is such a good lizard! So special and precious! I was sounding like a mom again...and the boy was laughing and saying, 'It feels good to be back home! I am always happier here when I am with you.' Then he asked if we could keep him in a cage in the house?
I would not let us keep him as a pet, despite the boy's insistence. All lizards I have ever kept from the wild died in a few days. I did give Edgar back to him to hold for as long as he likes. So as I planted strawberries in the back, Edgar had the ride of his life! Boys don't hold still. Ever. And hands holding lizards move around a lot too. 'Don't move him like that!' I exclaimed, 'He is going to throw up! Have you ever seen a lizard throw up? You will get lots of old bugs on you.'
We laughed at the thought of a lizard throwing up.
Some time later, it was time to let Edgar go. We noticed two streaks of the same brilliant blue on his belly. He looked funny clinging to a tall geranium stem. We decided to feed him a worm, and picked him back up. I went to the compost, and dug out a nice fat worm for him. Edgar didn't eat. He got smart. Once he figured out where the worms were at, he jumped right into the garden where I found the worm!
You would have thought I would have made the connection between Charlie, Edgar, and Mo'o by now. I didn't. Not until waking up. Sometimes Spirit takes a while to 'filter in' and get the message. As always, the message is fun and very gentle.
Mo'o.
Be sure to get some time in the sunshine for yourself today, and think of Mo'o.
Namaste,
Reiki Doc
(Material is in The Hawaiian Oracle, Animal Spirit Guides from the Land of Light, by Rima A Morrell, Phd. I highly recommend these cards.)
