Pele is a Polynesian Goddess “born” on Tahiti (or Bora Bora), one of the daughters of Kanehoalani, a Fertility Goddess, and Haumea, the Sky God. In lore, she is not only the Goddess of Fire, but is the very embodiment of the element of Fire itself. The origin legends state that her uncle taught her to tend and keep the fires. In some stories, she was careless with them and had to leave because of it and in others, she seduced her sister’s husband and the ensuing fight resulted in her fleeing for safety, finally finding it on Hawaii Island.
There is a lot of contention on exactly who the “original” siblings of Pele were. Some accounts include six children, another claims five brothers and eight sisters, some as many as thirteen of each sex. A combined list of three of the researchers can be found for free online, with the original scans of Martha Beckwith’s Hawaiian Mythology. For those interested, information can be found in the References section.
There are some references showing that Madame Pele is an “‘aumakua”, which is a deified ancestral spirit or guardian spirit that can be called upon for assistance. This is an overloaded term that encompasses not only literal ancestral (family) spirits, but also the Gods and Goddesses. Part of the reason for this is that the mythology claims that humans descend from these Deities, thus they are considered Family. Other texts, usually written by non-Hawaiians, have also included the land spirits in this category. In this text, the terms “land spirits” will be used for non-Deity ‘aumakua use. Land spirit will also be used for other types of natural spirits, such as air, earth, and water nature spirits, for simplicity. There are obligations that the family has to their ‘Aumakua, which are similar to honoring and offerings of other cultures. This paragraph mimics another argument, which is that she isn’t technically a Goddess, because there were only a few Gods and Goddesses, which means in their definition that she is a lesser Goddess at best. To me, she is a Goddess and will be referred to as such in this text.
What is clear to anyone that calls upon Madame Pele that she commands respect. From the lore, it is evident that she has not won all of her battles and was supposed to be the cause of the most prominent of them – her fleeing to the Hawaiian islands after seducing her sister’s husband (to be fair, some documents suggested this runs in the family).
Adherents of Pele place her in a gray area on the spectrum. She’s seen as incredibly loving and loyal to those who have genuine affection, reverence towards her. They also acknowledge that the mythology shows she’s jealous, covetous, and temperamental. The app we were using to get additional history during our drives talked about some of these stories and I couldn’t help wondering how many of these sides I would see. The fire that warms can be the flame that burns.
