“While the outrigger Hokole’a was created from fragments of sacred trees, logs, boards, custom fabric for sails, hawsers, ropes, Home is wherever she is made welcome, whichever port her crew succeeds in reaching throughout the voyage.
Bringing with them fresh supplies (gathered/donated at each port-of-call) to last them two weeks, the multi-aged crew will have to catch their own fish & other food en route. Little deviation from this routine allows them to eat fresh fruit & veg indigenous to each island on their journey circling the Pacific.
In addition to 150 indigenous islands, they will visit Japan,Taiwan, Indonesia, S.Korea,Vietnam, Guam, Burma, Borneo, Marshall Is., before return to Hawai’i.
Ocean Consciousness Teaches Environmental Awareness & Evidence of Change
A mid-16thC European, by the name of Ferdinand Magellan would enter the Pacific and the Pacific embraced him, with relatively calm weather, and so he would call it ‘Pacific’ because it was relatively peaceful. The Ocean was gentle.
“Trust me, says Master Navigator Nainoa Thompson, the Pacific is far from gentle. So we call it by another name—one from our ancestors-thousands of years old. It is Moana Kia the Great—the Ocean of the Great expanse. We embrace both names.”
Thompson an his crew of combined new recruits and old-timers will begin their arduous journey in June, after their beloved canoe is shipped to its starting port in Alaska. Then, over the next 42 weeks she will circumnavigate the Pacific, visiting 36 countries and archipelagos, 150 indigenous islands.
“If you look at a nautical map of the Earth, it is divided into political territories & exclusive economic sub-divisions, marked by lines, international borders and boundaries. The Ocean has no lines. It covers one-third of the Earth’s surface and it’s all water. That’s what we want to protect, not just for environmental reasons, but for the sake of our children and grandchildren. It’s our responsibility.”*
Thompson says he wants to sail as little as possible, to allow the crew-the younger generation-to handle the legwork in order to develop an environmental awareness of the importance of life-giving water first-hand.
“Forty-seven years ago Pianu was launched & she and her crew of 17 would pull Tahiti out of the Sea, rescue those islanders in distress.
“It’s easy to look backwards, to what has been. What we’re about today is ‘What will we look for in the next 50 years?’ Hawai’i today is part of a global civilization, a financial/media driven world where we’re uncertain whether the future is good enough for our children. What’s its Kuleana?*
*Kuleana = Hawai’ian responsibility, which comes from privilege
Thompson says where they’re going there are no lines. There are no economic sub-divisions. “It’s a myth—It’s only one ocean and we are all one people on this island-the Earth.”
Inspired by Space flight Astronauts to see Earth as Single Island
One of Capt. Thompson’s gurus was space voyager Lt. Colonel Lacy Beach who compared the sailing in the Pacific to seeing Earth from Space. In the early 1990s, he summoned Thompson to his home when he was dying to share a few thoughts with his (then) pupil.
“I can go in the craft and it can fly me out of the atmosphere into Space, so I can turn around and look down at the whole Earth because what we need to figure is how to protect this Earth – our only home.
Thompson listened.
“He was a great navigator and a great teacher. He told me ‘we can’t protect what we don’t understand’.” We need to understand the systems. And we can’t do that if we don’t care. He made me keep three promises that he couldn’t. He said: you can’t do this alone.”
“He said ‘pay attention to the new language—’Climate change. Sustainability. Hypoxia, dead zones; acidification – a lot of words we don’t know because we weren’t taught. Sail round the world, touch it; feel each place. It’s the only way you can be part of it.’
“And the last promise he made me make was to build a school for the Earth by the Earth.”
Starting from Alaska in June 2023, canoe Hokole’a’s journey—Moana Nui Akea—Great voyage for Earth of Thompson and his crew will visit 36 countries and archipelagos and at least 150 indigenous territories. As President of the Polynesian Voyaging Society, Nainoa Thompson affirms: “It’s our responsibility to connect, explore, discover.”
He admits he is already grateful for the reception he knows he and his crew will receive at each port of call. Indigenous people are always welcoming, friendly, as they understand the enormity & rigours of an ocean voyage, especially by canoe.
Thompson says the only way for the future is to build schools where the younger generation can be inspired to be part of the Earth by learning to experience her waters first-hand.
1762-85 Industrial Revolution-250yrLoom/Weaving ‘Progress’ can be Reversed
A British entrepreneur Edmund Cartwright between 1762-85 changed history by replacing hand-woven fabric, weaving looms and tapestry work by men and women (+many children) & introducing first machines capable of spinning yarn into cloth, thus creating the Industrial Revolution which has lasted so long that nobody remembers any other way.
Thompson is convinced this adaptation of human ingenuity can be reversed, but only with a change in the way our children & grandchildren are taught.
University of Hawai’i @Hilo Agrees to Change Curriculum to Offer Navigation
University CEO Dr. David Lassner of the University of Hawai’i at Hilo (Big Island, HI) has volunteered to add navigation skills and teaching Ocean canoeing to the curriculum, starting this autumn. Many Hawai’ian youngsters already have a taste for canoe group learning and have taken part in (small) canoe races at elementary level. By making ocean navigation & observation part of their degree, or even as an adjunct to sports lessons, Dr. Lassner hopes to create/inspire the next generation of navigators and provide them with the tools for a lifetime of sharing their beloved Ocean with others.
He hosted a recent press conference offered by CBS-Hawai’i to broadcast Capt. Thompson’s voyage starting June this year; and, along with others in the media with a love of ocean-going & support for Hawai’ians’ sharing/caring attitude to the importance of the Seas for the future of a healthy planet
University CEO Lassner agrees with PVS Navigator President Thompson that there are two paths. The first path is to stick to this path—the one that leads nowhere except to extinction —Science agrees and presents conclusive evidence. The second path is to change the path to one of caring and loving our island Earth. Love, he agrees with his colleague, is not an option.
“It is a way of life for Hawai’ians. We are all part of the same Ohana—one large family”
Many indigenous islanders throughout Polynesia have a similar ‘Aloha’ (loving/welcoming) attitude to their own Pacific home. And equally want to share the love with others—native & newcomers alike.
Hokulea will be in Polynesia from March to December 2024 and then make its way to New Zealand, Melanesia, and the West Pacific. With a voyage of 43,000 miles and visits to 345 ports in the bag, it will start the homeward journey.
The voyage will end in Japan, at which point the Hokule’a will be shipped back to Los Angeles and then sailed home to Hawaii.
Ancestral Navigation by the Stars: Nature Prevails, Removes Fear of Unknown
Both Lassner and Thompson have had to face inevitable “modern thinkers’ fear”; constantly being asked “Well what if…” citing a list of ailments or possible world cataclysms which might endanger the voyage. These always include World War III, death by shark-bite, nuclear weapons testing on nearby islands, another pandemic, influenza on board, running out of food. The list is endless—and representative of modern society’s attitude to any new enterprise. Fear first; trust later.
All Polynesian islanders and neighbouring seafaring countries like Japan, S.Korea and Taiwan have an intimate relationship with the ocean on their doorstep—remarkably similar to Out-Islanders of the Bahamas; Jamaica & Trinidad in the Caribbean, parts of Mexico & Guatemala in Central America, and Scotland’s Outer Hebrides, Skye and Shetland. They are the first to admit that they couldn’t live without its constantly changing temperament; that it affects their lives more than some care to admit, while watching news on TV, reading a newspaper (if they can obtain one) or going to the supermarket on a shopping spree.
Not All Doom & Gloom:Some European Countries take Responsibility for Future
After shock waves from WWII subsided in early ‘sixties, certain nations—like Germany and Japan made strong anti-war alliances, joined United Nations, promoted Peace Corps or local equivalent to make amends. Even now U.S. president Biden seems unable to unthink his war mentality, and continues to send military aid in $$millions to Ukraine on pretext of ‘helping’ them defend tank manoeuvres by Russians. The White House continues to foster fear in younger generation as an excuse for not channeling similar funds to help his own poor and needy—recent hurricane & tornado victims in disastrous Deep South. He seems unaware that Russian tank force is a seriously outdated repurposed squad of ex-WWII disused equipment which even Ukrainians laugh off. They accept U.S. aid nonetheless. Who wouldn’t?
French Frigate Shoals, above, is part of group of outlying islands in the Hawai’ian island chain (NWHI). Formed by remnant atolls around a submerged (extinct) volcano, the reef system associated with French Frigate Shoals supports the greatest variety of coral species in NWHI with forty one species of stony corals documented.
A steep-sided basalt pinnacle juts out of the water in the middle of the atoll. This is the last remnant of the original prehistoric volcano. The pinnacle was named “La Pérouse Pinnacle” after Compte de la Pérouse, who visited the atoll in 1786. In the moonlight the pinnacle so resembled a full-rigged sailing ship that it lured more than one vessel to her doom on the Shoals.
While there is still a U.S. military presence in the form of a runway atop immediate neighbor Tern Island, (formerly used as a refuelling stop en route to Midway Island, see top far right 1942 Pacific Nuclear bomb dropped by Enola Gay), the Shoals are an international refuge for Pacific Green Turtle, who lay their eggs in exposed dug-outs, above rt. while sun-basking, fishing, or travelling to mainland Hawai’i, but are devoted parents who return once the offspring hatch. The string of islets also provide refuge for the largest sub-population of endangered Hawai’ian monk seals and preservation of this atoll is critical to their survival.
Local temperatures never fall much below 79ºF in the islands, and so Hawai’ian Pacific activity continues at a frantic level, year-round. Meanwhile, there are many heroic deeds happening on shores of the ‘other’ Ocean, where temperatures are still slow to rise.
Holland aka Netherlands, severely strapped by Nazi domination in WWII, has blossomed in peace-time and is now second-largest #sustainable world nation to grow and export (organic) food. Their tulip fields are legendary; but so now are their organic farms, fed & powered by near-90% solar & wind-power energy, with distribution capability second to none-a Euro-bloc icon of sustainability.
Another-tiny-country known for sustainability is Morocco. 100% oil-dependent at the turn of the Century, now 23 years later 43% alternative.
Back in the Pacific, coastal Costa Rica is recovering from its previous bad habits.
The Central American nation had cut down over half of its forests last century. Now, with reforestation grants, and a lot of encouragement, they have restored over half the country’s trees. And their youngsters are enthused, involved in the new jungle.
Japan—while paying attention to its global impact on other nations after changing from a warlike nation to a peaceful one, is now known for slowing everything down in its overpopulated country. Whilst continuing to welcome newcomers who want to learn its ancient customs, traffic lanes have been diverted, pedestrians given right of way. Large slowing-down water boat and candlelight festivals are promoted. And all done with grace—with respect for their elders who kept traditions going, but emphasis on showing the young how to emulate such gentle cultural elegance in dress, tradition, food and other ceremonies. Japanese kimono & other costumes, tea ceremony, porcelain kiln & outdoor firing have been raised to a new level to allow the young to appreciate thousands of years of tradition. It goes without saying that Sumo Wrestling continues to play a big part in cultural exchange.
Quietly, when nobody was looking, the Pacific Diesel Company in Maui, HI began growing sunflowers on its 200-acre farm in 1998. Now, 25 years later it has opened fuel stations dockside in Honolulu and Maui to provide processed biodiesel for motorboats, biodiesel-capable cars. It recycles used oil from various outlets.
A separate purification system manufactures cooking oil for local restaurants. Mainland support was quick to fund the enterprise, as PDC, Hawai’i was first of its kind in the United States.
The company will feature in Earth Day celebrations April 22, 2023 throughout the Hawai’ian islands.
With a Little Help from His Friends…
We all extend our sincerest good wishes Bon Voyage/ Gute Reise & indigenous blessings to Navigator Thompson and crew. May fishing be abundant on lean days; and local pineapples, guava, coconut fruit & veg sustain them throughout their mammoth four-year pilgrimage. What a team!
Galactic Cross or Maya Sacred Tree, the point where the Milky Way meets the Ecliptic
The ecliptic is the path travelled by the sun, moon, and planets through the sky.
Twelve constellations lie along the ecliptic, their symbols used by generations of world civilizations, both as night-time guidance by sextant and, in astrology, to predict character traits and the future.
In both astronomical and astrological terminology, the sun passes through all twelve constellations or zodiac signs on the ecliptic during the course of one year. The path of the ecliptic can be seen to cross over the Milky Way at a 60 degree angle near the constellation Sagittarius. Where this happens, it forms a cross with the Milky Way, and this cosmic cross – also known as the ‘crossroads’ – was called the Sacred Tree by the ancient Maya.
It has names in other cultures, too: most famous among them is that of the Norse, where it was called the World Tree, or Yggdrasil.
The Milky Way with its Dark Rift seen at a 60º angle to the Earth
In Britain, with almost no summer night sky to speak of, The Milky Way is usually thought of as a winter night sky spectacle. From our perspective on Earth it is the wide highway of stars arching through the sky, especially clear in northern winter. In the cloudless skies of ancient Mesoamerica, however, it could be seen after dark at almost any time of year, because tropical dusk happens quickly and almost invariably year-round at 6p.m.. So the Milky Way was (and is) a phenomenon of wonder to behold in Mexico and Central America. There this spectacular freeway of stars interspersed with blotchy areas of starless clouds can be seen along the entire length of the Milky Way. These ‘dark cloud’ formations are caused by interstellar dust. The most prominent of these is in astronomy called the ‘dark-rift’ or ‘Great Cleft’ of the Milky Way. It looks like a dark road running through the galaxy, pointing towards the centre or cosmic crossing point where the ecliptic bisects the Milky Way, near the constellation Sagittarius, or, according to the Maya, the fulcrum of the Maya Sacred Tree.
The center of this cosmic cross, at a point where the ecliptic crosses the Milky Way, is coincidentally the precise centre of our Galaxy, a nebulous area of the Universe where stars are born and our own cosmic womb, from which we, as stardust emerged. This Galactic centre is exactly where the December solstitial sun will stand at noon on December 21st, 2012. This alignment occurs only once every 25,800 years.
The Maya called this dark-rift the Black Road, or the Road to the Underworld. They seem to have imagined it as a portal to another world, and their prediction that the December solstice sun would re-enter its ‘birth canal’ in 2012 now appears to be fairly accurate. This special time, in Maya numbers, occurs at the end of one Great Cycle or 13 baktuns: the date 13.0.0.0, from an origin in 3114 B.C. Each baktun numbers 144,000 days and 13 baktuns equals 1,872,000 days since the beginning of Creation.
Oldest civilizations like Assyrian, Persian, Egyptian and Greek culture all saw the movement of the stars within a context of time, rather than space. This is a direct connection to ancient knowledge of the movement of the stars along the band of the ecliptic in a contrary direction to that of the zodiac. The earth was seen as laid through the ecliptic passing through the celestial equator at an angle of 23.5º which divided the zodiac into two halves: the ‘dry land’ northern half of the zodiac reaching from vernal to autumnal equinox; the other half representing the ‘waters below’ the equinoctial plane, or the southern arc of the zodiac stretching from autumn equinox, via the winter solstice, to vernal equinox. These mythological concepts dealt with Man’s measure of time, rather than quantifiable space.
And over time ancient wisdom noticed that the equinoctial points, as well as the solstices, appear to move backwards through the constellations every 2,200 years, thus marking a phenomenon called the Precession of the Equinoxes. In Classical mythology, this movement of the heavens was thought to be the cause for the rise and fall of civilizations and Ages of Man. Each Age was named for an astrological sign and a time when in astronomical terms a particular constellation in the heavens appeared to rise at dawn on equinox.
So as precession made its inexorable journey through time and the heavens, Man and civilization generally moved from the Age of Taurus (the Judaic era of the Golden Calf) through Aries (which Moses heralded on descent from Mount Sinai as ‘two-horned’) or the start of the new Age of the Ram; into Pisces, the Age of Christianity whose symbol was the fish; and now, from February 14th this year, the dawning of the Age of Aquarius.
The Ouroboros or cosmic serpent eating its own tail
The Greeks saw the Milky Way as the Ouroborus or Serpent of Light residing in the heavens and, when viewed at Galactic Central point near Sagittarius, this serpent appears to eat its own tail.
Crop circle July 2008 depicting serpent eating its own tail
A crop circle which appeared on July 27, 2008 gave an earthly rendition of the Ouroborus, seen by both classical and Mayan scholars as symbolic of the winter solstice date of 2012 when the sun will appear to rise out of the mouth of the Ouroborus or the dark rift at the centre of the galaxy where the World Tree, the Sacred Tree of the Maya, the Sanskrit Sampo and the Norse Yggdrasil all meet.
While Mythology has stood the test of time in many world cultures, it may be a surprise to learn that science has also discovered a new twist to the old tale/tail.
For generations our acceptance that we are part of the Milky Way galaxy was unquestioned; yet this pathway in the heavens appears to rise from our earthly horizon at a 60º slant: odd if we are one sun within its great spiral of stars. It now emerges that the Solar System belongs to another galaxy which is currently colliding with the Milky Way.
This fact was discovered when astrophysicists recently pursued investigations into the existence of ‘dark matter’ to account for fluctuations in energy which are measurable but invisible. By using infrared wavelengths of light below eye and optical telescope visibility, they detected the presence of a huge sister galaxy circling the Milky Way and colliding with it at – you guessed it – its point of centre near Sagittarius. It’s called the Sagittarius Dwarf Galaxy, or SGR. And its collision may be the source of a huge gravitational pull which influences the 11-year solar coronal mass or sunspot cycle.
So, we really are stardust, colliding with our nearest neighbour, returning to the stars from which we came. And world mythology from our greatest civilizations, like crop circle designs from the cosmic consciousness, were trying to tell us this all along.
View from the Stars: whichever way you look at it, we are present in Sidereal time, Space is our growth medium, and stardust and water our constituent particles. When electromagnetically charged, our solar-powered circuitry is capable of Creating Anything We Choose.
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