To Pele, with deep apologies: Rocks sent back to Hawaii to placate goddess
 |
|
||||||||||
VOLCANO, Hawaii - Timothy Murray had a comfortable life: a college education, good jobs, fulfilling relationships. "I've always had real good luck," he says.
That was before he crossed paths with Pele.
Murray's luck went south in 1997 after he went to Hawaii to accept a job. When the job fell through, Murray consoled himself with a trip to the Big Island and Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. Entranced by the island's black-sand beaches, Murray did what tourists often do. He took home a memento, scooping up the sand in a pop bottle.
When he returned home to Port St. Lucie, Fla., Murray's good fortune had fled. His beloved pet died. The five-year relationship with the woman he was to marry fell apart. He began to drink heavily. Finally, FBI agents, who said they had been tracking him from Hawaii, arrested him in a computer copyright-infringement case.
"My life literally fell apart," Murray, 32, said of the three years after he took the sand. "One minute you're working and you're law-abiding and you've got money in the bank. The next minute you are sitting in a federal penitentiary in Miami. I couldn't figure out what was happening or why. Even the FBI agents said they never arrest people for what I did."
They told him he must have really angered someone. "After some research, I figured out who it was," he said.
Murray blames Pele.
According to the beliefs of some Hawaiians, Pele is the volcano goddess who punishes people who dare take something that belongs to her. Each year, thousands of visitors pass through Volcanoes National Park, and each year a little of the park goes home with them. And, after months or years of hard luck, many tourists send back the purloined rocks, sand and shells to park headquarters or the local post office.
"Please take this sand and put it back somewhere on your island," Murray wrote in his letter. "I have had very bad luck since it came into my life and I am very sorry I took it. Please forgive me and I pray that once I send it back where it comes from, my bad luck will go away."
Thousands of pounds of such mail, often addressed to "Queen Pele," arrive here every year. The packages come from around the world, often filled with reports of misfortune and calamity. The correspondents plead for the offending item to be returned to Pele, so the "curse" will be lifted and they can have their lives back.
Dave Kell, postmaster at Hawaii Volcanoes National Park station, opens Pele's mail.
"I'm not a believer," said Kell, pulling out a box filled with recent Pele-pacifying letters. Another box contains plastic sandwich bags leaking small stones, black sand in a plastic margarine tub, shells, rocks of all sizes, a red clay Mayan figure. Much of what is sent is not even from Hawaii, Kell said.
"People need something to blame their troubles on," he said, shrugging. "They bring this stuff on themselves."
Kell's office is inundated, and it has been going on for years. Every three months or so, he takes a load to the park and dumps it. At another local post office, the less-skeptical staff makes a weekly pilgrimage to the sea. As staff members toss the stones into the water at sunset, the workers like to toast Pele with a cold beer.
Many native Hawaiians do not take Pele lightly, nor does the National Park Service, which allows locals access to park sites for religious observances.
Pele practitioners leave flower leis, food wrapped in "ti" leaves and other offerings on the edge of volcanoes as a sign of respect. Rangers seldom interfere with the visits, which often include special hula dances and chanting.
The island of Hawaii is formed of volcanic rock, and living in harmony with all things natural - including rocks - is common sense to many people who were raised here.
"We believe that every rock has 'mana,' or power," said Piilani Kaawaloa, who grew up nearby and serves as a cultural interpreter at the park.
"We believe that every rock has its function and a name and a place it should be. Some are for building and some are for cooking. There are rocks that if you take them down by the water, they will attract fish."
Standing on a small rise overlooking a distant smoking crater, park ranger Terry Reveira noted that it is against the law to remove plants or minerals from a national park.
"As Hawaiians, we have been raised that when you are in nature, you ask permission to take something," she said. "That's true for rocks, too. I've seen people take rocks from the park and I know the rocks don't want to go. On the way back to the car, the people keep dropping the rocks on their feet."
Watching tourists cram cigarettes into a steam vent near the Mauna Loa crater, Kaawaloa shakes her head. "As far as Pele, you don't have to believe it, but know the consequences of your actions will speak more loudly than the warnings," she said.