Karen Hunter Watson
Trail of Dreams World Peace Walker

Since I’ve been in Hawaii I have seen many things and experienced many occurrences. One of the ones that stayed in my memory was of being in the steam vents. As we traveled to the top of Mama Pele, the volcano I sensed a feeling of being in the depth of the mother’s womb. It was very dark and quiet with the ocean far to the side and the lava flow far in the distance.          

Greeting Mama Pele in that way was as surreal as anything I have ever done. It reminded me of the birth of creation. So by the time we went to the steam vents I thought I knew what connecting with the Mother was but there was nothing to prepare me for her breathing. Her breath reminded me of when a woman is laboring for breath just before she gives birth and the breath she takes as she waits to give labor.

Mother Pele was in her relaxed stage and I could feel her breath the very heat of creation. I could feel the very heartbeat of our mother as I felt the steam of her breath.   With every breath she took I could feel her love. Knowing that as she breathed and the lave flowed it was creating new land mass. When I heard that Hawaii was one of the youngest land masses on the planet it was amazing to think that every time Pele breathed and her blood flowed that new land was being formed. The volcano rock what was formed looks just like coal. I can imagine it could be connected to the coal in inner earth. It is absolutely amazing what visiting Pele did for me. As I sat in the vents I could feel her hot breath panting and sometimes slowly breathing bringing new life on the earth. Thank you Mommy Pele for your beautiful contribution to our world.
                                                     
                                                  The Importance of Ceremony

When people come together in ceremony there is always a variance of feelings that come forward. There is much that is given and much that is received. I have received so much through the Agnihotra ceremony. Agnihotra is an ancient ceremony that was presented to us at the beginning of our walk. We were in Tuskegee, AL and Sri Charles gave us an Agnihotra Pyramid and explained to us what the ceremony meant. We learned that this was a ceremony that has been experienced in many ancient indigenous cultures all around the world. You take cow dung that has been dried, clarified butter (ghee), and organic brown rice. You burn the dung with the ghee and you add the brown rice as you do a Mantra. This particular mantra is from the East Indian tradition and is as old as the first people of the earth.

Many of our ancestors used this process for years. When the process is done and the smoke descends it covers at least a 3 mile radius and it cleanses the air of all pollution. It has been discovered that this process brings protection against radiation and is very helpful in plant life. In the Amazon they used this process. The vegetation in the  rain forest was on a steady decline, after the Agnihotra ceremony was done on a regular basis for several months they saw a remarkable change in the plant life. Things began to grow again. The ash that comes from the burning process can be used for medicinal purposes as well. We used it when we went to New Orleans after the Tsunami. We sprayed the ash water on our clothes in order to protect us from any contaminating germs that may have been as a result of the storm.  

We did this ceremony twice a day honoring our sun and moon. It helped me to recognize how very important our sun and moon are to our planet. Without our sun in the daytime we would have no heat to keep us warm and nothing would grow, and with out the moon at night we would have no light in the sky. I recognized the significances in our ancestors recognizing that the sun brought sun light to help with the growing of their food and when the moon came out they had light to see by. I am sure that we can contribute much more to the sun and the moon but all I want to say at this time is that I am very grateful to recognize their importance.

When we do the ceremony we do it in recognition of them and I say thank you Creator for your wisdom to know that they are so necessary in our existence. I used to think that such a ceremony was like worshipping the sun and moon but after much study of Indigenous culture and ceremony I recognize that nature is most of what our ancestors had and they showed their gratitude for our sun, moon, rain, wind, fire, and our mother earth. I realize from my own experiences that there is only thanksgiving for knowing that our Creator has enough foresight to know that they were needed to help with our everyday development. Thank you Grandfather Sun and Grandmother moon for your Presence.

Ceremony has also given me a sense of discipline because we have to get up every morning at sunrise and every evening at sunset to do ceremony. And if we are not at a place where we can do ceremony we recognize the time by saying our chant. Discipline is very important on this journey. We must be able to participate consistently in an activity that keeps us focused on our journey. We have ceremony early in the morning followed by our dream circle where we discuss our dreams and any concerns we may have that we need to talk about, after which we have prayer and this is the  start of our day, uplifted and encouraged.

While we were in Waianae, Hawaii we stayed the first week at Won Buddhist Temple and during that time one of our dear friends made her transition. We asked Reverend Park if he would like to participate in the ceremony we were going to do for Reverend Pat. He said yes and if he could he would like to do a ceremony from his culture, which is Won Buddhism we agreed and as a result of this ceremony we did a service every morning for seven days in honor of Rev. Pat.

  Reverend Park did a ceremony every morning at 5:00am for the veterans that lost their life at Pearl Harbor that was hear in Hawaii and he added her name to this list. We got up every morning at 4:30 and were in the service at 5:00 am and stayed in service for one and a half hours and then we did the Agnihotra ceremony which totally submerged us in ceremony and discipline. I really admired Reverend Parks discipline he has been doing this ceremony since 2003and that takes dedication. We only did it for seven days and because of it we learned about the Korean religion of Won Buddhism.

  Reverend Park opened up the temple to us and it was the first time a non Korean person had ever stayed in the temple we felt honored.   His assistant Julio was partially responsible for helping Rev. Park. to see the importance of opening the temple to the community as a result of this we were able to stay there. They have a service on Sunday that is open to the public where we learned a little more about Won Budhism.

 The main reason we were able to come to Waianae is because our new friend Sylvia (Hawk Devi) Brown who had a knowing that the Trail of Dreams Team should come to Waianae so she talked to Julio and here we are. Thanks Sylvia, Al, Topaz, Turquoise, and Jasmine. Thanks Julio and Reverend Park and the Won Buddhist family thank you for making our stay in Hawaii a most memorable experience and my life is richer because of it. All of you have shown us what Aloha really means.

                                                                                                                    Mahalo