E Lono E: a chant to animate the waters of life

 A month before Pete and I did the final preparations to move ourselves and our vardo from Camp Bamboo to Ke Kuapa 'o Maxwelton Creek I enrolled in Oli Honua I a month-long online training in Hawaiian Life Ways from the vantage point of oli, vocalization, or chanting. 

My teacher is Kekuhi Kealiikanakaole, of Panaewa, in Hilo, Hawai'i, master kumu hula/teacher, and audacious communicator committed to using the technology available through the energy of internet to empower a universe of chanters with big aloha by embracing the Hawai'i Life Ways. 

"Hula & oli teaches that we are reflections of every big & little being in the world. If we dance, they dance. When we sing to them, they sing back.  And when we chant the vibrations of the cosmos, guess what?  They chant BACK!" - "About Hawai'i Life Ways"

E LONO E

One of the oli we were taught during the weeks of Oli Honua I is the chant E Lono E.  This is a prayer chant, and calls on the senses of awareness to be reinvigorated. It is a chant that calls specifically and in its many forms of potentialities on the waters -- internal and external elements of water -- to be re-inspirited. 

In the Hawaiian mind-set water (ka wai) and the life-giving water (ka wai ola) are named. "Lono, e Lonokulani, is the water of the highest summits in the sky. Kane, and his life giving source is known in elemental forms as light, air, moisture -- everything that makes life possible on Earth. Kanaloa is the water that is still trapped in the dikes or water not yet exposed to the air. 

The interconnectedness of our journey to make ourselves ready to come to this land, this 'aina and this place that is a water source -- a creek of value to this island -- required my enrollment in a training session that would remind me of my responsibilities; inform me of the vibrations and the vocalization that would come from my body out to the vibrations of this place. I needed to be held in community. Oli Honua I gave us that source of big aloha.

The oli is here:

E LONO E

This oli is one version of the Pele and Hi'iaka chants, one that describes Hi'iaka bringing life back into Pele's lover Lohi'au. Kekuhi made it clear to us in our training that this oli was not a 'magical new chant' that would bring one back to life after death, but rather, a chant that is about re-animating the wailua (the spirt) within us. That sense that may not be functioning as a whole with all other senses.

E Lono, E Lono, E Lono Kulani

E Lono noho i ka wai

O ho'oulu 'oe, o 'inana 'oe

Ho'inana ke ola

Ho'opuepue ana 'oe i ka wai

I ka wai, ka wai ola a Kane 

Ka wai ola a Kanaloa

I ka Hikina, i ke Komohana

I wai hua, i wai lani

'Ie holo e

Translation/Interpretation by Tangaro

To all sensate awareness, react, you, Lono of summits in the sky

To you who charge the waters with life

Inspire and animate

Revitalize life

Crouching, clutching the liquid treatment to your chest

The life source, the life source of Kane and Kanaloa 

The gods stationed at the corridors of life's cycle

Water caught on leaves, water falling from the sky,

Water for rites of purification

All said already is, the 'ie'ie is already established

Holistic wellness requires that all senses function harmoniously. Apathy of even one sense leads to only partial living. Water charged with energy is an ancient bio-energetic treatment for vivifying lethargy.

Our journey and stories that describe the life Pete and I experience has been one of migration -- moving from one place to another, in search of safety, in search of the missing elements that may, or may not, have been missing. Through the process of learning who this place is and what we can learn from this place-- not what this 'property' is and what we can take from this place. The missing elements may be the ones within us, individually and as a couple. 

The land is the elder and we aging humans are humbled by the ways we can be taught to listen and sense our place. And, to be fully sensate of the water, the water within and the waters of Honua (Earth Mother) and Lono, Kane, Kanaloa. Are they -- the waters within and without me -- in balance and in relationship?

With each oli I chant my way into alignment, and ask to be aligned with aloha. We have come to this land because our friend Hope called to us with the invitation to be with her. In the process we have opened ourselves to all that hope means as we replace the fear and stress of being rootless. Like oli, it takes practice. As Kekuhi and her husband say, 

"When you chant the vibrations of the cosmos, guess what? They chant BACK!" 

Aue. What a place to be! The echo of their song is amazing.

UPDATE: May 19, 2021 

If you are interested in a recording of me practicing the oli E LONO E please email me and I will send an audio file for you to listen to.

Email: mokihanacalizarATgmailDOTcom