In the traditions of

ancient Hawaii Ancient Hawaii is the period of Hawaiian history preceding the unification in 1810 of the Kingdom of Hawaii by Kamehameha the Great. Traditionally, researchers estimated the first settlement of the Hawaiian islands as having occurred sporadicall ...

, Kanaloa is a

god In monotheism, monotheistic thought, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator deity, creator, and principal object of Faith#Religious views, faith.Richard Swinburne, Swinburne, R.G. "God" in Ted Honderich, Honderich, Ted. (ed)''The Ox ...

symbolized by the

squid True squid are molluscs with an elongated soft body, large eyes, eight arms, and two tentacles in the superorder Decapodiformes, though many other molluscs within the broader Neocoleoidea are also called squid despite not strictly fitting t ...

or by the

octopus An octopus ( : octopuses or octopodes, see below for variants) is a soft-bodied, eight- limbed mollusc of the order Octopoda (, ). The order consists of some 300 species and is grouped within the class Cephalopoda with squids, cuttle ...

, and is typically associated with

Kāne In Hawaiian mythology, Kāne is considered the highest of the three major Hawaiian deities, along with Kū and Lono. He represented the god of procreation and was worshipped as ancestor of chiefs and commoners. Kāne is the creator and gives ...

. It is also an alternative name for the island of

Kahoolawe Kahoolawe (Hawaiian: ), anglicized as Kahoolawe (), is the smallest of the eight main volcanic islands in the Hawaiian Islands. Kahoolawe is located about southwest of Maui and also southeast of Lānaʻi, and it is long by wide, with a total ...

. In legends and chants, Kāne and Kanaloa are portrayed as complementary powers. For example, whereas Kāne was called during the canoe building, Kanaloa was called while the canoe was being sailed. Likewise, Kāne governed the northern edge of the

ecliptic The ecliptic or ecliptic plane is the orbital plane of the Earth around the Sun. From the perspective of an observer on Earth, the Sun's movement around the celestial sphere over the course of a year traces out a path along the ecliptic again ...

while Kanaloa governed its southern edge, Kanaloa is "the subconscious to Kāne's conscious". In this way, they represent a divine duality of wild and taming forces similar to (by Georges Dumézil, et al.) in

Indo-European The Indo-European languages are a language family native to the overwhelming majority of Europe, the Iranian plateau, and the northern Indian subcontinent. Some European languages of this family, English, French, Portuguese, Russian, Dutc ...

chief god-pairs like

Odin Odin (; from non, Óðinn, ) is a widely revered Æsir, god in Germanic paganism. Norse mythology, the source of most surviving information about him, associates him with wisdom, healing, death, royalty, the gallows, knowledge, war, battle, v ...

–

Týr (; Old Norse: , ) is a god in Germanic mythology, a valorous and powerful member of the and patron of warriors and mythological heroes. In Norse mythology, which provides most of the surviving narratives about gods among the Germanic people ...

and Mitra–Varuna, or the more widely known ''

yin and yang Yin and yang ( and ) is a Chinese philosophy, Chinese philosophical concept that describes opposite but interconnected forces. In Chinese cosmology, the universe creates itself out of a primary chaos of material energy, organized into the c ...

'' of

Taoism Taoism (, ) or Daoism () refers to either a school of Philosophy, philosophical thought (道家; ''daojia'') or to a religion (道教; ''daojiao''), both of which share ideas and concepts of China, Chinese origin and emphasize living in harmo ...

. Kanaloa is also traditionally depicted as an ocean god, hence his association with

seamanship Seamanship is the art, knowledge and competence of operating a ship, boat or other craft on water. The'' Oxford Dictionary'' states that seamanship is "The skill, techniques, or practice of handling a ship or boat at sea." It involves topics a ...

, or cephalopods.Beckwith However, there are also interpretations that see Kanaloa as subordinate to Kāne. Kanaloa is also considered to be the god of the

Underworld The underworld, also known as the netherworld or hell, is the supernatural world of the dead in various religious traditions and myths, located below the world of the living. Chthonic is the technical adjective for things of the underwor ...

and a teacher of

magic Magic or Magick most commonly refers to: * Magic (supernatural), beliefs and actions employed to influence supernatural beings and forces * Ceremonial magic, encompasses a wide variety of rituals of magic * Magical thinking, the belief that unrela ...

. Legends state that he became the leader of the first group of spirits "spit out" by the gods. In time, he led them in a rebellion in which the spirits were defeated by the gods and as punishment were thrown in the Underworld. In traditional, pre-contact Hawaii, it was Milu who was the god of the Underworld and death, not Kanaloa; the related

Miru Miru may refer to: * Miru (goddess), a death goddess in Polynesian mythology * Miru, Iran, a village in Bandar Abbas County, Hormozgan Province, Iran * Miru River, a river of Romania *Miru, a character from the Pac-Man originally called ''Pu ...

traditions of other Polynesian cultures support this. The Eye of Kanaloa is an

esoteric Western esotericism, also known as esotericism, esoterism, and sometimes the Western mystery tradition, is a term scholars use to categorise a wide range of loosely related ideas and movements that developed within Western society. These ideas a ...

symbol associated with the god in

New Age New Age is a range of spiritual or religious practices and beliefs which rapidly grew in Western society during the early 1970s. Its highly eclectic and unsystematic structure makes a precise definition difficult. Although many scholars conside ...

Huna teaching, consisting of a seven-pointed star surrounded by concentric circles that are regularly divided by eight lines radiating from the inner-most circle to the outer-most circle. Huna, as a New Age religion developed in the 20th century by a Caucasian-American founder, bears no relation to the Native Hawaiian Religion. Native Hawaiians reject "Huna" as a mishmash of Hawaiian elements with European religious metaphysical ideas.

As a namesake

After Kanaloa, one

prince A prince is a male ruler (ranked below a king, grand prince, and grand duke) or a male member of a monarch's or former monarch's family. ''Prince'' is also a title of nobility (often highest), often hereditary, in some European states. Th ...

was named — he was a son of the Chief

Kanipahu Kanipahu was an ancient Hawaiian chief. He was of the Pili line. Kanipahu was a son of Chief Kaniuhu and Hiliamakani. After Kanipahu lived on Molokaʻi and it was discovered that he was a chief, he was taken (as husband) by Hualani, the rul ...

and one of his consorts, either

Hualani Hualani (''hua lani'' = "heavenly fruit") was a High Chiefess of Molokai in ancient Hawaii Ancient Hawaii is the period of Hawaiian history preceding the unification in 1810 of the Kingdom of Hawaii by Kamehameha the Great. Traditionally, res ...

or Alaʻikauakoko.

References

Sources

* * G. Dumezil, ''Mitra-Varuna'' (MIT Press: Cambridge, 1988). * P. Turner & C. R. Coulter, ''Dictionary of Ancient Deities'' (Oxford University Press: New York, 2001). * {{cite thesis , last1=Au , first1=Jane , title=He Hulikoʻa Kanaloa- Seeking the Depths of Kanaloa , date=December 2018 , hdl=10125/62774 , hdl-access=free

External links

Web's Kanaloa authority

The annual Aloha Kanaloa Cultural Festival in Hilo, Hawaii
Hawaiian gods Underworld gods Magic gods Hawaiian mythology Mythological cephalopods Animal gods

As a namesake

See also

References

Sources

External links