Pele the Volcano Goddess
When the center of the Earth swells red hot and roars to meet the sky and rivers of fire race down the mountain, the people cry in terror. Even the old ones who know the name of Volcano Woman bring Her presents of silk and tobacco with their knees trembling. At the edge of Her mouth, they set their gifts, and though Her steaming cry does not sound like She is grateful, more than once Her liquid fire has stopped at the edge of the village and the people and their animals are left alive.
Pele is the name of Volcano Woman, and no one really knows why She comes from the center of the Earth dressed in Her terrible beauty.
Some people say it is not really Pele that comes from the center, but Her children instead. Long ago, they say, when Pele was young, the center of the Earth glowed with Her loveliness. Her skin was black as coal and Her hair red as flames. Singing Her song that hissed like steam through a small opening, She was content for a million years to putter in Her house, stirring Her red pepper soup in Her huge iron pot. Sometimes She would sleep for a hundred years at a time, Her arms wrapped around Her brown and yellow snakes.
Then one day, Pele walked to the edge of the center and pushed Her hands upward. That was the day Pele met Ocean. For in pushing upward, Pele made a crack in the center, and through the crack came Ocean’s voice, deep and soft. “Pele, may I come in?” asked Ocean. Pele drew back. “I don’t know you,” She said. “Then let us meet here again and again and talk until we do know each other,” said Ocean.
That was how the conversations began. For a thousand years, Pele came to the crack and talked with Ocean. Some days Ocean didn’t answer Her call. But She could hear his voice boiling and dark in the distance. And some days Pele didn’t come at Ocean’s call. But every day they did talk, Pele‘s heart swelled with curiosity and wonder. For Ocean asked Her about Her soup and Her snakes. He asked Her what She dreamed when She slept. He asked Her about the shapes of Her rocks. Ocean told Her about his wet purple world. He told Her about the color green, and he told Her about the sky. One day, Pele whispered to Ocean that She loved him.
“Oh, my Pele,” said Ocean. “My wonderful friend,” said Ocean. “Will you let me come in now?”
Pele felt Her skin prickle. “Ocean, I am afraid,” She said. But She curled Her fingers into the edges of the crack and pulled. Her muscles rippled and the crack opened wide. Ocean fell into Her arms.
That was the beginning, the people say, of the marriage of Pele and Ocean. Some say it is when Pele is fighting with Her husband that the volcano bursts. Others say that lava is the offspring of Pele and Ocean. It is the fire of Pele that makes the lava red hot, and the water of Ocean that makes it flow like a mighty river.
But some of the old ones shake their heads. No one knows the Volcano Woman, they say—not even Ocean. The volcano explodes only when Pele comes up from the center to balance the great scale of life and death. The Volcano Woman is the Great Balancer, they say. But that is another story.
(Told by Carolyn McVickar Edwards)
