Pele is the living goddess of volcanoes, fire, and the Hawaiian Islands themselves.

She is creator and destroyer, passionate and capricious, the embodiment of volcanic force that both devours and births land. To see Pele as a "fire goddess" is to miss the complexity of a deity who IS the islands, whose eruptions write the ongoing story of creation, whose journey from exile to sovereignty shows the path of becoming so undeniably yourself that you generate your own ground to stand on.

(Card on header image is from The Goddess Oracle)

The Volcano Goddess: Who is Pele?

Pele is one of the central figures in Hawaiian religion and remains actively worshipped today. She is present, powerful, and sacred to Native Hawaiians. Her home is Halemaʻumaʻu crater at the summit of Kīlauea volcano on Hawaiʻi Island, one of the most active volcanoes on Earth. Her influence extends across the entire archipelago that she created.

The word pele itself means "lava flow, volcano, eruption" in Hawaiian. She is inseparable from the geological forces she embodies.

Pele is revered today in temples and homes across Hawaiʻi and the global Hawaiian diaspora. For Native Hawaiians, she is both akua (deity) and, for those from Kaʻū, ʻaumakua (family guardian). Western concepts of "goddess" can flatten what Pele actually is: ancestor, family protector, the land itself given consciousness and form.

Approaching her requires deep respect for the Native Hawaiian people for whom she is living tradition, and for the knowledge that has survived despite centuries of colonisation and attempted erasure.

Pele's origins and genealogies vary across Hawaiian oral traditions, as is natural in a rich culture that can hold multiple truths simultaneously. She is most commonly known as a daughter of the primordial goddess Haumea (sometimes called Hina), herself descended from Papa (Earth Mother) and Wākea (Sky Father). Scholar Mary Kawena Pukui - whose own name included "Hiʻiaka-i-ka-poli-o-Pele" and whose family believed themselves descended from Pele - recorded that the goddess was born as a flame from Haumea's mouth.

Pele has numerous siblings, each embodying different natural forces: Nāmakaokahaʻi (ocean), Kamohoaliʻi (shark god and navigator), various forms of wind, rain, and clouds. Most beloved to her is Hiʻiakaikapoliopele - "Hiʻiaka in the bosom of Pele" - her youngest sister.

Pele's Journey: From Exile to Becoming the Foundation

Pele's journey to creating the Hawaiian Islands speaks of the geological past - it is a nature story - and also something else: the transformation from being unwanted to becoming irreplaceable, from seeking a place to becoming Place itself.

Pele was born in Kahiki (understood to be Tahiti), but conflict with her older sister Nāmakaokahaʻi - the sea goddess - forced her to leave. The stories vary: some say Pele's volatile temper caused the rift, others that she seduced her sister's husband. What remains consistent is that Pele was chased, rejected, exiled from her homeland.

She voyaged to the Hawaiian Islands with some of her siblings, including Kamohoaliʻi who steered their canoe. But the exile did not end with arrival. As Pele travelled from island to island - northwest to southeast through the chain - she tried again and again to create a home by digging into the earth. Each time, she encountered water. Each time, her fire was extinguished. Some stories say it was groundwater; others that it was Nāmakaokahaʻi herself, still pursuing her sister with oceanic rage.

Rejected. Flooded out. Forced to move on.

Until finally, at Kīlauea on Hawaiʻi Island, Pele dug deep enough. Her fire burned hot enough. She found - or made - the place where her volcanic nature could not be drowned, where her destruction became creation, where the very force that had made her unwanted became the foundation of new land.

Pele didn't find a home. She became her home. She created land itself. The Hawaiian Islands are Pele's body, her ongoing creative work. What had been a liability - her fire, her volatility, her destructive force - became the generative power that built worlds.

The chronology of Pele's journey through the islands corresponds precisely with their geological ages. The northwest islands are older; the southeast (culminating in still-active Hawaiʻi Island) are younger. Hawaiian traditional knowledge held this truth for centuries before Western geology "discovered" it. Indigenous knowledge and scientific fact align perfectly. Pele's story is not just metaphor - it is the land itself speaking.

The Pele-Hiʻiaka Relationship: Destruction Creates the Ground for Growth

Pele's relationship with her youngest, most beloved sister also reveals ecological and spiritual truth.

Pele creates land through volcanic fire. Her lava flows destroy everything in their path - forests, homes, the familiar landscape. After Pele's fire has done its work and the lava cools, Hiʻiaka arrives. She is the greening force, everything that grows and takes root on the new land. Her very name - "Hiʻiaka in the bosom of Pele" - speaks to this intimacy: growth literally emerges from Pele's cooled body.

Pele IS the land. Hiʻiaka is all that flourishes upon it.

This is the raw, real process of volcanic islands: molten rock that devours and creates simultaneously, followed by the patient work of life establishing itself on barren stone. Destruction and creation are not opposites. They are inseparable.

The famous Pele-Hiʻiaka cycle tells of jealousy, betrayal, rage, and love between the sisters. When Pele sends Hiʻiaka to fetch the mortal chief Lohiʻau (whom Pele desires), with strict instructions not to touch him, and Hiʻiaka - after reviving him from death and falling in love - breaks this trust, Pele's rage consumes Hiʻiaka's beloved lehua groves and her dear friend Hōpoe in lava.

This is a story of gods who feel human emotions - jealousy, betrayal, grief, rage - at huge scale. Pele is not evolved past these feelings. She contains multitudes: creator and destroyer, protector and avenger, tender sister and wrathful deity.

Photograph by Mario Tama Getty Images

Pelehonuamea: The Many Faces of the Volcano Goddess

Pele appears in many forms. Sometimes the beautiful young woman with flowing hair, and then as old woman with white hair (often accompanied by a white dog). She wanders the roads near Kīlauea, testing the character of those she meets. Those who offer her kindness, respect, and assistance are blessed and protected. Those who dismiss her, insult her, or treat her with contempt face her wrath.

Pele is by nature complex and contradictory. Hawaiian tradition embraces this. She holds:

• Power and Passion: Her volcanic force is unstoppable, her emotions run at divine intensity
• Jealousy and Rage: She feels human emotions at cosmic scale
• Creation and Destruction: Every lava flow that destroys also creates new land
• Protection and Vengeance: She fiercely guards those who honour her and punishes disrespect
• Beauty and Terror: She is both alluring and fearsome

She is capricious - unpredictable as a volcano. She cannot be controlled or appeased through manipulation. She demands authenticity, respect, and recognition of her power.

Pele does not soften her edges or moderate her fire to be acceptable. Her destruction is bound up with her creative force. Her rage is sacred, powerful, generative.

To meet Pele is to meet a goddess who refuses domestication.

“Sacred Fire of Pele” by Olga Shevchenko

Colonial Erasure and Cultural Reclamation

When Christian missionaries arrived in Hawaiʻi in the 1820s, they worked to suppress indigenous religion. In 1819, the kapu system (sacred laws) had already been officially abolished. Yet Pele endured. When missionary William Ellis ate ʻōhelo berries sacred to Pele without offering them to her first, Hawaiians feared her displeasure. When High Chiefess Kapiʻolani descended into Halemaʻumaʻu in 1824 and recited a Christian prayer instead of honouring Pele, missionaries used her survival as "proof" of Christianity's superiority. Yet Pele's worship continued.

In the early 20th century, artist D. Howard Hitchcock painted Pele as a blonde, white woman. This image was displayed in Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park visitor centre for decades - a literal whitewashing of a Native Hawaiian goddess. In 2003, after sustained criticism from Native Hawaiians, the park held a competition to replace it. Artist Arthur Johnsen of Puna created the current image: Pele in shades of red, holding her digging staff Pāʻoa, with her sister Hiʻiaka in embryonic form.

This replacement represents the ongoing work of reclaiming indigenous representation from colonial distortion. It matters. Visual representation shapes how we understand and relate to sacred figures. Seeing Pele portrayed as white erases Native Hawaiian identity and perpetuates the lie that indigenous deities are available for anyone to claim and reshape.

Pele is central to Native Hawaiian cultural identity and spiritual practice. She represents resilience, resistance, and the enduring power of indigenous tradition. To engage with Pele while ignoring this context, or treating her as available for spiritual consumption, is to participate in ongoing colonialism.

 

Meeting Pele Today

For those of us outside Hawaiian culture who feel called to learn from Pele, we approach Her with humility and respect. This means:

• Centring Native Hawaiian voices. Seeking out teachers, scholars, and practitioners from Hawaiian lineages (I have linked some sources below).
• Honouring living tradition. Pele is not a commodity to claim or redefine. She belongs first and always to Hawaiian people. If we learn from her, it is as respectful guests.
• Respect boundaries. Some practices are specific to Hawaiian culture and not appropriate for outsiders. Listen when Hawaiian practitioners say what is sacred and what is not for sharing.
• Understand context. Pele's stories emerged from a specific land, a specific people, a specific cosmology. They cannot be separated from that context without losing their depth and truth.

What can Pele teach those willing to listen with respect?

She teaches that destruction is part of creation. She teaches that being "too much" - too fierce, too volatile, too powerful - is not a flaw, but a force to be honoured. She teaches that sovereignty comes not from fitting into someone else's space, but from becoming so undeniably yourself that you generate your own foundation.

She teaches that the journey from exile to belonging might not be about finding acceptance, but about becoming so elementally yourself that you literally reshape the landscape.

Pele calls for honesty. For recognition of her power. For respect for the land she IS. For understanding that her fire - which destroys - is the same fire that passionately loves and creates.

She asks that we meet her in with own fire, our own creative destruction, our own refusal to be extinguished.

A Gift and An Invitation

For those feeling the volcanic pull of Pele, a free guide is available for you to download. Designed for printing or use in digital journaling apps like GoodNotes, it includes journal prompts, reflections, and simple practices to help you engage with Pele's energy in your own life, with reverence, curiosity, and respect for living tradition.

Inside the MoonWise Membership, we meet one goddess each cycle. Through journaling, ritual, devotion, and gentle daily practice, we honour the sacred feminine in her many forms - always with attention to cultural context and respect for living traditions.

If you are moving through exile toward home...

If you are ready to stop seeking acceptance and start generating your own ground...

If Pele's fire is rising in your life...

You'll find her waiting for you here.

Follow the Thread

For those who wish to explore Pele's depths further, here are some starting points centred on Native Hawaiian scholarship. Mary Kawena Pukui's work is foundational. Her translations and teachings preserved knowledge that might otherwise have been lost. Ku'ualoha hoʻomanawanui's Voices of Fire analyses Pele and Hiʻiaka literature from an indigenous perspective, revealing how these stories carried political resistance during colonisation.

Primary Sources:

• Mary Kawena Pukui - Hawai'i Island Legends: Pikoi, Pele and Others (retold by Caroline Curtis)
• Mary Kawena Pukui & E.S.C. Handy - The Polynesian Family System in Ka'ū, Hawai'i
• Samuel Manaiakalani Kamakau - Tales and Traditions of the People of Old (translated by Pukui)

Contemporary Scholarship:

• Ku'ualoha hoʻomanawanui - Voices of Fire: Reweaving the Literary Lei of Pele and Hi'iaka
• H. Arlo Nimmo - Pele, Volcano Goddess of Hawai'i: A History
• Nathaniel B. Emerson - Pele and Hiiaka: A Myth from Hawaii (1915, early translation)

Online Resources:

• University of Hawaiʻi Kahoʻiwai - Pelehonuamea entry
• Bishop Museum - The Cult of Pele in Traditional Hawai'i
• Pele (deity) - Wikipedia (for general overview, but always verify with indigenous sources)