by Alison Dhuanna, Astrologer
This week I have been inspired by the latest Disney film, Moana, the new Polynesian princess challenging female stereotypes.
Moana’s story has many magical connections to my own journey, especially the theme of navigating by sea. For the past few years it has been a great adventure navigating the sacred Isles of Britain. Through the work of the anthropologist Thor Heyerdahl I became familiar with the history of Moana’s people. Kon-tiki (2014) is a film about the extraordinary journey Heyerdahl took on a raft across the Pacific from South America, to prove that the people of Polynesia came from the West. Heyerdahl said they came from Peru and their god was called Kon-tiki. This is what the shaman had told him in the Polynesian tribe he lived with for many years.
The Inca say that these tall, fair gods which include the ‘good guy’ Kon-tiki came from the North. What we do know is that these navigating ancestors from all parts of the Globe were great adventurers, and their spirit calls to us again not to be afraid. To heal this world we must set out to sea beyond our comfort zone.
Moana sets off to sea against her father’s wishes, to heal the heart of the Earth Goddess with a gem stolen many generations earlier by the trickster god Maui. Moana is told the story by her Grandmother, who is a Medicine Woman who dances with the sea.
The film reflected two of the Goddess Asteroids in astrology and their transformation in humanity perfectly. Vesta the sacred priestess archetype is represented firstly by Moana’s grandmother. Moana also has to completely step into her power when she is let down by the Demi-god Maui – in fact in turns out to be her not the god who has to restore the Goddess. This is a very strong Vesta theme – the need to know our own spiritual power and not project this outside ourselves onto a patriarchal god.
In the Earth Goddess we see the rage of mythical Ceres as she ravages the land. As my friend sitting next to me whispered ‘she has a very bad case of PMT’. Eckhart Tolle has an interesting theory that PMT is the collective rage of the repressed Divine Feminine which all women process. This is why we cannot heal the outer world until the Goddess within is restored and honored in all her dimensions. Moana will go a long way to doing this in the popular culture.
My website is www.schoolofastro-shamanism and there is information about the Goddess offerings for 2017 including an e-course on the Goddess Asteroids