Pssst! You! Yeah, you... are a passenger on a planet... on a blue-green planet that's orbiting a golden star. And you've probably noticed that nobody gave you - or me - a map of this journey when we started it. So... we can go through life feeling lost, we can copy what someone else has already done - or we can experiment. And right now we are traveling through a point in our yearly orbit (a point called May 24th) when I love to experiment. Because, according to our Hawaiian ancestors, May 24th is a power point.

Here in the Tropics - and only in the Tropics - the Sun can shine directly on the crown of your head. When it does, you are crowned with the life-force of our entire solar system. This force is the source of "mana." And mana, as you may know, is Hawaiian for spiritual power. But this spiritual power is not about blind faith or about bowing to a deity.

If you'd like to get a feeling for this power, just imagine Planet Earth circling the Sun. You see that the Sun is not over the North Pole, shining on the Arctic Circle. You see that the Sun is not over The South Pole, shining on the Antarctic Circle. If it were shining on these places they wouldn't be cold. No, the Sun is shining on the equator, which is why it's hot there. But... the Sun doesn't always shine exactly on the equator because our planet is tilted at a 23.5 degree angle to the path of her orbit. So the Sun can shine directly overhead at 23.5 degrees north of the equator, at 23.5 degrees south of the equator, and in between. This sunny region is called the Tropics.

The Tropics is the only place on Earth where the Sun shines directly onto the crown of your head. These direct rays of solar power were so vital to the pharaohs of Egypt that they made sure their southern boundary extended into the tropics so Pharoah could go there and download the solar power through the crown of his or her head. Doing this kept the crown on Pharoah's head.

When this crowning moment happens depends on where we are in our yearly orbit. Thanks to our ancient Hawaiian ancestors, we can mark this moment with a heiau. Now, a heiau, as you may know, is an ancient Hawaiian stone temple. A heiau, like Stonehenge, Machu Picchu and Chaco Canyon, is aligned with key points in the sky (with key points in the orbital journey that we call a year.) Heiau actually means, "to capture time." Here on Maui the crowning moments are May 24th and July 18th/19th. The precise moment on May 24, 2010 is 12:24 p.m. in Lahaina and 12:22 p.m. in Hana.

I experiment with these moments. I have to because there is no instruction manual for downloading the Sun's radiance. Sometimes my experiments feel productive, and sometimes they make me feel like a fool. But I keep trying because every cell in my body says it's possible to learn - or remember - how to bring more light into this world. And don't you think that experimenting with the light is better than staying in the dark?

This is Harriet Witt, your guide for this little ride on our passenger planet.


If you have any questions, drop Harriet an email: harriet@passengerplanet.com


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