Te-Fiti, Pacific Ocean Goddess

Carl Jung was asked, how should modern people relate to ancient myths?  He responded, “The point is to dream the myth onward, and give it a modern dress.”  The Disney empire has been “dreaming the myth onward and giving it a modern dress” for decades, with films like Little Mermaid, Mulan, Aladdin, and recently, Moana, about young heroes and heroines from mythology challenging the mythic forces of evil.

It’s easy to criticize some of Disney’s retelling of these myths. Only in the last couple year have Disney movies like Frozen and Moana finally had some strong female leads whose dream is not rescue by a prince.  But the “modern dress” these young women wear make them look more like models with anorexic bodies than empowered heroes.  Even so, the stories are vivid and Disney can tear at your heartstrings with image and music. 

Todays’ “Ocean Deity” is Te-Fiti, whom I learned about from Disney’s film Moana.  From what I have read she is more important in the film than in traditional Polynesian mythology.  Like so many women of myth she is more symbol than actor, and never speaks.  Here I imagine here what she might say about herself, and her film appearance.

Te-Fiti is my name.  I am the Pacific Ocean goddess and creator of all life.  If the name sounds to you like Tahiti, you are right – it means literally “a faraway place.”  My Polynesians people are good at long journeys to faraway places, we sail from island to island, across the sea.  At the beginning of time I created the vast ocean, and then I made all the islands, these small safe and lush homelands mid the mighty sea.  Sometimes I am depicted as a living island myself, able to mold and shape terrain and flora and fauna.  

I’ve never needed much acclaim or worship.  I can just look around me and see all the life teeming in my islands and my sea and glory in my creation.  But I have to admit it was fun to have a big role in the movie Moana.  I even got a few nice notes about the film from the other mother goddesses I’ve met at Goddess Camp, saying I did a good job.  And could we have Goddess Camp on my island this year?

“Goddess Camp” is the yearly party/retreat/reunion we female creation deities have every spring.  Tiamat and Nammu started it with a fantastic week in the Fertile Crescent.  We’ve danced and sung in the Bering Sea with Sedna, India with Parvati, and who can forget that Aegean spring with Gaia and Demeter? 

Since we all were there at the beginning of time, creating earth or sea, animals, plants, people, we have lots of memories to share, stories to tell.  We dance and eat a lot. 

Recently we’ve added a lamentation time to our gathering, ritual wailing in sorrow and anger at the ways climate change is taking such a toll on our beautiful creations.  It’s good to be together with sisters in the hard times as well as the celebrative.

It’s interesting, actually, how well we get along, sharing both our pride in our work as well as our sorrow at its destruction.  We’ve notice when the male deities get together there’s lots of strutting and competitive games.  The food is better at our sister gatherings as well.

If you haven’t seen the movie, quick plot summary: Moana, an independent thinking Pacific Islander teenager, saves the world from destruction by restoring my heart, which has been stolen by power hungry men seeking to control the earth.  Moana’s grandmother, one of my disciples, tells her the ancient stories of how I created the ocean itself and then all the islands in it.  She helps Moana find my stolen heart, a small shining green amulet, and encourages her to sail beyond the reef into the feared ocean and restore my heart.  With help from the usual Disney bumbling animal sidekicks and the reformed thief demigod, Maui, Moana confronts the evil destructive goddess Te-Pa, source of fire and volcano, who it turns out is me without my heart.  If you take away the heart of any creator, you get destruction.  Bravely Moana restores my heart and the earth and ocean are saved.  

I think my sister creation goddesses are a little jealous of me because of the movie.  Lin-Manuel Miranda hasn’t written a song for the sound track of their lives.  They have reminded me, in a nice way, that I am actually a pretty minor character in Pacific Islander mythology.  The destructive gods as usual get more notoriety, Pele and Maui and Te-Pa.  Myth writers and Disney execs seem to prefer the evil stepmothers, the destructive Ursula and Malificent, to the creative life affirming females. 

Maybe it was a goddess #MeToo movement that helped Disney realize they needed not only a heroine whose triumph was saving the world, not being saved by a prince, but also a triumphant positive female force for creation, not destruction.  Whatever, I’ll take it, if it gets my sisters to come party at my house.

And to lament.  Demeter said she wanted to come to the South Seas to weep and ululate as women mourners do in Greece at a death, in this case, the death of so many islands to sea level rise and climate change.  It does feel like my heart has been ripped out and that the evil gods and goddesses of greed and conspicuous consumption are triumphing over our band of sisters.

The party is this week, at the equinox, when spring begins in the north, and ironically, autumn arrives in my part of the world.  Will we emerge whole from this winter?  Can we sisters of creation rise again with new life?

Copyright © 2018 Deborah Streeter