Moonlight and Mirrors in The Night

The Moon-mirror By PJ 2011

According to ancient western superstitions during the full moon It was thought that to sleep in direct moonlight caused madness or blindness. In time, the word, lunatic, from "luna", meaning Moon, and "tic", meaning struck, evolved from this belief. 

A well popularized Moon mythology of Europe is of the werewolf the shape-shifts into a wolf, at the appearance of the full Moon. Lesser known variant of the same mythology is that in the light of the full Moon it was said that a woman that lay in moonlight or who stare as the full Moon would become pregnant and give birth to a monster, possible even a werewolf that shape-shifts at the night of the full Moon.

The Moon was thought to be important to bring potency to the healing and magic powers of herbs were said to be at the peak during the night of the full Moon, this one probably has more credence than one would think, knowing that the night cycle of plants cause them to change how they flow water and nutrition's from the roots, and also cause the osmotic pressure that gives the plant fresh morning-dew when observed in the morning. Though they would do this at any night the extra pull of the full Moon should make them more potent, and also for practical reasons it is a lot easier to collect herbs during the light of a full moon than on a night of only starlight. This is also probably part of the stories of how the witches were traveling using their broomsticks during the night of the full Moon, out to collect all the magical and medicinal herbs.

One other interesting legend I came over is a twist on the bad luck caused by the breaking of a mirror which, we commonly know is supposed to mean 7 years of bad luck, but what I had not heard about before was you could break this curse if you take the mirror pieces outside and bury them in moonlight.

The Moonlight and Mirrors in Samoan Folklore

I found out that is a widespread practice among Samoans to cover the mirrors at night, and if one does not do so, they think there might be someone else other then yourself starring back at you. 

To put it in the words of Loa from Samoa. 

-"cover the mirrors at night as Nek Minnit Miku is said to be staring at you"- 

When it comes to the Moon, and moonlight, The Samoan mythology is deeply connected to The Moon, and I heard multiple accounts how one is not supposed to sleep with moonlight falling on ones face. Also how those that would let that happen would find themselves paralyzed unable to move or let anyone know as they can't speak, yell or force themselves to wake up. Which is why it is very important to not only cover your mirrors but also cover up the windows so the moonlight cannot cause you to become frozen in the night. 

In the words of Loa from Samoa about the topic of moonlight

-Yea that moonlight one is scary. Happened to my mum and sisters. And in New Zealand too.. Its called '' malu 'ia '' they said they couldn't move and like they were screaming but they couldn't hear themselves.. So ever since that i made sure my curtain is always closed!-

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The Leprechaun like 'E'epa on the Island of Kauai

This is the encounter with an Shape-changer as it was described to me by my good friend David.

This was back when my family still lived on the Island of Kauai in Hawaii. It all happened one evening in our garden as my girl friend and I went outside to take a walk just in the outskirts of the garden both of us spotted a black cat, nothing unusual about that, but to both of our astonishment the cat shape-changed into a small male about 2 feet tall, he was not like in most Menehune sightings which describe Menehunes to have a copper brown to dark skin tone, and none of the usual traditional Hawaiian clothings instead he reminded me more to what you might describe as a gnome or a Irish leprechaun, with a tan skin tone and he was wearing a white shirt and blue green colored shorts.

The little guy looked at us and started talking with a whiny little voice, "I want to talk with you I want to talk with you, come here I want to talk with you." At this point I had problems keeping myself from laughing because it all seemed so unreal and this tiny guy with the skimpy voice made it even harder. But I went ahead and replied "Sure what do you want to talk about?" instantly he replied "Not you! NOT you, I want to talk with her" as he pointed to my girlfriend.

I asked her if she wanted to talk to the little guy and she responded with a firm "NO!" of which he turned away and despaired into the nearby shrubs bordering our garden. At this point neither one of us felt like taking a walk anymore and went back inside. I asked my girlfriend what she had experienced out there and she had the exact same experience watching the black cat turning into a 2 foot tall tiny man wearing shirt and shorts and that he spoke with a tiny voice asking to have her walk with him into the Forrest to talk with him.  We were both laughing about the experience and we wonder who else might have seen animals change shape like that and have them speak to them like he did with us.

For Menehune experiences read The Menehune at Waimanalo and The Barking Dogs at Waimanalo or if you have had any encounters with the dwarf like Menehunes or gnomish like 'E'epas or other unexplainable experiences let us know and we would love to share your experiences in our blog.

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Mythological Beasts: Nøkken

 

Asian White Water Lily (White Lotus) 

by PJ 2011 Honolulu, Hawaii

Nøkken was in norse mythology a creature of the inland waters much like Huldra was a creature of the deep forest. And like the female Huldra, that lures people into the forest and never let them go, the male Nøkken would try to lure people to the waters and drown them.

The Norse Nøkk seem to be similar to stories of water elves, also known as nymphs in other european cultures, and also carry similarities to the mermen of the seas and oceans.

The most common described way for Nøkken to lure gullible people to its watery depths is in the form of a stunningly beautiful white horse, which willingly would let especially young children climb up on its back, and then leap with them into the water.

In other legends Nøkken seeks out one person a year to drown in his fresh water ponds, where he lures using his power of invisibility, or the ability to shape-change into something unsuspecting like a floating log, a beautiful water lily or even other plant life that is making it look like the edge of the pond is farther in, so when you move over to the water to pick flowers you would fall into the deep cold, treacherous waters.

In other occasions Nøkken was said to appear as a handsome young man, playing music in the calm tranquil forest, luring young fair maidens into his watery embrace and their doom, playing the harp or fiddle he would spellbind them with his magical charm.

In order to protect yourself legends say, is by spitting and then tossing a steel needle or a steel cross into the water. Another way was to bind Nøkken to a Nøkkstein (Nøkken rock) and then let it drop into the water directly vertically from as high up as you could get it, if you have already been grabbed by Nøkken and is about to be pulled into the waters you can break free by saying his name, as in this norwegian phrase "Nøkken! Nøkken nål i vann. Jomfru Maria kastet stål i vann! Du synker, jeg flyter!" translated this becomes "Nøkken! Nøkken! needle in water. Virgin Mary tossed steel into the water! You are sinking I am floating!"

So the next time you see a floating tree stub or water lily, a beautiful white horse wandering by the outskirts of a small lake or pond or even a handsome young man fair-skinned and with blond long hair playing the harp or the fiddle next to a river or pond it just might be Nøkken himself trying to trap you as his once a year victim... beware.

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Water lilies are called Nøkkerose in Norwegian, PJ 2005 Honolulu, Hawaii

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The Barking Dogs at Waimanalo

It is well known that animals have keen senses, both in the form of the standard five and also very likely a few other that we don't have. My friend Jeff told me about this experience he had while living in Waimanalo, Oahu in Hawaii.

In Hawaiian folklore, it is said that if one put the water from the eyes of a dog into one own eyes one would be able to see what the dogs see, may it be ghosts, or other beings of the supernatural.

One time our dogs started barking and barking while running in circles around something, but there was nothing there, however at times it looked like there were the light of a lit cigarette in mid-air in the circled area that the dogs was running around.

I think this was another example of the menehunes using their ability to turn invisible to humans, however dogs and other animals are not fooled that easily.

You could also read more about the menehune in Jeff's other story, The Menehune of Waimanalo, Another interesting story is about the menehune like 'E'epa which are similar to leprechauns in The Leuprechaun like 'E'epa on the Island of Kauai.

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The Menehune of Waimanalo

Thicket of Strawberry Guavas, Photo by PJ

I just got this story from Jeff in Hawaii, Oahu.
When I was 18 years old I lived and worked at a banana farm up in the mountain ridge of Waimanalo, whenever we moved deeper into the forest we felt like we were at the mercy of the Menehunes, which in Hawaiian mythology is described as a people, as dwarfs in size, living in the deep forests and hidden valleys of Hawaii, the Menehune are though to sometimes shape-shift and appear in animal form.

Higher up the nearby old hiking trail we had a secret off beat spot which one could only get to by crawling through a 10 feet thicket of forest before entering a area of Strawberry Guava which was about 25 long in order to get to our spot of pakalolo. This time I was up there all by myself and it was 5pm, I had just entered the area of Strawberry Guavas I got this odd feeling of being watched from behind, and a strong feeling of a presence, as I turned I noticed a black dog about 12 feet away staring at me, at first I thought it was a wild dog, but I also had this eerie feeling it was something else, and what happened next I have no rational explanation to, I watched as the black dog moved 6 feet to the right towards a strawberry guava with a trunk about 1 inch thick as I watched the dog move behind the tree it did not come out on the other side. I walked over to the tree where the dog disappeared and could not find any trace of it.

Another time while I was up at the same path with a few of my friends we all got this eerie feeling of a presence, and we heard a distant soft drum beat, we moved over to a stream nearby again feeling more eerie as we looked over the edge we spotted what looked like a yellow tribal feather flume. At this point I got this feeling something ominous was about to happen, as a branch fell over us, we started running and I stumbled over some ancient barbed wire, ruining my pants and as I was there trapped I felt like something was breathing heavily in my neck. I we ran quickly back to the trail and returned home, scared, bruised and battered but luckily only lightly harmed.

You could also read more about the menehune in Jeff's other story, The Barking Dogs at Waimanalo, Another interesting story is about the menehune like 'E'epa which are similar to leprechauns in The Leuprechaun like 'E'epa on the Island of Kauai.
 

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Remember to check out our Paranormal Corner Online Store and if you have story you would like us to look into for posting in our blog contact us at waikikiblogboi@gmail.com

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