Hermes, the Big Island of Hawaii, Iceland, Gwai Hanaas, and the Haida

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I had at one time attempted to purchase a parcel of land on the Big Island with my father and brother, and the plot ended up being a lovely piece of bare land, on Mai’a street, which was a Hawaiian name that I was to find out was synchronistically also the Greek name for the mother of Hermes, who was the wife of Vulcan- the volcano- a synchronicity which exposed to me the earth’s own mirroring of itself which I was to come more fully to understand in the years to follow.

            In fact, the Big Island and Iceland share very similar geographies, in that the northern part of each is cut with deep valleys, and is the oldest part of each island, the west side of each boasts a lone mountain range, and the southern shore is the area of most recent volcanic activity. This type of worldly mirroring happens, it is only for us to take notice.

            And I was no doubt intended to live on the Big Island of Hawaii, at some point in my life, as I had once had a dream in which I had taken a ferry from Alaska to the Queen Charlotte Islands- a place as close to me as my own heart- and then to Hawaii, which, it is said, was a trading destination for the Haidas. Some of the Haida natives look unmistakably Hawaiian, the land forms are similar, and even some of the names are uncannily connected: The Haida name for their southern wilderness is Gwaii Hanaas, which is very similar, philologically, to Hawaii.

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These fragments and quotes are taken from the unpublished writings of Jack Haas, selected from the notebooks 1990-2005.