Scholars of Hawaiian culture point out that the honorific name for Pele (pronounced PEH-leh) is Pelehonuamea, incorporating the deity’s sacred connection to the earth, the oceans and the red color of lava. Many Hawaiians call the goddess Madame Pele or Tutu Pele, using an affectionate term for grandmother while making it implicitly clear they are Pele’s descendants.

Legends vary as to her origins, but chants suggest Pele followed her star to Hawaii from elsewhere in Polynesia, similar to the seafarers who reached the Hawaiian Islands in an epic feat of navigation and migration around the time Europe was mired in the Dark Ages.

Some say Pele was born in Tahiti to the fertility goddess Haumea, but was forced to flee to Hawaii in a great canoe after seducing the husband of her older sister, the goddess of the sea. At different islands in Hawaii, Pele used her stick to dig out fire pits, forging the archipelago’s magnificent volcanic craters.

After the United States formally took control of Hawaii in 1898, appeasing Pele and accepting her force didn’t seem to be much of an official priority. Before rising to prominence as a general during World War II, George S. Patton, then the Army’s chief intelligence officer in Hawaii, tried bombing the lava flow from the eruption of the Mauna Loa volcano in 1935 in an attempt to divert it.

While that tactic had mixed results, some on the Big Island put their faith in making offerings to Pele of items including crystals, money and incense, or foods such as whole cooked piglet and poi, a staple made from the taro plant. Many venture near fissures to place the leaves of the ti plant, also called the palm lily, in the cracks in the earth.

“We believe in 40,000 gods, but Pele is in the highest echelon for obvious reasons,” said Kimo Awai, 67, a hula teacher and lecturer on Hawaiian culture. “Pele created Hawaii; she is that primordial force that exists within all land masses. And she can be vengeful, so watch out.”