The Land of the Lorax

If you have ever slept out, under the stars on a moonless night, tasted cool water coming out of a natural spring after a hot day of hiking, bathed in a refreshing pool or cook by an open fire and watched the fire burn until bedtime, then you have an idea of my last twelve days backpacking in the Baja mountains.

Backpacking for me has always been a refuge, from my first adult vacation at eighteen up Mount Washington in New Hampshire to the hiking around the mountains of Northern California, I have enjoy getting away from it all.

Most of trips have been solo, since it was hard to find company willing to spend precious vacation days “working” harder than at their day jobs. This time five of us venture out into the wilds of Baja led by primitive skills teacher Rio, who has hike these mountains for the last forty years.

While most feel privileged to wake up in a house, have a factory processed meal, drive a fancy car to work and spend all day in front of a computer screen to return home to sit on the couch and watch Survivor, we were bless to begin the day with meal of raw oats, chia, nuts, and/or dried fruit, getting our hearts pumping by climbing the next ridge, collecting seeds and wild fruits before finding a cool pool to swim in and a flat place to sleep, cooking a meal of tortillas, beans, cabbage, and air, dried deer and settling in front for the bush TV, the fire, telling stories.

There is something to learn from hiking. It is a meditation. It requires focus, flexibility and balance. Hiking up a south face in the hot sun is rewarded by shade that is just over the ridge. It is never up or down, but a series of ups and downs that get us to our goal. We hike along in the heat of the day lost in our own thoughts and then are rewarded with a pool of water that’s too good to pass up for a group swim. Hiking is another metaphor for life.

We began our trip hiking up the Boca de Sierra. It was three days up this arroyo until we could see the Pacific Ocean. We walked along crossing he arroyo as the trail went up through it. Each night we would fine a flat spot by water, cook a big meal and sleep out under the stars. Morning came with the chirp of the birds and the light of day erasing the stars in the sky.

Most mornings, I would find a spot in the arroyo for my morning meditation. After a morning fire to take off the night’s chill, we would eat and pack up for another day of our adventure.



On the forth day we started across the ridges, we would leave the water to climb up and down the ridges until we reach the our next arroyo. Water is a must in the dry tropics. We reached the top of the Agua Caliente water supply which feeds the farm most of us were staying at. Here was a beautiful meadow with willow and oak trees. We had plenty of fallen oak to keep us warm at night.

The next day we took off from the packs and hiked up to the source of our water. It was a beautiful spot where three canyons meet to form a beautiful pool. This arroyo is very rough and a four day hike out of it, without a trail for most of it, but if you venture down it would lead right to our farm.



Day six we bushed whacked to Don Francisco canyon. Bushing whacking in shorts and a tank top is a bad idea and I ended up looking like I tried to take a ferrel cat’s temperature (there is only on way to take a cat’s temperature and it’s not pleasant, ask your veterinarian).

Don Francisco is the Land of the Lorax. Here we entered a pine forest, that was spotted with oaks, yucca, black palms. In Baja the oaks lose their leaves in summer to escape the dry part for the season. They call it the land of the strange trees and it was very special to sleep in such a spot.



After a few years of drought, water was a little hard to find, but we succeeded at the base of the second waterfall, in a small crevice to find the building block of life.

The following day we hike to a Biological Station at the head of Guadalupe de la Zorra Canyon and camped there for the night. We would hike out the la Zorra canyon, but first we were to go to the top of Baja Sur.

We hike to our highest camp the next day and camped the la Laguna, pronounced la la guna. This is a massive lagoon that with many springs. The next day we hike up to the el Picacho and for the saw both the Pacific and the Sea of Cortez. It felt good to be at the highest place in our area and that each step from here on out would bring us home.



The high home was challenging and beautiful. We left the la Laguna and hiked past the Biological station and down in to la Zorra canyon. We hike over a long, steep ridge and down the main part of the canyon. We walked for most of the day, going for maybe 15 miles. Knowing that we would have another long day the next we found a camping spot with a couch and celebrated by eating a lot of the extra food we packed.



The next day was another tough day. The canyons get washed out by the hurricanes and the trail disappears and with the free range policy a trail can quickly turn into a cow trail only four feet (1.33 meters) high. However the pools we found to swim in, in this canyon were the best of the trip.

We made it to a 200 year old ranch in many hours up the mouth of the canyon and slept in a mango orchard on a soft bed of mango leaves. But first we ate most of our remaining food. The next day the ranchers invited us for breakfast and we had our first meal which we did not carry in over a week.

The three hour walk out the canyon was rewarded with a swim in the Sol de Mayo, a waterfall and swimming spot near where we began.

About 100 miles (160 km), twelve perfect days in nature, five life long friends and an adventure of a life time.

One night, high in the mountains, as I slept a tree reminded me that nature was our neighbor. I thought about this as I walked along and realized that we are not different that nature. We come from nature and we return to in to become nature again.

For me, nature is where I want to be. To enjoy a good fire and the company of good friends. To challenge myself without competing another’s game. To celebrate the diversity that nature is and to realize that everything has value in this world. Our world is changing, it is not longer the world where “he with the most toys wins” it a world where the more of those who help each other and get along with their environment means we all win.

Meeting the Earth Mother

During my last stay in Baja, I kept hearing of this mythical free spirit who spend his days up the valley in the shadow of the mountain meditating and communing with nature. All would tell me that “I should meet him” or “I have to talk to him”. The time went on until one day in the garden I came to meet this mythical creature and his lovely partner. We hit it off from the start.

This year my friend came down from the mountain and we met again and right away pick up where we had left off with conversations of Love and Unity. My friend had just completed two and a half weeks of solo meditation and was easing back into community life. As he made a batch of his special raw chocolate, with plenty of healing herbs, we talked and sampled his batch until he got the right mix of this special treat.

That night, high from chocolate, good conversation and reconnecting with a dear friend, I drifted off to dream time.

Soon, I was back in school, an old abandoned, elementary school, walking arm in arm with the Earth Mother. She was showing me the emptiness of our educational system that does not include Her teachings. As we where walking her alluded to her size and I was surprised.

“How can you be so big when you are smaller that me”?

She explained that most can not handle to see here in all her glory and that she shows only a glimpse of her true being. I felt sadden that she felt that she had to hide her glory from the world and said to her; “What kind of friend would I be if I did not let you appear to me as your true self? Please show me you in all your glory.”

With that she rose up and I was dwarfed by Her. Still arm in arm I was awe struck with kindness that radiated from her being. The love and bliss that I was showered with was so pure and innocent that it could only be described as the feeling of love a newborn receives the first time he is held by his mother.

As we we continued I was reminded that this was still just a glimpse of Her full glory that would grow as we moved to more of an earth honoring society.

I awoke still feeling the love She had bestowed on me.

Now each morning I greet the day with a meditation that takes the love She freely shares with the love that Unity brings from above into my being and pray that I can be a worthy citizen of this amazing love that they so freely bestow.

Ocean Honoring Ceremony

Ocean Honoring Ceremony 
November 7, 2010
Linda Mar Beach, Pacifica, California
Co-Led by Charlene Sul and Ginny Anderson
 
 
One year ago to the day, I sat in ceremony at the creation of the Earth Medicine Society, whose purpose was to help bring people back to the Earth Honoring ways and connection them with all their relations, of the stone, water, plant and animal realms.  At one of the early meetings we journeyed.   This vision had me on a mountain above the Bay Area looking at the lush greenery that had returned and seeing the sparkling connection of the web of life below.  I was filled with hope, then as today, as we come together in ceremony and add another spark into the web of life with our ceremony to honor the Ocean.
 
Our purpose is to honor the Ocean, the body of water that connects us all, the womb of which all life was born and one of the places on Earth where one can find intense peace, joy and harmony within. 

We will do this today in the creation of a Tule boat in which we will place our prayers and let the Ocean consume them to feed them back to the world.  We are led by two beautiful people of mystery, Charlene Sul, who is the founder of the Confederation of Ohlone people, which empowers others to serve their communities thus creating better society and Ginny Anderson an eco-Psychologist and leader of ritual for personal and community transformation. 
 
The Tule reeds where collected a week before by Ginny and Stacey, in a sacred manner, at Alviso by the bottom of the Bay.  Ginny and Stacey where able to this by going invisible from park rangers, flying over a fence, and not shape shifting into ducks, thus attracting the unwanted attention of the high tech, duck hunters that surround them.  Miraculously, they survived brought the Tules for our purpose of building a boat.
 
When I arrive at the beach I see some of the people beginning to gathering, people with Tules and offerings for the ceremony.  We do a thorough search of the beach to see if there is anyone we have missed.  We can not see Charlene who is supposed to have arrived.  As we wait outside in the rain, we each tell our story about being drawn to the ocean.  I joke about spending most of my life in hot water, but then again that is my make up fire and water, and tell of my attraction to the Ocean from a early age, and how for me it is like returning to the mother, the womb, a sacred place
 
We then scour the beach for any offerings that we can find.  I make an offering of a feather, piece of wood and a flower and blow in a prayer of heath to our Mother Ocean.  After this I notice that the crowd is moving.  It seems that Charlene has been hiding in plain sight and steps back into this dimension and is ready to start the ceremony.
 
We prepare an altar of flat stones in a cleared circle on the beach.  Charlene smudges us with sage and the rain stops.   We lay out our offerings of flowers, fruits, herbs, seeds, incense and all other offerings to add our prayers to.  The Tules are unwrapped and we go to work.   
 
We each gather a bundle by taking the Tules and folding them in half.  The bundles are then tied with raffia in four places.  Next we braid the raffia in to a rope to tie the tule bundles together.  I get a lesson in braiding.  The bundles are tied in the shape of our prayer vessel.  If one were to make a boat in this manner for fishing then the boat would be allowed to dry completely before being sea worthy.  
 
Once the boat is completed we add our prayers and offerings.  It is a beautiful ceremony as we create with our prayers and intentions this offering to the Ocean.  The boat is a beautiful expression our hearts’ desires for the Ocean. 
 
Now there are eleven of us, two male and nine females.   Charlene opens the ceremony with a song.  The birds gather on the ocean as a flock of seagulls plays in the waves.  We go around the group and everyone offers a prayer or a song or both.  Half way through this the flock of seagulls flies overhead and one of their numbers bless our gift as only birds can with a bit of good luck as some might say.
 
Next we make a offering of tobacco and cornmeal and each one of us takes a pinch and offers our last prayers for the Ocean.  The rest of the cornmeal and tobacco is offered for all forgotten prayers and the boat is ready to be carried to the sea.
 
Aerin and I carry the boat to the sea following a straight line in the direction the boat faces and Charlene leads the procession smudging the air.  Before going into the Ocean there is one last prayer song.  While we sing there is the last offering of honey that is poured on our prayers to sweeten them for the Ocean.
 
We head to the sea.  I try to avoid the waves and for my trouble get knocked down into the surf.  Luckily the only damage is done to my pride and the lesson is learn, to fully commit to the objects of one’s prayers.  
 
The boat makes it to the surf and the waves play with it as it move down the shore line, getting stranded and being brought into the sea again.  Each one of us offers more of our prayers to the Ocean with the additional items that did not make it to the boat.  
 
The ceremony completed we go for a snack.  Later we return for a picture and while we had our backs on our prayers they were consumed in the surf, a successful offering accepted by Mother Ocean.   
 

Sitting on Top of the World

Oneness with a stream, our life’s goal, there is no stopping, we never deviating from this goal, as the stream flows, so do I, only deviating its course to maneuver life’s obstacles. There is no obstacle too big or too strong that can keep us from our goal. We will flow around, over and through all of them. Only a disconnection from source can stop a us from achieving our life’s goal.

It is cold and dark, my first night in the Arctic, the spirits of the stream continue.

Nutrients stirred up from the bottom, into the blue glow of the water, feeding all that participate on this journey. The stream flows to a still lake, frozen and covered with snow and much like the stillness of my soul once was it is contained by the beneath layers of a frozen defense. In the sky is the Eye of Odin, the eye He sacrificed for knowledge. His eye becomes the sunrise, a new day, melting away any remaining layers and with a flash of bright light, feeding my light body for this journey.

This is the land of dark and cold, but not like a moonless night in a deep forrest. The clean pure snow keeps everything illuminated in a surreal way and even at night the star nation, keeps it aglow. Grandmother moon is hiding.

I have journey to the Arctic to see the Northern Lights, to connect with them. Why, I am not sure, but it feels I must. If you know me, then you know in the winter I like to go warm sandy beaches and relax in the surf. But somehow, the clean snow of the Arctic is a necessary turn on my journey.

We visit the Sami Market in Jokkmokk. Each winter, around the midpoint, the Sami come together for three days to sell their crafts. The Sami are indigenous people of the North, who before being converted to the cross where nomadic hunters, trappers and reindeer herders. Only about 10% still live in this way. They are also mostly caucasian.

The market is a PETA nightmare. Reindeer pelts are everywhere as well the furs of other animals. I want to bring some of the finely preserved animals back to life, but realize that this way of life is necessary for the survival of people who live a region that celebrates spring, summer and fall in a four month window every year.

At the Sami Market I am introduce to yoiking. The Sami found a song for all things in nature. Everyone and everything had their own song which the Sami would sing to honor. You could yoik just about anything except yourself in public, which was considered really, bad form. The songs usually had to do with how the subject moved about in nature, like a blind person observing a rabbit in the snow might sing about its movement. Yoiking was outlawed when they were converted in the 17th century but was keep alive by the reindeer herders. Now and since 1995 it is taught in school again to Sami children. It is extremely energizing to yoik in a group. We yoik for the rabbit, moose and the raven.

We have a sunrise fire ceremony the next morning. Here I offer my layers that have been shed, fully to the fire and commit to step into the next ones that are now. The sun breaks the horizon and it is 9:00 AM. One of the benefits of being so high in latitude is sunrise comes at decent hour.

We load into the magic bus and head North, leaving Sweden, driving through Finland and into Norway. That night we see our first display of Northern Lights. We are lucky, we are told, to see them, most who come don’t and lately it has been a slow with the sun’s activity that cause these lights. But, I know that we are bless. Good luck and sunshine see to follow me since stepping on this path.

The Northern Lights are cause from the love making of the Sun and Earth. The Sun showers the Earth with love, in the form of particles. The Earth gladly accepts them in her magnetic field and explodes in an orgasmic release of color. (For a scientific explanation see Wikipedia).

The lights can be red, yellow, blue and green in color. Green the color of the heart is the most common. The lights come in spirals, arcs and curtains. Sometime in monochrome and others are multicolored. We get an green arc, in a section of the sky, that last for 30 minutes or so.

After, in celebration, some light sparklers and other make snow angles. I feel eight again lying in the snow moving my feet and hands to form a beautiful, fallen angle. After we form a circle and give thanks to the blessing we have received. My heart is fully open to witness this mating ritual of the Sun and Earth.

That night, I dream of the lights, no dream is the wrong word, I lie in bed half awake, with my eyes closed and see and feel the Northern Lights interacting with light body. It is a blissful interaction. This interaction is kind of a cleanse, a release of all the been and a awaking to this moment right now. I awake honoring the old layers and with complete acceptance of where I am right now. I, now, know why I have travel so far.

In the morning we travel further north. On the way we stopped at a museum at Alta where ancient people left petroglyphs in the surround rocks. The petroglyphs were covered with snow so we hung out in the museum and tried to connect to the messages left to us long ago. That night in ceremony, I created my version of a glyphs that honored the cycle of life and death in both ordinary and in-ordinary time.

I also pulled a Rune for the trip and received the Rune Wynja which represents Joy. The Joy of physical, sensual energy and pure and innocent playfulness. This concerns with living in the present.

Rune Magic is part of the Nordic Shaman culture that differs from the Sami. Much of it is like quantum physics where everything in connected and time is one. The Nordic shaman culture is feminine in nature. The women of the Vikings where responsible for the ritual and ceremonies and the men focused on war and conquest, fishing and hunting. Runes were a gift to humankind from the holy beings and are believed to open a dynamic system of power and knowledge. I am happy with my pull.

In the night, I still dream of lights and fall into a bliss state again. There in an interaction with my light and the energy of this place that feels refreshment one feels after a dip in a cold stream on a hot day.

The next morning we headed to North Kapp. North Kapp is the highest point in Norway and sits a latitude of 71 degrees North. Most visit this place to witness the midnight sun.

We come in the heart of winter and have a ceremony of roses. I envision the the connect between the Earth and the Sun and how this love falls from the crown chakra of the Earth and feeds every living creature on and in its surface. The knowledge and wisdom center of the Earth informed by the Sun and the Universe is available to anyone who can find the stillness inside to listen. Our lives, our dreams, our becoming can be informed by the love that reign in the universe. A beginning of a brand new day.

After the ceremony, I stand in the frigid wind releasing rose petal into the Arctic Ocean giving the thanks and gratitude for this moment, awake at the Top Of The World, full of universal wisdom and innocent playfulness. We toast with with Champagne and it does not get much better that this.

That night we celebrate with “American” style pizza and beer and take are ride out to the dark to search for the Northern Lights, again. We drive away form the city back up on the road to North Kapp. The bus comes to a stop. This time we are greeted by a toe curling display of the Lights, unless your are accustom to them, then the feeling does not quite reach so far, stopping in the thighs.

From the Western mountain tops to the Eastern horizon there is an arc of green. Other curtains of lights form and join with it. It is a grand display of heart opening energy in the sky. The stars shine in the sky and through the lights. We gather in front of the bus with the wind at our backs in awe and amazement. To have been a witness to such a show is absolute blessing. We stand in the wind and cold until the bus puts on the lights and signals us it time to return.

I fall asleep to the same dreams as before.

We start the return the next day and we meet with the Sami in Lavo for Reindeer Stew and Reindeer games. Our host had been a part of a Reindeer herding family since the retreat of the last Ice Age. This way of life is in her heart as shopping malls have infected the hearts of some Americans.

Now a days the Sami, use snowmobiles and ATVs to herd the reindeer. They live in houses during the winter and Lavos when with the herds. Her grandparents where the first of her line to live in a house.

The Sami being nomadic herders live many centuries in harmony with nature. Their motto, like the people who attend Burningman, was leave no trace. In fact they have a lot in common with Burners, from radical self reliance to colorful clothing. The problem with leaving not trace is when the “civilized” people appeared they could not prove that the land they had herded on for centuries was theirs because they did not leave a trace. Polluters get all the rights, in this twisted dream of the world. Now they leave tire prints from their ATVs in the tundra. Thank god for progress.

The Lavo is much like a Native American teepee with snow on the floor and covered with reindeer skins. There are three sacred places that in the Lavo, the the spot opposite the door where the Noraidc (Sami Shaman) did his work and the woman of the Lavo prepared meals, the fire in the center and the door to protect it.

We have two soups today. One of the traditional reindeer and on vegetarian. Our host called and ask for our delay on the road as this was the first time she had a a request to cook vegetarian. I try both soups. The reindeer are harvested in a sacred manner. Both soups were outstanding, served in the Lavo with coffee.

After dinner a ride a on reindeer sleigh. The reindeer are all named by their color and markings. There are about 250 names for reindeer using this system. I good header can look into a field of a 1000 and spot one missing and know where to go to find it. Reindeer are shy creatures. It take about four years to to get the reindeer comfortable to work with people. The Sami help this by finding the song of each reindeer and yoiking it to them. We have a selection of reindeer for our group. We bomb around a single track course on a single sleigh carried by a single reindeer. It’s da bomb. I would consider going back to work if Santa needs a reindeer test driver.

In the morning a fire ceremony. Here we are greeted by two rainbows in the sky as we burn our community prayer bundle and give thanks for the journey.

One final stop on our adventure, the Ice Hotel. The Ice Hotel is built each year on a frozen lake. It is a temporary art form that is given back to nature each spring. There is a changing area and bathrooms in a heated building, but the rooms are keep at -5 degrees C. The people that are staying there are given snowmobile suites and arctic sleeping bags to keep warm. We go to bar.

The drink is Absolute mixed with an array of mixers to come up with drinks like, Northern Lights and Fire and Ice. The glasses are made of ice. The music is the best of the 70’s and 80’s. The barroom is beautiful. We dance off the effect of a week long bus ride before dinner at the restaurant across the street. Tomorrow is the long ride home.

It is such a pleasure to spend a week with such men and women of power. People who can keep the feet on the ground, hearts wide open and pray in way without dogma. This adventure was opened a new portal in our lives and Sitting on the Top Of The World, at the crown chakra of Pachamama, as she is embraced by the Sun, has opened a new place in my heart.

Bear Medicine

I tend to think of bears can be solitary animals, foraging the forrest looking for nourishment. However, in times of abundance they can join together in community and enjoy the wisdom of a salmon run. I am much like a bear, foraging for that what feeds me in the realms of the great spirit and my relations on our Mother Earth and last week I feasted on the collective wisdom of a salmon run of knowledge.

As summer turned into fall, I answered the call to join my community to vision and co-create the world we are evolving. From the vast reaches of the stars and galaxies to the place of oneness that we come from and return to I was reminded of the importance of keeping my house in order, finding the spaciousness within, healing my relationships in life, in order to source the wisdom to vision the beauty of our collective dream.

I see more and more of us are emerging. We are stepping forward and claiming the dream that resides in our hearts, rejecting the cynicism and isolation of modern world and opening to the magic of the possibilities of right now coming together and feeding the dreams that we can no longer ignore. Much like how this community fed our global fires this weekend and help awaken the wild heart within.

There is a special magic that I find by tending the fire at dream time and this year was no exception.

On the last night, I found myself around the fire in a community of salmon fed bears. We were all telling our stories and the lessons learnt from the powerful, yet gentle creature.

We sang a song to call bear, who “comes when called”. I was connected to powerful bear brothers and powerful bear sisters at the magic of these fires. Then I became a caretaker of some bear medicine with a bear brother from our generous bear sister.

Bear medicine, I have witnessed before. On a wilderness quest I was reminded before dusk on the first day of the power and strength of bear without the need to prove or engage. At first I thought, wow the deer are big here, but soon the bear appeared and as we looked at each other I sensed although I was on his path that he was happy to deviate rather than engage in an encounter would not nourish him. So he simply turned and went in a different direction. Brother bear has big strength without big ego.

On the first night, of the fire, at dreamtime we journeyed to another dimension, and I was connected into the rainbow river of light as if shifted and twisted without the constraints of time and space free to create whatever beauty that needed to manifest in the now. This world is now open for further exploration, to taste beyond infinity, one might say.

As a co creators, I am realize that it is my perceptions and and beliefs create my creations. Claiming this, that my world is a reflection of my own creations.

I was working to rediscover the person that I was born as. The one who entered this world with a purpose and gifts to share on his path. Now I realize, that I am this person, shedding the last layers of clothing that kept me from seeing the perfection among the mistakes that provided the lessons for this discovery. So I now claim this person as me. No more searching for that, that has always been.

My heart is now radiant. Time is speeding up. cooperation is taking hold, we are starting to listen to our evolutionary programs in our DNA and rejecting other programs that may prevent us from beauty we so long for. Our hearts are beginning to shine bright. We are accepting the connection and the oneness that we share and beginning to realize the possibilities in this.

It is a beautiful time to be here, to see the dream changing, to see the awaking. The power of our love is attracting many.

And like bear, I will, by the way I walk through my life, feeding off only that that provides nourishment and sharing the wisdom from brother salmon to bring forth my medicine with big strength without big ego.

Shift Happens*

And then there was a shift!  It happen all of a sudden and I knew that my plan had to shift as well...

Now that I had realized my dream vacation, it is to put my life’s purpose into action, to fulfill my end of the deal and share these visions, so others could see the happy places I visit frequently.  My job is to play and play in a way that enriches the Earth while I live my life well.  The time has come to write this book that is with me.   I will realize this in the next six months.  Then it will time to set up the playground I have been dreaming and become the CEO of play.

The last part of my journey was great, as I wandered around Florence, Rome, Athens and the Greek Isles of Mykonos and Santorini.  

The food was great, and the wine, everyone should take pride in their house wine that way that Italians and Greeks do.  Good food is a blessing, a connection to the land and one of life’s pleasures.   We are what we eat and and once again, traveling, I ate like a king.    

In Italy, I saw some amazing art, really spoke to me.  At the Uffizi gallery in Florence there was a statue of Pan who offered his words of encouragement, “revel in the beauty of the Earth.”  As if I need that reminder.  

I envisioned these great pieces of sculpture interacting with nature, in a birch forrest, an oak grove or within a glen of wild flowers with the mountains for a back drop.  The interaction of these human gifts of the heart with nature showing us that we do belong for this Earth, our talents enrich the world around us.  The Vatican has the best collection of pre christian art in galleries that look like warehouses.

I felt an unwinding of empire happening as I walked the streets of Rome.  Its goal served, the dark ages being necessary to usher in the millennium of gold that is approaching.  

There is so much to see and feel, walking around in places, like Athens, where Socrates and Plato walked and debated.  Both looking to define a noble philosophy of the world they occupied.  How wonderful to go back to beginning of the roots of our civilization and feel what it’s willing to offer us as we sit at the steps of one age and a new age dawns.

The sunny beaches of the Greek Isle was a fitting end to this adventure.  I am happy with nothing more than a towel, coconut oil and waking up and stumbling on to a beach and sunning by deep blue water, taking a swim and repeating all morning.   Then enjoying a good lunch, taking a nap and going to some place surrounded by cool music and beautiful people to talk with.  Revel in nature, fuck yeah!

My days on Santorini were spent on the ocean.  One day on a Greek Galleon, sailing,  drinking wine and watching the sun set and the other day in a Zodiac SCUBA diving in the crater that once was a giant volcano.  This has to be one of my favorite place.   It may be the biggest under water crater in the world, but it is a stunning with its red, white and black beaches cause by a volcano eruption that wiped out the Minoan civilization of crete and created this paradise.  

And then it was time to return, different from how I started, change and recharged.

As I made my way back I was greeted by rain, a drizzle in Dublin and a good old New England downpour arriving in Boston.  The rain cleanses, washes away what needs to be let go of.  With this reminder I was brought back to the center and to manifest the life I have been envisioning and enjoying my beach bum ways while they lasted.

I now sit in San Francisco.   Another dream manifested.  Once, I decided to move to SF, I drove to where I wanted be, found a hotel on a Friday night, a cancellation and a vacancy sign at had just been lit for my arrival.  The first place I looked at, the next morning, was right around the corner.  I put a deposit down and was done.  It was fast, quick, easy and met to be.

With some well defined goals to manifest, it is time to be that person that I have always been.  Over the next six month, I will realize my spiritual, professional, physical, and social self.   And find the place that I seek that has always been shining in my heart.

*as seen on a tee shirt at a Yoga Studio in San Francisco

The Voice Inside

in the Labyrinth at Damanhur we are invited to meditate in front of windows that represent one of the 37 gods on display.  The windows are stain-glass, coded with colors and symbols that activate something inside of me.  We are chanting, and the chamber resonates with the sound of angles as we move from window to window.  

I am struck by awe as some windows that seem to call me, Pan, Wakan Tanka, and others. While standing in front of some of them there is a whirlpool of of colors pulling me deeper and deeper into the window.   The vortex of colors activated something in my DNA to assist with my spiritual evolution.  At last I sit and meditate at the beginning of the hall where we entered and realize that Gaia is looking down the hall to me.  

I am here for the Earth.  Where some come from different places in the universe, I source from the Earth.  She is my inspiration and the reason for my quest.  How appropriate that she watches over me as I digest the messages that 37 gods have just downloaded in me.

Damanur is built on art, ceremony and a quest for knowledge.  They have crated their myths that guide them through forty years of community.  Open discussions that sometimes put people into different schools of thoughts, each searching for the truth, knowing the the truth changes with time and discovery.  It is really beautiful, even if I can not fully get behind everything they have discovered in 30 years as presented in a 3 hour lecture.  

The Damanurians have built a series of fantastic temples in that mountains.  These are called the “Temples of Humankind”.  The temples were built with with hand tools and volunteers wortking to carve out the temples, reenforce the space and decorating them with amazing art that touches my soul at the mythic.  You can see then here:  http://www.thetemples.org/.

The next day we go to the Sacred Forrest to meet the elementals and hear a concert performed by plants.  Here I start to sense the elementals in the forest.  There is one checking me out, reminding me to listen to the forrest and source from nature.  

In the Sacred Forrest there is a tree house village.  There is a small child that has live her whole life in a tree house.  “How cool is that”! the tree climber in me saids.  The beauty of the place in the summer with filter sun through the trees is stunning.  The Damanhurians say people dream purer dreams in the trees.

They have developed machines that allow plants to play music.  The plants are hooked up with a clip to a leaf and a stake by the roots and generate wave forms that are converted to music.  We have a concert with a improvisation jazz singer and the plants.  Mostly she follows the music of the plants, but sometimes a plant will follow her as it adjust to the vibrations we call sound.  Now, I wonder what is the soundtrack that the insects and animals of the forrest play to.

While at Damanhur, I had the opportunity to meditate each morning in front of a statue of Pan.  Pan for me is the wild masculine in nature the raw sexuality.  We connect and he plays his flute over me.  Who needs Viagra with Pan in his corner?

When I left Scotland, my trip was open to what ever that needed to happen.  I took a train to Paris and met up with a friend, Aleksandra and spent a day visiting the sights.  She introduced me to her favorite park and the tree of lovers.   Two trees grown together and a bench with a young couple making out.  It was a beautiful day, Paris in the spring time.

The next day I took a train to Spain. It took a couple of days to get from Paris to Santiago, Spain.  Santiago that is the end of the road for people who go on pilgrimage.   The cathedral I found dark and intimidating as I do most.  While here I was thinking that this place was built to steal your light from the cosmos.  When I visit with god it is in the forrest where our lights joins to shine over the world.   But that is me.

I enjoyed Spain.  From Santiago, Madrid, Ibiza and Barcelona all where great.  In Madrid I attended a breath session with my friend Aixa.  Here we breath for three hours.  Like most breathing sessions I go to a happy place.  

There a river with people floating down it and arriving at the river bank in front of me.  They leave their canoes and a celebration forms on the bank.  Its a party with food, music and dancing.  From this party, I am transformed into light and shoot up into the world of light.  Here I see the controls to switch on and off traits in my DNA.  I choose health and optimism.  Then, I notice that there is a collective DNA, a global DNA or the collective consciences, that can be changed as well. 

After Spain I take the train to France and rent a car to visit the Cathar Castles.

Walking through the ruins of some of Cathar Castles, in France, I am struck as though I have been here before.   The stones speak to me, “everyone has a value is worth a life’.  

I sit by a familiar stone and listen. 

“Our collective mind is what changes the world”.   It reminds me.

All around people are beginning to change.  More and more, realize that what is “real” does not seem to serve their higher purpose inside.  This awakening is happening across the globe.  We are being called to change our reality.

Back at Damanhur, I witness their full moon ceremony.  The stage of fire for such an event.  The Damanurians show up in their colored ropes, red, white and yellow.  There are 12 oracles wearing blue.  The ceremony builds with drumming and dancing.  The fires burn, incense is added, the stage prepared.  It is quite a ceremony to behold.  

The community summits questions at least a month in advance to be answered at the full moon.  The oracles channel the answer and read to the questioner behind a veil.  This keeps it impersonal as the answers come from another source.   But then, those are the answers, the ones inside, that I seek.

I leave refreshed to continue this journey.