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.

Play and Magic

I am sitting at  restaurant in Edinburgh looking out the window and watching a young man run up and down a hill with a eighty pound punching bag across his shoulders, thinking of that wonderful feeling when the muscles are taunt and the heart in pounding in the chest from the strain of physical exercise and am glad that I no longer need to train for that kind of fight.  

On the Isle of Skye, I am lying in bed as the walls start to fall away from the room and I a exposed to the night sky that is shining brightly with the stars.  I am naked to the night sky when three portals of light appear.  

To me these portals represent the three ways to go in life, there is the path of least resistance where your are like a leaf on a stream bobbing along to the strongest current until you’re sucked under or the path of most resistance where you stand strong in your ego like a boulder in the wind letting everything that does not stick to you, pass you by, or some in-between way as a boat on the river that makes the proper adjustments for a meaningful ride where you arrive at the place life has destined you to.    

The path between ease and ego.

I am finding this path more and more in my life with gentle lessons and meaningful adjustments.

My experience week at Findhorn was full of play!  That was our group angel, “PLAY”.  A continuation of the Irish adventure, where the Earth called out to honor her with play.

And I have been playing sense leaving the fire vigil.

My last day in Ireland, John and Karen took me to the faery tree where the rights of faeries where first transmitted.  We honored the tree with oats and blessings.  John then introduced me to “Irish Manhood” with a introduction to the game of hurling.  

Hurling is a team game played with hurly, sticks of the root of the ash tree and a silotar, a leather ball.  It is the fastest team sport played.  Once John Wayne, at a hurling match, was asked if you would like to be down there with a hurly, to which he replied “I wouldn’t want to be down there without one”.  Or so legend has it.  Much more practice is required before I hit the pitch.

After, we went to the “grave digger” for a Guiness.  This pub is the wall of a graveyard and would serve a beer to the grave diggers out the back door.  The pipes have never been cleaned with soap, only hot water.  The Guiness is as pure as you find anywhere in the world and the wall are steeped in sweat, smoke and stories of the people that frequented this pub for centuries.

Here, I was discovered the art of Brewination, where you blowing a question into your brew and reading the foam to predict the future.  This only works with a proper Guiness.  

So what does the future have in store for my current journey?  My journey will many layers and a rich and creamy ending.  

Sweet!

In Glastonbury, somewhere between the Chalice Well and the Tor the sacred masculine and feminine are dancing with me as I meditate.  This is the male/female union that the Earth loves.   A place for mediation at this place of balance.

Standing by a fountain that flow in the garden of the Chalice Well I am taken by a feeling of love and bliss.  The feeling comes in from behind and wraps around my hearth in a way that is both healing and affirming.  Nearby grows a Hawthorn Tree said to be taken from the thorn crown that Jesus wore, but I know it as the tree that holds the Faeries that just paid me a visit.  

I also, manage to find the Gog and Magog trees.  These trees are last two of a road of trees that the druids gathered before their processions.  One tree is hanging on to a small branch of life and the other is still flourishing.

Glastonbury is a spot where poetry flows through me.  I am taken over often with prose that spring forth into my head.  I am reminded:

When the heavens

open

and you are standing there

naked and free

your love shining

in the dew

left by a soft rain

and 

spirit is flowing 

all around

miss not the moment 

looking for 

the message

Later, I meet with Sara and we talk about the Fire Vigil in Ireland.  We agree that something big happen there as if, the entire group, has shifted up to another level.  Sara invites me to a ceremony on Sunday, but it not meant to be as the buses do not cooperate.

Off to London and there I meet up some old mates.  One is Paul, who I haven’t seen since Peru.  We have have a nice stroll through High Park in the afternoon and night of Doom at his local pub.  This night, the company, the ale and the food are too good not to indulge.  So we do.  It is an incredible good time.

Next up is my Experience Week at Findhorn.  Findhorn is a place built on magic.  Can you imagine growing 42 pound cabbages in the sand?  Now imagine eating 42 pounds of cabbage with five other people while living in a small caravan, camper.  It is magical that the caravan staid on the ground and did not fly away to the stars.

Today there are no longer 42 pound cabbages and the eco-village built next to the park has homes that rivals California in cost and square footage,  There is, however, still the possibility for magic and that is why people come to Findhorn to live, work and play.

Somehow they have design a week that is an introduction to Findhorn and seems to be just right for anyone where ever they are on their path.  We attune, play games, work and interact with nature in a way that we all discover something about Findhorn and ourselves.  In a week, I feel to have eleven more bothers and sisters, which my personal angel of Brotherhood/Sisterhood seems to confirm.  

I am re-introduce to the Pan spirit, the wild masculine, that was also part of Findhorn.  Most know that Eileen listened to the inner voice and Dorothy listen to the Garden Divas and some know that Peter was the believer and organizer acted on the magic and built Findhorn, but I did not know about ROC and his introduction to Pan until touring Findhorn when I am overtaken again with bliss on the spot of ROC’s trailer.  

I investigate more and it seems that another character in this saga is ROC who one day he saw a little satyr in a park in Edinburgh.  The creature was surprised that he saw him since most humans choose not see these creatures.  This meeting led to a meeting with Pan, who at one point walked into him and let him experience nature though his eyes.  

With this knowledge, I decide to focus on meeting the spirits.  We go to the Findhorn River one day and I sit by a tree in the rain.  After a while, I feel the presence of another spirit, but can not see it.  We have a telepathic conversations where I am told that I will see when I am ready.   Am I delusional?  Who knows, but I am tardy and nearly miss the bus going back to the college.

The next day at the morning mediation, I try to go to my quiet place but there are faeries on both sides of a wooded path leading me to a different place.  A clearing in the forrest.  There is a rock and I sit down.  There is magic all around as I watch the woodland spirits play.  I am encouraged by the spirits to believe the magic and follow through on my visions.  I shape-shift into a sea bird and fly over the shore.  It glistens in the sun as the waves gently roll upon the shore.  As I return, I see Pan.  He has a message for me.  Then I notice my breathing as I return to the reality that is Findhorn the gong is sounded and it is time to go to work.

I leave Findhorn with Gabrielle and Celia.  We give Celia a ride to Erraid,  a little island off the west coast of Scotland.  We drive through the rain to reach the sunshine of the island.  After four days of rain on the island the sun greets us.  Erraid is small community of nine adults, two children, three cats and seven cows and a bunch of sheep.  It is peaceful and nice to unwind here and I wake up to the sounds of getting the cows to the dairy for the morning milking.  “Come on Jennie, that a girl”.

A couple of days on Erraid and then Gabrielle and I go on a seven day adventure to the Isle of Skye and the North Coast of Scotland.  Where we drive, there is pretty much a postcard at each turn.  

We explore this part of Scotland, hiking each day and finding interesting place to spend the night.  We go without plan open to the journey and what it has to offer.  Most times we arrive a place for the sun to greet us as we begin a hike.  The magic follow us as we play, finding great restaurants and places to stay, like at Ocean’s where the walls fall away as I sleep.  Our last night, together is spent in Jail.   Well, an old police station converted into B&B.  We sleep where the two jail cells use to be.  

The next day I was freed from the jail and another layer of myself, that I brought to Findhorn, 

The Gog and the Magog Trees

Under a tree

older than belief

Clinging to life

by a branch

a chance

to grow

to learn

to be

born again

a new

in the dirt

from which

we crawled

to see

the light

that lifted

us here

to hear

the song

of the spheres

as they sing

to lead us

back to

the dirt

from which

we crawled

Sacred Ireland

Shooting up in a beam of light, I see three circles of light go out into the the world as I ascend.  I go through to sky to the tree of life, where I land on the top of the tree and realize that all the leaves are different and separated for from one another, as we modern humans seem to be.  I descend the tree and where the branches meet we are all one again, deep inside the tree of life.  There is great wisdom by going in and accessing this unity, we all hold within.

A beam of light engulfs me and I am off again flying to the middle world where I come to pristine field.  Here I see the sacred masculine and the divine feminine join in a long kiss.  As they kiss and kiss and kiss, an infinity sign of energy forms, crossing at their hearts and ending at their crown and root chakras.  

In this land watching this union is the lion and lamb lying side by side as male and female, strength and tenderness join as one.  

This was a global vision received next to an altar that I had early visioned as the sacred meeting place where the union of the male and female energies came together to honor the earth.  The next day I was in the pristine field of Uisneach, a sacred site in the exact center of Ireland, where the divine energies meet we held a Beltraine ceremony with a masculine and feminine fire that we walk through to celebrate this union that is brought forth by the spring.

It is amazing to me how this journey has evolved from a personal healing journey into a global one, where I now journey for the collective. The pieces have fell into place and the work that I am doing continues to put me in the places that I need to be in at the time I need to be there.  

This is the first international fire vigil and when I heard that it was in Ireland I knew that I would be there for I have a special love with the land, and the people who I have the pleasure to meet and hold ceremony with.  As usual I was not disappointed.

We opened our ceremony with a journey in the cairne at Dunderry Park.  It was a home coming for I had received the ninth right of the Munay Ki, for the first time in this very caire.  I can still remember the feeling of rebirth as I emerged and saw the stars for the first time as a child of light.  

In this cairne and journeyed and I was very clearly aware of the head of an eagle and a enchanted village, my journey, envisioning the how we my thrive in connection with the earth.  We emerged this night and I felt home, again.

The next day we headed to Tara to visit the sacred well, the faery tree, Lia Fa’il, Stone of Destiny, and the si’le na gig, the stone of the divine feminine. After a quick tour we gathered at the Faery Tree and ran around the tree dancing and laughing as we fed and connected with the faeries of the land.

Under the Faery tree, we journeyed in threes.  My journey took me up the tree of life and journeyed over an altar that was in the earth in a series three of squares that was meant to be covered.  This altar was for the sacred union of the divine feminine and masculine in honor and celebration of the Earth.  

After the journey, I worked back and had ceremony with the Stone of Destiny to work for my destiny in this life.  This was done by connecting with the stone at the heart and walking around it with eyes shut three times.  This was the stone that where the Kings of Ireland where crowned.  

After, I mediated on top of a cairne that held the ashes of the some of the ancient inhabits of this land.  Next up, was the stone of the divine feminine to connect with her energy as this union is vital for the healing of the Earth.

Cleansed and refreshed we returned for a keening ceremony that night.

I first heard of keening at a family funeral, my father joked that he wanted to have an “Irish Wailer” at his funeral.  Traditionally, there we three woman in long black veils, who would mourn for the deceased so the family could celebrate their life.  The keeners would gather in a corner to cry and wail as the family celebrated by having the decease  favorite foods and drinks and I am guessing, if it was a good looking corpse, that this include lots of fried foods and whiskey.  

As we enter the cairne I was without anything to mourn about.  My tears have all been shed.  Once in the carine it occurred to me that I could mourn for the state of the Earth.  This came as an energetic release that felt like a weight off my shoulders.  I have read that despair work is important to be able to open up to the healing of the Earth.  Without the despair work it is too overwhelming and many can not accept the consequence of their actions and their effect on the Earth.  

After keening the mood was way too somber for me and we ending up forming a drum circle and finding bliss and joy in the process beating the shit out of the available drums.  The grieving was completed.  

The next day we went to Loughcrew, Sliabh na Cailli, to connect with the wild feminine.  Yeah!  She was happy to see us, the weather was wonderful and the site was inviting.  We had been warned that it could be extremely wicked on the hill, but we where held sweetly.  My feeling is was one of play in engaging her.  The old girl still like as good night out with dancing and a good “rumpy bumpy” at the end of the night.  

We returned to find two big piles of wood on the place of where the sacred fire was to be that next day.  As we talked about the day it was announced that we would be able for fire walk that evening.  Well, the shit eating grin spread across my face at this surprise.  I had said once that if I ever got the chance to walk fire I would have to go first to have the full effect.   Once I saw someone else do it then it would not be the same to me.  I was both excited and nervous as we prepared.

We prepared ourselves with breath work, ecstatic dance and drumming, working ourselves into a state of ecstasy.  When the time came I was first in line and set my intent to walk to live to my higher purpose in spite of myself and I was off.  What a feeling of rebirth after walking fire.  

Then came the fire vigil.  

We switched altar, made the map and prepared the fire.  The spark was lit by our Irish hosts, Karen and John and carried out by representatives of the four directions, Canada, Iceland, Africa and Ireland.  We marched to the fire and it was off.   

That night we received the faery rites.  This was “so fucking awesome”.  These rites we devised by the si’ folk of Ireland and presented to us by the side of the faery lake.  We painted our faces and once the rites where received, we played and danced and danced and played.  Play is such a powerful way to heal the Earth.  Our laughter and smiles energize the Earth.   And playing connects us to the Earth.  We ended the night with stories, songs and jokes around the fire.

With the luck of good fortune and good friends, I ended up getting my preferred spot at the fire, 2 to 4 AM.   For me this is dream time, it time of the faery folk and the best time to be holding a vigil.  My fire mate, Lisa, David, who we were to hand the fire to and I, armed with a bottle of whiskey headed to the fire.  We offered our prayer, whiskey, tobacco and incense to the fire and got it burn with the intensity in which we held our love for the earth.  Our fire burned bright.  It was here I saw my first faery.  The ball of light appeared and hovered around to to check us out and was gone.  But, not without a little mischief that involved a gazebo and an electric fence.   That, however, is another story.

Saturday we mostly gather by the fire.  It burned differently with each pair of fire tenders, some sweet, others intense and all with honor.  At night we went on a journey on boat ride to the three worlds.  In each realm, I received gifts for the collective.  Mine were a golden book to answer any question, a lamp to light any darkness and a golden guitar and book of poems. 

More fun around the fire and then some sleep.  Around 10 in the morning we stopped feeding the fire and let it expire a natural death.  Our work completed.  

The next morning we got up and when on our road trip to Ireland sacred sites.  We visited Carrowkeel where three cairnes remained and open to the public.  Here the theme of play was strong.  For this was a trip to play and recapture my youthful sense of life as I embrace my sage self.

The next day we went to Carrowmore and here I shot up into a beam of light.