Waterfalls

Iceland has a vast abundance of water in the form of lakes, streams, ice caps and glaciers.   The streams run very full and fast, and many hydroelectric power plants have been built to take advantage of that.  In fact, 70% of the electricity produced in the country is hydroelectric. 

Waterfalls.  They are everywhere, large and small, from dribbles to deluges. 

 Below is a waterfall in a garden like setting in the highlands.

Note the basalt columns here. 

Another lovely one.

Our group visited this waterfall on our last day in Iceland, and actually walked behind it. Imagine yourself standing near the waterfall pictured below.  Feel the spray on your face and body.   Hear the roar of the water.  Take a deep breath and embody the clarity and power.   Be refreshed! 

Soaking

I am going through my usual large number of photos from the trip to Iceland, and will be posting a few of them in no particular order.  The Icelandic language is one of the most complicated ones to spell and to pronounce, so I will not be listing most of the places where the photos were taken.  Our group kept up a pretty fast pace, so a lot of the trip locations just blended together, especially all of those waterfalls.   

The Icelandic people are particularly fond of soaking in man made pools outside, or in certain sections of streams that are fed by hot water that bubbles up from deep underground.  The mid Atlantic ridge snakes through the country from northeast to southwest, so this is where most of the hot soaking pools are located.  

The first stop for our group after being picked up at the airport was to go to the nearby Blue Lagoon for a nice soak.  This is Iceland’s premier geothermal spa, and is located amidst an extensive and barren lava field.   Next to the lagoon is a geothermal power plant where ocean water is pumped 1 kilometer into the ground to the magma layer to be super heated.  The steam that comes up then turns the turbines creating electricity.  The steam in the photos below is coming from the power plant. The left over hot water is then sent to the lagoon.  The spa was opened in the mid 80’s after the locals discovered that soaking in the silica rich hot water cured a variety of skin ailments. 

My experience of the water was that it was very alive and had a consciousness of its very own.  It was like soaking in a very busy and yet nurturing liquid.  In the weeks before the trip, I had been plagued by some muscle spasms in my lower back, and all of that completely cleared up after a nice soak.  I do believe that it was possible to communicate with the consciousness of the water to express the desire for a specific healing, which I did. 

The next day, we got to experience a different kind of soak.  In the afternoon, we were driven to a trailhead up in the mountains for a 4 mile, one way and down slope hike.  About halfway down to our pick up point was a hot stream that is also very popular with the locals for soaking.  The hot water enters the stream upslope, and so there is a warning sign letting people know that the water at that spot is dangerously hot. 

Here, there is no really private way to change into your bathing suit, so you just do it quickly and ignore everyone else. 

Then, slide into the hot water of the stream and enjoy. 

As opposed to the mineral rich and very buoyant water of the Blue Lagoon, this water was crystal clear and drinkable (if you wanted to) spring water.  When we were done soaking, it was time to quickly change back into our hiking clothes and walk the 2 miles down to the parking lot and our waiting bus.

 

Iceland, the Land of Fire and Ice

I am back from my latest adventure, which was an 8 day hiking trip in Iceland.  All I have to say is a big WOW!!!  As many of you know, I am a big fan of taking a break from the ordinary, and giving yourself a chance to reset and retool your life.  This trip did not disappoint. 

Iceland is probably the most geologically interesting place that I have ever visited.  It is the only place where the mid-Atlantic ridge is above the ocean’s surface, and so its soil and rock is 100% created by eons of volcanic eruptions, much like the Big Island of Hawaii.  It is still subject to periodic volcanic eruptions, lava flows and earthquakes.  Iceland also has ice caps, glaciers, ice bergs, black sand beaches, volcanic fissures, geysers, sulfuric steam coming out of cracks in the ground, bubbling mud pots, hexagonal basaltic columns, hot streams that one can soak in, naturally pure cold drinking water that does not need to be treated, some very big lakes, and way too many waterfalls to count.  All very picturesque.  Not to mention those very cute Icelandic ponies. 

On a personal note, while on this trip, I had a chance to connect with the nature kingdoms of the plants and the minerals.  The volcanic energy had a very masculine feel, not like the feminine energy that one finds in Hawaii.  The energy of everything also felt quite new and fresh, not ancient, and a bit sterile.  The only mammals that live there, besides the domesticated cattle, sheep and horses, were the arctic fox and some rodent species, and we saw neither.   So no critters, except for a few birds, were ever seen while we were out hiking.  That made our outings very quiet, and somehow a bit disconcerting.  As a contrast, I went with a botany group up into the alpine zone yesterday, and at one stop alone, we saw a marmot, several pikas and a weasel.  I also flushed out a little snake from my flower bed while I was watering this morning, so not seeing these kinds of things was a bit unusual. 

I now find that I have internalized the “quiet”.  It feels good just to sit with it while I am getting my body and energies back to “normal”.  It took me 24 hours to get back here, door to door, last Wednesday because of some airport delays, not to mention the 7 hour time difference between SW Colorado and Iceland.   So as I sort through my photos, I will post some of them here.  More later! 

Life on Hold

This past week or so, I have noticed an unusual phenomenon in my world.  From time to time, especially when I put my attention to it, I notice that I appear to be melting!  The sensation is also one of merging into my environment.  This happens outdoors and indoors, too.  It is like the atoms that form my physical body are spreading apart and floating off. 

So what is this all about?  A few days ago, I took some time to tune into the global energy, thinking that I was not the only one experiencing this.  It appears that we are once again in what I would call a holding pattern that has been preventing all kinds of forward movement in a number of ways.   These events seem to be cyclical, as they come and go on a regular basis.  I was also reminded of a book written in 1977 entitled “Stalking the Wild Pendulum, on the Mechanics of Consciousness” by Itzhak Bentov.  Believe it or not, I still have the updated version that was printed in 1988! 

Bentov writes about all sorts of interesting and original concepts in this book, but what always stuck in my mind was his analogy of the pendulum swinging back and forth.  Since I took many years of piano lessons as a young adult, this concept could also apply to a metronome.  He posits that at either end of the pendulum’s swing, where it totally stops for a very brief moment, the mass of the pendulum dissolves into infinity.  As soon as the pendulum starts to swing in the opposite direction, it returns to the physical world.  In essence, it swings between the finite world and the infinite.   

On many levels, from the micro to the macro, we are doing the same thing.  So is this what is happening now?  My sense is that we are in the null or void space before we once again accelerate into a new reality.  This reality will be different for each of you according to your circumstances and destiny, but it is also clear that planet earth is at the precipice of something new that is coming along in our future. 

The benefit of being in this null zone is that you are connected to the “All that Is” and can consciously create your own future out of the causal matter of the universe.  What will you create?  Plant the seeds now and prepare for them to grow and bear fruit during the next phase of acceleration.