February Launching

My group of former students and I just had our last Sunday of the month launching this morning.  We were shy of one participant, so there were 4 of us.  We are now getting into our groove with the process, and I am still amazed that everyone is having a productive launch alone in their own homes!  We do some catching up beforehand, and also give feedback on each other’s launch afterwards.  As always, an intent is needed before one is sent out into the cosmos. 

When reporting on this event, I do not report on the other participant’s description of their journey, only mine.  Today, my intent was to revisit the process and energy of the 2 labyrinths that I walked last week. 

As soon as I was launched, I experienced myself shooting up through the center of one labyrinth after another.  They were different types and sizes, and my friend Kathleen described it as if I was going up through the center of a layer cake with lots of layers. 

This spiraling energy then turned into a double helix of DNA.  I found myself kicking out distortions and mutations, which often look like small black cubes that are stuck on the 2 strands.  The 2 strands became one and then rolled up into a glowing white ball. 

I dove right into that ball, and was surprised to find that it was packed full of symbols, scenes, objects, and the totality of all of my soul’s experiences on this planet and others, in all dimensions, and across all space and time.  So I am surmising that when one gets to the state where all of the DNA is rolled up into one package, one has experienced the totality of their current journey.  It also felt like the description that is given of the minute particle that is then exploded via the big bang to create absolutely everything. So I hung out here for a bit just overwhelmed by all of the stuff in this glowing white ball.

At the end of my journey, I found myself in a very familiar place.  I was floating in a honey colored energy where there was no time or space, no up or down, no thoughts or emotions.  An empty but very comforting place to be.  Actually, there was no “being”, either!  Just a vast nothingness of pure potential.  This where I was when the group called me back.  Sometimes I call this place “Source”, but I am not sure about that either. 

So there you have it.  I plan to take it easy for the rest of the day, after meeting a friend for lunch in a bit.  I will report on every launch, assuming that there is something to report.  A heads up, the first day of spring is on March 20^th and I will be doing a bowl burning.   I may be inviting a few other people this time, too.  Things are starting to open up! 

Kayenta

It was Sunday morning, and time to check out of the resort and head back home.  The afternoon before I had some free time, so I drove the short distance west to a very unique subdivision called Kayenta to wander through their Art Village and shopping area.  I had visited a friend there back in about 2004, but I believe that the shops, theater, and art center were not yet built back then.  Driving away in my car, I noticed that they also had a labyrinth,  but I did not have time to visit it.  So, as inspiration would have it, I decided to drive back over to Kayenta and walk their labyrinth before heading back to Cedar City.

Surrounding the Kayenta Desert Rose Labyrinth is a botanical garden and numerous works of art.   Being a Sunday morning, the whole place was deserted and had an amazing feeling of peace and tranquility.  Here are some of the sculptures around the property.

The labyrinth itself is a classical 11 circuit, which I think is the best kind.  It is surrounded by benches, desert trees and shrubs, and some of the art work.  As I did with the spiral labyrinth at the resort, I set my intent for release going in, and my intent for my positive outcome coming out.  I walked very slowly, and got into an altered state of consciousness by doing so.  Wow!  What an experience!  By the time I was done, I was floating.  Here is the labyrinth from several angles.

As I sat on a bench collecting myself after this amazing experience, a desert cottontail popped out of the bushes.  My Chinese astrological sign is the rabbit, and I took this to be a positive omen for my days of R & R in SW Utah! 

Winding Down

 

The next day, after a nice morning hike with guests at the resort, down time with a massage in the afternoon, and a great dinner, here I am with my birthday cupcake.  It was delicious!  To top it off, there was a sound meditation that evening.  I had a very nice day.  

The next morning, I did a hike on a local trail on my own, feeling like I needed some alone time away from the resort.  The trail was called Johnson Canyon Trail, and it started just at the entrance to Snow Canyon State Park. 

The main attraction here is a large arch about half way into the canyon itself.

After you pass the arch, the canyon narrows and the sides get steeper as you keep on going.

At the very end, you are boxed in, with towering rock walls all around you. I was all alone at this point, and sat on a boulder watching a pair of ravens carrying sticks to their nesting site.  They were murmuring to each other the whole time.  It was magical.  Then these 2 guys showed up, and I left to hike out shortly after that. 

On my way out, and another view of the arch.

Here are a few more photos of the area around the entrance to the canyon.

In the center of the photo below, you can see where the start of the canyon is.

The Lava Tube

 

Late in the afternoon on my first full day at the resort, I signed up for an excursion into a lava tube, also at Snow Canyon State Park.  This whole area of SW Utah was very volcanic in the geologic past, and lava fields can be seen in many of my photos.  In fact, there is also a lot of lava near where I live in Cedar City.  On this particular hike, I met a lovely woman named Annette from the Detroit area, who was also staying at the resort.  There were just the 2 of us and our guide Shelly hiking to the lava tube. 

When I say tube, one would imagine just walking into something the size of a huge circular drainage pipe.  Apparently, that does happen in other parts of the world, but not here.  If you want the full explanation of what they are, click here.  This tube had collapsed leaving a hole to climb down into and lots of rock fall from the ceiling on the floor of the tube.  Actually, it was more of a cave than a tube.

We started out on the Butterfly Trail, aptly named for a rock formation caused by a falling boulder that split into two.

Then on to the Lava Tube Trail.

Upon approaching the entrance to the tube, I was a bit dismayed that we had to first climb down a vertical 12 foot wall.  Imagine looking over the edge in this photo.  The opening to the tube is at the back of the big hole. 

Our guide went first, and expertly guided Annette and me down step by step.  She then photographed us before we actually entered the tube.  At this point, we already had our headlamps on, as the tube would be totally dark inside.

Here is a photo looking from the inside back out towards the entrance.

Here I am inside with my headlamp on.

It was a unique sensation being underground like that.  It was also very dusty and dirty, and we had to climb over rock fall from the ceiling the whole time.  I had heard that a lot of people don’t go down in there because they are claustrophobic, but with the headlamp on, one had to be looking down all the time to climb safely, so there was really no sensation of being closed in at all. 

Shelly then helped us retrace our steps and climb up that vertical wall out to the open air.  Relief at last!!!  By then the sun was going down.  Annette and I had dinner together, and hung out a lot for the remainder of our stays. 

Snow Canyon State Park

Each day at the resort, a variety of activities were offered.  On my first morning there, I chose to do a “Challenge” hike.  It turned out to be quite a challenge, and I ended up switching to the next level down, the “Explorer” hike the next day. 

Our group gathered at 8 AM, and drove over to Snow Canyon State Park, which was just down the road.  Here are photos of our hike on the Hidden Pinyon Trail.  Lots of scrambling up and down rock faces and even sliding through a slot canyon. 

A nice video!

 

Here are a few photos of the resort.  Clearly, it is located in the desert!

That afternoon, during some free time, I walked the labyrinth that was just behind the building where I was staying.  This particular labyrinth is set up in a spiral pattern, and it is quite large.  It is very important to walk a labyrinth very slowly and in a purposeful manner with intent.  What should the intent be?  That is up to you.  I like to walk from the outside to the center intending to release anything that no longer serves me.  I keep repeating this intent and really feeling it all the way in.  I then spend some time in the center expanding in gratitude and appreciation before making the journey back to the outside.  On the way out, my intent is to call in and embrace all of the positive changes that I am looking for.   This whole process can be very powerful, and my sense is that it does shift your DNA.  If any of you have a labyrinth nearby, I encourage you to make use of it frequently.  My last post will describe another labyrinth that I walked on my last day of the trip.

A Personal Milestone

 

Last week, I hit a personal milestone age wise, and wanted to celebrate.  Since gatherings are still being discouraged, and also since I have not met enough people here to have a party, I decided to spend a few days at a resort for some R & R.  On Wednesday, I checked into the Red Mountain Resort in Ivins, Utah, which is about an hour south of here. 

Before I did that, I met up with my regular ladies hiking group for a very nice hike which coincidentally was not far from the resort.  This trail is called the Tempi’po’op Trail, which means “Rock Writing”.  As you might guess, there were a lot of petroglyphs on that trail.

Before we got to the rock art, we had to hike a ways.  I think, our total distance for that hike was 5.8 miles.   Here are some photos.

Here we are looking towards Ivins and the Red Mountain in the distance.

On the opposite side of the trail.

Most of the rock art was found down the trail on horizontal surfaces that were on the edge of a canyon.  There were also a few on vertical surfaces.  It was my impression that this was a sun calendar site, and was used for ceremonies at certain times of the year.

After the hike I checked into my room.  Luckily, I had a room facing out from the property and on the second floor.  Here's the view from there.  Red rocks and lava fields.  There was also a labyrinth to the left of the scene.

More about my adventure later!