Death Valley

The next 4 days of my trip were spent in Death Valley, California.  What a unique and marvelous place on the planet!  Even though it is a desert, it is not all dry and sterile.  The lowest point is 282 feet below sea level at Badwater Basin, and it is surrounded by high mountain peaks, the highest of which is Telescope Peak which rises above the low point by 11,331 feet.  There was snow on the mountains when I was there, and on our last day, the temperature got up to 90°. 

This is a land of stark contrasts.  It has sand dunes, ancient lava flows and volcanic craters, salt flats, canyons to hike through, overlooks that provide big vistas, and a surprising amount of water in the form of creeks, springs, shallow salty lakes, some waterfalls, and a few oases.  At Salt Creek, we were able to observe the tiny endangered pup fish during their mating season.  The Furnace Creek area, where our lodging was located, is a green oasis in the middle of Death Valley, and features a golf course and visitor’s center.  We even went out stargazing one night, although the light from the full moon’s early rising blotted out some of the stars. 

I had planned this trip hoping to see the blooming of the desert spring flowers, and was not disappointed.  There were fields of yellow asters called Desert Gold, and a very unique globe shaped pink flower called the Desert 5 Spot.  Some parts of Death Valley had numerous flowers in bloom, and other places had nothing at all.  Most were tiny, so that one had to walk and look carefully to spot them.  I would guess that as I am writing this, and with temperatures into the 90’s, most of those flowers have now faded and gone to seed. 

Below is a small sampling of the photos I took, which numbered about 1000!  Enjoy. 

Valley of Fire

I thought I'd share some photos from my trip, as most of you have probably never been through this part of the US.  First, let me say that this was not a spiritual or sacred site tour.  It was a trip with an organization called Road Scholar for just plain ordinary people.  I do love the sacred site tours, but more often than not on those kind of trips, there is at least one person who has a sense of entitlement and likes to act up, or a tour leader who is not suitable for that type of work, as I have experienced several times on some of my previous trips.  When you are with non-spiritually oriented people and a reliable and reputable tour company, things tend to go smoother.  The only exception is when I have traveled with my dear friend Julie Wiley and her company Spirit and Adventure.  Julie is a meticulous planner, and even with a go with the flow outlook, magical events just seem to fall into place during her trips. I'll be going with her again in September to Bolivia and Peru.  Can't wait! 

Even though we spent a few days in Las Vegas at the start of this trip, I'm not going to waste my time writing about that.  Needless to say, that city and what goes on there is so not me!  I've never been, so now I can say that I have.  It's not a place that I would go to just to hang out.  In this case, it was the starting place for our tour. 

On the first day, we did a day trip to the Valley of Fire, which is north of Las Vegas and in Nevada.  It is a red rock area with a lot of hiking trails, rock art, and a very nice visitor's center.  I will let the photos give you an idea of what we experienced.

Winter Storm Thor

I have been back from my trip for a few days now, and am also doing my best to adjust to losing an hour to the Daylight Savings Time switch.  This one is so much harder than the change back to standard time in the fall!  My travels took me to Las Vegas for a few days and then on to a very nice hiking trip in Death Valley, California.  This was an organized group tour, and we were in the desert just in time to view the spring bloom of the wildflowers.   Getting there was a whole different story.

I had planned on flying from the Durango airport, which is about 60 miles east of my house, to Las Vegas.  The flight was to leave at 3:30 on Saturday afternoon.  as those of you who live in the US know, we had a humongous and long lasting winter storm that affected almost all of the country last week.  That was Thor.  Cute, eh?  As I was packing for the trip on Friday afternoon, I was keeping an eye on the weather, and the outlook was not very good.  At that time, several feet of snow was being predicted for the area around the airport, and it was looking doubtful that my flight would be leaving on time, or leaving at all.  In addition to that, the route to the airport goes over a mountain pass that can be very treacherous if the weather is bad. 

What was I to do?  The tour started on Sunday afternoon, and I really didn’t want to miss even a single minute of it.  I could have gotten trip insurance at that late hour, but even if I was delayed getting into Las Vegas I would still have had to find my own transportation to Death Valley to catch up to the group.  Big stress was starting to set in about that time!  My mind was spinning. 

As can often happen in these situations, a solution can just pop in when you least expect it, usually during a time when your mind relaxes a bit.  My guidance came through and said “Just drive!”  Whoa!!!  Just drive?  I hadn’t even considered that possibility amongst the others that I was mulling over.  In that instant, my whole plan did a switch and I canceled my flight.  I then started readjusting my packing, got out my maps, and readied my Garmin GPS to use in the car.  By the time I went to bed on Friday night, I had thrown everything I would need in the car, including food, water, and a blanket, and figured that I would sort it all out when I got to Las Vegas. 

On Saturday morning, it was not snowing here when I got up, but an hour later, there was already an inch and a half of new snow on the ground.  I had to get going quickly.  Off I went.  The streets in Cortez were a sheet of ice, but I just drove slowly and carefully out of town.  I was on a mission!  Griping the steering wheel, and white knuckled, I drove straight south about 140 miles to Gallop, New Mexico.  That was the worst part of the trip, and it took about 3 ½ hours.  The roads alternated between ice and snow packed, wet and slushy, to sometimes easy and dry.  On one stretch south of Shiprock, on what was a divided highway with a 65 mph speed limit, I was limited to driving about 25 mph while staying within the ruts that previous drivers had made going through at least 6 inches of snow.  That was probably the scariest.  Fortunately, the predicted high winds combined with the snow did not materialize at that point, as very dangerous whiteout conditions would have occurred. 

Once on the interstate, I could drive the 75 mph speed limit and make up some time.  I could finally relax a bit, as there was no snow there, only high winds.  The whole trip took about 10 hours and 570 miles, including a few stops.  To this day, I still do not know if the Durango Airport closed down, but I do not regret doing the drive.  What an adventure! 

The whole point here is to follow your guidance.  A solution to any problem will be provided if you are open to hearing that inner voice.  The next step is to act on that guidance, no matter how nonsensical it may seem.  I could have easily gotten myself into a whole heap of trouble driving through such dangerous conditions, but I like to think that I did it in a safe and sensible way.  What about other drivers who were not so safe and sensible, and who might have gotten me into an accident?  I just trusted that that possibility was not in the cards for me that day, and concentrated on the goal at hand. 

So what if a situation happens to you where you need to make a move fast, or relocate in a hurry?  Just look at the weather disasters we have had in the US in recent years.  Floods, hurricanes, tornadoes, and blizzards to name a few.  What about fires, train derailments, or plane crashes?  What if there are several choices of what to do?  How do you choose?  Our Higher Selves know exactly what we should do or where we should go.  The trick is to listen and not let our analytical minds get in the way.   Then trust and act.  I do not regret doing the long round trip drive.  It was exhausting but at the same time, it allowed me to drive through a beautiful part of the country that I was unfamiliar with.  I trusted and acted and received many gifts in the process.  

Taking a Break

I will be taking a break next week, and hopefully get back to my postings the week after as time allows.  More later! 

Do Not Go To The Light!

I may have touched on this subject before, so here it is again, and especially since it is a tie in to the last post entitled “What is Real?”.  This past week, I had the privilege of working with several clients who were concerned about loved ones who had passed over.  Part of my shamanic training and the additional training at the Monroe institute involved tracking or finding where the deceased person ended up after they died, and determining if they were stuck or in need of assistance.  Let me be clear that this is not the same as mediumship, as I observe and gather impressions and information, but I do not have a conversation with the deceased. 

So the tie in to the last post involves the hologram that we are all living in.  This is the structure of the 3D/4D arena, and is also composed of both the organic and synthetic realities.  It is the arena that we have created for our growth and evolution.  Part of our challenge here is to be able to perceive and recognize the difference between these two polarities, and make appropriate choices if possible.  That can be tricky, as there is little free will in this arena.  On top of that, our path has been predetermined before birth by our soul and Higher Self.  There is a lot of wiggle room however, and our intended positive outcome can take many forms.  The goal is to get in our groove and make our way to that outcome without sabotaging ourselves! 

This holographic creation has been hijacked by the beings of the synthetic matrix at some point to keep us stuck here, looping through lifetime after lifetime.  In other words, the cattle (us) went from roaming the free range to fenced in pastures!  The mechanism that that keeps us looping is the tunnel of light that opens up upon death.  When you go through this tunnel, you pass through a series of vibrational levels up to the level where you start the planning for your next lifetime here on earth.  From that final level, there is no way to access and exit at a higher vibrational level.  The only direction to go is back down again.  And on and on and over and over!

In the course of working with the deceased, if I find that a soul is earthbound, in other words, stuck in what is considered to be the no man’s land of the etheric patterning of the planet, I can assist them in getting unstuck.  Being earthbound means that they have not gone to the light within a few days of their death because of a variety of reasons, including not having the vibration and consciousness that is necessary to even make it that far.  The first thing that I do is to send them into that portal or tunnel of light back on their path of resolving and evaluating the most recent lifetime and eventually planning for their return to take another go at it. 

Now, someone would ask, why do I send them back into the cycle of reincarnation instead of helping to free them all together?  A good question that I get asked occasionally.  When a person passes, they naturally gravitate to the vibrational level that matches their own at the moment of death.  This is a matter of how they lived their life, their spiritual path, and the amount of clarity and consciousness that they have attained and can maintain through the death process.  All of these factors are not mine to resolve for them at the end.  So my job is to get them back on the path and reduce the amount of baggage and suffering that they have taken with them when they leave the body. That is the best that I can do in these situations. 

For those of you who will be making a conscious and highly vibrational exit to this hologram, whether it is through a natural death process or some sort of spiritual transformation, I say “DO NOT GO TO THE LIGHT!”  This is the polarized light of the 4^th dimensional arena.  We have been so programmed to go there through generations of religious beliefs and the promotion of current spiritual principles that we will have to bring all of our will and consciousness to bear to do something different.

What is the something different?  I hope to be mapping this out in more detail in the future, but right now, I see several choices.  Through your grounding and intimate connection with the Earth Mother, you will be able to access the 5^th dimensional stargate at her core, and exit this arena in that way, perhaps going with her when she makes her transition.  If you find yourself floating in a void after you leave your body for the final time, hover there for a bit.  Ask your Higher Self to show you where you need to go next.  I do not know what the glowing globe surrounded by the sparks of light is that I wrote about in the last post, but that might be a suitable destination, too.  There is also the possibility that you might see and sense the hologram that you have been existing in shatter around you as you burst out of it.  The goal is to bypass the 3D/4D arena all together at that point, because one cannot fight their way through it and exit at the top.         

In any event, trust that you will know what to do when the time comes.   Then you will be on your way to your next big thing!  As the acceleration continues in this arena, I really do anticipate that we will see and experience this in our lifetimes. 

What Is Real?

This morning as I was coming out of dreamtime, a very interesting scene presented itself to me.  I was in what appeared to be the lobby of a modern office building.   It was a bright expansive space with lots of glass and a few people were coming in and out the front doors.  All of a sudden, the whole scene shattered into pieces as if it were painted on a huge mirror that had broken apart.  What was left was dark empty space all around. 

As can be done in dreamtime, I asked for the action to repeat so that I could take a closer look.  This time, I found myself inside a large sphere that was like a 360 degree movie screen.  All sorts of scenes were taking place all around me.  I was the observer and not actually in any of the scenes.  Once again, this sphere shattered into big shards of glass with the scenes still painted on them.  These shards disintegrated and I was again floating in the dark void space. 

So at this point, I realized that I was looking at a hologram.  Is this the reality that we have been existing in for eons?  And if so, what is creating it?  As soon as I asked that, off in the distance I saw a globe of light with many very tiny specs of light swarming around it, much like a yard light would attract bugs at night.  Were we the specs?  What was the globe that we were swarming around?  There are many more questions that came up with not a lot of answers right now, but the implications of this are huge for our understanding of who we are and what we are doing here.

I wanted to write about this before the memory faded during the day.  As I got up and started to move around the house, everything around me still maintained the 2 dimensional feel of something that had been painted on a flat surface.  A bit surreal.  Perhaps there is something in the programming of this hologram, or even in our physical brains, that translates the flat 2D surroundings into the 3 dimensions of height, width and depth.  Imagine going through your day inside the sphere of your own personal hologram, and yet somehow having it translated into 3D as you go along.  What if you could translate it back into the flat surface of 2D and then reach out and smash it yourself?  Just imagine doing this and how it would feel to be totally in your power, in your knowingness, and totally awakened to who you really are. Awesome!

The Procession Panel

Yesterday I had a chance to do a mini retreat as the weather was unseasonably warm and I really had the urge to get out of town for the day.  I drove the 85 miles into Utah to the trailhead for the Procession Panel archeological site.  This site features a fabulous rock art panel created by the ancient Anasazi Indians during the Basketmaker III period that dated from 500-750 AD.  To get to this rock art panel, one takes a trail that goes up in elevation almost 900 feet in 2.82 miles.  The route is a steady upwards hike on the east side of the Comb Ridge monocline, and is almost all on sandstone slickrock.  If you care to go all the way to the top of the monocline after pausing at the rock art panel, you end up teetering on the edge with nowhere else to go but straight down the west side.   And I really mean straight down!  I usually don’t put more than one photo in each blog post, but I couldn’t resist a few extras here.

Since yesterday was a week day, and not a busy time of year, I had hoped to have the place all to myself.  What a delight it was to be out in the middle of nowhere with not a person, dog or car in sight!  Not so good if I were to slip and break my leg, but I wasn’t worried about that.  My purpose was to hike to the petroglyph panel and do some tuning in and meditation.  Just sitting and vegging out to get a break from my busy schedule. 

Not much is known about what the rock art on the Procession Panel is thought to be depicting. Some say that it is a migration story; others say it symbolizes a gathering around a great kiva.  It features a circle that is about a foot in diameter with 3 streams made up of a total of 179 tiny people connecting to the edge of the circle. 

There are many animals in the rock art, including elk, deer, desert bighorn sheep, a few birds and even a mountain lion or two, all pecked into the sandstone.  

A few of the tiny people are holding what look like shepherds crooks, and a few others have birds on top of their heads.  All of the animals on either side of the circle are pointed in the direction of the circle, but the interesting thing is that this circle is totally empty except for some random peckings.  So what does it all mean?

Every important site is placed where it is because of the energy that the land holds.  This is true for ancient sites all over the world.  The way I tune in is to actually put my hand on the rock and go into an altered state, and gather impressions.  In addition, this rock wall faces southwest, and may have been an important gathering place for sunset at the winter solstice. 

This is what I received at the Procession Panel. “This is a gathering place.  Gather yourself to your core.  This core is strong, stable, safe, knowing and protected.”  I then asked why the circle was empty, and I immediately had the feeling of falling down a very deep pit and being absorbed by the energy of our Earth Mother.  It was almost like having my hand and then my body being sucked into the sandstone inside of the circle.  Wow!!  So did this mean that all of the human figures, and the birds and animals were meant to disappear or be absorbed into the center of the gathering place? Is this a map of some big energetic transition for life on the planet?  I have to say that it felt pretty good to have the core of my being gathered up and then merged with the Heart of the Mother! 

Is this really the message of the rock art panel?  Perhaps not, but my energy and psyche interpreted it that way.  If one knows how to work the energy of a sacred site, the personal messages can be very profound in addition to gathering information about that particular site.  

 

After hanging out with the rock art a bit longer, I proceeded to hike up the sloping slickrock to the very tip of the monocline.  Well, not the very tip, as that can be a bit creepy looking straight down the other side at the sudden drop off.  The 360° views up there were fabulous, and I hated to leave when my time for introspection was complete.  One last stop at the rock art panel on the way back down, and then down the slope to my car and back home. 

A nice day like that can be so rejuvenating, and we all owe it to ourselves to take some self nurturing breaks every once in a while.  Most of us are doing yeoman’s work during this time of transition, whether we realize it or not.  Remember that you can assist no one if you yourself are depleted and have given too much away to others.  Your core must be strong and your purpose unwavering.  This is the foundation for your service.