Magic in the Mountains

After a very busy 4^th of July holiday yesterday, with a long parade in the morning and lots of fireworks all over town in the evening, I was ready for a sojourn into the local mountains for some down time.  I drove up to Cedar Breaks National Monument early, as I like to do.  It is nice to be among the first ones on the trails when it is quiet and when the birds and other critters are active. 

I hiked the Alpine Pond trail, which didn’t take long, as it is only 2 miles long.  Not wanting to go back home quite yet, I drove further north to the park boundary to hike a bit of another trail there.  Cedar Breaks is currently running its wildflower festival, as the peak of the flower season in just coming on.  Nevertheless, I was shocked at the sight that greeted me when I got out of my car.  Fields of purple Penstemon leiophyllus, Markagunt penstemon, surrounded me.  I have visited this spot many times each summer, but I never remember it looking like this.  Talk about magic!   

The photo at the top is of Brian Head Peak, which tops out at about 11,300’.  All of the fields below were full of not only the penstemon, but yarrow, potentilla, orange sneezeweed and buttercups.  What a show.   I felt like I was in a trance most of the time.  What a way to reset after the busy holiday.  So instead of hiking a bit of the trail there, I just wandered and took photos.  Here are some of them. 

I am always looking for flowers that I have not identified yet, or unusual variations of the ones that I know.  Like magic, I was magnetized over to a pink version of the purple flower.  That was new. 

Then, I spotted something about 15’ away.  It was white, but I could tell from a distance that it was not a yarrow.  This was a rare albino version of the same plant.  I was thrilled, and could barely drag myself away after taking many photos.

When I work with a client, they always get a list of positive qualities to work with after their session.  Last week, one of my clients got “living a magical life” as one of his qualities.  He said that it was just what he needed, too.  Isn’t that what we all need?  The best place to get that is out in nature.  I don’t mean just taking a hike or a walk, but stopping to look and listen.  Tune in, and perhaps get some messages along the way.   That is why during wildflower season, I hesitate to hike with others, as they are either talking the whole way, or going too fast to stop, observe and wander a bit.  

It pays to take your time and let the magic happen!

First July Launch

This month, July, we have 2 launchings, as July has 5 Sundays.  For the first time in a while, all 6 of us were in attendance.  Quite nice, especially since this is a holiday weekend.  I have an ice cream social with live patriotic band music to go to tonight, and tomorrow, there will be a 4^th of July parade in the morning, and fireworks in the evening.  Fun!

Before I get to my launching experience of this morning, let me explain a situation that I have been dealing with all week, and was somewhat a distraction for today’s launch.  Years ago I had my DNA done by Ancestry.com.  Every once in a while, they would send out updates, but in general, I didn’t do much with the information.  Recently, they created a new technology that split one’s DNA between Parent 1 and Parent 2. You get to choose which is which.  I am ostensibly 100% Czechoslovakian, as both sides of the family came from around Prague before immigrating to the US.  There was always some Scandinavian DNA in the mix, but I didn’t think much of it, as I thought all Czech people had that, perhaps from Vikings going through Europe hundreds of years ago.  Boy was I wrong about that! 

Turns out that one of my parents had a lot of Scandinavian with very little Eastern European DNA.  After looking at the genetics of several other male family members, I determined that this was my father.  To make the story short, my father’s parentage has been in question since his birth, and we all assumed that the man who married my grandmother after he was born was his biological father.  The DNA told another story.  After doing some research on Ancestry.com, I lucked out and found my true genetic grandfather, a man who was born in Denmark and immigrated to the US and then to Chicago in 1910!  So I am making the adjustment from being 100% Czech with Czech relatives, traditions and food to 3 Czech grandparents and 1 Danish one.  Percentage wise, it is more like 45/45 with some extras thrown in. 

This has been a bit disorienting, so my intent for my launching today was to come back to my true self, whatever that may be.  When I launched, I found myself in a bubble of energy that started moving at a pretty good rate of speed.  The leading edge of the bubble was sending off sparks and flames, much like a space capsule would do upon entering the earth’s atmosphere.  I also remember passing through a series of pyramids from the bottom through the pointy top. 

Then I found myself gliding along a pathway that was lined on both sides with people.  Were these the spirits of my new found Danish ancestors welcoming me into the clan?  I felt that this was so.  In front of me on the path was the torso of a huge human figure, many stories high.  I couldn’t tell whether this was a statue, or some sort of guardian spirit of those people. 

I passed right through that being and found myself in a very shamanic realm where some sort of ceremony was being performed.  It was nighttime, fires were lit, and I could hear faint drumming and chanting.  At that time, I was called back from my journey.

It then occurred to me that perhaps my spiritual/shamanic leanings have come from this Danish lineage.  Certainly, this is not from my mother’s side of the family, but my father did have a softer and more spiritual side than any of his family members.  Before I sat down to write this, I signed up for a newsletter from a Shamanic Scandinavian group out of Copenhagen, Denmark.  Perhaps this is the true self that I will be getting back to!

Cedar Breaks National Monument

Yesterday was Sunday, and a good day to head up into the mountains early as the tourist traffic does not get busy until a bit later in the day.  There also has been road construction on the route, which doesn’t happen on the weekends.  A perfect time to go up to Cedar Breaks National Monument! 

I hiked the Rampart trail, which is a 4 mile out and back with a significant elevation change.   It skirts the edge of the canyon.  The hike out goes down, and is quite pleasant.  One must climb back up on the way out, and takes more time and is quite strenuous.  Best to do it in the early morning when it is cooler! 

Here are some photos and video of my really nice morning.

You will have to watch this video clip in your browser.

Summer Solstice

Last night, I drove out to the Parowan Gap sacred site to view the Solstice setting sun and do a small ceremony.  I had already done my bowl burning on the 18^th.  The window of opportunity for both solstices is about 5 days, so there is plenty of time to honor those occasions. 

I got out to the site early so that I could find a good place for my ceremony.  First, I parked at the small parking lot and walked west through the gap where I took the photo above.  The sun was still fairly high in the sky, but casting shadows on a lot of the rock art there.  Here are a few of the photos I took as I walked back through the gap towards the east. There is fabulous rock art on both sides of the road.

Surprisingly, I heard a Native American flute being played by someone in the gap.  Wonderful!  When I came out of the gap on the east side, the flute player was then standing on a hill, still playing his magical music. 

The land east of the gap is fairly flat and surrounded by rolling hills.

I walked about one half mile down the road to a nice hilly area where I had done ceremony before.  I had already prepared a small medicine bundle consisting of sage wrapped in red ribbon.  After digging a hole, I energized the bundle with my intent, asking the power of our sun, Inti Tayta, to help manifest the intent.  Then the bundle got buried.  Last year at the same time, I did a similar ceremony on that hill.  Both times, part of my intent was to bring some rain to our dry and parched area.  It worked last year, and unbeknownst to me when I did my ceremony last night, we have some rain in the forecast here for the next 3 days! 

About this time, cars began to drive up and park all over the flat area.  A party was forming!  Unfortunately, a row of cars parked right in front of the gap, so they are in most of my photos.  I kept my focus on the energy coming from the setting sun, repeating my intent. Here is the progression of the photos as the sun set. 

 

Here is a close up of the sunset with the cars in front.

The evening sky was crystal clear this year.  Last year, there was a bit of haze in the air, so those photos had a definite orange tint to them.  The sun was also easier to see as it set last year. 

It was almost 9 PM when the sun went down, but still light out as I started heading home. No one else seemed to be in a hurry to leave.  What a delightful evening!