Summer turns towards it's end, and I am turning toward the end of my vacation and a number of other things. I don't have much of a relationship with Lugh, or really any of the Celtic pantheon, besides Brigid, but I do honor this cross quarter as a time when the beginning and the end of the summer are simultaneously manifesting. My garden is ready for a replant of chard, lettuce, carrots, broccoli and some new stuff TBA...I am currently all hopped up with the idea of making a potato tower, which I hope to do in the next week or so. Meanwhile, the strawberries are going crazy, as are the roses and the yarrow, the sage, and all the other herbs. But what really said first fruits of the harvest to me this year, were the sugar pine cones dripping with sap and iridescently green that I saw last week at Sequoia NP. They were absolutely lovely and otherwordly, as if they were handpainted by the Fae. I brought a couple of little ones home for the Fae altar in the garden.
We went to Sequoia NP for several days, beginning August 1st, where I met the giant sequoias for the first time. I have never been in the High Sierras, in all my many year in CA, and loved it there. The park itself was quiet and clean and mellow. We were surrounded by multiple family reunions and big groups, all of whom were sober, peaceful, polite and friendly, a new experience for me in a totally full campground-the quiet hours were actually quiet, even the bears were quiet.
Although we were gifted with sighting this young guy, on our way to the Crystal Cave.
On Lammas, we went to see the trees, the General Sherman tree, the biggest tree by volume (which I guess means the fattest) in the world. Nearly all the the really big old sequoias in these groves have absurd, super patriarchal names, Senator this and Colonel that. My children thought this was ridiculous. "They aren't generals, they don't move around or kill people" said Sarah. "They aren't boys, even" said Will. As it turns out, Sequoias are in fact hermaphrodites, self-pollinating, both and neither male and female. They don't need bugs or even each other to reproduce. The male cones at the top of the tree shower the female cones lower down with pollen every spring. They do, however, need an occasional lighting strike or forest fire, which heats up the fertilized female cones, causing them to open, and drop their seeds down to the nurturing ash from the fire, and the newly cleared forest floor offers them plenty of sunlight to grow-they love sunlight. They clearly have their Shiva/Sakti all figured out.
The energy of the big tree groves is so busy, so intense and single-focused. All their time is consumed with their own constant, quiet growth. I guess it is not surprising that our goofily and giddily imperialist/colonialist forebears perceived it in a military way. But to my heart and mind and body, it is hardly that (not to mention my children, who were very busy the whole time we were there thinking of new, non-military and unisex names for all the trees..."I know....this one's Pat!" said one, pointing to the General. "This one is Alex!" said the other.)
Many of the old trees have fabulous burn scars, from their love affairs with fire and lightning (talk about hot sex....) They are mainly triangular in shape, and to me look like yonis and underworld portals. They all had a certain yonic quality to them, and some of them had a very strong underworld pull to me; I was quite tempted to jump the fences protecting them from humans, and cuddle up inside one.
We did get to visit the underworld when we toured the Crystal Cave. It was a place sacred to the Menache and Yokuts people, particularly for coming of age ceremonies and vision questing, although those gods and underworld beings seem to be sound asleep now. At any rate, it did not feel very spiritually active to me, maybe because I am not in that time of life, nor do I have a need for vision questing just now. And I am not Yokuts or Menache, and so likely am just not in attunement with that energy. Even if I was, it would not have been very doable, in a crowd of tourists taking pictures and waving flashlights around. But still, it felt much different than the Oregon Caves, which we visited last year, where there was, for me, at any rate, a very active and communicative spirit presence. Maybe because that cave never had a human association before it became a tourist destination, it doesn't have a specific connection to people, and it's energy has not been retooled for a particular set of humans. Don't know, but now my family and I are on a mission to explore as many of the California caves as we can.
This cave is called Crystal Cave because of all the beautiful calcite formations. The whole thing sparkles, even in the near darkness of a flashlight. All the rooms had gorgeous, curving hangings, again very yonic and sensual to me. Last year, when we visited the Oregon caves, I had the same sense of the Divine Feminine made manifest, although here it was not as personal to me. I did not make friends with the rocks in the same way, although their energy and presence was just as strong.
When we got home from our time in the mountains, I found myself cleared out and very tired. It took a few days to get myself back, I am not used to high altitude, especially as there was so much exercise involved...I am a sea level girl, I suppose. I need to be near an ocean, or maybe that is just what I am used to; I have been within ten minutes of water most of my life.
But I also found that what Ganesha told me at the Solstice was true...many internal obstacles have been clearing out, and being in the mountains with the huge, busy trees helped advance that process, in some way. I have done some work this summer, in all the worlds, to make this happen, but for the most part it is not about doing so much as *not doing. Letting go is a very small movement, just a muscular release, but so much happens when my fingers uncurl and my hands relax.
We went to Sequoia NP for several days, beginning August 1st, where I met the giant sequoias for the first time. I have never been in the High Sierras, in all my many year in CA, and loved it there. The park itself was quiet and clean and mellow. We were surrounded by multiple family reunions and big groups, all of whom were sober, peaceful, polite and friendly, a new experience for me in a totally full campground-the quiet hours were actually quiet, even the bears were quiet.
Although we were gifted with sighting this young guy, on our way to the Crystal Cave.
On Lammas, we went to see the trees, the General Sherman tree, the biggest tree by volume (which I guess means the fattest) in the world. Nearly all the the really big old sequoias in these groves have absurd, super patriarchal names, Senator this and Colonel that. My children thought this was ridiculous. "They aren't generals, they don't move around or kill people" said Sarah. "They aren't boys, even" said Will. As it turns out, Sequoias are in fact hermaphrodites, self-pollinating, both and neither male and female. They don't need bugs or even each other to reproduce. The male cones at the top of the tree shower the female cones lower down with pollen every spring. They do, however, need an occasional lighting strike or forest fire, which heats up the fertilized female cones, causing them to open, and drop their seeds down to the nurturing ash from the fire, and the newly cleared forest floor offers them plenty of sunlight to grow-they love sunlight. They clearly have their Shiva/Sakti all figured out.
The energy of the big tree groves is so busy, so intense and single-focused. All their time is consumed with their own constant, quiet growth. I guess it is not surprising that our goofily and giddily imperialist/colonialist forebears perceived it in a military way. But to my heart and mind and body, it is hardly that (not to mention my children, who were very busy the whole time we were there thinking of new, non-military and unisex names for all the trees..."I know....this one's Pat!" said one, pointing to the General. "This one is Alex!" said the other.)
Many of the old trees have fabulous burn scars, from their love affairs with fire and lightning (talk about hot sex....) They are mainly triangular in shape, and to me look like yonis and underworld portals. They all had a certain yonic quality to them, and some of them had a very strong underworld pull to me; I was quite tempted to jump the fences protecting them from humans, and cuddle up inside one.
We did get to visit the underworld when we toured the Crystal Cave. It was a place sacred to the Menache and Yokuts people, particularly for coming of age ceremonies and vision questing, although those gods and underworld beings seem to be sound asleep now. At any rate, it did not feel very spiritually active to me, maybe because I am not in that time of life, nor do I have a need for vision questing just now. And I am not Yokuts or Menache, and so likely am just not in attunement with that energy. Even if I was, it would not have been very doable, in a crowd of tourists taking pictures and waving flashlights around. But still, it felt much different than the Oregon Caves, which we visited last year, where there was, for me, at any rate, a very active and communicative spirit presence. Maybe because that cave never had a human association before it became a tourist destination, it doesn't have a specific connection to people, and it's energy has not been retooled for a particular set of humans. Don't know, but now my family and I are on a mission to explore as many of the California caves as we can.This cave is called Crystal Cave because of all the beautiful calcite formations. The whole thing sparkles, even in the near darkness of a flashlight. All the rooms had gorgeous, curving hangings, again very yonic and sensual to me. Last year, when we visited the Oregon caves, I had the same sense of the Divine Feminine made manifest, although here it was not as personal to me. I did not make friends with the rocks in the same way, although their energy and presence was just as strong.
When we got home from our time in the mountains, I found myself cleared out and very tired. It took a few days to get myself back, I am not used to high altitude, especially as there was so much exercise involved...I am a sea level girl, I suppose. I need to be near an ocean, or maybe that is just what I am used to; I have been within ten minutes of water most of my life.
But I also found that what Ganesha told me at the Solstice was true...many internal obstacles have been clearing out, and being in the mountains with the huge, busy trees helped advance that process, in some way. I have done some work this summer, in all the worlds, to make this happen, but for the most part it is not about doing so much as *not doing. Letting go is a very small movement, just a muscular release, but so much happens when my fingers uncurl and my hands relax.
Terrific pictures!
ReplyDeleteWaldfrau