Moons over Sedona Part I: Deadman's Pass

Sedona, Arizona

Sunday, April 24, 2011

8:02 p.m.

Moons Over Sedona

Part I:  Deadman’s Pass

External reality has a way of not being so external after all.

--John Steinbeck

I had heard that Sedona, Arizona was a “vortex,” but although I had visited the area before and admired the red rock formations, and had had some memorable family experiences here I never experienced anything that couldn’t be described with the standard vocabulary of tourism.  I had even studied with a spiritual teacher here, and had received initiations which were personal landmarks, but they did not seem to be necessarily related to the physical location.  This time, however, I have experienced something quite different.  

Viveka and I first arrived in Sedona on April 9, day #33 of our walk.  I was upset about a family matter, and just couldn’t let it go.  To compound matters, I was upset about being upset -- because I am supposed to be so “spiritually evolved” as to be beyond that sort of thing! (ha!)  In that frame of mind, we walked our miles for the day in Boynton Canyon, but somehow ignored the posted signs and found ourselves on Deadman’s Pass Trail.  (I later learned that local lore attributes the ominous name to a Native American grave found in the area.)  

At one point the trail ran alongside a sheer rock wall towering hundreds of feet above us.  I was drawn to a place where two rock faces made a 90 degree angle, and felt compelled to stand there, as though in a corner with my back to the wall.  Unwilling and unable to go any further forward in my current state of mind, I felt I needed to turn and face whatever was bothering me.  As I prayed for help in releasing my anger and fear I felt two presences beside me, as solid and strong as the rock itself, although not physical.  The one on the right was a wonderful teacher who had died last year -- admired by my whole family, especially Viveka.  (I had “seen” him wearing priestly vestments of white and gold in a Catholic Church in Jerome, Arizona several days before.)  On my left was the Divine Mother herself.  (And I am not even Catholic!) 

The message I was receiving was simply “Leave it all at the wall.  Let it go.”  With the help of these two allies, both a masculine and a feminine presence, I was able to do just that.  Suddenly, as though by magic, the whole burden I was carrying was gone!  I began the walk back to the car with a new lightness and with tears of joy.  

Now I do not have these kinds of experiences often, nor do I talk about them easily, and only to certain people who may have ears to hear. If you are reading this, it is offered with the hope that you may benefit from what I have to share. 

Later that night, parked in the lot of a hardware store, the skies dropped a freakish amount of snow and we woke up to a pure “White Christmas” in Sedona -- in April.

At this point you may ask.  “You arrived in Sedona on April 9.  You are writing this on April 24.  Aren’t you supposed to be walking across America?  That is more than two weeks in one place.  What’s up with that?

Well, two things are happening.  Firstly, we had scheduled a week off in Flagstaff -- about 50 miles north of Sedona, so that we could visit the Grand Canyon area -- which we did.  Up to that point we were still keeping to our scheduled route.  But secondly, what we did not (and could not) “schedule” was the Sedona “vortex” effect.  

More about this in my next blog. . .