VORTEX: whirlwind,
cyclone, whirlpool, gyre, maelstrom, eddy, swirl, spiral; black hole
Once upon a time, there was a place called Sedona, and
it was magical. Native Americans held
ceremonies in that red rock country and regarded it as holy, and in time,
Europeans came and thought it was pretty dang good as well. Back in the mid-nineties, when I last drove
up there, it was still a fairly sleepy town with one lazy road winding through. It was a whisper, a place folks knew about, a
place that energized you through its beauty, a land to hike with vistas and
grand spaces, and ancient ruins. Well,
time marches on and stuff happens.
Roll on
twenty years and Sedona now wears a necklace of roundabouts strung on a
three-mile long parking lot with a western-style Coney Island of shops along
its length, punctuated by stores selling crystals and offers for psychic
readings. Yup, the beauty and hikes and
vistas are still there but, as everyone knows, progress comes at a price and
Sedona has paid in full. Perhaps if I
had visited at another time, less crowded than the New Year’s holiday, I might
have viewed things slightly differently,
but my visit was what it was.
Now, in the
interest of full disclosure, let me tell you I already owned a crystal ( and
I’m not referring to my daughter who bears the name, Cristal), have a set of
bracelets meant to protect me from different ills, possess a Kachina and a
couple of trolls who look after me, as well as one or two fetishes. I have a very unorthodox sense of religion,
basically monotheistic but with a few original thoughts thrown in. You can tell I’d be a sucker for visiting the
Sedona vortices…
Here’s the info we were sent upon signing
up for the grand tour:
How to Maximize your Sedona Vortex
Experience
The Spirit of Sedona has called
you. You have responded. Our guides assist you in feeling,
experiencing and receiving what the Spirit of Sedona has in store for you.
All of our guides are masters in
their fields, and have spent years connecting with this land and leading others
into her mysteries.
The first law of the Universe is to
Show Up. You are doing a fabulous job of showing up by booking your
Vortex Tour.
We know you want the most from your
Sedona experience. Here are some tips on maximizing your experience and
showing up completely. They will help you to fully take advantage of your
Spiritual appointment with the Red Rocks of Sedona
1.
Show up with an open mind and heart
2.
Turn off your Electronic Devices – better still leave them in your room. (A
camera is okay to bring along)
3.
Be willing to participate
4.
Use the power of the spoken word.
5.
Share openly with your guide.
6.
Express yourself in the moment
7.
Let go of expectations
8.
Allow the moment to unfold
9.
Practice an attitude of reverence for the beauty and majesty of this sacred
land.
10. Be grateful for the
opportunity to accelerate your spiritual growth
11. Recognize the
perfection of the moment.
12. Let Go and let the
Spirit of Sedona engage with you!
Your Time with the Spirit of Sedona
is a gift – May you open it fully!
On our spiritual
appointment with the Red Rocks of Sedona, I can tell you we showed up completely
(how otherwise, one wonders) with open minds and hearts (this was difficult due
to a certain somebody’s pragmatism), put the cell phones on vibrate, had little
if any expectations, and revered the beauty and majesty around us. As the
moment unfolded and the spirit of Sedona engaged, our guide kindly ignored the
fact that I had appeared wearing a sweatshirt from my local gun club, though he
rather eagerly agreed I might need my extra jacket on top to stay warm. ‘Expressing ourselves in the moment’ and ‘sharing
openly’ proved somewhat more difficult, especially when it came to sitting in a
rather public area going through the ahhhh, eeeee, ayyy, iiiii, oooo (did I
forget someone?) mantras with rather less enthusiasm than the Von Trapp
children singing ‘Doe-a-deer.’ Our
guide, who, by the way, looked as if he had come fully formed from his mother’s
womb and never aged in all his forty-odd years, so wrinkle-free was his face,
seemed to be the one who was most grateful for 'accelerating our spiritual
growth.'
At the end of the day, how did I
feel? What I had envisioned as seeing in
the New Year with enlightenment did not exactly cast me into any black hole,
but neither did I particularly feel spiritual growth. What I did feel was a certain sadness that
things cannot be left alone, that progress often detracts as it improves, and that
maybe, just maybe, searching for something is the worst way to find it.
Strangely enough, as we walked back to our
hotel, I recognized ‘the perfection of the moment’ as the most glorious full
rainbow appeared.
A Lakota friend tells me it’s a good sign.
To learn more about me, please head to http://andreadowning.com I am here at Roses of Prose on the 8th of every month, and at http://cowboykisses.blogspot.com/ the 3rd Wednesday of every month.
