photo by Kim Namanny

After leaving New York and all of its concisely compacted wonders behind—adventures on the isle of Manhattan, the quiet nights and sun-burst mornings on Catskill Mountaintops—and, after a few days spent in a hometown—Erie, PA—we found ourselves heading into southwestern Ohio.

This is hardly the place one would expect to find traces of the mystic.  The geography here, far west of Columbus, is where the mountains of Appalachia, reduced to gently rolling hills, finally meet the flat lands, the fertile and holy fields of very Great Plains, where the big sky and big agribusiness stretch forever to meet at the horizon.  Each farm has their corn laid out and labeled with roadside signs advertising which kind of genetically manipulated strain and brand they’ve planned upon and planted this year.  This is land that has been tilled and homogenized to near-death, rejuvenated only by the manure of hormone-injected cattle, and the chemicals that are sprayed to complement the exact seed which has been planted, which was only manipulated to be able to withstand the toxins created to complement.

And here we are, in the middle of all of this.  The sun is in the sign of Virgo, the virgin.  It is the time of the harvest.

We pulled through Hillsboro, which was the small town that our campground was near.  We stopped at a little farmhouse that had a hand-painted sign advertising firewood, based on the honor system and at an honest price, five bucks for fifteen pieces.  We left our five dollars in the little lock box and loaded up what small space with had left in the car with our pieces of wood.

photo by Kim Namanny

We arrived at our campsite just in time, the sun already below the horizon and the light fading.  The tent that we had newly purchased was set up in no time, and a campfire was started quickly, thanks to our well-seasoned firewood, and thanks to an extremely rainy summer season, my somewhat rusty firestarting skills.  We made a surprisingly delicious campfire meal, boiling water to cook quinoa, while pouring pouches of pre-cooked and pre-packaged Indian food into the remaining mess kit pans to heat up, while also throwing two ears of corn over the coals.  A grand little vegetarian feast thrown together in no time, enjoyed as the moon rose in the sky.

Something remarkable happened that night, off in the distance, at a nearby farm.  We could hear the mooing of a cow in the night, strange at such late an hour.  After a time, the mooing subsided, and a new sound emerged, the sound of new life.  A calf was freshly born into the world on that night, and it’s sound traveled through the woods to meet us at our campsite.

The moon is nearly full, nearly to it’s most powerful position in the Lunar month.  This month it is full in the sign of Pisces.

a sketch of the Serpent Mound

The next morning we woke up and broke down camp, repacked the car and headed further south to reach our destination.  Located in Adams County, The Serpent Mound is the largest snake effigy in the United States.  The giant mound, stretching over 1300 feet atop a hill, resembles a serpent, from its coiled up tail on one end to its open mouth at the other, perhaps swallowing the sun, denoted by a hollowed circular mound near the head.  It is currently estimated to be around 900 years old, although it’s exact date of appearance  and which native group created it is still up for debate amongst archaeologists.

It is quite the site to see such an intricate and old earthwork design.  Even more interesting is it’s apparent astrological and astronomical significance.  Each turn in the serpent’s curve faces a point in the horizon where either the sun or the moon rises or sets during the equinoxes and solstices, with the head of the snake facing directly where the sun sets on the summer solstice.

photo by Kim Namanny

So little is known about the purpose of these mounds, that it was only recently discovered that the shape of the serpent matches quite perfectly with the constellation Draco, the star arrangement commonly referred to as the serpent or dragon.  It has even been hypothesized that if the mounds were originally created when Draco contained what we would consider the North Pole Star of that time period, then the mounds would date back nearly 5000 years!

The mineral composites under these mounds also add to its intrigue and spiritual dimensions.  Archaeologists have discovered layers of crystals formed and embedded under the mounds, as well as radioactive materials.  They are located along the edge of a giant meteor crash site, perhaps lending to it’s strange, cosmic composition.

For many decades, the more recent inhabitants of Ohio did not treat the Serpent Mound respectfully.  In the circular mound near the serpent’s head, there once stood, in the middle, an ancient altar.  Instead of being preserved by the Ohio Historical Society, it was destroyed; now, no trace of it remains.  There were many attempts by Native Americans to use the sight for ceremonial purposes, but these attempts were often met with verbal abuse and physical violence.

Nowadays, the Serpent Mound is protected by the state park system and a team of rangers dedicated to maintaining the sanctity of the site.  One ranger we spoke with talked at length about how the site now draws visitors from many spiritual traditions, including local native tribes, New Age healers, Buddhists, and Mayan priests.  It appears that many people who are sensitive to earth energies claim to receive an energetic charge from the site.

They say to stay off the mounds, but this writer needed a recharge! (photo by Kim Namanny)

That is definitely something that one can feel as one walks these grounds.  The energy is intense in this area, and starkly different from the surrounding towns and crop fields.  It was a great place to take a little break from our cross-country travels, receiving a little energy charge along the way.  Making the day even more special was the fact that, after we left the Mound, we realized that we were visiting there during the exact time that the Piscean moon was full, on the opposite side of the Earth.

New life and ancient energies surround us on this trip back to Portland.  It felt very auspicious to experience such wonderment in Ohio, opening the gates to all the hidden magic that still surrounds these lands of the Midwest.   Our trip already has expanded westward to Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and into the land of the Sioux in South Dakota, where this is now being written.

The next post will come when there’s time and a steady internet connection!

photo courtesy of NASA

Along the course of my upcoming travels I’d like to introduce a few articles related to my astrological studies, which are still very new and at a rather novice level.  However, I’m sure there are many readers out there who may understand even less about astrology than I do.  Indeed, there are probably many out there who even question the validity of astrology given our vast understanding of science and astronomy during this Age of Reason.

For many years I held the view of astrology which many of us see in the popular culture: that little column in the back of a newspaper or magazine, often near a few comic strips, giving a daily, weekly, or monthly horoscope reading for each of the twelve signs of the zodiac.  This sort of presentation is perhaps the primary reason for people’s misunderstanding and skepticism.  Human beings are far too complex, and our lives far too different, to fall under twelve neatly arranged categories.  How can all the people born in the same month have this same experience as described in a daily horoscope?

Those were my feelings exactly on the issue, and for many years I looked to astrology as mere entertainment, like cracking open a crumbly fortune cookie.  It was only until recently that I began to delve into the workings of astrology, to find that the millennia old practice can be so precise in describing an individual’s physical, psychological, and spiritual attributes, as well for forecasting important events in one’s life.

The reason why those newspaper horoscopes seem to be so bogus, is not necessarily because they are so inaccurate (in fact, there are quite a few out there written by some very talented astrologers, which I’ve found to be astonishingly accurate for me, personally, such as Rob Brezny’s Free Will Astrology), but because they are only describing a very small piece of our total astrological experience.

The sun represents our ego and self-expression, but there is far more complexity to our being than that!

These horoscopes are based on one’s Sun sign.  That is, the sign of the zodiac that the Sun resides in when one is born.  The zodiac of Western astrology is based on a description of the seasons, and so the beginning of the zodiac in relation to the movement of the Sun is looked at as the first day of spring, the vernal equinox, in the sign of Aries, going full circle to the end of the zodiac, the end of winter, in the sign of Pisces.

Now, as was mentioned, the sign that the Sun is in when you’re born is only a very small part of astrology.  There are many other important factors, such as which sign the moon was in at birth, and which sign was rising above the horizon at birth, not to mention all of the other bodies in the solar system, such as the planets and asteroids, and the angles, or aspects, which they form between one another.  Most people identify with their Sun sign, and they will exhibit many of the traits of that sign.  However, the differences between two people who are both, say, Virgos, will be seen in the combination of all these other factors.

photo courtesy of NASA

My interest in astrology began during that often ominous period known as one’s “Saturn Return”.  In short, the Saturn Return is when the planet Saturn has made a full revolution around the sun and is comes back to the same degree it was in at the time of one’s birth.  Astrologically, it would be said that the transiting Saturn is conjunct the natal Saturn.  This first happens between the ages of 28-30, and occurs again between 58-60, although the effects of this transit may stretch slightly before and after these years.

There is plenty of information, even support groups, about this very crucial transit to be found online.  I will, however, give a brief introduction on this event, for readers who may be interested.  I first heard about Saturn Return shortly after I had arrived to work and live at the Dharma center.  I was 27 years old at the time, and someone, upon discovering my age, simply said to me, “Oh, watch out for your Saturn Return.  It’s a good thing you’re living here during it.”

Now, the “watch out” comment is something, I think, people who’ve experienced their Saturn Return already like to throw out to the uninitiated.  While I don’t feel there needs to be any negativity or fear attached to this transit, saying “watch out” may have the tendency to instill that in certain people, particularly a sensitive Neptunian like myself.  So, I began to become a little worried and obsessed about this whole transit.  The more I read about, the more I prepared myself for some sort of catastrophe to befall on me.

I’m 30 years old now, and while I’m not completely in the clear of my Return, I can say that it wasn’t entirely as terrible as I had imagined.  I did have some serious emotional upsets during these recent years, and I did crash while riding my bicycle on the exact week of my Saturn Return, but all in all I would say it was an amazing period of growth and realization.  Best of all, it sparked my curiosity and interest in astrology, and has led me into intensive study on the subject.

The glyph for Saturn, showing the cross of matter rising over the crescent of the soul

First, there are a few things which should be mentioned about Saturn.  Traditionally, Saturn is referred to as the “greater malefic” planet; that is, it has some powers generally considered to be harmful or unfavorable.  Saturn is also considered to be a planet which limits, tests, and crystallizes.  In esoteric astrology, it is often akin to Satan.  This is not necessarily in a biblical sense of evil, but in the sense that it puts forth the great tests in our lives.  If we are not reaching our potential, Saturn pushes us beyond what we feel our limits are in order to show us where our true limits lie.  If we are overstepping our bounds, Saturn slows things down, imposing a sense of discipline that hasn’t been taught before.

In this sense, the return of Saturn is not a negative thing at all.  Rather, it is a moment of learning true life lessons.  If one’s life is headed in the direction of fulfilling one’s potential on all levels, than their Saturn Return will be an event confirming that they are headed in the right direction.  However, if one is not pursuing the proper path in this life, the Saturn Return will lead to crisis after crisis in an attempt to teach the lessons needed and steer one towards the precise path needed for the next stage of life.

Renowned astrologer Robert Hand, on Astrodienst.com, says of the Saturn Return that,

“This is one of the most important times in your life. A major cycle of experience is closing, and great changes are about to take place. How great these changes are depends largely on what you have been doing with your life over the past several years. Have you been living as you feel you should or as you think others want you to? If you have been doing the latter, this influence will have a greater impact.”

The Saturn Return is a time when we must learn to release the habits of early life.  As children we grow up being told what we should do by our parents.  Whether we are consciously aware of it or not, the limitations and expectations our parents put on us carry over through much of our young adult lives.  Whether or not we end up doing something specifically catered to pleasing our parents, we often find ourselves doing something because we feel it’s what we should be doing, either to please our parents, our boss, our clients, our partner, or our peers.  The Saturn Return forces a re-evaluation of this path.  In many senses, it can introduce the first true entry into adulthood, the real moment of independence, not just from a standpoint of interpersonal relationships, but also an independence from emotional habits we may have carried with us for decades that are ready to be discarded.

“At the very moment of birth, Saturn begins its plodding, inexorable growth to wisdom and maturity.  By house position and transit it moves around the natal chart teaching all lessons of the physical plane.  For no one can aspire to emotional maturity, mental acuity, or soul intensity without learning the most essential lessons about life.  Then at age 29 or 30, we each experience a crisis in work, relationships, education or finance which teaches the major lesson that is holding the soul back from moving to the next plane, the astral plane.”   -Barbara Hand Clow, Chiron: Rainbow Bridge Between the Inner and Outer Planets

The lessons that Saturn teaches are necessary for proper human development on every level.  Not everyone learns these lessons easily.  The crises which form during the Saturn Return can often be painful.  As human beings, it is often only pain and hardship that encourages true transformation.  Some do not even learn their lessons at all.  For those who fail to grasp and make the necessary changes in their life, they will most likely remain at the emotional level of their twenties until the next Saturn Return at age 58.

“In the midst of this karmic phase, the person experiences extraordinary free will to consciously direct his life.  If he is ever to distinguish the difference between what he wants during his stay on earth and that which others would have him do, it is now.  If the person chooses and commits himself to his choice, based upon intuition, self-knowledge, and heartfelt desire, then future contentment and serenity is assured.  The person doesn’t necessarily experience overall bliss or happiness during this period, but he does feel freedom within his chosen vocation.  If, however, he reists his own nature and his desires, then he will suffer tremendously not only during this transit, but also for the next twenty-nine years when he remains frustrated, discouraged, and miserable that he did not attempt to realize his potential.”  -James Braha, How to Predict Your Future: Secrets of Eastern & Western Astrology

It sounds pretty heavy, but it really can be an exciting moment in one’s life.  The key is to really follow the heart.  For many, this may be the first time the opportunity to do so has ever been presented.  Let go of fear, let go of hope.  Logic and reason are often mechanisms used to support either one or both of these.  If one does what one truly feels is right, if one honestly follows their heart’s calling, then the teachings of Saturn will create a supportive ground from which the individual can continue to grow and evolve.

I wake up some mornings bathed in the light of the sun as it creeps over the mountaintops and shines directly through my bedroom window, forcing my eyes open only to have them shut tighter ,to both shield them from the harmful rays, and to make the attempt to reinstate myself back into where the dreams left off.

The morning mountain air is so sharp and crisp in the winter, where all things are silenced in the near-death standstill of January’s freeze, while it carries the threat of late-day thundershowers throughout the summer, especially during those built up and balmy August afternoons.  I enjoy them both for the promises they hold.  One forces isolation and internalization, the time to swim within one’s own thoughts, insights, and creative revelations, while the other forces one outside to find shade and cold fresh mountain waterfalls to retreat under.  The time for internalization ends, and in order to feel relief one experiences all that is outside and extends the consciousness forth like the rays of that August sun.

Spending one’s late twenties on top of a mountain, working and living in a Buddhist Dharma center, is certainly not the sort of thing most people seriously picture themselves doing.  Life is just beginning to rev up then, the true transformation into adulthood is so close, if not happening already.  The habits of one’s reckless early twenties are looking worn and childish, like raggedy old toys that your imagination long grew out of.  It’s the time for a new beginning, freed from the infantile states of the mind of younger years.

From that perspective, taking the time to really understand one’s self during this period seems entirely crucial.  Without an understanding of one’s mind and one’s emotions, how can the true roots of our habits be discovered, analyzed, and transformed or discarded, if need be?  How to go about such a process is, of course, different for all people.  After all, we all have vastly different minds, different emotions, different childhoods, and different karma that we’re lugging around.  How could one method of experience work for all these variations?  Each individual’s experience needs to address the individual’s issues and key needs for development at that moment.

photo by Kim Namanny

For this writer, that meant getting away from the city, getting away from situations that continued to perpetuate confusion and the reliance on habits I was growing quite tired of.  In a certain sense, this could be viewed as escapism, that very prominent Piscean and Neptunian trait that I am all too aware of.  This was an escape that was needed at the time, however, in order to clear away the distractions, examine the conditioned emotional responses, and discover what was really going on underneath all those layers and masks.

Of course, at the time, I didn’t even realize that there were conditioned emotional responses, I didn’t even see or sense the mask.  Even still, everything is not entirely uncovered, there are still recesses of my heart that remain closed, as there are still those infantile expressions looming during moments of disappointment and hurt.  However, through the processes of meditation, astrological study, and the healing hands and words of an understanding karmic love, the layers shed away, and the essence of what makes us human, and what makes this whole universe so damn wonderful, emerges.  Shadow and light become inseparable expressions of each other, each one pushing the other forward and out, until both are fully exposed and open to the world.

After spending almost three years in these mountains, it is time to venture back out into the whole of the world.  This pursuit of insight and empathy continues.  I shall be returning to Oregon at the end of September with my partner Kimberly.  As we journey from upstate New York to Portland, these pages will document our interstate travel, and our experiences.

This is not just a cross-country move.  This is a journey through the essence of this land.  The area I am departing from holds a great deal of sacredness from many different traditions, which will hopefully be detailed in future entries.  We will be travelling through the many other sacred lands of this country, on our way to Oregon:  psychic towns, crystal caves, and the preserved grandeur of the national parks, among many other places.  This is an adventure through a mystic America that lies beneath the surface, but is ready to be held and experienced by anyone who simply wishes it were so.