Wind Horses
Well, I had planned on talking about masks, facial recognition, and masks as sacred objects. I seem to be unable to find an article that I planned on citing that talked about how our brains react to seeing oneself in a mirror wearing a mask. Instead, I fell down an internet rabbit hole of brain conditioning and how schizophrenics aren’t fooled by an empty mask optical illusion (an article and video linked here if you’re interested).
I decided that maybe I should break away from that.
Instead, I’ll speak a little more to experiential stories. I have talked about some of my recent work with one of my mentors, Sandy, for the past two blogs. Staying in line with that, I think that I will speak to a little bit of work I have done with my other teacher, Adhi.
I have been working with Adhi for about two and a half years, and have learned quite a lot from her. One of my most memorable times working with her was a trip that she led. We were headed down to Assateague Island off the coast of Maryland. It was April of 2015, and I was carpooling with a brilliant woman from Quebec down to the Old Line State. From where I live in Vermont, it was a 10 hour drive. 2 plus hours more for my friend coming down from Sherbrooke. My rather new friend, as I had not met her in person before the drive. A scary prospect at first, but we found we connected very well. We suspected Adhi had figured that it would work out, as she was the one who suggested that we carpool. This, and other Adhi coordinated plans, led a group of us to jokingly nickname Adhi “The Puppet-Master.” She found the joke funny the first few times, but I think that it is now a little much. If you’re reading this, Adhi, sorry/not-sorry.
After a very long drive, a not literal crash course for me in remembering how to drive standard in the snarl of New York City, giddy jokes about using date pits as divination tools, and discussions on English and French, we arrived at the bridge leading over to the island. The bay side of the island was thick with forest, the ocean side covered in shrubby bayberry and grass. A few wild horses grazed at the side of the road as we closed in to the campsite.
Ah. I’ve forgotten to mention what the island is rather famous for. Its wild horses. I’ll leave the story of how its herd of wild horses came to the island to your own research, as their arrival and survival is a story unto itself (click here for a link to the Wikipedia article on the horses found there), but it was part of why we were there.
The horses represented the Wind Horse of Tibetan Buddhism, carrying our prayers to the Upper Realm, while the wind off of the ocean reinforced that metaphor. And, wow, was it windy! Setting up my tent upon arrival was a little more trying than when I set it up in the sheltering woods of Vermont! I was excited about the more southern location when I was planning my trip, but I didn’t really take the ocean wind into consideration. I found out later in the trip that in a sheltered spot in the sun, it could be in the 70s, weather fit for shorts and a t shirt! Once away from your wind barrier, though, and layers were essential! It felt as if there was a 20+ degree difference! The colder weather may have made it a little more difficult, but there was a perk.
We had the island largely to ourselves.
Sure. There were other campers. You’d run into people every now and then on the trails. The beach was rarely shared, though. Of course, the fact that it wasn’t swimming weather might have had something to do with that, but swimming wasn’t the reason we were there. We were there to do our work with Spirit.
I credit that trip with readying me to do my Sit a few weeks ago. The nights were cold, and my sleeping bag was not warm enough. I would wake up every now and then shivering. I had to accept that as part of my suffering, an offering to Spirit to show that I was serious. I was there to learn. And Spirit did not disappoint.
The plan was to make rattles, mesas, and divination bags, as well as do journeywork every night. It went mostly to plan, but Spirit had a few different ideas on how it would go.
The story of my week on the island is apparently a bigger bite than one blog entry can take, so I’ll continue it next week (maybe more, depending on how long the story takes being told). It’s a busy upcoming week. Sandy is having us apprentices put together a Summer Solstice ceremony this weekend. The ladies are prepping the space in the stone circle. Marc and I are leading the ceremony (an inversion of the ceremony we did last time, when Marc and I prepped, while Morgan and Tina led). I haven’t led a group this big in ceremony before. Wish me luck!
A belated happy Summer Solstice!
Until next week…
-The Green Mountain Mage