THE MOUNTAIN MEADOW IN MY SOUL

We have now been back in Taos for over a month. The damage done by two months of drought are healing.  Some of the flowers are blooming and others have new buds.  I have allowed the grass to grow and it is now a mountain meadow.  I am actually reluctant to mow it.  The mountain meadow look is growing on me. I lent our lawnmower to the kids and that was an excuse for a while, but now something has changed in the gardener herself, and it doesn’t seem like an uncut lawn anymore. 

Author, Dowser and Blogger, Robert Egby sent me a copy of his new book called “Holy Dirt, Sacred Earth.” It is a book on exploring the energy of Taos and Nuevo Mexico El Norte through dowsing.  Much to my surprise, he paid me the honor of including my blog entry on the Turtle Dance at Taos Pueblo.

Medicine Man & Mountain Spirit by Marti White Deer Song

Reading this book reawakened my thoughts about earth energies-what they are, and what they are not. One of the things I have taken for granted about Taos, is that the energies can be worlds and perhaps dimensions apart from one micro- area to another. Since I am talking about a small chunk of Northern New Mexico, this is a phenomenon in itself.

The thing about the meadow look in my yard is that something energetically new has appeared, or perhaps it is just more noticeable. When we drive into our cul-de-sac from the post office or grocery store, this particular property stands out as an island among the other houses.  I am not just bragging, it really isn’t the same kind of energy.  It’s always been different, but before I attributed the difference to the fact that I like to garden.  I don’t have enough money to spend on fertilizers and insecticides, so it’s always been subject to nature’s whims, but something has changed.

Is it possible that our own energy is capable of influencing nature?  Why not!  When I first moved into this place, I noticed its unusual clarity and light.  It was a different country than upper Ranchitos with its big trees and green fields, even though there was only a five-mile difference.  I was disappointed when Habitat for Humanity chose a tumbleweed infested dry lot with houses on both sides on which to build my house.  I wanted one with a clear view to Taos Mountain, but now I realize there is a direct line of energy flowing down from the mountains at the entry to Taos Canyon that sweeps directly through the lot where this house is.   

I put a flagstone patio behind the house and planted two trees and a chamisa shrub there the first year.  The trees have almost doubled their size each year. The best energy is directly behind the house. I recognized this right away but didn’t consciously identify it. It just seemed like a place that felt timeless, safe and bright. The colors are more intense, the air lighter and the sky closer in this spot. It’s also an excellent place to watch clouds, the great cumulus and heavy thunderheads come down the canyon on their daily trip west to sunset.

What I’m suggesting is that earth energies often consist of a dialogue between natural forces and human responses.  Perhaps that’s why the Taos Pueblo people chose to live at the base of the magical mountain that rises to their northeast.  Not only does the mountain empower them, but they also focus and accentuate the mountain’s forces.  There is also something trans- dimensional about the relationship between beings and places.  In this sense, we live with a foot in each dimension even if we aren’t conscious of it.

Our Sacred Mountain at Play During Powwow

The Taos Pueblo people are notoriously secretive and protective concerning their beliefs and spiritual connections.  Outsiders, especially those of European descent have such a different concept of nature and spirituality that they find this secrecy both incomprehensible and frustrating.  Although I don’t ask my Taos Pueblo husband about the meanings of beliefs and practices, I can imagine that such inquiries are in the category of improperly probing with personal intimate questions at a first meeting.  The conquistador mentality lies very deep and often masquerades as curiosity.  

I’ve long marveled at how quickly a home deteriorates after it is vacated.  Within a few months, it begins to breakdown on its way back to nature, but not the same form of nature that existed in that spot before it was domesticated.  It may take many years before the gone bad human energy fades away into the earth.  After a visit to Glastonbury England, I noticed that sometimes it takes hundreds of years to reconstitute an area.

Now I’m remembering an apartment I once lived in.  It was convenient, cute and I felt safe there in spite of its location in the center of a sometimes dangerous neighborhood. There was one corner where I kept potted plants.  It seemed good, well lit, yet without burning sun.  However, nothing would grow there. I  didn’t really notice this until I moved.  In their new location, the plants suddenly took off and doubled in size within a month.  This was my first experience of the importance of invisible energies or their absence.

This concept of a partnership with natural energies as a basis for relating to the environment, life itself and spiritual awareness is a topic I will continue to explore. The dangerous relationship that civilized folk have with the world that sustains them is typically dumbed down. Much of the time, we are like domestic dogs full of runaway confusion.  Alienated from their origins they are far more dangerous than wolves following the laws of nature. We destroy our own sustenance with no awareness that we are inter-dimensional beings, children of Mother Earth and Father Sky and every thought and action flows into every dimension like pebbles dropped in a lake.