Trvaelblog From Sinai to Schiehallion
“I’m wandering through a snowstorm to get to the other side of the Himalayas, with the Chinese army chasing me. My legs are almost frozen. I wonder how best to escape the oppression of the Chinese rulers. Then I realize that I have to incarnate in an unknown country, and I end up in the Netherlands. There I recognize several friends from my life in Tibet…”
I wake up from my haunted dream and realize that I’m in a small hotel on the island of Iona. It’s still storming outside. The walk the day before probably triggered my dream. Anne and I walked in the pouring rain and lashing wind to the other side of the small island. There we saw the high waves of the ocean rolling onto the beach of a small cove of rocks, seaweed and sand. Although we were heavily dressed, the rainwater was right to my skin.
“You don’t like wind and cold, do you?” Anne asks when she sees my contorted face.
“No, not really,” I answer.
“It just makes me happy,” she says. “My heart opens when I feel the elements on my skin.”
She walks happily through the rain, while I stumble and my right knee hurts. My meniscus was torn a few years ago and it has been a vulnerable spot ever since.
When I wake up from my dream in the Himalayas, I realize that this is a big theme in this life: being on the run, for fear of danger. Do whatever it takes to pass on the ancient, sacred knowledge. Do not give up. The fear and aversion to Chinese oppression is also deeply rooted. Fortunately, we still live in the ‘free’ west, but it seems that Chinese conditions are slowly starting to rule our own lives. We used to laugh when Chinese tourists in Amsterdam wore face masks, now we know better.
When morning comes in Iona, the storm has passed. The ferry is sailing again. I suspect the island acts as a mirror to the soul. You will see exactly what you need for your spiritual development. Everyone here has different experiences that leave deep impressions. For me it was the storm, and the art of staying in your own center, despite everything. We have breakfast and have a chat with the very friendly owner of the hotel, Rob. He tells us that the ferry doesn’t leave until three in the afternoon, but that we can stay all day in the hotel lounge.
Anne and I enjoy the time to write, muse on the experiences of the journey and talk about our nighttime insights. The dream about the Chinese still haunts me. I wonder what its meaning is at this point?
When we are back in the harbor town of Oban in the evening, and sit at a table to have something to eat, I ask the waiter for the Whiskey card. I’m not a drinker, but someone assured me that I really had to try a whiskey in Scotland. From the 50 kind of Whiskey I choose the Tallicker whiskey, which tastes like sea, salt and citrus. We are discussing again what to do. An uneasy feeling of not-knowing overtakes us. We still have 14 days to go before the ceremony of the Earth in Schiehallion.
When the waiter puts the whiskey in front of me, he says: ‘A damn fine whiskey. Coincidentally I’ve just been the Tallicker distillery. It’s on the Isle of Skye. If you can ever go there, you should. Amazing place.”
Anne and I look at each other with happy eyes. The isle of Skye has been in our minds for months, not least because of the title song of the series ‘Outlander’. It seems as if the universe is giving us a clear hint: We are going to Skye.
In the evening I watch an Australian documentary about the threat of war from China. The documentary is called ‘War of the World’ and I see rows of soldiers marching past in front of Xi Jinping. This week they announced that they have tested a new hypersonic weapon of war, and are suddenly far ahead of the United States. A new arms race seems to have begun, costing billions. In Australia, they are also firmly convinced that the virus did not just arise from bats, but is part of a long study in which gain of function upgrades viruses to make them more deadly and contagious to humans. I think back to my dream. If there’s anything more threatening than a climate catastrophe, it’s war. It doesn’t comfort me, but I also realize that fear and thoughts of doom do not help me. The art of life is: staying in the here and now, continuing to breathe and doing what we have to do.
After a trip through the Scottish Highlands we reach The isle of Skye, which is connected to the ‘mainland’ by a high bridge. We discover that the island is mainly visited is used by British tourists and we don’t feel right at home there. Too touristy. And we can’t find a good hotel. Where is Outlander’s romance now? When we get into a brief altercation over a minor incident, an even deeper sense of alienation and abandonment overtakes me. Anne and I draw a rune stone to get clarity. We get two runes: Thurisaz and Ansuz. Thurisaz represents the forces of subconsciousness, suppression, aggression, the thunder of Thor, lightning and obstruction. The rune Ansuz represents the energy of consciousness, light forces, the god Odin, the victory of light over darkness, of order over chaos. It seems as if we are faced with a choice between two forces: consciousness and connection, or struggle and separation. The third rune, the outcome, is Berkana. Berkana stands for the Great Mother, the nourishing, the life-giver. But what does that mean? “Look for the Gate of Cailleach,” I get through.
When I think about the meaning of the images in the night I think that the whole world has to make a choice between Thurisaz and Ansuz, between the gods of dark and the gods of light. But that is not by fighting the battle, but by following compassion, wisdom and the way of the heart. The road we have to walk lies between the two extremes. Through a comment from Anne I realize that I also have something of a fanatical Chinese in me. Somewhere I am still on the run and can only stop the struggle if I look my enemy in the eye, embrace and forgive. It is the only way out of any conflict. To realize that the other is a part of yourself. Another you. What a task.
Once again, the morning brings relief, tranquility and insight for the next step on our journey. While Anne types out all the channels and forwards them to our webmaster Vicky, who manages the site in Belgium, I tune in to the third stone of the Rune, Berkana. Where will the journey take us?
I think back to the message from the night before: “Look for the Gate of Cailleach.” The gate of the ancient winter goddess, the Great Mother. But where is that gate?
While I’m searching around on the internet, my eye suddenly falls on an article about a ‘temple of Cailleach’. It turns out to be somewhere on one of the northernmost islands of Scotland. When I look at Google maps I see the road that leads to it: via the Isle of Skye! The more I read, the more I feel that’s where we need to be. The temple consists of one of the oldest stone circles in Great Britain: 13 monoliths in a circle; the number of the Goddess. The name of the stone circle is Callanish… But I also get a strange feeling in my stomach… I’m afraid of the unknown, the emptiness, the not-knowing. Afraid of the Cailleach and what she has in store for us. Afraid to go even further north, into the Unknown, into the Beyond…
When I tell Anne about it, she nods. ‘I think you are right. We have one last leg to go. To the north. Our visit here was a test, a threshold to see if we are ready. Do we choose struggle or forgiveness? Now we have to get to the place that matters: the temple of the Great Mother. It feels absolutely the right to do.”
When we tune in to the stone circle, I get the following message….
“The Callanish stone circle is the gateway of the Cailleach. It’s the energy of primordial matter, that which comes before birth. The energy that lies sleeping before it emerges and manifests into the world of the three dimensional plane. The dark matter is connected to Kali, Kal. It is this temple of death and rebirth that is a gate to the ‘otherworld’, heralding a new phase in humanity where we will see first a deep plunge into darkness and death, before the eagle of consciousness can rise again.
Are you ready to accept this initiation? Into a place that is beyond the physical reality, to bring back the birth of a new time…?
The Cailleach is the moon goddess, she is the dark moon. Best honored during the new moon time. But know that there is no death without life, no darkness without light, so while she looks scary like an old hag her essence is beauty, her essence is procreation and the very quintessence of life itself. Mother Earth who recreates life on her planet.
The eye of Cailleach is her inner eye with which she sees the past, the present and the future. She looks through every outer appearance into the depth of the soul. That’s why she is sometimes considered to be terrible. Because she knows what’s going on behind the surface. Her hair is white, because she is old as the earth itself and is being seen as the creator goddess from the north. Creating islands, mountains, stones, oceans and rivers, that brought new life on her body. Animals and birds and fish and creatures, and slowly slowly human consciousness. She is accompanied by the whales and dolphins and the orcas, that are like her children. Deep in the vulva are the fires of lava, volcanoes, erupting through time to become land.
For the human mind this is all beyond understanding. Because her life spans millions of years and she talks about life and death of planets. But still she cherishes every little thing, every little creature, because they are all her children. To honor her is to honor life itself.
Be blessed and know that you are safe in her arms, resting your heads at her bossom, at the central stone of the Callanish.”
- to be continued –
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photo by Fredy Jeanrenaud 
https://fineartamerica.com/…/callanish-stones-fredy…
