Last Part 24. From Sinai to Schiehallion
While we have our small gathering, and experience all the themes that undoubtedly also play a role in the big COP in Glasgow, Tanja and Jos, two friends of ours, walk around the Schiehallion. They spend the nights outside and make contact with the trees. In a training in Romania they learned to listen to the voice of the trees. Their journey ends on November 12 at the old ‘Yew tree’, the oldest tree in Europe and perhaps the world. Estimates about the age of the tree go back to 5,000 years, when there was also a stone circle and a small settlement at a site now called Fortingall. The place is on the other side of the mountain. Many say there are important ley lines going through the village.
While Tanja and Jos are walking their last leg, over rivers and through valleys, we have a last circle in the Dunalastair hotel. On the altar are several animals – small plastic figurines – : a dragon, a swan, a deer and a unicorn, Merlin the Wizard and a few more stones and symbols. The altar is the result of our joint process. We share what each of us has experienced, on the mountain, in the days before and after the meditation. A rich variety of experiences passes in review like a golden string of pearls. All the pieces of the puzzle are put together. The altar opens on one side and seems to become a womb from which new life emerges.
I am reminded of the message of a good friend and channel, Judith Moore:
‘The 11-11 is a birth. It’s a day of birth. The Earth will receive this impulse and just as there is a divine timing in all labor and birth, she will quicken her energy. She is in transition now and transition is always a difficult part of labor. But she will move into the vibration of birth of Oneness. You may think of it in terms as an act of God, the power of Creation, as the ultimate force.”
On the side where the altar opens are our two swan wings that we took with us the whole journey. It seems as if the gate to the north is finally unlocked. Each of us feels its magic. I think back to the channeling I received many months earlier when I was still in Amsterdam, similar to Judith’s message:
‘The moment of ceremony in Shiehallion is a possibility to open up a door of consciousness to become one: become one with the planet and with the heart of the Mother. Become one with mankind, knowing that you are brothers and sisters of the same race, the human race.
Now there is another race going on and that is the race of Time. And time is running out in all possible ways. Just like a clock goes around from one to twelve, on the outer rim the hands of the clock are going very fast, but in the middle in the center of the clock there is silence, there is stillness. This is the moment of ceremony that you are going to create in the Shiehallion. It’s a zero point in time. When you reach that center of stillness the doors will open up and the Galactic energies can flow to you as human beings but also to the planet itself, and you will know what to do. You will be guided to manifest the appropriate actions.’
After the circle a number of people from our group decide to meet Tanja and Jos at the Yew Tree. When we arrive there, Jos and Tanja are nowhere to be seen. We decide to take a walk in the glen, the valley that runs further along the river. We walk through the most fairytale-like environment I have ever seen. The colors of the trees are overwhelming: misty green, bright yellow, red-brown, orange-red. At the bottom of the valley, a raging river churns down between the rocks. At the horizon, patches of fog pass the mountains and give the whole a Tolkien-like atmosphere.
At the end of our path is a small house: ‘Woodsend’, the sign reads. An artist walks out and we start a chat. “There used to be a mystery school here, from the Essenes and the druids,” he says. “There’s great magic here. I used to live in Callanish, at the stone circle in Lewis. The stones haven been directed towards the north, to the constellation of Cygnus, the swan.’ Anne and I look at each other meaningfully. The man seems to have walked away from a fairy tale and confirms many of our suspicions about our journey.
It is almost dark when we arrive at the Yew tree. Tanja and Jos have just arrived there, soaking wet and exhausted. They had to cross two rivers to get to the Yew Tree and spent four days sleeping in nature. Together with them we do a ritual at the ancient tree. The rain drips from the branches, but the energy of the ritual puts me in a very different time: 5000 years earlier, in the small settlement of huts. I recognize the people, and know that i’m home there. It’s like traveling through time to a past life, which is almost more real than my life now. At the end of the ritual I say goodbye and return to the Yew Tree. There I see all my companions in this life, in a sacred circle under the tree, and Anne with whom I have made this whole journey. It is now dark and we return to the hotel together.
When we go for a walk in the evening we arrive at the loch, Loch Rannoch. The wind has died down, it is dead still and the moon appears from behind the clouds. Before us lies the unruffled lake, like a great mirror in which the stars of the sky are reflected. There is a soothing silence, after all the experiences and turbulence of the past few days.
When the sky opens completely, someone points to the stars that are visible: right in front of us, above the lake, hangs a kind of cross of stars. “It’s unbelievable,” says someone who has an app on his phone that lets you explore the starry sky. “It’s the constellation Cygnus.” We watch in awe as the mystery unfolds. Here we stand, at the end of our journey, and at the end of our gathering. It seems as if everything comes together on this holy night; all events merge into one universal experience: The Alpha gate of Schiehallion, the zero point in time. Heaven winks… it’s done.
- END –
