Hello. It appears you are here for my very first post. I thought this was going to be easy. I have always something to say, and have never shied away from public speaking. But I see now that this is kind of scary. Is it because my audience is unseen? Don’t think that’s it. I wrote novels for many years. That audience was unseen. But I could hide behind my characters. No hiding here. I’ve been getting the message for a while and from different sources to “open your heart.” I’m beginning to think now that might refer to this blog. Putting yourself out there bare. That is more than a little scary. But here goes…

I have just returned to Louisiana from Halloween in Sedona and the annual uptown celebration. The house I dearly loved, and which I had rented for many years, had sadly just been sold. I had to find a place to stay on very short notice. Would the ravens find me there? They did. Coming when called. And most fun of all – coming as my husband was snapping the photo you see here of me in my Halloween regalia.

The scrub jays quickly found me too, once I set out their favorite peanuts. As bright and bold as always. Funny little bandits.

Magick Afoot

Kachina Woman — Boynton Canyon

Every trip I have made to Sedona has included a visit to Kachina Woman. She stands at the entrance to Boynton Canyon, part of the vortex area that includes her male companion, the Warrior. Of the four primary vortexes of the Sedona area, this one is said to be most balanced as to female/male, or inflow/outflow energy.

The first time I climbed up to Kachina Woman, I was traveling with my best friend. She had fallen and hurt her back the day before we arrived at Enchantment, the resort that lies within Boynton canyon. She had decided to spend a leisurely day of resting and massage. So I was on my own and decided very uncharacteristically – for I had never been at all athletic – to make the climb to Kachina Woman. Being a novice, and totally uninformed about the trails, I proceeded to scrabble up the front of the rock face where there were no trails at all. I remember quite clearly how I perched there at a very steep angle, looking out over the canyon and thinking that my husband more than a thousand miles away would surely have a heart attack could he see me.

That was the first magick that Kachina Woman wove for me – just getting me up that rocky incline. Now I like to joke – for indeed it seems so – that the climb is made easier for me every year; and at some point, when necessary, Kachina Woman will provide me an elevator.

There was magick again this year. Despite my many visits, I followed a friend unthinkingly down the wrong trail. I had forgotten that she had only gone up to Kachina Woman twice before with me. And she assumed that I would say something if we were going wrong. When I finally did realize our mistake, backtracking took a bit of time. Normally I go up to Kachina Woman just after sunrise so as to be alone in the quiet. On this day, my friend and I had gone up much later, so it was not surprising that a woman almost immediately popped up to greet us as we settled ourselves against the rocks. She began to tell us the story of her visit two years earlier when she had come up to spread the ashes of her beloved dog. The experience had been very spiritually rewarding, and now she was back and was hoping to find a heart-shaped stone.

I told her that finding one shaped by nature was becoming harder, as there was a gentleman named Robert who had been for a long time collecting them, and giving them away as a reminder that positive change for the planet begins with oneself and spreads out from there. My friend added that because natural examples had become so rare, Robert had had to begin chiseling heart-shaped stones from pieces of the native red rock.

Robert’s heart alongside my protection stone.

It had been very good to hear this woman’s story, but it soon became apparent that she was quite a talker, and that unless I spoke up I would get no quiet time for meditation. So as politely as I could, I asked if I might have a few minutes of quiet.

After that few minutes, I smiled and said that I would be glad to take the cell phone picture for her that she had requested. But now she had changed her mind. She was quite suddenly ready to go. Was she miffed that I had asked for silence? Why hadn’t she left immediately if that were the case? Without thought the words flew out of my mouth,“Keep looking for your heart-shaped stone.”

She made no response, but began to descend the trail…where she was met by none other than Robert himself. There ensued an animated conversation and the gift of the heart-shaped stone that she had come up to Kachina Woman seeking.

As she continued down the trail, Robert came to speak to us and to hand us our own heart-shaped stones. This was the second he had given me, and he said that now I had one to share. He left us then and went to climb to the top of the Warrior, where he began to play his flute. We traveled down the trail to its echoing strains.

Robert playing his flute atop the Warrior

Are you thinking it’s just a sappy little story with flute music at the end, no less? A woman still seeking solace over the death of a pet meets up with an aging hippy who gives her a rock. Big deal.

But this is the way of Spirit. The way that messages come to us in whatever form we might accept. Mistakes…decisions…chance meetings. Might going off the trail have had a purpose? Could other small annoyances have had a purpose of timing…timing…timing? A coming together. For a story to be told. For words to be spoken. For that is how magick so often works – as a fortuitous arrangement of circumstance.

Open your heart, the primary message here. The message that I see unfolding before me even as I have typed out these words. For the woman. For me. For all. So we have come full circle.

–Sandra