This is the 3rd segment of my 4-part story of discovery. This segment takes place at Serpent Mound, the largest effigy mound on earth, recently approved as a UNESCO World Heritage site, joining the Pyramids of Giza, Stonehenge, and Machu Picchu. It was built by Native Americans who lived in this area generations ago. It is believed they used it for sacred ceremonies.
Following My Urgings
For years, I’d wanted to visit Serpent Mound … located right here in Ohio … in Peebles, a 1 ½ hour drive east of Dayton on Route 73. Even though I don’t like doing things alone, I felt an urgency to visit. I decided not to deny myself.
After all, years ago, on a trip to Machu Picchu, I had explored that site alone. Our travel group wanted to see it at dawn, but it turned out to be an overcast morning. Clouds and mist hid the mountain. Disappointed, they all decided to go to breakfast.
But I hadn’t come to Machu Picchu to eat. I elected to explore the ruins, even if that meant doing it alone. That 1 ½ hours of exploration, watching the clouds and mist roll in and out, hiding and then revealing the mountain, was a spiritual experience I will always treasure.
An Awakening Emerges
And so, on October 4, a warm, sun shiny day, I made the trek to Serpent Mound. I’m glad I listened to and followed the urging. My experience turned out to be far more than I ever anticipated.
I took along my journal, my Untethered Soul book, and lunch. When I arrived, I slowly walked the Mound, envisioning Native American sacred ceremonies of long ago. There weren’t many others there that day, so I was able to maintain a reverential and meditative tone.
Then I found a picnic table shaded by a big tree. I pulled the “Grace, Grit, & Gratitude” journal out of my favorite bag inscribed with a proverb that speaks powerfully to me, “… just when the caterpillar thought the world was over, it became a butterfly.” Providential!
In a final act of letting go, I ripped out the pages written during my time of hope and longing and tore them into shreds. I began anew, letting go and journaling my prayer of surrender to “what is.”
After lunch, I pulled The Untethered Soul from my bag to prepare for the group’s next session on Chapter 8 titled, “let go now or fall.”
I couldn’t help but chuckle as I read about “unconscious blockages in the flow of our heart energy related to a disturbance from our past … something inside needing to be released before it creates more problems … knowing that if we act upon that, we will fall into darkness … this being an opportunity to grow … the ascent can become a powerful force that raises us up … if we have the courage to descend down first.”
Down … but Not Out
Well, I had certainly descended down … no denial about that. And now I was surrendering … not easy for an Enneagram One who feels safest when she’s in control … surrendering for maybe the only second time in my life … the first being in 1999, and if you’ve read my memoir, you know how that turned out! Better than I could ever have imagined! 😊
Then I noticed an insect crawling up my shirt. Startled, I swiped it away. Except it didn’t go away. I noticed it was a praying mantis, and I like praying mantis’s. It continued to crawl up my shirt and then disappeared. I looked around and didn’t see it. I felt my back and didn’t feel it. I continued preparing the Untethered Soul lesson.
Michael Singer, the author, reminds us that “the purpose of growing spiritually is about removing these blockages … a purification process … life helping by surrounding us with situations/people that disturb/scare us … these being stimulating opportunities to grow … surrendering to the process of emptying/letting go of fighting with life”
The Jokes on Me
I started laughing … at myself … and chiding myself. “You had all these highfalutin ideas of being called to lead this small group … to facilitate awakening for others! I never could have orchestrated this!”
I pulled out my journal again and wrote to a power greater than myself … to my Guiding Spirit … my True Self:
“You guided me to facilitate this group because YOU knew I NEEDED to revisit this information … this spiritual practice … before I created a mess. Thank you for rescuing me from myself.”
A Divine Blessing
About that time, the praying mantis appeared on my shoulder.
I later learned a praying mantis is a symbol of Divine Blessing. 😊
Not Alone
I headed for The Mound to walk it a second time. On the way, I dropped my shredded journal pages into a waste container. This time I walked in the opposite direction around the Mound … and found that it gave a better view.
On this trek, I marveled at the way The Divine works in our lives … giving us a better view in another way.
Here I was … a woman alone … and yet not alone. The Divine Spirit within accompanied me for many months on this journey. It wasn’t lost on me that this experience would not have unfolded as a spiritual awakening had I been in the company of other human beings.
And, in being accompanied by my Guiding Spirit, another piece of the puzzle fell into place.
LONGING > EXPECTATION > DISAPPOINTMENT > SHADOW > SABOTAGE > GRIEF
You guide us through our own nature. … Everyone craves their natural path, the way of their own nature. … Each of us, I deeply believe, longs to become fully whole with ourselves. ~Caroline Myss in Intimate Conversations with the Divine
A Concealing Legacy Revealed
My appointment with my therapist a week later revealed the source of my longing … “generations of regret and shame in my family of origin” … a legacy that conceals my “quiet, creative, hopeful, inspirational true nature … that powerful inside energy that goes deep in search of what is REAL.”
Now that I know, I have the opportunity to heal, not just for myself, but for all my ancestors.
Once again, with the courage to surrender, I receive a life-giving message.
I weaned myself off my anti-depressant. I hadn’t needed it in the first place.
We, as a species, are on a sacred path and, like the small praying mantis, we can think it is our path. It is only the path of the WHOLE, the SOURCE. In those moments, like you have described, we get a glimpse of how big IT is. The ground you were on was blessed and made SACRED hundreds of years ago and that ENERGY still resides there. In those SACRED moments we are all resonating with the same ENERGY!!!!