I spent October 2020 - February 2021 at the Goddess Temple in Georgia. This was a powerful and somewhat confusing time for me. Several intense happenings occurred.
1. Aru stepped on a Copperhead snake, was bit in the back foot and almost died. Whitewolfe had the presence of mind to apply a tourniquet to his leg. We knew he would die on the way to the next town over (almost an hour away) so we all did energy work on him and prayed for his survival. I have never heard an animal scream and cry in pain the way he did and I hope I never hear that again. Whitewolfe carried him into the bus and me and the girls got to work. I held Aru as Marly and Wakanda took turns singing light language and moving energy. I literally watched the poison get drawn out of his body. Whitewolfe removed the tourniquet after half an hour. Every once in a while I would give him a handful of water to drink. At one point I did a journey and dream-walked to find his spirit. He seemed very far away. I saw him in a forest that was dark grey and the forest floor was covered in snakes. I said to him "You are walking with snake medicine now. Very powerful medicine. Do not be afraid." He said back to me "I don't like how my body is feeling." I said "It's ok. Don't fight it. Just breathe and it will move through you." At that exact moment he took a deep breath and moaned. Keep in mind he had been crying and moaning for hours up to this point! I had my face next to his head and the heat radiating from his head was so hot and intense. My arm where I cradled his head was soaked from his slobber. I stayed with him in this snake infested scene until my vision became clearer. At the same exact moment Wakanda stopped singing. I said "He's back" and she said "I know." For the remainder of the day, the family took turns sitting with him and singing to him and by the evening he was thumping his tail in the bed every time someone came in to take their shift. His healing was definitely a group effort. By the next day he was running around like nothing happened. Well, he had a little limp but that was it. I knew after I journeyed with him that he was my dog and we were meant to be together. He had been initiated into Snake medicine. 2. We were super excited about creating a community and I had already connected to the land through service and finding a rare plant that was medicine that we all needed. I was raking the path to the space that would become a red tent temple when I heard "Hey, look over here". I was alone and it was very subtle. That is how I stumbled upon Ghost Pipe medicine. When I looked up what it was it just so happens to be exactly what everyone needed. All the males in our group were suffering from open sores believed to be merca. The land told me that when we tend to the land with love and gratitude in service the land will "speak" to us and show us her treasures. This happened about a week after we arrived. Shortly after I walked down to the creek and built the medicine wheel. When the land chose where I should place the medicine wheel I had inadvertently picked the oldest and biggest tree on the 18 acres of land as the center of the wheel. I had fallen in love with the land and hoped to stay there indefinitely. 3. The family that I traveled with from Mt. Shasta split up in November. Two of our group went on to do something else while Wakanada, Chibago and I tried to make it work. It was an intense few weeks of growth, preparing the land to become a goddess temple, a place of refuge. Some of us had been involved in intentional communities before and some like myself had not experienced that kind of living before. It was there that I learned how NOT to create a community. In an intentional community there must be clarity, trust and above all else communication. It was during a very heated exchange where I was not allowed to speak in response to what was thrown at me that I realized my time had come to a close. I was just waiting for the right time. For several weeks I went back and forth even though my heart knew it was time to go. I was so in love with the land. I had spent every night dreamwalking and clearing/healing the land. As I walked in the forest I asked the spirits of the forest "What do you want me to do? Should I stay or should I go?" the spirits of the forest responded "You are connected to us where-ever you go." That was it. No yes or no. Just "You are already connected." A few weeks later I found myself packing up my most prized possessions into my newly acquired van in the middle of the night. The next morning I took my friend Chibago and we headed north to drop of Wakanda's dog to her in Illinois. As I said goodbye to the kids I said to Neo "I'll be back. I promise." He gave me a funny half smile (he knew) and waved a sweet goodbye to me. I had every intention of coming back to try to make this work but once I got on the road my heart said "You're never going back." I will never forget that beautiful place and will be forever grateful to the goddess on the land and her children even though it didn't work out.
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October 2020
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