Mother Earth Prayers: 2011

Friends,

Kateri-Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha has been nominated for sainthood by the Vatican. The chapel at Fonda is truly a wonderful and moving place that all should visit as it is filled with the thoughts and aspirations of many generations and people’s that prayed there. I have updated my review to include NPR’s story of the boy who was miraculously cured by praying to Kateri http://www.jubileeinitiative.org/sacredkateri.html

Earth Healers—I will be teaching a course on Earth Healing, 8 to 10 weeks, 1 ½ to 2 hours one night a week beginning in February/March in Syracuse and Canandaigua at Gossamer Woods http://www.jubileeinitiative.org/sacredgossamer.html, cost will be $100, scholarships available.

You will learn about Mother Earth’s subtle body, cleaning techniques and more. Much of the course will be experitiential to help you develop sentience of Mother Earth, dowsing skills to find her aspects so that you can heal her and work on your spiritual practices to develop your spiritual self. This is a course for those that wish to make a better world, clean up their home environment, or connect with Mother Earth to develop their self and improve their health etc.

I will send out more specifics on times in the next week. Contact me if you have another city in mind.

A New Year, a Better you—the Holiday period is a great time to take a little retreat to recharge and reflect. I use it to reassess my program of spiritual exercises. This year one of the things that I have decided to do is write a Thank You note to God each day in a journal. The Native American custom of Thanks is powerfully healing and transformative. What inspired me to writing my thanks was watching an interview of an author who was down on this luck and decided to write a thank you note each day to someone.

You can see the TV interview at: http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7393005n&tag=contentMain;contentBody

Or read about it on Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Simple-Act-Gratitude-Learning-Changed/dp/1401310710

The Arab Spring, the Occupy Wall Street Movement and now 2012 signal that big changes are coming. What those changes are and how they happen will be determined by each of us. Take some time this New Year to reflect, ponder and most of all Dream.

May God’s light and love shine on you and inspire each of you in the coming year.

Peace,
Madis

http://www.jubileeinitiative.org/sacredsouthhillkeepers.html

South Hill the Sacred MountainKeepers AreaHi Tor Forest, Middlesex NY
One of the many places of Prayer in Upstate NY.
Honor this mountain it is a sacred place. Include it in your prayers. Visit it and bring an offering with you when you come.

The Keepers Area
Please Read the South Hill Overview first.
The Keepers Area contains over a dozen large mounds and other stone structures located over a large area. The vibe (geographic samskaras) is great throughout. Many of the stone mounds have the embers of natural vortices of cosmic prana around their periphery, they have lost the integrity of being a bona fide vortex and draw in prana, but still are powerful and with a little spiritual spit and polish would become vortices again—lots and lots of them are there.
If you do not have experience walking in the woods with no trails or markers you should consider whether you visit the Keepers area. Parts of the terrain are heavily wooded with downed trees so you need to bring a compass. Because the area is a little more secluded it has not been so much visited, so the chances of seeing someone are remote. Should you get lost go uphill and look for open fields. These fields ultimately connect to the parking area.
That said this is a great area to explore and connect with Spirit.

Finding the Keepers Area
Finding the Keepers area can be a challenge. We suggest entering from the top of South Hill off of South Hill Road before it intersects Wolfanger Road.
The first entry would be to turn into the DEC preserve Road west of the intersection of Wolfanger and South Hill Road. Follow the road to the end and park at, or near, the roundabout.
Walk downhill bearing to your right. Look for a small opening that will lead to a narrow field going downhill. Take this field downhill all the while looking to take another right onto another field. When you get to the next field bear right, look for a bluebird box marked #64 and it will bring you to another field that is not so well maintained.
Follow this field down bearing to your left; it may appear as two fields. Look for the field with a bluebird box marked #63. About 50-100 feet down the field ends by a woods. On your right is a lightly wooded area, you should be able to see a wide trail on the other side of the trees, there should be a herd path 5 to 10 feet in length. This is a well traveled trail that the DEC uses and connects with South Hill Road. Take a left onto the trail and walk downhill. Shortly, 75-100 yards on your left you will see a large stone mound.
The second option, easier but longer, is to go to the top of South Hill Road and look for a service road on the south side just west of DEC Preserve Road. You will see two yellow gates and a stop sign. Park your car but make sure not to block the entrance to the service road. Follow this road down about ½ a mile, this is the longer route, but easier to find. This is the wide trail referred to in the previous paragraph. Look for a large mound, 25-30 feet in diameter, on your left hand side.

Entering the Sacred Area
We suggest that you bring an offering with you; we also suggest that you ask permission to enter and wait a few minutes before proceeding to the mounds.
A welcome circle, made of stones, can be found before and to the right of the large mound. It sits on a stacked (8) field of consciousness, very nice. Say a prayer and smudge yourself. Spend some time in the welcome circle upon entering and leaving the Keepers Area.
We suggest that you meditate at the periphery of the stone mounds, not on them. This is where we believe that many of the people used to pray (meditate); walking on the mounds will over time alter their shape and structure. Please avoid walking on the mounds.

The Keepers
We call this the Keepers area because we believe that during its hay day the larger mounds would have had a keeper to maintain them. The Keeper would be a shaman, priest or some sort of other holy person. This was most likely a position of high honor.
The Keeper would be responsible for maintaining the spiritual and physical integrity of the mound. They would direct people where to sit on, or near the mound. They would have led ceremonies and other rites around the mound. They would have been responsible for the physical maintenance of the mound.
We imagine that some of the larger mounds may have had a succession of Keepers for a period that may have lasted a century or more. The Keeper was also an indication of the spiritual nature and the high esteem with which the stone mounds were held in.
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Experiencing the Keepers Area
The Keepers Area is made up of stone mounds of varying shape, size and condition, a few are just rubble. The mounds also cover more than just earth chakras and include spirit lines (ley lines), and aspects of the energy, astral and emotional planes. This great diversity of Mother Earth features covered with stones demonstrates that whoever built them was very knowledgeable of Mother Earth.
If you walk perpendicular to the trail and towards the mound with the welcome circle in a hundred yards or so you will find another large mound. If continue down the trail for about a 50 to 75 yards you will see another smaller mound to your left where the trail appears to end.
The area from the first mound to the next mound going down the trail and about 100 to 200 yards back into the woods is the area that contains the bulk of the mounds. Our friend Helen Ellis refers to this area as the White Pines for its trees.
There are more mounds directly left of where the trail ends and going downhill as well. You may go in a half mile or more and still find mounds. There is a waterfall and spectacular gorges downhill to your left as well. But be careful, as downed trees and thickets in certain spots can get you lost.
I would recommend meditating near the small stone mound at the end of the trail mentioned previously. Particularly towards the side that is closest to where the trail ends and a path appears to break to the left. This section, if I remember correctly sits on an instrument of either the astral or emotional plane of Mother Earth. It would be excellent for vision questing.
If you back track beginning from the small mound by the end of the trail at a 45 degree angle back uphill going away from the trail you will encounter several mounds. One in particular is an almost perfect circle about 8-10 feet in diameter and about a foot or more in height. It marks the intersection of several spirit lines (ley lines) and it has the spiritual embers of the many that had spent time there. If you are looking for answers, knowledge or direction this would be an excellent place to meditate.
The rest of the Pines section contains several stone mounds and numerous stone piles, mounds that have fallen apart over the years, particularly close to the trail. Some of them cover some interesting aspects of Mother Earth and would be good to meditate on. Try to feel if a pile is special or not.

Be Careful
It has been a long time since the stone mounds were constructed. Not everyone that has visited since has come there with the best of intentions, nor have they done the best things as is common with all cultures. Those thoughts can linger in places. This can create an atmosphere at many levels that does not bring out the best.
I don’t think that you will have any problems. The overall vibe, or geographic samskaras, is very good. I spent much time purifying the area by smudging it and meditating at strategic locations. Should you ever have concerns while there please contact me.
Come with the best of intentions. Bring an offering and spend time in the Welcome circle and you will be fine.

If you go
I suggest you wear long pants, bring a compass and some bug repellent in addition to food and water.
The Keepers Area is a wonderful area for exploration both of the physical land and its structures and internally of yourself. Please go and spend some contemplative time there and help reinvigorate this very sacred place.
Thanks to Lorraine Mavins for her photography and assistance.
Peace,In emailing me make sure to change (at) to @ in the address header: madis senner
Madis Senner