Once again, what the fuck. Why would we name it that? As I make my way West, the first leg of my loop around America visiting these sacred sites, I’m taken aback by the marked differences between the way the conqueror sees things and the way the indigenous people do. Historically, this was a place for vision quests, taken by the young men as an initiation into the rites of manhood. Walking up to it, I can see why. At first the hardened magma jutting up towards the sky seemed cold and daunting. I felt myself intimidated into vertigo, craning my neck to look up at the top. The one mile loop that circled the tower was very sanitized, perfectly paved with a sheet of asphalt. “Don’t stray off the path!” it seemed to order. Doing what any good priestess of the earth would do, I ventured off the beaten path as quickly as I could. Paying my respect to the ancestors and the spirits as I climbed the giant rocks, there came a point rather high up when I felt myself cross a threshold. It was suddenly too much for my small mind to handle. The physical sensory overstimulation was threatening to dissolve me into thin air. I had a choice; keep climbing rocks that were becoming ever more vertical, or sit down. I chose to sit. If my experience in Belize, warping into a dream state while doing yoga on a Mayan ruin had taught me anything, it was don’t mess with Ma when she’s telling you to stop. I reclined on a rock, and let the sun soak me while I melted. My heart was pounding and I was giddy from the adrenaline streaming through my veins. High from my own supply. It was time to come down.
Looking up at Her after the climb with new eyes, She wasn’t cold and daunting anymore. She was warm, welcoming and full of love. It was as if She was a shy piece of Earth. A little reticent at first, putting up walls until She knew it was safe to let Her guard down around so many new people, day in and day out. I completely understood, seeing myself in this tower. Always an introvert, always shy, not letting my light shine until I knew it was safe. I felt very much like She was trying to speak to me, but I haven’t yet learned the ancient language. Yes, Earth talks. When invaders conquered the indigenous people of the Amazon, they asked them how they came to know the recipe for Ayahuasca. The people simply replied, “the plants told us.” In the Bible, has anyone taken pause to consider that Eve was, in fact, talking to a snake and didn’t seem surprised at all that it was talking back?
Which brings me to my deepest rage. Summed up in calling Mako Washte the Badlands, and hardened magma uncovered by eons of rain Devil’s Tower. Sawing down a sacred mountain to carve four President’s faces on it, and then carving Crazy Horse into another one as a way of apologizing. I simply cannot understand our fear of the Earth. We are the only species that blatantly destroys our habitat. We have forgotten where we come from, we are lost without our Mother. Absolutely insane. Of course we would call it Devil’s Tower. What better way to keep people away from it. Keep people from remembering, keep us from speaking to the Earth, keep us from connecting. We chase drugs, food, media, toys, anything that will fill the hole deep inside that was created when we gutted the feminine from the core of our being. It’s time to bring Her back, and to bring all of us back into balance.