Tags
avalon, effigy mounds, faeries, hiking, magic, mystery, national parks, native americans, sacred sites, witch
Stop number two on the itinerary, but officially the first sacred site. These mounds were built right on the banks of the Mississippi River, and are believed to be ceremonial and grave sites. For the graves, different tribes around the region would gather to draw a circle in the Earth, and then dig into that circle in the shape of a square. Cremated remains or decomposed bodies from the winter would then be placed in the grave, and given supplies for the afterlife. Next, humus from the earth would be carried to the site and placed on top in a way to form a mound. The ceremonial sites were built in the same way, only these were not circular, rather, they were drawn in the shape of particular animals, such as bears, birds, buffalo, panthers, turtles, etc.
I was not prepared for the feeling I had upon beginning the 3.5 mile hike to “Hanging Rock.” As the trail began, it was in a deep valley, with lush vegetation high on both sides. The sun peeked through the canopy, and the silence was deafening. I felt very much like I was in a womb of the Mother, suffocating in a deeply soothing way. There is no way a human being could live in this place without being completely connected and in harmony with nature. The trail zig zagged up, and I have to mention that the banks of the Mississippi River in this part of Iowa are not flat. They are high incline hills, not quite mountains, but respectable height nonetheless. Meandering around and through the mounds, I was struck by how not only were the mounds all constructed in the highest clearings of this forest of big green trees, but also how many of them also had oak trees growing at the head of them. Part of my history is The Shining Isles, and the Island of Mona. We know it today as the British Isles. The Druids on these isles would hold their ceremonies in Oak groves, as it is considered to be one of the most sacred trees. Imagine my surprise to see that across an ocean, another culture also appears to find them just as sacred. This goes back to the idea that there is a collective consciousness, a central knowledge that connects us all. What intelligence did we lose, as our culture developed? In our quest to prove everything through science, and our persecution of everything we did not understand, how much instinctual nature was lost? We have become a society that is overly sterilized, sanitized and watered down. Nothing is believed unless it can be proven through a scientific experiment. What happened to getting dirty on the Earth and asking Her to whisper us Her secrets? Inexplicable, intuitive secrets and ways of living that we’re infused with the magic and mystery of the dark belly of the ground we walk on every day. I wanted to sit right in the middle of this womb and let Her tell me all of the sweet nothings She wanted to share. I’m terribly frustrated by all of the fear surrounding the mysteries of life, and our attempt as a developed society to simply deny the existence of things we don’t understand, or can not explain. It’s time to call the magic back.