Mountains are holy places across time and traditions.
They are homes of the Divine and gateways to something bigger than us. Mount Kailas is the home of Shiva, and sacred to five different religious traditions. Mount Sinai is the high place where Moses saw YHVH. There is the Holy Temple Mount in Jerusalem (sacred to three traditions), Mount Olympus in Greece, Serra de Estrela in Portugal, Odaesan in South Korea, Mount Fuji in Japan, Uluru in Australia, Croagh Patrick in Ireland, and closer to home in the U.S.—Pilot Mountain in North Carolina; Wheeler Peak, Mount Taylor, and Shiprock in New Mexico; and my spiritual homes: Mount Tamalpais, Mount Lassen, Castle Crags, and Mama Shasta in Northern California.
According to the stories of the Klamath people, Mount Shasta is the home of Skell, a God-Chief who descended from heaven (Are we discerning a worldwide mythological theme?) to live on the mountain. Skell did not get along with Liao, another God-Chief of the underworld that also descended from the sky and was a resident of neighboring Mount Mazama (now Crater Lake in Oregon). The stories say the two bickered by throwing hot rocks and fire at each other—which is a great legendary description of the violent volcanic history of the Pacific Northwest Ring of Fire.
The present day Wintu people have active seasonal sacred community ceremonies on the mountain, including recent snow and water dances during the multi-year-long, climate-catastrophe-fueled, and wildfire-producing drought. The Wintu (and other Native American communities) say that “Mama Shasta will either embrace you in her arms as a beloved or she will spit you out.” And She does have a habit of mirroring life, death, shadow, and resurrection very clearly and powerfully. I have returned to her repeatedly since being triggered into Twin Flame Awareness, and especially during the pandemic. She helps me check in with myself; clear anxiety, confusion, and death energy; tank up multidimensionally; and get 3D grounded for my intense ministry and spiritual navigation work.
Mama Shasta has given birth to several modern spiritual movements (some whacky, and some more deeply resonant) which can claim roots in the theosophical movements of Helena Blavatsky, Annie Besant, Henry Olcott, William Judge, Rudolf Steiner, and Alice Bailey. Locally, in 1899, Frederick Spencer Oliver, a young boy, channeled a Tibetan being who called himself Phylos the Tibetan and, with the help of his mother, wrote “A Dweller on Two Planets.” This fascinating book gives an account of life on the lost continent of Atlantis and connects Mt. Shasta with the lost continent of Lemuria—a connection that shows up in the beliefs and spiritual experiences of several modern new age groups that call Mount Shasta home. The “I AM” movement (Guy and Edna Anne Wheeler Ballard), Peter Mt. Shasta’s writings, and the “Church Universal and Triumphant” (Elizabeth Clare Prophet and Mark Prophet) yielded some beloved, fascinating, and tragic characters. And the I AM University and Wesak Celebrations of Joshua David Stone (in my opinion a cut above the rest in integrity, authenticity, and resonance) all came to be in the shadow of (or under the influence of) Mama Shasta. The lives and work of the Theosophists are worth a research dive if you want to better understand the modern New Age movement in the United States (and ways Q-Anon related conspiracy nonsense has co-opted some of it). Alice Bailey (Lucis Trust) and Joshua David Stone’s books (Light Technology Publishing) have a prominent place on my bookshelves and should be studied with discernment by any student on the journey of ascension looking for maps and thought and spirit-provoking reading material.
One of the things Mama Shasta brings to my attention every time I go home is the importance of grounding. We empaths and spiritual seekers are notorious for not being fully present because we really don’t like how dense and sometimes right down awful Earth can feel. We do “grounding meditations” which ground us just above the 3rd dimension instead of on and in the earth, in the present moment. Mama Shasta, however, is a place of 3D elemental magic. Earth, air, fire, water (and spirit) are in your face, on your shoes, and soaking your clothes, wherever you turn.
On my recent retreat, I received a powerful water blessing at Ney Springs Creek, near Faery Falls, facilitated by teacher and holy man, Dan, who was healing and glowing, fresh from a sundance ceremony and a Wintu snow dance that had yielded a foot and half of late spring snow up on the Mountain. He stopped and looked at me when we were honoring the directions and calling in the elementals and ancestors in the clearing near Faery Falls and said, “You are not like many. You didn’t come here to see Telos. They are your family. You can go there wherever you want. You are here to put your roots down and heal your relationship with Mother Earth.” That statement brought tears of recognition. And those tears kept falling as we drove down another tiny dirt road and hiked to the medicine circle by the water/ Those tears mixed with the freezing runoff that took my breath away and poured down over my silvery gray hair and ran down my breasts and belly. I could see, in my mind’s eye, my ancestors and others joining the ritual in this ancient holy place. And they weren’t alone. They brought the elemental spirits with them—fairies, gnomes, sylphs, ondines, and salamanders. I could see them more clearly than ever before and found myself laughing so hard at their antics. I sobbed tears of joy. In that sacred moment of icy elemental baptism—immersed in flowing water, shivering in the mountain wind, with my knees buried in snow, rocks and mud, and the volcanic lava fire roaring deep in the holy ground underneath me—I received some spiritual wisdom about water.
Water is holy. Water is a gift, and we can’t take it for granted. It manifests as snow and ice, droplets, rain, flow, and steam. All are present in Mother Earth—and in this place in abundance—drops, rivulets, crystals, steam, and boiling mud. Like our Mother, we are also composed of an abundance of water. Depending on the situation, we might be called to manifest or interact with different forms of water. We also have the ability to see in and be a part of water like trout; we can discern the movement and shapeshift that is called for in each moment. Sometimes we need to freeze solid and stand strong when our vulnerable ones are threatened. Sometimes we need to gently thaw what is frozen in us and in our ancestral lines. Sometimes we need to flow around and through rock. Or, possibly, we need to pool together, tumble over cliffs, and erode them over time. Sometimes we need cleanse or even come to a rolling boil and rise into the air above things as steam so we can take on the sight of the winged ones. We are called to do and be all of these things when we take on bodies—just as our ancestors from the stars have before us and as our children will after us. But no matter what movement and shapeshift is called for in the moment, it is important to remember that at our core and in our cells—like our Mother—we will always be water. And like our Mother, we will always be Holy.
Alaheshte! Eish! And may it be so.
