A Circle In the Desert

__ A reflective journey into the Colorado Plateau
_____in words and photographs. . .

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__ . . . an unexpected encounter with
__ __ __ __ the Spirit of the Jaguar.

by David P. Crews

___I dreamed a dream where I was singing a song of power. I was singing it, but I was not singing it perfectly. I was slowly approaching the perfect song. Then, a vision was provided of a high and vertical rocky cliff wall. With my will, I could arrange the stones of that wall in or out to make a more impeccably flat and sheer surface. As I did so, my song became more perfect.

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A Different Kind of Journey –

___I enter again the Ocean of Stone - into the Land of the Standing Rocks. I have been there before - this stonebound land of red sand and hard blue sky. I have nearly died of thirst, have nearly become stranded, have nearly frozen myself in this bristling, wonderful country, and yet I return not only willingly, but with longing in my heart for such an unlikely place. It is like an addiction to this surreal and inhuman beauty - it compels my return.

___What is the purpose of this journey, then? Although hiking and exploring are a part of being in this land, this journey is more of a quest – a spirit quest to slow down my body and mind. I go to engage at least to some degree in "not being". That is Don Juan's term. I do not know if I can turn off my inner voice and just see, just hear, just be by not being. It is an experiment.
___I do not know if I have the innate ability that I have come to understand is a possible component of human beings - the ability of the shaman's inner journey that is so compelling as to be considered external to the individual and a window into the true nature of the universe. This, too, I shall be pursuing.
___In the end, I know for a very fact that the red stones are standing there in their world and I shall come and go among them as a flicker, scarcely to register on stony eyes. I shall not impress them, perhaps, but I shall be forever changed by being in their presence once again.

___My quest will take me to the Colorado Plateau, the high desert region that stretches from northwestern New Mexico across northern Arizona and up into Utah and the edge of Colorado. This region is known casually as "The Four Corners" because of the intersections of those states, but it is geographically distinct and it is, without debate, one of the most incredible places on Planet Earth.

___Once I find my special place - a secluded and remote spot that calls to my senses as "the right place," I intend to make a circle in the desert, nominally in the Native American tradition of the medicine circle, and simply sit in it for a day or two. It is a first pass at quieting the cognitive mind. Hopefully, I will be able to listen to the soft voice of the rest of my being and, perhaps, learn something of what it has to say. If I am very fortunate, I will hear the voice of the land and that of the cosmos in whose quantum matrix I am forever suspended.