Sacred Mountains

SACRED MOUNTAINS, ASHES, & HAPPINESS

“They have not left us, they have just gone before us.” An Irish proverb.

Belated Beltaine blessings to all in the Northern Hemisphere. One of my favorite celebrations - new life, the aliveness of the daughter energy within us all - passion, speaking out our heart’s desires - all unfolding into the summer approaching.

Here in the Southern Hemisphere we are beginning to fold within with reds and oranges and yellow leaves exhibiting their beauty and the dying to life as we have known it, now taking place.

I want to share with you today a remarkable journey I recently experienced . I traveled from my home to a city nearby to undertake the process of recording an audiobook for my new book soon to be released on June1st: Presence: Bringing the Soul into Dying and Grieving , A Memoir and Guide. It was my first time doing an audiobook, and I absolutely loved the whole process, even though it was tiring at times. Doing a recording of the book brings the words alive, and it seemed especially appropriate for this book as it is a compilation of short personal stories, meditations, and soul reflections.

Now, a little back story. My mom died 16 years ago and we spread her ashes off a sacred mountain that she looked out upon across the bay from her living room window. Where I was staying to record the book was a 5 minute walk from this mountain. I had not returned here since my mom’s ashes were spread (as I had spent most of that time in the US and Ireland. But, what I did not realize that where I was staying was directly across from the park where she sold her artwork at the Art in the Park weekend gatherings. When I walked out of my motel room, after the first day of recording, and crossed the road, my heart jolted. Very alive in my mind was my mom there with her table and easles with paintings on display, some of them with sold stickers on, and her laughing and talking to potential customers.

My book, Presence, has a large portion describing her dying process. Tears came. In time I continued on to the sacred mountain, giving thanks for its presence, for it holding my mom sacredly. I offered prayers of forgiveness for all those who do not hold the mountain sacred and use it purely for entertainment purposes. I felt the mountains tiredness at her being walked over continuously, and especially without sacred acknowledgment. I felt a deep connection to the very ground of the mountain.

The next day’s recording of the audiobook brought me to the place of The Release, where I was talking about the varied ways a soul can, or cannot let go. That afternoon, I received a message from my aunt, my mother’s youngest sister, telling me that her brother, my Uncle, was fading rapidly.

That evening, I opened to my Uncle’s soul, and I could feel his desire to leave. He was 91 and he had had enough. So, I took up the prayers and meditations I had recorded that day, asking for a swift and easy letting go for him.

He died at 5am the next morning.

That same day after completing the recording, I walked out to a small motu (an island), and sitting on the rocks at the far end, I looked out upon the sacred mountain from where my mom’s ashes had been spread, I opened the death portal, that is, opening to the other realms, and I began the prayers needed to help my Uncle release from his earthly life and to continue his soul journey. Sometimes, even though the souls have died, they still hold on, mostly out of not knowing. That is, not knowing they have died.

When my Uncle became aware of the prayers I was making, he asked me, “have I died?” I told him he had. He looked a little bewildered, and then asked me, “what do I do now?” I told him this was a time for him to adjust to not having a body and a time to let go of his earthly life.

He then told me that all the people from his retirement village were all still with him. What was happening was that his consciousness was still there. I told him it was now time to let them go too. I became aware that he was slowly letting them go, as I saw them begin to fade from his consciousness. Then I knew that that was enough for now. He needed time to assimilate the reality he was now finding himself in. And so I closed the death portal, gave thanks to the rocks and the motu I was sitting on, thanked the sacred mountain watching over us, and began my walk back as the sun was setting.

What an auspicious and synchronistic time.

Here I was recording an audiobook on presence and bringing the soul into dying and grieving, at the very place that was so sacred to my mom that she chose to have her ashes spread there, and now here I was sending her brother, who she was very close to, onward into the death realms from that very place.

I connected in with the spirit of my mom. She and the family already gone before, were waiting for my uncle’s spirit to adjust, so they could greet and help him onward. All this happening with the golden sun setting behind the sacred mountain

It was all so poetically in perfect timing and order.

On my journey back from the motu, I met two wonderful young Irish people. We had a great conversation and acknowledged how the Irish still have some of the old rituals in their dealing with the dead (which I have included in my book), plus some other great banter as you do with the Irish.

Continuing on, a young family asked if I could take their photo looking over the rocks and capturing the sunset and sacred mountain. They were filled with such joy at the beauty of it all.

And so life, and death, and joy linked arms once more and my slow stroll back to my room continued.

A message from my aunt. They were sad for my Uncle’s death but happy for him as he wanted to go.

I felt happy for him to.

Now, I see him reunited with his other world family, and he is happy too.

June 1st, Presence: Bringing the Soul into Dying and Grieving, A Memoir and Guide will be available as a physical book, an e-book and soon thereafter the audiobook will be available on Amazon. Bookstore orders will take a little while after this. The next podcast will bring those details and dates.

May you know the happiness of life and death and ongoing life

And may the sacred mountains and motus bless you.

Arohanui