By Gabriel Hartley
November 9, 2014
We’d been feeling called back to Stroud’s Run State Park for some months now. It is, after all, only about two miles from our house as the crow flies and on the same energetic line that runs through our property straight across Dutch Creek and Scatter Ridge, dropping down from the ridges to Dow Lake. And this energetic line is something else! But with the beauty of gardens to plant and grow and harvest and so much work to do at home, not to mention the constant magic in our own forest right here in our backyard, we just didn’t get back to Stroud’s for awhile.
But this morning, two days after Kivi Sky’s due date, we just felt that it would be right to go, to hike, to get ourselves charged and situated for the upcoming birth. So we drove the five miles or so it takes to get to Stroud’s by road, traveling through some of the most picturesque scenery in the country, parking at the head of the horse trails in the little lot off of Scatter Ridge Road with the beautiful late-morning sun filtering through the mid-Autumn trees.
We initially started a little way down the first trail we came to, Amaretto Trail, but quickly realized that this path drops down to the lake rather than up and over the ridges to the (unacknowledged) sacred ceremonial stone center we were planning to visit. So we walked back to the dirt road and up to another trail that we thought would take us directly to the stone center.
As way led to way, however, we found that this trail took us far to the southeast of where we had initially planned on going. Instead of being on the high point of the Sundown Trail, we were at the conjunction of the Sundown, Hank, and Indian Mound Trails. It felt as though we had been unconsciously transported to this spot somehow, as though this was one place we were supposed to be but which we never would have chosen to go to on our own. In fact, this was the spot I had at first suggested hiking to, but the parking lot nearest to this spot was closed for construction (probably for fracking).
One beautiful surprise in finding ourselves unexpectedly in this spot was that we were now at another very sacred stone center in the park. This short trail connects the Indian Mound Trail to the Lakeside Trail and drops down from the ancient mounds to the lake shore while passing through several very enchanted fairy abodes. A few summers ago we brought some of my students here on what I call an Akashic Field Trip and this was the first time in a while we had come to this spot together, despite its being one of our favorites.
There are several massive trees that seem to have been exploded across the path, as though blown up by some enormous energy at their base. This has always struck me as an outward sign of the immense energy that shoots through the earth and sky at Stroud’s. Today we found many more trees crossing the paths as we hiked.
So we gave in to the pleasure of being where we hadn’t planned on going and greeted the fairies below us down the embankments from the path. This particular path took us down to one of my favorite spots, a rock outcropping protected by a series of massive exploded trees. In this particular outcropping one of the main boulders has a beautifully precise split down the middle which we are always drawn to, feeling so good just standing over the crack or stepping down into it.
Anna’s power seemed to magnify as she stood above the crack, taking in the stone energy that had drawn us there this day to celebrate our oncoming stone/sky boy, Kivi.
I was drawn to lie down in the crack in a warm bed of leaves with the sun shining in my face.
As soon as I got comfortable, the Stone Beings started talking to me. They told me that this particular spot contained an immense amount of earth energy and that lying in between the two boulder halves like this gave a person a massive energetic charge. My aching back (sore after throwing it out several days earlier) immediately felt comforted by the energy rising from the earth.
As we dropped down to the path below the stony outcropping, we stopped to take more photos and just take in the scene before us. I was thanking the Stone Beings for this gift of energy and communication when they said, “Well, this is all for your boy about to be born. It’s only appropriate that we Stone Beings welcome this Kivi boy into the world this way!” I then realized why we had been led down this way to this particular rock outcropping and let go into a swirl of thankfulness for being in this universe at this moment.
As we followed the path we turned onto the Lakeside Trail that follows the north edge of the lake.
I had felt especially drawn to the lake this day, in addition to the various rock groups, and was thankful to be walking along the lake shore taking in the Water Energy. The lake expresses itself in a very different way from the Stone and Sky ways.
Taking in this water power, we then turned up Haley Trail in order to round around to the northwest to the sacred stone circle, now a couple miles away, that was our original destination. As we passed up along Haley Trail we came to another beautiful stone outcropping that I didn’t remember.
I was again greeted by the Stone Beings as we approached the cliff face. As I marveled looking upward from them through the tree tops into the sky, they again emphasized that this was a day for greeting Kivi into the world.
The next mile or two proved to be rather wearisome, my back aching more and more and Anna’s pregnant belly feeling the weight and the miles. But the Stone Beings kept reminding us to draw our power from the stone. So we steeled ourselves and marched forward in a mixture of pain and bliss as we turned off to the west onto the Sundown Trail.
As always, arriving at the Sacred Stone Circle was very magical. I could see the Altar Stone—an extremely powerful and predominant stone set off by itself next to the Sundown Trail—glowing in a brilliant etheric light through the hills as we had been drawing closer and now seeing its brilliance face to face was very comforting.
I noticed on this trip that there was a wedge cut into the corner of the stone and felt drawn to lie in this niche.
I immediately realized that this niche had served in ancient days as a space travel device of some sort and that the Altar Stone itself was a type of spacecraft (in addition to its other powerful features). I suddenly knew that ancient astronauts had lain in this same groove in order to travel into distant worlds and distant times.
Anna then lay in the niche herself and took off into the skies.
The Altar Stone the whole time continued to give off the most comforting energy I could imagine—an energy that felt so primal and so familiar.
After fifteen minutes or more of communing with the spirits of the place, we climbed up the bank to the rock face above that stands guard over the Altar Stone below.
From here we walked up to the high point of the ridge, a spot that has always revealed itself as a meeting place for humans and Sky Beings. We spent five or ten minutes taking in this new configuration of energy.
As I was lying on the ground, both to comfort my back and to feel the earth energy throughout my body, I was told that this was the climax of our journey for Kivi. This is the true Kivi Sky point where earth and the heavens meet. This was the dragon-power spot that our Kivi Sky is named after, the unification of earth and heaven.
By the time we got back to our car we were quite dizzy, exhausted, and exhilarated! What a miracle this world is! How communicative it can be if you just take the time to listen and to learn. We drove back along Scatter Ridge, dropping down to Dutch Creek—where we came across a small herd of orange long-haired Scottish cattle who greeted on the roadside—as we drove through the magical hills back to our house, listening to Neil Young on the CD player and feeling so beautiful and so full of life.
