Walking the Land: Grandmother Bell Rock by Marchiene Rienstra

Hi Everyone!

We hope that you will read both reports. Together, they will paint a more whole picture for you of our adventures with the root chakra, Grandmother Bell Rock of Sedona, Arizona. The photos are a mix of mine and Eileen’s. I finally brought a camera along–a small one, not the fancy one Eileen has.

But, better than nothing :-). And for those who want to see my other blog, just go to Marvelous Muse.

On a cool, sunny morning, Eileen and I set of for one of our very favorite places in the Sedona area: Bell Rock, which we fondly name “Grandma Bell.” Today we were on the way to the Root Chakra of the Sedona Red Rock Temple, as described in our guidebook, Nicholas Mann’s “Sedona: Sacred Earth.” I had gifts, and a new flute to play there, as well as my rattle. I had rehearsed the song we would sing there. I was ready, and eager for whatever lay ahead. Having experienced the incredible, powerful energy of “Grandma Bell,” I knew it would be memorable.

As we drove down 89A towards Cottonwood, the Mingus mountains loomed on the horizon. I scanned them eagerly, for Eileen had just discovered a small rounded hill in front of them which held the formation of a “crowning”– the kind referred to in the birthing process as the baby’s head emerges from the birth canal into the world. It seemed so fitting that it was right under the highest peak of the Mingus mountain range, in keeping with the creation myth of the Yavapai, which Eileen describes in her article. We stopped and wondered at it as we took pictures. The early morning sun highlighted it beautifully.

Here is Mingus mountain and you can see on her slopes the rounded birthing area with the ‘crowning’ of the head of the baby emerging. Possibly another sipapu? An emergence opening? Someday, Eileen and I must get over there and check it out!

As we continued driving towards Grandma Bell, we recalled our experiences in childhood with snakes. Little did we realize at the time how synchronistic that would be! Eileen told us her childhood friendship with two Bull snakes. I told of my childhood in India, where snakes lived in the walls of our house and in the bougainvillea vines that grew on the outside of the porch. We often saw snakes on the ceiling or floor and outside. We were, of course, warned to be careful, since some of them were cobras or vipers, but they never bothered us. I was fascinated with the snake charmers who would come to our compound and put on a show. The charmer would sit cross legged before the basket in which the snake was kept, and then take out his pipe and play a sinuous oriental tune, and out would come the snake, rising and weaving and swaying its head in time with the music. It is not surprising, then, that snakes are still very much in my psyche, and in Eileen’s, who has snake medicine.

As we drove onto 179, we found ourselves behind a Waste Management garbage truck. This seemed to fit with previous weeks when Eileen had found herself picking up trash off the road. This time the trash was in the truck, which was a good thing. It became a symbol for part of the experience we were about to have.

And here is our infamous Waste Management truck we followed all the way to Grandmother Bell!!!

We found a place to park on the north side of Grandma Bell, and began our hike. As we entered the trail, I saw a small rose colored ribbon lying on the ground and picked it up. It seemed to fit with the feminine energy field we were entering. We walked the trail to where we could go up onto the skirts of Grandma Bell, pausing to seek permission, and offer prayers and gifts to the spirits of the place. As we walked on, we noticed the rising sun in perfect position behind one of the peaks of Bell Rock. It cast a path of light over the slopes towards which we were moving. The glow of the sun behind the rock reminded me of its glow behind the rock at Rainbow Bridge. I glanced behind us, and from as high as we were, could see Thunder Mountain, Pyramid mountain, and hidden behind them, the area we knew was Rainbow Bridge. The alignment was just right, evidence of the rightness of the chakra alignment described by Nicholas Mann.

Even with my little camera, it captured the rainbow colors over Grandmother Bell Rock!

Then we continued on up to what Eileen calls “The Eye of the Needle”, through which we threaded ourselves (not easily!) so we could emerge around on Grandma Bell’s south side and then walk around her to the special place Eileen knew of which faced east.

Here I am looking up at the rainbow phenomena above Grandmother Bell. I’m on her ‘skirts’ or benches. These are sandstone levels that surround her. And we are headed up, up, up! E. Nauman.

As we emerged from the eye of the needle, we each saw a little lizard—a symbol of heightened intuitive awareness. We certainly experienced that as we continued!

Even the trail around Grandmother Bell Rock looks snake-like! E. Nauman.

Many swallows were flitting and darting in and out of their holes and singing as if to greet us as we walked around Grandma Bell. Another good sign.

Here is Eileen’s 200-year-old Tibetan Bon Po shaman drum.

When we came to our destination, I noticed a raven circling above, a sure sign of magic and bringing something out of the darkness into light.

Here I am at the opening or portal that we climbed a long way up to get too. This is treacherous climbing at best. E. Nauman.

Its black color turned out to be significant for what we were about to experience. We looked about us. We were on a ledge facing east. Behind us was what looked like a huge birth canal of rock. We stood just below it in the ‘canal’ of it, near a small flat red rock which became our altar. We offered seeds and cornmeal on the altar to begin our ceremony.

Here I am with the magical stone, which is triangular and has a natural hole in it. This stone comes from the Great Lakes. A fitting gift for Grandmother Bell Rock. E. Nauman.

As Eileen began drumming, I began rattling. Then I was moved to chant the birthing song of Grandmother Komwidapukwia (First Woman).
(tune: Mother, I Feel You Under My Feet)
“I sing my songs to the beautiful sky.
I sing my songs to bring down the rainbow.
I let the sun come into me, I let the water drip into my womb.
I give birth to all life. I create a new world.”

After singing this song several times, I took out my flute and played it, and then played other music as inspired in the moment.

Eileen kept drumming, and I could tell she was on a journey! When we stopped, she told me her vision of the Rainbow Snake and its eggs and babies, as she relates it in her article. When she finished, I told her I had seen something too as we played: a huge black whirlwind of energy, its large end around Grandmother Bell. After a while, as we played, it suddenly lifted up and it was as if it was sucked into the blue sky. It just disappeared. Everything looked radiant. Eileen nodded. “We saw different forms of the same thing—negative energy getting unblocked and unstuck and being removed so the rainbow snake energy could move out into the world again!” I grinned at her. “I guess you might call what happened here “Waste Management?” I said. She chuckled and shook her head. “You gotta love it!” she replied. At this point, I felt like fluting a bit, and as I did, I asked rainbow snake energy to come into the flute and me and work through us for the benefit of the world. Then Eileen stood up and as she drummed she sang a Native American chant, which I join in after a while. I could feel wonderful energy building, and I added my rattle to our singing.

When we finished, there was a deep, beautiful silence.

I got out my gifts and put them reverently on the altar; a rainbow colored beaded necklace made and blessed by a Navajo grandmother; a picture of a crop circle with a chakra formation.

This is my crop circling offering. Note the top three circles. We figured out after Eileen’s clairvoyant experience with the Rainbow snake, her eggs breaking and the babies slithering out of the butte and into our world, that they look like circles with eggs in them. Quite a synchronistic event. E. Nauman.

A rainbow-colored piece of petrified wood; and a small triangular stone with a hole in the middle of it, which I got from the beach in front of our house in Michigan. Aha! A connection! The pyramid with the eye in it which I had seen at Grassy Knolls, the 3rd Eye chakra, was manifesting again here at the Root Chakra in this triangular stone with a hole like an eye in the middle of it! Eileen took a picture of it as we both smiled at another synchronicity.

Here I am putting all my gifts for Grandmother Bell on a rock outcropping. E. Nauman. Then I hung a little red Tibetan prayer flag on a branch near the altar, and went out on a wide ledge nearby to scatter seed.

Eileen followed me. We both noticed a rock which had a snake-spiral on one side of it, with a little white egg to the side! Double check on our experience! Our gaze was drawn to the brilliant blue sky, and noticed light wispy clouds were beginning to form, looking feathery and snaky at the same time. Another double check.

Here is that cloud that looks like a snake winding its way across the sky. The sky was cloudless until shortly after our ceremony was finished. E. Nauman.

I reminded Eileen of Ramona’s paintings of rainbow serpent energy and eggs. We laughed and gathered up our things to head down the skirts of Grandma Bell.

Here I am giving a gift to all my relations shortly after the main ceremony. E. Nauman.

As we retraced our steps, and rounded the curve beyond the “Eye of the Needle”, I once again was struck by the sight of Thunder Mountain and Pyramid mountain glowing in the distance against the sky, directly in line with us. Then once again, I saw a huge rainbow arch from Pyramid mountain to the top of Bell Rock. And as Eileen and I made our descent, we noted many rainbow-like colors in the rocks over which we were walking. I recalled words from “The Last Ghost Dance” by Brooke Medicine Eagle. “Creation moves across a Rainbow bridge from song into light.” It somehow seemed to describe our experience, if words could do it at all adequately. Feeling light hearted and satisfied, we got in the car and drove to lunch. “I wonder what name has been given to the mountain we have been calling Pyramid mountain,” I said as we ate. “I have not been able to find it on any maps. But it’s a big formation.

Surely, it’s been named! Let’s try to find out more about it.” At that moment I looked up from my plate and noticed, a little way away, a sign. “The Book Worm.”

“Hey, that used to be in uptown Sedona!” I exclaimed.

“So this is where they moved. And–isn’t a worm a little like a snake?” Eileen grinned, snapped a picture, and said “Looks like we need to poke around in there a bit.”

And that is just what we did. We found a good little book about the Yavapai, and another about the names of many of Sedona’s striking rock formations. But nothing about what we call Pyramid mountain. Nada. But we had one more wonderful double check as a gift and affirmation for what we were doing. Up ahead and above us in the blazing blue sky as we drove we saw white cloud bird that reminded us of a dove in the sky.

In the Yavapai creation story, there was a white dove released by Grandmother Komwida, First Woman. And here it was–again–as if a testament said Eileen, to our heart-centered work with Grandmother Bell Rock. Eileen said that she always looked for cloud formations shortly after doing ceremony as a double check by the spirits to make sure it was done correctly. When it is done right, clouds will appear out of nowhere above the area where the ceremony was delivered. I remembered the white cloud dragon we saw at Rainbow Bridge after we sang and drummed and fluted and did ceremony. And the glowing rainbow around the sun. It had happened again today. Amazing!

Here is the white dove in the sky right in front of us as we drove away from Grandmother Bell and headed back to Sedona. An amazing sight!

So our adventure ended with a wonderful sense of released energy and new birthing. How appropriate that it would happen in the spring, near the time of the equinox! But there were still a couple unsolved mysteries. What was that white animal Eileen saw, and what was its message, if any? And what about the mystery of the pyramid, and Pyramid mountain, and the way pyramids or triangles kept showing up for us? We would just have to wait and see if we found any answers. As we drove past the Chapel of the Holy Cross and Madonna Rock, we paid special attention to how we would get around the construction to get to that area for our next “Holy Play” adventure: The Sacral Chakra of Sedona. And we are going to take boiled eggs that I have colored with us from now on, as a way of honoring the vision Eileen was given at the sacred site of the Root Chakra of Grandmother Bell Rock.