Walking the Land: Grandmother Bell Rock-Root Chakra

Grandmother Bell Rock, Root Chakra of Sedona by Eileen Nauman

I started out with coolish 45 F at 7:45 a.m. but the sky was blue and it promised to be a beautiful day in Red Rock Country. As I drove our dirt road down to the “Y”, my eye caught something about half a mile away among the many junipers and cypress: a white animal. It was too far away for me to see exactly what it was. But white is not a color I’ve seen in twenty years. It appeared to be shaped like an elk, although I couldn’t see antlers at this distance–and it was grazing and moving behind junipers and I was moving in the car as well.

I slowed down and squinted, trying to figure out WHAT I was seeing. Clearly, it didn’t look like a horse in shape. And it appeared too large for our small Mule deer that live around here. What was it? I slowed down and as I did, the animal, whatever it was, saw me and took off at a run and disappeared behind a hill. We have Bighorn sheep but they aren’t white. We have antelope down toward Cottonwood and I’ve never seen them this far north nor are they white. I was stumped. A white animal. How did this configure into today’s activities? The last two times I took off to meet Marty to continue our ceremony at one of Nicholas Mann’s chakra system in the Sedona area, I was cleaning garbage off the highway. First, it was four coffee pots on the highway. Last week, a quarter piece of drywall was in my path on the ramp onto 89A. Cleaning up garbage was getting to be a theme in our exploration. I hadn’t even gotten off the dirt road yet and I was seeing a big, white animal. Didn’t have a clue as to what it was. We have no elk in this area that I know of. Mule deer, yes. But it was far too large for our tiny desert deer.

Sighing, I just chalked it up and wondered if I’d find anything on the highway today. I did not. I picked up Marty and I took her down 89A toward Cottonwood. In the Yavapai creation story, Mingus Mountain, which overshadows this town, was the first to receive sun. The woman in the story conceived on this mountain and later on moved to the Red Rocks, twelve miles north. I wanted to show Marty the birth canal (a circle) with female genitalia along with the crowning head of a baby that was being birthed into this world. I’d lived here nineteen years and never saw it–until Marty had shown it to me in Nicholas Mann’s book, Sedona, Sacred Earth. In it, the creation myth of the Yavapai people speak of Kamalapukwia (Grandmother White Stone) who lived in a cave in Sedona. “She was all alone. One morning she ran over to Mingus Mountain. Lay down there before the sun came up. The sun came up and hits her inside. After that she went to that cave where water drips down all the time. She lay down and the water came down and hit her. Made her a baby. A little girl.”

Mingus Mountain shows the creation and birth on her slopes. What is equally interesting around this circle on the slope, there are nothing but TRIANGULAR shapes on the slopes on either side of it! We know a triangle has everything to do with our exploration and so, I suggested to Marty that the triangular shapes, in this case, reminded me of a woman’s breast. Why not? The baby’s head is crowning and it will need milk after it is born.

Here is Mingus Mountain. The circle showing the birthing is clearly visible. Note the slopes around it are triangular.

When we turned onto the highway heading for Village of Oak Creek where Grandmother Bell Rock is located, we got behind a Waste Management truck–a garbage truck!! We followed it all the way through the town and to Grandmother Bell. I told Marty wryly that it looked like we’d be picking up garbage again! I love the synchronicities.

Here is the forest service map next to the trail that led to Grandmother Bell Rock. You can see she is down in the lower left hand corner. Up above is the Twin Buttes area and “Madonna rock” where Nicholas Mann notes the navel/sacral chakra. That will be our next stop next Tuesday on March 24th.

Marty noticed this. The ‘crown’ area of Grandmother Bell Rock is composed of many stand alone red sandstone columns. I refer to these collectively as her ‘crown’ or the top of the butte formation. You can see the man’s profile and he’s wearing a cap and his mouth is open and he’s singing. We’ve seen this particular profile in many places around the Red Rock country. And singing is the key here. “Sing and I shall come,” was the promise in the Yavapai creation story.

There’s a special place up on Gram Bell that I wanted to take us. Its away from the traffic, which is awful and it’s so noisy on one side of this magnificent red butte, that it spoils the pristine beauty of the area. I led her up the skirts or slopes of red sandstone. There is a ‘notch’ that we pass through. It’s pretty dicey but if one keeps grounded and focused, you can get through it to the other side. As we trekked up to Gram Bell and asked her permission to come upon her body, there were swallows every where.

Before we started climbing, I took some photos. They blew me away. Take a look….

As I started photographing the ‘crown’ or top of Grandmother Bell Rock I saw the light was different. When I got home I lowered the exposure and look what I found–the SAME rainbow colors that we had seen at Rainbow Bridge. They were here–AGAIN. Only this time, 9 a.m. in the morning and not 2:00 p.m. in the afternoon

Here I am standing at the base of Grandmother Bell Rock. The colors would shift and change.

As we began to climb up the smooth red sandstone skirts of Grandmother Bell Rock, the rainbow followed us no matter where we were at.

Here is another photo–the only thing done to it was lowering the exposure to see the rainbow. This is a nice shot of Grandmother Bell Rock.

The colors would pulsate and you can see them here as they expand and contract–as if breathing.

At one point, I told Marty that the swallows (which were coming back at the vernal spring equinox time (this Friday, March 20th is the actual equinox), come back at this time. There’s hundreds of small pocket-like openings in the sandstone and the swallows return each year to nest and have their babies all over Gram Bell. I took it as a good sign that they continued to flying around us, singing to us. Swallows are considered the bird who sits in the sacred Tree of Life. Again, I felt this was a good sign that we were in proper humility, heart centered and grounded to do what we came to do here.

Here is a view looking north toward Sedona from the skirts of Grandmother Bell Rock. In the distance you can see Thunder Mountain, the big white one.

Eventually, we made it on the eastern side of Gram Bell.

There is a “portal” on Grandmother Bell Rock. Here, Marty is standing at the top of it.

Marty is coming down the other side of the portal and this is steep climbing. There’s plenty of loose rocks and very easy to fall.

Here is the area where we were to work. If you use your imagination, those big rocks on either side look like thighs. Above is the crown of Grandmother Bell Rock. The resulting path from it, down through the ‘thighs’ goes all the way to the ground far below.

 

Here is the ‘ravine’ that continues down to the land far below.

The place I took Marty was what I called the ‘birthing area.’ If you look at the photo, you can see two huge thighs that are open and the birthing canal between them. This particular area is in direct alignment with the ‘crown’ or butte of Gram Bell and the ‘birthing canal’ goes all the way to the bottom of the formation. As we stood in the canal, I asked Marty if she could feel the energy. She grinned and nodded.

Here is Eileen in the ‘ravine’ of the birthing place. She is using her 200 year old Tibetan Bon po shaman drum.

In Mann’s book, he cites that Bell Rock is part of the root chakra area of the seven chakras that are in alignment across the Red Rock landscape. He didn’t feel Bell Rock was the “only” part of this dynamic area, that there were other configurations as well. Marty and I had talked about this and we felt strongly we wanted to center on Grandmother Bell Rock solely as the designated ‘root chakra.’ We felt drawn to do our work on her and nowhere else in the area. And that Madonna Rock would be the sacral/navel chakra. Time would prove us out as being correct or not about this assumption.

I began to drum and Marty had brought her newest flute, one that is a “D.” It is soft, low and beautiful. I closed my eyes, wondering what, if anything, I would see.

I saw the Rainbow Snake coiled around the outer base of Grandmother Bell Rock. I greeted her and asked if we could be of service to her in any way. She said “Yes.” And then, I watched her move like a blur of color around the butte four times clockwise. Then, she stopped and did the same counterclockwise. She then disappeared inside the butte. I had no idea what was going on or why.
Then, I saw her rising through the ‘crown’ or upper part of the butte. She reared upward so that about one third of her body was popping out of the top. Opening her mouth, she was in the East and a jet of rainbow colors cascaded out of her. I watched as she ‘sprayed’ the land in a clockwise direction with this gorgeous, vivid colors. She slowly turned from the east, to the south, then the west and north, and finally, back to the east. Now, the entire landscape for as far as I could see, was vibrating with all these beautiful, glistening colors.

The Rainbow Snake said, “follow me,” and I did. I followed her down through the opening in Grandmother Bell Rock. It was dark and warm and humid inside the butte. “I live here,” she told me. And then, she raced madly around four times in a clockwise direction. And then, counterclockwise the same amount of times. As she did, I could feel friction, heat and the colors coming out of the blackness and beginning to spin like a tornado with the large end on the earth within Gram Bell. She continued this frantic going back and forth from one direction to another raising this rainbow energy toward the crown.

And then, I felt energy building; as if it were stuck. The snake raced around and around. Suddenly, a bunch of black “goo” like energy shot out the top of Gram Bell like a volcano. I felt the pressure dissolve. I then realized that the Rainbow Snake was building enough energy to blow through a block in the neck of the butte. I was looking up and saw blue sky above me now, thinking that was a pretty neat trick.

“Look down,” the snake commanded.

I looked down and gasped. Instead of the interior of the butte being black, it was now lit up. What I saw astounded me. There, on the floor of the butte was hundreds and hundreds of white eggs!! I then realized as she looked kindly at them, that these were hers.

“Are these your eggs?” I asked stupidly. One does not assume anything and I wanted to make sure that what I saw was hers.

“Yes. I have waited over a hundred years for someone to come here, remove the block, and allow my children to be born.”

My mind, which isn’t functioning in the real world sense, grappled with that. “Oh…” was all I could mouth.

“Keep drumming, keep singing,” she told me.

“Okay,” I said.

I found myself outside and back in my body drumming with my beautiful Tibetan drum. Marty was playing her flute and then she would sing, and then play the flute again. I kept up a steady drum beat.

I began to see “sizzles” of rainbow colored pieces streaking down the slopes of Grandmother Bell rock. There were everywhere! At first, I couldn’t see what they were because they were moving at a swift speed that blurred their shape to me. I asked them to slow it all down so I could see better. And then, I laughed. It was baby rainbow snakes coming out of the crown of Grandmother Bell Rock and slithering rapidly down her sides and heading out in 360 degrees of direction!

And then, I suddenly found myself back inside. I saw the Rainbow Snake slowly moving from side to side, like a cobra swaying to the music of a flute played by its handler. The eggs were cracking and opening. And a beautiful little rainbow snake would come out, slither up through the opening and escape out into our external world.

The Rainbow Snake would then stop swaying and race around four times in a circle. Every time she did this, more eggs popped and hatched. Then, she’d go the other directions four times at high, blurring speed. More eggs would crack and little snake babies would slither out of them and leap toward the blue sky and leave their nest.

I watched this for a long time. I couldn’t believe how many eggs there were! Finally, all the babies were gone. The snake opened her jaws and began to scoop up all the shells and swallow them. Finally, the floor of Grandmother Bell rock was clean. I asked the snake, “Where are your babies going?”

She gave me a wise look. “They will go around the world now. They have been released into your world, as it should be. I used to lay eggs and the people would come and sing and drum every year. I would have my eggs and my children would be released. They help lift the energy and keep everything in balance. This is the only place on this planet where I lay my eggs and my babies leave to do their work for others. Because no one has come for so long, I had many more eggs than usual. With your coming and singing and playing music, the block that was created in my lair, has been removed.”

“What will your babies do?”

“Anyone who sings a song, plays an instrument and desires for one of them to come to them, they will do so. They will send dreams to this person and will work in that area of the world for the good of all.”

Shaking my head, I was amazed by all of this. I’m a writer, and I have a good imagination, but this was phenomenal. “It is the Spring Equinox on Friday,” I said, worried. “Doing this now is all right or not?”

She smiled as much as a snake can smile, but I felt her warmth and joy. “It is close enough. It is only three days away and the energy is already here. This was a perfect time to come and help free my eggs and allow my children to serve all our relations out in your world.”

I thanked her and left. I was still drumming as I reentered my body. One of the rainbow baby snakes came up to me. She asked if she could leap into my Tibetan drum. I said: of course! And in she went and disappeared inside it. Shortly afterward, the drum began to glow with beautiful rainbow colors. Afterward, I shared all that I’d seen with Marty. I sang a song and played my drum in joy over this wonderful development. I’m still amazed.

Marty brought up the Waste Management truck–the garbage truck and said that by being here as catalysts, we were able to help the Rainbow snake discharge and blow the block at the top of the crown so that there was a free passage in and out of Grandma Bell. I agreed. We’re still on garbage patrol, haha.

As we got ready to leave, I noticed a petroglyph, a spiral, on a red rock very near where we were performing ceremony. Blew me away. It is a spiral. In certain light you can see the snake’s head down at the bottom and the white could be her egg. Wow.

And then, when we rounded the corner, we saw the sky. There had been no clouds at all. Only now, after the ceremony, did they come.

Right after we got done with our ceremony and gift giving, we saw the ‘snake’ form in the high cirrus clouds. The day was clear. Only after our ceremony did the clouds come in–and in a form of a snake in the sky. Often, the sky will resonate with whatever you have done in ceremony. The clouds often tell me if it was successful or not.

Here is the spiral petroglyph on a rock not far from where we were conducting ceremony.

And then, we went to the Marketplace Restaurant to eat. Marty howled and pointed at a sign three doors down: It was the “Book Worm” bookstore….take a look at the snazzy worm aka snake on their sign. I howled with her. We just couldn’t get away from snakes in any way, shape or form today! It was a happy ending to a wonderful day of working with all our relations.

No matter where we went today, “snakes” abounded. Even in signs where we were eating our lunch!

I know that ceremonial sites that were once tended with great care and frequency (usually done four times yearly on the equinoxes and solstices), worked well for humans and the unseen energies. But if those humans lost or forgot the ceremony, then such a place falls into dormant state or worse, becomes blocked with etheric ‘pollution’ that can build up over time. What we had done today was catalyze this block and with the Rainbow Snake’s power and knowledge, blow out of the etheric sludge; thereby carving a way so that her eggs/babies could hatch and escape into our world to once more,help it remain in balance.

I began to think that the Yavapai people were cruelly murdered by US Army troops. How could these people, who had lovingly tended this area for centuries do anything when their elders were dead and the songs and ceremonies were destroyed along with them? They couldn’t. And so, the Rainbow Snake continued her yearly egg laying, but no hatching could occur because there was no human interface to help create this coexistence between the seen and unseen worlds.

Today, that has changed. And in all the Yavapai creation stories, they have said repeatedly to bring song, to sing, and bring music, and the Earth will respond in kind. That sure played out today. Wow.

On page 12 of Mann’s book, the creation story says, “Kakarakaamche (also known as Skata in other stories…he is the grandson who comes out of the cloud and teaches humans good medicine and ways) teach us everything. He teach us how to pray, how to sing right, how to dance. My people used to sing every morning. Before they do anything, they sing. My people don’t read or write. They have no song book. But they know how to sing. They have it in their heart. They get it from Sakarakaamche.”

We hope people will go out and sing where ever they live. Just sing any song that comes to you. Or, play your drum. Or your flute, or whatever you have, perhaps a rattle. And ask one of these baby rainbow snakes to come to you, to dream you and watch the energy in your area where you live, lift and lighten. If you sing every day, just once a day for two weeks, see what happens. So many people don’t sing for fear they don’t have a good voice. But you know what? It doesn’t matter. What does matter is that your song you love to sing is sung from your heart. That is all that is needed.

If you do this, then this will help add positive, light and good energy to our world. It’s a small thing to do–to sing after you get up. Simple and straight forward. We would love to hear from you, from your trying this, and tell us what has transpired.