Walking the Land: Heart Chakra Sugar Loaf, Sedona, Arizona – Part II – Marty Rienstra

Copyright 2009 Marty Reinstra
All Rights Reserved

When Eileen arrived this morning to pick me up for our hike to Sugar Loaf, which Nicholas Mann identified as the heart chakra of Sedona, things were not going well. My husband John had gone out on a walk with the dog and returned a few minutes later confused and disoriented. Apparently, he had fallen on his back and head. I took many thorns out of his scalp and one hand, and his back was covered with debris. He did not remember anything, and kept asking the same questions over and over. Eileen and I were concerned about head trauma. We ended up calling 911, and those good folks came and did their thing, and discovered he had very high blood pressure. Neighbors noticed, and stopped in. One is a nurse and the other has paramedic training. They offered to keep a watch on John and take his blood pressure frequently so we could still go on our hike, which John insisted on. He felt fine, he said–no headache or dizziness, and no bruises or pain anywhere. Since our hike was fairly close by and not a long one, we decided to go.

As we drove away from the house, we reflected on how heart issues had come up in this way, and we were going to the heart chakra. We also passed survey trucks and equipment again. Our hiking book told us that the views from on top of the rock formation called “Sugar Loaf” were spectacular in all directions. That seemed to be a good indication we would be “surveying” again, as we had last week at Turtle (Airport) Mesa.

We both agreed as we drove that the view from Turtle Mesa had revealed what Nicholas Mann also saw–that the whole range for rock formations, of which Thunder Mountain is a part, looked like a huge dragon. And we had seen something else–namely, that the rounded small (by comparison) red rock formation in front of the “dragon” looked like a dragon’s egg. We were not sure how that correlated with the heart chakra, but we were ready to explore, and open to whatever we might discover.

Here is Sugar Loaf. From the trail below you can look up and see what we saw. Is it a dragon’s head emerging from the ‘egg’?

The trail head is in Sedona, and easy to get to. It intersects with Thunder mountain and Teacup trail heads.

We took a few minutes to orient ourselves by examining the trail head map, and then we were off on our seventh and final trip, for the heart chakra was the last of the seven chakras we would be going to for our work with the land and spirits of the land. Because I had called Eileen to tell her before she left to come to my house of John’s accident, she had left in a big hurry, and did not bring her camera or her Tibetan drum or much of anything else! I had my turtle back pack and flute, and that was about all. Eileen remarked how strange it felt to be without her usual things. We agreed that there had been good reason, and what was most important, and appropriate at the heart chakra, was to come with ourselves and our hearts open, with loving intent. No doubt, this was the way things were meant to be today.

As we wound our way on the trail at the foot of “Sugar Loaf” aka “Dragon Egg,” we remarked on how much the smooth broad red rock ledges reminded us of Bell Rock. Then we looked up as we walked, and both saw the shape of a head that we first thought was some sort of bird’s head, but as we continued walking and saw it from various perspectives, I said “Hey, maybe that’s a baby dragon’s head poking out of the egg!”

“Just what I was thinking!” exclaimed Eileen. And then we laughed, because this was Easter week, and here we were, encountering a Dragon’s Egg. It seemed quite fitting.

We continued on up the trail. The views were wonderful–perfect for surveying. We stopped at one point to drink some water and gaze at the vista of “Coffee Pot” rock and the formation it is a part of, and thought that from our viewpoint, the whole thing did look like a huge dragon.

As we began the rather steep ascent up the Dragon Egg formation, we encountered a huge Guardian Cedar Tree, like the one we saw on Turtle Mesa last week. This one had some twisted limbs too, a sign of vortex energy in the area.

Here is the guardian cedar tree on the way up sugar loaf.

We stopped to honor the tree and ask permission to proceed. We offered seeds and prayers in the six directions as we usually do, and then, having received a ‘green light,” we proceeded up the trail.

As we walked, we noticed a raven circling overhead, calling to us, as if to summon us further up the hill.

We smiled, remembering the two ravens who had done the same at Turtle Mesa. We also noticed lots of butterflies dancing around us as we walked. The energy felt very good. We next noticed a bare tree, in which someone had carefully placed red rocks as if to mark it as sacred.

The tree framed a breathtaking view, with chimney rock in the distance, and other formations as well. We thought it significant that we could see the volcanic vent mountain we call El Shadai, and behind it, Mingus mountain, from this vantage point. Eileen remarked as she looked around at all the formations we were now able to see that it seemed this Dragon Egg formation was strategically located to receive a great deal of powerful energy from the surrounding rock giants. We noticed that to the east, we could see the area we now call “The spindles” where Eileen had seen the vision of The Rainbow Snake weaving its rainbow blankets to send to the places on earth where healing is needed.

Here, in the distance, at the rear of the photo taken from Sugar Loaf, is Grandmother Komwida’s Kitchen where we saw the spindles of color.

The view got more and more spectacular as we climbed upward, until, but the time we reached the summit of Dragon’s Egg/Sugar Loaf, we could see 360 degrees. This enabled us to check out several observations we had made by studying our topographical maps of the area earlier. We saw that Turtle Mesa was lined up directly ahead of us to the south. Behind it, we could see the familiar formations of Bell Rock, Courthouse Butte, Elephant Rock, and Cathedral Rock. To the west, we could see House Mountain, a huge extinct volcano way in the distance, and the Mingus mountain range, El Shadai, and Chimney Rock as well.

Here is the long view looking south from atop Sugar Loaf, our dragon egg #2. You can see House Mountain to the left, a dormant volcano. Then, in the center, the second turtle. Behind the turtle is Mingus Mountain where the Yavapai birthing was said to have taken place.

All kinds of connections were visible we had only guessed at before. This was surveying at its best! We promised ourselves we would go back to our maps for more study, with these views in mind.

We also saw something we have noticed before on our adventures on the land. When something is important to pay attention to, one often sees a certain formation mirrored or repeated in the landscape.

This was very obviously the case with respect to Chimney Rock. Right opposite it, in line with it, to the east, was a smaller replica of it.

Here are mirror images of Chimney Rock elsewhere in the Sedona Red Rock landscape.

We are not sure of the significance of this, but it tells us that we need to investigate further to find out what this finding might be revealing.

Here is Airport Mesa aka Grandmother Turtle, the solar plexus of Sedona.

At this point, we found a nice private place under the shade of a grand cedar tree at the edge of the top of Dragon’s Egg, looking out over the western and southern landscape. A few people who were nearby soon left, and we enjoyed a beautiful time of silence, soaking in the beauty of the clear, sunny day and the vast overview of the land we were gazing at from our high up perch. Eileen is able to go into an altered state without her drum, which she did, and I joined her in meditation.

I asked for what might be happening, and what I needed to see about this special place of the heart.

Here is dragon #2, as we refer to it. The ‘head’ is known as Coffee Pot Rock. You can see her scales (triangular) going back across her back. And Sugar Loaf is her ‘egg.’

I was shown a vision of a baby dragon hatching, crawling out of its huge egg shell, and flying upward in a counter clockwise spiral. Its scales were rainbow hued and glistened in the light. Sparks flew from it and all around it like Fourth of July sparklers. There was a feeling of exuberance and fresh life. It came to me that it was very fitting that there would be a Dragon’s Egg at the Heart Chakra, and that it would crack open so that new life could emerge. Here in the heart of Sedona, new life, a new age, a new human consciousness, is indeed emerging. It is, according to Hope and other Native American understanding, the Fifth World, and it is centered in the heart. As I pondered all this, I began to play my flute, and let the feelings of this vision express themselves in music.

When I was done, Eileen told me the remarkable things she had seen. That is her story to tell, but we realized after sharing what we had seen with each other that what we received in our altered state was not “messages in English,” but vivid visual images which carried meaning we were helped to decipher and then translate into language the best we could.

After I offered the gift of a small beautiful wooden heart, and some seeds, and played my flute again, we went back down the trail. We both felt that we needed to come back one more time to celebrate and honor this beautiful place and our whole fabulous adventure visiting the seven chakras of the Sedona Red Rock Temple.

ADDENDUM 4.21.09

SEEING DOUBLE

When Eileen and I last went out to the Heart Chakra of Sedona to “Sugar Loaf” we did a lot of surveying from the marvelous view one gets in all directions from the top of the hill we call “Dragon’s Egg.” The same thing happened this time, except that we saw a lot more. We realized that it is very worthwhile to go back to a special power spot in nature, because each time you go back, if you are open to surprises and new revelations, that is just what you get!

Here is the original dragon’s head (one horned) that Nicholas Mann saw and put in his book, Sedona, Sacred Earth. You can see her head, the horn. Right out in front of her is her ‘egg’ a rounded red sandstone that is nearly identical to the ‘egg’ which is called Sugar Loaf and belongs to the second dragon (Coffee Pot rock is the dragon #2’s head).

It was a beautiful, warm day, sunny and clear. Eileen stopped several times along the trail to take pictures with her beloved camera, which she had not taken on our first visit. We stopped to ground ourselves at the start of the trail, and receive permission to enter with the intent of offering gifts and being open to what the spirits of the place had to offer. Having received that permission, we headed right up to the top of the hill. At the summit, we walked around looking in all directions, and observing how features of the landscape aligned to each other. It was then that Eileen saw the second turtle shape in the landscape, and we noticed how it was facing the opposite direction from Turtle (aka Airport) Mesa, and that a small reddish pyramid shaped hill connected the two. That pyramid again, highlighting the connection between heaven and earth, and mirroring several other pyramid shaped rock formations around us. More mystery to explore….. Why two turtles? facing opposite directions? what were they pointing too? how were they related? We decided to look at a topographical map of the area would be an important way to get insight about these questions. I got the message that it is always important in life to look at things from different angles, and notice the “yin and yang” that is going on.

To take a long perspective on the land, you are looking at Grandmother Turtle aka Airport Mesa. Behind her to the left is Cathedral Rock, then Ganesha, the elephant, and to the right, Grandmother Bell Rock. All of these beings are part of the massive and complex energy patterns that make Sedona’s vortexes a hotbed of constant activity energetically speaking.

We sat under a big cedar, offered our gifts and prayers, our cornmeal and seeds, our drumming, fluting, and singing. We noticed how birds around us were bursting into song, and saw two falcons circling not far away. Then a red hawk made its appearance and flew off towards Mingus mountain, which we had just been studying from our perch, noticing how the Mingus range of mountains embraced the whole area. That’s when I noticed that there were actually two huge dragons near us, one facing opposite from the other, as Eileen describes in her account. And near the head of the second dragon was a second egg. it did not have a dragon face emerging from it, as we had seen on the Dragon Egg known as Sugar Loaf.

Here is what is known as Chimney Rock. Nicholas Mann (and us) feel it is the ‘horn’ of dragon number one.

But once again, we were seeing double. Last time, we had noticed how chimney rock was mirrored in the opposite direction.

We discussed how important “twos” seemed to be, and also how we were seeing things today we had not seen before although we were looking at the same landscape. We agreed it was wonderful how the land and the spirits reveal themselves gradually as we are ready.

I was grateful for all the time there were two of us doing this Sacred Play together. Eileen and I have both worked out on the land individually, but have found that when we combine our energies, insights, and skills, we see more than twice as much. We recommend going out with someone of like mind and interest.

I will miss Eileen, and these marvelous adventures, but I know I have learned a lot and will be able to apply what I have learned back in Michigan on the shores of the Great Lake where I live. And when I return in the fall, more marvelous Sacred Play awaits. Eileen and I will keep in touch, study our topo (topographical) maps, and when we get back together, very interesting things are bound to happen!

See you in November when we tackle a larger energy understanding beyond Sedona! The entire Verde Valley! What ELSE will we discover in our journeys?