Walking the Land: Grassy Knolls, Marchiene Rienstra, Part II

Hi Everyone,

I asked Marty and Ramona to pen their own blog of what they experienced out at Grassy Knolls on March 3, 2009. I’ve found that different people see things differently and that the reader gets a far better, more well-rounded understanding or grasp of what was going on while we were working as a team in this sacred space. Here is Marty’s account:

Grassy Knolls 2 by Marty Reinstra on 3.3.09

Copyright Marty Reinstra 2009
All Rights Reserved

Here is Marty Rienstra with her turtle knapsack that she always carries with her whenever we are working with sacred energy. And, one of her flutes. This time, nothing disappeared on her as it did on the first visit to Grassy Knolls!

When Eileen and Ramona picked me up for lunch and our hike to Grassy Knolls, they already had experienced “happenings” which seemed to point to what was ahead for us. Ramona had seen a whole clan of ravens by the road as she drove to Sedona that morning, and Eileen had seen a bunch of debris on the highway, and had stopped to pick it up to prevent others from having an accident. Most of the debris was the remains of a box of coffee pots which included several glass carafes. Amazingly, one of them was still unbroken. As we drove to lunch, we pondered the symbolic meaning of these experiences. I was reminded of an old book called “Life As a Waking Dream” by Diane Kennedy Pike, which gives great guidance for interpreting significant experiences in one’s waking life as if they were a dream. Many possibilities suggested themselves as to the meaning of what Ramona and Eileen experienced, but that is their story to tell, since I was not present when these things happened for them. But I was present when we pulled off the road for a few moments into a parking lot to get something out of the trunk and noticed that we were in a space marked by a sign that read “Church Parking Only.”

“That’s for you, Marty!” laughed Eileen. “You’re the interfaith minister.” I smiled and pondered as we continued on our way to lunch at the Wildflower Bakery.
Although many people have an immediate negative reaction to the thought of church, perhaps because they have been wounded by members of churches, what came to me was the concept of church as a symbol for a place of spiritual renewal. I thought the sign was saying that our only purpose for going out into the sanctuary of nature today was to experience spiritual renewal and offer our hearts and gifts for the renewal of the spirits of the sacred land to which we were bound. And the trailhead at Long Canyon would be our “Church” parking place. From there we would enter Grassy Knolls in a spirit of reverence and devotion.

After lunch, we did just that. As we entered the area where we would be doing our “Holy Play,” we paused to ground ourselves, offer birdseed and corn, and ask permission to enter. Feeling that we were welcome by the spirits of the place, I played on my flute as a “thank you” and Ramona burst into a spine-tingling ancient chant in a voice with incredible range and power. Immediately I felt the presence of the ancestors and the Grandmothers who had been present when Eileen and I first came to Grassy Knolls.

I was reminded of a song First Woman (Komida pukwia, or Grandmother White Stone) is related to have sung when she emerged from the Flood into this land, according to ancient Yavapai legend.

“My songs were made for the beautiful sky.
My words went out into the sky.
The world stood still.
A rainbow from heaven reached to this world.
Everything was still.
My song changed everything.
This is the way I sang when I was in the world going around in the Red Rock country.” (from Nicholas Mann’s book “Sedona: Sacred Earth.”)

I heard Grandmother White Stone’s voice singing through the voice of Ramona in that breath-taking, sacred moment. The world did indeed stand still. Time stood still from that moment on. Eileen especially tuned into to that rainbow energy in the form of a serpent that accompanied us throughout our ceremony, as she relates so eloquently in her story of our journey. And Ramona was already tuned in to this rainbow energy, as is evident in her beautiful paintings of it.

For me, interestingly, my experience as we explored and honored the seven chakra circles we found on the Grassy Knolls was not as internally visual as is usually the case for me. In fact, one visual image dominated my whole experience, and it was the one that came to me in meditation on Grassy Knolls when Eileen and I first went there. It was the vision of a huge pyramid with an eye in it. The exact same symbol had literally appeared to me in the intervening weeks above an iconostasis in a Greek Orthodox Cathedral I visited in Tarpon Springs, Florida. And now that image was hovering constantly in my mind’s eye.

In addition, as we honored and worked with the energy/spirits of each chakra circle in turn, I experienced very strong feelings of different kinds of energy.
In the first circle, the root chakra, I felt a lovely nurturing mothering energy. I looked up and noticed that the juniper covered crest of the hilltop directly above us looked like a softly rounded woman’s breast. I played the flute, and the music that came through me felt like a lullaby. I felt led to play my tingshas as well, softly, in the four directions.

This circle was not one Eileen and I had recognized on our first visit, so I wanted to pay it special attention this time. Eileen’s drumming sounded like the heartbeat of Mother Earth, and I briefly glimpsed the figure of an ancient Native American grandmother next to one of the trees. I hung a royal blue Tibetan prayer flag on the tree to honor her and this first of the sacred circles we encountered.
In the next circle, higher up the hill, we were on familiar ground. This time, I felt a calm strong energy as Eileen circled the space. When I played the flute, the energy seemed playful and free. From this place, the surrounding mountains were becoming visible, and with my tingshas I honored each of these mighty “apus.” As I took out my prayer flags, a green one jumped out as if it wanted to be hung there. When Eileen asked the meaning of the green flag, I replied, “We are greening with life. We are the fruit of all creation.”

That was the feeling of the place: abundant, fertile natural life.
Then we came to the place where two circles connected in a figure eight, or infinity sign. These contained the energies of the solar plexus and heart chakras. It felt very important to me that these two were thus connected. In modern society, the heart is too often separate from power decisions, and that is not the way it is meant to be.

In the heart circle we found beautiful stones with amazing figures in them: a bird, a butterfly, and some sort of ancient four-legged creature. There was also a rock with a figure on it that looked like it might have been a dolphin or whale. So many aspects of nature were there in the stones. My eye was drawn to many of the rocks in that place, and I had a brief image flashing through my mind of a crystal cave beneath us. A phrase from ancient mystics came to mind: “The cave of the heart.” From this place we could look out over a spectacular view of the surrounding mountains and rock formations. I could feel a strong rocking energy between the huge Pyramid mountain to our right as we faced upward, and the figure of Isis Rock in Long Canyon on our left. The image of a huge rainbow hammock came to mind, and it seemed we were being swung in it by Mother Earth or the Rainbow Serpent!

Next we went to a circle discovered by Eileen slightly to our left and upwards, which turned out to be the throat chakra. The energy there made my knees go wobbly, and I felt a bit dizzy as we circled the area. When we entered and Eileen began to drum, Ramona stood in the upper part of the circle and began to sing again. I took out my rattle and accompanied her, and it all seemed exactly right for the throat chakra. Once again, I sensed the voice of Grandmother White Stone, Komidapukwia, singing through Ramona.

All three of us noticed we were feeling rather giddy and found ourselves laughing unaccountably, as if some important energy had been released or freed and set right.

On reflection, I think that as three women, we were setting free the stifled voice of women through the centuries, for whatever we do in Spirit is connected to everything else in space and time. No wonder we were feeling elated! The Voice of Woman is finally being set free to sing throughout the world as First Woman did, creating a new reality in which all life is honored everywhere.

As we went onward and upward, we came next to the circle which turned out to be the Third Eye. The circle had purple flowers in it, lots of pale colored grass, and in its center, amazingly, an egg shaped dark colored volcanic rock on which was a small rock with amazing design and color. It looked a portrayal of the coming of dawn, and the figure of a serpent in action, much like the paintings of Dream Time by the Aboriginal people of Australia. From this place we could see forever! And what dominated it for me was that huge perfectly pyramid shaped mountain to our right. Its energy from this circle was incredible! And suddenly I put it together. We were standing in the Third Eye Chakra, and there was the pyramid! My clairvoyant vision during the last visit had manifested Big Time! An eye in a pyramid in a circle…….it all fit, and I gasped as I realized the connections. In honor of this insight, I stood over the center egg shaped rock and the tingshas in my hand seemed to take on a life of their own and rang many, many times, the two round, metal circles inscribed with dragon/serpents hitting each other perfectly every time. (I had never had that happen before!) Then I felt moved to circle the Third Eye Chakra playing my flute in all the directions as Eileen drummed and circled this amazing chakra. As we finished our ceremony, I remembered reading recently in Drunvalo Melchizedek’s recent book “Serpent of Light” that pyramids were the lodging place of the World Serpent Energy of ancient myths and legends. Another connection!

Here is Marty tying one of her blessed Nepal prayer flags on one of my ties from last visit. In the background is the powerful apu (mountain spirit) who Ramona Stites calls “The Watcher” and who had guardianship energy-wise over this entire area.

This was confirmed by Eileen when we got to the last circle, the crown chakra. It was off to our right, and unlike the other circles, this one was totally out in the open, with no trees blocking the expansive view in all directions. From this place, the energy of Pyramid mountain was, if possible, even more powerful, and visually we could see its perfect alignment with Isis Rock, and also how it connected with the Rainbow Bridge area, and the distant silhouette of the face of Skaatakamcha, First Man, grandson of Komwidapukwia in Yavapai legend. As Eileen recounted her experience of the Rainbow Serpent, and its amazing creation of rainbow colored structures as we did our ceremony in each circle, she showed us the notes and drawings she had made, and the pattern it created on the paper. At first, we couldn’t figure out why the crown chakra, where we were seated, was off to the side of the others, when normally it would be above the third eye chakra. All the other chakras had been aligned and went progressively higher up the Grassy Knoll.

Then we suddenly saw it! If we turned the paper around, the first six chakra circles Eileen had drawn made the base of a pyramid, the top of which was the crown chakra!

Another connection! We grinned at each other, marveling at how all of this was working together for each of us and the three of us together. We realized that we felt a great sense of harmony, balance, peacefulness, and relaxed well-being.

Once again we drummed and I played my flute facing the Pyramid and Rainbow Bridge, and then Isis Rock and Long Canyon, to honor the strong “rainbow” connection between them. I ended by playing the tingshas all around the circle, letting the beautiful tones of these Tibetan musical instruments ring out over the surrounding mountains and forests, carrying the gratitude and joy of our hearts for being able to engage in this “Holy Play” in this part of the Sedona Sacred Temple on this special day. I hung a pale lavender prayer flag from a branch aligned with the Pyramid, and we started back down the hill, feeling complete and satisfied that we had done what we were meant to do at the Grassy Knolls.