This past month has been like a long, drawn out ceremony with all the highs, lows, dark nights of the soul, serious self doubt, victory and celebration, and at many moments an experience of complete attunement to forces larger than life. More than once in the middle of a conversation with one of my "EcoSapiens," I felt us go so deeply into unknown territory everything drop into complete stillness, as we touched a deep and true place together.
During the process I often said it was like a life review over the past --an appropriate exercise for my Chiron Return, a time where we often revisit and integrate experiences from our life up to that point! I could feel how each conversation landed in a different part of my body, and I could tune in and see what beliefs and new possibilities were opening up in me, and how the puzzle pieces fit together.
I initiated the Convergence July 11, the exact Solar Return (year ago) of when I first received the very powerful clear vision for "Turtle Island Reborn," showing me where in my life I would play a role in "Restoring Sacred Culture Across the Americas," and initiate this process with a virtual, ceremonial event introducing my community to the "EcoSapiens" who had most deeply inspired me in my life.
Since that time I'd had many dreams and signs in the world of form of turtles giving me confirmation. I even spent 2 1/2 months in Costa Rica, in part, because I was shown this would be a location for key elements of the new sacred culture and to also spend time with the sea turtles--and I traveled to Tortuguero and saw a mother turtle laying her eggs as part of that journey.
The seeds of the vision, however, mark a full Nodal Return--the 19-year Lunar Nodal Cycle. Because 19 years ago when the South Node in Scorpio was on my Mars as now, and Chiron was on my Midheaven in Capricorn, I had spent 2 months in Peru, drawn by a Bioreginal Vision Council Gathering in the foothills of Machu Pichu, called the "Call of the Condor."
Nine of my featured speakers in the EcoSapien Speaker Series and the culminating "Call of the Turtle" Mini Vision Council spearheaded by my sister Tracy, I originally met through this gathering that would change my life profoundly: Arun Costa Ruz, Albert Bates, Liora Adler, Diana Leafe Christian, Laura Kuri, Alberto Ruz Buenfil, Noelle Romero, and Odin Ruz.
The Condor referenced the Eagle Condor prophecy emerging from indigenous communities across Peru, suggesting we live in a time where it is essential for the "Eagle People"--more oriented to the mind--of North America and the "Condor People" of South America to come together, joining mind and heart to birth a New World.
So I was astonished and deeply moved when, after a celebratory glass of wine and porch sit Sunday night with Taelin, he handed me a long dark feather, asking if I knew what it was. He shook his head when I said vulture and smiled saying "Condor." It was a gift from a new friend from California who'd been on retreat in the deep forests down the road from us just a day before. He said he knew it was for me.
Several days later I was hiking the creek down by my house with Taelin and a friend, feeling deeply connected to the land, the water, the breezes, the stones. We found so many feathers from Great Blue Herons, Night Herons, Barred Owls, and a Pileated Woodpecker. But the astonishing moment came when we stumbled almost literally upon the enormous shell--almost perfectly preserved with the cleaned up beak and spine and legs all scattered around--of a Snapping Turtle.
What a blessing, what a gift, to have the Universe give back in such a beautiful way!