Category: Sacred Places

Sacred Places we have visited in our travels.

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Tuzigoot

Tuzigoot

By James Anthony Curtis

Recently we visited the Pueblo ruins of Tuzigoot (Too-ze-woot), just east of Clarkdale, Arizona. The ruins sit high on a hill above the Verde floodplain, and command an incredible view for hundreds of miles in almost every direction. At one point this was a thriving community of the Sinagua people, with approximately 200-400 living in community here at one time over a span of a few hundred years. They sustained themselves through farming, foraging, and a trade network of various items such as food, cotton, salt, and stone, to a variety of crafts-work in weaving, beads, and many other items of both practical and spiritual importance with other communities in the area.

Standing on the summit of one of the high walkways between the ruins, my eyes close, and I allow the body to drift with the intense winds as they lift the soul in journey upon their current. The fertile valley echoes a small river gently moving past, while birds, insects, and wildlife scurry about this sanctuary. Allowing myself to sink further into the energy of this place, time folds to the imagination, and a people come alive in a way of life that pervades common cultural thought on how to live in a society. Their cares of this world and its daily life are much different in nature than where we stand in reverence today. But in either case, there are threads that tie us to each other, those that form bonds beyond the three dimensional reality of what we commonly perceive. Although we may be of a different race, culture, or societal structure, our humanity runs deeper in the eternal vibration of ancestral lineage where we share a struggle of evolution in nature— our spiritual metamorphosis in occurrence.

Visiting these sacred places gives us the opportunity to visit ourselves, to gaze into life purposes, and see the reflections of where we have walked etched upon the ether of the earth. There is a sense of timelessness in us if we go deeper into our relationships, where impermanence meets energy, and the ego gives way to the openings of an ongoing journey of wonder, enlightenment, and compassion. If we give our heart the space of abiding that is asked for, we ease the pain of living on a temporal path, and expansion leads the soul to a larger world of exploration, one in which we come to know our universal self intimately across previous borders and boundaries.

The Sinagua people of the Verde Valley are not that distant in partnership, and when we stand where they stood, walk along paths they moved, breathing the gift of life filling the body as they once did, gratitude begins to well for the precious space of our soul in pilgrimage here on earth. We see both the hardships and the joys in traveling the world, and come to realize our paths may cross more than we know as we embrace our humanity.

Today may we grant time for our ancestors, valuing our connection, and the many paths they have walked before us. May we see beyond our limitations by the holding of the heart in loving compassion, offering ourselves as a living sacrifice to the one who is emerging in us, the one we have been waiting for, in benefit of all beings.

May it be so, so it is.

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“Some Mountains are not meant to be moved”

“Some mountains are not meant to be moved”

By James Anthony Curtis

It’s been well over a year now living on the road, since the sale of the land, house, and most of my property. When things began to shift back in 2014, I was married, we had just purchased 24 acres with a small home and garage, there was an abundance of friends, family, wealth and health in many aspects of life. But the universe has a way of bringing things to our attention, things that we are not willing to look at readily, places within us that wait for the timing of perfection to reach its tipping point, and once the doors to these places are opened, a flood of changes burst through unraveling our reality with divine precision. My relationships, faith, and emotional stability were utterly cast to the wind for the current of uncertainty to take me. Reflecting back now, seeing that poor soul writhing in agonizing tears day after day on the floor, experiencing such loss, aloneness, and in complete despair – a derelict of society – there are times I go back and sit with him in his feelings, placing my hand upon his shoulder, gently whispering in his ear, “you are loved, it will all work out.”

We may do our best to succeed in our endeavors, forming relationships with friends and family, developing our skills, and moving upon the earth with grace as best we can, but the most purposeful ‘things’ we can give our love and attention to are those places which call to us that often we are unwilling to hear. Frequently they bring with them the pain of uncomfortable circumstances, feelings that we may wish to avoid, and the loneliness of deep abiding, which is in part what we have come for to offer loving compassion. Although we are never alone, at times it is necessary for our growth, a ‘construct,’ and a tool, that serves only to take us further inward in transformational power, which allows a depth of connection across any perceived border or boundary of who we truly are. Paradoxically the time we spend with ourselves opens our vision for expansion by the love we offer, and as we grow we will experience the loss of our egoic constructs, but in turn there is a multitude of wholeness that embraces our soul. In a sense, we lose a reality that may have appeared to hold and comfort us for years, but was based in illusion, and as it unravels we find the truth of who we are, and a much larger reality to stand on, even though grounded in the faith of losing ourselves to uncertainty.

The feelings we feel through our experiences shadow in comparison to the larger part of our self moving behind the scenes. Not that they are devalued by any means, but rather take on a much higher vibration in light as they become known as agents of our spiritual evolution working in concert with the universe for what we truly desire.

Sitting at the base of the Superstition Mountains, at our new home for the next month or so, there is an unmistakable newness to life, where even in the ache of growth, if we allow ourselves to abide with ourselves in what we feel, providing space for the heart, underneath there is always a rock of peace we may anchor to in what we feel. Comfort comes not from the certainties we may attempt to find in life, but rather from the uncertainties we have found in the faith of love. Underneath our insecurities, fears, and doubts that may arise sometimes, which are only asking for the love we are all deserving of, there is a path to be found, often the less traveled pilgrim’s road, in the uncertainty of the wind, and unpredictability of love.

Today may we find the treasures of our heart, through the ‘openings’ of space loss has provided for us. May we feel deeper, underneath the layers of our emotion, as we abide with what is calling out to us to be heard, seen, and loved for the benefit of all beings. May we find the doors, and answer the one who is knocking, that heaven may come forth in our time as all is revealed.

May it be so, so it is.

“The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit.” John 3:8

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Kartchner Caverns, Arizona State Park

Kartchner Caverns, Arizona State Park

By James Anthony Curtis

 

We had the pleasure of visiting Kartchner Caverns on Friday November 30th, 2018. Its hard to believe that 44 years ago, almost to the date in November, this cavern was just being discovered by Gary Tenen and Randy Tufts as they were exploring the limestone hills at the eastern base of the Whetstone Mountains. The two men dreamed of finding “a cave no one had ever found,” and indeed they found it.

As we neared the Limestone hills containing the now well maintained, manmade entrance to the caverns, we had no idea what we were in store for as we approached the entrance. The hills themselves do not sit that far from the highway, and leave little to be awed by from an outward view. There is nothing that gives any indication to the incredible beauty that awaits under the surface, and once inside its mind boggling what it must have been like coming upon this treasure in such a dark exploration. Gary and Randy were two such souls that truly felt the significance of a place like this, and kept the cave secret until February of 1978, when they sat down to share the their find with property owners James and Lois Kartchner. The two knew the cave had to be conserved, since natural wonders can seriously be damaged from unregulated usage, and a course of action was set into motion to approach Arizona State Parks about acquiring the caverns.

It’s hard to believe as you look over at the original entrance, which is hardly noticeable, that a small, dark, hole into the earth, leads to such magnificent beauty in what lays beneath. Our ranger guide was very informative, as was everyone working at the park, and you could feel the passion in his sharing each step of the way as we entered the tunnel to the caverns.

It was sunny yet very chilly outside, and as you approach the first door, you see the beginnings of tunneling into the hillside. The park takes great lengths in precaution to preserve the still actively growing cave, listing many helpful ways in which we will be walking into the cavern as to not disturb what has taken hundreds of thousands of years to form.

Upon walking through the first door, immediately the temperature is a comfortable 72 or so degrees, humid, and surprisingly pleasant. We pass through long tunnels painstakingly made for easier access into the caves, and a total of three large metal doors, sealing the outside world, and preserving the inner one.

Kartchner Caverns is one of those rare places on earth that brings you to a place deep within yourself, thats hard to comprehend the amount of time, pressure, and gravity of circumstances to create. Gary and Randy crawled, through a tiny black opening, squeezing, moving, exploring the darkness, until it opened into something ancient, magnificent, leaving a legacy of awe to what others might share. The beauty is remarkable, even more so as you realize the process in discovering it, and the truth which made it.

I found myself feeling into my own journey as we walked, those dark places yet to be discovered, and the ones that have revealed themselves through much crawling, squeezing and exploring in great effort. The ranger that took us in remarked, “its hard to believe this much beauty formed over so much time in such darkness.”

Many times in our journey it’s difficult to view our own darkness with such reverence — mostly because we get caught up in those tight places, grasping for movement, trying to reason our way through tiny limitations, when being human is really all about feeling those closed spaces. As we allow ourselves to abide with the dark, seeing past the tiny openings, our desires guide us into something much more than we could ever have hoped for.

When we are ready, may we find our ‘sink hole,’ beginning the long journey inward to see what has been forming for a very long time. May we crawl, squeeze, move at our pace, allowing ourselves to enjoy each exploration with love. And as we come to know the one we have been waiting for, may we greet ourselves with all the tenderness we have long desired, for the benefit of all beings.

May it be so, so it is. ????

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Three Rivers Petroglyphs

Three Rivers Petroglyphs

By James Anthony Curtis

 

It might not seem like the post for Thanksgiving, but bear with me for a bit.

So on our way to Arizona, we had the privilege to visit what some might consider sacred places along the way. ‘Sacred,’ to me, means touching something deep inside, a part that reflects love in a manner that cant easily be given or received, but involves a space of gratitude, empathy, and attention which provokes the heart to see something more than the mere moment of passing impermanence.

Some beings choose to express these times in art, writing, and music, while others immerse themselves as the flow of the ‘sacred’ allows, giving the current permission to carry them where it wills as the path unfolds. All of us experience the ‘sacred’ through the acknowledging of something meaningful, greater than what we believe ourselves to be, vast, yet small, precious in valuation of what we know based on our current relationships. 

Most times for me there is a period of integration, a space of ‘allowing’ for what has been transmitted, and received, giving time for reflection to manifest back to the universe an acknowledgment of the journey here. Maybe that’s why I choose to write, sometimes in recording, others in expression, both sending those emotional energies to myself and others as apart of universal connection in cooperation with the life lived here. 

It might not seem like we have an impact at times, or like we are here fulfilling purpose, but some of the smallest of actions very well may be the most precious in circling back to our roots, granting ourselves passage as the ‘divine,’ or ‘sacred’ beings that we are — like these testimonials etched in rock, from a people long ago that farmed a once fertile valley, leaving small, unsubstantial traces of animals, actions, and feelings. We too carve out moments in time, possibly left for others to feel as they find, and maybe its not what we think in terms of preserving or recording our memories, or culture, but those ‘expressions,’ feelings that we leave in our absence, ‘signatures’ we leave of our life here in how we interact with our divinity in human form.

The people at ‘Three Rivers’ left no record for us to find, no monuments to any great civilization, but as you sit upon the rocks, walk paths they walked, and touch the pictures they left, you find yourself in the sacred, feeling a place in the heart for family, friends, and a deep gratitude rooted in the preciousness of life. They even buried their dead in the floors of the places they lived, perhaps to keep them close, or maybe as a reminder, to the spark each life holds, that in time transcends all boundaries of limitation.

Today we offer thanks, not for any set discovery, land, or celebration of peoples, but for all beings, on the sacred pilgrimage of love, as we come to know our relationships and why we journey with them. May you be blessed, may you be loved, may you find ease in the open heart of healing.

Namaste.