Course Two: Nature 85
with that magickal force the early Greeks called the
plenum. They’re often edges and extremes, featuring
symmetric shapes and mythic themes: caverns and
caves, waterfalls and wellsprings, river canyons and
high mountain peaks, enchanted deserts and ocean
coves, circular clearings and oaken groves.
Sacred sites are sometimes charged not only by
the intentions and spirits of the living Earth, but also
by the ritual reverence and mindful maintenance, the
ceremonies and spells of countless caring generations.
Most everyone has some acquaintance with the bet-
ter-known sites such as Colorado’s Mesa Verde,
Britain’s Stonehenge, and ancient Petra—but every
single region, every watershed has its own special
spots where the vibe is most intense, where our vi-
sions seem clearest, our dreams most urgent and alive.
As a young man I basked in the emanations of
Mt. Shasta, walked barefoot through a forest of whis-
pering pines of the Black Hills in Sioux country, and
snuck past the locked Park Service gates in order to
spend a night in the underground kivas of Chaco. Each
gifted me with new experiences and lessons, and I
tried to serve them all equally well. Then, in 1980, I
followed the most powerful revelation of my life to
an exact bend of a particular New Mexico river, deep
in the enchanted Gila wildlands of the American
Southwest. Up until 900 years ago, our Sanctuary
home served as the ceremonial center for those an-
cient Indians that archaeologists and mundanes call
the “Mogollon,” but who knew themselves as the
Sweet Medicine People. These days when students
and apprentices come to study with us here, they’re
each helping re-establish a sacred lineage of purpose
and commitment, magick and love.
Whether sojourning to the wildest wilderness or
to a treasured and hidden niche in an overgrown neigh-
borhood park—one way we can measure a sacred site
is by how deeply it affects us. It often starts with what
seems like an invitation, either an omen or sensation.
We may sense we’re being observed or evaluated by
the resident entities, provoking a moment’s fear or
dread. Yet with our minds quiet and hearts pure, we’re
soon not only accepted but initiated and instructed,
emboldened and equipped! Sacred sites affirm our
personal roles in Gaia’s unfolding sacred purpose...
and a place of power will ultimately be where we feel
more powerful as well.Canyons
(by Jesse Wolf Hardin)
Like most young boys, I was usually attracted to
the tallest peak around, to those places where I could
see in all directions at once, and feel some distance
from the mundanes who muddled below. But once I
got to puberty I began to find myself drawn down
into the secretive hideouts in drywash gullies, and into
the wetness of a river forever carving its directionand intention in solid mountain rock. A canyon em-
bodies the feminine, and we males seek balance as
well as beauty in the embrace of her spirit and form.
It is here that both aspects of our being, the yin and
the yang, meet and combine. Womanly water strokes
our legs and feet, while reflecting the manly cliffs lift-
ing skyward like granite wings.
Even those who will never visit them know the
names of some of the gorges of Africa, of Utah’s
Canyonlands and Mexico’s Canon de Cobre, the ser-
pentine twists of Idaho’s Snake and the Black Can-
yon of the Gunnison. It’s said that the average visitor
spends only five minutes at park sites overlooking
the majestic Grand Canyon, but of course the real ex-
perience of it begins in an exploration of its inner
depths. A canyon, like a river, requires our complete
immersion in order to do its magick on us. We don’t
walk so much as plummet forward—trembling with
anticipation, totally buzzed from the thrill of the dive.
A canyon is an opening into the Earth, like a cave
without a ceiling. It is a way into increased sensuality
and self-knowledge—into deeper intimacy with self
and other, place and Spirit. I remember the first time
I saw what was to become my fateful mission and
lifetime canyon home, 200 miles southeast of the
Grand, in the Gila of New Mexico. Getting from the
parking area on National Forest land to the center of
the sanctuary requires a trip over seven jeep-sinking
river crossings, each passage putting us closer in touch
with our spirits and bodies as well as with the en-
chanted surroundings. As the canyon narrowed I felt
myself approached, approved, and held, and I quickly
fell in love. Here I found metaphor made real, a per-
fect marriage of male and female: the hard and the
soft, inner and outer, celebration and manifestation.
For the practicing or aspiring Wizard, a journey
into the flesh and mystery of a river canyon becomes
a sacred quest: an exploration of meaning and place,
an adventurous relationship with magickal self and
animate spirit—a setting for pledges kept by—and
promises given to—the ever-inspiring Earth.Wells and Springs
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