Deaf Pagan Crossroads

This is the third in a series of posts about my visit to Kirby Cove with ecopyschologist Ginny Anderson. Together we explored this sacred site and what it had to teach me… the valuable lessons that we can learn from nature itself. Kirby Cove is a beautiful site located in the Marin Headlands  just north of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. It’s one of many sacred sites to be found in the Bay Area, as identified by Ginny in her book Circling San Francisco Bay.

I hope you enjoy these posts as much as I enjoyed my visit to this site, and sharing my experience with you.

~ Ocean

The Marin Headlands is the site of a number of historic military fortifications, including bunkers and batteries. Ginny and I stopped to visit one such area along the trail, and she took the opportunity to remind me that one aspect of Kirby Cove’s spiritual significance is that of protection. These fortifications were originally built to protect the Bay Area from possible harm, and while they have ceased to be utilized for such, their energy still resonates to this day.

Once again the theme of protection has entered my life (see “Meeting With the Stag” posted elsewhere here at the Crossroads). Once again I find myself wondering if I am in need of protection, and if so…from whom? From what?

Ginny leads me back to a small outcrop of abandoned military buildings, which have now become cement and metal canvases for colorful works of graffiti:

But there was one particular work of art which Ginny especially wanted me to see… which has survived for three decades within one of the rooms of this building. Many of the other works of graffiti have been destroyed through the years – painted over by newer versions. But this painting has withstood the test of time:

When I saw it, I gasped in awe. This image looked so much like a vision from a trance I experienced several years ago. A trance in which an African elephant, a rusty brown beast much like this one, appeared before me. Since then, I have come to view the elephant as a spirit guide; symbolizing power and strength, wisdom and success, affection and loyalty.

And now here it was before me once again. What is the message that the elephant is bringing to me? What wisdom and power am I supposed to draw upon, and for what purpose? The elephant often signifies being strong in your own self – and I certainly don’t feel very strong these days. It also represents an opportunity to help myself reclaim my most primordial power and prestige; to work on building the foundations of a caring, respectful, and wise person. At the moment, this feels like a mighty tall order.

I also found myself fascinated by the word written above this painting…

UNLEARN

Could it be that there are old thoughts, old behaviors, old beliefs, old habits that I must now unlearn? That I must dispel of such in order to move on with my life? That perhaps…instead of listening to my head and all the facts that I have learned over the years, that I must now pay attention to my intuition and seek my answers within that which cannot be learned, but can only be felt?

I was filled with so many questions, and I found myself wondering how I would ever find those answers I was indeed seeking…

Fortunately, the earth itself holds all the answers; our part is to learn how to communicate, how to “hear” what all the forms of life have to tell us, and how to receive the gifts the earth offers to empower us to address the challenges.

~ Ginny Anderson