Sacred Sites

A portion of my shaman training involved adopting specific sacred sites and working with the spirits that were connected to those places. Imagine exploring the ruins of an ancient city and stumbling upon a temple that had been in use for thousands of years. You would feel an incredilby rich energy and, most likely, find that it was much easier to interact with the spirit world in that place that in many others. In its simplest form, that's the concept of a sacred site - a location where the energy is rich and the connection with the spirit world clear and strong.

In the lesson, Discovering Sacred Space, I outline the basic process for finding and adopting a sacred site. (Years previous, I outlined the basic process for students even before Old Ways was born.) You find yourself drawn to a particular site, you humbly ask to be allowed to work with the spirits and energy there and, if you're request is accepted, you find new doorways to spirituality and magick opening for you. As you build a relationship with the spirit realm, the process becomes streamlined and refined, but the basic concept remains.

Over the years, I've been blessed to have had the opportunities to work with a wide variety of sites and the spirits that call those places home. Here are some of my favorites, photographs, and a collection of stories and lessons connected to those places. The links below are listed in roughly chronological order of when I began working with the site.

Specific Sites

The Nestucca River Valley (Oregon Coast Range Mountains)
A beautiful mountain valley where I did my first vision quest and collected the stones for my first altar.

 

The Faerie Grove (Oregon Coast Range Mountains)
Hidden in Oregon's Coast Range Mountains is a place where the fae still cross-over into our world and where students and, most notably my friend Conor, have watched faeries in broad daylight.

 

An Old Quarry (Oregon Coast Range Mountains)
The first sacred site that I was accepted to work with while I was studying shamanism with Nukah, I learned a great deal about nature spirits, the flow of natural energy, and the power of magick while working with an abandoned quarry.