Wantastiquet Speaks
Healing Circle Altar on Wantastiquet
On this listening trip into the wild I’m on Mt. Wantastiquet somewhere back behind Indian Pond where there’s no sounds but the forest itself. I’m sitting here in the dark, wet woods today as I set up a Healing Circle altar for my hospice client and his wife. What better place for a healing circle than the magic that is Wantastiquet. And it didn’t disappoint.
I knew Wantastiquet held magic and mystery. Many years ago I hiked up to the summit on a full moon summer night. I laid out my sleeping bag under the stars and watched the night sky over Brattleboro, Vermont. Just as I was ready to close my eyes to sleep I located my home in the distance where my wife and two kids were sleeping. I said aloud, “Goodnight Stasia, Raisa, and Zealand; I love you!” I kissed my fingertips, pointed them towards my home, and blew this kiss to my family. Well at the exact same moment I blew that kiss over my home, a shooting star came blistering through the night sky and landed precisely over my home at the very same moment! I was stunned by this synchronous magic.
Just to add some classic Knowles Wentworth foolhardiness to this post, I’ll point out that I was also working as a crisis clinician who happened to be on call this particular evening. Hell, it was a full moon, I couldn’t resist. Moments after I put my head down to sleep, still reeling from the mysterious shooting star, my pager went off. It was the Brattleboro Retreat - the local psychiatric hospital in town, and there was a patient there who wanted to leave. The Retreat wanted our second opinion approval before he left AMA. It was 12AM. I knew this person well, so I said I’d be there in a bit, ended the call, endearingly cursed the guy, and started to pack up my things. Not three minutes later, I got another page from the Retreat. “He’s decided to stay”. Phew, I thought, and crawled back into my bag. Two hours later, in a deep mountain sleep, the pager went off again. “He wants to leave again”. “Alright, I’ll be right there”. I hiked down under full moonlight and got to the Retreat by 2:45AM.
Today on Wantastiquet, the mysterious power of the mountain showed its glory again. At 12 noon sharp, friends and family of a dear hospice client and his wife were to send loving energy their way through prayer, song, silence, loving thoughts, poetry, meditation, or the like. I set up an altar on a moss covered stump with a tea light and the images chosen by this hospice family - Frida Kahlo and the Alhambra in Granada, Spain. Each image held great power and beauty for this couple so they were chosen as mediums by which to focus our loving energy. I sat there minutes before the 12 o’clock hour and began imagining my friends beside each other holding hands. I put one hand on her shoulder and one hand on his heart visualizing the Reiki touch I’d just learned two weeks prior. There had been some chickadees but otherwise the woods lay silent except for the drops of rain dripping from the leaves to the forest floor. The moment my watch struck 12 noon a Barred Owl began to call from the mountain ledges just behind me. Did I mention that we were sending loving energy through prayer, song, silence, loving thoughts, poetry, and meditation? Seems I forgot to include loving energy from Wantastiquet through owl songs and calls. If we conjure loving energy to send to someone in particular, mountain and owl are happy to answer the call too if we include them!
