Orientation on the Working of the Priest, Sacramento, Nov. 8-10/13, Part I

Dear Friends: This past weekend was spent down in Sacramento, California. The whole adventure, from beginning to end, was so rich and full, that I will have to take some time to organize my impressions and thoughts, but I would like to offer this as a preliminary impression. This trip began very early in the morning with a train trip from Vancouver, Canada to Portland, Oregon, from there by bus to Eugene, and from there by car to Sacramento, primarily following the western coastline. It was very exciting to feel that I was on the way to something completely open and unknown. Even though I could not see all of them, the ancient volcanoes of the Cascade Range called to me on the way down: Mount Baker, Rainier, St. Helen's, Hood, Washington and finally Shasta. These snow-capped, silent sentinels still hold an energy that can be felt within a very large radius. In fact, in some circles, Mount Shasta is known as the root chakra of the Earth. Its energy radiates out, unbound and unchannelled. It may be no coincidence that a school of eurythmy sits at its base. It is possible that even the Lemurians gazed in wonder at this breathtaking mountain. The Willamette Valley, and the mouth of the Columbia River spoke to me of the Lewis and Clark expedition, when on Nov. 15, 1805, they reached the west coast. The legend of Sacajawea was also with me. I say legend, because so much remains unknown about her, even amongst her own people, the Lemhi: "For a person who has been called one of the most famous women in American history, the absence of concrete information about Sacajawea is remarkable. She was never sketched or painted, or if so the likenesses were lost. Though her "image" has graced everything from stamps to statues, no one really knows what she looked like. A monument in Idaho´s Lemhi Valley denotes her birthplace, but no one knows whether the location of the monument is within miles of being accurate. The best reporting done on her during her lifetime is contained in the journals of Lewis and Clark, and they raise more questions than they answer." What is known is that she had a son, named Jean Baptiste, which seemed significant to me, considering some of the content of our workshop. The drive from Eugene to Sacramento along the I-5 is well worth taking. What I had not realized is that this part of the Cascades was also part of the gold rush in California in the 1800's. Many places still bear the names as testament to this period of history, as well as many streets in Sacramento. These names shone for me, having experienced the Living Gold conference last year. We heard the salmon are now running, but did not have a chance to see this. In general conversation, we learned that Sacramento actually came from the word, Sacrament, so our workshop held even more significance. It was interesting that among the first settlers were people from Hawaii, who were no strangers to the power and energy of volcanoes. The raw energy of the root chakra must be properly channelled to be of benefit. 2013 is known in some circles as a "lightning" year. How does one go about harnessing or channeling, such energy? That, my friends, is a mystery in the Sacrament of Ordination. How is it that the activity of the Christ is made to flow into priestly activity? How is it that what comes from heaven as a spiritual message can be conveyed as a living force? This is part of what it means to be-come a priest. I'm sure that any priest will tell you that when one has set one's feet upon the path, it is not so much the journey, but the people you meet along the way, that is most significant, and I was very blessed with the people I met on this journey, from the woman I met on the bus, who was expecting her 5th child in 2 weeks, whose mother travels widely to teach midwifery and knew about homeopathy, to the woman who was willing to leave her young family to travel down with me from Eugene, trusting that someone she had never met before would get her there and back safely, to the family whose home we stayed in, in Sacramento, and of course, the workshop leaders and participants. More later. Sparky