Messages from a Holy Mountain
Learning and remembering sacred relationship with the natural world
Dear Friends,
I have a message from The Mountain and I’d like to share it with you. It’s about interspecies communication; what it is to be human; and remembering how to use our sensing effectively for the right purposes. It’s about reclaiming our place in the great order of things. It’s about recognizing and observing right relationship to Nature and All of Life.
Pause. Nature. The word is a problem. It is an abstraction and a composite that obscures the diversity of beingness and perspectives that live within it. It also serves to separate humanity from what we are, in reality. What are we if we are not also Nature?
What I am learning is that for humans, taking our place in the natural order of things, requires us to be in dialogue/exchange with the beyond-human beings we call Nature—animals, plants, elemental spirits of the earth, water, and sky, and yes, mountains. They have wisdom and healing to share. They have needs we must attend to. And in order to relate to them appropriately…which is to say, in a sacred way…we must know them as more than “things.” This is something indigenous people know and know how to do; something my own indigenous ancestors once knew; and something I am beginning to access even though it feels like a forgotten knowledge. It’s like re-learning an ancient language. I am rusty, but it’s there.
Last weekend, I went to Mount Shasta, a truly magnificent mountain on this continent. I sat quietly for a long time…for days. At first, the mountain had little to say to me (or so I thought). It vibrated, it hovered, it radiated a weighty, timeless power. It held space. It anchored a grid of life so vast it felt like an eighth of the world was within its body. It dominated everything and also included everything—nothing was too small, too lowly to escape its attention. It was all-seeing, but completely unmovable. It stretched back through time to the prehistoric as an active volcano and forward in time to the end of all things. Bearing witness to the changes. Bearing us up.
A holy mountain is a master. It is sentient. And being nothing like a human, it is beyond our comprehension. It lives mainly on the subtle plane, but recognizes and effects what happens on the material plane. A holy mountain is a field, a vortex, a healing place, an amplifier, a mirror, and a portal. It is also a refuge and a home for great beings, angels, gods, devas, and spirits who all recognize and are drawn to its unspeakable wisdom and worth.
I went to the mountain feeling curious. I was told that I might be able to commune with ascended masters there and even receive healing. I was open, but skeptical. I expected to feel something. I had no idea how much I would feel. What I didn’t anticipate was the direct connection I felt with the mountain and the clarity of communication I received there.
I feel like I am filling the role of translator here. Only because so many have forgotten the languages of the earth and elemental beings. All of us have this capacity to commune with nature and in fact, the future depends on many of us finding it within ourselves again. It is our native tongue as earthlings. It’s a language that comes through the body and the senses first and the mind second. Specifically, it comes through the heart. And it comes most clearly and accurately through the heart free from fear, free from sentimentality, and free from ego attachment. In a sense it is beyond embodiment because it transcends the physical body…it’s the sentience of the space within the cells, the cellular memory of timeless generations, and the collective, experiential intelligence of the elements themselves: earth, water, fire, air, and space.
As I write this now, I am filled with humility, wonder, and awe. I received everything I went for and more. Most of it was personal and not meant to be shared. But some of it was given to me specifically for sharing. This is what follows…
Over the weekend, my partner and I made many offerings of prayers and mandalas. We offered ourselves in service. We offered our bodies; made sacrifices; and endured discomfort. In return we received many gifts. These are the few I was invited to share. They come from the mountain and from the elementals. Listen, as I did, through the heart and see if you can feel what is being communicated here.
First message: The first message was received in the car as we entered the field of the mountain. It came to me in a half sleep as I rested after the flight. I was shown a small part of the subtle grid that is the mountain’s domain. I saw us entering a portal into a more vivid and subtle world, Sacred World. The message came as an orientation, basic ground rules:
This is a multidimensional experience. The more aware you are of this, the more you will receive. Everything is significant and contains meaning.
Because the subtle is dominant here, all acts will be amplified. Your love will be amplified and radiated to all. But, so it is with discord, too. So, no fighting. (This part was funny to my partner. He appreciated this nudge towards harmony.)
Sacred law is inviolable. You cannot access realms or wisdom you haven’t earned. You will be denied without proper “entry requirements.” You cannot penetrate the mystery just because you want to. There are prerequisites: sacrifice, readiness, commitment.
Second message: The second message was received that evening at sunset as we stepped foot on the mountain. We drove up the winding foothills lined with enormous cypress, evergreen, and sequoia sentinels and parked at an inviting meadow or “flat.” As we made our offering I was instructed by some unseen hand to notice the ants, to cherish the ants. I was nearly pushed to the ground, ordered to prostrate myself fully. The message was about how to approach:
Know the ground before you try to ascend. Every insect is life, sacred. Yes, you are bigger and a more complex thinker, but that doesn’t mean they don’t matter, they don’t have a role to play, and they don’t deserve your respect. From my vantage point, you are like that ant. I don’t disregard you simply because you are small and simple. Nothing is too lowly. Be humble. Recognize your place by honoring what is “small” before you look to what is “big.”
Third message: That night we invited dreams before sleeping, in the way I’d learned through the practices of Dream Yoga. The mountain delivered. Subtle communication can be easier in the subtle sleep realms.
The mountain came to me that night and allowed me to see through its eyes. I saw my partner and myself making a mandala, offering prayers, and offering our love to the mountain. Through the eyes of the mountain we were cartoonish, small, awkward, characterized by such human traits as obliviousness, self-importance, distraction. Our actions, which had felt so important to us, were rudimentary to that vast consciousness. Sincere, but rudimentary.
The dream was a confirmation that the mountain had received our offering. In it, there was a kind of unsentimental and direct expression of approval. Offering: check. This was a wonder! I didn’t realize how often I’ve longed for this confirmation from the natural world. It soothed the wound of disconnection that can show up as cynicism, or as a fear my efforts are one-sided or even irrelevant. The mountain showed me they are not. Even halting, awkward and imperfect gestures are registered and count. They matter…a lot.
The mountain seemed to be saying: Do not imagine that my consciousness is like a human’s. Do not anthropomorphize me in order to relate to me—this will only lead to misunderstanding. I do not see like you or think like you. Because I understand much more, it is appropriate and right that I lead in our dealings. Get present and I will guide you. Your job is to listen, trust what you receive, and follow it to the letter.
In return for your devotion, all sincere requests will be granted. It’s not the thing, but the spirit of the thing. A perfect ritual performed mechanically is worth nothing compared to a spontaneous expression of genuine reverence.
Fourth message: The fourth message came the next day as we hiked to Heart Lake, high up a nearby peak. Halfway up the trail we paused for a snack and a rest. As we sat on a boulder looking out over the valley towards the distant giant, we contemplated the nature of love. We had the heart on our minds. I felt some significant questions arising in me about love, attachment, and fear.
Each time I tried to tune in to the mountain and ask, the question was soundly rejected; like a door slamming shut. Just as I was about to give up frustrated, I received a message—straight to the point. Seeming to have pity on me, it said, “Keep walking.” The instruction was literal, a command, and I immediately dropped my thoughts and got back to the physicality of the hike.
Soon, we reached the high plateau and were delighted by the crystal cold waters of this heart-shaped lake. We jumped in and swimming to the center, I felt the sensual pleasure of the water and sun. Suddenly, it dawned on me…the question, whatever it is, must come from the heart, not the head. As soon as I felt this I reached into my heart and found the question: What is the nature of love?
This time the mountain water answered, “The nature of love is deep and unsentimental.” The words were simple but they carried a transmission of love’s truth in them. In an instant I felt how the small, grasping, sentimental version of love humans are obsessed with is just a simulacrum of the real thing. In that moment I clearly felt how sentimentality and attachment get in the way of genuine connection between people and also obscures our relationship to non-human beings. It’s not an honest relationship we currently have with ourselves or with nature. When love, real love, is present, it is the most powerful transformational force in the universe and the connective tissue itself.
Fifth message: The fifth message came gradually, but steadily, over the days we were there. It was one that my partner has been teaching me since we met a year ago. To have it confirmed by the mountain made it indisputable for me.
There is a quality of energy that is supplied by humans that is a critical raw material for the preservation of life and the functioning of the universe. It is an energy of devotion and coherence that is steeped in reverence and gratitude, generosity and service. The gods, cosmic masters, and elementals need this energy to enact their magic and protection. Humans can, and indeed must, supply this. This is one of your primary functions in the great order.
Our devotion was received by the mountain and the masters and deposited into a bank of goodwill. The balance seemed to be low and we got the message that even as our efforts were appreciated, much much more was needed to settle the balance.
Notice how humans have forgotten what to do here, how to honor the natural world, how to commune with us. Notice how they come to hike, make photographs, and divert themselves. At best they might feel awe and wonder. They might sit in quiet contemplation. They might carry out a piece of trash. But, mostly they’ve forgotten how to listen and how to be with us, how to commune with us.
The bridge was burned long ago. Now it requires us to cross an enormous chasm to connect, to meet up. We speak a different language, but you don’t hear it as communication. We operate by a set of rules you no longer know and so cannot observe. Our presence is in vain. You take, but can no longer receive. The balance must be restored. There is no way forward without the restoration of this channel. There is no way forward for you without us. Will you learn? Will you remember? Will you try?
This was offered without blame or distress. It was simply a matter of fact. The mountain seemed to be showing me how much of humanity is lost with regards to our role. Modernity, materialism, patriarchy, technology and our culture of absence have taken their toll.
Here in the shadow of the mountain, families were vacationing, friends hiking, groups gathering. In a sense, it was lovely. It really was. The people were happy and having fun, playing, unwinding from stressful lives. The children seemed joyful and weren’t on devices. It was all wholesome. But, it was from the mountain’s perspective, missing the point. The mountain seemed to say:
Yes, it’s harmless, but also a lost opportunity. The illusion that this is about recreation is a hypnosis that stands in the way of the real thing. If we can move towards a remembering that is deeper, it will be a more nourishing experience for all in the end.
I felt compelled to remember how to be in communion with the great ones who can guide us towards the next era; who can give us the healing and wisdom from which it will emerge. Communion with the natural world, is not the whole picture, but it is definitely an essential piece. They have keys for us.
I walked away with an understanding that all sincere efforts are received. It’s a matter of doing it: opening the channel for your gifts and gratitude to flow freely into the natural world and her beings so that they can send wisdom back.
This trip taught me I am a beginner. I hold the codes and they can be awakened and activated quickly (which gives me hope that many of us can get there). For a long time, I was in a stupor, a state of deep forgetting. It was the path of embodiment that put me in touch with the ability to hear when spoken to by elemental beings. The deeper my embodiment the more intimacy I have with what is wild and beyond human. The closer I am to my nature, the closer I get to Nature.
This is a summary of what was a vivid, multidimensional experience of reality for several days. I hope the essence of it has one through in tact. I hope it inspires you to trust your own intuition and to try to connect with the forces of nature within you and the natural world surrounding you.
I know it’s just the beginning for me of a more complete unfolding. It was—in a sense—an initiation. As it ripens I will no doubt have more to share. Thank you for reading and receiving this. Thank you to my partner for taking me to this magical place. Thank you to the devas and masters and gods and ancestors and archetypes who assisted in this communion. And thank you, most of all, to the holy mountain: Mount Shasta.
The Joy of Embodiment course is happening this fall!
Someone asked me last night during a ZOOM info session about the upcoming course, “How do you define embodiment?”
It’s a great question. And a hard one to answer in words. I kind of want the answer to be my presence speaking for itself. It’s something you feel…not so much something to understand with the mind. But, I get where the question comes from and it’s important to be clear.
I wrote this essay in 2021 and I stand by it. It’s a thorough download of my view on embodiment. In the essay, I define embodiment this way:
Embodiment is the ability to inhabit one’s body fully; bringing awareness to the intangibles of life force (prana, qi), consciousness, intelligence, space, and sensation that animate us. It is a continual process of settling into and finding intimacy with oneself — being able to interpret and influence the subtlest states, moods, and changes. Another word I like for this is ensoulment.
Becoming embodied is a process of coming home; being centered in oneself. The result is the ability to access types of intelligence — direct, valid, non-conceptual heart knowing (buddhi); various types of spontaneous and intuitive knowing; instinctual perception; gut feelings; and the like — that we override or ignore in our addiction to the mental, cognitive realm. Through the wisdom of the body, we become more empathic and more sensitive to the subtle experience and needs of others, too…this can lead to deeper, more meaningful relationships.
Tomorrow, I will post a brief video on the details of the course content. If you’d like to read a bit more about it, you can do that here, or if you want to RSVP now, you can do that here. I will limit the course to 22 participants, so be sure to reach out or sign up soon if you are interested. Or email me at schuyler@artofemergence.com with your questions.
My goodness, I did not read this at the time but so glad I did now, Schuyler. Beautiful transmission from the mountain and it landed, deeply. I have taken to being grateful when I go outside in the morning, greeting the forest and creatures, and in my mind, spraying like seeds heartfelt blessings and love to the beauty, those cedars, that green, the unseen squirrels surely there. When there was drought this summer, I encouraged the trees - sending them courage, telling them they were doing great and would get through this. While there is a part of me that smiles with the loopiness some would see, I am always nourished by the exchange. ..... I was instructed by the messages from the mountain. Thank you,
Sending you a deep bow for your careful listening and sharing with us, with much appreciation to you, your partner and the mountain.