Awakening on Mt. Shasta: Breaking Free to Liberation

I spent the fall equinox in Mt. Shasta, CA this year, and it shook and remade me.

This blog post gives you a taste of my five-day adventure, and it invites you to look at where you might be allowing fear to keep you trapped in "the matrix."

In August I got an invitation to join a group of earthy women in Mt. Shasta which included a pic of a snow covered mountain.  The photo was almost an exact replica of the image on my 2023 vision board.

I felt like this was my 2023 vision board coming to life!

But there were many logistical and financial hurdles, and eventually I declined that invite.

However, a second invite came through my spirit bro Jeff, and this one felt miraculous.  

It was not a retreat; it was an activation and alchemical gathering of souls who were in service of the Great Mother.

So, I said yes, and almost immediately, all kinds of resistance came up!

Where would I get the money for the tuition?

I was offered a scholarship.

But it was still more than I could afford.

I was granted professional development money from another organization.

But, I didn’t want to feel isolated as the only Black person.

I spoke to One Divine, the leader, and Jeff and asked them to back me–hold space for me as the only African American in the group.  They agreed.

But, I didn’t want to feel bad, lonely, out of place, or anything else that could come up when in a new group of people attracted to the magic of Mt. Shasta and the portal of the Fall Equinox.

I got some informal coaching from Jillian who is a fabulous life coach and was able to work with this very young part of me.

Finally, I got my a*s on the plane and set off for the Unknown.

The first bit of magic of Mt. Shasta was the quality of the silence up there.

Lordy, that quiet felt so rich and full and yummy.

Also, the trees and desert plants felt different from the lush large and moist trees here on the East Coast.  Our trees in the east feel more expansive and “privileged” like they can afford to use lots of water in extravagant greens and blooms and fruits.  The trees up in northern California felt intense, restricted, focused on survival–especially because they were living amongst recent wildfire dead trees.  It’s tough up there!

But honestly it was not the amazing landscape that shook me to my core.

It was the experiences that we co-created as a group under the guidance of a woman named One Divine, an alchemist rooted in the divine feminine.

One Divine modeled what deep trust in the earth and “the grandmothers” looks like, and I  lapped it up!

In my own spiritual journey, I’ve experienced “the grandmothers” as a council of elder women spirits who are deeply connected to the earth.

But I hadn’t reached out to them in years!

I loved that they were amongst the guides for this gathering at Mt. Shasta.

So, let me get to the alchemy and the magic that transformed me.

During the opening circle. I almost wept when I shared how loved and cared for I felt by Spirit’s Knob, the land that my spirit bro Jeff takes care of in the North Georgia mountains.  

This was the land that cared for me when I spent a month in a tiny house last spring.

Then, during that circle, One Divine shared that she had been shown that my contribution was vibration through sound and toning.

I immediately felt seen and appreciated because my own work with plant medicine over the summer had shown me that my sacred work on this planet is actually vibrational–not the analytical frameworks that I had studied and then developed.

With this opening, I was ready to co-create the alchemical stew and let myself be remade.

The remaking came when we went to a pyramid that had been built according to the proportions of one of the pyramids at Giza under the guidance of archangel Metatron.

Nowhere near as big as the original, this pyramid was about 1 ½ times the size of my canvas tent at home and brought our group of 13 into intimate contact with each other.

When the trapdoor to the pyramid was closed, we were in almost complete darkness.

I laid down on a narrow futon and got comfy while others sat and started to make music.

Drums, didgeridoo, voice, singing bowls and bells came together.

Eventually I noticed a pain in my heart area and i decided to sing the tone of that pain.  

Others joined in and we made a wave of sound.

I noticed that my mind was saying stuff like “you should be quiet.  You’re singing too much.”But I kept on toning until the pain was gone.

Then I heard various female voices crying, screaming, and laughing.  

One person’s tears worried me.

But then I remembered that my gift to this circle is to offer the tones that are needed.  So, I found the tone that felt right and made that sound.

And so it went.  For about an hour I toned from the heart, and listened to the sounds and emotions swell and ebb.

When we finally exited the pyramid, I let N, an older white man in the group hold me as I wept.

I felt cleansed of judgments against myself and other folks.

The next day we went to a tea ceremony and sound healing experience with Gary, a young white and Navajo guy who wore feathers in his hat.

The thirteen of us crammed into Gary’s very modest apartment living room, sitting amidst about half a million dollars worth of bowls, chimes, and otherworldly gadgets that altered your molecules and connected you with other parts of the universe.

While sitting in this ceremony with extremely rare and expensive teas that Gary had been initiated into by masters, I started to feel my energy tingle and almost re-route itself.

I had the biggest piece of shungite I’ve ever seen nestled between my thighs as I drank cup after cup of tea made from sacred waters from the Pacific Northwest as well as Shasta.

About three hours into the ceremony, Gary says “Is anybody tea high yet?”

We all laughed.

And then I said, “I feel strange like something is happening to me.  My yoni is feeling weird”

He had been sitting directly across from me the entire ceremony.  Now he looked at me straight on and started to talk.

He said the three parts of the id that religion, tried to control and shut down were eating, Sleeping and sex.  And then he said Quakers had tried to replace sex with work, and some other things.

At that point I got super hot.  I had on underneath my Black Joy t-shirt a long-sleeved shirt that read Quakers.

For a long time now, I have felt like it was time to resign my membership from my local Quaker meeting, but I’d been afraid to become untethered and unprotected so I hadn’t done anything.

However, at that moment I felt compelled to take the shirt off and to honor my sexual life force energy.

So, I took off the shirt, showing my breasts as I did so.

I quickly put on my black joy t-shirt, but then I felt like I needed to take it all off.

I took off the black joy t-shirt too.

And sitting bare breasted in a room full of strangers and Gary, one of the strangest people I’ve ever met, I cried.

I didn’t want to see any faces, so I kept my eyes closed.

I have a black panther tattoo in between my breasts that very few people, other than Michael have ever seen.  And I just let myself be seen.

I hear murmurs of affirmation, but I couldn’t open my eyes until a woman’s voice started to sing:

You are so beautiful

To me

Can’t you see

Everyone joined in, and I opened my eyes and sang to each person as well.

“Something was taken, but I’m reclaiming my self right now,” I said aloud to the group.

We all drank more tea, and eventually I put on my black joy t-shirt.

As I sat there, I thought “Oh, so that’s why I came to Mt. Shasta!”

So, in keeping with the panther on my chest, I have decided to move forward with my liberation path.

I’m going to write that letter of resignation which is really a letter of gratitude to the quaker meeting.

I’ve also decided to go forward only with Aminata Desert Rose Plant Walker Fire Woman as my name in 2024.

That will be how I publish and introduce myself.

How perfect to make this declaration just days before the eclipse and the new moon in Libra.  I’m excited for the new beginnings and grateful for the completion of Dr. Amanda Kemp.

What are you holding on to that a soul activation could help you dislodge?

Just rolling this question around in your mind, could be freeing!