One of the reasons why I return again and again to the redrock desert of Utah for my four-day spiritual retreat is because I feel I am somehow supported by the wisdom and spirituality of the peoples who lived in that region millennia ago. One can often find their rock art scattered throughout the area during hikes and exploratory drives. Especially engaging are the pictographs painted in red iron hematite on canyon walls by the Archaic Barrier Canyon peoples, who lived and raised crops in the area at least as early as 2000 B.C.E., and perhaps as early as 5000 B.C.E. Many give the appearance of "aliens" - anthropomorph bodies with insect-like heads, often with large, bulging eyes, perhaps symbolic of a shaman having a vision. Indeed, some Native Americans say that human beings did not paint these panels!
Many first-time visitors to the redrock canyon country of the Southwest feel that their everyday mind is somehow "messed-with" by spiritual presences who inhabit the land. For me, a frequent occurrence is to hear a fly buzzing while hiking alone in some remote canyon, yet thinking I hear human voices instead. On our family's very first camping trip to this area, one of my daughters - who has a gift for sensing spiritual presences - felt inexplicably scared because of the things she was able to perceive. Today, as an adult, she appreciates the sense that the ancestors still dwell in the landscape, but as a little girl, it was a bit overwhelming.
I often think it would be interesting to create a book of short interviews in which canyon country visitors could share their experiences of desert spirituality in this amazing region!
Photo: Sego Canyon Pictographs, Thompson Springs, UT; November 23, 2012
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