Into the Vortex
You say Vortexes, I say Vortices
I was going to title this post M-M-M-My Sedona, which seemed vaguely amusing until I relistened to My Sharona which, it turns out, has some quite dubious lyrics. Backing swiftly away…
I have a couple of days to chill out in Sedona and get my mystic on. First business of the day, I have booked myself on a tour of Sedona’s famous vortices (or vortexes as the locals seem to prefer, but that’s our American friends for you!).
I arrive quite early as it seems like it might be worth having a poke around before the tour. Sedona is a very pretty town. It is greener than most of Arizona and is apparently a continuation of the Grand Canyon - so same spectacular geology, but far more accessible as there is a full service town in the bottom of the value, rather than the nothingness (or maybe not, but more of that later…) that you can reach via a long and arduous mule trek in the Grand Canyon itself.
Sedona is very proud of the way it looks and has passed a number of laws to keep it that way: houses have to be low and in earth hues to blend in with the surroundings (this probably also explains why Sedona is the only place where the McDonalds golden arches are, in fact, teal).
They have also banned any new plots of land being allocated to building houses. This of course has the effect of making the property price skyrocket and I’m told means that the uber wealthy just buy existing houses and then bulldoze and rebuild.
Sedona also tends not to switch its street lights on in order to preserve the dark skies feel - which I appreciate as I try to get a good view from my hotel perched on the mesa above the city.
Anyway, I park up in the parking lot near the tour offices and go for a wander. Within a couple of blocks I get a bit of a flavour…
To be fair, I think the Oil and Lube was actually for cars, but it is Sedona so you never know…
I discover later that this is spirituality light lite and that the motherlode of magical emporia and reading centres is further out, to the west of where I am staying. I may explore if time allows.
And so on to the tour. This was absolutely fascinating. Our guide imparted much information about the city itself (hence the snippets above) and also tried to explain why Sedona has such peculiar energy. I can’t claim to have completely followed but it was a combination of the particular minerals that make up the surrounding hills, the piezo-electric effect of quartz under pressure along fault lines, the weird Faraday-cage effects of lava tubes and the type of iron oxides around which tend to be paramagnetic rather than magnetic. Following..?
However all of this comes together, it was surveyed by the USGS and found to have such anomalous magnetic fields that the US military got very interested and now test all of their equipment here to make sure that it can tolerate these sort of variations. Not sure I would have wanted to be the first test pilot out…
Anyway, I gather that the only reason that Sedona has an airport is that the military built it for this testing. I’m told that the runway is the same dimensions as those on aircraft carriers (whether the planes fly off a ramp over the edge of the mesa, I have not established, but may wander there later as it is not far).
And on to the famous vortexesices. There are lots around Sedona, generated by the odd conditions, and I will visit a few over the course of the next couple of days. We initially go to a minor vortex and our guide hands out dowsing rods to the folk on the tour. I am obviously a class swat as I have brought my own dowsing rods. It’s always interesting to watch the faces of people who, initially sceptical, are forced to accept the evidence of their own eyes when dowsing - initially the tour guide’s water bottle and then on to ley lines. For those who have never tried it, it works consistently and is a little mind blowing at first.
Anyway, between us we trace a number of ley lines ( the vortices are where a number of ley lines converge, and the lines carry energy between them) and this leads us to a vortex (the guide also points out physical signs such as faults and fractures, seams of quartz etc.). Having identified the location, the guide then determined the direction of the vortex and asked if we spotted anything interesting in the landscape nearby. There is a tree there which is particularly twisted, in the direction that he has established that the vortex is rotating. Decide for yourselves, but the tree next to it which is presumably subject to very similar conditions is not twisted in the same way.
Onwards from here, with a bus load of converts to the potential of earth energies, and on to the Amitabha Stupa and Peace Park. This is a multi-faith spiritual centre where, I am told, the main Stupa has been specifically designed to alter and transmit the energy of the vortex here. Apparently it involved many Buddhist priests and Feng Shui masters to establish the exact size and form. This leads on to an interesting conversation with our guides around intentional/mindful architecture and the causes of sick building syndrome.
The guide was absolutely fascinating. I mentioned that I had done some dowsing around petroglyph sites and often when I got hits there were spiral glyphs nearby. He confirmed that this was the glyph for a vortex.
I also mentioned the many symbols from around the world that I had spotted amongst the petroglyphs and this led into a discussion around Hopi history and prophecies. He told me that there is evidence of an ancient civilisation within the Grand Canyon which contains writings associated with many different cultures (including Egyptian Hieroglyphics) and that it is not unusual to find these amongst petroglyphs. [Side Note: there is also a site in the US where the “glyphs” are Ogham runes used in ancient Celtic writing.]
The Hopi believe that this was the initial, single civilisation of mankind and that people were scattered through a series of disasters (the latest being the flood about 13000 years ago - see my post on the Washington channelled scablands). The Hopi believe that we are now living in the fourth world, having been through disasters from earth, fire and water, another may be due from air. Global warming anyone? When the Dalai Lama met the Hopi elders, I gather that he was talking about some Buddhist prophecies and the Hopi kept finishing his sentences for him as it was identical to theirs. Go figure.
Anyway, the Hopi have been trying to get back to their ancestral homelands for millennia (hence why the reservation is near the Grand Canyon), with the aim of unifying all the peoples of the world once more. Can’t argue with that.
When I get back to the hotel after the tour, I take a short hike up to the Airport Mesa vortex, initially with the intention of watching the sunset from there.
Having traversed a very rocky and uneven path down from the hotel, a quick health and safety assessment leads me to conclude that it would be unwise to do this in poor light, so I beat a hasty retreat to the hotel’s private viewing platform so that I can watch the sunset in a more relaxed manner, beer in hand.
I determine that for my second full day in Sedona I will utilise my recently underused legs and hit some of Sedona’s justifiably famed hiking trails. Now some of these lead to spectacular views and are of varying difficulty. As the temperature is set to hit the 90s, I think a forest walk with some shade would be preferable to exposed Arizona desert. I head to Boynton Canyon early in the morning, but clearly not early enough for a parking space. Some roadside shenanigans it is then.
Now the Canyon is home to one of Sedona’s main vortices, which I am keen to see, but miss the turn off initially and so am more or less locked in to the full trail. It’s a very pleasant walk and I am, as ever in the US, very much more aware of noises from the undergrowth than I am walking in the UK, on account of there being more things in the US that could take the shine off your day. No need to worry today - its mainly lizards and birds and lizards making desperate dashes to get away from the birds.
As I approach the last 1/4 mile or so of the trail, it becomes a bit of a scramble - not too bad, although more challenging on the way down. I’m once again regretting not having walking poles. I had intended to bring them, but, even fully retracted, they wouldn’t fit in the case. I have seen some here which seem much smaller so may have to invest - obviously after checking whether they are suitable for anyone over 5’ 4”.
I reach the end of the trail, as indicated by the sign, declaring the end of the trail but somehow in a way that makes me think it isn’t (basically saying that it is bad for the environment, damages the wilderness etc. to go any further). I am obviously a “law” abiding individual and so determine that I will obey the edict. Weirdly though, I can’t help thinking that this isn’t the big reveal one might expect. It is a spot that I would consider fairly spectacular anywhere else but meh.
On the way back down, I’m determined not to miss the path to the vortex. Before I get there I spot another point of interest on Google maps - and ancestral sacred healing vortex. Sounds like something I should visit and so heading off the path I dowse my way up the hill. I find a rock outcropping that looks interesting but doesn’t have the vibes, so carry on a little further and the spot has kindly been marked with a medicine wheel.
I duly do a clockwise circumnavigation and move on to the main vortex - which, it turns out, also has some spectacular views.
The plants are a rare flowering of blue agave - yes, it’s a tequila tree!
I contemplate doing another trail after this but it is now chuffin’ hot so I decide to call it and, fresh of spirit but weary of limb, I head back into Sedona for a visit to, what I have been reliably informed, is the best salad bar to be had, in Wholefoods. It is indeed an impressive salad bar, as is the $20 that I pay for it!
Well, I have enjoyed Sedona and would happily spend more time here but sadly(??!) the Grand Canyon now beckons…
Well, you seem to have found somewhere to fulfill all your hippy needs 😊 I hope that you stocked up on crystals to power your onward journey?