Last year I interviewed Peter Dawkins, a very gifted mystic and metaphysician who has a deep and profound understanding of the Shakespeare Mystery School.  He has also "visioned" the Planetary Chakra system through the Wheel of Life and Tree of Life - three systems he considers to be the way that Spirit manifests into form. He also explained his understanding of the shift in energy and consciousness from Europe to the Americas at this time of the beginning of a new Golden Age. That's when I really started paying attention!

 http://www.voiceamerica.com/episode/72487/pathways-to-wisdom-through-the-swan

He then explained that the Tree of Life, located over North America, is centred upon a massive super volcano in New Mexico called Valles Caldera, which at the time we hadn't even heard of. This Tree of Life is imprinted over the whole of North America and comes up into Canada. The ten sephiroth of the Tree of Life are specific places in the landscape; the Venus Gate is in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and the Jupiter Gate in Mt. Shasta, California.

When information first started coming through about the Grand Cross Alignment on April 23rd, and how important it was, Zia and I both had a strong sense that we needed to be inside New Mexico's Caldera doing ceremony at that time.  After making the decision to go, wonderful synchronicities started happening through new connections and the radio show. The vision was that the Caldera was a giant medicine wheel, with the four planets in the four cardinal directions, and ceremony in the centre of the Caldera would bring the necessary balance for peaceful, loving, revolutionary change. As this location was energetically at the Hub of the entire North American landscape, we felt it was a powerful way in which we could make a contribution.

We had already connected the landscape zodiac in Victoria

As we explained our plan, she was over the moon with excitement - that we had heard of her work and that we were coming during the Grand Cross Alignment to do ceremony in the landscape! Their system is slightly different from ours but with a similar outcome. They have a complete zodiac wheel around the outside of the Caldera, but instead of the sun sign effigies, they focus on the cross-quarter days of the solstices, equinoxes, and mid-points in between, referring more to an 8-pointed star formation rather than a set of 12 archetypes. Approximately every six weeks, they gather on the nearest Sunday to the cross-quarter day in the specific location they have identified for that season. So their next gathering will take place on Sunday May 3rd for Beltane in the south-east point just outside Santa Fe!

I called Norma on the morning of our departure.  We were flying in to Albuquerque that day and so she explained how to get to the south point, which is just outside Albuquerque, and we

The south gate of the zodiac in New Mexico is on the grounds of Santa Ana Pueblo. The Pueblos are the original indigenous people of this area and a "pueblo" is a village with a central plaza where all of their sacred ceremonies and dances take place. In fact, when we arrived there the village was closed to the public because their sacred ceremonies were taking place. Fortunately the actual location where Norma and her group visit is away from the Pueblo, down on the river, and so we were still able to go. We walked through a mystical grove of Cottonwood Trees to arrive on the banks of the Rio Grande. Here the Rio Grande is open and flat with fast-flowing water over a sandy bottom, in contrast to near the north gate where it flows through a very deep, rocky gorge with no access at all. We took off our shoes and stood barefoot in the water, connecting deeply with the land before beginning our adventure. This is the position where Jupiter would shine overhead in Cancer in the Grand Cross formation, reminding us that this point is about family and the emotions and the time now to expand our boundaries beyond boundaries and create a Global family of peace and love.

In the evening Norma, and Annie, her co-creator in the landscape, fill us in on all the details of their work as well as the eight locations around the circle. This circle is over 300 miles in circumference, but we have already made the decision to visit all 

eight points before going into the centre at the end of our journey, just in time for the Grand Cross Alignment. They are ecstatic and agree to meet up with us in the Hub on April 23rd.

They also share another important piece of the puzzle: entry to the Landscape Zodiac is through the Venus Gate, symbolized by a statue of "Our Lady of Guadalupe" outside the mission in Santa Fe. We go there the next morning to connect with the sacred feminine before truly beginning our pilgrimage. This beautiful statue of Mother Mary is surrounded by a Mandorla or Vesica Pisces which is clearly the Portal or entry point, and her presence is deeply moving.  We sit in prayer with her, asking for her guidance and companionship as we continue on our way.  

Another astonishing development was that, as we had been planning our trip, Zia received an invitation from Karen Chrappa (www.astructureforspirit.com) , a medicine woman trained in the same Q'ero tradition as Zia, to partake in sacred ceremony inside one of Ra Paulette's hand-carved cathedral caves.

Ra, with nothing but hand tools and a wheelbarrow, sculpts these gigantic, elaborately-detailed caves out of sandstone formations in the desert.  These caves have become quite well known through "Cavedigger," an Oscar-nominated documentary about this remarkable man and his creations. I strongly suggest watching the trailer and full documentarywww.cavediggerdocumentary.com.  It is mind blowing what this one man achieves on his own!  It is an honour for us to attend the full-day ceremony with Karen 

in one of Ra's underground Temples to Mother Earth on April 19th   near Taos, the north east point.

The day before is Good Friday and as we approach the East Gate, we come across people on their own walking pilgrimage to Chimayo, a Sanctuary called the "Lourdes of the United States" because people have had miracle cures here, not through sacred water, but through sacred red soil which is offered to the people

The north gate is Ghost Ranch, where Georgia O'Keefe used to live. She is the New Mexico equivalent of our Emily Carr, and the landscape here inspired many of her paintings, with its massive red rock amphitheatre walls, changing colours from white, yellow, orange, and all shades of red to deep purple. In the grand Cross arrangement, this is the place of Pluto in Capricorn and there is a rock overlooking the ranch called Chimney Rock, which looks like the finger of God pointing straight up. This is where deep transformation through the shadow is available to us.

April 21st is the exact Uranus/Pluto square and we felt called to take an important detour, still in the north-west direction, but beyond the zodiac wheel, to Chaco Canyon. This site is so important because it is here that the Chacoan people built all of their structures to align precisely with the Sun and Moon alignments on the equinoxes and solstices. The most significant of these ruins is Pueblo Bonito ("beautiful village

" in Spanish), in the shape of a half moon, with its main walls aligned exactly east-west for the equinox and north-south for the solstice. We were

High on the mesa above Pueblo Bonito, we were able to align with the Great North Road, an absolutely straight road built at extreme challenge, extending over miles of land, apparently going nowhere. It was believed that this was the road that led you to the afterworld when you passed from this life. On the south side of the canyon, there is a wide gap through which many of the people would arrive for sacred ceremonies at significant times and we could palpably feel the energy flowing from south to north as we did our ceremony up on the mesa, exactly in this north-south alignment. It was 1.21pm mountain time during the ceremony connecting in with Ernie and Shelley, as they synchronized their ceremony back in BC, at 12.21pm Victoria time.

The west gate, just south of Cuba, is in the badlands of New Mexico and similar to those in Alberta. As we stood and looked east towards the Caldera in the centre, we saw these amazing streams of silver light pouring down from the sky into the Caldera. They were similar to the streams of light we have seen coming through the clouds on our journeys in Victoria which we have associated with the presence of Katharine Maltwood, but these were more intense and looked like a misty, silvery set of northern lights. Here we were reminded of Mars in Libra in the Grand Cross formation; the need to find balance and harmony in our relationships, with ourselves and others.

Our final point in the south-west was just outside Jemez Springs on a side road that got narrower and narrower, until it became a one-lane road, eventually passing through two tunnels carved out of solid rock. Here we were deep in the womb of Mother

 Earth. On the other side of the tunnels, massive multi-coloured canyon walls and beautiful gentle waterfall and a small river awaited us. This was the birthing place. A place to pause within before returning to the world as a new person with a new perspective on life. Near here are a series of hot springs, some natural and some commercial, bringing Mother's healing waters to the surface in which we can soak and bathe after deep and profound experiences.

Finally, April 23rd arrives and we have arranged to meet Norma at 10am at the entrance to Valles Caldera. To our great disappointment, we find the Caldera is only open on weekends, still under winter hours. Norma and Annie arrive with two other companions to join us in ceremony. Undeterred, we go down the road a couple of miles to Las Conchas, a beautiful trail along a gently rolling stream and powerful guardian rocks still inside the Caldera. We find a beautiful secluded spot and open sacred space, drum, rattle, tone, and bring ourselves into alignment with the Grand Cross. The original intention on circling the wheel and acknowledging each point was in the spirit of friendship, freedom, and love and this is exactly what it feels like as we join together in ceremony with our sisters from Santa Fe!

Zia feels strongly that we still need to go into the centre of the Caldera and so we stay close by until the Preserve opens 9am on Friday April 25th. We drive down into Valle Gra

nde, a massive pale yellow grassy valley, right in the heart of the Caldera. There are two walks we can go on from the Visitor Centre. One is out into the centre of the Valley to Valle Grande Pond, and the other to circumnavigate Cerro La Jara, a small yet powerful lava dome eruption which was once an "island" amidst the flooding waters of Valles Grande. We know we need to do both, linking them together, which reminds us of our Libra Swan Lake/Christmas Hill journey in Victoria. Dozens of prairie dogs are chattering as we do our ceremony down by the edge of the pond, a strong wind howling across the valley from the south-west. As we walk back towards La Jara, we both feel this warm glow coming from the inside out and Zia reminds me that Caldera means "cauldron" in English and there is no doubt that we are in the cauldron of transformation. I am also mindful of the fact that our entire Landscape Zodiac in Victoria would easily fit inside the hub of the Valles Caldera! It feels like an energy-sourcing place similar to Rithet's Bog, where much of it cannot be accessed - but on a massively different scale.  

We feel during the ceremony that we are still not quite complete and need to return to Our Lady of Guadalupe in Santa Fe to express our gratitude before exiting the Venus Gate and bringing everything to completion. When we arrive, Our Lady seems different - even more serene than before, and quietly smiling! We make our way back to Albuquerque and our journey home to see what awaits us next on this humbling, sacred, and ever-unfolding journey.