To get to our most up to date info go to our blog site at: www.oursacredjourney.blogspot.com
or check our web site at: www.gabriel-icasiana.com, the site has been beautifully updated by Amrita, and has many pictures from the journey.
Stonehenge – Magic in the Stones
We made special arrangements to see Stonehenge and get into the circle and touch the stones. Most people are not allowed to go up close to the stones; they are restricted to a path that is a distance from the megalithic, ancient stone circle. By special arrangement, before and after regular tourist hours, and for more money, one can go close to the stones. Our time was for 5 am till 6 am, one hour’s time only. That meant getting up at 3 am, rousing the children, and driving the 1 ½ hours to get there on time. As fate would have it, we got seriously lost on the way. We had been given instructions for a short cut through back roads. It wasn’t much of a short cut as we were lost for nearly an hour. With each wrong turn, I was trying to remind myself to surrender to the will of God. Frustration was definitely taking over though, and I was remembering that we only had one hour’s time and it was fleeting. We had left an extra half hour earlier just in case, but we had squandered that and more. When we finally got to the road we were searching for and got on our way, we soon came to a detour that took us an extra ½ hour out of our way. I couldn’t believe it. We did surrender at this point, and were going to be thankful for whatever time we had with the stones. Silently Icasiana was concerned about the more than double amount that we had paid. As it turned out, when we got there, 3 other cars had been delayed because of the detour. The guards let us stay an extra hour on top of the original 15 minutes we had left. We were fortunate because we ended up being able to stay longer than if we had gotten there on time.
After a stressful and extra long drive to get there, being at Stonehenge was magical. . We walked in silence, preparing ourselves for our entry – the sun had just begun to rise as we approached. I (Icasiana) felt a deep connection to the stones. They were pulsing with energy, ancient energy and energy from all those who have laid their hands upon them over the thousands of years of their existence. Soon after we arrived, there was a lovely choir singing their praises as a group, very fitting. I went deep into the mystery of these stones. I saw ritual and ceremony that the builders of this megalithic site had performed. The consciousness and cohesiveness of the group that was able to “lift” nearly 100 ton stones to cap the top of the standing stones, was amazing to me. I received information how ceremony was performed, slowly, deliberately with the highest intention, those in prayer would walk in and out of the stones, making 3 full revolutions around the entire sphere of stones in a clockwise motion – in and out of each individual stone. I felt extremely grateful for the glimpse I received into the ways of the ancients.
Crop Circles, First a Breakdown
Friday afternoon we heard Hamish Miller present at the Crop Circle Symposium. I had mentioned Hamish in the last email. He and his wife Ba have traveled around the world visiting and dowsing sacred sites and documenting the energy lines and energy forms present. We have been to a number of the places he spoke about; especially we were interested in what he had to say about New Zealand.
The following day we intended to go to one of the crop circles about an hour away. Just as we headed out of town with John and Claire and their family in front of us, our van broke down. This would become a continuing theme. We pulled off to a side road and John and Icasiana proceeded to figure out the problem. Gabriel being incompetent in these matters was happy to let them have their go at it – and to competently turn the key when they gave the signal. Of course, this is when it started to rain. After a bit of time, Icasiana had figured out it was a certain rubber hose that had sprung a leak causing the engine to lose compression. So she takes some chewing gum and some duct tape and fixes it. We head back to Glastonbury driving just fine. She is something else, that’s my wife. She says that I’m a lot like her dad, but this is not one of those ways. He could fix anything, and I can let someone else fix anything. We got back into town, and had a certified mechanic look at it, and they were able to make a temporary repair.
Crop Circle at Savernake Forest
The following day we made another attempt to visit a crop circle. We drove and drove before we were finally able to find the one we were looking for, but by that time John had needed to turn back for a lecture at the Crop Circle Symposium. The crop circle was near a magical forest called Savernake. We approached the circle knowing that some people had said it was a hoax, and others swore it was made by other beings or energy from the earth. This was my (Icasiana) first crop circle, real or pretend, and I was very excited. The crop circle was made in a wheat field. The grass was green when it was made several weeks ago, but as we walked through the field, it was golden colored and crackly with age. I could hear the whistling of the wind through the dried wheat and it reminded me of the movie “Field of Dreams” when spirit visited Kevin Costner’s character and said “build it and they will come” meaning the spirits of baseball greats such as “shoeless Joe” and others. As we entered one of the four spiral circles, I laid down on the wheat that had been flattened and felt the earth below me. There was a magnetic pull, similar to the energy I feel when I lay on a stone, or other sacred elements. It didn’t matter what people thought, real or hoax, it was magical for me. The lines were amazingly perfect and the circles, intricate as they were, were powerful and crafted with precision. It was real for me, and for Gabriel. Kate and her friend Bryony both felt that the crop circle was made by some entity or energy beyond us humans. In speaking with Ba she shared some wonderful wisdom with us. She said it doesn’t really matter if the design is real or fake. The fact that someone or some being, or some energy created this amazing, beautiful and art-filled design is a gift to the land and can actually change the energy of the land and the surroundings by its beauty and inspiration. That made all the sense in the world to me.
Cornwall – Reconnecting with old Friends
We arrived in Cornwall to visit with friends Hamish and Ba at their home in Lelant Downs, near Penzance. In recent years, they have been studying the earth energies of New Zealand and coming up with remarkable findings that they have chronicled in their book, “In Search of the Southern Serpent”. In their dowsing they have discovered how the earth’s energies respond to human consciousness, how the forms of the earth energies changed and responded to ceremony and prayer. This is similar to how the crystals of water are affected in a positive way by prayer as depicted in Dr. Emoto’s studies from his book, Messages from Water. If you want to learn more about their work or to order their book, please visit their web site at www.hamishmiller.co.uk. His book held particular interest for us because we had traveled to New Zealand during this journey, and it is the place we most wanted to go back to. It was very exciting to see them again and for Icasiana to meet them for the first time. They are very special people and their home is a center of people exploring the mysteries of life, as they are experts in dowsing the earth energies. What Ba and Hamish have done at their place is to show how you can create sacred space on your land. They’ve done it on many levels. They have created a stone circle composed of a sacred geometric design and they make it available to the community for a variety of gatherings and ceremonies. They’ve built it upon an earth energy place on their land and built it as the ancients did to enhance the site. This is a wonderful inspiration for us and what we would like to create in our home.
Are we going crazy or what? Strange Things Begin to Happen
Shortly after our arrival in Cornwall, bizarre things began to happen. We had been trying to get the van “sea worthy” for our journey through Europe for a while now. As much as we tried to fix things, there were more issues coming up and the same ones continued to torment us. We had had one breakdown when Icasiana had used the bubble gum and tape for repair, and we still needed to replace the temporary repair. When we tried to get the appropriate part, just a simple rubber T-junction, it was no longer made by Volkswagen. They call it obsolete, I beg to differ, we’re still driving the van and it’s not obsolete to us. Fortunately our friend John is very resourceful and after hours of searching for pieces, he rigged up something that worked as a solution. We had also been trying to rig up a leisure battery that would allow us to keep our food cold and fresh and allow us to charge our computers and things of that nature. We were also having difficulty making this work. Finally after days of trying to find a solution, we rigged up something that appeared to work, and we thought we would be ready to roll, except that the brand new battery kept shorting out. We were getting a bit discouraged, but this was just the beginning. What began happening next was one mishap after another, things falling on us, getting hurt in little ways, feeling very out of sorts, and then one day while parking the van near the beach, an unseen, low to the ground metal post, jumped up and gouged out the door. Icasiana and I looked at each other and starting laughing saying, “I surrender”. We told each other we had better find out what was going on so we could make amends and clear it before someone got hurt. We know that spirit talks first in a whisper, and gets progressively louder and more insistent when something needs to be attended to.
Peace Ceremony at Ba & Hamish’s Circle
There would be a peace ceremony at Hamish and Ba’s place that evening, so we resolved to focus on this dilemma that evening. Icasiana confessed later that she had gotten a message the day before, but she forgot to mention it. We’ll come back to that. The peace ceremony was held in their stone circle. The ceremony was quite wonderful, it was a group meditation focused on peace within and without. We sat and did a meditation together to broadcast peace out through the energy lines from the earth radiating it out through the radial lines to the world, especially Israel and Lebanon. Hamish told us there is a connection between Israel and this place here through Elijah’s cave in Haifa (a place we had visited on this journey). Getting back to the story, after the ceremony there was no mention of anything revealed about our predicament. As I carried Elijah back to the van, I slipped and he fell on his face on a stone. We were absolutely horrified. I carried him as he screamed and bled from the mouth. We weren’t laughing anymore. The whisper had gotten so loud it was frighteningly dangerous now. We were shaken because that night Elijah was not able to breast feed due to his swollen and painful lip. He cried a lot until we fed him a banana, and then he slept okay. Bananas have become his favorite food since. The next morning we didn’t go anywhere because Elijah needed to be held and we needed to lay low and come to grips with the message that has escaped us and was now inescapable.
Promises Not Fulfilled
We had made a promise to each other weeks before to bury our little baby and have a ceremony for her. We had promised ourselves to do this, and we still had not followed through. We knew we had to create a ceremony honoring her short time with us, and allowing her to be released in a good way. We realized that all of the “accidents” were happening because we had not fulfilled this promise. Finally we starting listening and made preparations for the ceremony to be carried out at Hamish and Bas’ place under their king oak tree near their house and garden. As it turned out, it was exactly 28 days since she silently left Icasiana’s body, and it was 28 years since Icasiana’s abortion as a young woman, a very strange “coincidence”.
The Burial of Rachel
The ceremony was simple and lovely, and very moving for us and our friends who witnessed and participated. We acknowledged her presence in our lives and sent her off with love and blessings into the West. Her name was Rachel, named after my mother. We prayed that if she would return again later, we would welcome her into our family, but that we would not forget her. After the ceremony Icasiana and I both felt exhausted and relieved. Later as Icasiana cooked in the van, Rachel came to her and said, “I love you and I’m leaving now.” Later that evening we held another ceremony, our weekly Shabbat celebration, and we called her in along with our departed ancestors. It felt good to call her in by name.
When we are out of alignment or out of integrity with our promises to ourselves, we may live a bit of hell until we can make it right. We feel very thankful that Elijah was able to heal so quickly and that no one else was seriously hurt. It was tough medicine, but we feel that it is complete now and we are clear. After the ceremony for Rachel, all the hurtful and strange things stopped happening immediately. It was a relief. We really aren’t crazy, well maybe a little bit. But who doesn’t think they might be a bit crazy at times. But we had learned a big lesson about the spirit world, keeping commitments, and being in integrity.
We also realized there was a connection with Kayumari. Kayumari is our center for sacred studies, our spiritual home, and the place where Elijah’s placenta is buried under an olive tree. We learned about performing ceremony there. Icasiana would say to me, “I wondered why they would be so meticulous about the way they did things, and keep going back when something wasn’t done right. If they made a mistake they would take the time to burn cedar to clear it. It seemed to take so much extra time and at times it was frustrating.” Now it all made sense. By being impeccable in this way, they were teaching us how to protect ourselves and keep the space sacred.
Reflections of our Time in England
I (Icasiana) was sitting on a public toilet (Loo) in Penzance England and I happened upon a certificate that was hanging from the wall. It was a certificate of the “Loo of the Year” which was awarded to this public toilet by the British Toilet Association (BTA). I laughed to myself as I remembered all the marketing awards one can receive for a job well done – these must be interesting meetings for the BTA to discuss the contending toilets! Speaking of toilets, it reminded me of one in Glastonbury. It was an automatic toilet system. All stainless steel, self cleaning and it spoke to you when you went to the bathroom. It was actually quite scary as I was sitting on the toilet; a warning alarm went off and said that I had 10 seconds to vacate the toilet. I didn’t know what to expect. Was the toilet going to eject me off the seat? Would the water automatically turn on for me to wash my hands and then the air to blow them dry before I was ready? Would the door unlock and open up for the next person to use? All I know is that I completed my bathroom break within the 10 seconds and left in a hurry. I have not been back to these ultra modern loos since! Okay, enough bathroom talk let’s get back to my impressions.
We are Watching You
Some of the things I observed that remind us to fear the government are the CCTV (Closed Circuit TV) cameras everywhere. In shops, in stores, on the street, I would sometimes look up out of nowhere and see a camera and a sign “These cameras are protecting you and our staff.” Perpetrating fear where ever they are placed, I say. I am reading the book “Conversations with God” and Neale Walsch is having a conversation with God who is giving him insight into the spiritual laws. “The first law is that you be, do, and have whatever you can imagine. The Second Law is that you attract what you fear.” This reflects the spiritual law that fear attracts like energy. This spiritual law rang true for me in England. Maybe this is why the kids seem to be in such a heightened state of rebellion. From feeling so utterly controlled they act out. They have lost their moral compass since “big brother” will do most of the thinking for them. Many times we have seen kids talking trash, body piercing and tattoos all over their body (yes, we’ve seen this in America as well) and we have heard stories of how 11 and 12 year olds are having sex and drinking heavily. This, too, we’ve heard of in the States, but not to the degree we have seen in England. Kate and Matt were so blown away by how young some of these people are, walking the streets and looking for drugs or sex. Kate mentioned to me how she felt so much younger at 13 than the kids she had met or observed on the street. I hugged her and held her tight to let her know how glad I was that she didn’t have to make grown up decisions at such a young age.
Big Brother Cameras Instead of the Police
One of the other areas that I found big brother watching is on the roads, country roads, freeways and highways; they are filled with speed cameras. The locals have become experts in slowing down around certain bends, or avoiding certain streets, or even going as far as changing the plates on their cars to avoid the massive fines and punishment inflicted upon them because of these robotic cameras. At least if there are police officers, you can try to “reason” with them if you are pulled over. Here, the camera takes a picture of your car, focused on your license tags, and even if you are going 1 mile per hour over the speed limit you will receive a hefty fine (ticket) in the mail. The problem is that if you receive one ticket (which is not difficult to achieve) that accounts for three points if you receive 12 points in one year, you lose your license for 6 months to one year. This is why some people resort to switching their license tags to avoid getting caught.
What I have seen and read between the lines of this country is a whole lot of control and choking off of spirit. Seeing the control in England so blatant reminded me of how insidious control the United States has over their citizens as well. I have mentioned to Gabriel several times how it baffles me that a country that is so filled with sacred sites and energy ley lines (Michael-Mary-Apollo-Athena and countless other ones less known) can be so filled with people “just towing the line.” I guess if we look closer to our country, outside of our home town Santa Cruz, we would probably find the same sort of control that debilitates the people.
Intolerance – a Bi-product of Control?
Is it all the control and the surveillance that causes people to lash out in ways that are harmful and destructive? Gabriel and I have heard many times the British people say “stiff upper lip” meaning keeping everything under control and not showing your emotions. As we have learned through the healing work and Trauma Release Exercises that this “stiff upper lip” can become very destructive in one’s body. Not being able to release the trauma or difficulties of life in a healthy and constructive way can lead to bandaging your feelings through the use of alcohol, drugs, food, and sex and whatever else becomes a vice or a crutch. We have also experienced many instances of intolerance both of one’s self and of us as well. We have been in stores where a simple thing as our credit card not being able to go through because of the different systems used. This has caused undo stress on the clerk as they pour out profuse apologies and imploring our forgiveness. For us, it’s just a slight inconvenience, for many of them; it is their lack of tolerance of making a mistake. We have also experienced the incessant honking if we have made a mistake driving, this happens often as we are driving a rental car with the steering wheel on the right, the stick shift on the left and driving on the “wrong” side of the road. The greatest example of intolerance came when we were waiting in line to board our car on the ferry to cross from England to France. The clerk assisting us looked at our passports and saw we didn’t have visas for France. I explained to her that we wouldn’t need them, that we have been to many countries that only required us to check in on arrival and obtain a visa. She finally called immigration as I requested and found that indeed we could go across without a visa. In the meantime, a man from the car behind us came up and started yelling and shaking his finger at Gabriel. “It’s because of YOU that we have to switch lanes to go forward. You are making us late…” The man grumbled and got back in his car and moved to the other side of the check-in area. We said a prayer for him and were not looking forward to being on a ferry with him. Gabriel also told me the story of ordering fish and chips at a local eatery and when the waitress made a mistake in the order, when Gabriel asked for what he had ordered, she realized her mistake and got so upset and embarrassed; she walked out, not to return. Isn’t that sad? Is there is no allowance for mistakes?
Hedgerows Closing In
My experiences in driving have only been limited to the rental car for the past 8 days while the van has been in the shop. One of the things I find very difficult is to maneuver around the curves and bends while driving through hedgerows the tall bushes that line nearly all farms and roads. At first I thought, or how lovely to have such greenery around you, but then it began to feel compressed. I couldn’t see past the hedges, it was difficult to see what was coming, or what was on either side past the green hedge. This too felt oppressive and controlling, such is the state of maintaining boundaries in such a blatant way. The saving grace for me about England besides the magical stone circles and vibrating ley lines has been the amazing people we have met and the friendships we have made. This makes our trip even more sacred.
I fell in love with Ba and Hamish the moment I met them. They have the energy and vitality of young children at their ages of 73 and 79 (I hope they don’t mind me mentioning this!) The stories and work that they do to help our planet is stellar. I feel so honored that we had the opportunity to spend time with them and to learn about the work they have done throughout the world. Another gift they shared with us was the gift of a family that has been camping on their land for the past few weeks, the Durr Family.
Kristina, Eugene and their three children, Hugo, Julia and Alex (who goes by the name “Ziggy”) are a wonderful family who live in a nearby town, Carbis Bay. They are from Sweden originally but have lived in England for the past 10 years. I feel very connected to Kristina and her children. The kids have had the pleasure of spending time together at their campsite. Kristina is an amazing Pilates’ instructor and massage therapist/healer. Gabriel and I had the opportunity to participate in one of her classes and it was quite amazing. We both felt empowered by connecting to our core and breathing through our bodies from head to toe. It was a lifesaver to have exercised in this way after a very stressful day. We hope to hook up with them again when we return to England in December before we leave back to the States, or possibly, they will come to visit us in California.
“Chance” Meeting Days Before we Left England
Another family that we met was Sally and Sergio and their beautiful daughter Ariana. We are going to have “tea” (dinner) at their home today, and look forward to talking to them about their spiritual journey. Sergio is from Peru and he will take his family to Machu Picchu, a sacred site in Peru, and I wanted Gabriel to speak to them of another site he visited in Peru many years ago called Saqsayhuaman. Well, at this writing, we had an amazing visit with these very special people. During our dinner, we had an illuminating conversation about our individual and collective spiritual journey. As part of the discussion, Sally revealed how much pain and suffering she had during the pregnancy with Ariana and the strain that she felt from her marriage. In addition, she had several “accidents” that occurred and there were odd and irritating things that were going wrong in the beautiful home that they lived in. As the conversation deepened, spirit showed us that one of the reasons for our meeting Sally and Sergio was to help guide them to make the decision to bury the placenta of the child Ariana which had been hidden away in the back of the freezer for nearly nine years. All these “ungrounded” events were somehow linked to their unmet promise to ground Ariana’s placenta into mother earth and plant a tree over it. Sergio’s Native Peruvian custom, similar to the Native American custom, was never fulfilled.
Facing the Darkness – Healing the Pain
Sally asked that I write this story as a means to assist others who may be struggling, or in need of this information. She told me that she couldn’t face looking at the placenta. It was too painful a reminder of the trauma and suffering she endured during the pregnancy and delivery. Every time she’d clean the freezer, she’d move it further to the back until it was “out of sight, out of mind.” Sally is quite clairvoyant but had difficulty seeing what was happening in her family as she too (as I did with my abortion) tried to “bury” the past trauma and pretend that it didn’t exist instead of facing it and healing through the process.
We were able to help facilitate for them the planting of the placenta of their daughter Ariana. As we looked back, it was ironically a similar situation that we had gone through ourselves so recently. Until we had fulfilled our commitment to bury our daughter in a ceremony as written above, we were having difficulties and hurtful things happening to us. They were going through a similar situation, experiencing many difficulties and mishaps over many years because they had not followed through on their commitment. They had felt held back and not able to root for many years. When we told them our story it helped them to see the parallel in their life and make the choice to follow through and bury Ariana’s placenta. It was a blessed ceremony, very emotional for all, especially Sally, and very empowering. We were so grateful to be catalysts for them and to share in the completion of their promise.
John and Claire and their kids Bryony and Callum left our campsite yesterday to continue their journey through Cornwell and beyond. We had spent several weeks camping with them and visiting sites together. Claire is near her term to give birth and she will be able to have her family and close friends with her on this joyous event. We hope to meet up with them again, possibly in France or Italy or wherever spirit guides us next.
All in all, I have loved being in England, seeing the amazing countryside, the beautiful lush fields, the craggy rocks at the seashore and the beautiful shades of blue and green water that fill the ocean. We’ve also enjoyed camping out since we’ve been in Cornwall. My only complaint is not being at a campsite with showers, we’ve had to steal them whenever we can by sneaking around to other campsites. I hope we haven’t broken any laws. We did leave money (the last two times). The friends we have met have been wonderful to us, and we are truly grateful that we came here. I marvel at how spirit works and how our stay in England that was intended to be 3 weeks was extended to 8 weeks so we could meet and spend the time necessary with Kristina and Sally’s family for some healings to occur. It is time to move on to France for more experiences, for other sacred sites, for our continued in-depth study of self and the surroundings that connect us.
Before we left Cornwall we finally found someone who was able to do the engine repair work that the van really needed. We especially wanted to be able to drive through the mountains without the worry of the engine blowing up. The engine is now running beautifully and it seems all is in alignment. We’re ready now and excited to continue our journey through France. We are planning to go first to the ancient stone megaliths of Carnac, then to the Pyrenees Mountains, to ancient caves, to Lourdes, to some of the mystical and sacred sites where the earth energy lines of Athena and Apollo cross through France as mapped out by Hamish. More to come!
The Eden Project – a Gift to Humanity
Just one more thing before we send you this blog. The day before we left England we were able to visit the Eden Project. This place is extraordinary and so needed in these times. The place is packed with people, like Disneyland or some kind of exciting carnival, but instead it is an educational charity dedicated to the purpose of teaching us how to stop the destructive environmental course we are on as a world culture. There is one building that tells the story of how our lifestyle choices are using and abusing finite resources and leading to global warming and environmental destruction. There are other buildings that show how we can change course and create a sustainable future. There are huge Bio-domes constructed with different environments of the world such as a humid rain forest, a dry chaparral, and a balmy Mediterranean – all for the purpose of showing how ecosystems develop and thrive and how they can be managed in a sustainable way. What an inspiration this place is – Showing mankind there is hope and demonstrating how we can reverse the deadly course we’re on. It will take each one of us doing our part to create a sustainable world that we can pass on to the next seven generations.
Au Revoir dear family and friends until we visit you from France!
