Prayers of Stone

     Not long ago,  John and I took a couple out of town friends to Crescent Moon Ranch, on the banks of Oak Creek and at the foot of Cathedral Rock--a famous vortex site, and a photographer's dream.   Our friends are fine  photographers, and the pictures on this blog were taken by them.  

     Near the end of the trail through this powerful and beautiful area is a place called "Buddha Beach."  It is filled with the beautiful stone pillars you see in these pictures, and people often come here to sit and meditate in this awesome place.  The stone pillars are created by anonymous folks in a deeply devotional spirit to honor the sacred feeling and spirit of this "nature temple."   

     Seeing these stone pillars reminded me of the stone pillar erected at the Jordan River by the people of Israel after they crossed over it into the Promised Land, as told in the book of Joshua in the Old Testament/Hebrew Scriptures.  The pillars also remind me of the story in Genesis of Jacob's flight to Haran after cheating his brother Esau of the birthright.  He slept on a stone and dreamed of angels going up and down a stairway to/from heaven.  Upon waking next morning he built a pillar of stones and exclaimed "God was in this place, and I knew it not" and he called the place Beth-el  meaning "House of God."   

       This beautiful area certainly fits this description.  And a song comes to mind as I gaze at the stone pillars on this sunny winter afternoon:  Its a set of verses from the old hymn "Nearer My God to Thee" and they go like this:

     "Though like the wanderer, the sun gone down; 

       Darkness be over me, my rest a stone; 

       Yet in my dreams I'd be, nearer my God to Thee. Nearer my God to Thee, nearer to Thee.

       There let the way appear steps unto heaven,

        All that Thou sendest me in mercy given:

        Angels to beckon me nearer my God to Thee.....

        Then with my waking thoughts bright with Thy praise,

         Out of my stony griefs Beth-el I'll raise; 

         So by my woes to be nearer my God to Thee.   Nearer my God to Thee, nearer to Thee."

Here, once again, I find myself immersed in an ancient sacred practice...one that is universal...

showing one's reverence for the sacredness of a place by the innate desire to mark it somehow, and often, a pillar of stones is just the thing.   

All around Sedona,  and a few other places too, including in Michigan,  there are little pillars of stone I have built with devotion and  with the same inspiration and intention as countless others before me.  You might want to try it too!