In the view of Native Traditions, there are special places on the Earth which contain and transmit special, sacred energies for empowerment, or for healing, or for spiritual vision. All parts of the Land are considered sacred, but these special sites are known to have a greater power than most other places. These are known as power sites, or sacred places for healing and awakening.
There are four basic kinds of special sacred areas, depending on the particular quality of energy. The first kind is for self-empowerment, the second for self-healing, the third for spiritual vision, and the fourth kind for spiritual rituals and group celebrations. So, each sacred place may have its special purpose and unique energies. Of course many places have a mixture of these energies, so there are many sacred places where all four energies are strong and can be received or used.
Sacred places can be found anywhere in Nature, though mostly found on mountains, hills, rock outcroppings, around rivers and lakes, and in intimate groves of trees. It is also possible to intentionally make a sacred power site by enhancing and bringing forth the greater potentials of sacred energies locked within any area of the Mother Earth. This can be done by building sacred architecture, love-gardens, special totem structures or alters for prayer, or by gathering in that area for group celebration or sacred ritual. These ways can also enhance an existing power site, although most sacred sites should be left alone and unaltered, because it is also possible to partly destroy or hurt an existing sacred site.
We need to remember that these sacred sites are not just places of energy but are actual spirits of Nature, who are conscious and sensitive. The mountain, the grove, or whatever the place, is the manifesting location and body of a particular spirit of the land. So when we enter a sacred place we are entering the body and consciousness of a loving spirit of Nature, who is part of the Mother Earth. We are sitting or standing in this spirit of nature.
The best approach to sacred sites is a humble respect, and it is really more important to respectively receive what is already there, rather than arrogantly believe that the site somehow needs your special energy or help. Remember that you need the sacred site more than the sacred site needs you. So the right attitude is to be in the receptive mode, be humble, and just receive what is given.
What you can give back is your respect, your recognition and gratitude. That’s all you really need to give or do. You can give an offering to the land, or make a ritual of prayer and gratitude. And of course you can clean up any trash left around the area. But mostly what you should give is your respect for what was there long before you arrived, and just be openly receptive to the special gifts and sacred energies of this particular place. You can send or expand your love to these places, and this does help awaken their energies, but if you are not first open to receiving what is being given, then you are not respecting and recognizing the sacred power already there.
But it is an unfortunate fact that many sacred places of this Earth have been abused and disrespected. So a kind of healing needs to take place at these sites. We can first help in this healing and renewal of sacredness by entering the site with humble respect and giving our love and sharing our prayers, chants and celebration. The spirit of the land will respond to this love and celebration, and the sacred energies will once again be awakened and flow within the site and all around it.
The essential attitude in this healing work is one’s own renewed respect and receptivity to the special sacredness and spiritual quality of this land, and to the sacredness of Mother Earth as She manifests here at this site. The healing occurs through our re-cognition and our re-connection with the sacred spirit of the land. So we can give a higher quality of love and energy to sacred places, but it is a giving of our receptive attention and sensitivity, a gift of our recognition and humble receptivity, and reverence for the Divine manifesting through Nature.
So, our ability to open our sensitivity and mind and receive from the special energies of a sacred place is the fundamental way to re-awaken and restore the power of those sacred sites. Many of these sacred places are sleeping and inactive, primarily because so few people recognize and consciously receive from this sacredness. Unless there is an open receptivity for the spiritual power and natural energies to flow through, these sacred places will remain sleeping and inactive.
For their healing and restoration, the first step is recognition and the next step is conscious receptivity, and then there is gratefulness, which is the love energy given back to them. We can send or expand our love to these places, and this does help awaken their energies, but if we are not open to receiving then we are not respecting what they have to offer. So you pay your respect by opening up in trust and receiving what is given. Give by giving respect and opening up in trust to receive what is given.
Recognize these places as special springs of good energy for the planet and all relations, and then actually receive that good energy, for your own spiritual well-being and unity with the land. Be in a purely receptive consciousness. As you consciously receive and allow these energies and spirits of Nature to come into you, you become as a receptive channel for this healing to move into the consciousness and heart of all humanity and through the whole Circle of Life.
First, in recognition and respect, open up the channel of receptivity, for nothing can be given without first a receptive space. That is the natural law. We can create a line or channel for the energy flow, by marking something where we are or where we live, which calls forth the distinct energy from that particular sacred place. One should find some object or symbol which represents that place or that energy, and then mark it or place it on the land where you want it to be received. This then becomes the receptive conductor or a kind of magnet for that energy to come in.
This is how shamans and geomancers use the natural law of resonance and attraction to bring in particular energies from far away. They use a selected tool or place a certain magical object or symbol on the ground, which resonates with a greater power source and receives that power. This power received may come from a particular power place, or it may come from one of the Animal Powers or from one of the four Elements or from one of the Winds of Great Spirit or maybe from Radiant Sun Power or Dreaming Moon Power.
All shamanic and medicine work is to do with energies. All things have energy. In essence, all things are energy. Our feelings and our recognition are energies as well. The greater harmony of the planet will come about as more and more people give of their recognition and gratitude, and consciously receive the good medicine energies of Nature, and then circulate these to areas and lives in need of the good energies.
If we have the opportunity to spend time at a sacred place or at a power place, we can practice the attitude of respect and conscious recognition of the spiritual presence and the sacred power energies of that place. In respect, we open our feelings, our mind and our body senses to this Presence and the good energies it gives. We become simply receptive and allowing of the energies to come forth. The greater is our conscious recognition and faithful acceptance of this, the greater is the releasing of medicine energy from the Presence, into our self and into world around. The spiritual presence of the place awakens and shares its particular qualities of energy, as we give recognition and open the receptive channels. This is a kind of spiritual work we can do, for the whole planet and ourselves as well. It helps to bring forth and circulate sacred energies.
This work is most potent when a group of three or more practice this conscious recognition and receptivity. When there is group agreement, in the intention and feelings of group prayer and group service, there is a greater possibility for the emergence of spiritual energies. Ceremony and ritual will also greatly increase the potency of these emerging energies. First, create a circle around the recognized center of the place, and maybe establish a Medicine Wheel, and call upon the Four Winds of Spirit, and call upon the attention and energies of Father Sky and Mother Earth.
Through prayer and ceremony, and with sincere agreement in the group, the greater powers of Spirit begin to give their recognition and attention to the group and the place, and these greater powers come into this focal point of receptivity. As our energies and attention are focused on the need for greater spiritual help, through sincere prayer and faithful receptiveness, the attention of those spiritual powers are brought into the circle or into the general area. This is called Calling on the attention of Spirit Powers, and through the asking and the receptivity, those powers are allowed to enter the receptive space. The same applies to the awakening of the Spirit Presence of the Land. Through our prayers and ceremonies, we are drawing attention from the Spirit. We are making known our sincerity of wishfulness, our faith and our receptivity.
These prayers may involve words or songs or chants, yet the essence of the prayers are communicated through feeling. Sincerity of feeling is the true language for communicating with the Spirits of Nature. Song, music, drumming and dance will carry these feelings and prayers into the Spirit world and into the world of Nature. It is also believed that song, rhythm and dance are especially effective means for communicating with Nature Beings and with the Spirit of the Place.
So we celebrate with joy and gratitude, and call attention to our sincerity of prayer. And through our receptivity, those powers and energies come forth to aid and heal us. This is what blessing the Earth is all about. We essentially give blessing by our recognition of sacredness, and by our receptivity and gratitude for all that is given. If we make offerings to the earth, we do this to show our recognition of the spiritual consciousness or presence of the land, and to show our sincerity of love and gratitude. So through prayers, offerings, and ceremony, we are calling attention to our sincerity of recognition, need and receptivity, and then the Spirits of Nature and the Presence of the Land will respond to this Calling and sincerity of feeling.
Breathe in the energies of vitality, of love and beauty. These are the great energies available from the natural world. Receive into your psyche the medicine qualities and strengths of the various animal natures, and the qualities which come from the trees and plants. Receive also the qualities which come from the mineral kingdom, from various gems and crystals and the Rock People.
Consciously receive and digest all you can, from all the good energies and qualities of Nature. Receiving in this way does not deplete the earth, but actually brings forth more energy and helps distribute that energy. The more you consciously receive and digest, the more you have to give. And the giving will be in your own particular way. The balance of natural life depends on the balance of breath, or the balance of receiving and giving. Receive all the good you can and all that you need, for your own healing and wholeness, and then breathe out or radiate all you have been given and digested.
So you can gather and accumulate sacred energies and qualities from the different lives and spirits of nature. This adds to your wholeness of spirit and connects you with the inter-related Spirit of Life. Make as many connections as you can and receive as much as you can, for all of this inter-related abundance of life is here to be shared and circulated all around. The more of this diversity of life which you can receive, understand and assimilate; the more you have to give and share with those around you. Breathe in all you can consciously receive, and breathe out all you have and all you are. Receive and give. This is the Path of Unity and wholeness.
Digestion is a matter of accepting and assimilating the different qualities of energy and impressions which one consciously received, and allowing these energies to settle and harmonize together in one’s being. There are differences in energies and different kinds of impressions, and as we are more conscious of these, our understanding of Nature and our self grows.
The Native Path is to re-connect oneself to the many powers and qualities found in the natural world. One recognizes the various forms and lives of Nature as reflections of one’s own potential wholeness. So one discovers a sacred relationship between oneself and all the various aspects of Nature. Then, there is a loving respect for all of Nature as the manifesting Qualities of Great Spirit.
The Key is to receive from the various lives and qualities of Nature, from the elements of fire, light, air, and water, and from the earth elements of mineral and rock, and from the plants and trees and all the animals, fishes and birds. And also to recognize and receive from the special qualities as found in our brothers and sisters of the human family.
From the mineral, crystal and rock spirits, you can receive energies which ground you and connect you to the physical being of Mother Earth. And each of these mineral kinds emit particular vibrations and colors of spiritual energy, each of which heals and balances different parts and aspects of the body and soul. From the plant and tree spirits you can also receive medicine energies to balance and heal the body and mind, and each of these reflect and resonate particular qualities of the soul potential. The plants, the flowers and trees also connect us with the vital and love energy of Mother Earth.
From the animal world you can receive and understand various qualities of the soul potential, as each animal kind expresses and transmits particular talents and strengths which you can learn from and take on as your own. The animal world also connects one to the ingenious intelligence of Great Spirit as born through Mother Earth. So, all the various lives and expressions of Nature are potential gifts of healing and balance, which can add to your wholeness and beauty of self-expression, which is a unique expression of the Great Spirit, the Great Mystery.