Pfunds, Austria- August 22, 2004
Last night was a most interesting night. I don't know if I can explain it all that well with words however. But when we woke up that morning, which was to be our last full day at the camp, we began some native american ritual. Something called the Circle of Life or Lifewheel or something or another. We started this process around 10am and we didn't finish until about 2am last night. Hmm.. where to begin. Well, for the most part, it was very ritualistic. The theory is too deep to get into, and the entire process will take a very long time to understand, and would probably need books and such to fully mentally adequately understand everything that happened.
However I will jump right to the the last few hours of the evening and ceremony that were the most interesting. Basically we had various rituals and ultimately went into a Sweat Lodge for a few hours. Prior to going in, we each collected to decently sized stones and a fire was placed a certain way to heat them up as well. Ultimately they went into the sweat lodge creating a sauna effect. It was also a cold night, so it made it interesting. But being completely and totally consumed by darkness in this small space (meant to resemble the womb of Mother Earth) and all the things you think about in that kind of situation. It was at times claustrophobic, at times deeply spiritual, and just stripping bare almost. The thoughts in my head were quite interesting and too much once again to go into detail here at any length. Ultimately once leaving the sweat lodge we were covered in blankets (only in shorts prior to that) and left lying around the fire to dwell more into what had just happened. Today was a really hard day to explain, and almost better to just leave in my head. It just seemed much like a dream in itself and wondering if it really existed at all. All of it lead by a somewhat eccentric charismatic man named "Dragon". Anyhow, all of us were equally astonished at this particular day.. and very bonding and thought-provoking on many levels. It was also the last full day of the 7 days out in the teepees by the river of the Native Spirit Camp. Interesting.
Before I finish with this particular 7-day experience, I would also like to add a few other things about this region and this particular place. I was right on the border of Switzerland and Austria, and apparently Italy isn't all that far away either. Apparently there is a tremendous amount of history in this valley, as throughout the Middle Ages, it was the only way to get across this area of the Alps. So countless upon countless soldiers from every great European thing that ever went through this area went through this area. Not far away from the camp, there were also a bridge and many ancient relics from past civilizations and such. We were told it was a very ghosty place. A lot of spirits and spiritual energy. One of the guides also told us that famous "legend of sleepy hollow" or "the headless horseman" also took place here. Although that could have been lost in the German translation, as I assumed that was a British story of some sort. But the Middle Ages and Crusades, and Romans and even Napolean and countless others went through here and I found all of that quite interesting. I will definetely research more into that someday.
Next Journal Entry in Austria:
August 23, 2004
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