Several months passed and my spiritual life was quiet. Physically I have to allow the experience of encountering, seeing, communicating with the true world in which we live to reverberate through my body and mind. If I’m not careful, I think I know I could lose my balance and my ability to have a normal everyday life. Physically the intensive moments in the further deeper life can take a toll. The experience can feel like living life too fast burning energy. Over the years, as I learned to pace myself and not worry about the ebb and flow of spiritual experience, I have been able to stand in the further deeper for longer periods of time. Mentally I know from my experience I have to make sure that I don’t go into overdrive allowing my mind to be consumed by desire, to explode with the sense of power foolishly believing that I can hold onto that which is beyond me. History is filled with gifted spiritual people who lost their bearing in the present physical world and with it lost control of their rationale mind. I have looked off into that abyss, but the people who love me on earth and in heaven have somehow kept me grounded.
Anyway, I was out walking my dog at the end of February, a mild day after a brutal month of bitter winter, going to the empty school at the end of my block. The school was closed several years ago because studies determined it wasn’t safe enough to withstand an earthquake. The building is a sad presence in the city, but it sits on the edge of the gulch and looks out across to Mt. Helena with the downtown Helena nestled in between. I remember standing on this same playground as a kid visiting from Butte and feeling a deep intense connection with the place. I know now it was a premonition of the city into which I would eventually become deeply involved. As I stood there with my dog sniffing the grounds, I had that same sense of seeing this city, this place ore intensely. I looked up to north at a mountain formation called the Sleeping Giant and saw a figure of light departing from the giant nose and moving with force to stand on Mt Helena.
“Hello,” I said, “beautiful February day.”
The light seemed to be amused by my casual acceptance of it presence.” Greetings to you, Guardian. I’ve come to introduce myself. I am the angel of the mountains.’
As the angel spoke, I could feel the angel reach down into the depths around him, holding onto the spinning globe right from the center of the earth. I sensed all the strata and layers that formed the mountains around Mt. Helena with their hidden riches, with the remnants of life across the millennium covering the time since these mountains were formed. Instead of being overwhelmed, I felt grounded more deeply than I have ever been.
“I have been sent to offer you aid,” the angel said.
“Great,” I said, “I’m not sure what aid I need right now unless you have access to some money.”
Asking for money has become my constant discussion with spiritual entities. They usually ask a great deal, but they don’t think too often about how much it costs. I think of it as my little joke and reminder that when they offer help, money is always an option in what we call the “real world.” Spiritual entities, however, love to push back.
As I stood there on the edge of gulch one the edge of the Continental Divide, the angel said, “I am the place on which you stand, I am your mining claim, I hold your mineral rights, I enrich all that you love.”
“Of course,” I smiled, “I am lucky to know you and have your help. Tell me, what is coming.”
I felt light reach out and touch me like hands on both sides of my head. My head filled with knowledge, and I saw the coming onslaught from humans in many forms who would attempt to possess this place with their own iron certainty, with their righteous conviction that they knew the truth, with a dark intensity that they could push all aside to accomplish their will. They were not one enemy, they were many with one goal to remake the city and the valley before into their own likeness.
I asked, “What else is new. Hasn’t this always been the case throughout history?”
The angel’s light acknowledged that standing against the human passion to possess was always the work of those chosen by God to protect the earth. The light touched me again and I saw with concerning specificity that the place I loved was becoming a new arena in this ancient struggle. I must be prepared to deal with the new challenges that were coming. My mind flashed with faces and dates and times and places, with images of the threating force moving toward the mountain. One face stood out, one moment the face of a beautiful man, another moment a stunning woman holding a flag that this entity wished to plant deeply into Mt. Helena. The unknown face who looked at me and knew with anger that I would resist his claim to this place. I looked back acknowledging the challenge before the vision faded.
The angel said, “As I have told other prophets, I will bring the mountains together to crush those you resist if you will allow.”
“Thanks for the offer,” I responded, “But, like Mohammed, I’d prefer an answer where we win the children and grandchildren of these threats over to a creative life taking in all, making all one.”
“Good answer,” the angel said and the light began to cover the top of Mt. Helena settling in for the duration. What a beautiful light. “You know where to find me.”
“I couldn’t ask for more,” I said as I raised my right hand in a high five with the arm of light above me disappearing back into the North Hills.