In my travels, I have been all over the U.S. As a psychic, I pick up on the energy vibrations of any place where I spend more than a few minutes. This morning, I was contemplating our last trip cross-country—from Eugene, Oregon to Moline, Illinois. The first leg of the journey was to travel north to Portland, then up the amazingly scenic Columbia River Valley to a friend’s house in The Dalles. There was amazing energy along Columbia River Gorge—powerful, sacred. But beyond The Dalles—past the Maryhill Stonehenge—something went awry.
I was very quickly exhausted, irritable, feeling miserable as we traveled east on Interstate 84. The drive across the remainder of Oregon and then northeast across Washington, then east on I-90 all seemed like too much to bear. Granted, I was worried about the trip, about the mechanical soundness of our Ford Explorer, about the unexpected things that can happen, but this seemed like more than simple worry.
By the time we got to Idaho and the western side of the Rockies, things seemed much better as the energy became vibrant and lively again.
But this and all my other travel experiences made me wonder if there was a map of the U.S. that showed the energetic imprints of various parts of the country. The best I could find was a map of famous vortices, UFO hotspots, and haunted places.
And I realized that few people can read the energy of the land the way I believe I can. Someday perhaps I can drive the nation and map what I feel in various places.
I’ve been to Sedona many times—the land of the vortexes. I was a psychic at the Harmonic Convergence there in 1988 with Jose Arguelles. I’ve seen stuff in the sky there and across Arizona, I’ve been lost in a negative vortex around Back of Beyond. I’ve felt the metaphysical midway that Sedona had become—like the midway at a state fair, only at an energetic level. Sedona has attracted many different types of energy, some healing, some chaotic and they are all vying for psychic or spiritual attention.
But famous places like Sedona are not the only places of power, or of vortex energies. There are many, many others. Most are smaller, more localized, but nevertheless very powerful. Ojai, California, for example. Relatively unsung, but very peaceful and powerful.
Mount Shasta, like Sedona has been much ballyhooed. The energy there is stately, majestic, ancient and has a masculine feel to it. But it seems to be shutting down, or perhaps just ebbing, like a tide. Maybe they haven’t written enough books about it.
Oregon itself, I believe, has many little-known places of power. In my own backyard, there is a maple tree that grows twisted into and onto itself in a wild latticework of energetic patterns. It is a vortex, albeit a small one, but it is one that is feminine and healing. I have had many a powerful ceremony and spiritual journey in its shadow, especially during full moons, when it seems to call to me to perform ritual.
As you develop your own magical abilities and spiritual sensitivities, take the time to feel the land, the place where you are at the moment. Look at the trees and plants around you. Do they seem to dance in a spiral? Are some of them twisted in an unusual way? This is often an indication of an energy vortex.
A vortex can be a few feet across or many miles. Places like Sedona cover many square miles of magical strangeness. But you don’t have to travel to famous places to find a place of power. Look nearby, in woods, at the foot of a mountain or hill, along a river or stream. Explore locally, feeling the land as you go. Listen to your inner voice and let your feet (or your car, if you are driving) carry you in a very intuitive way to a local place of power.
Places of power and vortexes exist everywhere—some places are masculine, some feminine, some a mixture of the two. Some are places of positive, healing energy; others create portals for darker or more malevolent spirits.
Native peoples all over the world were aware of places where people should not go—forbidden zones, if you will. They lived in close contact with the natural world around them and knew the varieties of energies that exist in the land itself. If you have a bad feeling somewhere, or find yourself being angry, irritable, depressed, or otherwise feeling unhappy in a particular location, it may be that you are in or near a dark portal of some sort. When this happens, surround yourself in Light and move away from it, unless you receive deep guidance to do otherwise.
Vortices occur naturally, like clefts in the rocks, or caves. Others can be created by human activity through magical means, or even habitual practices of healing or harming.
When you find your own local place of power, respect it. Offer tobacco or sage as a thank you to the spirits. Use it gently to reconnect with the greater spiritual world through meditation or simple contemplation. Ask your guides and guardians to connect with you there.
And as you travel, pay attention to little cues and clues. What emotions are invoked by various places? What patterns of life and growth do you see on the land? Listen with your inner ear and see with your inner eye and feel with your inmost heart and you, too, can find the vortexes and power places in the landscape.