Equinox Archeoastronomy
Stone Building at the Shamanic Astrology Mystery School in San Xavier, Arizona.
Today (Sep 22, 2008) was full of great joy in connecting the “As Above So Below” onto the land that has been set up as an experiential exploration of dreaming, designing, and constructing astronomical key alignments to the landscape. Synchronicity, sweat, and of course my Virgo Moon played a major role in today’s magical dance of light and shadow.
I really got excited about archeoastronomy when I first went to Fishlake Valley, Nevada, a site that Daniel Giamario, our school founder, discovered years ago. I’ll never forget finding an unnaturally smooth stone that looked like it had been sat on for hundreds of years. By siting on it and lining up two large stones with a notch that was cut out, with the mountain on the far horizon, I was able to predict where the sunrise would occur on the equinox. Testing out my theory the next morning proved my hunch correct and sealed my passion around this ancient science.
On the morning of the September Equinox 2008, after a night dreaming about stone circles in Scotland, our hostess Gael Chilson, and care taker of this sacred land woke me up before sunrise.. Daniel Skiles a new apprentice to our 
mystery school, joined us on our expedition to a beautiful stone circle Gael has been working on since 1990. The sky and and earth began to glow more orange yellow with each step on our 15 minute hike up to the spot. We arrived at 6 am and I found a comfortable seat that allowed my line of sight to line up with where it appeared the Sun would greet us.
Daniel Skiles helped me to place two stones creating a “no brainer” user friendly site. Lining up the these rocks with the far horizon, was like looking down the site line of a rifle. The first rays of the Equinox Sun arrived at 6:19. With a few minor adjustments our first Equinox marker was successfully in place.
This however, was only the beginning of our adventure. Months earlier I noticed an intriguing cave like structure near Gael’s medicine wheel. I wondered if the Sun would illuminate it on the equinox, much like lighting up the Holy of Holies in the Egyptian temples I have visited. The stone builders of antiquity built their temples to mark the Solstices and/or the Equinoxes. This allowed the High Priests and Priestess to identify the timing for their annual ceremonial events and when to plant the corn or reap the harvest. I have had the good fortune to visit many sacred stone circle sites around the world and witness their magic. From the Mayan temples of Palenque to the Egyptian Pyramids, to the Long Barrows and Giant Stone circle of Wiltshire, England. These places have only inspired me further and set my imagination in high gear to construct my own honoring of these Earth mysteries.
My guess that the inside of this half cave would light up was looking good, so I got busy building a structure that would mimic the triangular cave. I built a pyramid of stones with a smaller triangular hole in side it’s middle; a perfect fractal of itself designed to honor the fractal matrix of the Universe and the “As Above So Below” principle.
It was about an hour after sunrise that the pyramid with the hole cast a shadow, now inside the larger concave pyramidal cave, again symbolizing the fractal nature of life. The small triangle hole beamed its triangular light inside the cave. Naturally I was beaming too, with my own inner light and delight at our success in working with the mysteries.
The moment the whole illuminated structure locked into place I had an idea to erect another pyramid stone in front of the first one. This had the effect of casting a 
shadow exactly on a triangular rock in the first pyramid structure. The effect was magical and felt as if it was a key that was unlocking the sacred timing and mystery of the site.
About 10 minutes, later as the shadows shifted and I moved to the side, I noticed the triangular beam of light started turning into an eye of a cat. To our amazement we found ourselves experiencing a synchronicity that none of us planned for, or could have ever imagined.
The triangular shaped hole casting the beam of light inside the pyramid turned into an actual “eye” inside the pyramid. Then we noticed it looked like a the head of some ancient mythical creature with first cat and then rabbit like features. Our sense of excitement and wonder grew and I found myself going into deep gratitude for the great mystery that was unfolding around us.
This is only the beginning of this work on the land. I am sure there will be many more experiences like this. So if like me your Virgo Moon, or any other part of you that loves the sacred connection between land and sky, is resonating with this kind of experience, I Iook forward to seeing you at the Shamanic Astrology Mystery School and sharing in the fun
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