Off A Cliff

Day 11: Moundville Archeological Site 4/19/10

Spent last night at one of the nicest rest stops I’ve ever seen, just west of Tuscaloosa, AL. on I-20. They even had 24 hours security there. Had a fairly restful night, though I wish I could have slept in more. In the morning, I drove down to the Moundville site and arrived by 8:30 a.m., even before they opened. After viewing the film, I drove around the site, getting a feel for it. I was so tired and in pain, I felt like I was just going through the motions. I found myself feeling a bit discouraged, unworthy — all those crazy emotions that sneak up on your in that vulnerable state of exhaustion. After getting no immediate “hits,” I decided to go to the picnic area, overlooking the Black Warrior River, and have a bit breakfast. The Army Corps of Engineers built a lock system on this river to allow river traffic to go all the way down to the Gulf. While sitting there, I saw a huge barge go by, pushing six other empty vessels to be filled up, no doubt, downstream somewhere. Reminded me of the olden days of steam ship trade.

The Moundville site, a thriving Native American city-state from about 400 A.D. to 1450 A.D., was home to about 2,000 people within the city proper, while ruling over a total population of about 10,000  throughout the region. It is believed to have been the major trade center for the Mississippi region during that time, as well as a main ceremonial site. The Mississippi Valley flood plain deposited mineral-rich silt there each year, making it an ideal place for the people to farm the “big three”: corn, beans and squash. They also ate widely of fish and shellfish from the nearby Black Warrior River. No one knows why they would leave a site so easily cultivated, with everything they needed to sustain their way of life, but, like so many other tribes the “Mississippians” just disappeared. With the number of tribes that have disappeared, you have to wonder if something mystical was going on with these people.

Having eaten and gathered my energy, I again drove around the mounds, finally getting a strong hit on one of the mounds. I parked and walked over to it and, sitting in the grass, began a shamanic journey to contact the guardian spirit of the land. A spirit in the guise of one of the ancient Native Americans from that region appeared to me, asking me what I wanted. I spoke with him at length about how much the world had changed, how most people no longer honor the land as sacred, and about how that particular site – though once home to many of his people – was now a tourist attraction, a place people come  out of curiousity about the people of old. I told the spirit that I wanted to release the energy saved on that land to help the people of my time to have greater vision in how to honor the earth and live closer to the earth and to Great Spirit. Satisfied, the guardian presented me a key to the energy configuration there.

When I used the key I was bombarded with so much energy it was like standing near a blast zone and feeling the force of a explosion. Amazingly, I managed to not pass out, though I felt right on the verge, funneling the energy through my body and out in concentric circles, blessing first the immediate area of Alabama, which I felt led to do in honor of the ancestors in that place. I then funneled the rest of the energy up through my crown, forming a great cloud or umbrella, which began to cover the eastern U.S.

After finishing there, I returned to what was believed to be the main ceremonial mound, or that of the chief, and an adjacent area that had been an underground chamber, possibly a council chamber or sweat lodge in the earth. I lay on the ground, in the midst of many happy mosquitoes, feeling out the spot for any further work needing to be done. Nothing else presented itself. I thanked the guardian spirit, who thanked me in return and, paying my final respects to the ancestors, left.