THE GORGE
I return from a camping trip that has left me speechless, in awe, and frankly in touch with a sacred energy occupying every cell, every bone of my body.
At Watkins Glen State Park, in the Fingers Lake region of New York State, there is a beautiful gorge.
The stones along the path tell a story of millions of years ago - of how the Earth's fiery soul divided the continents, melted the ice and wrote secrets on the stone walls. The stones carry these deep secrets of the Earth's spirit, written in lines, waiting to be told.
I could not breathe at the beauty of the place and at every turn I could hear ancestors speak. I tried to find what this place might have been to the native tribes and what I found astonished me. Not far from where I was, and connected to this path of stones, is Canandaigua Lake. And a beautiful article about this area - written by Beth Quinn - states:
"As you walk through it, you would never know that according to ancient legend, this placid notch, unmarked and unheralded, is the birthplace of the world. Modern hikers call it Clark’s Gully, a deep ravine near the south end of Canandaigua Lake. The gully lies at the base of South Hill. In the Seneca tradition, the hill is called Nundawao, revered as the place where the tribe’s ancestors emerged from the earth; indeed, the Senecas’ word for themselves is Onodowaga, or “people of the great hill.” According to Seneca legend, when the earth opened on Nundawao, the tribe’s founders emerged from the gorge below. They were at Kanandague, “the chosen spot” — a deep, 16-mile-long lake with fertile fields at one end and sacred hills at the other. The Senecas were (and still are) the Keepers of the Western Door of the Iroquois Confederacy, whose governmental procedures helped inspire the Articles of Confederation adopted by the 13 colonies in 1777 and whose matriarchal society and tradition of property rights for women influenced the founders of the American feminist movement in the 1840’s."
I am once again speechless.
Aho Grandfathers and Grandmothers! Thank you for allowing me to walk this path.
I could not breathe at the beauty of the place and at every turn I could hear ancestors speak. I tried to find what this place might have been to the native tribes and what I found astonished me. Not far from where I was, and connected to this path of stones, is Canandaigua Lake. And a beautiful article about this area - written by Beth Quinn - states:
"As you walk through it, you would never know that according to ancient legend, this placid notch, unmarked and unheralded, is the birthplace of the world. Modern hikers call it Clark’s Gully, a deep ravine near the south end of Canandaigua Lake. The gully lies at the base of South Hill. In the Seneca tradition, the hill is called Nundawao, revered as the place where the tribe’s ancestors emerged from the earth; indeed, the Senecas’ word for themselves is Onodowaga, or “people of the great hill.” According to Seneca legend, when the earth opened on Nundawao, the tribe’s founders emerged from the gorge below. They were at Kanandague, “the chosen spot” — a deep, 16-mile-long lake with fertile fields at one end and sacred hills at the other. The Senecas were (and still are) the Keepers of the Western Door of the Iroquois Confederacy, whose governmental procedures helped inspire the Articles of Confederation adopted by the 13 colonies in 1777 and whose matriarchal society and tradition of property rights for women influenced the founders of the American feminist movement in the 1840’s."
I am once again speechless.
Aho Grandfathers and Grandmothers! Thank you for allowing me to walk this path.
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