Pilgrimage of the Great Wheel: Standing Stone

Last fall, I took a job in California. It was a last minute assignment for the winter, and I was excited. I resolved to stop at a sacred site on the Pilgrimage of the Great Wheel on my way west, the Standing Stone. This sacred journey is something that has come to me in the past few years - I am visiting all the points of a great wheel of ley lines that covers the southeast of the US to experience their power and to honor these sacred places. Check out this linked post for details.

When I visit Jomeokee each year, the center of the Great Wheel, I am delighted to see it preserved as a state park. Thought most people who visit are not aware of its cultural importance or history as a sacred site, it is yet revered and cared for. Same for the Great Dismal Swamp that I visited last fall. But Standing Stone is not that kind of story. Standing Stone has not been so lucky. Visiting Standing Stone was so upsetting that I never finished this blog post.

Though I had done research in advance, nothing about this visit went as planned. I found Standing Stone State Park easily enough, and it was a lovely wooded place with a mountain lake and a campground. The one thing they don't have is the Standing Stone. Undeterred, I asked a ranger where it might be found and was directed to Monterey, TN. I'd driven through the town to get there, so it was easy enough to retrace my steps. 

Arriving in the town, I discovered that there was a monument to Standing Stone near the town library. This monument is not the original location of the Standing Stone either.

I went into the library and did some more research, trying to find the original location. Using GPS coordinates, I drove around the neighborhood nearby and looked for a likely spot. I was considering land elevation and orientation, trying to consider where a monument would have been visible before the creation of this town.

Essentially, what happened is that the Standing Stone was destroyed to make way for a new railroad. It was blown up with dynamite, and for many years, several large chunks of the stone were used for other purposes or intentionally preserved. When at last the monument was created, a small fragment of the stone was placed on top.

From my earliest research about this site, the Standing Stone marked the boundary between Shawnee and Cherokee nation territories. The stone also stood along an established trade route, which became known as an "old Indian trail" after the settlement of the area by Europeans. As far as I know, such a place would have been used for trading and council purposes between different tribes. This would have been a place of peace.

What upsets me is not only that the original stone was removed, but also that very little of its history is known. Reading the very brief information available about the stone, only a tiny portion of that refers to the native people who erected the stone. Most of it is about the Europeans who defaced it, and who eventually destroyed it.

I remember feeling so depressed and angry during this visit. It was a small town, and seemed ordinary enough. There was no tangible energy, no reminder of what was. A whole culture and history, erased.

So for this pilgrimage visit, there is no poetry. No beautiful sentiment of spiritual vision. What I did was fume, to be frank. I may have done some angry journaling, but I think that's best left where it lies on my bookshelf. When I calmed down, I just sat there, at the monument, and offered my presence. I offered my prayers of healing and acknowledgement for what happened in this place.

There are so many more things I could say about how this country has handled things, but I truly do not have the desire to do so at this time. People who know me know what my opinion is, and I'm sure many of you share it. As for me, I will continue on my pilgrimage. The next chance I get to speak with first nation elders, I will ask if any stories of Standing Stone are known.

This weekend, I go back to Jomeokee once again. This will be my third vision quest there. This year, I am in need of anchoring in the midst of all this travelling. I'm feeling a deep need to get centered and grounded before I leave NC once again. This feels like a pivotal time for me, a true turning point. My life is transforming, and I am so grateful. I am also afraid and full of doubts. I am like everyone else - trying to figure it out as I go along.

I honor you, Great Medicine Wheel of Jomeokee! Great Guide, this pilgrimage I make in your honor. This land I walk to gain your wisdom, each step trodden by countless ancestors who have gone before me. Fill me with your medicine. Teach me, Great Guide. Lead me on...

Pilgrimage of the Great Wheel: Great Dismal Swamp

This weekend, I had the opportunity to visit the Great Dismal Swamp, which is a point on the Pilgrimage of the Great Wheel. This sacred journey is something that has come to me in the last couple of years - I am visiting all the points of a great wheel of ley lines that covers the southeast of the US to experience their power and to honor these sacred places. Check out that linked post for details.

The Great Dismal Swamp is a lonely expanse of wood and marsh and swamp, and an area rich with history. It's a wildlife refuge, and was once used as a hideout on the Underground Railroad during the US Civil War. Local legends are rich concerning this place. It's a wild place, an impenetrable wilderness, a liminal space where the touches of civilization and law were light. What this land was to pre-European peoples I do not know, but I do know that they lived here - it was a vast region, once. To my eyes, it is a fascinating place. What secrets are hidden in its tangled wood? What lurks beneath its black waters? What do the fearsome stings of the swarming insects protect?

For me, this visit was a continuation of a period of intensive underworld work. The guardians of the underworld have made themselves known to me. I have been doing a great deal of journeywork, shadow work - working with the dark, hidden places within and below. Reflective, visionary work. Quiet, powerful work.

I spent the weekend mostly at the nearby Merchant's Millpond, which is another kind of swamp....a still place of towering cypress and tupelo gum, an enchanted, watery forest. A place in which the veil between the world is as thin as spider silk. A place where I was honored to witness a vulture feed. Turkey vultures and black vultures had found a deer, possibly lost in Hurricane Matthew, on the hummock of a cypress. There were birds at the carcass, birds in the branches, and yet more vultures circling in the sky above.

Sacred transformer, death eagle, purifier - I honor your wisdom! Teach me to soar on the thermals of life, conserving energy until opportunity presents itself. Teach me to ingest refuse, that which no longer serves, and bring it back into the great cycle, to take on new life and power my wings.

Teach me the mysteries of death, that gentle release that frees the spirit to carry on its journey. Teach me to release what is tired and worn-out and unnecessary, making space for the needed and new. Teach me, sacred Vulture!

When I came to the Great Dismal Swamp, I startled a vulture by the side of the road. It flew so close to me that it took my breath away. I was crawling along in my truck with all the windows down and there was this enormous bird, feathers looking more brown than black, with a mottled texture. It flew in front of me for some time before drifting into the woods.

Later, a Great Blue Heron led me deeper into the swamp, flying above the canal as I drove behind on the road. On and on it flew, gracefully gliding over the black waters...I honor you, heron! Teach me the ways of the stalker, the patient hunter who stands in the shallows, silent as a shadow, who strikes swift as an arrow.

Heron led me to Drummond Lake, which was much larger than I supposed. I paused here, ate and drank, made offering to the land. This writing is what happened next.


The voice of Spirit comes to me as the land.
Today, it says, do not hurry
do not do.
Today, sit in the swamp wind and be.
Simply exist.
Be present with the holly and the honeysuckle
the fox grape, the sumac, and the corpse berry.
Soak up the last sun of autumn,
glowing golden timeless time,
like the turtle on driftwood silver and brown
let the tiny yellow moth draw you in
to the meadow, sere and dry
wooly marsh grass waving like flags in the breeze

Today the voice of Spirit beckons
come and be with me
Commune with me as this place
Mother grandmother swamp
Listen to your sisters the songbirds
Listen to your mother the waters burbling
Watch your brothers, the waves
Let the four winds cleanse you
and father sky lift you up.

Be.
Be as one with the land
Exist in this dying time,
last blazing of beauty
before winter's sleep

Today I honor the Great Mystery
that moves within all things.
Today, I am free.

- JN 10/30/16


This weekend was passed in the dark of the Moon. I paddled the waters, I walked the land, I bathed in
the sun, listened to the rain, drank in the starlight, was cleansed by the winds, and offered my songs to the land. Mother grandmother swamp, I honor you! Your waters fill my dreams and draw me deep, deep below, to the underworld, the land of the ancestors, the home of the fae, kingdom of the Horned One.

I honor you, Great Medicine Wheel of Jomeokee! Great Guide, this pilgrimage I make in your honor. This land I walk to gain your wisdom, each step trodden by countless ancestors who have gone before me. Fill me with your medicine. Teach me, Great Guide. Lead me on...

Blessed be! Naho!

Pilgrimage of the Great Wheel

Earlier this year, I went on a vision quest on Jomeokee, aka Pilot Mountain. As I noted in that post, Jomeokee is a key point, or vortex, on a ley line. It is also the the central point of a wheel of ley lines on the Atlantic seaboard of the United States. This means, essentially, that it is the center of a group of related sacred sites. These places hold and magnify the power of the Earth, and act as repositories of memory of events.

See below for an illustration showing the Great Wheel:

It is my intention to make pilgrimage to all of the points of the Great Wheel of Jomeokee. The points of the wheel are, starting in the north and proceeding sunwise:

Moundsville, WV: Grave Creek Mound

At 62 feet (19 m) high and 240 feet (73 m) in diameter, the Grave Creek Mound in the Ohio River Valley in West Virginia is one of the largest conical-type burial mounds in the United States. The builders of the site, members of the Adena culture, moved more than 60,000 tons of dirt to create it about 250–150 BC. (description from Wikipedia)

Washington, DC: Unknown site

I find it interesting that we chose this spot as the capital of our government, the repository of this nation's power, as it were. At this point, I do not yet know what I will visit there. Initial research indicates that there are a great many important churches there, but that doesn't seem too likely to me. It wouldn't surprise me if the Pentagon was built over the actual ancient monument.

NC/VA line: Great Dismal Swamp

I doubt any traces remain from ancient times, but I will see. I plan to paddle my pirogue there and camp in the area, though both the NC state park and the VA wildlife refuge do not allow camping.

Cape Fear: Actual point is in the ocean

I live on the Serpent Lei, the ley line that roughly parallels the Cape Fear River. Looking back at the things that led me to live where I do, I believe it is this very fact that drew me here. I scouted all around Raleigh to find a rural spot where I felt comfortable. At the time, I didn't really know why I felt at ease here. Since moving here, I have developed a close relationship with my river, the Cape Fear. I will count this weekend's trip to the mouth of the Cape Fear as my pilgrimage to this point, and will write a separate post about that.

Parris Island, SC:  US Marine Corps Base

I discovered that it is possible to visit the base itself. Again, I find it interesting that this spot was chosen as the headquarters of one of our military branches. Power finds power. There is also a wildlife refuge across the channel, so that's a good spot to visit as well.

Stone Mountain, GA: Stone Mountain Park

Once again, another symbol of the power of the United States. Stone Mountain is a quartz monzonite dome monadnock and the site of Stone Mountain Park in Stone Mountain, Georgia. At its summit, the elevation is 1,686 feet (514 m) MSL and 825 feet (251 m) above the surrounding area. Stone Mountain is well-known not only for its geology, but also for the enormous bas-relief on its north face, the largest bas-relief in the world.[1] The carving depicts three Confederate figures during the Civil War: Stonewall Jackson, Robert E. Lee, and Jefferson Davis. (description from Wikipedia)

Monterrey, TN: Standing Stones State Forest

A 12 foot tall rock standing upright on a sandstone ledge, which was supposedly used as a boundary line between two Indian nations. When the rock fell, the Indians placed a portion of it upon an improvised monument to preserve it. (description from TN state park website)

Peebles, OH: The Great Serpent Mound

The Great Serpent Mound is a 1,348-foot (411 m)-long,[2] three-foot-high prehistoric effigy mound on a plateau of the Serpent Mound crater along Ohio Brush Creek in Adams County, Ohio. Researchers have attributed construction of the mound to three different prehistoric indigenous cultures. Although it was once thought to be Adena in origin, now based on the use of more advanced technology, including carbon dating and evidence from 1996 studies, many scholars now believe that members of the Fort Ancient culture built it about 1070 CE (plus or minus 70 years). There are still anomalies to be studied.[3] Serpent Mound is the largest serpent effigy in the world.[4] (description from Wikipedia)

More updates to come. At this point, there is no formal plan or timeline. I'll visit each one as I'm able, and in the fashion dictated by the site and geography itself. The only thing I know for sure is that I'll bring offerings to each place. At Pilot Mountain, I was able to camp on the mountain, hold ceremony at our campsite and meditate on the pinnacle itself. Other places, I'll do what I can. I also don't really know why this is important to me, or why I have to do it. I only know that it is right.