Allen writes:    I picked up the small “maple keys” objects while on the midline walk. We had already been down to the root and were back in the John Moores courtyard in the will. At this time five of the original nine had dropped away from the group (although Stephano had actually gone on ahead and rejoined us later in the throat). The remaining group of four travelers went directly over to the “grotto” shrine that is off to the north east side of the courtyard.

    Jo proposed a visionary activity and we all agreed to join in. We made a line going up the entry steps to the grotto opening, holding hands down the line with the first in line hunkering down in the opening. The person at the bottom of the line held the wind chimes and drew an arm across the entranceway saying “opening”. The person in the grotto opening then described what they saw as the “veil” was pulled aside. At an appropriate time the person at the end of the line drew an arm across the entranceway again saying “closed”. The person in the opening stopped speaking and passed behind the line to the bottom. Everyone moved up one space in line so the next person could take on the role of visionary”. Eventually everyone had a turn to speak what they saw.

    I was last to take a peek through the veil. My sight had to do with boating across an underground lake, disembarking into the cavern and going toward a lit chamber to join some event that was going on there (the vison ended before I got there). When the play was finished and I was coming down the stairs I was suddenly drawn to the small maple key that was on the rock stairwall at the bottom of the entranceway. It looked like it was connected to something else much larger and more powerful that resided on a different level than the everyday world. I was particularly struck by the shape the keys made - reminding me of the grotto opening itself, as well as a small heart. There was also a bit of wild “clawness” about the smaller of the two keys..

    This “grotto” shrine is no longer used as a shrine (some garbage bags were being stored in the arched grotto opening). It seems that the courtyard and the buildings surrounding it had once been a catholic school (Jo said that her mother had gone there) and the nuns had made a shrine to Mary in the courtyard. Now that John Moores had taken over the site the Mary statue that must have been in the grotto opening was gone. The grotto area still has a great deal of strong energy and it seems very likely to me that the Mary shrine was erected on the site of an older pagan power spot. I sense that the nuns almost had it right and that their Mary shrine site was actually connected to the goddess of ancient times. It still has that energy about it and seems to be connected to the Elders in the root cemetery.

    It gets me to thinking that the transformational energy centres we’re discovering in each chakra could all be connected to the Elders and possibly even the goddess - a strong druid/pagan energy theme that still underlies the everyday modern city. What it would mean to the Giant Story is that the transformational energy needed to change levels of consciousness is connected to this old way on a very deep level. It is part of the genetic make-up of the Giant and is in safe-keeping in the root chakra until the overall structure begins to change in the various chakras.

    Sweetheart Park (the transformational energy centre that is beginning to open in the Giant’s heart) has the goddess energy still available, though hidden under more modern, urban layers. The grotto shrine in the will shows the goddess energy in a more traditional way and probably means that this transformational energy centre in the will is still open to some extent, though covered over with a modern, more conventional spirituality. The wild flower field in the throat is an emerging goddess place that is poking through the remains of a block of knocked-down buildings - still not formed but coming into form and finding a way to open again in this new location.

    The spring and cemetery in the root have always been open and functioning, very druidic in nature and probably kept at that level by the active energy of the Elders. The yellow room grove and dried up waterway in the third eye has been open ongoingly, though in need of refocusing. The grove of trees there is still a strong power spot and very much under the keeping of the goddess. The fire pit in the crown field is pretty untamed and modernly pagan, though there is a good bit of distortion in the more ancient energies. The nearby Iron Church is also built on this same goddess-connected site, though of course the modern theological resonances are blocking a great deal. Still it is possible to contact the goddess at the tree and grave at the northwest of the churchyard there.

    Which brings me to ponder where the goddess can be found in the midline of the hara? No gardens or courtyards here, no wild or open places at all. There must at least be goddess places that used to be. You can’t pave over the goddess groves for long - some space will eventually have to open up for that energy to come through again.