Another intriguing aspect of any trip to Mt. Shasta is the possibility of seeing UFOs. Apparently it is quite common, so it is no big deal to the people who live there.  There is also supposed to be a huge underground community living inside and under the mountain.  Who knows for sure?

Five of us from our group decided to go up the mountain on Saturday night just to see what we could see. We headed out after dark, and as we drove up the mountain, Tina set the intention that we would ONLY be contacted by beings of the Light and that we were fully protected against any kind of dark energy. Just as she finished that, she saw a square-

Red Streak in Sky by Tina Sacchi

shaped object fly by in front of us and head into the mountain. None of the rest of us in the car saw it, but Tina just opened the window, stuck her camera out and took a picture. Later that night, she saw that she captured a very interesting streak of red flashing through the darkness.

When we reached the highest parking lot, we hurried out to start checking out the sky, and we were totally delighted to hear someone sitting out there playing a drum!   Since my husband and I are very much in to our African drum lessons, it was extra special to me to hear that.  Pretty soon, someone else joined him with a didgeridoo. Totally awesome!  Tina and Annie eventually went over to the drummer’s area and joined in with a little dancing and an attempt at the didgeridoo. Check out the orbs in the picture Tina took of our musician friends!

Meanwhile, the rest of us were mesmerized with watching a UFO dance around the sky. I have learned that a lot of them look like stars, but they blink red, blue, yellow, white and green–like Christmas lights–and if you keep your eyes on them, you can actually see them moving up, down, diagonally, and side to side.  Since all of us were able to see the movement at the same time, it helped me feel like I’m really not making it up!

Shari talked with a group of people at one of the crystal shops in town who told her that they had been at a SETI (Search For Extraterrestrial Intelligence) conference all week, and several times they had been able to make contact with quite a few of the ships up close and personal.  They said that you have to be totally open, with no fear or skepticism, in order for the beings to make contact with you.  They also said that their group was being watched by military planes, so they had to keep moving and they would not tell us exactly where they went to connect with them. 

Just another awesome adventure on our awesome Mt. Shasta journey!   That’s it from here…   Heather

One of the highlights of our Mt. Shasta trip was the Sweat Lodge experience. Tina Sacchi, our facilitator, has a lot of experience leading sweat lodges and she prefers to run them in the Hawaiian Style. Apparently that means it is not as hot as the traditional Native American sweats, and she is very open about allowing participants to leave the circle if they feel they have to. 

The purpose of a Sweat Lodge is to release all our blocks and limitations and things we have been holding on to that are holding us back. With intention, we release on all levels: mind, body, spirit and emotional…an old tradition with different variations across different cultures.  Many times, the actual sweat lodge is a temporary structure that is constructed and covered by the participants as part of the ceremony. However, at the Gatehouse Retreat, the building is a permanent structure, much like a hogan on an Indian Reservation. And the fire is contained in a wood-burning stove with a flat container of lava rocks on the top where the leader pours water to build up the heat.

In all the experiences I have had over the past 25 years, I had never had the opportunity to be in a Sweat Lodge. Deep down, I was a little nervous about it from all the stories I had heard. But I was certainly willing to give it a try. 

The session consists of 3 “rounds,” where we spend some time inside in the heat and then come out to cool off and spend some time writing in our journals about our experience and the thoughts that have come up.  Then we would go back in and Tina would add some heat to the fire.  During the sessions, we were able to talk about things that were coming up or sing a song or say whatever we felt moved to say.  Tina would play her drum and keep adding herbs and oils to the lava rocks as she added water to create more steam heat. Each session was hotter than the last, and the 3rd round was REALLY hot–but, to my surprise, not TOO hot. The last round is meant to help us really move the energy and release whatever it is that we have been hanging on to that just is no longer serving us. 

I was amazed to see that I was literally dripping with sweat. I hardly ever sweat, and it was fun to see me sweating like a basketball player. All in all, I was very proud of myself and of everyone else because we were able to stick it out to the end, with no one breaking down and having to leave.  I truly did enjoy it and made some huge shifts in some issues I have been dealing with. Just before we started our first round, a raven flew right over our circle from west to east, and Tina said that that indicated New Beginnings and would bring clarity.  During one of the sessions, Annie St. John-Wilkins shared a song that she has recently written, and I was amazed that the words totally explained a previous message I had received from a very intuitive friend of mine–there was the clarity!

 I can’t wait to do another one!

 In my next article, I’ll talk about our experience of looking for UFOs!

 That’s it for now!   Heather