signup
for email updates
Edge
Life Directory
Our
Archive: 2001-2004
Cover
Art Archive
Search
|
Postcards from the edge
Easter Island: An Outer and Inner Journey
by Johannes Soltermann
When I was 13 years old, I read a book on Easter Island. Its mysterious culture triggered
a longing. For the following 33 years, I felt a rubber band connecting me with this
most remote inhabited patch of earth floating in the vast Pacific Ocean.
In January 2004, the time was ripe to follow this rubber band all along its 8,000
miles to the southern hemisphere. Reading or dreaming about a place is one thing.
Actually going there is another. The experience might disappoint, surprise or enchant.
All 3 possibilities happened.
Disappointment: I had held the belief that Easter Island had been part of
the famed continent of Lemuria. I expected these statues to be at least 40,000 years
old. But the fact is, the faces are cut from brittle volcanic tuffstone, which weathers
quickly and visibly from year to year. In no way can these works be that old.
Surprise: After a few days of frantically exploring the archaeological sites,
sleeping in the ancient quarry, spending a night in a cave where natives dwelled
as recently as 200 years ago, the flow of the attention in me shifted away from the
historical attractions. It turned to the opening of my own heart.
This process started when I encountered a horse walking in circles near a cliff.
It suddenly fell, struggled up again, staggered on in its path. I soon realized it
was dying. Being alone there, I felt painfully helpless to save it. For the next
hour, I tried to give it spiritual assistance.
After the soul had detached completely from the body, the horse came back one more
time, to my inner vision: "Thank you for helping me!" I was speechless.
I must have helped after all.
Enchantment: You know how it feels when God takes you into its hand, shakes
you up really good and sets you back down on Earth. You look up, startled, behold
your accomplishments; but none of them seem to matter. All you care about now is
love. Your heart is in control.
I returned home changed. Poems started rolling out of the inner. One of them seems
to encompass the experience of the heart opening, as well as the deep sadness that
South America appears to celebrate:
There is a heart,
crying,
somewhere.
It lives in Chile,
it breathes in Mali,
it fetches water in Cambodia.
Tell me:
Is it crying from laughter
or is it crying from despair?
I am setting out to find this heart.
Living is such a precious thing.
Copyright © 2004 E. Johannes Soltermann
Edge Life magazine encourages you to send your own sacred Postcard from the Edge.
Please send your original photos only of sacred experiences you have had, in this
country or abroad. Send 300 words or less describing the experience, along with your
name, mailing address and phone number. E-mail all of the above to editor@edgelife.net
or send to Edge Life, P.O. Box 25543, Woodbury, MN 55125. Photos will be returned. |
| Dec 2004 |
|
|
