APA Dec 2004 newsletter

Editress Ginger Strivelli


This year we canceled our Annual Yule gathering. Amber was in 
and out of the hospital, and with Ginger’s grandmother being 
in and out of the hospital, and Beth being sick and changing 
jobs, all this month it just was too chaotic. It was just too 
hard to get everyone well enough and available a day in the middle 
of the holiday season to plan it this year.

From Our Book Of Shadows:
On a Sunday night wearing white sit facing North First take a 
gold colored metal plate (copper bronze, gold plated, brass 
will all work) and smear black soot over it. Then with your 
wand draw a picture of Goddess Lakshmi on it. with her name… 

Prepare four cookies with sesame seed oil and sesame seed 
toping. Place them on the four corners of the plate. Then 
with a Coral or Pearl or shell rosary chant 31 rounds of 
the following Mantra. 

Om Hreem Hreem Shreem Shreem Hreem Hreem Phat Lakshmi

After the chanting, sleep at this ritual site. In the night 
you shall hear the tinkling sound of Lakshmi’s gold. This 
is a sign of The Goddess Lakshmi blessing your home and family. 


Sacred Sites Section
Submitted by Phoebe Keys
Linville Gorge Wilderness



One of the most revered sites in Western North
Carolina lies squarely in the middle of a triangle
formed between the village of Linville Falls (just off
the Blue Ridge Parkway on the edge of McDowell
County), and the towns of Marion and Morganton. If
you look carefully as you drive east on Interstate 40,
you will see one of the landmarks that forms one ridge
of the gorge: Table Rock. 

The gorge runs along the length of the Linville River
and includes one of the most treacherous water falls
in the state. A wild and unsetteled area, the
Linville Gorge Wilderness area is completely protected
by the US Forest Service. While a person or group may
hike the many trails throughout the gorge, camping is
allowed in designated spots with a permit only. There
are no roads leading into the Wilderness, only along
the rim on one side. The gorge has long been held as
a sacred spot by every culture known to have
encountered it. It is, in part because of the rugged
nature of the spot and in part because of the presence
of the Brown Mountain Lights. 

The Brown Mountain Lights are one of group of
phenomena seen worldwide known as Earth Lights. They
are noted to be found at the ends of fault lines
marking tectonic plates in areas where there are
significant deposits of quartz crystals. The Lights
themselves are at best, hard to describe because they
are not the same each time you see them. They can be
any color, large or small, fast moving or absolutely
stationary; but if you ever see them, they are one of
the most impressive sites you will ever behold.

Popularized by Scotty Wiseman in the 1950's, the song
he wrote recounts that the lights are the spirit of a
Civil War era slave searching for his master. But the
legend of the Lights is much older than the Civil War.
Cherokee and Catawba Indians who inhabited the area
long before the arrival of European Settlers in the
mid-1700's had an oral tradition that included stories
of the Lights in that region. They held the area to
be sacred and never lived in the gorge for any
extended period of time, but rather they spent time in
the gorge in initiation rites or in some form of what
we now call a vision quest. 

Having seen these Lights on approximately a dozen
different occasions, I can say that the experience is
one that would cause me to make sacred the ground
where such phenomena occur.

As a footnote, the rangers in the gorge area say the
lights are visible for some period of time almost
every night throughout the year. However, the best
vantage point is at Wiseman's View along the western
rim of the gorge which has an elevation of about 4000
feet. This means that at that point, even in the
summertime, the nighttime temperatures can be quite
cool. The Wiseman's View parking lot is a short
distance by paved path to the actual viewpoint itself
and camping is not allowed at the viewpoint, although
there are a number of designated camping spots along
the road that runs along the rim of the gorge. Park
Rangers also state that increased seismic activity
seems to increase either the frequency or the
intensity of the Lights activity or display.

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