Mystical Scotland

The strongest spiritual experiences I’ve had happened last week in Scotland. On my drive through the northern Highlands, I swooned at steep mountains, deep lakes, wild rain intersecting bright sun, rainbows, and waterfalls. My favorite sight was Clava Cairns, a 4000-year-old burial site, in woods near rolling hills of green. As I stood at the first stone circle, I “saw” a gorgeous young woman morph into a old matriarch, then swoop into the burial site, under ancient rocks from the Neolithic era. It was the oddest psychic experience of my life.

I visited Edinburgh Castle, built in 1103, and set on a high rock made from a volcanic eruption millions of years ago. I loved the god and goddess gargoyles, although I felt most moved in the King’s Inner Hall. The windy and rainy weather kept tourists away, and alone in the hall, I began to dance, surrounded by lords and ladies from the past. Ghosts to be sure, but I felt safe. I can’t imagine what the person behind the security camera thought.

My second favorite, Blackness Castle, sits on a spur of land that juts in the Firth of Forth. The 15^th century fortress held spirits of guardsmen who fought and defended, and a few women who worked with them. I loved the grey black, mystical rocks. My body felt as if I were preteen. Again, I swooned.

At every encounter with a Scott, I heard lilts that sounded like singing. Even the food felt spiritual. Mussels from a group of islands way up north called Chetland, Cullen Skink soup of smoked cod, potatoes, cream, and onions, and the smoothest ice cream anywhere.

On the plane back, I met an excited couple on their way to NYC “like we see on TV”. They leaned over to quietly ask me, could you live in Scotland? I wanted to tell them the libraries might be inadequate, how too many people had rotten teeth and bad breath, and what would I do about work that give me purpose? But I honestly said, I’d love to live there for a month every year. But then, I thought the same about southern Ireland.

Travel is hard, fraught with hair pulling hassles and speed bumps, but it enriches my life. Scotland seared my soul. A lasting love affair.