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 15th
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.