The Solstice Full Moon of Monday June 20, 2016 is one I will not forget for many reasons, one of which was the amazing immersion inside of a crystal cave that sent chills throughout my entire body upon entering. It was exactly like the crystal meditation I teach in the Crystal Magick Workshop where we enter into our crystal’s domain as a cave to meet and connect more deeply with our crystal friend, but I was now physically experiencing this. Incredible, to say the least.

Our day began with a picnic lunch overlooking Firehole River in Yellowstone, continued with exploring the dynamic Fountain Paint Pots (which include geysers, mud holes, hot springs, and fumaroles), and a short hike to Harlequin Lake, which was laced with tons of lily pads in a secluded area you get through by walking a trail that reminded me of a bamboo forest like the ones I’ve explored in Maui, but they were instead dense fields of thin trunked trees.

After returning home to check on the bunnies and give them nourishment and love (I never like leaving them much), we met up with my friend Janet who was staying at the Cinnamon Lodge in Gallatin Gateway, not far from Big Sky.

She’d heard about an old abandoned quartz mine that people don’t know about and so we all decided that we should go there, as a perfect way to harness the energy of the Solstice Full Moon.

The hike was more than we thought given the brief description of “just an easy walk that way”, climbing up over 700 feet of elevation rapidly in a very short distance (about 3/4 of a mile), which was basically like a close to vertical climb. But we found the mine and it was well worth it.

The trail took us across Gallatin River over a bridge – very symbolic like a bridge to another world, realm, and new reality that would be activated from this experience – and through a beautiful forest with gorgeous moss laden rocks that were rich in Faery essence and like a hidden world where Faeries, Elves, Hobbits, and Gnomes were frolicking about.

We then arrived at our destination.

Basically it was like stepping inside of a quartz cave or a giant crystal. It was at least 30 degrees cooler inside…so cold in fact that when I was left alone inside for a while, I could see my breath before me, which added to the experience. I think I was the only one though that saw this, as I stayed a long time inside at the very back of the mine, alone. My breath before me looking like spirit essence merging between me and the crystal cave.

Even before entering the mine the ground was laced with quartz fragments both small and large. One did not need to even venture in or that far in, to find some lovely pieces.

But, despite my having fears in the past of going into mines and dark spaces (bringing up things from childhood), I ended up feeling very comfortable here. In fact, was quite joyful, which I think shows through in this photo above.

Dave and I have hiked into mines or near them before and I’ve always had this eerie or off sense about it that didn’t sit right. I did not feel that with this mine, perhaps due to its crystalline nature that I connect with so much and its energy inviting me deeper.

I wasn’t sure what I was expecting to see when I went inside, but when I flashed my cell phone flash light on the walls of the cave I was in awe at the beauty before me. That is when I realized that this wasn’t just a mine with some pieces of quartz here and there that you might find, but in fact it was a living, breathing crystal womb.

The side walls, ceiling and floor were all quartz interlaced with calcite in varying colors and just incredibly beautiful.

The ground was laced with smaller polished crystals like pebbles on top of larger ones and with a sediment of moist clay in between or on top.

We were being nurtured and cradled by a giant crystal. I felt like a baby star inside a mother star getting ready to be propelled into another dimensional experience. And indeed we were inside of a crystal portal, outside of space and time.

The farther back you went into the mine, the more clay was on the ground.

As I mentioned, as soon as I stepped inside and realized I had literally entered into a giant crystal cave and touched the walls, my whole body got waves of chills running through me. I could feel the energy and it was potent and beautiful.

The photos throughout are from the inside of the mine – hard to capture in the dark the crisp brilliance, but I think you can get the idea from them. You can even see spirit essences coming through in them, like in this one where there is a very clear face that is almost cherub or sprite-like.

I first decided to explore and ran my hands along the walls, rummaged through the loose crystals on the ground and just took it all in. The walls were delicate and pieces of crystal easily would come off.

I had a deep feeling of reverence and did not want to damage or hurt the crystal in any way, so although one could easily go chipping away and amass some majorly amazing crystals from within the cave walls, I felt that what wanted to come with me would easily be on the ground, hidden in the clay peeking out in brilliance, or loose and would let me know without having to pry them loose.

After exploring, I then started picking up crystals and used the skirt of my dress to hold them like a basket. I had felt called to wear my magickal Peter Rabbit dress for the Solstice in honor of and support of my bunny loves.

Dave had already gone in and found his right away (one beautiful golden quartz – later outside he found two more), so he waited outside above the mine, just connecting with the energy and doing intentions for the Solstice from there, while Janet and I continued to explore.

We went in twice, bringing out several pieces to look at in the sunlight and used Janet’s necklace as a pendulum to make the final decisions as to which actually needed and wanted to come home with us.

Mine ended up being the ones I had felt most strongly, which is always nice to have that reiterated.

Janet felt complete and had even found a larger specimen that was quite lovely with varying layers and coloring of calcite with some quartz in between, which you can see here a bit in this photo that she took of it:

The quartz that ended up coming home with me were not all visually what one might find the most beautiful and in fact several are encrusted with other minerals and Earth, which to me makes them very potent and alive with Elemental energy still intact. Some are root pieces too, which feels grounding and integrative. I trust that the ones meant to come home did (8 in all pictured below) and I love the raw, natural potency they have, with one being a naturally polished stone.

The rest of the ones that weren’t meant to come, but which I had picked up from the cave, I returned back inside to the cave to their mother.

I then felt it was important to do a deep connecting and my intentions inside the cave for the Solstice. Dave and Janet did not and so they did their own thing elsewhere.

So I ventured again all the way to the back of the mine on my own. The second time it was even colder than the first and this is when I saw my breath before me while I was alone at the back of it. I am not sure how long I was in there (Janet said a long time), but I felt compelled to be there and loved it.

It felt like home and reminded me of the ancient parts of myself, and the places of potency I have spent time in like in my lives as a Nymph and Sibyl, for instance, who love caves and springs and any place that really connects me with the womb of the Earth. This is also where sound is at its most powerful and where I can go deeply into my essence to retrieve the soul signature songs and hear the vibrations of creation from.

It is for this reason I feel that I was not afraid, where I thought I might be, to be in the deepest, darkest part of the cave/mine by myself.

At first I’d said to Janet, “don’t leave me”, upon first venturing in, as I was conditioned by my previous experiences in these mines and dark places, but I soon got over that and was consumed with my love for this place and this crystal cave and ended up not wanting to leave and feeling like I was home.

I told Janet I was facing my fears by going in all the way, and what I discovered is that the crystal infused me with wonder and love and became inviting rather than ominous.

So, while I was there alone inside, I pressed my third eye to the very back of the cave’s crystalline wall, with hands gently touching the quartz in front of me and leaned my body into the giant crystal to do my connecting and intentions.

It is here that I asked for support for Joy and to bring her the peace she and I so desired for her and to give me strength, and both of us to have beautiful closure. I also asked for support for Cosmo and continued on with personal intentions for myself, loved ones, and the collective. Then surrendered it all completely for the highest good of all and released any attachment.

I called in the Faeries, Elementals, Spirit Guides, my Cosmic family, and others, along with meeting them with my Essence and Higher Self to work together as one. For things that I asked to receive, I also promised to give in return, as I never feel it to be a one way street.

One of the things I promised to the Faeries, this Crystal that represents Ancient Earth and the Cosmos, and to the collective I called in was to sing my song and to continue in larger ways to give the gift of sound channeling to continue with the work I left off doing, to support the collective and Earth experience into a new vibration and reality. And I have done so, as the next day I was full of song that I recorded and sang out from my heart.

It was hard for me to leave, as I was having such a rich connective time there in this other wordly, but so Ancient Earth realm.

My breath appeared before me upon coming out of my meditative connecting time and it looked like spirit essences intermingling in the darkness.

I felt enchanted and definitely activated, infused with so much universal and unconditional love that was like the tear drop of a star merging with the cosmic waters of my soul.

I reluctantly, but with fulfillment, exited my crystal cave womb, feeling birthed anew and with greater clarity and strength for what I would soon be experiencing and or the rest of my life.

We then descended the mountain, with me lingering behind a bit.

The light of day was beautiful and sparkling like a star through the trees.

We made our way back across the bridge and back into the world where we would integrate the energy received into our lives and in interaction with others for the highest good.

We parted ways for the evening with Janet, saying good night to her and her dog, Daisy. Leaving her sitting on her porch – all of us smiling wide and grateful for this potent Solstice experience that was like an initiation into all of the new the three of us each individually, and together, would be creating.

On the drive back, which was about 35 minutes, we stopped at a large beaver dam complex on our right, which was beautiful and could see the lodge and felt the reflection of this community and interweaving ecosystem they have created, as an example of our cocreative experience and connection to the collective and how we are woven together.

We then also saw a large bald eagle on the left, right at the side of the road. He was on the ground and picking at something. We saw that it was a dead mule deer that he was feasting on – quite a sight and only several feet away. This reflecting the cycles of life and transformation taking place. What brings death, also brings life, as all is interwoven.

Transmutation was at hand and this was all heralding the end of an era for me about to take place.

I knew one of the quartz I had brought home was to support Joy, so I placed it with her when I arrived home, along with her Nestor and Gaia crystal statues, and another sparkly crystalline stone I’d found a couple of days before that was connected to her (more on that soon). She was surrounded with everything possible to be of assistance energetically.

That evening, when it was dark (it doesn’t get dark until 10pm or after here, which has changed our inner clocks to naturally cycle with the light rather than keep to our conditioned schedules, having us eat dinner at 9:30 or 10 pm at night for instance) we walked across to the beach on Hebgen Lake where we were staying. Our site was basically a few yards from the beach and the Full Moon rose directly in front of us, which we could see out the front of the Magick Bus.

I took the eight quartz crystals that came home with me along for the walk to take in the Full Moon’s blessings and to receive the Moon’s activation. I held them out in front of me, as we were all illuminated by Grandmother Moon’s light and gently surrendered into receiving and flowing out love.

I gazed upon the rabbit in the Moon and felt the expansiveness of this Sagittarius energy that it was in, deepening, widening, expanding my heart, soul, and entire being.

A potent blessing, gift, and experience all around indeed.