Sedona: September 5, 2004

  1. On Sunday, my last day in Arizona, I took a Vortex Tour around Sedona. It is not the Pink Jeep tour (supposedly THE tour.) It might seem a tad disheveled at times, and like the tour guide is taking the pulse of the planet to determine where to go next. I was the only person to show up for the 7:30 a.m. tour, and we visited: Airport Vortex, Cathedral Rock Vortex and the vortex at the running stream, whose name escapes me right now.

    I am pretty sure this is one view from up by the airport. The two of us did a little ceremony there, embarassing me a bit in front of the early morning tourists. She shook a leather rattle, and chanted and sang, and then we held hands and exchanged prayers.

  2. Sweeping around to get the magnificent view from the airport (the Airport Vortex is a strong masculine vortex; inclined towards movement and change and turmoil.)

  3. Wow. Great picture, mrm! Still somewhat washed out, but I realized later I still had the camera set to "long exposure" from my Christmas tree light experiments of the night before.

  4. My earnest and somewhat driven tour guide. She's from England, but seems to have been irrevocably drawn to Sedona.

  5. Me, at almost my all-time heaviest. Very wearying. Back on the diet treadmill. I managed to gain back all the weight I lost in 2002.

  6. You can see how the rocks dwarf the town.

  7. I am sure each and every protuberance is named, and, its energy mapped and tapped.

  8. Cathedral Rock, from its base. We walked part way up. You can follow a trail all the way up, or so I was led to believe. The Cathedral Rock vortex is a feminine, nurturing, still and calm energy center.

  9. Almost the same shot of Cathedral Rock (my particular vortex, according to the guide), but this time, without the camera set to "long exposure."

  10. A broader view of Cathedral Rock.

  11. The watery energy. Ask for what you want to come towards you, what you want to come into your life.

  12. Ask for what you want to go away from you, what you want to wash away downstream. This water vortex is also a feminine vortex. (You know, now that I think of it, I wonder why they are engendered. Seems like a clear case of projection.)

  13. I believe I am now back in ignorant tourist mode, snapping pictures of rocks and vortexes and energies without knowing what I'm doing. I think this one is called Snoopy. (Honestly.)

  14. Outside a studio, some whimsical cacti. Note that Sedona has more art galleries than residents. I labored hard that Sunday, spending, oh, something like 11 a.m. - 5 p.m. or more, going gallery to gallery. I was sturdy. I did not buy any piece of art that happened to be priced at a few thousand dollars. I did fall in love with and buy a little turquoise suede pillow, on which is a curvy black bear who is decorated with strident sharp arrows of rust. Only $75.

  15. A moose waits for us to enter.

  16. My beautiful blue pillow. I read (for the first time) "Great Gatsby" in Sedona.

  17. After this day of hurtling from gallery to gallery, and not to mention getting up at the crack of dawn to be with some vortexes, I retreated at sunset to the Red Rock State Park. An actual real live blooming cactus was at the entrance.

  18. The park has a graceful rock border, up at the viewing platform. I thought it a lovely and very Sedona touch.

  19. The view of the red rocks at the park.

  20. Prickly-pear cactus are strewn about the hillside. The dirt is all red dirt (although they don't promote that quite as heavily as they do on Kauai.)

  21. Suddenly, in the middle of the park, or seemingly, is a red dirt palatial house. Looks kinda cool and like they must have killer views. Must be private land near the park.

  22. The point of this photo: to show to Dad the coral and silver bracelet that "he bought" for me! He has me for Christmas, so we agreed this could be his present to me. The coffee cup is an old design by Mary Coulter (1930s) for the La Posada Inn. It is now the only cup I use for coffee or tea.

  23. Yow. Maybe my camera isn't broken after all.

  24. The Church of the Rock. It is Roman Catholic but I think it is also pretty open and not that denominational.

  25. It is sort of odd - you can't imagine a church design that would be more at odds with the local scenery - but maybe that was the appeal.

  26. This must be the view from the church.

  27. The eerie, Martian, yet oddly familar red fingers reach up to the sky.

  28. Cactus and red rock. This is Arizona to me, sorry to be cliched.

  29. Twilight draws near.

  30. The inside of the Church of the Rock.

  31. A pilgrim to the church takes a break to watch the sun go down over the rocks. Or maybe she's just tired.


Marianne Mueller
Last modified: September 17, 2004