Call of the Southwest CanyonScapes

by Sandra Cosentino

(photos by Sandra Cosentino except where noted) 

Grand Canyon sunrise by Sandra Cosentino

These canyons and cliffs evoke a visceral level response in us. 

Our very smallness relative to the landscape is humbling.  

Yet you sense expanded horizons of who you really are.

Primordial Force of Nature

Sedona, Arizona resonates with the heart beat of the earth. There is a presence here that quickens your senses, that calls you home. It is a gateway into the Colorado Plateau, the second largest plateau in the world. A place of mysterious beauty, it is alive with Creation stories and with eons of the Earth's creation exposed in sinuous red and white canyons. A primordial force of crystalline rock embedded with prayers from many millenia of humans honoring this sacred earth, her energies vibrate at a cellular level in those who come in pilgrimage.

The Colorado Plateau is connected to the center of the backbone of Mother Earth, the Rocky Mountains, which extend from Alaska to Chile in a north-south direction. On the opposite side of the earth is the Tibetan Plateau, largest in the world, connected to the east-west chain of the Himalyas. These two great mountain chains form a cross of the 4 Directions. It is no coincidence that two ancient mystical cultures--the Tibetan Buddhists and the Hopi Indians--were guided by Creator to anchor and enhance these powerful natural energies.

painting by JohnSteele: 

We Bring the Rains

Still today, the Hopi priests place offerings at ancestral prayer shrine sites all over the region including the Sedona area. The Hopis, the most traditional tribe in North America, settled on the Plateau after thousands of years of migrations to this their place of center. Their presence enriches my experience of this land as an ancient sacred place. And reminds me that we today too have a role to remember our reciprocity to our giver of life, Mother Earth.

Here, elemental forces sculpt a dreamscape radiant with sun, quickened by lightning. The wind that shapes the wondrous formations gives voice to the indwelling life that Navajos call Nilchi'i, the inner spirit of humans, the mountains, the stars and all of creation. It's easy to have that experience of having left the ordinary world behind and stepping into the non-ordinary world. Here ancient knowing is stimulated. Who are we? Why are we here now.

The Mystic's Path of Direct Experience

Exploring Sedona by Teresa Settles

Trips into the world of wild nature and Native cultures of the Colorado Plateau open people to a felt experience of empathetic unity, which is central to indigenous thought and being. Wild beings, trees, canyons, streams have a consciousness that communicates with us in dreams, vision and daily life in a thousand unseen energetic patterns or resonances. Moving fast, living in our head, we in the Western world seem to have lost touch with direct knowing of the heart, of trusting our own instincts. Subtle signs come to us constantly from nature, in our dreams, in the words of friends and co-workers. Do we slow down enough to listen?

We are vaster than our mind, than our body. And in the purity of wild nature we have a direct pipeline to Source. As you relax, quit thinking and doing and just be alive to the moment, Nature always gifts us. With every in-breathe light energy from the stars, the sun, the mountains feeds you. With every out-breath, the whole of the cosmos knows you.

Sedona photo by Sandra Cosentino

This path of direct knowing has always called me.  Nature called me to move out of the city to the mountains after college and became a doorway to realignment of my psyche and seeing new possibilities.  During this time in my twenties, while out on the land, I received my first conscious messages from Spirit that helped me shift out of limiting beliefs and set me on a life long path of spirit connection.

Countless times, I have known an animal was there before seeing them, looked in wild bird and animal’s eyes, felt wind swirls at auspicious moments, sensed myself breathing with a mountain, had lucid dreams with direct communication from animal helpers and wild places, looked with awe and gave thanks to rising sun, and felt sun and star energy as an internal fire.  We live in a sentient world, all connected to the greater field of consciousness. 

I share pathways of the modern day mystic with guests to this land, drawing from timeless principals; such as: developing attentiveness to energies and signs flowing within nature and us, becoming your own shaman-seer traveling on the wings of your intention and focused attention, and using ceremony to activate your intention and rebalance. 

recent Sedona Ancestor Wisdom Circle
 with Martika of Columbia and guests from Australia

We go out at dawn, sunset and under the stars--each time of day with its own sensory qualities. Circles with our Hopi, Navajo and other Native American friends deepen for us this ancient sense of being part of the greater circle of life. 

We are part of the living body of the Earth—her vibrational frequency, like ours, is increasing.  Direct experience of her energies, grounds and renews us.  Her beauty fills our heart with awe and wonder.  And for the mystic, nature is a portal to expanded awareness.

Answering the Call of the Desert:
"Upon my arrival, a mutual friend introduced me to Sandra Cosentino, owner/operator of Crossing Worlds Journeys & Retreats based here in Sedona. Through excursions of the heart-- Medicine Wheel ceremonies, drum journeys and cultural explorations into Hopi and Navajo Indian country, Sandra helped me deepen and further the bond I had with the wild magic here-- this ancient land that had courted me from the thick-treed slopes of the Northwest into the soaring rock and wrinkled hills of the Southwest.

We often don't have any precedent in our lives that suggests that this kind of connection is open to us; don't know anyone who has these interactive dialogues with Nature, with the wild energies of wind & rock and the ancient voices of the ancestors. Sandra has been in dialogue and soulful connection with this ancient land all of her Life. By example she helped me trust this seemingly unorthodox conversation I had entered into with this place and welcome the Mystery to enter into me."
Shay Panther, 2002

Sandra Cosentino, native to Arizona, created Crossing Worlds Journeys in 1991 to share her intuitive insights and informed passion for the spirit, lands and cultures of the Colorado Plateau. Her lifelong mystical relation to Nature led her to sharing of friendships and knowledge with Native peoples of the Southwest, Peru and Alaska and with universal wisdom keepers of many paths. She conducts journeys, retreats, and earth-spirit experiences in Sedona, Hopi and on Navajo lands in Canyon de Chelly and other places of natural power and beauty on the Colorado Plateau for individuals and groups from around the world . A former teacher with an M.S. in Natural Resources Planning, she has worked as a natural resource manager for the State of Alaska and for Native tribes in Alaska and Arizona

Please see:  Crossing Worlds Journeys for Sedona and Colorado Plateau experiences, images and articles

Nature, Soul and Vision Pilgrimage: Reflections from a Grand Canyon, Zion, Antelope Canyon journey

by Sandra Cosentino 
This article is reflections from my spirit renewal journey Sept. 8 - 11, 2001. I was on the 4th day of my personal pilgrimage enroute to the base of Page Dam to go on a raft trip on the Colorado River, when we heard of the attack on the Twin Towers and that the dam and all federal facilities had been locked down. Now almost 10 years later, I remember the long drive back to Sedona in shock taking in the the growing dimensions of this tragedy as I listened to NPR. Somehow this 4 days was a foundation time I was guided to do. And that, like all of my intentional power places time outs, is still resonating in frequencies recognized by the soul. Though indirectly understood by the thinking mind, these primal experiences continue to provide support and on-going sense of direction.

The Call to Pilgrimage
September 5, 2001, NASA spaceweather news reported a visible flare was recorded from a powerful X-ray outburst. Scientists say the black hole gobbled up a comet or asteroid or that the flare might have been caused by the reconnection of magnet field line near the black hole, a process that also triggers solar flares on the Sun.

This is an artist conception of the
supermassive black hole at the center
of our Milky Way Galaxy.

Just as the sun shifts its poles and the galactic center realigns its magnet lines releasing tremendous energy, I felt the call to come into greater alignment with my soul's destiny and let my creative fires flare.

Here on the edge of the unknown me--the Black Hole at the center of my being relentlessly stalks, pulls like a magnet. Take a chance, leap over the edge, let the fire of your central sun burn away the dross and realign you. Allow the old carapace to dissolve and make room for a larger boundary to come into being. Tap into the power that lies deep in the vortex of my inner center.

This image triggered a response, a gut feeling: go into canyons of immense power and beauty in northern Arizona and Utah. Once again, the spell of the Colorado Plateau called me out to explore. This primordial force of crystalline rock and sun embeded with prayers from thousands of years of human presence, is the second largest plateau in the world.

Over the years, each time I responded to my heart's yearning to go to places of natural power and energy, it became a doorway into a new reality. Responding to a cellular level vibrational charge, I was encouraged to step out past my comfort zone. This in turn, opened more doors of creative expression than I had previously imagined.

David Whyte speaks eloquently of this edge place in Crossing An Unknown Sea.:

"We all have our own ground to work, you know. You have yours, too. You just have to find out what it is. But you know what? It is right on the edge of yourself. At the cliff edge of life. That's the edge you go to. Put yourself in conversation with that edge no matter how frightening it seems. Look down over that edge."

North Rim of Grand Canyon
Sitting on the edge of the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, the jagged cliff face sheers straight down toward the turquoise ribbon of the Colorado River far below. A Holy Place, not far from the sipapuni, the Hopi mythological place of emergence into this the fourth world. A vast birthing place womb of Creation. 

junction, Little Colorado-Colorado River, Grand Canyon

I revolve around my own abyss, magnetized, irresistibly attracted by force greater than my mind can grasp. Time and again when my mind wants to spin, I come back to staring at the textures, the purple, green and red layers of the landscape temples before.

Every nuance comes into sharp focus: the abrupt ree..eee squawk of the pinyon jay announcing his presence, the soft feel of cool early fall breeze quivers the needles on the pinion pine and flows over my body like silk, then gusts in a strong who-who whooshing voice. Senses heighten and subtle awarenesses flow through.

But when my mind want to analyze, plan, spin me out of the moment of connectedness to the vastness, I notice it. I make a choice to deepen my breath and come back down into the body. Back into deep observing, just being here, now. This is my practice of Presence, divine communion with Source.

The quote below is a good example of how the Grand Canyon evokes a larger sense of reality even within the context of a western novel.

Vast canyon scape evokes sense of freedom:
from The Call of the Canyon by Zane Grey, a Western novelist who wrote this while living in Oak Creek Canyon near Sedona in 1920.

"She could not estimate distance. But she did not need that to realize her perceptions were swallowed up by magnitude. Hitherto the power of her eyes had been unknown. How splendid to see afar! She could see--yes--but what did she see? Space first, annihilating space, dwarfing her preconceived images, and then wondrous colors! What had she known of color? No wonder artists failed adequately and truly to paint mountains, let alone the desert space. The toiling millions of the crowded cities were ignorant of this terrible beauty and sublimity. Would it have helped them to see? But just to breathe that untainted air, just to see once the boundless open of colored sand and rock--to realize what the freedom of eagles meant would not that have helped anyone?

And with the thought there came to Carley's quickened and struggling mind a conception of freedom. She had not yet watched eagles, but she now gazed out into their domain. What then must be the effect of such environment on people whom it encompassed? The idea stunned Carley. Would such people grow in proportion to the nature with which they were in conflict? Hereditary influence could not be comparable to such environment in the shaping of character."

Zion Narrows
Slim waterfalls cascade over the rounded cliff face rising over 1000 feet above. Hiking in the Virgin River, I lean heavily on my walking stick to keep balance on the slick algae-coated boulders. This cleft is the Narrows in Zion Canyon, Utah. Rain upstream can bring a sudden torrent of water rushing through the narrow, winding confined slot. Knowing this adds to my sense of exhilaration, adventure.

One of many natural temples of Zion NP

Moving water is a constant background hum and carries a moist, organic smell. Hanging gardens form in seeps wonderfully exotic with moss, ferns, orange stars, red firecracker penstemons. Giant stone temples tower overhead and in a flashing moment we merge and I too am a temple alive with celestial music and light shining on water, in orange rock, in my heart.

Antelope Canyon
On the open plateau lands of the Navajo Reservation, Arizona, I walk into a deep dry crack in the Navajo sandstone--dunes frozen in place from the time when dinosaurs walked the earth. The sandy floor is only 4 to 8 feet wide narrowing overhead to a slit arching in domed swirls and jagged promontories.

This cross-section reveals angled bedding of the wind-driven dunes now cut through by water in sensuous corkscrew curves. My fingers caress the surprisingly smooth, nubby textured wall, more like a tapestry than stone.Sun light illumines the crack like a sand lantern burning in luminous shades of orange, yellow and red. Painted by light. This is my quest to be infused by Light direct from Source. In hushed awe I am right here now a radiant star of light.

After the Journey
Stimulated by this journey, a powerful Navajo guide came to me in the dreamtime showing me the essence of being the new vision. Sitting still with her body curved forward, alone amid endless dunes, the Navajo grandmother sees through the sands of time. Her tiered skirt ripples in the desert wind. Lines etched in her face reveal the sculpting forces of wind and sun. She does not doubt who she is. Confidence radiates out from eyes that penetrate my inner truth. Nowhere to hide, I am drawn into her aura of natural power. She evokes this chant in me:

With Beauty before me, I sit.
With Beauty behind me, I am in the center of life.
With Beauty below me, I am life.
With Beauty above me, I am held in the hand of Creator.

first posted Oct. 4, 2001, updated March 3, 2008 and Jan. 17, 2011


Special Experiences with Nature, Soul and Vision...
Time of Vision Retreat in Canyon de Chelly, Hopi
Solo Overnight in Nature in Sedona area
Re-Visioning Your Destiny, all day experience in Sedona area

Crossing Worlds Journeys and Retreats
P O Box 3288
Sedona, AZ 86340 
1-800-350-2693 for initial info calls
main number:  928-282-0846