Into
the
Woods
The sylvania of Pennsylvania means “woodland”—the name the state would’ve had if William Penn had his way—and he would’ve been right: 60 percent of the state is forest. Sandwiched between the heavily industrial western and the bohemian, Revolution-rich eastern edges of the state (eastern Pennsylvania is purported by some to be the most haunted region of the country), there are 17 million acres of woods. Under the canopy of pines, maples, and hemlocks, cultures mesh, roads cross, and raw elemental powers assert themselves in a landscape that evolves with the ever-changing seasons.
The debate to determine Pennsylvania’s state flower raged on for two years: should it be the pink azalea or the mountain laurel? Although both flowers can be found all over the state, azalea advocates grumbled about the mountain laurel’s poisonous reputation, while the pro-laurel faction argued that the azalea, pretty as it was, provided no winter foliage to add to the state’s enchanting woodlands. What to do?
In 1933 it was quietly decided by then-governor Gifford Pinchot (or, more likely, his wife) that the crown would go to the laurel. Perhaps this triumph shouldn’t come as a surprise: since ancient times laurel wreaths have been awarded to heroes, poets, and conquerors. The mountain laurel is a member of the blueberry family, a plant known for its protective and healing properties. Brides wore or carried laurels to ensure long and happy marriages that produced healthy children. If you find yourself in need of an ego boost, tuck a laurel leaf into your pocket with a thought for some healthy self-esteem—but don’t ingest it. The azalea folk were correct: the mountain laurel is lethal.
It might be forest now, but 50 million years ago, during the Paleozoic period, central Pennsylvania’s woods were beachfront property. When the area was covered with saltwater, buglike trilobites ruled the land (or sea, as the case may be). Now the trilobite is the state’s most common fossil, and thanks to science students at the Valley Elementary School in the town of Bensalem, it’s Pennsylvania’s official state fossil; there is no state rock or mineral. Trilobites are potent with magical properties. What you see when you’re looking at a trilobite fossil is actually its exoskeleton, making it a wonderful talisman for protection of the skeletal system. These critters are also survivors: trilobitic descendants—crabs, lobsters, and shrimp—are still around and quite prolific! Carry a Pennsylvania trilobite in your pocket to enhance your survivor qualities: patience, perseverance, and strength.
Eastern Hemlocks can live up to 800 years and account for 25 percent of Pennsylvania’s vast wilderness. They’re never found as solitary specimens; their canopy and root systems are vast and interconnected, making them fitting symbols of family and community. Experience the magic of this tree at the Forest Cathedral in Cook Forest State Park, an ancient stand of hemlocks and pines (some of the trees are upwards of 350 years old). Next time you find yourself under the boughs of a hemlock tree, give it a hug or lay your cheek against its bark and let it impart its wisdom to you.
William Penn’s temperate handling of Pennsylvania’s first and only official witch trial in 1684 insured that Pennsylvania wouldn’t suffer from the same hysteria as its northern counterparts. Margaret Mattson was accused of being a witch but was never proven to be one (she probably wasn’t). Still, she would ever afterwards be known as the Witch of Ridley Creek and was ordered to pay a fine. An act against the practice of witchcraft found its way into the books about a year after Margaret’s trial, but it yielded no convictions. Ben Franklin tried to appeal the act with no success, but after the Revolution, witchcraft as a crime got swept under the rug, though accounts of witchcraft throughout the state ran well into the twentieth century.
Moll Derry was of German descent and came to America in the middle of the eighteenth century with her husband, who was a Hessian mercenary. They settled first in Bedford and then Fayette County, and it wasn’t long before folks in both areas were coming to her for herbal cures. It’s likely that she was a Hex Meister, one skilled in the ways of German folk magic to heal both body and soul. Moll’s reputation for being able to give folks a peek into the future and her uncanny knack for an unorthodox distribution of justice—calling out murderers and thieves—earned her the nickname the Fortuneteller of the Revolution.
It’s hard to see it from the road. Impossible, in fact. You just have to know that it’s there. At 73 feet tall, the Sacred Oak of Oley is the largest yellow (chinkapin) oak in the United States and is revered by the Native American tribe called the Lenni Lenape not only for its connection to their heritage, but for its healing properties. It stands in a safe harbor, nestled by smaller trees beside a farmhouse and a cornfield.
Lenape tribal elders say that this oak has been sacred to their people for nearly 500 years. The tree itself may be as much as 700 years old. Lenape legends tell of a chief who prayed under the tree to restore his fatally sick wife; when he returned home, he found her health restored. He later asked the tree for help to avoid conflict with a neighboring tribe. Again, the tree delivered. Disrespect the oak, however, and tradition warns that karma will be swift.
A bronze plaque mounted in stone tells the story of the oak, but this tree can communicate its own majesty. Roots erupt from the ground like the knees of an old man. Thick branches reach to heaven. Nooks in the tree contain passive offerings of notes, acorns, and pennies. The tree’s visitors have reported feeling the power of its presence; some claim to have felt its healing powers. The tree is located on private property but is open to visitors two days each year, one in the spring and one in the autumn.
The folks of Phoenixville, Pennsylvania, have conjured a festival of community creativity centered around their mythical namesake. For the Burning Bird (rather than Burning Man), visual and performance artists converge on the town in early December, with a celebration ending in a Phoenix taking flight—in flame.
• http://firebirdfestival.com
As Beltane approaches, so do the fey. For over a quarter of a century, Glen Rock’s CSA Spoutwood Farms has hosted its annual Faerie Festival, complete with King and Queen of the May and “more winged things than you can count!”
• www.spoutwood.org
The town of Easton is the site of an annual act of magical transformation. War turns into peace, and a beacon is lit in the sky for all wise men and women to see. A symbol of illumination for all spiritual paths, the Peace Candle has been a Yuletide tradition since 1951. The world’s largest non-wax candle magically, though not mysteriously, covers the war memorial at the center of town the day after Thanksgiving. In 1976, when enthusiasm for the candle was low, a carpenter (contractor) from Nazareth, Pennsylvania, donated the equipment to make sure the candle went up.
Ten miles southwest of Easton is the town of Bethlehem, settled by Moravians (from Bohemia, now the Czech Republic) in the eighteenth century. Today at Yuletide (or any tide) look for Moravian stars throughout the town, in windows, hung over doorways, even paved into the roads.
Literally works of sacred geometry, the multi-pointed stars (26 is traditional; Moravian stars can have over 100 points) were a mathematical exercise invented at a Moravian school in Germany in the nineteenth century. The stars come in all sorts of colors and materials, but the originals were red and white and made of parchment. These sun-like stars speak of the light reborn, but to those who follow the Moravian faith they are cultural symbols as well as a sign of the promise of Advent.
Pennsylvania has its fair share of curious creatures:
- • Described as a mini Bigfoot (Bigfoot is big in Pennsylvania), the Albatwitch (“the apple witch” in the language of the Susquehannock) is a mischievous, monkeylike imp that creeps into orchards to steal and eat apples, and then pelts any subsequent visitors with the cores. Albatwitch has his very own festival held in Columbia in early September—when apples are in season (http://www.albatwitchfestival.com).
- • Baggy-skinned, pig-nosed, and warty, the Squonk has been called the homeliest creature alive. It weeps over how ugly it is and spends its time eluding capture in the darkest shadows of the forest. Rumors of the Squonk surfaced in the nineteenth century when Pennsylvania’s timber industry thrived. Unfortunately, no specimen living or dead has ever been recovered. When confronted, Squonk is so horrified at being seen that it dissolves into a puddle of its own tears.
- • First, a hammer goes missing. Then there’s the sound: tap-tap-tap…and then the mine collapses. Legends of little green men—the subterrestrial kind—are prevalent in Western Pennsylvania, where Cornish and Welsh immigrants brought their folklore with them into the coal mines. The tap of Knockers—or Tommyknockers in Pennsylvania—presaged the implosion of a mineshaft. But are these malevolent imps or guardian spirits? Only the Knockers know…
An outcropping along Hexenkopf Road in Williams Township (on private property) can resemble a wizened profile when the trees are bare. Hexenkopf, or the Witch’s Head, gained a reputation as a place of dark magic, but such tales are a sensationalized version of the hill’s connection to the Pennsylvania German healing practice called Braucherei. Johann Peter Seiler—and later his son and grandson—used the hill for transference, or taking the illness out of a person and transferring it into something else so that it can do no more harm. The term “Pow-Wow,” used to describe this art, is attributed to the Seilers through their work with the area’s indigenous peoples. Native Americans called their sessions with Seilers “powwows.”
Windsor Township’s Hexe Baerrick, “Witches Hill,” has also been labeled as a sinister site, but for those who follow the Wild Hunt of Frau Holle, it is a place (Hexenkopf is another) to welcome her back on Walpurgisnacht. (Note: like Hexenkopf, Hexe Baerrick is located on private property.)
The American Northeast is dotted with war memorials of all kinds, but a special one resides in the town of Bristol. Located in front of the Bristol Township Municipal Building, the War Dog Memorial honors the tens of thousands of four-legged soldiers who have served in every US conflict since World War I. Too often labeled as “equipment,” dogs have been deployed as scouts, bomb and booby-trap sniffers, and in search and rescue missions. They are true heroes.
What happened to Monument Cemetery? It’s a sad tale. A grand Victorian resting spot with tens of thousands of graves, Monument found itself out of fashion in the atomic age, and the site was razed to make way for new structures. The bodies were moved to a mass grave in the nearby town of Rockledge. The monuments themselves were dismantled—some were broken up and incorporated into the base of the Betsy Ross Bridge; others were discarded and litter the riverbed and shore.
This is not a lone incident. In 2013 utility workers discovered the remains of Oddfellows Cemetery (Oddfellows is a fraternal organization like the Freemasons), another built-over Victorian cemetery, except this time the bodies had been left behind. Visit the forgotten dead of Monument and Oddfellows at Lawnview Cemetery.
You don’t need to cross the Tigris and Euphrates or the Nile to see the Pyramids; try the Delaware or Ohio rivers instead. The Victorian era saw a surge of interest in Egyptian culture, and Egyptian revival tombs can be found in several of Pennsylvania’s nineteenth-century burial grounds.
- • The tomb of businessman William Harry Brown in Homewood Cemetery is a full-on pyramid complete with hieroglyphics and crowned with a winged orb and twin snakes. More pyramids can be seen in the stained glass of other vaults throughout the graveyard.
- • The Gardel monument in Philly’s Mount Vernon Cemetery is a brownstone pyramid draped in greenery and marble statuary, including a sphinx and a camel. The statues tell the story of the woman interred within, Philadelphia teacher Julia Gardel, who died while on holiday in Syria.
- • The Wainwright vault in Pittsburgh’s Allegheny Cemetery is a small, dark pyramid sited in front of a pair of now-illegible books. A pair of sphinxes flank the entrance to the tomb of banker Emil Winter. The door is bronze and features Mr. Winter himself in full Pharaoh regalia.
- • Charles Taze Russel’s pyramid in Rosemont, Mt. Hope, and Evergreen United Cemeteries is a miniature version of the Great Pyramid in Egypt, complete with a capstone!
- • The vastness of Laurel Hill Cemetery is full of classical and Gothic as well as Egyptian Revival tombs. While you’re here, visit the tomb of astronomer David Rittenhouse. He was the first American to spot Uranus—the planet of surprise—and the first to build a telescope in the United States (he used spider webs to make the fine lines used for siting on the lens).
David Rittenhouse built two moving clockwork orreries, or models of the universe. One can be found in the Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books, and Manuscripts in the University of Pennsylvania’s Van Pelt–Dietrich Library in Philadelphia. The other is in the lobby of Peyton Hall at Princeton University in New Jersey.
Cultural anthropologist Margaret Mead challenged accepted views on what it means to be human. She was outspoken in her views on feminism, family, ethnicity, and education; folklorist Zora Neale Hurston was one of her students. “Cherish the life of the world” at her final resting place in Bucks County.
One of two “incorruptible” saints that call the United States home (the other is Mother Francis Cabrini in New York City), St. John Neumann rests in a glass coffin in front of the altar at his shrine in Philadelphia. Incorruptible is relative—when St. John was exhumed, he was only bones. What you see is a wax effigy; his relics are encased inside.
There was something magical about his sweaters (all of them were made by his mom) and sneakers, feeding the fish and taking the trolley to the Land of Make Believe. A Christian minister with an unflappable love for everyone from every path, Mr. Rogers was everyone’s favorite neighbor. Stop by for a chat at Unity Cemetery in Latrobe.
Drive around Pennsylvania German country and it’s likely that you’ll encounter a piece of Johnny Claypoole’s work. The student of the renowned Hex-sign painter “Professor” Johnny Ott (who, on his deathbed, passed his craftsman’s crown to Claypoole), Johnny Claypoole was coy about his belief in his work; were his signs “just for nice” or true magical talismans? A storyteller as well as an artist, he was a respected authority on Pennsylvania German folklore and customs. Honor his and his teacher’s memories by viewing their work.
It’s possible that some of the hex signs you’ll see on the houses and barns of Berks and Lehigh counties were painted by Ott and/or Claypoole, but one place where you can see the real deal is in the Der Distelfink statue at the Berks Heritage Center in Wyomissing; Johnny Claypoole painted the bird’s eye. Carrying on his father’s legacy, Johnny’s son Eric freshened up its plumage in 2006.
Pennsylvania German Country
The change is subtle: one minute you’re on the highway, and the next, a country road winding through a patchwork of farmland. A gray horse and buggy clops by, and you know you’re in Pennsylvania Dutch Country. “Dutch” is a bit of a misnomer. The culture that thrives as you head west into the state is German, or Deutsch, which evolved into Deitsch, “Pennsylvania German.” These folks who migrated here in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries brought their language (Deitsch refers to the dialect still spoken in Pennsylvania today) and customs with them, along with a good dose of magic.
Braucherei—or, more affectionately, Pow-Wow—is a syncretic magical practice that combines folklore and Christian faith. A Pennsylvania German tradition, its recitation of verses (sometimes biblical) combined with herbalism, traditional medicine, and love have healed body and soul for centuries.
The SATOR square cures a number of ills:
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Written on a slip of paper and carried on one’s person, it prevents fire. Placed on a child’s back for twenty-four hours, it cures illness. Eat a paper inscribed with the letters if you’re bitten by a rabid dog, or mix the paper in with your cow’s food to keep her from being bewitched. Scholars don’t agree on the translation of the SATOR square, but the most widely accepted is “the sower holds the wheels from the bank with effort.” Said literally, it can refer to farming, but it can also be a nod to magical practice.
Braucherei’s most famous practitioner, Maria Jung (Young)—Mountain Mary—practiced her gentle art solitarily from a small cabin and self-sufficient farm near Pikesville at the time of the Revolutionary War. Her grave (on private property) has been a site of pilgrimage—particularly on or near the anniversary of her death on November 16—to honor not only the woman but her Craft, which encompassed the tending of a “magic” herb garden from which she “dispensed miraculous cures.”
The practice of Pow-Wow healing is passed down and community based, but throughout Lancaster, Lehigh, and Berks counties there are signs of it everywhere—hex signs. You’ll find them painted directly on barns or as enameled discs hung over doorways. A charm written in color and symbol and encompassed in a circle, hex signs have been working their magic, protecting bestowing blessings, and welcoming for years. According to Silver Ravenwolf in her book HexCraft, hex signs have their roots in the patterns of ancient Celtic and Germanic art—if you look closely, the main design of a hex sign is continuous, like knotwork. In Pennsylvania (and elsewhere) you’ll find them painted directly on buildings or on round discs by artisans such as Johnny Ott and Johnny Claypoole. Hex signs landed a place in popular culture when Jacob Zook made them portable, producing them inexpensively in the 1960s.
The most effective hex signs are those you can make with your own hands, although you can charge and bless purchased signs. Zook’s book Hex Signs: The History & Meanings of the Hex Symbols (Johnny Ott collaborated on the project) is a good reference to find traditional colors and symbols to use when designing a sign for yourself. Get further inspiration with a visit to Der Distelfink. A roadside wonder as well as a sacred symbol, the colorful finch that invokes good fortune is extra-lucky at 6 feet tall and 11 feet long. He’s the official greeter of the Berks County Heritage Center just next door, your one-stop resource for all things Pennsylvania German.
Held over Fourth of July week, the Kutztown Folk Festival celebrates all aspects of Pennsylvania German culture. Not a series of staged performances, the festival, which is the longest-running of its kind (the first was held in 1950), features presenters who are native practitioners: real people sharing their work and ways of life.
Closer to the old ways of German and Norse spirituality is a growing practice called Urglaawe. This gentle cousin of Asatru also shares folkloric traditions with Braucherei, but it is independent and unique in its practices and beliefs. Urglaawe melds the Pagan-Heathen cycle of the Wheel of the Year with folklore tied to the fields and farms of central Pennsylvania, though its influence reaches beyond the state.
Frau Holle, the Divine Matron of German legend, has a place of special reverence in the Urglaawe tradition. Her departure and return from the Wild Hunt take place on Mount Brocken in Germany. In the United States she comes and goes on Hexenkopf, one of nine peaks in Pennsylvania sacred to Urglaawe. Hexenkopf is on private property, but four of the peaks—Mount Pisgah, the Pinnacle, Hawk Mountain, and Mount Penn—are located in public parks, some with extra goodies.
Drive anywhere in Pennsylvania and chances are you’ll see hawks circling overhead. It’s something most folks take for granted, but in the late 1920s the state’s hawk population dwindled because of sport hunting. Then, in 1938, feminist, poet, and activist Rosalie Edge purchased a parcel of property called Hawk Mountain, turning the best shooting spot in the county into an avian sanctuary. This action defied popular sentiment as well as the local Audubon Society, but Rosalie Edge was focused and had a clear vision of what she felt had to be done.
Today, Hawk Mountain is still a sanctuary and a place to commune with and be inspired by not only hawks but eagles, vultures, and other birds of prey. While at the sanctuary, trek the River of Rocks Trail if you are able. At the River of Rocks, all is reversed: boulders tumble over and across each other, and underneath is the sound of running water.
Inside Mount Penn’s Reading Pagoda is an eighteenth-century bell from a Japanese Buddhist monastery.
The Wolf Preserve of Pennsylvania
Wolves have been strangers in Pennsylvania in the last century, but at the edge of the sleepy town of Lititz, the nights and days are filled with the soft pad of lupine feet and the unmistakable note of wolfsong once more. The Wolf Preserve of Pennsylvania is home to fourteen packs of gray wolves and wolf hybrids, ranging from a single animal to a group of ten. The animals live in fenced areas where they have the room to roam safely in a natural environment. Used to human company, they’ll lope next to you as you walk the trails between the paddocks. Encounter snow-white Hope and her brother Aries. Stare into Dakota’s golden eyes or watch the big pack gather together to eat and sing.
Wolves are nocturnal creatures and more vocal at night, moon or no moon. The goddess Luna kept hounds, and Native American creation stories such as that of the Seneca tell of the wolf as the animal who sang the moon into being. Draw down the moon with wolfsong at a Full Moon Wolf Walk, which is more like a gathering. (The minimum age to attend full moon walks is sixteen.) The trails leading up into the preserve are closed and a bonfire is built at the entrance to the trails, and whatever the weather—crisp, clear, and cold; balmy summer; or misted with rain—the wolves come, curious to see visitors.
Wolves are a much-misunderstood—and now endangered—species. Sanctuaries provide shelter for these magical animals and a means of sharing their truth with the public. Animal Tourism provides lists of the best places to see wild animals in natural habitats; you can search by both species and place. Visit their wolf listing at:
• www.animaltourism.com/animals/wolf.php
The Mazar of Sheikh M. R. Bawa Muhaiyaddeen (Ral.)*
“The things that change are not our real life. Within us there is another body, another beauty.
It belongs to that ray of light which never changes. We must discover how to mingle with it and become one with that unchanging thing. We must realize and understand this treasure of truth.
That is why we have come to the world.”
—M. R. Bawa Muhaiyaddeen (Ral.)
* “Ral.” is a respectful honorific that means
“may God be pleased with him.”
It’s hard to believe the change; Lancaster is so different from Philadelphia, only forty miles away. The gently rolling back roads of Pennsylvania German country impart a sense of peace that the simple life gives the soul. That simplicity and peace is found in many forms in this place, one of which exists quietly at the end of Fellowship Drive in the town of East Fallowfield.
Like a bright jewel in a sea of green forest, the mazar (grave) of Sheikh M. R. Bawa Muhaiyaddeen (Ral.), with its whitewashed walls and domed top, is unexpected but immediately part of the landscape. The mazar—the first of its kind in the United States—draws pilgrims to this place, but the land is also a self-sufficient farm dedicated to the lifestyle of the Sufi teacher from Sri Lanka who followed a vegetarian diet. Sufism is the mystical branch of the Muslim faith, whose followers look for truth via direct contact with God. Faith is based more on personal experience than the study of ancient texts, and contact is often achieved through meditation, chanting, and the spinning dance of those famous whirling dervishes.
Inside, the mazar is a serene and open space of quiet meditation, with marble floors and Bukhara carpets set in front of a wooden grave cover that is draped in dark velvet adorned with exquisite Arabic script. The carpets, like each element of this building, are placed with a sense of geometry and symmetry, a foil to the chaos of nature that reigns outdoors. Outside, wind may blow, rain may pelt against the windows, birds sing, people work in the gardens, and children play, but in these walls is blissful, peaceful, perfect quiet.
“The quieter you become, the more you are able to hear,” wrote Rumi, the poet and Sufi whose gentle turns of phrase are magical incantations that quiet the mind. Enter the silent sanctuary of the mazar. Sit on one of the window seats or carpets and gaze out over the draped coffin and into fields that roll endlessly out the window. Give yourself time to soak in the silence and make that connection to the Divine.
Ringing Rocks state park
Make sure you bring a hammer. A stone will do in a pinch—and you’ll find plenty of them in Ringing Rocks State Park. All along the path leading in and up, there are rocks: boulders and pebbles and palm-sized stones. Then suddenly the trees give way to a bright open space where there’s nothing but stones—a boulder field. There’s only one way to traverse it: very slowly, one stone—one step—at a time. The leisurely pace will foster an appreciation for the local wildlife: snakes, spiders, centipedes, chipmunks, and squirrels.
Once you are well in among the stones, it’s easy to see which ones will ring; their surfaces are worn to a glittering white from being struck over and over again. Start tapping. You’ll know when you’ve found one. You won’t hear the snap of stone on stone or metal on stone, but a chime. Science says that the stones ring because they have high iron and aluminum contents. Aluminum is an excellent metal for travel, as it is associated with the planet Mercury, while iron is grounding, making this a good spot to seal a spell of intention.
While the ringing rocks are the first phenomenon to encounter in the park, they shouldn’t be the last. Return to the path and follow it to the waterfall, the largest in Bucks County and the perfect place to commune with nature’s watery form throughout the seasons. Winter turns the waterfall into a crystalline temple of ice. When the streams run dry in the warmer months, you can cautiously navigate down into the gorge or trek the large, flat expanse at the top. When the waters are flowing, exercise caution and listen to the sound of the falls from above.
The Headquarters of the Fraternitas Rosae Crucis
The chapel is a small and simple structure built of native stones without and wood paneled within. The furnishings, too, are plain but comfortable, and when services begin, all eyes focus on something wonderful.
Lodged not in a wall but in the lectern that overlooks the chapel altar, the Light of the East is a stained-glass panel depicting a thick tongue of golden-blue fire captured mid-flicker. Sharp as a gas jet and gentle as a sunbeam, it is an image of pure energy: the light of understanding, acceptance, and love that burns in the human heart. It is believed to be from France, a piece of a thirteenth-century Templar church rescued from destruction when those knights fell from favor. The glass found its way to the United States and to this, the humblest of homes—a reminder that through quiet devotion and simple service, the extraordinary can be accomplished. Light of the East is a fragment of inspiration and the physical centerpiece of the Church of Illumination, the house of worship of the authentic Franternitas Rosae Crucis.
The Rosicrucian Order takes its influences from ancient metaphysical teachings and philosophy, including (but not limited to) the Qabala, alchemy, and Hermeticism. The emblem of the Rosy Cross symbolizes the union of body and soul. The cross is the human body; the rose is the soul, whose petals unfold as consciousness awakens. Organized in Germany in the seventeenth century, the order has been active in the United States since the Revolutionary War, with folks such as Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson as members.
This sanctuary, settled slightly north of the Delaware River, has been growing since the turn of the twentieth century. Called Beverly Hall, the site takes up the whole of Clymer Road, a quiet country lane in Quakertown named for Dr. Reuben Swinburn Clymer, the nineteenth-century initiate responsible for the organization of the campus you see today.
The Academy and Magi Temple are accessible only by inducted members and students, but visitors are welcome to attend services and walk in the memorial gardens where the rose is more than a symbol: members of the order and those touched by the serenity of this place rest under the petals. The paths will also lead you past pyramids, symbols of mind, body, and spirit, the largest at the center crowned with a plaque engraved with the order’s motto, TRY.
Try an abbreviated version of the order’s Breath of God exercise. Sit or stand in a relaxed position, then take your time and draw in a deep breath—one that starts in your belly and works its way up into your lungs. As you breathe in, keep this thought in your mind: “I will draw in the omnipotent breath of God.”
Hold that breath for a few seconds, then keep this thought in your mind: “I send the breath of God throughout my entire being to heal and to strengthen.”
As you exhale, send out this thought: “I send out love and peace to all humanity.”
Practice this exercise anytime, anywhere. It is done collectively by members of the order at noon each day; add your own energy to this intention.
Note: There are many organizations throughout the world that describe themselves as Rosicrucian or as being based in Rosicrucian tradition but exist independently of each other, such as AMORC (the Ancient Mystical Order Rosae Crucis, www.amorc.org) and the Fraternitas Rosae Crucis
Columcille
County Route 611 hugs the Delaware River on the Pennsylvania side; cross the river, and you’ll be in New Jersey. If you travel north or south along this road and head west once you hit the town of Portland, you’ll feel like you’ve left Pennsylvania and stumbled into Avalon. You’ll happen upon it quite suddenly; one moment there’s the road and the trees, and the next, the standing stones of Columcille Megalith Park.
Begun in 1978, Columcille is inspired by the Scottish island of Iona. It’s Celtic in spirit, but make no mistake—it’s a place for anyone from any tradition looking for serenity and solitude. You’ll find both along the paths that wind through the trees and in the stone formations framed by leaf and branch. Each season offers a unique view and a different feeling.
Pick up a map of the park in the Voyager’s Lounge next to the gazing pond to help you identify the stones as you come upon them: the lone obelisk, the Stone of Destiny; the rough-hewn pillars of the Circle; the dramatic Thor’s Gate. There is also a faerie ring and a goddess grove, but the most poignant are those that aren’t so obvious: a tunnel to pass under, a hollow to peer into to, a circular window to gaze through. A seat on the side of the path that, when you accept its invitation to stop for a moment, reveals a temple of smooth rocks and pebbles nestled in the leaves of the trees opposite.
As you pass each arrangement of stones, especially the smaller ones, you may feel tempted to add a token of your presence or take a memento; don’t. The stones call out to be touched and experienced, but their placement and simplicity is the product of careful meditation and planning. Pause in front of displays that move you, and just be still. Listen to the land; listen to the stones. If you feel the call to shape the land, consider becoming a member of the park and participate in the “play” dates scheduled throughout the year for building and maintenance. Seek out the open ring of pine trees where you will also find an outdoor labyrinth; here it’s okay to leave a small token at the center.
Privately owned but open to the public and free to all, Columcille hosts seasonal celebrations with a Celtic flavor and spiritual observances that include music, art, and pageantry throughout the year.
Cherry Springs
Leave any border of Pennsylvania, head inward, and you’ll be surrounded by nature. The better part that isn’t farmed is wild, but nestled in the untamed wilderness are forty-two state parks, one of which is Cherry Springs, swaddled in the heart of the Susquehannock Forest. Named for a fairly large copse of black cherry trees in the park’s center, the main attraction of this place is of a more unearthly nature.
While most parks have hours from dusk to dawn, you’ll want to visit Cherry Springs at night, preferably during a new moon, when it’s extra dark. In our world of constant motion and technology, to look upon the stars unsullied by light pollution is a sacred act—and Cherry Springs is the spot on the northeastern seaboard for stargazing.
Set at the top of a 2,300-foot-high mountain crowned by trees that filter out the light of any civilization below, the gated Astronomy Field is for hard-core overnight stargazing. Short-term sky watchers can snag a spot at the Night Sky Viewing Area just across the road (Route 44). Whichever you choose, to get the most out of the experience:
- • Allow yourself several hours for viewing. It’ll take at least fifteen minutes for your eyes to really adjust to the dark.
- • Carry a flashlight covered with a red lens cap or red cellophane to minimize light pollution. White light is allowed in the park, but the less of it, the better.
- • Dress for the area as well as the season. The stargazing areas are on the top of a mountain, where it is cooler and damper—especially when it’s dark.
- • Bring some big, soft blankets. Welsh journalist and photographer Jamie Carter says that the best way to view the stars is to lie down “so that you’re looking out rather than up.” It’ll look like someone took a paintbrush, dipped it in stars, and swiped it across the sky.
- • Bring a telescope and a star map. (If you have portable Internet, try www.neave.com/planetarium and www.freestarcharts.com, free online services.) Find the constellation of your sun sign and ruling planet and connect to both through sight. Find your sun and ruling planet for free at Astrolabe, www.alabe.com. You will need the date, time, and place of your birth. Also, it’s important to keep in mind that these constellations are visible the opposite time of the year from when you were born. Constellations are visible at different times throughout the year. If there’s something specific you want to see, plan ahead!
Four Quarters Farm
The dirt road will bring you to the farmhouse. A workshop sits just beyond it. Chickens cluck and scratch in the yard, bees hover over their boxes in the adjacent apiary, gardens and orchards bloom and swell against a backdrop of forest, and in the trees beyond is another world.
In this place the magical and mundane come together. Every convenience you use, every road you walk upon, every structure, was built and is maintained by members, visitors, and, sometimes, folks just passing through—in other words, community. You’ve arrived at Four Quarters, since 1995 a self-sufficient farm and spiritual retreat center, always evolving, always growing. Founder Orren Widdon says, “We believe a sustainable future is one that draws upon traditional ways of living and inventing new, green ones...we do not teach ‘One Way’ of belief. We do not have ‘The Answer.’ We do have a lot of good questions.”
Here the concept of stewardship of the earth is a way of life; working the land and living in harmony with it are inextricably linked together. The same land that feeds the body also feeds the soul: stand at the edge of the circle of standing stones in the woods at the top of the mountain. Step in and instantly feel grounded, surrounded by the spirit of the forest and the labor of love that built this place. Walk around the circle, touch the stones; none are marked, but each has its own story, to which you bring your own experience.
The circle is a decades-long work in progress, one that is intended to go on forever, building, evolving, growing. Each year at Stones Rising new stones go up: some years three stones rise; others, only one. The stones are moved the old-fashioned way: on log rollers and pulled by rope up the mountain via human power—hundreds of humans. It takes about 200 to 300 people to move one 14,000-pound stone!
Four Quarters holds open events throughout the year. The spiritual and the playful come together in Drum and Splash (drumming, dancing, fire circle, and swimming, not necessarily in that order). Full moon rites are celebrated every month and have been consistently since 1997, as have rituals for Beltane, Samhain, and Yule. Stones Rising takes place over Labor Day weekend. Visitors are welcome at any time with advance notice. There are fees for events, which sometimes includes a meal. Children (under sixteen) are “always cherished and always free.”
Indian God Rock
From a distance, it looks like just another boulder—the same you’d see on any of the banks of the Allegheny River. Go closer, however, and you’ll see that this particular boulder has some personality—mostly graffitied, some of the scribbling and scorings going as far back as the early nineteenth century. There’s the stuff you’d expect to find—names, dates, initials in hearts—and things you wouldn’t: a very precisely carved compass and square that frames a capital G, a Masonic symbol. And then there are the carvings that predate all of these—the markings that gave this stone its name: Indian God Rock.
The markings—fifty-five figures of humans and animals—were first documented by French explorers in 1749, but they could be as much as 900 to 1,200 years old.
Is it a map? A record of wildlife in the area? Notes from a conversation with the Great Spirit?
The folks who first saw them were told by their Indian guides that the markings were sacred. The markings on Indian God Rock are similar to those found on the Birch Bark Scrolls, records made by Ojibwa medicine men showing humans, animals, transformed humans (people and their totem animals), and animal tracks; records of communion with the spirits, messages for the people from the Divine.
Note: You can see Indian God Rock by foot or by water. If you’re legging it, get on the Allegheny River Trail at the Belmar access point, then walk or bike about four miles downriver; there is an observation deck overlooking the stone. By water, get on the river at the access point in Franklin and float down to the stone.
Charles Godfrey Leland was born here; Israel Regardie studied here, and Theosophist Helena Blavatsky lived at 3420 Sansom Street, just off Hill Square (the United Lodge of Theosophists is at 1917 Walnut Street). The cobbled and winding streets of America’s first capital are ripe with mystical milieus…
Philadelphia’s Magic Gardens
The path is cobbled with bits of teacup, saucer, and pot, broken to form pictures hidden in the pavement. Overhead, archways formed by discarded bicycle wheels, bottles, and pottery tilt haphazardly. You’ve stepped into Philadelphia’s Magic Gardens, a world where unwanted objects and spaces have been spun into gold, altars of beauty, and a collection of sacred places.
The building and many others like it scattered throughout the city are the work of Isaiah Zagar. Over the last fifty years, he and his organization have transformed areas of Philly that would have otherwise fallen into decay. Step back and look at the big picture, then come closer and experience the tiny affirmations that make up the whole. You might even see yourself!
Philadelphia’s Magic Gardens
The Grand Lodge of the Free and
Accepted Masons of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia’s Masonic Temple has been called the granddaddy of all American lodges because of its grandness. Dedicated in 1873, the building is a lavish series of symbolic rooms, each dedicated to the mystical symbolism of a given age: the Norman Hall, the Egyptian Hall, the Corinthian Hall, and a Byzantine-themed library. Filled with gilded decoration, intricate stained glass, and marble floors, each room has an element that is askew to show man’s deference to the Divine. If you can’t visit the lodge in person, the website offers 360-degree views of almost all of the rooms and halls.
The Liberty Bell
The symbol of the city of Philadelphia, the Liberty Bell is the ultimate bell: a magical tool that calls and seals. Its practical purpose—it was the state house bell that called lawmakers to their duties—was overshadowed by its symbolic significance thanks to a fictitious retelling of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, where the ringing of the bell inspired the signing of the Revolution’s most important document.
The bell has been the site of prayer circles for peace and freedom. Gather round the Liberty Bell, join hands, and sing a chant for liberty. If you can’t find your own words, borrow the ones inscribed on the bell:
Proclaim liberty throughout all the land
unto all the inhabitants thereof.
Krampuslauf Philadelphia: Parade of Spirits
Have you been good—or bad? Krampus knows. A figure of Alpine folklore, Krampus comes to bring karma to the naughty at Yuletide. At the Krampuslauf Parade of Spirits, an army of Krampi (what is the plural of Krampus?), accompanied by the Yule Goat and other figures from the German and Nordic pantheons, take over the community-owned Liberty Lands Park each December. In the off-Krampus season, visit the community garden to be inspired by the magic of its greenery and self-sufficiency.
Krampuslauf Parade of Spirits
The Cave of Kelpius
Take a wrong turn on Fairmount Park’s jogging path to find the Cave of Kelpius (the spot is located between Wissahocken Creek and Hermit Lane). Some have described the site as a ruined spring house, but it may be the location chosen by astronomer and philosopher Johannes Kelpius—a virtual seventeenth-century John Dee—for he and his followers to set up their hermitage in the woods.
Called the Society of the Women in the Wilderness or the Monks of the Ridge, these folks aimed to live simply and in seclusion, but people from the area turned to them for healing and answers. The community was responsible for building the first star observatory in the New World. A granite marker was set outside the cave by the Ancient and Mystical Order Rosae Crucis, who claim that Kelpius brought the order to America.
While you’re in Fairmount Park, pass by the statue of Viking Thorfinn Karlsefni, who just might have landed in America in 1004.
After Kelpius’s death, one of his followers, Johann Conrad Beissel, took a contingent of the brotherhood to Lancaster County in 1732. They formed a new community, which they called Ephrata after the biblical town of Ephrath. The white-robed brothers and sisters lived on the self-sufficient property, making music and developing Frakturschrift (broken script), a Germanic branch of calligraphy known for its many angles in the individual letters. The last celibate brother died in 1813, and other members married outside the community. The state took over the Ephrata Cloister in the 1940s and made it into a shrine of living history.
The Mütter Museum Medicinal Garden
The Mütter Museum (named after Dr. Thomas Dent Mütter, whose donations make up a good part of the museum’s original collection) is known for its “disturbingly informative” displays, but before it was a museum, the Mütter was the Philadelphia College of Physicians. One of its founders, Benjamin Rush, knew the importance of medicinal plants and wished for the college to incorporate a “physick” garden into its grounds. In true bureaucratic fashion, he got his request about 150 years after he made it. Visit the medicinal plant garden today to find over sixty varieties of efficacious plants.
The University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology
The figure is roughly cut, with mirrors in its eyes, a hollow belly, and driven with many, many nails. Nkondi dolls are objects of Congolese mysticism. Its mirrored eyes see and reflect—a means of intercourse between the spirit and corporeal worlds. So, too, the nails are a means of opening and sharing, the metal a conduit.
He—or she, the figure has no gender—is one of two such African talismans to be found at the Penn Museum, along with medicine packets and divination pouches as well as magical and spiritual treasures from other cultures: vases bearing the images of the Greek pantheon, ancient Roman statues of gods and goddesses, protective amulets from Mexico and Central America, even the remains of a royal palace. A 15-ton red granite sphinx dominates the Egyptian Hall, the walls alive with hieroglyphics and depictions of deity. Two floors up, the afterlife awaits in sarcophagi, tomb offerings, and mummies both human and feline.
Pennsylvania’s western city is a place of power—natural, manmade, and sometimes a bit of both.
House Poem
A house on Sampsonia Way is covered in Chinese characters. In 2004 writer Huang Xiang decorated #408 with the words he could not write in his homeland, turning it into House Poem. Pittsburgh is a city of asylum, providing a home to exiled writers and artists so that they may practice their crafts in safety and peace. Words are magic’s most powerful tool; use them, inspired by this testament to the power and resilience of the human spirit.
Cathedral of Learning
Built over a ten-year period beginning in 1926, the University of Pittsburgh’s Cathedral of Learning is a Gothic Revival tower, 42 floors tall, and the second largest building dedicated to education in the world. Twenty-seven of the classrooms are designated “nationality rooms,” each one themed on traditional elements of different countries. Grab a chair and your favorite magical textbooks and soak in the atmosphere of the 4-story common room. Its Gothic arches and metalwork chandeliers are straight out of Hogwarts’ Great Hall. Good energy is inherent in the building: eregrine falcons make their nests atop the tallest towers.
St. Anthony’s Chapel
Objects can be vessels for energy and touchstones to people and times past. St. Anthony’s Chapel houses thousands of holy relics, the largest gathering of Catholic objects of reverence in the world: cups and bones, statues and candles. Here the hopes and prayers of the faithful are reflected in the precious metal of the monstrances and reliquaries.
Kaufman’s Clock
There are places where time stands still, one of which is under a clock on the corner of Fifth Avenue and Smithfield Street. Called Kaufmann’s Clock after Kaufmann’s Department Store (it’s a Macy’s now), people have been meeting, marrying, and making wishes for 100 years beneath its bronze glory. Decorated with classical figures and a swirling globe, an excited, anticipatory energy lingers on the street below. Stand under the clock and make a wish!
Water steps
Tucked into the North Shore Trail that runs along the Allegheny River, the water steps showcase the multifaceted nature of water: fast flowing, trickling, pooling. To be like water is to be adaptable in any given situation. Go to the water steps and find the kind of change you need to make in your life right now mirrored in the water: do you need to move quickly or be still? Should you let out your feelings in a gush or let them trickle out slowly? Focus on the water as you see it—the sight, the sound, even the feel of it (if possible, depending on the season)—and take in its energy.
The Point
At the Point, three rivers converge: the Ohio, the Allegheny, and the Monongahela. All that water coming together makes Point State Park a power center. Stand at the tip of the Point and call to each direction to invoke the energy of western Pennsylvania.
with goldie brown
Goldie Brown lives in Pittsburgh, where she has spent most of her sixty-four years. She has been in the Craft all of her adult life, was an active member of the Witches’ Anti-Defamation League in the ’70s, and also published and edited several Pagan newsletters. Through the ’80s and ’90s she led the Pittsburgh Pagan Alliance and founded Evergreen, which continues to meet monthly. She has also written articles for Broomstix, a Pagan ezine for children. Currently she enjoys gardening, writing, and her two great-grandchildren.
In 1680 Pennsylvania was named by William Penn, who put the Latin sylvan and his surname together to immortalize its vast expanse of forests. Today Pennsylvania remains one of the most densely wooded states, with a forest cover of 59 percent, or 16.7 million acres. Fortunately, most of it is privately owned by people with no interest in the business of harvesting trees. The greatest threats to its forests are invasive trees and plants, and damage by insects.
As a lifelong resident of Pennsylvania, I feel blessed to be where I am, never too far from the woods. Pittsburgh is especially unique in its huge city parks, where people can find solace and shade right in the middle of urban areas. It has been proven that just a short walk in a green space can clear the mind, lift a mood, and refresh the spirit, so I offer this grounding spell from the heart of Pennsylvania’s woods.
A Pennsylvania Grounding Spell
Here’s how to make a charm with fragrant plant materials that can take you into your own imaginary forest whenever you feel the need. It will help you find the earth beneath your feet again and regain the peace that is found by walking among the trees. Calm, heal, and get back to nature!
You will need to gather a few simple ingredients:
- • A small handful of fresh pine needles, juniper greens, cedar greens, and vervain (fresh or dried)
- • Patchouli essential oil
- • A small moss agate to boost the grounding power
- • A linen bag or pouch to hold the charm
Plan to put this together when the full moon is in an earth sign (Taurus, Virgo, or Capricorn).
On the full moon place everything on your altar, along with a bowl for mixing. Cast a circle, if you usually do. With your hands, blend the plant materials together one by one, charging and blessing each one, asking the trees and herbs to aid your purpose. Then add just one drop of patchouli essential oil, mix and charge a little more, and finally add the agate. Continue until you feel that everything is harmoniously blended and ready to go into the pouch.
Consecrate the charm with fire, air, water, and earth. Ask the blessings of your personal guardian or deity. Hold the charm over your heart and chant this spell for as long as you feel is effective.
Deep forest, deep peace
Give my spirit calm release
By earthy greens and ancient trees
As my will, so mote it be!
This chant can also be used later to activate the charm whenever you have need of it.
May the blessing of the woods stay with you!
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