Sacred teachings of the ancients and the wisdom of the earth have been a part of my life forever. Ritual has played an important part in each era of my life, as well.

I can see the thread of ceremony in the Masonic and Greek organizations that I joined as a child and adolescent. I can recognize my love of the divine expression of the natural world in the violent cloudbursts and lightening storms in my childhood Arizona home. It was in a cave in an Arizona mountainside that I performed my first initiation rite with my pre-adolescent girlfriends, when I encouraged all of us to take off our shirts as we entered the cave. Everyone enthusiastically did so – and that started my career as a ritualist.

I knew that my spiritual life was more varied than the teachings of the Sunday schools I attended as a child. I intuitively knew that Demeter and Persephone were as important to my ancient Greek ancestors as Jesus was to my friends and me. I was happy for the Greeks who had their Persephone arise in exactly the same season that Jesus arose. It all sat comfortably in my heart and mind.

It was, however, during my first visit to Stonehenge that I seemed to be addressed by the souls of my ancient ancestors from that island that became Britain, millennia later. I was in a museum that described what we knew in the mid-1990s about Stonehenge. The origin of the stones was mentioned and a possible method for their transport was suggested. However, not much was known about the reason the stones were positioned in an orientation to the sunrise of the summer solstice. It was surmised that perhaps “Stonehenge was only a calendar.”

In that moment my mind screamed, “Only!?” I immediately understood that, of course, it was a calendar, but a calendar to our ancestors was so much more than the tablet of twelve leaves that we pin on our bulletin boards. It was a sacred time table about planting, tending, harvesting, hunting, resting, making love, birthing, shearing sheep, putting up provisions – it was about the holy seasons of life. The angle of the sun was important to note for the migrating of the herds. The amount of sunlight was essential to know for the timing of the crops. The rainy season was important to anticipate so that a move to higher ground could be accomplished in a timely manner. The calendar was their lifeline and it marked the sacred movements of the sun, moon, and stars – the flow of our cosmic neighborhood around us earthbound two leggeds. At Stonehenge I was in the presence of my visionary ancestors, who modeled a perfect relationship with earth.

Since that time, I have nurtured myself with study of ancient cultures, with observation of the rolling seasons, with personal and public celebration, and with travel to prehistoric holy sites. I became a minister and a professional ritualist. My children matured through many stages of growing up, sometimes enduring and sometimes enjoying my ceremonies for them. I became an author and devotee of earth-based spirituality. I shared what I loved with others.

Ancient Wisdom Online is my gift to a larger audience of what I have learned and what is important to me and those I serve. I share my passion of the wisdom of earth-based cultures, the glory of the seasons, the satisfaction of a well-executed ceremony, and the joy of travel to ancient sites. I hope some of this passion is engendered in you.

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