So with the fall season approaching, which means Halloween (my favorite!), I thought I'd post on this spooky "skull" formation I photographed in the Grove several weeks ago.
Animal burrows form the 2 "eyes" at the top and a smaller "mouth." The roots form a "nose" shape. Isn't it weird how these burrows were placed just so? Also, this is actually a mound, not set in the ground. It's as if a giant face pressed into the earth from below! They way the ground falls away and the way the moss grows gives it a vaguely skull-like shape: wider and rounded at the top with a smaller "jaw" area at the bottom.
This really freaked me out when I first saw it. "Is it a sign? A warning?" Then I realized, it only looks like a skull if you come at it from a very specific direction. Otherwise, it's just holes in the ground.
So rather than be spooked, I did some reading on skulls. Obviously, there's the popular symbolism of death and evil. But other traditions see skulls as representations of stripping away the ego until all that's left is the pure spirit, which is neither good nor evil but divine or true. Sort of like being stripped to your true nature. I like that.
This formation is located in the Circle, which I've posted about before. Interestingly, that one upright stone that is located mere yards away also symbolizes spirit, I discovered. The Hawaiian tradition stresses that spirit has no form, but when representing spirit, you'll often see single upright stones--just like this one (at right)!
Yep, this little spot in the Grove has some serious power!
No comments:
Post a Comment