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[Free 1st Part] Crystals, Black Magic, and Sanity: A Colorado Initiation

[Free 1st Part] Crystals, Black Magic, and Sanity: A Colorado Initiation

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 What do crystals, fossils, stunning sunsets, black magic, demons and insanity have in common?Our drive to Colorado does.It started as a simple trip — one week or so in Delta,Co., including driving time because we were scheduled to present at a Sasquatch conference in Beaver, Wa. immediately on our return. Larry and I had found a piece of land in Colorado that was stunning: acres of desert mesa beauty covered in selenite crystals, ancient fossils, and wide open sky. But to make it ours, we stepped into something else entirely.The land we originally purchased was not empty. It is 40 acres, half of which when looked upon resembles a moonscape pristine and majestic alluring and entrancing, yet look the other direction, and it was sprinkled in abandoned squatters encampments — people living in tents, and improvised shacks, surrounded by hills of garbage, abandoned vehicles, and the unmistakable residue of drugs and dark practices. It wasn’t just a physical mess. The entire area felt thick, like a psychic swamp.Yet, the power and the message from the land was very clear: clean me.This started a line of questions and inquiries for Larry and me because it did not make much sense for our lives. Yes, the whole thing came about because we bought land and wanted to hold in person events there — yet the view was massively and negatively impacted by the encampments, not exactly the ideal backdrop for a gathering.We wondered how to fence off or hide the view of the encampments — maybe trees, or a very big fence — so our guests would not be subjected to the negative view. Little did we realize then that the negativity was not just in the view; the people there were drug addicts and black magic practitioners. It was a classic case of buying a slice of paradise then finding out your neighbors are 100% incompatible with your enjoyment of that paradise. Something not unlike the present split in reality we are cocreating this very moment more broadly. Some things are simply incompatible with each other. Period.But that realization came some time later.Some months ago, one of our neighbors told us that the parcel covered in black magic and detritus was for sale through a foreclosure sale. Larry and I looked at our finances and bought it. After the sheriff’s sale, we believed the previous owners and their guests would become compelled to leave and we would have clean, clear land with some clean up perhaps to conduct.Nope. They dug in, and we had to spend months and thousands of dollars in litigation to clear them out. Apparently, landowners in Colorado have a huge burden and many hoops to clearing their land from individuals with any claim whatsoever to being present. Once cleared, trespassing is very strongly enforced with very serious consequences, but give, as in give permission at any point, even in a limited manner, and that can quickly be construed as permission to inhabit which then requires a long process to rescind.As we arrived there for our week visit, I remember standing there the first day, watching the wind shimmer through the crystals on the ground while the smell of decay and burnt plastic rose from piles of trash. Light and shadow, beauty and horror, coexisting within the same few acres of land. I thought it would be a quick cleanup because the eviction process was set and it was just a matter of the sheriff coming over and getting the squatters to leave the land.I was wrong.The Land of ParadoxThere’s something surreal about seeing selenite glinting in the sunlight beside syringes and blackened fire pits. The land itself seemed to whisper — “Clean me.” It was both sacred and deep. Ancient. Yet, the surface was anything but.Larry and I sat down to discuss why Gaia — the land and the human collective — wanted it cleaned. After all, what does it matter to Gaia if those people and garbage stay there? After a million years, nothing would be left of them. A million years ago everything there was blown to smithereens by the largest volcanic eruption on the continent creating the flat topped mesa 100’s of square miles in size, which is just the base of this gigantic mountain that is no more. Another million years ago the entirety was submerged at the bottom of an ocean of water. So a few people? What’s the biggie, besides it was nasty to experience in our present, a dark to our light. But the message came in stronger every day: no one was allowed to stay, and no garbage was allowed to stay either.We visited the sheriff’s office to find out what we were supposed to do, and they were very clear that for the process to be legal, we had to be present. Physically stay and be there for the entire process to be legal and complete. Otherwise, it would be cancelled and would need to begin over again from the beginning.Oops… We might not make our sasquatch event commitment…The eviction date was not the one stated in the judgment. We had to wait two days after that date, then get a writ for ...
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