I have travelled to many places in the world, and when I look back they all held a spiritual significance to me.
The first place I travelled to in my adult life was Delphi in Greece. i was following a compulsion to visit it, fuelled by ancient Greek mythology and two years of studying classical civilisations in high school.
Delphi was considered the ‘ὀμφᾰλός’, omphalos or navel of the world by the ancient Greeks. It was an oracle centre and home to the Sibyl. The Britannica entry for the Sibyl reads:
Tradition represented her as a woman of prodigious old age uttering predictions in ecstatic frenzy, but she was always a figure of the mythical past, and her prophecies, in Greek hexameters, were handed down in writing.
The remains of the Temple of Apollo stand in the lush green of the mountain valley. I visited it when I was 21 and I have never forgotten that mystical experience.
I believe that we are called to places; by the mountains, the rocks, the sea. It may seem crazy to journey to the other side of the world to visit archaeological ruins, but I have found myself doing this for the past forty years.
Standing stones, mountains, temples and of course Uluru, hold the vibrational energy of the earth and the people who have worshipped there in one form or another for many thousands of years. They form portals of time and energy, connection points with the cosmos which can trigger spiritual awakenings within us.
I think about this as I write today’s blogpost because this week I have been talking about a painting I did when I was 16 which altered the course of my life. It was called the Sibyl and it propelled me on a circular journey to which I am now returning.
Last year when I was in Iceland, I had a tarot reading in Skagastönd, in the Museum of Prophecies dedicated to the prophetess Þórdís located under the shadow of Mt. Spákonufell or "Prophetess Mountain".
Inside the museum were four different prophecy rooms - the kitchen setting for tea leaf readings, the natural room with carved wooden rune stones, the room of palmistry and the room with the crystal ball and tarot cards. I chose the latter for my reading, drawn by the crystal ball of my painting.
I had not known that Skagatrönd was home to a Museum of Prophecies until I applied for an artist residency there. I would not have applied for a residency until I had journeyed on the circuitous route of my life which led me eventually back to my painting. Life is like that. When you follow your intuition it leads you to yourself.
Delphic Sibyl, detail of a fresco by Michelangelo, 1508–12; in the Sistine Chapel, Vatican City.