Part Seven; Earth Wind and Fire
Daniel and I had been close to nature in Florida, so we desired to have that intimate relationship with nature out here as well. But it was harder. In Florida, we were connected to so much water and rain. We could negotiate for rain with our cloudbuster (an orgone device) and we could generally shift hurricanes away from urban centers. We could draw to us sunny days or rainy days.
However, California has very little rain and no hurricanes. Nature here is intense and in your face. Fire, wind, and earth all have their strong presence. Locals jokingly refer to the “four seasons” of California as fire, mudslides, earthquakes, and drought. Also, the temperatures vary widely from one area to another, depending on altitude, lay of the land, wind direction, and so forth. It is impossible to predict the temperatures at the bottom of the mountain from where we are at 1800 feet. We generally have to rely on the weather stations. However, in general, the valleys are hotter most of the year than we are, except during very, very cold days.
Rain’s End
Mountain Mood
We have done several rituals “talking” with nature, and found it took almost the whole year to feel like we had a true connection. The fires last fall were perhaps 15 or 20 miles to our north, but situated where we could see them crawl alongside the southern faces of the San Gabriel Mountains at night. We didn’t know how to talk to fire, as it didn’t organize itself into systems like hurricanes. Fire spreads all over the place, fueled by the dry shrubbery and accelerated by the intense, high speed turbulent winds called the Santa Anas. I was nervous about the possibilities of fire, and we were housebound for days because of the smoke.
Every now and then, there are red flag fire alerts as the Santa Ana winds come through, drying everything. One must be ready at a moment’s notice to evacuate the house and flee to shelter. When the fires raged, I was mesmerized by them, covered 24 hours a day by local news crews. I learned a lot about how fire moves uphill and sometimes against the wind, how “spot fires” start up anywhere up to a mile ahead of the major part of the fire, and how fast it can move. I learned how fire crews fought fires and felt grateful that the County is so well prepared.
The spring brings with it the annual grass cutting and shrubbery clearing to reduce potential fuel for fires. In Florida, we’d have to mow the grass sometimes every other week. But on our mountainous rural route, few have enough flat area of their yards for lawns. So in April sometime (deadline is May 1 or the end of the “rainy season” and the beginning of fire season), men with weed-whackers carefully remove all the wild oats and other grasses from the hillsides and between the rocks.
Our protection for fire is better than most. Down the hill beneath us, where a fire would come, a lot of shrubbery has been cleared to make way for a road that at one time was intended to wind through a subdivision, now abandoned. We have roof sprinklers and no fire-inviting eaves, and a professional looking fire hose (the big very thick kind) that can, with our gas-run pump, pull major amounts of water out of the swimming pool and dump wherever we can aim the hose. And of course, we have a handy sprinkler system to wet the shrubbery around the house and impede the fire somewhat. Nevertheless, it can be nail-biting to watch the fires move in the winds, while hearing the Santa Anas whistling and moaning around the house.
Fire season normally comes in the fall with the Santa Anas, after there have been high temperatures and no rain for months. But we have heard that now Santa Ana winds can come at any time of year, and so our “governator” Schwartzenegger has unofficially declared all year Fire Season. We discovered that there is actually a canyon called the Santa Ana and winds there can exceed 80 mph!
Although I am still not feeling all that connected to the fire itself, our crystal skull, Shananda, insists that she is protecting Topanga with a sphere of moisture. She sits on our dinner table “looking” out to the north. Whenever I feel a need for fire protection, I hold her and “feel” and “see” the bubble. It’s so reassuring. So until we can negotiate with fire, we are relying on staying at a high spiritual resonance and assuming a supportive personal destiny template as our protection.
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