Now the Land & the Mind Are One

Energies of the Gemini Full Moon, December 2022

There is a lot on our minds, personally and collectively, as we close out 2022, anticipate the new year, figure out gifts and practice conversations in our minds before family dinners or corporate parties.

When we’re in our minds a lot, we tend to be stuck in a hamster wheel of our own creation, and often we realize or are reminded that we need to ground and take some breaths.

This practice is tried and true.
It has also evolved for me recently.
I found out that the word for ‘mind’ and for ‘land’ in the Apache language are the same word - ni'.

This blew me away.

‘To ground my thoughts’ has always been an experience in temperance for me, since thoughts are airy and the ground is of Earth.

So if mind and land are now as one - one word, one meaning, one definition, how does that change my thoughts, my relationship to thought-forms, my communication and maybe even my beliefs?

These are the themes coming up for me in the days leading up to the Gemini Full Moon that falls on December 7th 2022.

This relationship with land and mind brought up a lost little tale I once heard of Hercules. I like this one because it occurs in between his labours, and it reminds me of those moments we have when we are in between things.

Photo by Antonio Feregrino on Unsplash

One day, the great and mighty Hercules started his journey towards a town that requested his presence for monster-hunting. This town was very far away and he set out immediately.

Our hero was confident and still high on his recent victories with the ram and bull, so he felt unstoppable, possible and genuinely magnificent.

As he walked through a dense forest, the road forked into many paths. He hadn’t been to this part of the land before, so he wasn’t sure which way to go.
He noticed an old man underneath a large tree nearby. The old man was wrapped in ancient rags and he seemed partially deaf and blind.
With some difficultly Hercules explained where he was going and asked the old man if he knew the way. Though mumbles, the old man pointed to one of the paths.
Hercules thanked him and took it.

Days passed, as the hero walked through swamps and bogs not finding anything that resembled a path to the next town. On the third day he found himself right back at the path with the fork with the old man still nestled under the tree.
Shocked and annoyed at the time and effort wasted, he approached the old man and spoke sternly. He repeated where he was going and asked if the old man knew the correct path. The old man mumbled and pointed to a different path.

Once again, days passed. The forest gave way to dry grasslands as far as the eye could see and nothing close to a path to a town could be found. On the third day, he found himself back at the path, with the fork in the road, and the old man under the tree.

Enraged and thinking he was being intentionally fooled, Hercules walked over and effortlessly picked up the old man, shaking and threatening him. He roared at the shaken old man to stop his foolery and to tell him which path was the right way. The old man let out a cry, and through his sobs, pointed to a different path.
Hercules dropped him carelessly and went on his way.

This time, he found himself wandering through a dead forest full of decay and heavy with eeriness. On the 3rd day, after dredging through this landscape, he approached the fork in the road on the path with the old man under the tree.

Maddened with rage, he charged at the old man, convinced that something sinister was playing him for a fool.
When he reached the tree, the old man vanished.

Triggered by this whole experience, Hercules ripped at the tree and collapsed at its root. He looked at the path he had walked and the forks in the road angrily wondering how he kept finding himself at this same cross-road over and over again.

Photo by Yogendra Singh on Unsplash

To me, Hercules is the action oriented part of our consciousness. The part that acts, does, wants to do, is motivated by the ‘doing’ and often doesn’t sit still.
The arc of this story is something we commonly feel when we try something and for some reason we get stalled or face obstacles, whether they come from within us in the form of fears and doubts, or from outside us, in the form of opinions of others, a lack of movement or a cross-road we repeatedly find ourselves at.

This can get us into despair and hopelessness and sometimes rock our faith in ourselves and in anything higher.

Luckily this story doesn’t end here. Neither does ours.


In some versions of this tale, Hercules tired from his 9 day hamster-wheel, falls asleep at the base of the tree and when he wakes up, he sees only one path and there is no longer a fork in the road. He tells himself that this was all a crazy dream and continues on his path.

This version is fun, because we so often experience dreams that help us clear something in our unconsciousness mind in the most bizarre and random ways, and we often don’t realize or remember them. But when we let them and are grateful for them, our dreams clear massive obstacles beyond our natural sight and experience. As well, they show us a mirror to feelings that we may not allow or give time to in our conscious day. When we can work with dreams, our dreams work with us and we experience being supported in magical ways far beyond our comprehension.

In another version, the Goddess Athena visits him with a reminder that his skills are not just his brute strength. She advises him that for his upcoming labours, he will require his powers of observation, his wit, his cunning, strategy and other abilities if he is to move through all his labours. The notion of being stuck at the same cross-roads offers the opportunity to use a different strength if we want a different outcome.

I love this last one because it speaks to the relationship between the land and the mind and offers us the ability to deepen intimacy and discover our Illuminated Minds.

Choices as a Path to Wholeness

If the land we walk is one with our mind, then maybe our beliefs, our perspectives and our thoughts are the hidden root system beneath the forest floor intertwined with that of our neighbours, families, histories and the larger collective. Here, when we find ourselves at a cross-roads, maybe the question is less about ‘which path is correct?’, and more about ‘how am I going to make this decision?’

Maybe we make choices from fear because we feel trapped and desperate.
Maybe we decide that we are done with our fear and we make an opposing choice in rebellion.
Maybe we decide that this cross-road a place where we face our fear and walk through it, trusting our mind-land and in our feet to take us through.

It is changing the perspective from the goal of getting elsewhere, to facing what is rising right now.

I find this so resonant with the Gemini Full Moon that illuminates us this week.

In Gemini wisdom, choices, in any aspect of life isn’t about picking one over the other. It can feel that way, but it is a mirror. It shows us the nature of our inner communion and process of how we make these decisions.

In the immature version of the energy we are pulled by the options in a battle of either/ or, stay/go, right/wrong. Restlessness, overthinking, wanting external situations to change on our timeline, frustrations, feeling stuck, mental and emotional stress, judgements, blame, sleeplessness and exhaustion are playmates when we are here.

In the ascended version of the energy, we are asked what parts of ourselves we will bring, what aspects need facing, what attachments and ideas need releasing and what hidden talents can come out and play now that we are here.
The path isn’t about the option in the external world; rather, it is an invitation to allow decision-making from our inherent our wholeness.

The dynamic here is relational, and asks us what our relationship is with how we think, how we perceive and the beliefs we may hold. The choice then comes from holding a both/and energy, rather than fighting one and favouring the other.

Imagine that you want to make an amazing holiday meal for your family and friends. With this in mind, the likelihood that you would choose poor quality, half rotting ingredients is low. You would choose the best ingredients, and you may spend time carefully crafting decorations, table layouts and sauces to accompany the vibe you want to create. You would also give yourself time - do some prep the day before, get our outfit sorted, clean the house in advance - so you aren’t stressed and rushed the day of the meal. While this is fairly obvious, do we do that in other areas of our life?

Now ask yourself what you want most in your life this holiday season - is it peace of mind? Maybe a feeling of health and vibrance? Or a new work opportunity that gives you financial freedom?

The ingredients we have chosen, the alchemy between them and our inner processes for each of us, is also what it illuminated now.

Photo by Christian Wiediger on Unsplash

If peace is what we want, then we may have to rethink the arguments we get pulled into over family dinners, regardless of whose fault it may be.
If it is health, then are we making ourselves a priority, giving ourselves needed rest and nourishment? Or are we seasoned at making excuses that we don’t have time?
If it is work, then are we clear on what freedom is for us? Is it only financial, or is it also about time, flexibility, independence and maybe working from home?

But this isn’t just about plans, dreams and paths.
There is a lot of a detail that is alive here that I expect to come into the light to get sorted.
If you are the type of person who likes to show a clean house for guests by taking everything and shoving it into a closet hoping no-one will open it, you can bet that it will get opened with everything tumbling out.

There is a level of inner truth that busts out regardless of how good we are at hiding it in this time. That may be personal, family, professional or a collective one. How we handle our truths and the truths of others may also come up?

Here the choices may be judgement versus compassion, forgiveness or grudges, learning from or punishing.

This can be scary as our inner conflict (in a lower expression) or our inner contrast (in a higher expression) gets revealed.

This isn’t about judgement or embarrassment unless we make it so.

The way I see it, the cross-roads of our lives is like check-point to see if we are truly aligned in our Creation and expression. Our hypocrisy and illusions dissolve and our integrity and commitment rises. We can course correct here if needed.

This is why knowing how we relate to our thought processes and how much we choose from our truth and wholeness is an essential part of self-love and self-intimacy.

And so under this generous sky, we get to once again, return to the land which may also be a map of our minds with the gifts of possibility and the freedom to choose intentionally.

The land I live upon is expansive, diverse and contoured. Maybe, our minds can be that too.

Whether we are dreaming, at a literal or metaphysical cross-roads, or simply wondering what meal to cook, we get to walk ahead with more intimacy, more understanding and more support than we ever thought we deserved.

This piece was sculpted by portions of the following books, for which I’m very thankful:

1. Reclaiming Land & Spirit in the Western Apache Homeland

2. Blackfoot Physics

3. Braiding Sweetgrass