The Nature Spirits of Breitenbush

For the past week, I have been camped near Breitenbush Hot Springs, about 75 miles east of Salem, Oregon. Since discovering the peaceful hot springs in 1980, I have made periodic pilgrimages to Breitenbush to soak and shamanize. I have visited sacred sites throughout North America, but Breitenbush is the most enchanting nirvana I have ever experienced. Indigenous people worldwide believe that where fire and water mix at a hot spring is a sacred place. Healing ceremonies and like-minded gatherings have been traditionally held at these power spots. 

Hot springs are a link between the lower world and the middle earth plane and provide a means of tapping into those sacred feminine powers. A water deity, usually a goddess, resides in each spring. People make pilgrimages to thermal springs to connect with the goddess and to supplicate the benefits of her healing graces.

I prefer to soak and commune at the hot springs early in the day when the veil between the physical and spiritual realms is at its thinnest. I begin my morning with a sweat in the rustic outdoor steam sauna. The small wood house, which seats 9 to 12, is built over a hot springs creek.  Emerging from the lower world, the purifying steam rises through the slatted floor, cleansing body, mind and spirit. Rays of sunlight slant down through cracks in the roof and walls, illuminating the ethereal water vapors. The heat from the steam sinks into my skin and muscles. My body sighs deeply. I settle into a comfortable position and close my eyes.

I offer silent prayers to the deity and spirit keepers of the healing waters. I pray for my own healing and the healing of all who enter the sauna. I ask the healing waters to draw out any toxins, cleansing me completely. I express my love and gratitude to the water spirits, who then hold and perpetuate these patterns of intention. The water molecules of the sacred springs take the form of each pilgrim’s thoughts, words and emotions. The elements are living energies that change and move as we think and then take the form of our thoughts. Thought is the tool of the mind that shapes physical reality. From the water spirits, we learn to plant seeds of good cause. We learn that energy and life force follow thought.

Feeling cleansed and renewed, I slowly arise, thanking the spirits for their water blessings. I step out of the sauna and the cool morning air tingles on my warm, moist skin. My body and spirit are aglow as I towel off and dress. As I approach the path to the upper sacred hot springs, I encounter a deer grazing along the trail above me. I stop to savor the moment as the beautiful doe saunters up the trail and out of sight. Later, as I depart the hot springs, I sight three more deer, including a young buck.

Deer is the power animal that chose to reveal itself to me at Breitenbush. Deer symbolizes gentleness, alertness, speed, adaptability, keen scent and the healing power of love and generosity. Deer offers humans a much needed medicine. They remind us of what is innocent and truthful. Deer subsist from the heart, with a deep instinctual knowing that is always connected to the web of life. They live from the heart and are not entrapped by their reason. Humans, on the other hand, tend to live from the head, trying to figure everything out. But the energy that comes in from the source is directed through our hearts. We come into our own power when we learn to live from the heart. We can participate in the world’s rebirth by following our own deepest instincts, each contributing our sacred part by following that which holds for us the greatest sense of truth and meaning.

Later in the evening, the skies over Mt. Jefferson turn leaden with storm clouds and the sound of distant thunder rumbles through the South Breitenbush canyon. I make tobacco offerings to the Thunderbeings in the fire pit of my encampment and thunder booms diectly over my head. Rain begins to fall and I throw a tarp over the fire pit to keep the wood dry. I take shelter, pick up my drum and begin playing the Thunder Beat. I supplicate the Thunder Beings to bestow their enlightenment upon humanity as the lightning enlightens the earth. I continue drumming until the sound of thunder fades into the distance and the rains begin to subside.

After the rousing storm, a mist gently rises from the roaring falls, cascading just feet from my idyllic encampment. I uncover the fire pit, make offerings to the spirits and build a fire. I thank the spirits for the blessings received, and the blessings yet to come. I shake my rattle and invoke the elements: earth, water, fire, and air into my sacred space. 

The elements are the building blocks of nature and interact with humans in the creative process. It is the cohesion of the four elements that hold material reality in form. Collectively, they define the vibratory infrastructure that literally holds together our resonant field of reality. Inviting their presence, participation, and assistance not only aligns us with their power, but also is a way of giving energy that helps revitalize these primal forces. 

After warming my drum by the fire, I play the rhythms of the Four Elements. As I drum, I hold my intention for this fire ceremony. I then drum the Deer Beat to invoke its power for the benefit of the community. I become a hollow bone and imagine the spirit of Deer flowing through me, with all of its corresponding qualities and abilities. 

Deer medicine instills an understanding of what’s truly necessary for survival and what to sacrifice for the higher good. Deer teaches us to find the gentleness of spirit that heals all wounds. We must be gentle with ourselves, in spite of our errors, and gentle with others who react from a place of fear or anger.

My heart is wide open and blissful. I shake my rattle four times. I express my gratitude to the archetypal elements and helping spirits for their participation and assistance and send them off, releasing their energies to the seven directions. Oh, how I love shamanizing with the nature spirits in the Emerald Forest of South Breitenbush.