Trout Lake Solstice

Today I had a chance to visit Trout Lake, a spiritual center where various Neopagan and other gatherings are held. My friend was planning to attend an ADF Druid Summer Solstice rite there.

The only hitch was that some driving was necessary, which gets up my nerves despite my recent smooth Vernonia trip. But Betty the car ran well (yes Betty, I know you need some oil after that long trip!), I got a pasta potluck dish made in time, and we set out in his car for Trout Lake, 73 miles east.

Out near the sublime Earth-presence of Mt. Adams, the nearest high point of that area, we found the Trout Lake "Abbey", a combined Druid meeting house with a stone circle and a Buddhist sanctuary with prayer garden. It's the brainchild of a former couple, Druid and Buddhist, who, though no longer romantic, still live there and run the land together. The place is peaceful and beautiful, with a lovely view of the mountain, and has lots of space to foster spiritual growth and reflection. We arrived early for the sole purpose of being able to have a look around.

First we went inside the Buddhist temple, where seating was half each chairs and firm little round pillows on the floor. Buddhist statuary, offerings, portraits of deities and masters, and mural work spread its beauty around the walls; the smell of incense bordered on the overpowering, but the sense of space dedicated to the sacred work was exquisite.
Then we went out to the shrine and meditation garden. Great bells and prayer wheels greeted us before the wooden gate. There are hundreds of small shrines, with almost every material manifestation of the Buddha one could hope to find to meditate upon. Carefully avoiding a praying person, we didn't peruse the whole thing.

Map of Trout Lake facilities

Then we moseyed over to the Druid portion. Here, we found shrines with explanations and mythologies of some of the Celtic and/or Druidic deities, including the Daghda, Morrigan, Cerunnos, and the local deva of the land, the River Columbia, done in wonderful clay, stone and mosaic.

ADF Druids recognize three groups of sacred divinities, the Ancestors, Nature Spirits, and Gods and Goddesses, which are communed with via three gateways or portals, namely the well, the tree, and the fire, respectively. This system is one I can identify and work with, in that I, too, respect these groups.

But as I perused the shrines, I felt entirely at home with neither the abnegating Buddhist way with its symbols from a culture so far away from mine, nor the Druid deities depicted, who came from a time so long before my own despite some of my own people being from there, and their myths and imagery that so often seemed to feature themes of war.
I knew that, as always, my path must be my own, my deities must be my own, and I would never feel fully comfortable "borrowing" religion or avatars from anyone. Deities like the Morrigan, Hekate or Columbia, I can attempt to embrace to some degree, and Earth Herself is of course universal for humans (or should be), but my odd feeling highlights the importance of personal figures like Avo Rayo, Issa and Aliria for me: So, you don't relate to lightning in the form of a hulking dude with a hammer, but a wisecracking crone mama instead? Then work with her.
It also helped me realize just how, in fact, goddess-oriented my practice is. I don't actually work with a lot of gods! Issa is a god/animus, Snape is an animus, but I don't work with many traditional Neopagan gods at all. And lately my spirit realm has been invaded and reinvigorated by goddesses, from my half-baked attempts to connect with Hekate, to Medusa, Kirke, and the Minoan deity, to the flaming powerhouse that is Aliria-Nafta, and Gaia our Mother; lately there's talk among my women friends of Lilith and Jezebel. Such invigoration of spirit I have rarely felt, actually, since working with Avo Rayo or "Grandmother Lightning" in 2004. Someday, I'd love to have temple shrine space for each of these divinities, where I too can meditate.

There was a special boardwalk path for the Nature Spirits, to which you pass through a belled curtain. Sweet chirping and bell-like tones drifted among the naturally-talkative aspen trees and grasses.