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GATEWAY TO
THE SUN, TIWANAKU, BOLIVIA
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Throughout our first day in Bolivia, Dan's stomach rebelled a bit. That night, to put it kindly, he experienced nearly continuous, flatulent colon clearing. It was quite a relief for
both of us to experience the clear and fresh air outside our hotel room
as we began our trek to explore the ancient city of Tiwanaku
the next morning.
The Sun Gate of Tiwanaku had long attracted Daniel with its enigmatic presence. His connection to it felt extremely deep, and visiting the Sun Gate was a high point of the trip for him. He was impatient as we explored the fabulous Tiwanaku museum, highly anticipating his first connection with the energy of the site. He definitely felt that he had lived in this energy before.
The weather at Tiwanaku was
foggy, rainy, and bone chillingly damp. It seems comical now that
the soles of our shoes became coated with what felt like pounds of thick,
black, slippery mud, though at the time it made navigating the site uncomfortable
and potentially dangerous. Thankfully, neither of us must have needed
to connect with the mud more directly since we managed to cling to each
other and skate atop the mud upright. Banana peels would probably
have been less slippery.
TIWANAKU,
BOLIVIA
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The massive size of the stones in Tiwanaku and the complex astrological alignment of the site’s structures indicate that this ancient city is far older than most sources recognize. A pyramid existed here, and a striking feature of the remaining buildings is a sunken temple courtyard whose walls are lined with sculptures of protruding heads. In the foggy mist of Tiwanaku that afternoon, I was awed by the reflection of so many eyes observing my entrance into the shrouded ruins.
Upon leaving the temple area, we were guided to the top of a steep, muddy hill to some monolithic stones. The footing truly felt as slippery as ice, and when I lifted each foot, a muddy apron about a foot around clung to the tread of each shoe. We were stunned to see a compass point behave erratically when placed into the magnetic fields of the stones. This anomaly was certainly due to the mineral content of the stones, and this display of earth energy was a visible reminder to me of how much our fields are also impacted by unseen planetary energies. Something as seemingly inert as a large upright stone carries within itself many levels of invisible, transformative power.
MUDDY
SHOES, TIWANAKU, BOLIVIA
The Gateway
to the Sun, or Sun Gate, beckoned us. This intricately carved stone
arch held portal energy and reminded Dan of a time travel structure in
an early Star Trek episode. We were greatly disappointed as we neared
the Gate when it became apparent that a wire fence had been erected around
the structure that made it impossible to walk through the arch of the Gate.
We prayed and circumambulated the Sun Gate to the extent that the fence
allowed.
We know that sacred sites certainly need protection lest they be damaged and ultimately destroyed by human contact, but we both got the message at this site that it is imperative for us and others to be able to directly connect with and experience the multidimensional energies that they hold. I do know that any site's energy is accessible through the process of intention and focus, even from a great distance. On this particular day, however, the little kids inside of us really wanted to hop over a particular fence and directly experience a journey through the ancient Gateway to the Sun.
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