New Moon Blessing Ceremony at the Sacramento River to Lake Siskiyou Inlet: Photo Journey
Updated: Dec 1, 2022
There is a beautiful place where I love to perform sacred ceremonies here in Mount Shasta at Lake Siskiyou.
It is located on the north-western shore of the lake where the Sacramento River meets the lake at an inlet. This river’s springheads are located in the Eddies (that converge with Trinity and Shasta County), where they form two creeks called North Fork Sacramento and South Fork Sacramento that then unify together to form the river that is the true source of the Sacramento to Lake Siskiyou.
The funny story is that there is a spring located in Mount Shasta at a park off the main street called Big Springs. This spring is called the Headwaters of the Sacramento, even though it really isn’t. The spring comes from a hill near the park called Big Springs Hill or Spring Hill. The spring comes from the hillside of the park and goes down a mini waterfall to form Big Springs Creek. This creek flows through the park and town, toward a small nature study trail called Elsa Rupp, into the Fish Hatchery, and eventually joins Wagon Creek, which empties into an inlet at Lake Siskiyou at its northernmost shore.
While the Headwaters is said to be the head of the Sacramento River, the Sacramento actually originates toward the West in the Eddies from two separate rivers that join together as one (as I already mentioned). Yet it is these two creeks, Wagon Creek and the Sacramento River, that are the most important water resources for Lake Siskiyou and the resulting Sacramento. Lake Siskiyou’s Box Canyon Damn is the convergence point where the Sacramento River runs down from Mount Shasta to Dunsmuir, and then it makes its way down to Shasta Lake and Shasta Lake Damn, where it forms a much larger Sacramento River that runs through Redding and Anderson California, which delivers water all the way down Northern to Southern California.
This water source is incredibly precious and vital. I have watched over the years as the water sources have become scarcer; creeks and springs are drying up. Now more than ever, I am receiving a call from the Earth and the Lands to join together and tend to our water resources through sacred partnership with the land through ecological conservation efforts, collective blessing, and ceremony with the land. This is the calling I have picked up, especially over the last year or so.
I often spend my Full and New Moons at water sources. I make altars of rock or lay down floral offerings and join in with the power of the Rosary to ask for grace and prayers from the Mother to bless these lands and waterways. All of us have the power and ability to connect and commune with nature, forge personal relationships, and become true partners to the Earth.
During the November New Moon, I sat beside the Sacramento River Inlet of Lake Siskiyou on its Westernmost shore and created an altar of rock and empty snail shells. My husband and I sat beside the river and blessed the waters. In sharing these images with you, I invite you into a moment of stillness and prayer to pray for these sacred waters, which, along with other vital water sources, nourish so much of California and its farmlands.
The name Sacramento is Latin for sacrament and it means to consecrate or bless. It is so fitting to me to perform sacred ceremonies here, where I have communed in deep relation with the river. I sit in the mystery with the waters. Here at this river and lake, I see many nature altars formed by other people. This location by the lake feels very sacred to me and I have received an understanding from the river and lake about the interconnected nature of water; how it forms atomic bonds to create a sacred substance that is truly the substance of life. Water is often utilized as an analogy for Spirit, precisely because of its unique hydrogen-oxygen bonds. The ocean becomes a drop, and a drop becomes the ocean.
When I see the water running from the Sacramento into Lake Siskiyou, I see and feel the entire Pacific Ocean because these water bonds are reaching all the way there. Such is the nature and power of water! It is like a giant chain that connects us all.
When we sit with water and commune with water, we can receive its sacred wisdom, knowledge, beauty, and life-sustaining nature. When I bless a drop of water from the springs, creeks, and rivers that run into Lake Siskiyou, I am blessing the entire ocean and all who receive from the water.
Lake Siskiyou from the Northshore Trail: Zoom-in of a Stork on the Water
It is my hope and prayer that many more of us take up the call to love and nurture this land and water, which always gives so generously to us. We can exist in partnership with the Web of Life and perform sacred ceremonies to support Life itself. We can make efforts to conserve and share resources with organizations devoted to ecological preservation.
Starting in 2023. I am pledging 10% of all proceeds from Srimati Arya Moon to go to land and water conservation efforts and will share more resources for donating and protecting lands and waterways.
In Love and Blessing,
Srimati