The Guide

Indian Point on Lake Memphremagog, Newport VT

Last month I had the privilege to visit Kristy Scott of Krystalline Earth Healing at her family land on the shore of Lake Memphremagog. The morning of the visit, before I drove there I was receiving a vision of a First Nations camp on a hill above the lake with beautiful mountain views. There was a central fire, surrounded by wigwams and fish drying racks and children running. There were birch dugout canoes pulled up on the beach below the hill. When I arrived Kristy showed me a stone hammer head that she had found buried on the beach and was kind enough to let me hold onto it as we walked. I was really struck by Kristy‘s knowledge of the land, the animals and trees and how reverently she spoke about them. It was winter and everything was covered with quiet snow that only amplified the sacred feeling of the place. The photos are of Indian Point, overlooking the lake where I believe the camp I saw was located. Kristy stops after showing it to me to offer tobacco to the spirits of the people who had lived there.

There was one spirit in particular who I felt walking with us, who had used the stone hammer I held in my hand. He had been a guide in the local area, and he had an affinity for Kristy because of how connected she was to the land and because she acts as a guide there as well. She understands how his people lived in close relationship to the land, and he hopes that way of life will return and that people will “walk softly“. Like so many spirits, he wishes to be remembered, along with the true history of that place and the first people to live there.