Dear Readers,

Welcome to the Spring 2007 edition of Circles on the Mountain, a publication of the Wilderness Guides Council and the only journal dedicated to modern day Rites of Passage. The theme for this edition is "Miracles". Although this is the 15th edition of Circles, this is our first time presenting an issue entirely online. It seems apt, then, that we turn to an internet resource to introduce our theme.

According to www.wikipedia.com, a miracle is derived from the old Latin word "miraculum" meaning "something wonderful". Anyone who has ever guided a vision quest, participated in a talking staff council, facillitated a transformational experience for others or spent a length of time alone in nature understands what it is like to suddenly become "full of wonder". Miracles become a "normal" part of many guides lives when they began learning how to expand their awareness through listening deeper, seeing the beauty around them, and feeling the connections between their hearts and all living things.

In other words, when they start training to become wilderness guides -- and for many, when they first embark on their own rite of passage.

I remember during one of my own apprenticeship experiences, when the fasters were safely on their solo time, one of my teachers suggested I try the "medicine task" of going into the woods and finding a spider's web to study. Having no idea why I was being asked to do this, but trusting it anyway, I diligently went out onto the land on my search, but came back hours later, with no success. Feeling like a failure, I gave up and went to sleep. When I awoke the next morning, I sat up in my sleeping bag, and saw something glittering in the sunlight. I didn't believe my eyes for a minute, and pinched myself, to make sure I wasn't dreaming. But I wasn't. There was a huge and glistening spider web woven across the entire opening of my tarp!

As if that weren't enough of a miracle, later that day, while sitting in circle listening to the stories of the questers who had returned from the wilderness that morning, I felt something tickle my hand. I looked down and saw a teensy weensy spider. I was about to brush it off when something else caught my attention. It was a silky strand, between my index and middle finger. "What the ^&*(%$^!" I exclaimed. Then I began to realize what was happening: that spider had started to weave a web around my finders! Sure enough, the spider went back to it's work, and I sat there for several hours, doing my work of listening to stories and mirroring back the wonder & transformation I was hearing, until my hand became an integral part of the weaver's skillful web. Miracles remind us that we are each a part of the great web of life.

As you will read in the stories and poems within these pages, miracles take many shapes and forms. Like my spider story, some are extraordinary tales of synchronicity, or new ways of experiencing reality, like the article on energy healing. Others are anecdotes of "ordinary magic" that remind us that if we just step outside our houses and ourselves more often, we'll re-member why it is so wonderful to be alive.

Miraculous images woven into fascinating lessons by our faithful contributors include a green sapling in an ancient grove of pines, a barrel cactus in spring bloom, a glorious sunset, two mountains -- each on either side of the world -- a march wind, a wrinkle on an elder woman's face, the smile of a lover, the mourning of one's mother, the burning of a sacred bundle. Some of the storie are as mystical as a mermaid or "Princess Anima", others are as mundane as integration of our soul's work with our day job. All of them will move us towards something within and beyond ourselves.

Circles on the Mountain is a miracle in itself. It was birthed by a handful of guides, including Steven Foster and Meredith Little, after the first meeting of the Wilderness Guides Council in 1988, and has been a labor of love by many guides ever since. We hope this edition as well as all those future and past will fill your hearts with wonder, and open you up to the miracle of your own nature.

With love and light, Amy Katz Guiding Editor, Circle's 2007 Spring Edition Special

Thanks to Assistant Editors:

Stan Crow (The Guiding Editor for our next edition)
Nancy Jane
Munro Sickafoose (Web advisor)