I have noticed a significant energetic shift since the beginning of 2016. This year adds up to the number 9, and according to tantric numerology (the number science associated with Kundalini Yoga), this 9 energy is about “mastery over the mystery”. That is, a developed understanding and capability of accessing and working with the mysterious forces of life. This is an art. It includes a sensitivity in order to first perceive the less-seeable or knowable forces at play in our lives. Once we have an awareness and understanding of this, we’re able to harmonize with it. We are able to connect to a force much greater than us. These subtle forces run through everything.

As I write this, I’m watching the sun fall from one of the highest altitude points in Minnesota. I’m cozied up in a friend’s log home, on the edge of the Boundary Waters, near a roaring fire. Out the window and across a wide expanse of leafless, winterized trees, I can see Eagle Mountain. Recently this friend of mine built himself a new garage. When they were digging down to lay the foundation, they hit bedrock. “Highly unusual,” he says. The construction crew joked as they pounded away with a jackhammer at the bedrock that somewhere in the UP of Michigan, a wine glass was shaking. This rock I’m sitting upon likely stretches out underneath Lake Superior, all the way to the shores of Michigan.

This is one way to access subtle energy. As I let that fact roll around in my head, heart, bones, body, I can feel the ancient one in me rise. I let my energy body stretch out below the structure I’m sitting in. I feel myself part of the rock. Rock that is alive. That has been alive. That will be alive. And that one day may become stars. Like me. I feel myself then travel below the Lake. In all Her freshwater glory, I hold her like the soft crescent moon holds the sky. I round Her sides with jagged, ancient stone. Rock that is supposed to be underground. Rock that should be covered by hundreds, possibly thousands, millions of years of decomposed trees, buildings, lifetimes. But here, in this special place, deep in the northwoods of Minnesota, it has remained risen.

The house I’m in is the highest elevation home in the state of Minnesota. The air that hits this elevation has swept across the Canadian Shield. Once the wind hits this structure, it has not seen another building for thousands of miles. It is fresh and wild and strong. I can hear it crash against the side of these logs, rush down the chimneys and unfurl the fire. But this structure is pinned to stone that holds one of the largest freshwater lakes in the country. Bedrocks this heavy and ancient can and does rise. It can stay close to the surface, knowable, accessible, to those who know enough to look. It is possible to rise with great foundation, and to remain light, free, and sustained to the deepest level.

This is subtle energy. It is heavy, in it’s way. It is unshakeable, travels long distances. It’s mysterious. Sometimes it runs so deep below ground that we’ll never uncover it. And sometimes we are building a life for ourselves, and we find that we are supported, unknowingly, by the same force that holds a great lake.

Traditionally, this subtle energy is most felt in our interactions with other people. When the subtle body is strong, we understand the intentions of others. We have a grasp of what someone is really asking of us. And we also attract to us the people we are meant to meet. It is good to begin with creatures that are primal when we are learning this energy -rocks. It is good to learn the language of trees and the wind and the water. In their language, we learn something about ourselves, and about the more complex creatures we call humans.