Where and how to indulge your inner mystic, wonderer, and esotericist.
This essay is an excerpt from ‘Slow Travel New Mexico: Unforgettable Personal Experiences in the Land of Enchantment’ by Judith Fein, with photographs by Paul J. Ross, and published by University of New Mexico Press.
“How many business cards do you have?” I asked James Jereb, whose penetrating eyes sparkled above his gray mustache and beard and underneath a beige bucket hat. He was dressed simply in a billowing, blue shirt and khaki trousers. “Well,” he replied, “I do a lot of things. You could say I’m artist, cosmic architect, stone mover, ant whisperer, magician, sorcerer, and sacred geometrist.”
He laughed good-naturedly, but Stardreaming is no joke. Like a modern-day Hercules, he moved 300 tons of stone with a pipe and a crowbar and built 10 open-air temples on 22 acres of wide-open country under cotton ball clouds in an azure sky. He designed the site to potentiate transformation and healing. And most people in Santa Fe (about 30 minutes away) have never heard about it.
I will disclose at the outset that I am not a very woo-woo person, although I am open to almost all adventures that do not harm anyone else or myself, and I have definitely had powerful mystical experiences. But I have never been in a temple complex like the one Jereb describes as “filled with energetic portals or doorways that are opportunities to connect to the cosmos and higher consciousness.”
Recommended Fodor’s Video
Each of the temples is aligned to the sun, moon, and stars. Many people walk through life looking down, but Stardreaming invites visitors to look up and sense their relationship to billions of stars and galaxies. Our physical bodies connect heaven and earth, what is above to what is below. And depending upon their intention and willingness, guests may have a very personal and perhaps magical experience.
“I learned from ants,” says Jereb, in his intense, giddy, voluble way. “They are my allies, and I built the temples from the ant’s point of view. I was very childlike when I began to construct Stardreaming twenty-two years ago. I always wanted to do what made my heart sing.”
Today, Jereb is clear as one of his crystal skulls about his belief that human potential is unlimited and that when they come to Stardreaming guests can do whatever they need to do, and they will get what they need. His goal is to connect visitors—who are limited to ten a day—“to One Mind, or the higher vibration of humankind.” He limits the number of visitors because, in his words, “it’s a sacred place, and not a public installation.”
There are two ways for guests to experience Jereb’s creations: one is outdoors, with a map of the temples, letting instincts and desires guide them to and through temples of stars, the moon, the sun, the heart, the pyramid of light new earth that is embedded with crystals, and the Faery Ring, which is a bower with the energy of play. They may meditate, empty their minds, follow their breath, commune with spirits, sing, get insights, or just walk, be curious, and enjoy.
The second way is inside the enclosed Temple of Illumination, where visitors are limited to one hour “with many options and portals for them to explore.” They can, for example, move around a circle of stone and crystal skulls, and put their hands on one that calls to them. They may get a burst of energy, or a vision. My husband Paul felt a strong pulsation from the back of one skull that he touched. Guests can look up at the ceiling of the Maji, which contains the symbols of civilizations, or handle specially designed balls that Jereb claims are chakra activators. They may leave the temple, walk outside to a mystical garden, and sit on Merlin’s wooden, throne-like chair, where they may be transported to the past or future.
Several years ago, I sat in that chair and saw a vision of two lines of ancient people in long, white robes, marching forward. One line was for males and the other for females. Their arms were outstretched in front of them and laden with offerings of grains that had recently been harvested. I was transfixed. I sat there for a long time, watching what felt like a private screening of a film. I had told Jereb about it at the time, and I was sure he had forgotten the incident. “Do you recall the last time you were here and what you saw in Merlin’s chair?” he asked me.
Jereb says that he leaves people alone in the room or in Merlin’s chair, and when he comes back at 55 minutes to lead them out, some have fallen into a trance or simply fallen asleep. The energy is very strong.
When I told a few people about my experience, I could generally tell by their reaction—which ranged from smirks and looks of disbelief to wide-eyed fascination—if Stardreaming was for them.
“When you enter the grounds, you leave crap behind,” Jereb says with characteristic candor, “and you’re on your own. You may experience tears of grief or joy. You may be transported or just feel peace. You may look around and appreciate the silence with nothing but the sound of your steps and breathing. There is no light pollution here. This is ancient energy, and ancient knowledge of connecting to the cosmos. What I am doing is what people did thousands of years ago. I’ve been creating portals and gateways and doorways for twenty-two years. These portals and gateways are entries to other realities and dimensions, a trip that is drug-free.”
Outside, for several hours, we wandered past and through open-air temples that were often spirals and labyrinths built on the earth or lines of standing stones. I didn’t feel much except admiration for what Jereb has envisioned and realized, and then I came to the Temple of the Milky Way. It’s a spiral made in the earth and bordered with shimmering black obsidian stones interspersed with rose quartz. It was dazzling in its beauty and symmetry. I began to walk inside the spiral, and I distinctly heard a voice say to me, “Stay steady. Speed up for no one.”
When we left, Jereb came riding by in his truck and stuck his head out the window. He said he knew I had a message for him. I told him, “Stay steady. Speed up for no one.” He nodded, and left, waving goodbye.
I’m still not woo-woo, but when powerful energy knocks at my door, I answer it.
‘Slow Travel New Mexico: Unforgettable Personal Experiences in the Land of Enchantment’, published by University of New Mexico Press, is available now in paperback and e-book editions.