Deepening my experience of places I have been before is the magic of this spiritual journey to the Languedoc this year. Today in Rennes-les-Bains, known for its ancient Roman baths, and places Mary Magdalene was said to have done healing, I took a meditative walk to the Throne of Isis, and a direct path to the Trembling Rock. There, the ancient spirits of the stones interacted with me, and I with them.
Later, in Esperaza, I returned to St. Michael’s church, where I have gone a number of times, and always enjoy the peaceful, enveloping feeling. Today ,for the first time, I read a sign about an original statue of John the Baptist and original architectural arc in the back room leading to the sacristy. I was able to walk to that back room and was struck by the power of it. It was as if the entire energy of the church was held in that back room and the treasured objects within it which have withstood the centuries since the 13th, after the Crusades against the Cathars.