Camels Visit Grave

Sacred Camel Gardens Stone Circle Shrine

On Friday August 13, 2010, Jelly Baba, the large handsome black bull of our Sacred Camel Herd, passed away. He was six years old. While under sedation for a fairly routine procedure he quietly left the body. He was born on the 13th, died on the 13th and left behind 13 camels.

Immediately following his passing on this hot summer morning a ceremony of blessing and release was performed on his body, with another later in the day. His massive body, adorned with flowers and leaves, holy water, sacred ash, kumkum and incense, was buried surrounded by a circle of old oak trees… the other camels looking on from a distance.

When I visited the herd the next day I found the entire group sitting together right on top of Jelly’s grave. I didn’t have a camera with me at the time but later took some photos of a smaller group on the grave (above right). They were quiet, calm, meditative, sitting as one. I sat down among them. Google Mama reached out and touched my hand… No one moved. Imperceptibly, there among those large steady forms, my grief rose up and finally began falling away… I was honored to be there, to be included in whatever the herd was feeling and processing, and to be drawn with them into that deep place of Mystery where they reside so firmly.

The camels continued visiting and sitting on the grave for the next couple of weeks.

The impulse for creating some kind of shrine emerged days after Jelly passed away. Seeing the camels sitting over his buried form gave vision to a special place, set aside, where we can come with the camels to honor the sacred truth in all life.

Within the grove of oaks the shrine takes the form of a wide circle of boulders. Spread inside the circle are bark chips for the camels to roll on, should they wish to. At the rear of the circle is a massive headstone. A flat boulder near the middle marks where Jelly Baba’s body lies.

Wild and free non-humans move throughout their natural ranges for food, water, minerals and herbs, and to satisfy other survival needs. They likewise interact with their own and other species for reasons varied, not least being the exchange of energies for serving their psychic life and the potential for Awakening. To serve the sacredness of their natural lives non-humans also visit  ‘energy spots’ within their domains, places where their spiritual contemplation is served and deepened simply by being there, sensitively, and free to do so.

Jelly Baba

Sacred Camel Shrine in springtime