Healing in Yosemite
In memory of Joie Ruth Armstrong
by Leslie McIntyreOn October 9, nine Sonoma County women headed for Yosemite to facilitate a healing ritual on the land where Joie Ruth Armstrong was murdered.
Joie was one of four women murdered in Yosemite during this past year. Carole Sund, her daughter, Juli, and their friend, Silvina Pelosso were also killed. The brutal, senseless slayings were allegedly committed by the same madman --;obviously someone who hates women and children, as Juli and Silvina were fifteen and sixteen years old, respectively.
This particular crime hit home for me, as the Sund family and Joie had roots in Sonoma county. When I heard of these crimes, something inside of me wanted to scream from the mountaintops "ENOUGH! ENOUGH!"
How much hatred and male violence towards women and children are we to endure? How much can the Mother suffer? Why do so many men act out their rage on women and children? Juli and Silvina were beautiful girls--;budding young women, but still innocent and trusting girls. How could this man sexually assault such beautiful life and tortuously kill it?
Joie was a vital glowing young woman--full of vigor for life and had the gift of teaching others how to express their own love of life. She lived in the pristine wildnerness, where a madman lurked in the shadows of the great trees that bore witness to her slaying.
I couldn't stand to hear of these murders without doing something. I decided that I would go to Yosemite to do a healing ritual to cleanse the area of the murderous and violent energy that stained the psychic field of that magnificent valley.
I talked to Joie's aunt before I left and asked her if there was anything she wanted me to say. She said that the mountains are angry, and that the people need to leave Yosemite. She said to take the people out of Yosemite. I couldn't agree with her more.
I asked other women if they wanted to come with me, and eight others said they wanted to go. Before leaving, I sat at Joie's gravesite, which is within walking distance from my home, and told her what we were going to do and asked her if there was anything she wanted me to say. I closed my eyes and saw a vision of a beautiful butterfly, with a woman's body. I knew it was Joie.
She said "Make the world safe for the children." She was radiant and peaceful. When I got up to leave her grave, a butterfly came and landed on the flowers placed there in her honor. I felt blessed.
When we arrived in Foresta where Joie lived in Yosemite, we looked down the road to her cabin, and knew we were standing on the very land where she fought hard for her life and where she died. The energy was thick and many of us got immediate throbbing headaches. We decided to build an altar with rocks, mosses, twigs, branches and flowers. We placed a round shield we made with remembrances of Carole, Juli, Silvina and Joie on the altar. We sat in circle and shared our thoughts and prayers.
We went further down the road following the water, and came to a place where we shared a pipe ceremony, releasing our prayers on the gentle breeze. We tossed flower petals in the stream to cleanse the waters of the violence, as Joie's headless body was thrown in those waters by her killer a little further upstream, by her cabin.
I couldn't imagine such violence. But I felt it. We all did.
We then retraced our steps back to the altar where we offered wildflower seeds all around the area. We entered the large meadow that backs up to the cabin where Joie lived. We gathered our seeds and, facing the hills, scattered them on prayers of healing.
Our ritual ended with our voices in song carried on the fragrance of tall grasses rippling across the meadow as the warmth of the sun filled our heavy hearts. Many seeds were left behind--seeds of goodness, love and healing.
My objective was to help heal and cleanse the energy so that the murderer and others like him would know that powerful women cannot be stopped--not by hatred, murder, and rape, or any other inflicted harm. We are the Goddess emerging, forever and untamable. The madmen killers of the world cannot stand up to this power. Their only choice is to change...
About a week after the ritual, I had the amazing good fortune to connect with Joie's mother, Leslie. I was calling Joie's aunt to tell her of our experience, and Leslie answered the phone. We engaged in a deep, tearful, heartfelt exchange in which I asked her if we could meet her and hear about her daughter's life. She eagerly agreed, and we met at Joie's grave. She brought photo albums, stories and many letters to share. We cried together, and laughed and listened to this grieving mother talk so lovingly of her daughter. The simultaneous presence of pain and love was nearly unbearable.
Leslie was deeply touched by our caring about Joie and I felt we were somehow meeting in an ancient tribal way in which grief is shared by the community. I felt the Goddess yet again emerging through us, bringing women together to gather more strength and courage in saying NO.
In parting, Leslie made a comment, the impact of which we all felt deep in our bones. She said, "Nothing will really change until men change what's in their hearts." There was a moment of total and complete agreement, as we all knew and felt this to be the truth.
When a mother who suffers the loss of her daughter at the hands of a brutal murderer speaks wisdom such as this, the whole world needs to listen. Leslie recently was asked back on the Leeza Gibbons show; she was considered by the public to be one of Leeza's more inspiring guests. Leslie had been inspired by another guest, Mary, now a strong young woman, who suffered as a young teen a terrible rape and torture where her rapist cut off her hands and left her to die. (This woman-hating man was eventually released only to kill another woman.) To see these women together on television, sharing their losses and pain, still able to smile and love, was a miracle--the miracle of love and women's ability to endure. The Goddess cannot be done away with. It is She alone that remains.
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