It is one of the Sacred Mountains of the world. In some ways it is like Mt. Kailash in the Himalayas. I can remember a friend studying with Tibetan Lamas in India and these Lamas recommended he come and live on Mt. Shasta which he did if he wanted to do his Tibetan Buddhist practices in America instead of staying in Asia.
So, many people come here because it is the kind of place where prayers are answered. It's that kind of Sacred Place. So, people come from Europe and South America and Asia and other places here in addition to the U.S. and Canada to do retreats here.
The first time I was aware of all of this I was around 5 years old and my father was coming here to do Electrical work for 6 weeks on the Saint Germain Foundation Amphitheater. So, he brought me along so I could have a mountain kind of experience. At that time we lived in El Cajon and he had given me a large bicycle that I had to step on a block of wood to even get the thing started down the road. He had also given me a jacknife which was common then to give boys in 1953 and so I had promptly wondered just how sharp this knife was and I now have a life long scar across my right Thumb from wanting to know if this blade was sharp when I was 5.
So, for my father, this was a rite of passage kind of time where I went from being sort of a baby in his mind to a young man.
So, we got to Shasta Springs owned by the SainT Germain Foundation between Mt. Shasta city and Dunsmuir on Interstate 5 in Northern California. (However, then in 1953 Interstate 5 didn't exist yet there was only Hiway 99 which wound through the Grape vine and wound through the mountains between REdding and Mt. Shasta. It took about 3 to 5 hours driving to get from Redding to Mt. Shasta then. Now it takes on Interstate 5 about one hour to do the same thing. But, this was 1953 where it took about 3 days or more to drive from San Diego to Mt. Shasta too while driving about 8 hours every day.
So, I get here to Shasta Springs and he (dad) left me with about 10 boys aged 5 to 12 or 14 years old and this became my favorite time of year because I was in the mountains and basically set loose with a bunch of boys to explore the wilderness (and yet I had a bed to sleep inside of building at night and food to eat. So, basically I was turned loose sort of like in a Summer camp in some ways on 2000 acres of wilderness land mostly that was and is the Shasta Springs (which is a private church retreat for the Saint Germain Foundation.
eventually, we walked down the trail to the Sacramento River and walked down the railroad tracks to Moss Spray Falls too. Some of the older boys road the freight trains north to Mt. Shasta city and then hitch hiked back to Shasta Springs back then too.
However, this is 1953 a long long time ago now when I was 5 years old.
Today, people come from all over the world to visit Mt. Shasta as a Sacred Mountain. It's a pretty amazing place if you are spiritual or intuitive at all, after all.
You feel the difference especially if you are actually up on the mountain above 5000 feet in elevation or if you go up to Castle Lake which is at about 6000 feet elevation across the valley from Mt. Shasta where it is about 10 miles above Lake Siskiyou by paved road.
But, once you come here it might be like a spiritual home for you like it has always been for me. If I want to visit God I come to Mt. Shasta or Yosemite Valley or Teton National Park or Yellowstone National Park or a go visit the sunset about 1 mile from where I live near San Francisco on the Beach.
So, if you need someplace amazing to go to and you are spiritual or intuitive or a Mountain climber or a skier or snow boarder or kayaker or swimmer or back packer you might try going to Mt. Shasta.
Though I have tried living here I mostly found I could financially make it here raising a family at least about 2 to 5 years at a time and then I usually returned to San Diego or the San Francisco Area and maybe bought another business because it is difficult to make a living up here I found unless you grew up here and have all the family and contacts you need to stay here long term. And even then it's still hard to make a living here in Mt. Shasta.
However, for a retreat it is an amazing place and for me it is my spiritual home on earth.
By God's Grace
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