Making the Effort to Ascend and Discovering a New Direction

Ancient Graffiti or a Message Board?

     

Signal Hill was used by early inhabitants to tell those, who knew how to look for and read the signs, where the best paths were located among the hot desert landscape.  In a place surrounded by mountains the passes were not obvious on the plain, so a hill was needed to give the traveler perspective. From its height one could learn the easiest and safest way to traverse a very hazardous land. The signs located on the top would often tell where to find water, warn of flooding, and give instructions on and how to get to other villages. This hill has symbols that might indicate which way was best to take flocks of sheep and goats so that they could traverse the desert safely and where water and grass might be found just to the north a few miles.

When a spiral opens on the lower side as if leading the viewer into a spiral maze. It takes the viewer up and circles around and keeps circling to the center. It is located on the top of the hill with a mountain in the background shaped similarly to the rock upon which the spiral is found. It means go over to that Mountain and find the easy access to more petroglyphs start low on the hill and ascend up the path, circling up until you get to the top of the hill and you will find more instructions. This spiral symbol always means ascending, according to La Van Martineau.1

            When a visitor to Saguaro Monument National Park’s Signal Hill climbs up the stairs made by the WPA to the top, there is just such a spiral pecked into a triangular shaped rock. When interpreted as I’ve indicated it says to go to that far mountain to the East and there ascend where you will find further instructions. In actuality this is a very famous set of petroglyphs accessible from a wash located on Picture Rocks Road just before you enter into the National Monument through the pass. This is relatively easy to find and in recent years has been vandalized. This disregard or disrespect for something that we do not understand is similar to how our scriptures are treated by people today who feel that they don’t have value for our day and time.

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1 The Rocks Begin To Speak, La Van Martineau, 1973 KC Publications, Las Vegas, Nevada, p 28

Ascend to the top of that mountain over there,

and discover more instructions.

 That is the message of the spiral on top of Signal Hill

 

The scriptures are our Signal Hill, where we can find instructions for safe passage and living water in a hostile world, so that our journey on earth will be a successful one. These were prepared by God’s prophets who have previously traveled the road of earth life. The ancient prophets saw us in the latter days and realized we needed a road map to guide us through dangerous times. Isaiah wrote not only for Israel in his day, but also imbedded there is the Lord, Jehovah’s message to us, his people, who would live in the latter days when we could understand his warnings. But who will read Isaiah and understand? Those who recognize the importance of what he has to say to us, having read Christ’s admonition to the Nephites that, “Great are the words of Isaiah.”

There are symbols and meanings to be found in the scriptures just as there is the spiral picture on the Picture Rocks behind my house. Their purpose is to lead you to a higher place where you can see a view of eternity and guide you through a modern hazardous landscape to safety.

Ascend the Hill for Further Instructions

Signal Hill

Behind my house, located in Saguaro National Monument Park, just a couple of miles as the crow flies, there is a small hill. It is called Signal Hill. Native American’s of former years have engraved petroglyphs upon the rocks located here. This is how the town where I live got its name, Picture Rocks. On the south side of the rocks high upon the face of this rocky outcropping, is a spiral along with many other pictures. Many have observed the spiral symbol in other places, too, and they think that it is a sign of the universe or some other such thing. Richard Hill the Park Ranger told me, “There are as many ideas about what a given symbol means as there are people studying it.” He continues, “I’ve studied them for years and have to conclude that we will never know their original meaning.” I suspect that the people of the world have thought the same thing about Isaiah’s words and other prophets in the bible.

This spiral on Signal Hill is located in a hard place to reach on this steep rocky slope, where it would be difficult to stand for any length of time to peck a complicated symbol. It would have to be important information to communicate, not just a doodle, for someone to take the time to peck out a hard to draw spiral carefully etched in this rock. The symbol is not obvious until you are really close to the hill.

I asked the ranger if he knew why the symbols were located there, because it wasn’t a very high hill and it was not easily seen from any of the roads nearby. He shrugged and said he didn’t know why. So I went and looked again at the hill and discovered something very interesting. It had a companion hill just to the northeast of it that was rounded and almost as high. They were just yards apart. What was the difference? The Signal Hill was formed by wonderful darkened volcanic rock thrust up from the earth’s interior. The other was just gently rounded and smooth, no rocks, just dirt with some cactus growing on it.  It was easy to climb.

A light went on in my understanding. If you want to write something, you must first have a suitable surface. Rocks darkened by volcanic action on the surface and with lighter matter underneath in the core would make a great “piece of paper” for writing upon. Ancient people would recognize this when they saw such rocks, and would straightway walk over to them to see if anyone had written some important directions to share with travelers. Indeed it would become a Signal Hill. I looked around and did not see any other suitable hills  or rocks except some really high inaccessible cliffs several miles away and too hard to climb for a person just passing through.

I will share a little known interpretation of the spiral symbol with you, one that most people do not know. The spiral symbol tells the traveler to ascend and find more petroglyphs that have either warnings or directions located on the top of the hill. They are written with orientation to the surrounding landscape and have to be interpreted right where they are located to have meaning. For instance, if written near a crack, the crack might indicated a river or divide; or the shape of the rock might be the exact same shape as a mountain nearby where a pass is located.

In the case of Signal Hill the writing on the southern face of the hill tells the traveler to go to the top of the hill for a better perspective and further instructions.

This hillside is a powerful symbol of us and our scriptures, or Scripture Hill. Hmmm, maybe, I have stumbled upon something. Just carrying them or having them on a shelf nearby does not let you see what is inside. That’s the easy thing. You have to open them. You have to be diligent and search or study them in order to find the true meanings therein.  

You must ascend to the top of the hill for further instructions.

Ascending the Mountain

Picture Rocks Road and the Pass into Tucson

Picture Rocks

            There is a magical place in the desert west of Tucson, Arizona called Picture Rocks and it is absolutely filled with magnificent symbolism. Picture Rocks Road is a country road and pierces the Tucson Mountains just where the morning light breaks from the East. I live a few miles down this curving road with Saguaro cactus standing like sentinels covering the hills. These unique ancient plants are huge. Some of them tower over 20 feet tall. They look like men with upraised arms. Many are over a hundred years old. The Native American inhabitants of this land revered them as sacred beings. Are they are trying to warn us? What stories could these Saguaro tell us? 

A never-ending stream of traffic passes by my house. Often I hear the siren of an ambulance or fire trucks rushing by in the dark, telling of someone who had not been paying attention or obeying the laws along this country road and there had been an accident. This road can be treacherous as it passes west through the Tucson Mountains into Saguaro National Monument Park. The speed limit is 45 mph and the signs are posted, “No Passing.”  Hundreds of people use this route every day to get from their homes to work or shopping. People who drive the same road over and over get to know every bump and curve in the road. They are lulled into a sense of security and often think of other things while driving. They can become distracted and that is the danger.

As members of the church are we bored or lulled to sleep when we hear the same things over and over? Or have we been lulled into a sense of security? Recently, economic and world events have shaken us up a bit. These are sirens in our life, reminding us that we must stay on the path and do what we promised our Heavenly Father we would do with our lives when we came down to earth from the spirit world.

Themes of my lIfe

If you want to follow someone's blog you probably want to know if there are going to be any topics you might be interested in reading about. Although I've started this blog with beginning of the year concepts of setting goals using your patriarchal blessing,  I've got many more topics planned to talk about. Last year I reviewed many of my past journals and wrote down a list of various themes that I found. Of course, I add new interests every month, but the ones listed below are the ones that seem pop up in my life again and again.

Themes of My Life

Solving the Mystery by Finding the Clues

Searching for Answers

Enjoying the Rhythm of Life

Letting Go and Moving On

Working to Understand Light

Searching for my Ancestors

Keeping a Book of Remembrance

Writing in a Journal

Taking Photographs as History 

Searching for Wisdom

Developing a Relationship with God as His Daughter

Understanding Myself as Israel

Becoming a Sister Scriptorian

Studying Isaiah

Studying Symbolism

Studying the Olive Tree

Studying the Bee

Studying Indian Picture Rocks

 

This photo was taken only a couple miles from my house and is why the place I live is called Picture Rocks. 

I call this photo "To Ascend the Mountain" and it's symbolism touches me in my very center of my being. This spiral, found in many native American pictographs (painted on) and petroglyphs (scratched into) rocks in the desert locations of the Southwestern and Western United States, has been given as many meanings and interpretations by the dozens of anthropologists and park rangers who've studied them. And I am going to tell you the story of what this means to me.