June 6, 2012
I woke up with a tinge of fear surrounding my destination from Day 36. While researching the keywords “Orion, Phoenix, and Pyramid” on the morning of Day 34, I came across a mysterious figure in the desert, located way out in the middle of nowhere. It was so strange that it didn’t even have a name on the map. It was approximately 1.5 hours northwest of Phoenix, on the 33°44’26.08″ Parallel.
Google Maps 2012
This mysterious triangle, or pyramid, was huge! As a point of reference, I’ve placed a pink rectangle in the lower right corner of the triangle above to represent my van, and to show the size of my van compared to the volume of the pyramid.
I located additional pyramids in the area, as well. To view them, use the following coordinates in Google Earth:
33°43’6.32″N | 112°31’43.69″W
33°42’17.19″N | 112°25’3.56″W
33°37’52.18″N | 112°21’58.47″W
Before I left, I showed Ricardo where I was headed just in case something happened and I didn’t return home before sunset. I wasn’t sure if I would have cell phone service at this location, and I wanted to ensure that someone knew where I would be during the day. Since the temperature was well over 100 degrees, I also knew that something as simple as a flat tire could become hazardous, so I took all the precautions.
I left the house around noon. After a workout at the gym, I arrived in Surprise, Arizona, at around 3:00 PM. I stopped to get some food and several containers of water before continuing northwest on Highway 60. Once I reached mile marker 132, I headed west on Patton Road. I arrived at my destination a few minutes later.
I reached the eastern side of the mysterious triangle around 3:20 PM. I parked my van and prepared for my “Fear(Less)” invocation.
I had most definitely reached the barren desert portion of my journey.
I invoked the “Fear(Less)” angel between 3:33 and 3:53 PM. Since it was Day 36 of my journey, I took the following photographs to celebrate and commemorate the mid-way point of my trip,
Once I completed my meditation, I returned to my van and headed back towards Phoenix. During my drive, I kept thinking about my Hopi friend, Ahote, and what he told me about the Hopi’s connection to the three stars in Orion’s belt.
He said that while sitting in one of their kivas, he and his fellow Hopi would sit and wait for the first star in Orion’s Belt to appear in the sky through the doorway at the top of the kiva. When the first star appeared, they started singing and would not stop until the last star in Orion’s Belt moved across the doorway and out of view. He said they sometimes had to sing for up to 6 hours to complete this ceremony. Because of my connection to these stars, I felt a very close connection to the Hopi tradition.
For the sake of my journey and as a dedication to Ahote, the Hopi, and their ancestors, the Mayans, I decided to name this day after the third star in the constellation of Orion. I gave it the name Mintaka.
Google Maps 2012
Mintaka is a multiple star at the western end of Orion’s belt, with a magnitude 7 star about 52″ away from the main component and an even fainter star in between. The main component itself is also double, consisting of a class B giant and a smaller but hotter class O. The stars orbit each other every 5.73 days. These two stars are both about 90,000 times as luminous as the Sun with a mass of some 20 solar masses.
I arrived home around 5:30 p.m., grateful to have completed the first half of my journey. With all of my stars aligned, I decided to pause my journey again to wait for additional funds and inspiration.