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OJAI MAGAZINE | FALL 2021
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hen Meditation Mount celebrated its 50th birthday on April 11, 2021, board President Michael Lindfield, for an online celebration, showed viewers a new skylight in the site’s auditorium. Made by Ojai artist Lynn Hegney, the 6-by-6-foot piece of slumped glass features at its center a five-petal rose — the pattern created by the orbits of Earth and Venus as they move around the sun. The rose, Lindfield said, symbolizes the soul. Then, to emphasize the deep relationship between Earth and Venus, he explained that the astronomical sign for Earth is a circle with a cross in the middle, and the sign for Venus is a cross with a circle on top: “Venus is our older sister, who is saying, ‘Look, this is possible, you can flower, you don’t have to have your spirit imprisoned in matter forever.’” Lindfield said the rose pattern in the skylight is “a way of lifting us towards that planetary goal of the Earth becoming sacred … The Earth is still becoming illumined. At the moment, we do not emit light. We reflect light.” Meditation Mount’s goal has always been to help not just Ojai, but also the world, to absorb and send out inspiration, hope and light. After what seemed like setbacks over the past few years when the Mount had to close to visitors due to the Thomas fire in 2017, then again during the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020-21, it’s now open to the public again, with a new sense of purpose, renewal and hope. As always, those who run Meditation Mount are guided by its mission to build “an enlightened and compassionate world” focused on six universal principles: spiritual approach, goodwill, essential divinity, right human relations, group endeavor and unanimity. SPIRITUAL APPROACH The inevitable movement of life to an ever-expanding state of wholeness and joy, through a living relationship with the Divine Presence.
Meditation Mount Earth and Venus are always dancing, and Ojai’s Meditation Mount is a portal into their cosmic whirl
