Article Contributed on: 6/29/2008 1:57:39 PM
The Road Home by Sharon Pearce
Parents, churches and organizations still able to provide summer camp as, potentially an exercise filled pleasure, know they are offering a place for stretching and growing, where youth may respond to impulses deep within encouraging themselves to increase their gain in agility, creativity, and sociability, and learn in a social setting common human values they share with others. Adults, as well, feel ready to strike out to try different things in carefree adventure in summer.
Long ago a nine-year old arrived for her week at a mountain church summer camp. She was directed to a sleeping area above the kitchen of the mess hall where she found children, and parents settling them in. She staked out a cot in the middle area, but was immediately stopped by a parent who told her to get out. The parent then called in counselors, and her own child cried behind her. They arrived finally and looked at some sort of mirror the parent held in her hands but wouldn't let the first child see. The counselors then told her the camper she might have to leave, and the parent with the mirror called her a "witch." "What are you seeing and why are you are calling me a 'witch,' which I am not?'" the girl said. They didn't tell her so she asked them to call her father, who would come and tell them she wasn't a witch, which gave them pause, following which they said she could remain but had to sleep away from everyone by the entry door, and to stay away from the other children. She said she wouldn't as she came to camp to participate with others, but she was isolated without counsel or discussion.
The parent, she learned later, was viewing a scrying mirror, sort of a fortune teller's crystal ball. Sometimes, if a possession of a person's is rubbed on it or they touch it, their essence, or, in a sense, their breath, may reveal views of themself, psychic imprints of what is meaningful to them, or so it appears to some. As to how dimensional it is, perhaps it is more literal than dimensional, if anything is seen. The parent remained with her child that week and the other children ignored the first girl, who was left to sleep next to the window at the entry door, were she stood alone at night, after a day pretty much alone, and prayed that others would see she was not what the woman had named her, didn't understand it, and waited for others to see it was okay to play with her, or, at least, she decided she would make it through each day, since they had to feed her and wait until she could properly leave. Long after her week at camp the girl learned what the parent saw on the scrying mirror. It had been her, and an owl near her; and maybe other things about her walking around gazing at trees, sitting on rocks, looking into a pool of water and talking to the small critters of camp.
The girl was isolated from arts and crafts, no one was interested in playing with her in the swimming pool or eating with her at mess hall. So she did gaze into the trees, and through the chain link fence boundary into the adjacent forest, watched little critters that hung around the mess hall searching for bits of food, and passed time near the pond created by the efflux from the open drain pipe under the mess hall (toxic probably). She learned nature had kindness in its beauty and she would always remember that, and knew she need never feel alone if she recognized nature around her wherever she was (Isn't that a camping lesson?). She realized she ought not be surprised to find humans unfriendly, callous, blind or denying - it was human nature to not necessarily take time to try to understand others or give them the benefit of the doubt.
The counselors then set her up to play with a girl who saw "faces" in water, but she found that camper so afraid of any robust activity, after giving HER the benefit of the doubt, had to tell her they should each pretty much go their own way and follow their own interest, and she walked back to the pond. At that moment, a counselor arrived to return the other camper to all the other campers for play, giving the first camper a scowl. She learned later counselors were watching her to see if she would draw the other girl into pagan activities, something she knew nothing about. Did I mention this was a church camp?
On movie night, the campers waited on the movie porch for darkness when the projector light would be turned on and the movie begin, at which moment immediately arrived a flurry of wings through raised window flaps. An owl swirled and dived through the porch, eliciting shrieks, which did leave a strong impression on the girl - finally she was experiencing something like the camp experience she was told to expect. The movie was cancelled as a frightened girl, perhaps the first one, indicated she had an ill relative at home, and had been told an owl can be a portent. An owl might be just an owl in the forest, some of the children said, but it didn't hold much sway that night.
On the last day, as the campers waited their return rides, she saw the counselors who had learned the girl was not really the person the parent had described her to be as she interpreted her from viewing her in a scrying mirror, though they never welcomed the girl or spoke to her even after movie night, publicly directed that parent with the mirror to speak and recognize the girl and indicate she knew the girl was not a "witch;" or was told her child would not be permitted to return to camp, or participate in other church activities. The parent walked up to the child and, with a forced smile, said, "Did you have a nice time at camp?" The girl, suspicious of her, replied, "Not what I thought I was going to have," and the parent smiled and said, "Good!"
The camper was later told (not from any in the camping group) to specifically pray for protection for herself against scrying mirrors and those who used them and who would view them and she also learned her parents had done a pretty good job of praying for her as well as to what anyone might see of her otherwise as is normally seen in the mirrors by those who use them. She also learned that her essence presented on the mirror unusual symbols and pictures, including those of recognizable persons, which evidently simply related to dates, perhaps important to her. The psyche is part of our physical nature, and evidently represents itself in symbols and pictures we may see at times to simply register future dates that may have importance to the person, him/herself.
According to the police, it is not illegal for an adult to possess a scrying mirror. However, few persons other than the subject can probably interpret any essence or its symbols or pictures related to the psyche, which is not necessarily literal, it would seem. Who can understand the emotion behind a child's values, imprinted on their psyche, without engaging them? Some may feel there is no essence, or scrying mirror that can capture any essence, especially if the subject is consecreated or protected, and others may comprehend such things can happen.
Children, away from the direct care of their families, might be better protected with specific restrictions enforced against persons viewing them or their essence or psyche, via divination tools, especially when the children are in acknowledged community or private group sponsored activities. Children ought not to have to defend outside their weight class, against those secretly viewing them. There should be laws!
Summer is a season of freedom - freedom to learn, to grow, to experience, to play, to laugh. Summer camp can be a great experience. I am just not sure I would recommend it for children.