Lake Atitlan

The Healing Vortex at Lake Atitlan

The Rose Healing Center

Lake Atitlan is an astonishingly beautiful lake located in the Mayan Highlands of Guatemala and is undoubtedly the country’s leading tourist attraction. Three immense pyramid volcanoes and smaller mountains ring the shores. The views of the lake are spectacular. Its depth is over 1000 feet. Its shape is irregular, 12 miles at the widest point, and it shifts in color through a range of blues and greens as the sun transits the sky.  A remarkable aspect of the lake is the presence of the Mayan culture. A total of 13 villages grace the shores of Atitlan – from the cosmopolitan Panajachel to tiny isolated villages like Tzununa which are accessible only by launch.

The Maya continue to cultivate their food and weave their own clothing. Their weaving is among the most complex, varied and beautiful of any to be found in the world. Most exceptional is the happy disposition of the Maya and their acceptance and curiosity of foreigners.  Perhaps most outstanding about Lake Atitlan is the effect it has on people who visit there. Commonly travelers find an incredible sense of well being and awareness of themselves. This is the presence of the Healing Vortex which creates all kinds of personal changes, opening up new levels of permission and self acceptance.  As one might expect, the astounding beauty of Lake Atitlan and its Healing Vortex have drawn numerous people who are aware of the Miracle Energy that exists there, its power to heal and transform. In this light I have prepared a few ‘Miracle Stories’, short personal stories of how people came to Atitlan and how it changed them.

My Own Miracle Story

I first came to Guatemala in 1975 with Tara, my 6 year old daughter and a boyfriend in an old Harvester International van. Our 6 month visa in Mexico had expired and we were bound for South America. Little did we know of Guatemala and how surprised we were to see Mayans herding goats at the roadside who waved at us, and even more surprised at the incredible landscape and finally our first amazing view of Lake Atitlan as we made the mountainous descent from Solola.

I experienced many personal changes at Lake Atitlan and I have remained connected to this beautiful place through all the years. Here I found a husband, had my second daughter, created a thriving business and later a school for indigenous children.
To my great surprise and delight I once again find myself in Panajachel. A few years back while vacationing here I asked a realtor to show me properties available. Seeing the land I own now I experienced a clear vision of a healing center, community and home. Six months later I owned this piece of land, part of an old coffee plantation and just 5 minutes from the lake where I love to swim. I began to make preparations to sell my home and business in California and moved in February of 2007, settling in to my tiny casita on a little over an acre of raw land.

I have had 2 and a half exhilarating years, creating The Rose Healing Center, or as it is known here ‘La Rosa, Casa de Meditacion y Bienestar (well being)’, a lovely adobe building where people of the community and travelers passing through come to meditate, learn and play in Psychic Kindergarten – finding more self understanding and discovering that their body is a personal sanctuary with unlimited potential for well being and happiness.

Guatemala, also known as the ‘Land of Eternal Spring’, is a gardener’s paradise. Everything grows! I have enjoyed creating many gardens, including a Mayan Labrynth Garden which is a sacred healing walk that includes the Mayan Cross and its 4 Cardinal Points.

In my passion for the garden I have made it my personal practice to play in the garden every morning at 7 when my Mayan gardener Miguel arrives. Miguel and I weed and trim a small area each day as the sun comes up. It is a time of personal sanctuary and meditation where we both connect with Mother Earth, the Great Tierra Madre. Visitors to La Rosa are invited to join this amazing healing practice.
Building projects are ongoing. I have built myself a home, constructed a bodega (building/storage area) and a second casita for another resident, and, presently we are breaking land for a small 2 bedroom house, again with the intention of creating a healing community that supports La Rosa.

I am most excited about our most recent project, a Mayan sauna with shower and changing area, known as ‘temascal’ in Spanish, or ‘toj’ in the Cakiquel Mayan dialect. Traditionally Mayans did not have showers but rather used a sauna for cleansing and ritual healing. This ancient Mayan practice will be incorporated into the La Rosa healing program.

I am very grateful for my life here and all that it has allowed me to create. I enjoy working in the community and teaching everyone how to ground by simply matching the energy of the Healing Vortex of beautiful Lake Atitlan. I invite you to simply match this miraculous healing energy yourself wherever you are and see what happens!

The Miracle Story of Prema

Prema, a Canadian woman from Toronto, had been working for several years in Mazatlan, Mexico when in 1989 she began to experience lucid dreams where she had visions of a beautiful lake surrounded by mountains. The dreams also included visions of a plateau and herself working with native indigenous women. The dreams continued with the knowledge that some day she would be living there.

In 1993 while en route to Costa Rica Prema discovered Lake Atitlan. She never made it to Costa Rica and now has lived on the lake for almost 20 years. Prema has worked for many years as a design and administrative consultant with Mayan Traditions, an NGO (non-governmental organization) that works with Mayan women in weaving cooperatives, selling their products nationally in the US, and providing educational and medical support to them and their families.

Prema has created her own exclusive jewelry line working with those lovely indigenous women she saw in her visions. She readily expresses her gratitude for her connections with these indigenous women whose pleasure in creating inspires her to enjoy life in the moment.

Prema says that the effect of the lake has been powerful in her life. Over the years she travelled extensively in Asia but she says, "The lake was always in my heart. I had to return. Lake Atitlan has always opened up an abundance of connections with wonderful people, with many opportunities to make a living and create a beautiful home."

Woodworker in town

The Miracle Story of Brad

I met Brad recently while taking a launch to San Marcos La Laguna where he lives. He was coming from Sunday market in Panajachel carrying 2 live and very frightened turkeys with a little Mayan boy named Eri in tow. I offered to hold the little box containing 6 parakeets as we crossed the lake. We chatted and I made arrangements to meet with him later in the day. Brad had been working as an attorney in a firm of 1200 lawyers in Los Angeles, CA preparing legal manifests and documents and working as a defense lawyer when his best friend from childhood and also an attorney in his firm, contracted pancreatic cancer and died suddenly at the age of 33 years.

Brad chalked his friend’s death up to a highly stressful lifestyle and started some serious self examination. He began travelling in Central and South America searching for a personal haven that would support his well being. In 2006 he found himself in Guatemala, enjoying Lake Atitlan when an indigenous man offered to sell him his land. Immediately Brad experienced a vision of how he might live in Guatemala and support himself doing legal work online. Brad purchased this land with a beautiful view of the lake in 2006 and made regular visits to Guatemala to supervise the building of his home, a novel two story circular construction using no steel and only 10% cement. He began permanent residence in January of 2009 when his circular healing home was complete. During the nine months he has been in San Marcos Brad has made a sustainable environment that includes an extensive organic vegetable and herb garden, numerous chickens and rabbits, self-composting toilets and solar water heating. He is readily sharing his methods with residents and the local indigenous.

Another project was the construction of a large roofed patio area which will become a restaurant business operated by Mayans. “I give the micro loans with the idea of what business to create!” laughs Brad. His other ideas include providing sewing machines to women and helping them market their products, and, working with men in the manufacture of furniture items that they might sell. Brad remarks how happy he is in his circular home. He says it is organic, female and very healing in its energies. From his bed he enjoys looking through a glass rooftop at the moon and stars and marveling at the new life he has created for himself.