The Upside Down Mountain

Mags Mackean is a former BBC journalist turned intrepid explorer of both outer and inner realms as she sets off on shamanic journeys to the Pyrenees, the Amazon, Tibet and Egypt. The upside down mountain of the title is Bugarach, a sacred mountain less than an hour from where I live and am writing this. The principal theme is descent – into the realms of the body, buried feelings and the dark unconscious. Mags points out that none of us can escape descent in the form of grief, illness and death, uncomfortable features of the wholeness of life that require and elicit our utmost determination and courage. I have only one experience so far of Bugarach, where the oldest rock is on top – hence the characterisation of the upside down mountain with its own powerful sense of presence that has drawn seekers of all kinds, some a good deal wackier than others. The weather conditions often mirror the writer's internal moods reflected in her powerful and evocative prose describing the transformative process way beyond the comfort zone of most readers but which can potentially take them to their own edge.