A walk in the wilderness

First in a new series from the L.A. Times on sacred spaces is a profile on The Rev. Brad Karelius, rector of Santa Ana’s Episcopal Church of the Messiah. After experiencing an incredible sense of peace and holiness while exploring the mountain wilderness that lies north of L.A., Karelius went on to study how retreating to such raw places often acts as a portal to spirital awakening, according to the article. For him, that first visit evoked such “serenity” that he has made it a regular practice to return to the area whenever he needs to “detox” from the hustle and bustle of daily living.

Karelius was talking about his first visit to the cave at Rose Spring — a dusty gash in the Coso Mountains at the southern end of the Owens Valley, about 120 miles north of Los Angeles. He stumbled across the cave in 1997, a few weeks after his then 14-year-old son, Erik, nearly died after a series of epileptic seizures.

What happened to him there continues to provide spiritual direction for his sermons at the Episcopal Church of the Messiah in Santa Ana.

With his son’s crying echoing in his mind, he explored the ruins of a stagecoach stop that burned down in 1870, admired the massive grinding stones of an ancient Native American village and took in the desert hills marked by the spicy scents of wild rose and sagebrush. Then he climbed into the cave, startling a great horned owl out of a dark corner.

Karelius spent several hours in the cave, just listening to the stirring and penetrating sounds of wind in the sage and marveling at the unspoiled views — not much different from when Paiutes went there to grind meal and to chip tools out of volcanic glass.

“I was overwhelmed by the power of a place with so many stories of struggle to tell,” he said. “There was a palpable sense of danger and awe. It was the one moment I felt closest to the holy.”

The whole thing is here.

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