Native American Indians in the area profess that the mountain is the home of the spirit chief Skell who descended from heaven to the mountain's summit.
Our bodies mirror the earth, in fact the entire universe
The earth experiences these energy centers as different levels of consciousness, and so do our own bodies. There are seven main energy centers called chakras in our bodies, and also seven in the world. Below are the seven key earth chakras in order, and where their likeness is located in the human body:
First or Root (base of spine) - Mount Shasta, California
Second or Sacral (below belly button) - Lake Titicaca, South America
Third or Solar Plexus (above the belly button) - Uluru-Katatjuta, Australia
Fourth or Heart (at the heart)- Glastonbury Tor-Shaftesbury, England
Fifth or Throat (throat)- Great Pyramid - Mt. of Olives
Sixth or Third Eye (top base of the nose) - Kuh-e Malek Slah, Iran
Seventh or Crown (top of the head) - Mt. Kailas, Tibet
As you can see, Mount Shasta holds the position as the first, root or base chakra of the world. Since moving to Mount Shasta, I can tell you from my own experience, the mountain's vortex pulls on me by invisible strings.
I could sense it from the first time I noticed Mount Shasta from fifty miles away coming south on US 5. Even though I had never been here before, I knew it had to be the mountain. I couldn't take my eyes off of her, and stole glances whenever traffic permitted.
When I skied or hiked Mount Shasta a lightness and connectedness would come over me. I almost expected to see a mystical being walking towards me from behind a giant movable rock. A feeling of overwhelming peace enveloped me when I went to the head waters of the Sacramento River located at the base of Shasta and drank of her pure unimprinted water. This truly is a very special place.
The north side of Mt. Shasta has been inhabited since at least 600 BC, possibly 2500 BC. Artifacts in the greater area suggest 9,000 years of Native American habitation. Mt. Shasta was a corner territorial boundary for four Native American peoples - the Shasta, Modoc, Ajumawi/Atsuwegi, and Wintu - and within the view of the Karuk Tribe on the mid-Klamath River and the Klamath Tribe of the upper Klamath River.
For all these native peoples, Mt. Shasta was the center of creation. The Shasta people believed that the Great Spirit first created the mountain, by pushing down ice and snow through a hole from heaven, then using the mountain to step onto the earth. He created trees and called upon the sun to melt snow to provide rivers and streams. He breathed on the leaves of the trees and created birds to nest in their branches. He broke up small twigs and cast them into streams, where they became fish; branches cast into the forest became animals.
The nearby Modoc people shared this creation account and taught that the Great Spirit lived on Mt. Shasta after creation. His daughter fell from the mountain and was raised by grizzly bears. She married one of their clan, and their children were the first humans. In punishment, the Great Spirit condemned the bear to walk on four legs and scattered their children all over the world.
Today, descendents of these Native American tribes still live in the area and carry out ancient rituals in honor of the mountain. Each year, the Wintu invoke the mountain's spirit with ritual dances that ensure the continued flow of the sacred springs.
At the same time, Mt. Shasta has taken on a new religious meaning. Over 100 New Age sects and groups now regard the impressive mountain as a sacred source of harmony and peace. Mt. Shasta has been identified by various groups as a cosmic power point, a UFO landing spot, the entry point into the fifth dimension (which is characterized by "playful tenderness"), a source of magic crystals, and one of the Seven Sacred Mountains of the World.
In 1932, the Rosicrucians popularized the belief that Shasta is the dwelling place of the Lemurians, super-humans who are so spiritually advanced that they can change themselves from material to spiritual at will. They were described as tall, graceful and agile, with larger heads and much larger foreheads than average humans.
The Lemurians' power is enhanced by crystals they brought to Mt. Shasta when they fled their original home of Lemuria, a lost continent off the Pacific coast destroyed by a volcanic eruption. (The name "Lemuria" was first coined in a scientific context in 1864, by zoologist Philip L. Sclaterby, as a hypothetical sunken continent which could account for the migration of lemurs between existing continents.)
In 1930, Guy Ballard, founder of the "I AM" movement, reported that he met the Ascended Master St. Germaine on the slopes of Mt. Shasta. Ascended Masters are spiritually advanced beings who manifest "the luminous essence of divine love" and assist human evolution. These teachings have been especially popularized by Elizabeth Clare Prophet, a prominent New Age teacher.