Go to the Desert: Seeking Revelations

1. Fall in love

It often happens in relationships: a stranger seems boring because he does not show himself. It takes time to feel his character. So here, the first impression of the desert … no. A space where nothing seems to happen.

The desert doesn’t start talking right away. You need to spend at least a day here, spend the sun, sleep and meet the dawn. Survive fatigue and cheerfulness, hunger and satiety. You need to master the space on foot, adjust to the rhythm of life. This unhurried rhythm is especially clearly felt if you drive along the rocky roads on a camel and adapt to the measured movements of the “ship of the desert”.

And the scale of the Negev and the logic of the coexistence of man and nature are easier to feel when traveling in jeeps – only they can deliver to remote corners, oases and to the traces of ancient sites. So gradually you begin to immerse yourself in the atmosphere of the place, notice halftones and shades, a variety of relief. By the way, there are no dunes here. But there are mountains with a stunning “texture” of layered rocks. There are canyons, gorges and peaks where it literally takes your breath away.

2. Back to basics

Air and sand, firmament of heaven and earth. There is nothing superfluous in the desert, the prophets, ascetics went to parched places to test themselves, hear God, touch the secrets of the universe.

“It is easier to understand the greatness of the desert when you understand how the landscape was formed,” says geographer and guide Mikhail Dukhovny. He is 38 years old, almost ten of them he brings travelers here. – This topic confuses many, because it is difficult for an ordinary person to imagine what millions of years are. These quartz sand grains were formed by the collapse of other ancient mountains 150 million years ago, during the Jurassic period. Before us is the Makhtesh Ramon crater, the largest erosion basin in the world. Fantasy martian landscape. How did it come about? The outer shell of the mountains that surround it consists of strong sedimentary rock, inside the soft sands of the Jurassic period. It turns out something similar to a soft-boiled egg. For millions of years, solid walls stand and do not collapse, while soft rocks are weathered and washed away. Erosion, the main divine sculptor, has created a landscape from which a person receives aesthetic pleasure.

I stand over the abyss on the edge of the crater, look into it and … as if I get inside the planet. Here a geological window opens into the ground, erosion has exposed a natural mosaic of incredible beauty: terracotta sands, indented by magmatic forms, black basalt lava lakes that were once inside the mountain. I try to imagine the process of destruction that took place over 20 million years, goosebumps run through the skin. To complete the sensations, it remains to imagine yourself as a bird: only from above you can see that the crater has the shape of a heart. Touching these global natural processes helps to look at oneself in the context of the history of the planet, to feel the harmony of the world and enjoy the realization that I am also part of this grandiose picture.

3. Hear your “I”

If you travel through the desert individually, in the company of a guide or in a mini-group, including yoga or meditation classes in your schedule, you can get the bonuses that the retreat gives. There is a complete disconnection from the outside world. Going offline in this way clears perceptions that are overloaded with information. All we have here is ourselves. Solitude helps to concentrate on sensations and hear the inner voice. Although, such a “blackout” is not always comfortable.

Unaccustomed silence, open spaces, contemplation of sandy hills – all this encourages you to listen to your feelings, awakens unaccountable anxieties and desires. Journey to the desert, in the words of Carl Gustav Jung, is a symbolic journey to the desert of the soul. “I did not think that my soul was a desert, a scorched, hot desert, dusty and waterless,” Jung writes in The Red Book. “My soul, what am I to do here? But my soul turned to me and said: “Wait” … Many will not endure this torture, but in greed they will rush back to people, things and thoughts, whose slaves they will thus become.

In the real desert, you can also meet vulnerable parts of the soul. What to do? If possible, detachedly observe yourself, ask questions, look for new answers and listen to yourself again. Internal change is a slow, gradual process. Even a few days of desert retreat can start a chain of personal transformation.

4. Learn to trust

The anxieties that a person experiences in the desert can have very real reasons. “The most common fears are getting lost and meeting poisonous animals, a snake or a scorpion,” says Alain Gafni, who organizes jeep tours. In many ways, these fears are exaggerated. During the day, all living beings sleep, but in order to eliminate the risk of an accidental meeting, there are closed shoes. Getting lost is simply unrealistic if you follow the route indicated on the map.

“In any large city, there are much more risks for a person,” Mikhail Dukhovny agrees with his colleague. “But still, you can’t lose your head in the desert either.” Especially for those who travel alone. There is, for example, such a practice – to go to the mountains for four days with water, without food, with warm blankets. This is no longer tourism, but the practice of hermitage. I myself often go on retreat, but as a guide I cannot afford such a risk to my tourists. What if a person suddenly experiences severe anxiety, will he start to panic? Therefore, during one-day trips, I offer meditation practices in an easy way. For example, I ask people to be silent for quite a long time, I suggest working with pebbles, making natural mandalas, that is, childishly, tactilely interacting with nature.

I like to leave the stops at intervals: first one person from the group leaves the resting place, after 100 seconds another, and so on. The group stretches out, and this distance of several hundred meters allows you to feel in solitude. This is not the loneliness that frightens, but the feeling of the fullness of space.

5. Feel connected to others

One of the strongest impressions is the Yoga Festival, which takes place in the Arava Valley. Yoga is a common activity here, yoga retreats are organized in the villages. But the Yoga Arava festival is a special event, more than a thousand people come to it, dozens of master classes are held in the Timna Natural Park and its environs. The final chord of the three-day festival is a collective practice in the open air on the ground at the foot of the Solomon Pillars. Shortly before sunset, the participants lay out rugs at a low podium with a microphone, where the teacher is located. This year the class was led by Patricia Thielemann from Germany, her lesson was a light version of vinyasa yoga.

The sun sets early in autumn, by the beginning of the practice only a soft diffused light remained from it, the sky is gradually saturated with dark colors. At the end of an hour-long session, when everyone lies down in shavasana, a pose of complete relaxation, a bottomless hemisphere opens, dotted with many stars. A light wind carries the bells across the desert, I absorb heat from the bowels of the earth with my body and feel a mystical connection with the place, mountains, sand, everyone who lies nearby. Incredible peace.

“I am overwhelmed by the atmosphere and how many people have gathered,” says Patricia. “Some started practicing two weeks ago, others have 30 years of teaching experience, all work together without ambition, with humility and attention to each other. It’s not just a matter of politeness. Even if we do not have answers to some questions, yoga is the basis that unites. It cannot solve political issues, but helps to stay in touch with the true “I”, a sense of dignity, principles and appreciate it in others. Yoga is an open door to spirituality, which is above all religions.”

A collective master class at the foot of the mountains helped me discover an unexpected relationship between yoga and going to the desert: both practices reconnect with their essence, connect bodily and spiritual experience. By disconnecting from the outside world, we can focus on the soul and return to the basics. This is not all that the desert has to offer, but I would find it difficult to say that this is not enough for me.

How to get to the Negev Desert: 2-3 hours by car from Tel Aviv, 40-60 minutes from Eilat. Best time to travel: November – April-May. The desert is especially beautiful in February, when everything blooms.