“We’ll look for a spot to help activate the energy awaiting us,” Yona FrenchHawk wrote a few days before the ceremony.

First, Yona & Ebba went to the pavilion where the Cosmic Summit summer solstice ceremony location was assigned by the Pilot Mountain State Park for June 20, 2025. Further down the mountain from there, toward the west, on September 20, 2025 a series of quartzite slabs were chosen. The quartz singing bowls really seemed to resonate there sitting on the quartzite! It felt like nature was leaning into the ceremony.

This fascinating interview with Yona FrenchHawk was done shortly before the equinox ceremony on Pilot Mountain. The cover of this podcast above has images from the 2025 summer solstice ceremony where hundreds gathered on Pilot Mountain.

Singing bowl ceremony at Pilot Mountain State Park in the middle of where the airfield used to be in the 1930s and 1940s.

Bless the Frequency of Stone at Pilot Mountain

We call upon the mountain that breathes

We call upon the quartzite stone that remembers

We call upon the song that awakens when hearts are pure

Pilot Mountain, we stand in your presence

We are not visitors, we are kin

Our names are written in your bones

Our breath is one with your wind

Seal us in your resonance

Sing through our marrow

Let us be as steady as your granite,

as enduring as your roots,

as luminous as your crown at sunset

We walk in balance with your guardians

We honor the little ones, the hidden ones,

The watchers within and the Starman above

We honor the song that rises when we gather,

The song that will not be silenced

May every step we take be a step in your circle

May ever word I speak be an echo of your truth

May our work, though resisted

Become seed for generations unborn

So let it be, so it already is

(Anonymous Writer)

Looking south from Black Mountain Road in Pilot Mountain that affords a complete view of the iconic mountain. Andy Griffith called it Mount Pilot on his TV series, but it was never seen on the show. For many, this turned a real sacred mountain into a fictional place.

Twilight looking north at Pilot Mountain from Pinnacle, North Carolina on September 20, 2025.

Was this the same turkey buzzard from the summer solstice ceremony on June 20, 2025 that Yona FrenchHawk talked about in the “Ancient Cherokee Wisdom” podcast?

This time the buzzard stayed in the same place on the southwestern edge of the upper parking lot near the trail we took to the quartzite slabs in the picnic area at Pilot Mountain. The turkey buzzard stayed in the same spot for the entire equinox/eclipse ceremony on September 20, 2025.

More Turkey Buzzard Involvement during research

While on the way to view the final Lunar Standstill full moon of the 18.61 year cycle and to see the pyramid shadow a little before the winter solstice on December 2, 2025 these two turkey buzzards stopped me in my tracks. This was about 48 hours out from the full moon but weather conditions would make it impossible to see with a minor winter storm hitting the area.

Here is a close-up of the turkey buzzards who seem to be aware and waiting during special times of the year. This is the fourth time this has happened on special times at Pilot Mountain.

On December 2, 2025 the view of the shadow turns out to include the Little and Big Pinnacle as a profile of the entire mountain. A pyramid shadow was expected, but that was not what was seen. This was eighteen days before the winter solstice. Because of haze on the horizon the shadow also unexpectedly faded early. The turkey buzzards stayed in the same spot near the Little Pinnacle for over an hour with small groups of hikers walked by.

Note the arch of the moon rise over the Sauratown Mountains in the two images above and this is the farthest point for that in the 18.61 year Lunar Standstill cycle! The northern edge of the Sauratown Mountains appears to be the furthest point of the moon rise on the horizon for the 18.61 year Lunar Standstill cycle. Sure wish I could find someone interested in this aspect of Pilot Mountain since books are written about the archeoastronomy at Stonehenge in England (man-made) and Chimney Rock (natural) in Colorado.

This is a short video from years ago when three turkey vultures were right next to the Little Pinnacle. Usually they keep their distance over on top of the Big Pinnacle, but they were also part of the June 20, 2025 summer solstice celebration, the July 7, 2025 ceremony and the September 19, 2025 ceremony in advance of the equinox. Yona FrenchHawk tells a marvelous story about the turkey buzzard that took off from a tree near the parking lot and seemed to drop a feather from its wing right onto his drum that was sitting on the hood of his car.

December 2, 2025

December 2, 2025