There are stories inside of us: secrets and desires and memories and fantasies piled up and up and up and up. All of them mirrors — all sizes, shapes, designs.

We live in a culture obsessed with ascension. We are rising, striving, climbing, trying so hard to go up up up…

Artemis is a paradox. On one hand, she safeguards young children and wild animals, acting as a midwife and protectress of life. On the other hand, she is a bringer of death. She exacts unflinching violence on those who break the sacred rules of her forest, hunting them down and killing them with her bow and arrow.

We venture into the valley of Lake Stymphalia (Λίμνη Στυμφαλία). A storm hovers over the valley, the filtered light illuminating a patchwork of cultivated earth. This entire region is sacred to the goddess Artemis in her form of Artemis Stymphalia, protectress of the lake, fowl and forests.

We began our journey on the Feneos plateau, 900 meters above the sea where lake Doxa (Λίμνη Δόξα) lies nestled in alpine forest. Walking past vendors of walnuts, wild thyme and honey, we made our way down a narrow strip of land that extends into the center of the lake.

Leaving Lake Stymphalia, we drive to Psari (Ψάρι) where a series of hikes begin at the village church and descend into the valley among olive groves and vineyards.

The November air is heavy with resin as we drive over the twisting roads. Passing through the small village of Steno (Στενό), I urge my friend to stop so I can drink from a spring that pours from the bark of an ancient plane tree.

Artemis is primarily a goddess of nature — a huntress and protectress of wild things. One of her most well-known sanctuaries is tucked inside a fertile valley in Attica, where the Erasinos River meets the sea. After so many years of adoring and studying the goddess, I finally was able to make Pilgrimage to the sacred wetlands of her temple at Brauron (Βραυρώνα).