The Hedge Druid

 Eagle Tor, Derbyshire – 27th February, 2010

This is part two of our Derbyshire adventures. In part one we visited Nine Stones Close and had an encounter with a Pan Nature Spirit. In this part we visit a new site for us – Doll Tor – reputed to be in a lovely woodland setting, and so it turned out to be. It was  bit of a bugger to get to though. I think we probably came in from the wrong direction, because we had to hack our way across rutted fields at peculiar angles to reach the narrow strip of woodland that the GPS unit was insisting housed this new stone circle. Rarely have I been quite so relieved that modern technology saved me (mainly from the perishing cold).

Doll Tor: Mist and Mysticism

Having gone through such an ordeal I thought there was unlikely to be anyone around. I was wrong. Two ladies were perched on adjacent stones in the circle as we arrived. We exchanged pleasantries, but I was keen not to disturb their peace, even though I knew that even being there had already done just that for them. I apologies for that but Kal was less so, indicating that we were probably enlivening the atmosphere. Er, yes, quite. I’m sure we were.

 I set about dowsing the circle, essentially buying some time while the ladies inhabited the space. I would do my thing when they had done theirs. Kal went off hugging trees and generally making a holy show of himself. He was acting very strangely today. I mean, stranger than usual. I kept one eye on him while I dowsed around. There was some negative energy to one side of the small stone circle – down the slope, beyond an inlaid stone that had some engraved words on it:

Renovation engraved inlaid stone

The stone was marking the renovation of the site in 1993, apparently re-erecting a stone. The negative energy source was an engraved stone at the side of the circle. Well, whatever they had done something was amiss with the energies from the plaque downwards. There was a wide pool of negative energy hanging around. I decided that I should do something about this straight away, especially as people were there and using the site. I asked all the appropriate questions such as “May I?”, “Can I?”, “Do I have the ability..?”, “Is it the right time…?” all with  positive response. I got my incense out and began placing the five sticks that I had dowsed for. I knew it was a temporary measure, but I still wanted to do it.

Then a funny thing happened. I know the light wasn’t great, but the space was quite intimate and there were very few paths. Yet, somehow, I counted out five sticks, planted five, then could only find four of them when I came to light them in turn. The ladies watched me in amusement. “Lost something?“, on asked with a wry smile. “I thought I’d laid out five sticks, but I can’t find one now…”, I complained. One of the ladies said, “Why don’t you try putting one there?” and she pointed to a space at the edge of the circle, in the negative zone, which had a ribbon tied to a branch hanging over the spot. I dowsed warily….but the rods turned strongly at that point! I was more than a little surprised, but placed another incense stick and began to light them all. I thanked the lady for her keen ‘observation’ and she waved it away as though she did things like that all the time. Don’t you meet some interesting people at stone circles?

Lovely site - a staff, some mist, a ribbon

The ladies took their leave at this point and we have the place to ourselves as the sun began to make a more rapid descent towards the horizon. It was still light, however, but the mist was cooling us quickly, although Kal was hopping all over the place keeping warm. I decided to engage him in the process and asked him to dowse for the name of the Genius Loci. His initial objections melted away as he realised that I wasn’t joking. There are nine letters in the name, I stated, helpfully.

With that information, and the knowledge that we were dealing with an aether spirit (using Jaq D Hawkins’ definitions) I began to ask about the reason I had come: when should I have the first carved sigil on my new ash staff done by? The answer that came back through my meditations was not what I had expected – it was quite poetic and a little cryptic, and yet because of the style of language used I was able to understand it in terms of pictures rather than words. I was shown pictures of daffodils and saw them dying, accompanied by the phrase, “…by the time the daffodils disappear.” Er…end of April kind of time? Beltane? Anything else about it? I saw the Sun and Moon in the sky together – strong and vibrant – and knew that this meant a specific time of the day, month and year – when the Moon is full and the Sun is high – noon on a Full Moon day!

What other instructions could I glean whilst this information was flowing so easily and vividly, I wondered.  I felt that each of the elements should be involved in the carving process (somehow), perhaps with a call to them to participate in being bound into the shape being carved. But what should the shape be? I should be the sigil of this site, came the answer. The combined powers of this site, my energies, my staff and the elements will all go into the carving of the staff. OK, very strange! Here’s the shape I dowsed after experiencing this:-

Doll Tor stone circle sigil

After experiencing this I felt quite “spaced out” and had to spend the next few minutes jut coming back to full consciousness, despite the impending gloom, mist and cold which ought to have revived me quickly. Kal had disappeared down the hill and was busy exploring. I waited for him to return and dowsed for whether I had had any effect upon the negative energy area – it was mildly changing, and slowly, but would return to its negative state shortly after we had left. Ah well, this was obviously something that was going to take quite a bit more work when we had more time.

Some people had hung ribbons on the positive energy side of the site, possibly in similar attempts to “ward off” the negative energy. They had constructed stick figure mobiles too, which looked quite sinister in the gathering darkness. It was all very “Blair Witch Project“!

 In the enclosing mist the site felt cut off from everywhere else. We could have been the last two people on earth. It was quite magickal, and we should definitely come back here in late Spring to finish what we had started. I have some carving to do before then!

Gwas.

Saturday – not Sunday – doh!

For about a month my calendar had a red-spot on Sunday 28 Feb with a note to the effect that this was a full-moon day and thus Gwas and I would be venturing forth. Then out of the blue two days prior to our set date Gwas revealed complications for the Sunday and offered up Saturday as an alternative. Unfortunately Saturday was completely booked for me, however not wanting to miss the moons energies and a sacred site visit to boot I hastily re-organised my time table and with fortune playing a final “good” card we were on our way for 12:30 on Saturday.

The long road

As a curiosity we decided to follow the sat-nav instead of going our usual route and boy did that take us the “long” and boring way round. So it was that an hour into the journey and we were only half way there rather than being near our destination.

A energised feeling

Even though it had been raining almost all the way on our journey to Derbyshire by the time we got out of the car the rain had stopped and although Gwas kitted himself out with a raincoat (not boots as he twice reminded me) I decided (as usual) to trust in nature providing me with weather suitable for my attire and left my raincoat behind.

Almost as soon as we stepped off the road I began to feel a deep-seated energy, freshness and a wonderful sense of playfulness. As we got closer to Nine Stones Close this feeling erupted into physicality and I was running, prancing and skipping up the hill and through the fields. Think “Little House on the Prairie” and you won’t be far wrong.

Little house on the Prairie

Welcomed by the great Oak

As we approached the Oak and Nine Stones Close circle both Gwas and I felt a great sense of welcome. Whilst Gwas busied himself around the circle I went over to greet my “old” friend. I really have to say this again: Me and Tree seem to have created a fantastic bond. In moments I was up on the separating wall and in amongst the great oaks branches.

Oak and Circle

Dancing with the energies

The location was quite popular with visitors this day and so we were a bit hampered initially, especially when a group of kids descended upon us and stayed to take photos and “temperature” measurements. Whatever floats your boat, right?

Anyway I was busy in a “long” hello to the Tree so wasn’t too concerned with what was going on behind me. During this hello, my feelings went more and more energised and “youthful”. Until when the field had cleared I found my self so full of energy that I started to skip. The skipping turned into dancing and whilst Gwas amused himself in observation I was happily dancing and prancing under the Oak tree for a good fifteen minutes.

Of course we were here to dowse (technically I did have my dowsing rods in my hands whilst I was dancing, does that count?) so I took up some simple questions to be going on with.

Alignment with Saturn

Since I had performed some healing of the oak trees aura last year, like all good Dr’s should I checked on the health of my patient and was gratified to see (dowse) that le grande oak was in fine auric health. Indeed that oak was acknowledging my friendship with friendship. Wow!!

Meantime Gwas was exploring the energetic alignment of the site and called in my assistance. He had found that the site was aligned to Saturn and no other planet. Interesting…

Intuiting the Pan connection

I began to confirm his findings and got a yes for Saturn too. Then for some reason I found myself asking whether the site had a connection to Pan. Where did that come from? My only reference point was my dancing and prancing…but its a big leap. You see reader you have to know that we don’t talk about pantheons and such like often. In fact I could go so far as to say that until that day “Pan” had never come up in conversation. And yet as plain as day there he was. Gwas did some ancillary dowsing to confirm that this site had a connection with Pan and that his hmmm energetic presence had left the site some 1500 years ago. Due (we dowsed to find) to the lack of belief in him!

Pan

Saturday -> Saturn -> Pan

As is the case so very often, we go out and explore the energies only to return and find so much more meaning in what we did. Let us look at this day. To begin we were supposed to go on Friday but ended up going on Saturday. Then I couldn’t make an earlier time so it was going to be a set off time of around 2.30 – which would have left us scant time for investigation and “play”. But then as “luck” would have it my time became free and we ended up arriving at the site around 2 instead.

Step 1 : we find that the site has connection with Saturn. Now we didn’t ask whether this was a permanent reflection or not. We didn’t think of this at the time but when I returned home and did some research I immediately (and now it seems obvious) that Saturn is related to Saturday! Let me quote Wiki…

Saturday is the only day of the week in which the English name comes from Roman mythology. The English names of all of the other days of the week come from Germanic polytheism. In India, Saturday is ‘Shanivar’, based on Shani, the Vedic god manifested in the planet Saturn. In the Thai solar calendar of Thailand, the day is named from the Pali word for Saturn, and the color associated with Saturday is purple. The Celtic languages also name this day for Saturn: Irish ‘an Satharn’ or ‘dia Sathuirn’, Scottish Gaelic ‘Disathairne’, Welsh ‘dydd Sadwrn’, Breton ‘Sadorn’ or ‘disadorn’.

Source: Wikipedia

Wow eh! What a connection to have had. Then I wondered if Pan was connected with Saturn too. So of I went digging away. This investigation immediately led to the information that one of the moons of Saturn is called Pan. OK that wasn’t what I was looking for really so I dug deeper. Here is one reference I found which brought hope…

… Ficino alludes to with discretion, is that Pan has an even higher station – that of the “highest” God. Elsewhere in Ficino’s work he holds that Pan “corresponds to Saturn, the prime intellect and highest God” …

Source: This site.

A further connection can be made thus: Saturn according to many beliefs and perhaps in origin too was the God associated with agriculture, feasts and harvesting (see here).  Pan also is connected with fields, fertility and nature.

Perhaps this is stretching it a bit, but I don’t “feel” it is. Here is an interesting statement…

Pan is connected to the season of Spring. Source: Wikipedia

I find this interesting because we are approaching spring and also we got an indication (see Gwas’s post) to return to 9 Stones in Spring.

To get back to the dowsing and what happened at the site. I felt that my dancing had a real connection with Pan and also felt that that had an impact in re-awakening the site (see Gwas’s post on that). Both Gwas and I had a feeling that perhaps we had gone some way in returning this sprightly spirit to the world.

Saturn

Dancing with  the energies – lovely

Kal

Stanton Moor and Eagle Tor, Derbyshire, February 27th, 2010.

Our little adventure in the Derby shire hills began on the first day of the Full Moon. Both Kal and I had felt its influence the previous night – for me it meant a sleepless night and a tight head. I love the Moon but it makes me pay for being so sensitive to it! Apart from the Moon we were astrologically unaware of what was around in the sky. All we were aware of was that  it was a Saturday, there was a full moon today, and we had an intention to awaken the energies of an ancient site.

Muck and Pandemonium

A brisk walk up the hill past Robin Hood’s Stride brought us into sight of the four remaining stones that still form Nine Stones Close. There never were nine stones, by the way. We got asked that by some passers-by. There were five, maybe as many as seven. I am sure that there is a stone missing on one side (opposite from the tree), but the tree side was very difficult to determine – the rods were “hazy” on that, which is a most unusual and disconcerting response. I think the word “Nine” is a corruption of an older word relating to “Noon”, or the high point of the sun. Given our findings at the site this day, it may well represent the low point of the sun too. But we’ll come to that soon enough.

When we arrived the first thing I noticed was that the field has been spread with manure – the stones were covered with it! Nice. And we had already struggled through patches of mud to get there too. Roll on Spring and Summer, I say! Terra firma is required, and some warmer longer days too, please!

A misty day

The first thing I did, after waiting for truckloads of schoolchildren to traipse through, was to go through some of my dowsing checklist. I think of it as a kind of warm-up exercise now (almost literally this cold misty day), as well as feeding into the Sacred Sites section of this site (eventually). Here are my findings for this day:-

• The site is energised by the position of the Sun at particular times of the year, for example Summer Solstice.
• The site was energised by the peaks of the Moon too, so was nearing a maximum again on this day.
• The site has an energetic alignment with Saturn – which signifies transformation.
• There is no Genius Loci at this site – it is devoid of external spiritual activity

Looks like we had times our visit right going there at midday on a full moon, but what of Saturn? On my return I decided to see what significance Saturn had. I started by looking at the celestial events around that time. Notice, from the quote below, that Saturn is making itself prominent in the sky on March 1st,

Sunday, February 28

 Full Moon (exact at 11:38 a.m. today EST).  

Monday, March 1 This evening Saturn shines left of the great big rising Moon, which is just past full and just past perigee. By dawn Tuesday morning they’ve shifted way over to the west-southwest, and Saturn has turned to the Moon’s upper right.

The exact wording about the position of various bodies is not what struck me. What made me jump was that we had spent the weekend discovering that Nine Stones Close was being influenced by Saturn, and here was Saturn about to loom large in the environs of The Moon at its peak. Energetically, I felt this was significant, influential even.

Preparations for Pan

So I look around and Kal is jigging about beneath his favourite oak tree. He invites me to record him on his phone doing this, so to humour him I do so. Right. Er…is that normal? I enquire as to his state of mind. “I feel the urge to dance. This site is invigorated by dancing energy.” he states. Of course it is, I think to myself, of course it is. And continue with some preparations for my real purpose at this site today – to awaken the site’s energies. This has been the theme of the Imbolc to Spring Equinox period – to awaken the energies of the sites through human intention.

My preparations involve placing my ash staff in its proper place to focus and collect the energy generated, and for me to place four sticks of incense at appropriate power centres on the inside of each of the four remaining stones. There are more power centres at this site (six – which leads me to think there were originally six stones) – but the other two centres are not required for this awakening. Then I place my hand over four of the cup-marks in the Key Stone (as I’m calling the cup-marked stone).

Kal looks over at me as I break off from this ritual declaring it complete and says to me simply, “Pan!” We make a connection between the dancing, the Trickster god so beloved of Kal and the return of Nature spirits to the newly awakened site. Interesting! I dowse to see what this means and come up with the idea that a Nature spirit, a Pan (not THE Pan – they are multitudinous) is preparing to return to the site. We wonder when this will occur but don’t dowse for a date – it doesn’t seem appropriate to do so.

Kal ignores tricky questions concerning his certifiable behaviour

Saturn, Pan and the Solstices

As if by magic, Saturn appeared! What I mean is, having dowsed for the energetic influence of Saturn I researched the associations. Pan is associated with Saturn because Pan is the name we have given to one of Saturn’s moons. OK, interesting coincidence, but what did it mean for Nine Stones Close? We had prepared the way for a Nature Spirit (Pan) to return to the site. There was once a genius lociat Nine Stones Close but it left over a thousand years ago because no-one believed in it any more. When I say “believed in it”, I think I mean, “maintained its presence energetically” – a process of feeding human energy into the site through intention in order to attract and retain the presence of a Nature Spirit. This is a more intense relationship that “worship” which can be done without any knowledge or interaction with The Other (the Nature Spirit) – more intense because it involves purposefully giving energy to maintain the correct ambiance.

Saturn, in mythology, is the god of agriculture and vegetation. Well, here we were in a field, recently manured, expecting the return of vegetation and in the midst of agriculture (surrounded by farmland). Nine Stones Close is particularly linked to agriculture, as it stands in a currently worked field. Not a stunning link, but a link. Saturn is also associated with the astrological sign Capricorn, and thus the Winter Solstice. My dowsing results showed that the position of the Sun was significant to the energies of the site, so I could see how the Winter Solstice position would be a significant time. Oddly, when I dowsed for an astrological symbol, I couldn’t find one. I don’t know why.

Stones covered in cow crap

The final piece of interesting information was dowsing for a sigil. Despite the fact that I knew there wasn’t a genius locihere (yet) I asked whether I could dowse for the sigil that used to be here representing that spirit. The answer, fortunately, was YES, I could. So I asked for the best location to do that and was directed to an area right next to my power centre. The shape that emerged was this double spiral shape, also called the Cornu spiral:

The sun sigil, or Cornu spiral

I have seen this spiral before – it is the double-headed spiral that is engraved on the entrance stone at Newgrange in the Boyne Valley in Ireland, and many other megalithic sites too; some well beyond these isles. According to one researcher, this double spiral represents the pattern that is traced by the path of the Sun as it moves across the heavens in relation to our Earth. It is a kind of universal pattern that emerges out of the patterns of Nature herself. It is Pan’s symbol.

Newgrange entrance stone showing double-headed spiral

Having prepared the way for the return of a Nature Spirit we left for the next site in high spirits. We had only intended a fleeting visit to Nine Stones Close, but again it had delivered a mystical and profound experience. Next, to a new site for us – Doll Tor stone circle on the hill opposite Robin Hood’s Stride.

Gwas.

Personal note

Some might say that dowsing at a graveyard is disrespectful. I have considered this question many times, ever since our first set of dowsing at Norton Priory. If you pop over to that post for a moment you will see that my sentiments at the time were…

It was simply this: this was a cemetery and it was a bad state of affairs to be going around dowsing in it – as if I couldn’t find anywhere else to dowse? It wasn’t a case of ‘you shouldn’t dowse here’ - but more of a case that – ‘it’s nice (of you) not to dowse here’. If that makes sense?

So what has changed since then? Well, I still have a deep respect for such places however I have grown to appreciate a “deeper” connection with such matters and until someone can give me a good reason as to “why” it is disrespectful I will take my inner knowing as a guide.

Paying respects

Okay, one might think I am some kind of grave-yard haunter but this time I have a good excuse. In this particular grave-yard my dear mum is buried. She passed away Autumn last year and although I have visited the site probably about once a fortnight this was the first time I ventured forth with my dowsing rods in hand. I didn’t know why at the time but then – we rarely do right? So here I am about 10:30 at night in the wonderful light of the full moon and pretty clear sky too, in as I said, a grave-yard.

fox covert view at night

My mums grave is quite far into the site (and in a section that is for Muslims only, don’t ask why its a religious thing) anyhow after spending some time paying my respects I took out the rods and wondered about what to do with them.

Dowsing for an interesting place

After some musing I thought to ask if there was some interesting place nearby that I could learn something…then answer was an immediate yes and I was off, fortunately the rods were being respectful today (tonight rather) and avoided the graves keeping to the paths. A few minutes later I was over to nearly the other end of the cemetery when the rods span (or helicoptered as we now call it) and I came to a stop.

Fox Covert

So time to ask some more questions…

Questions questions

Readers of this blog must understand and appreciate the extra work that goes into dowsing which often times isn’t seen here on this blog. By this I mean that often to get to a question that has a “yes” answer, we often have to go through many “no’s” first. By the time we get to writing up a report here we have forgotten many of the “no” questions and thus focus on the “yes” ones herein.

That said, I began with confirming that this was a place of interest? Yes it was. Excellent! Now to discover why it was of interest. I was quite close to what looked liked a freshly dug grave and a little “aha” tripped in my brain. We had done some work around the energies of “notable” people before and so my first question was. Is it interesting because of the grave? Yes, aha! Is it because the person buried here is important? No. O what a shame. That was a bit of a blow. But I continued, on with the questions and finally came to these…

• Is it because this is a fresh grave? Yes.
• Is it something to do with the energies here?Yes
• Does anything need to be done for the spirit here? No – now that was a bit of a stopper for a while!
• Does anything need to be done for the “energies” here?Yes

Just as a quick aside I wondered of into asking some questions about energy and spirit and the way in which they are not the same thing! Another post Sivuplay?

Okay, since I have some knowledge (knowledge? Who am I kidding) on such matters now I kind of figured out that the energies needed to be grounded. If you recall my posts from the “Ancient Yew” in North Wales, this is what the “yew” tree was doing in a graveyard, grounding the energies.

• Do the energies need grounding here? Yes
• Will they become grounded if I don’t do anything? Yes – kind of
• Will it take a long time? Yes
• Can I do anything to speed it up? Yes
• Should I? Yes
• How…

O, sorry about that, what am I supposed to do? The “how” and often followed swiftly by the “why” of things are questions that a dowser is confronted with and has no recourse from the rods. Of course this is where intuition, previous experience (though not often) and informational knowledge gained from other people/books/web-sites (again not often I have to say) comes in useful.

Knowing without knowing

So here I was with a dilemma…

Let me digress for a moment…I believe that we all have talents, something that we are just a “natural” at. Indeed many of have more than one talent. When friends have asked what I consider my talent to be I instantly answer “connection”. I know I’m blowing my trumpet. Hey you blow yours in the comments section below. Anyway my talent is connecting disparate things.

…So, as I stood there looking out at the fantastic night sky a thought (connection) came to me. I don’t know if Gwas has mentioned this but about the middle of last year Gwas started to do something odd when he came across road-kill. As he was driving to where-ever if he spotted some dead animal he would visualise a spiral of energy lifting from the carcass. Why he did this he wasn’t clear but after he told me I too started to do it. Again the why wasn’t clear “it just felt right” is about the best answer you would have got out of  me.

And right at this moment, that thought fluttered into my psyche. The rods flipped up and I asked is “that” how to ground the energies? You guessed it, the answer was a resounding yes!

So I sat down by the side of this grave and visualised a spiral of energy lifting from it and floating upwards – whilst holding the intent of grounding the energies.

A bit weird to be honest because it seemed to be counter intuitive, in that I was spiraling the energies upward, which was in turn grounding the energies. Remember this was nothing to do with spirit. I wasn’t “helping” the spirit along or anything like that! Please!

This took only about a couple of minutes and I asked whether the energies were grounded, it was a soft yes, a bit more than a “kind of” answer. I asked whether more could be done by me? Yes. O terrific and it was cold too. So…

• Did I need to do it again? No
• Did I do something wrong? No
• Did I need to use something else? Yes, O Parsley Sauce! I forgot to ask that question before!
• Incense, crystals, meditation, sound, music all got a No.
• Do I have what I need to use with me or in the car? No
• In the house? No
• So I cant really do anything can I? Yes – more Parsley Sauce!

By the way, if you hadn’t cottoned on, I’m not partial to using “bad” language hence my most extreme expletive for the moment is “Parsley Sauce”

• What you are saying is that if I had this “thing” whatever it is I would be able to do more? Yes
• But since I haven’t I cant? Yes

Well, that settled it. To do more work here I needed something, I know not what. However since I didn’t have this something I was at a loss to proceed. Thus I concluded my stay and departed with another piece of wisdom added to the pot.

Addendum

About a couple of days after this event I was round at my brothers house (where incidentally my mum also lived) and he was telling me that a really good, and close, friend of my mum, who lived across the road from her house had passed away a week ago.

You know when you get one of “them” moments. Well I got one right then because I just knew that it was this ladies grave who I had visited a few nights before. So without much ado I was off to the cemetery to find out, in daylight this time of course.

Half an hour later I was there checking out the grave-site. There was no name on it. So I was off to the office, which is about a mile away from the cemetery. Arriving there just before closing time I asked the attendant and…it was my mums friends grave!

What are the chances!!

Kal

Castell Dinas Bran – Llangollen, North Wales, 20th February. 

There are times on this ‘path’ where a calling is received. It’s not like a phone call, or a text message arriving – it’s infinitely more subtle than that. You begin to receive signals – a name appears somewhere, or someone mentions a place, or you see a picture of it. Most of the time we’re receiving such information all the time and mostly we do not act upon it. Then it becomes more iterative – you see the name again, in another context, or the story is repeated elsewhere, the place gets mentioned, or you see the picture again and again. Soon, you have to act to find out more about what this ‘calling’ is. 

So it was that I started looking at the Megalithic Portal with a single search term: Llangollen. I had been a few miles south of there only the week before, near Chirk. Now I was getting a pull to go to the east of Wales again, this time along the A5, Thomas Telford’sgreat trunk road. I knew this road to be littered with ancient connections, not least of which is Llandrillo stone circle some way south of the A5 and near to BalaLake. Was this the intended destination? The Megalithic Portal churned away, then returned with its results: Dinas Bran was top of the list. I stared at the mound. I knew it – where from? I had passed it many times. Once, long ago, I had climbed it. This was the place I needed to go to. No doubt. My heart had leapt a little when I saw it. I made preparations and left. 

View of Castell Dinas Bran

Part of those preparations was to bring along my new ash staff. I’m glad I did. I parked at an isolated spot “round the back” of the hill, at a small lay-by where a stile offered a gentle path across an inclining field at the base of the hill. It was idyllic – the sun, the view, the objective. I tuned in very quickly to the surroundings and managed to find a wavy path across the field and up the hill. At each stage I let my intuition lead the way and soon I had joined the main path up the hill, with its precarious wooden barrier and well-trodden spiral path. The staff helped enormously. 

As I approached the top of the hill I slowed to a stop. I was beginning to feel the “edge” of the site, it’s aura – the edge of the nemeton. I stopped and tuned into the site, introducing myself and asking to be shown an entrance. I began to walk off the path across some scree. I gulped, but the path was remarkably easy and stable! A pre-defined path was emerging: as I looked back I could see there WAS in fact a trail through the slope of seemingly random stones, and again through the seemingly barren grass, I was actually following a trail. 

The trail ended at a man-made slope. A definite causeway. An entrance undoubtedly. 

South side entrance

Next I was led by the rods to a small break in the surrounding ditch. A path led down the break and up the other side to the castle remains themselves. I followed eagerly, feeling this was the right way into the site for me. As I passed through an archway I felt the urge to be free, so I asked the rods to find a suitable place to drop my bag and leave my staff. It was at the archway itself that was to be my resting place.

My resting place

I set about dowsing the place. What was the relative strength of the energies here, I asked (expecting a low response due to the time of year and the fact that it had been a castle, and was not now an obvious megalithic site). The response I got took me aback : it was a 10/10. Up there with Carnac and Silbury Hill in terms of the strength of these earth energies. The power of the place was apparent in so many ways, too. Look at the number of visitors up here on a freezing cold Saturday afternoon in February – there were about ten people millng about on this steep hilltop. Something was drawing them here. 

Gog and Magog

Perhaps they were drawn by the challenge of the giant Gogmagog, or the lure of treasure: 

“Claims have also been made that the Holy Grail or a golden harp are hidden in the hillock at Dinas Bran and that fairies dwell there.  

According to “The Romance of Fulk Fitzwarine,” the Normans pushed their way into the eastern borderlands of Wales and stopped just beneath the ruins of Dinas Bran. An arrogant knight, Pain Peveril, noticed the crumbling walls and learned that the sitewas once the home of King Bran. Since Bran’s demise, no one had enough courage to stay overnight inside the remains, for fear of evil spirits. To prove their mettle, Pain and some of his cohorts climbed up to the ruins, determined to endure the night. During that night, a storm arose and forced the men to seek shelter.  

Suddenly, an evil, mace-wielding giant appeared. This giant was the notorious Gogmagog, a man possessed by an evil spirit who had terrorized the countrysidefor years. Pain defended his men withhis shield, protected witha cross, a shield so sturdy that it withstood the penetration of the giant’s mace. His brazen defiance startled the giant and Pain swiftly stabbed him with his sword. As Gogmagog died, the evil spirit recounted King Bran’s bravery against the giant’s attacks. Bran had even built the palace atop the hillock to thwart the giant and enraged the evil spirit inside Gogmagog. Then, the giant forced Bran and his followers to flee. The dying spirit also claimed that a great treasure, including a golden ox, was buried beneath the hill.” (source: http://www.castlewales.com/dinas.html) 

In the tale above Gogmagog is the container for “evil forces”. Since the advent of Christian religion in these isles the forces of paganism have been characterised as evil, and attributed to monsters and devils. Of course this is water off a duck’s back to the pagans, who tend to embrace such concepts, but nevertheless it is a slanderous fact, and has involved the re-working of almost all our indigenous myths. What ARE these evil forces that the tale speaks of? The clue is in the name of the monster: “Gog” and “Magog” – the male and female archetype. Gogmagog is the combination of Gog and Magog – the male and female earth energies inherent in the land.

I looked, as I usually do, for the male and female energies of the site. Having a light covering of snow actually facilitated this because I was able to mark out the shapes that I dowsed, and denote the sources and endpoints for the energies. The male energy was sourced from one of the southern arched windows. It was the sunlight from the south that was the source of the male energy at the site. This seemed particularly relevant for the time of year that I was there, for the sun was tracking along the topmost part of the mountains opposite and would have shone all day through the arched window. At this time of year all the light came from the south as the sun moved across the sky from east to west. The male energy then ran around the edge of the inner castle ruins, and down a steep path ending at a sealed dungeon in the north-eastern flank of the castle.

The female energy began a few feet north of the southern arched window, on the other side of the path that cut between the male and female sources. I tracked the pathof the female energy westward (in the opposite direction to the male energy) and it meandered around, coming inwards, until it terminated right in the centre of the site, at a point where the inner mound began to slope. This female terminus pont also turned out to be the power centre to which I was most aligned. I stood within the power centre for a few minutes and felt warm, tingly and enlivened. Oh yes, this was good for me! 

Power centre drawn in snow

At the very moment when I took one step into my power centre the sun, which had been hiding its face behind a cloud for the last half hour, emerged and shone directly in my face. I couldn’t help but smile. No-one ever believes this “salute of the sun”, but it’s one of the most profound elements of the whole “being on a spiritual path” for me. It’s the most obvious and literally heart-warming sign that I’m moving in the right direction.

The Astrology of Dinas Bran

Next on my agenda was to dowse to see whether this site was particular active, energetically, at a specific time of the year. Sites that are like that have an astrological energy formation that can be dowsed for. We have only found this out recently after correlating several dowsing responses relating to the influence of planets, stars and constellations. When I dowsed at this site I found an astrological formation that was like the picture below:

Pisces - Feb 20 to Mar 20

Later, when I could dowse against a list of existing constellations and designs I was able to determine that the astrological form at Dinas Bran was an old symbol for Pisces. Pisces covers the time from 20th February to 20th March. I was visiting in that period of time – here I was, stood in DinasBran at its most energetic time. That would account for the 10/10 rating for the energy strength, then!

The Sign of Bran

If I was at Bran’s Castle, who is Bran? In the tale above he was relegated to the role of King, yet before kingship ever came about as an accepted or necessary concept Bran was also an archetype – a god. Bran is the giant head. He is a giant himself in many other tales, and so we begin to see the confusion emerge as later tales subvert him into human form. In his animal form, The Crow, he signifies transformation, regeneration and awakening.

I dowsed to discover whether this site still had a genius loci – a guardian spirit of the place. It did, so I dowsed for the energetic formation in the sitethat would indicate that spirit’s presence. I was directed to an area of snow close to my power centre, but away from most of the footprints in a little hollow. As I dowsed I felt I recognised the end points – these were clearly spirals. The centre point was an oval shape, and when seen betwixt the two spirals a form emerged – the Head of Bran between the male and female spirals of earth energy that were Gogmagog!

Left arm male, right arm female

What more do we know of Bran from mythology?

“Bran Fendigaid (the Blessed) – Celtic god of regeneration – was the son of the Sea God, Llyr and, maternally, the grandson of Belenos, the Sun God. His name means Raven, and this bird was his symbol. In Celtic mythology, Bran appears as a semi-humanized giant residing at Castell Dinas Bran, the later home of the later Kings of Powys. Though Bran himself was supposed to have been an early King of the Silures tribe of Gwent. There appears to be no archaeological evidence for his worship though perhaps the castle mount was once sacred to him.”

(source: http://www.earlybritishkingdoms.com/bios/bran.html)

“Perhaps the castle mount was once sacred to him.” ‘Once’. ‘Perhaps’. Still! It is! He is there now. His imprint is within the mound – his influence spreads into the valley below, and all the way back to the sea.

I dowsed for other celestial influences on the site. Let’s see if they shed any light on Bran. There was a solar influence from the South, and a lunar influence on Full Moon days. This equates to the balanced male and female energy lines at the site. Together they form the rim and radiating lines of Belenos’ radiant sun shield, or chariot wheel, draw upon the summit of the mound.

As King, Bran led his warriors into battle in Ireland, but the Irish had a magic cauldron that brought their dead warriors back to life and only Bran and seven of his warriors survived the battles. I found it very interesting to read this given that the planetary influence that I dowsed at the site was that of Mars- God of War. There are further connections between Bran and the cauldron as represented in the Arthurian Mysteries as The Grail. Bran’s mortal wounding echoes the story of the Fisher King and Arthur’s wounding.

I took some delightful panoramic pictures from on high, then dowsed for an exit. The exit I had to take was a bit daring -it was a hollow in the wall of the northern side, through an archway, leading down to an ice-covered path that was inches from a sheer drop down the steepest part of the hill. Gulp! I trusted my staff and made my way down along a little-used pathway until I encountered grass that seemed to flow like water down the hill. Being in tune with the energies I felt their tug and descended straight down the hill without hesitation. I hear some onlookers from above geeing themselves up to do the same – ah, the folly of youth! Moments later I heard them falling over themselves and rolling down the hill trying to save themselves from injury. I smiled. They didn’t have my ash staff!

Gwas.

I have been spending some time writing an article for the Order of Bards Ovates and Druids web site: www.druidry.org. They graciously invited me to write about any subject I wished, so long as it related to druidry, and I chose to write an article about the crossover between dowsing and druidry, as I see it.

For the month of March the article is available for reading on the OBOD forum called “Discuss Druidry” : http://www.druidry.org/board/dhp/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=35441.

As soon as the site archives the article next month I will add it to the Articles page on this site. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy reading my thoughts on the subject of the inter-relationship between dowsing and druidry.

Gwas.

I was in the South of the country this weekend and happened to spot a place called the Forest of Dean. Being a “woods-man” I decided to head there on Saturday afternoon with a friend in tow.

Forest of Dean

A couple of hours drive later we were wandering amongst these wonderful trees. It is a great pace to visit with lots of paths – both natural and sanded. In many places the trees are really thick and one can wander into them and “almost” get lost within another world.

My friend, I have to say isn’t much of a nature person and was feeling out of place, but I had told him that I might be doing some dowsing and also perhaps a 15 minute meditation and so he was prepared for my “weirdness”.

As we walked through some freshly fallen snow, which made the place that extra magical, I marvelled at the sense of peace that was about the place.

Forest

It wasn’t long before I had my dowsing rods out and was asking whether “this” place was good to do some work? Yes. Excellent!

What kind of work? Both healing and trans-formative got a lukewarm yes. And how was I to do this? With a meditation. So with my friend at my back I was off following the dowsing rods to some “suitable place”. After about twenty minutes, deep into the forest I came to a stop.

My friend had complained that we would become lost as soon as I stepped off the beaten path. My assurances that we had the “rods” was met with a unfavourable response along with a statement to the effect that mobile signals were not working! To which I responded in a positive way I might add.

The rods had stopped in the center of a square formed by four rather nice (fern?) trees. I say a square, though of course if anyone else had looked at them, they may have just seen trees.

forest

So I took of my coat and placed it on the snow and sat down, whilst my friend wandered over to one of the trees and lurched against it smoking a rollie. I lit some incense and composed my thoughts. After a moment I got an image of a young crying child. It was a baby not more than a year old, crying.

Ok, that seemed like a good place to start. I made an intention…”Tell me more about this crying child”…

Spider

I found myself crawling through a dark muddy tunnel, there was no source of light to speak of, but I could see the walls and path before me. After crawling some moments I was confronted by a large spider. The spider must have been human height and a kind of shiny black colour.

spider

Almost instinctively I grabbed hold of its foremost pincers and held it close. I could feel myself shaking and wandered for a minute if my friend would see me holding my hands out in front of me. My hold on the spiders pincers/legs was very tight and I was both frightened and surprised.

The reason for this is because I am a bit of an arachnophobe and don’t do too well with spiders.

I looked into the glistening eyes and face of the spider before me and and a realisation came to me…”You are a guardian” this was followed by another realisation…”You are fear”.

After this realisation dawned on me I pushed the spider to the side and consciously realised that it didn’t vanish but just remained to the side of me as I passed by.

The three fates

I continued on along the tunnel until finally I came to an opening. There in front of me were three persons. For some reason I knew instantly that these were the three fates, Past, Present and Future. I stood before them for a moment. One of them screams at me “You dare? Who do you think you are that you dare?”

I was quite surprised at my own tone of voice and replied with a calm tone “Yes I dare. I am a flame of a candle that knows that it is a simple flame of a candle.”

The fate known as Present grabs a shining thread from the Weave and says, “I could snuff you out.”

Again, in a rather simple voice I reply, “Go on then.”

Three Fates

Nothing happens…then I say “show me”…and with that I take up the Weave and find the “crying child”.

It is my younger sister Noor.

I don’t want to go into her story too much here but just to say that she has been for many years in a place of difficulty and far removed from help from the rest of her family, including me. In the couple of attempts to help her she has backed of at the last moment and so in “our” i.e. her sibling’s mindset she had sealed her own fate. And to be honest, that is how we have described her situation.

As I examined the Weave surrounding and following her thread I can see her life as it is and as it was. Even to the events of our childhood where we used to play together. And now how she was alone from her family. I saw real images and metaphorical symbols too. “the sun never rising, the warmth of the breeze never flowing” I could feel the tears falling down my cheeks as these images from the Weave came to me.

I looked into her future and see that her fate is sealed, she has sealed her fate with her choices, and more…”I” have sealed her fate???

At this moment I look across at the three sisters – with a question in my mind – there is no answer. Gently I change the weave, it is so delicate, I unseal her fate – it is done.

Future, looks at me and asks “How?” – I don’t understand her question. But I find myself saying…

“I will be her sunrise, her warm breeze, the laughter of birds, I will be love…the confidant, the teller of tales, I will be her connection…” and I end with tears again falling, …”I will be her brother”

Future – again asks “How?”

“I am a candle that shines” was the only reply I could give

As I come out of the trance/meditation I wipe away the tears and look across to where my friend is now sitting. Did he see anything of this? I cannot guess and am too embarrassed to ask.

Kal

Post Script

My sister Noor emigrated to Pakistan several years ago and I have only been in contact with her a handful of times and not for many months. Yesterday I called her up and we shared our tales.