The Hedge Druid

June 20th 2014 – Coom Wedge Tomb, Ballinskelligs, Iveragh Peninsula, Ireland

We drove about an hour around to a different headland to find Coom Wedge Tomb. It is difficult to spot from the road, but it can be found by going down a small lane which appears to lead to only a few distant farmhouses. In a field on the left you will see the tomb, but parking is also difficult. As I have come to expect whenever I want to abandon the car in a place where no-one else can pass, then you can guarantee that someone will turn up who wants to pass. They did. Twice! Come on! There are only two buildings in that part of the whole island! Yet, at that moment I needed to park two residents needed to pass. I ended up parking almost in the field!

Did the tomb’s profile once mirror the distant island?

My preliminary dowsing indicates that there is something here for me, and that it is related to my ancestors. I am beginning to use dowsing as a means to confirm or refine the intuitive response that I am developing related to sacred places now. I would say that I feel it is an ancestral place for me first, and then the dowsing allows me to dig a little deeper and get re-assurance of these ideas.

I need to climb inside, so I find the only gap that will feasibly fit me and I wriggle into it, much to Kal’s amusement. Inside I lie down and despite the hard stony floor it is incredibly comfortable. Perhaps it is, relative to hours of driving on bumpy, twisty roads!

Inside the chamber I close my eyes and get connected. I feel like there isn’t the usual type of Spirit of Place here. Instead the spirit of place is an echo, a remnant of my own ancestors and their energies. Somehow, this is my chamber, it has housed people connected to me at some time. It knows about me already. Is this what happens when one is bearing the Black Dragon’s protective wings?

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Ballinskelligs Abbey

It was our second sacred site on our Summer Solstice (2014) trip to Ireland and already it had been a learning experience (see post 1 and 1,5). I had completed 50% of what I had come to do here and wondered what more magic was to be had. Yet, you know, almost one hundred percent of the time our sacred journeys surprise, delight and take us to the next level.

Our next stop was at an Abbey that overlooked an estuary. As we walked into it both Gwas and I sensed that there was something energetically amiss. We both asked the same question, is there anything wrong with this place? Yes was the answer and the further questioning revealed that it was my lot to fix it.

Speculation: Gwas and I often wonder whether we choose the sacred place or the place chooses us. We have had many occasions when we have had to work with a place. Did the place summon us? You tell me!

As I wandered around the place, trying to connect with the Genius Loci I also got answers to questions that came to mind. This place had been in a bad way for aeons. It was a place that had been dedicated to Caileach. A good question to ask before blundering in like a dumb-ass is…

• “Is it holistically good for me to change the energies here?”

This is subtly different from the action oriented statement, “let me act in the greatest good for all” which assumes (ass out of u and me) that you have to act. What if doing nothing is how one should be acting?

Ballinskelligs Abbey – Estuary

As is the case most of the time, there was a place that I needed to prepare and once this was done I was ready. I asked the rods where I needed to be and they took me in a tight spiral back to the same place. I couldn’t recall the last time where the preparation place was the same as the place of work. It didn’t feel right. I asked whether I was prepared to do the work? The answer was Yes. I asked whether I needed something to do the work? Yes.

Ah…crystals, incense, other magical accoutrement? No, no and no. That was a bit disappointing. What was the answer then? I wandered the site, rods held loosely in my hands. Awaiting my intuition. Then it came to me. I needed extraordinary help? Indeed, I needed Goddess help.

You might ask how I came to this answer. I don’t know. Most of the time we spend many minutes eliminating answers until the rods answer yes to a question. Other, rarer, times the answer just ‘pops’ into our minds – this was one such occasion.

I felt around this answer for a while until I realised that I hadn’t got it exactly right. Caileach needed my help! Wow! Okay It seemed that it was a task that neither of us could perform alone. Indeed it was that she needed a conduit, me, to cleanse the site. I don’t know about you, but I am not the most trusting of people when it comes to the being that is Caileach! Not after the Ice Dragon betrayal only a few months ago.

I disconnected from her for a few minutes to make my sanity checks and ensure that all was well. It was. Okay, I sent the thought out to her, let’s do it.

Ballinskelligs Abbey – Sun

I was taken to a place where I could look out onto the water and then something amazing happened. It was truly epic in its scope. Caileach drew in the Sun…

Oh! Such poor words to describe the indescribable

Her breath was so deep, that I was lost in its fathoms. I felt that it was because of the Water element that I was adding to the mix that lent power to its depth. But I am telling you. It grew in both scope and depth equally.

I am one of the most ego-comfortable people I know. Having a belief that we (humans) are on a par with other beings. Until I am reminded by such an experience of how twig stick like we really are. Ha ha ha. Be still my sinking ego.

And then came the storm…howling wind and fire smashed into my crown, I swear it knocked me to the floor. Like a torrent of meteors it smashed into and through me into the ground. I had a vague sense of trying to follow its path underground, but it was too much for me.

The whole show must have taken less than a few minutes but felt much longer. Then, it was finished, done. I felt like a cinder and spent many more minutes sitting on the wall taking in the evening air and coolness of the water. Recovering my strength I wandered through the abbey and felt a very different energy there.

One thing you will realise about energy work is that it shifts the feel pretty fast. No slacking where energy is concerned.

I found the place where the fire had settled or rather the surface place. It was clear. Pure, was the thought that flashed into my mind. I asked whether there was more to do here? No. As Gwas finished his meal I got a few more answers from the Rods.

• It had been a combined effort but more on Caileach’s part than mine. I was the hammer, she was the wielder.
• Water element was needed to bring both depth and to cool me whilst the fire was being pushed through me.
• I had to have gained the Water Element before I could work with the Caileach at the abbey.

That last one was surprising and which again brings up the question of whether we choose or are chosen. That wraps it up for the abbey and this sacred place. We were done for our first few hours in Ireland and I’ll let you decide on the awesome factor. But as we drove home, we were not done. Oh no!

Kal Malik

In my last post I talked about how I had used the Earth as an Anchor so that I could gain the Depth of the Water Element as past of my Elemental Quest (that was a long sentence).

I left out (for the sake of continuity) an experience that I had within that one. When I first began to resonate with the Water Element I became overwhelmed, even though I had successfully anchored myself to the Earth.

Caileach had driven a stake into my consciousness with a command, “Use the Gift” What the heck was that? What Gift? And how was I supposed to use it?

I recall that it reminded me of Gandalfs advice to the Dwarves at the Gates of Mirkwood, “Don’t leave the path”.

As I struggled with the Water Element’s depth I sent a shout out to Caileach, “What Gift?” Imagine if you will, a troubadour hanging on to the horns of a bull whilst shouting for help.

“The Gift”, Caileach admonished, “The Gift”

I don’t know about your experiences with other beings (even humans in some cases) but the interactions can be exasperating. I suspect that it is because much of other worldly communication is lost in translation (pun intended).

My attention split. That in itself has to be a feat of enormous proportions because it wasn’t a dual split, but a four-way one.

1. I was attending the Water Elements depth that was suffocating me.
2. I was holding onto the anchor in the Earth
3. I was calling out to Caileach for help and understanding
4. and now I was being given instruction on the Gift.

“You are trying to balance out the energies of Earth and Water,” Caileach patiently instructed, “Don’t, you cannot balance them, you must ‘flow’ between them.”

If I didn’t have a look of puzzlement on my face then I certainly had one in my thoughts.

“You must flow between them” Caileach said again. Repeating the same sentence doesn’t add anything to…I began and stopped. Caileach had taken over my perception, I knew it because she let me know it. Again, wow!

It was as if she had grabbed my head and was turning it, but instead it was my ‘focus’ she had grabbed. I was seeing/experiencing the Water, then it was the Earth/Anchor then the Water.

Before I had tried to ‘balance’ the two in my mind. Now I was ‘flowing’ between the two. Is this the Gift I asked? Flow?

“No,” she responded, there was a pause, “The Gift, the Present, the Now, the Moment, the Point” She said, giving me similes.  Focus? I tried. “No,” Focus is what you are doing with the Moment.”

I kind of got what she was communicating. But within that experience I didn’t have time to consider it more. I ‘took’ control of myself again and replicated what she had done. I flowed between Earth and Water. One ‘moment’ I was resonating with Water, the next I was resonating with Earth.

And then, it hit me, of course. The “gift” like a gift, like a “present”, like “The Present”, like the “Present Moment”. I was shifting the Present Moment. What a lateral consideration!

That was the Gift that Caileach was talking about. But it gets more interesting. What she was saying is that I should use the Gift to move inside myself. Earth is a Root energy and Water is a Sacral energy. She was telling me to shift my focus, my present moment to MY root chakra and MY Sacral chakra instead of the Earth and the Water.

Hope I am getting this across clearly. Nevertheless it was a huge insightful moment. Expect to hear more about this “Gift” and “Flowing” rather than balancing.

Kal Malik

A funny thing happened on the way to the Ring of Kerry…. so begins a new twist on an old joke. In this case the Universe was playing with us a little bit. We are on the plane over to Ireland and it suddenly occurs to me that Kal should consider finding out which spirits are around him this weekend. I’ve never said that to him before, but on this occasion the impetus to say it causes me to interrupt him listening to music on his iPod. He nods with a kind of “if you say so” look on his face, then tells me that he is currently listening to”There may be an angel” by The Eurythmics at that precise moment . This will be the first sign that something synchronous is happening between us on this day – Friday 20th June – the eve of the solstice.

Eightercua stone row

Once we have found our lodging – the delightful and highly recommended Two Mile Lodge situated two miles out of the town of Kenmare – then we’re straight out to visit a bunch of sites. We don’t hang about when there’s work to be done! I had decided to do the sites situated around the Ring of Kerry first, as they were fewer in number and clustered relatively close together. Therefore, our first destination was Eightercua stone row near to the village of Waterville. 

The road to get there was ‘interesting’. The hire car strained under the up, then down, left then right, round hairpin bends, over blind dips, huge holes in the road, and our occasional screeches to a halt as we realised we were going the wrong way. As the sun began to descend we suddenly caught sight of the Atlantic Ocean as we descended towards Waterville and saw the stone row on a small hill near to a house, just off the N70 “main road” (known as the Ring of Kerry road). [TIP: If you reach the golf club on your left then you've just passed it!]

View from Eightercua stone row

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Eightercua Stones

I don’t want you to get over excited! Heck Yes I do. Our trip to Ireland for the summer solstice was fantastic! There were highs and lows and extreme highs. Our purpose(s) for the trip were completed in spades. More meaning was added to our life and our experience and understanding of the esoteric world gained in many ways.

Ostensibly I had two (main) purposes for my visit. The first was to collect and learn about the second element of my ‘Elemental Quest’ namely the Water Element. The second purpose was to see if I could learn more about my Wand Quest. Both (and more) were achieved!vAs always here we are to tell the tales of adventure. Let’s begin!

We had arrived in Cork at around 3pm, drove an hour to our hotel and another hour to our first sacred site curiously named Eightercua Stone Row. What a place it was. Check out the pictures!

We spotted the huge stones from the road and they were easy to get to. Upon nearing the site I asked my customary, “Is there anything I can do to improve/heal/make a positive difference to this site?” The answer was no.

I then asked whether there was anything I could learn from opening myself to the energies of this place? Yes, definitely! Excellent! I asked whether it would be regarding my quests? Yes. Would it be the Wand Quest? No. The Elemental quest? Yes.

I was surprised because that was the main point of coming here to Ireland and here I was at the first site of our 3 day visit and I was getting help on my raison d’etre. Oh well.

I asked whether I needed to prepare and the answer was Yes. I was taken around the row behind the stones (from a perspective of the Sun) and I stood in their shadow for a few minutes as I aligned myself to the energies of the place.

Minutes later I felt ready and again followed the rods to the place of commune. From the picture you can see me sitting in the place of commune. Before I sat down though, I asked what it was that I would learn here. Again, to my surprise I found that I would be gaining the ability to access the Water Element. At the first site?

I sat and opened myself up to the energy of the place and almost immediately Caileach rode in on a huge Black Dragon. I kid you not! It’s wing span was stretched across the land. She was in true splendour.

She leapt off her steed and, of all my experiences with her, this was the one where she truly felt like a Goddess. She laughed her bone crushing laugh…

“This is my land in as much as any is” She said, her hand swept the surrounding area. I thought about this later on and pondered whether she had said, “land” or “island” or Ireland”? It is still unclear.

I suspect that she keeps an eye on me more than I do of her, however she looked me up and down and nodded her head. The dragon growled!

“I see that the Earth has given you Strength and Solidness. You will need that anchor for using the Water Element for Water will give you Depth.”

From the seat I was meditating at I could see the sea in the distance. It was the Atlantic Ocean and a breathtaking view that is not done justice by our pictures.

As I was looking out at the ocean Caileach instructed that I reach out with my intention and gather the “feel” of the Water. I did so and felt it churning and swirling inside of me. Whether it was because I know that Water is the element associated with the Sacral or because that is just how it is, I don’t know. But I felt it swirl almost sickening in my stomach region.

“Stop” Caileach instructed, she shook her head. “Earth?”, she said, “Anchor?” I had a vision of Homer Simpson, “Doh!” Did Caileach watch TV? Or was it drawn from associative memory? Probably the latter.

Of course, I muttered sheepishly and dropped an anchor deep into the Earth. Unshakeable was the intention that I sent with it and that is what I got.

Again, I focused on the Water in the distance and drew in its essence, its resonance, its flavour. Wow! What a feeling! You would think that connecting with the Earth would give you a sense of weight, right? But no it doesn’t. With Water however, wow! What a sense of weight! What a sense of pressure. My mind was filled with associations…

The bends, a submarine cracking under pressure, depth, endless depth. Mount Everest has nothing on the depths that the ocean has. I recalled a time a few years ago when I tried to connect with the God/Archetype Poseidon and failed miserably. For a moment I though that that was what I was connecting with, such was the enormity of experience. But Caileach’s voice reached me in a commanding way…

“Use the Gift!”

I had a vision of Gandalf shouting to the Dwarves at the gateway to Mirkwood, “Don’t leave the path!”

You might be asking, what the heck is the gift? Well, I was too and got a whole experience around that too, but it would dilute this tale so I’ll put it in the next post. Suffice to say that I managed to “command” my experience.

The anchor in the Earth was what sustained (nourished) me through my Water Element experience. When I had its energies resonating within me, I switched focus to the Earth and had a 3D experience of the Earth and my anchor in it. Again, wow! I’ve had Earth experiences before, notably in Delphi, Greece and Alderley Edge but never the visceralness of this. Caileach dropped in again upon my musings…

“Water will give you depth, You will see and feel the Depth in anything you use this with”

With a flourish, she vanished. Her Dragon however, like the smile of the Cheshire cat remained for a few moments more before it faded away. Cool! That chick has style!

I relished in the Water Elements depth for a while longer before ‘returning’ and having a real feeling of moreness or expansion. I sat and reflected on my experience (as well as taking notes) and realised that I when I had sat down, I noted that there were all the elements present…

• Sun – Fire
• Water – Ocean
• Air – Wind
• Earth – Stones

I suppose I could have gained any of the elements (Earth I already had of course) but dowsing and querying this brought a clear conclusion. It could only have been Water. Had I tried for Fire or Air I would have failed AND I might add that it would have seriously compromised my experience in Ireland.

Eightercua Stones Four Elements

You  might ask why, but I hope you are wise enough to know by now that “why” is not a question the Rods deal well with.

Here we are then. Day 1, Site 1 Quest 1 completed! What would the rest of Ireland’s sacred sites hold? I have hindsight now and am seriously awed!

Before I go though I want to begin a theme that played out during this evenings adventures…As always, as we got in the car and drove to the next sacred place, we exchanged tales of our experience. Gwas went first and told of how he had a Black Dragon in his experience! Really! A Black Dragon! I interrupted him and told of “my” Black Dragon! If it was a coincidence, then it was a monumental one!

Kal Malik

We’re a bit late with all of our Summer Solstice posts due to major problems with the blog. Apologies for the delays, the unavailability at times and the general faffing about with what had been a very stable setup. We are slowly returning to normality, and beyond. There are some great new things coming very soon which I will personally be launching for you in the late summer. Before that, we’ve got a series of Summer Solstice posts which we hope will fascinate and amuse you.

Our destination for Summer Solstice was The Ring of Kerry in Ireland. Before we left I did a tarot reading to try to determine some of the aspects of the trip. Now, doing such a draw is always a bit of a chicken-and-egg scenario. In other words – does the reading make the events happen, or do the events happen in accordance with the reading? We can never really know objectively, but subjectively the tarot readings are inspirational, aspirational and often sensational. This was one such reading.

The Questions for Summer

1 What are the characteristics of my energy going in to Ireland?

1. Nine of Bows (Respect)
2. Ten of Bows (Responsibility)
3. Knight of Vessels (Eel)

Three cards to describe my energy going into the Summer Solstice

Notice that the Respect card features an Otherworldly face. Whenever I have encountered energy forms from the Otherworld I have been guided to treat them with great respect.

I also noticed that the Responsibility card showed a person climbing a mountain weighed down with stuff. Previous outings suggested that I would be climbing mountains on our expedition, but this was South West Ireland we were heading to – wouldn’t that be flat?

The Eel card had come up on my last summer solstice draw! Back then it had shown me the way to finding The Eel Sword. Would this be a reference to ancestors? I was certainyl back in my ancestral homeland, so that was promising. We will see.

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Every now and again I visit my friend Magic Mike – the psychic. I don’t usually relate our conversations, but occasionally there are some incidents which show me how far I have come in the last few years. Most times when I visit Mike I am the recipient of his visions and meetings with spirits. On this occasion, however, the roles were reversed!

The Spirits Around Us

Mike used to have fun seeing my aura. However, on this occasion I thought I would try to see his before he tried it on me. I was slightly disturbed to see two grey shapes on either side of Mike, as though perched behind him, watching over his shoulders. Did he have a grey or black aura, I wondered? I mentioned the shapes and Mike immediately recognised that I wasn’t looking at his aura. He suggested that I ask my spirit guide to assist in sharpening the image, in making the image clearer and more obvious. In fact, why not ask questions about it and try to get some answers, he suggested?

I did as he suggested. The shape became instantly clearer, and I received more information about the shape, as though gifted from a higher source. One of the shapes was Mike’s  guardian angel. I saw the shape of a crone, an old lady. She was bent over Mike, touching his shoulder sympathetically. She never looked at me, even though I was “seeing” her – her attention was fixed on the man she watched over.

Mike was intrigued that I had seen this being. No-one of his psychic friends had ever seen her, and Mike had never been aware of her either. Yet, this was quite clearly how she was describing herself to me. As I watcched her, she produced a ball of writhing energy in her cupped hands. She looked at me as though to say “Watch this!” then she lifted the ball of energy and placed it into Mike’s forehead – at the point where the “Third Eye” is supposed to be. I knew that this would boost his psychic performance. The guardian angel faded a little, as though removing herself from my intense observation.

The Old Man and The Chair

On the other side of Mike’s seated body was a taller, more upright man. Again, I asked for some help in trying to define this spirit form in more detail. Soon I was receiving a very clear picture of the man, whom I described in as much detail as I could to Mike. I knew some “fact” about the man – he was related to Mike, possibly a grandfather, he was wearing clothing from the Edwardian era or possibly Victorian.  Mike suggested it might be his grandfather whom he didn’t know well.

The grandfather was standing in an unusual position. He was posing as though holding something – elbows pinned to his side, but forearms straight out forward. I didn’t mention this yet, because Mike was busy asking me questions about the man, and thinking about possible connections. Mike said his only connection was a rocking chair that he had recently re-upholstered and moved. He went off into a adjoining room and brought the chair in. As he stood there holding the chair I noticed that he was in exactly the same position as the grandfather! Elbows pinned to his side, and arms out forward holding the chair! I nearly jumped out of my chair!

This was what had brought this man here! Mike’s recent’ “interest” in the chair had sparked the arrival of the Grandfather. How interesting!

House Clearance Service

Finally, we discussed how we might set up a link to a web site where we can offer dowsing services for house clearance. I want to get into this much more. Kal, however, feels that the best advertising would be something more localised and targeted to places and space where people with an interest in such services could find the information. I completely take his point, and bow to his greater experience in these realms.

Perhaps I might think about making a link on this blog so that people can get in touch if they need house clearance work? What do you think?