The Hedge Druid

A new beginning

Gwas had dowsed the premium location for Imbolc celebrations and it turned out, much to both our chagrin as Anglesey. We had been to this rather bleak isle a few weeks ago and would have preferred any place – and I mean any – in the country. However who are we to argue with dowsing rod direction?

Imbolc

As perhaps has been mentioned before, this year both Gwas and I are following a more co-creative line when it comes to visiting sacred sites. By this we mean to be heading out with a particular purpose in mind.

A difficult task it is proving to be for the moment. However upon setting of from home I had two things in mind.

1. The first being ~ what the heck was all this “wand making” business about?
2. How important was this “wand making” business

I find it extremely funny that we seem to “need” to be out at some site to be able to ask these questions, when I am quite sure we could safely ask them at our homes too.

Since I seem to be entwined with these Celtic reflections I suppose I should learn some more about them…

Though now I think of it – my heritage for want of a better word is surely more Eastern perhaps I should hark back to those lands and mysteries

Anyways…Following Gwas’s ever present plan of action (please recall again that I am the amiable side-kick on this venture). We arrived after a slight error in mapping to the first sight of the day and quite appropriately named Ty Newydd – translated to mean The New!

Following Gwas’s 2010 plan of action, i.e. to map out the energies of the sites we visit, we began to do this as soon as we arrived. Well, I confess Gwas did most of it. I helped with the odd “energetic” comment.

Chamber

One of the first things I “felt” upon arriving at this site was that the central “brick” column that had been cemented in to keep the structure stable was destabilising the energies of the place. Some quick dowsing confirmed this and also that the energetic aura around the site was displaced (or rather mis-shapen) also.

If you ever wonder why two (or even more) accounts of a trip to these sites is better than one then it will become abundantly clear from these posts. It is my (our) belief that oour individual reactions to the sites we visit creates a unique experience for each of us. Thus needing seperate accounts.

I dowsed for a favourable position and wasn’t surprised when I was shown a place that was in direct sunlight. A male energy center as Gwas later determined. Whilst Gwas fought with his lighter to light some incense sticks I sat quite happily enjoying the sun. I am after all a Solar guy!

It was during this meditative state that I got a “start date” in mind for beginning the creation of my Wand – or atleast for finding the Beech that would form it. The date was August. At the time the only connection that came to mind with August was that it was last August that my dear mum passed away, is this what was meant? Hmmm. However, wiki provided another interesting correlation with August…

Festivals

Interesting! Wiki tells me that Lughnasadh festival marks the beginning of the Harvest season. I wonder what further revelations await? O by the way friend Gwas, note the name of the next festival “Ostara”, ringing any bells?

Actually a thought just occured to me and honest it only just occured to me whilst I was musing over this post.

1. Getting a Start date for creating my wand
2. That date being the Start date for harvesting
3. Ty Newydd being the place of “The New”

Am I the only one with shivers down his spine? Well, well, well…

Gwas will no doubt tell of his little ceremony to get the energy flowing again at this site. I will just add that whilst he was in the process of doing so, I had the urge to get up and walk away from the site. I found myself walking about 30 feet away from the site and then in a parabola around it, stopping by a metal fence. When Gwas had finished his work we noted two things.

• I had walked to the edge of the sites aura – I didn’t know that at the time
• The metal fence that had stopped my walk was difusing the aura of the site.

Not for the first time that day we had to ask…”Why do they use metal?”

So before I leave Ty Newydd can I just point out that in the picture above Brigid (whom Imbolc signifies) is thought to have two sisters, one of which is a Smith i.e. one who creates things? Thought i’d just mention that.

Walking the long walk

Ok, I don’t know what “pilgrimage” means to you, but having done a lot of travelling globe-wise my personal take on pilgrimages is to take all the encounters along it as significant – just cause you can’t see it doesn’t mean its not there!

Our next stop along the road was at the River Briant

River Briant

and its wonderfully non-slip stones. As Gwas mentions in his post. He was wondering if I would be slipping into the river – as the side-kick on these journeys I often provide the comic relief. I don’t mind it’s good for my ego. As it happens I didn’t, and even though the other side was rather boggy we decided to continue on on foot than return to the car.

The walk through the marshes was fun and since my “non-water proof, guaranteed to fill instantly with any available water” trainers were instantly covered in mud and drowned in water I had no worries after about 5 minutes. You can’t get wetter than wet.

From the minimal pictures of me on this blog you must realise one important point about all my expeditions. I never, ever wear “the appropriate” gear. In my opinion the universe should compensate for my stead-fast belief that everything I need will be provided (quite often by Gwas, thanks for the coat mate!) O and thanks Universe for the consistently good weather when we go out!

We trudged on enjoying “that sinking” feeling every so often until we reached move civilised (or rather tarmaced) path. We then attempted to get to our secondary target but realised that time was against us and decided to turn back and reclaim our car before proceeding on.

Note: the road back was a long long road and it was at several points we noted that it would have been quicker, more pleasurable and soggier if we had returned via the marshes.

Still, I have to say, the sun was shining and once we got to the car I had to strip off to shirt and t-shirt level and my trainers had dried out!

An empty field – er – I mean castle

My knowledge of all things Celtic or Ancient whichever you want to describe it as adds up to one word “google” So when Gwas tells me that we are going to some-strange-welsh-name, my assumptive brain kicks in and translates it as “some sacred site with large boulders in it”.

To this date I think it has only been two or three times that I have been incorrect in this assumption – not bad going eh? Anyway the next site on the pilgrimage was…

Castell Bryngwn

Castle? Hmmm couldn’t they have put a little “Ex” infront of that statement? Anyways…taking care not to “injure” the site we explored the energetic nature of this site. Gwas is going to give the details of that I will say that there were three entrances to the site. A Solar, Lunar and Stellar entrance. I think this is the first time we have encountered a Stellar entrance. Perhaps because we have never looked for one before – still we hadn’t this time either.

I had just walked along the edge of the – er castle – and marked of the entrances and came up with three. Further dowsing had revealed their polarities.

I think it was me that dowsed the Sigil for the site first, followed by Gwas who got the same as me. Interesting! Gwas will post the image from his notes. We found some other interesting energetic anomalies at this site. An alter place for one.

O and one other thing comes to mind. I had found a rock earlier on in the day and had pocketed it – in the long tradition of “moving rocks from one place to another”. So I had placed the rock down in an energy point in this – er castle – and intended to leave it there. Then as Gwas and I headed towards the next site on the pilgrimage I had what I can only describe as a “call” – and this is really weird I know – but it was the rock calling me back to pick it up and take it with me. Mad right?

Signs

We got in the car and headed of towards the next stop. As we got close we saw a black dog in the road infront of us. In all our travels we have never encountered a dog just sitting in the road. Then as we navigated around that one we came across another “black dog” in the road again. Following this up with a bunch of crows.

I was convinced that this was a sign and that we should be wary of our next target, rightly so it proved to be. Our next “stone” was…

Strange Energy Stone

We had been this was on a previous visit and had made some changes to the energies. In our in-experience these had not been advantageous and thus it seems we had been called back to correct our mistake. Gwas left the work to me which essentially consisted of returning some outlier stones back to the centeral rock. A quick dowse or two – with accompanying ache in head due to negative energies, the work was done and we swiftly left this place.

Lambing

Our final stop was at Bodowyr Cromlech…

Bodowyr

Guess what Cromlech means?

This was a lovely site to finish on I thought as we approached it and saw the baby lambs being protected by their parents. Within the chamber a few baby lambs had been sleeping but were awakened by our approach and weren’t able to climb out of the “metal fence” which surrounded the chamber.

Lamb Chamber

Without hesitation I climbed over the fence and lifted the remaining kids out of the play pen – it was our turn!

As per usual Gwas did most of the energy discovery dowsing, with me helping out in my own rather free-lance way. We discovered the sigil of the site as well as astrological symbol. Furthermore we found that our personal “entrance and exit” from the chambers were different. If I recall, mine was Solar aligned i.e. East-West.

Gwas attended to five incense sticks – marking a completion of the circle since it was five at Ty Newydd also. And so we both sat in this chamber watching the sky go red in the distance.

As I mused over the days events sitting cross-legged in a burial chamber I wondered about wand making in the context of other things going on in my life. It came to me that I should look back on how I came across this “side-line” quest in the first place. As I recall it was an adjunct, an “add-on” quest. Not something that was on the “main” path. This being the case I felt more clearly that it was something to pursue at leisure and at a pace that is respective of “its” position as “side-line”.

Further reflection brought other insights. The day had been enjoyable, warm and with the best of company. It had had its twists and turns – but on the whole it turned out to be a fine day. Destinations are mere sign posts along the path. It was and is the journey that should be enjoyed. Yes, this was the message of Imbolc 2010.

Fin,

Kal

Recently I was toying with my five Callenish stones. I bought five stones from the gift shop when I was there last year, and now I wanted them to be ‘charged up’ with subtle energy in readiness for any forays I may have to make that would require their use. These stones, made of Lewissian Gneiss, are practically the only stones I have left, after having lost other sets and leaving others around the country to do their work restoring some subtle energy imbalances.

Lewissian Gneiss forming beautiful folds

My usual method of charging such stones is to place them within my favourite (and most favourable) power centre in my house, and to leave them there for however long the divining rods say they should be left. This I did, simply plonking them into a rough pile in the centre. The rods indicated that they would take five days to fully charge up. Hmmm….leaving them for five days in a prominent place might present a problem – what if one of our cats disturbed them, or they got kicked? Was there a faster method, I wondered?

The divining rods indicated that there was a faster way. I asked the rods to show me where I should place the stones in order for them to charge up faster than the specified five days. One by one I dowsed for their positions. One here, one there, one next to this one, one near to that one, etc. I stood back once they had all been placed and looked at their formation. The formation was clearly a parabola, with the focal point directed towards…well, towards Callenish actually! I asked the rods how long it would take to charge the stones up using this formation – one day!

So, was the parabola the most efficient form for collecting and focusing subtle energy? Not quite. It was the right shape for charging up radiant energies (i.e. Sun, Moon, Planet or Star energy) but not for Earth Energy. The formation most effective for collecting earth energy is a circle. Superficially you could say that a crescent moon shape and a sun shape are the perfect subtle energy forms. I rather think the concept has more to do with the efficient qualties of the parabola and the circle than any correspondence with the shapes of The Moon or The Sun, however.

I find it interesting that, given Kal and I have discovered that subtle energy forms conical shapes above and below ground with the centre point being the surface of the earth, a parabola is described as being a through-section of a cone:

“In mathematics, the parabola is a conic section, the intersection of a right circular conical surface and a plane parallel to a generating straight line of that surface. Given a point (the focus) and a corresponding line (the directrix) on the plane, the locus of points in that plane that are equidistant from them is a parabola.” (source: Wikipedia)

Construction of a parabola

This discovery reminded me of when Kal dowsed to discover the perfect crystal layout to try to dispel a powerful negative pool of energy that had accumulated close to his house. He too formed a parabola shape, and the actions of the Sun and Moon over a period of time managed to dispel it. Another thing for us to look out for, but this is not the first time we have formed this shape “accidentally” by placing each stone in a place suggested by the dowsing rods.

I would also seem a reasonable hypothesis that stone circles were created with the intention of collecting and generating earth energies using the most efficient design possible for this.

Gwas Myrrdyn.

Anglesey – 1st February 2010   

Kal and I journeyed to Anglesey for Imbolc. I had dowsed a map of the entire country with the instruction to find a suitable place to celebrate this Celtic festival – the mid-point between Winter and Spring. The result was Anglesey. Anglesey? We had been there several times previously, and only a few months ago, but still, of all the places in the country the rods could have crossed over it was this small but sacred island – the last refuge of the Druid cults of mainland Britain.   

We had both set intentions as to what we wanted out of the journey – such was the nature of this year’s work: we would be visiting sites with a set idea of what we were hoping to achieve. This is what we had been told at the end of last year as we moved into the quiet time of Winter – Nature can only help us progress now if we state what our purpose is. Ask to be guided and we would only receive more questions. Ask to be led and we would be led back onto ourselves. It was up to us to make our own progress by stating our goal, then Nature would help us to achieve this.  

My intention for the year is to learn about the three elements of the “yew stage” of druidry that I believe are inherent to developing to the next stage. Those elements are: re-awakening (or rebirth) – death (or death energy) – transformation (or transcendence). My intention for this Imbolc day was to learn what I could about any of these processes, whichever was most appropriate. As it turned out the process that was associated with the day was re-awakening, specifically the re-awakening of the earth energies from their Winter slumber.  

 I planned a route that would take us to all of the sites that we hadn’t visited before that lay scattered around the shores of the River Braint – a river whose named was derived from the name Brigid. Brigid, as you will undoubtedly know, is the form of the Triple Goddess (the archetype of the feminine in Nature) that is associated with the festival of Imbolc.   

“On February 1 or February 2, Brigid is celebrated at the Gaelic festival of Imbolc, when she brings the first stirrings of spring to the land. Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox Christians, and some Anglicans mark the day as the Feast of Saint Brigid; the festival is also known as Candlemas and Purification of the Virgin.” (source: WikiPedia)   

As this was the only place on the island that I could find such an association it seemed the natural place to begin our day’s journey in praise of her properties. Only when I came to look at a map of the river did I realise that neolithic man had also decided that this area was special, and had built several sacred sites along its shores. These were all sites that somehow, despite our many previous visits over the years, we had managed to either bypass or skirt around. Now seemed like the appropriate time to actually visit them at last.   

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Penmaenmawr – January 28th 2010

I hadn’t planned to go to Penmaenmawr and visit the Druid’s Circle. Instead I had printed out a map to a dolmen on the Llyn Peninsula in the North West of Wales, and thought that the sea air might do me some good as I was nursing the throb of having had a wisdom tooth extracted the previous day. Salt air – should do me good – so I had picked a site that was new to me, and was right on the coast. Instead, I turned off at Penmaenmawr – call it a ‘divine wind’ – a kamikaze moment.

It was certainly blowing cold and strong by the time I had gently picked my way to the top of the hill. It’s a good half hour walk from the parking place, marked by two ‘chess-piece’ towers up he steep single-track road above the village. As I pulled my scarf tighter against the wind and readies my new ash staff for its first sacred site outing, I saw patches of snow still lying around. Winter was still here, even though Imbolc is around the corner. Initiating my staff, i.e. filling it with positive and useful energies, empowering it, and giving this ash staff my own energetic signature had become the order of the day in preparation for our Imbolc outing to Anglesey. In sight of that very island from Pemaenmawr seemed so intuitively right this day.

My new white ash staff was wonderful to walk with: sturdy, a good height and weight. The only down side was that I had waxed it, and wearing gloves they slipped around along the shaft so that I had to keep re-adjusting my grip. Just wait until the Spring, I kept thinking. On the way up I tried to fall into the usual walking trance that allows me to begin to connect with Nature. The steady footfall rhythm, the clunk of the staff, the beating of the wind, the distant cries of sheep and gulls all made a lullaby that allowed me to sink into the warmth of my Winter clothing and soon I was feeling the weak energies of Winter flowing around me from animals, and along the tracks that people walked.

On the way up I found a small branch from a gorse bush lying in a patch of snow on the main path. It seemed totally incongruous to its surroundings, and I couldn’t see any gorse bushes within sight of where it lay. I knew I should pick it up and take it with me, so I hooked its twisted twin twig form atop my y-shaped fork in the ash staff. I then carried it like Dick Whittington carrying his wares to London Town.

I passed the large standing stone in a field next to a lonely cottage where on my previous visit with Kal we had found negative energies and the sheep had chased us away from the stone. I decided to ignore it until I came back down. This visit had a purpose: to initiate my new staff, not to surround it with potentially harmful energies! I wandered on. As I neared the top I saw the familiar small ring cairn that marks, for me, the beginning of the sacred area above Penmaenmawr. I stood within the ring cairn and felt like I should be doing something cleansing, so I opened up to the wind and allowed it to tear away from me all the energies of the un-sacred places I inhabited as a human “down there” in the valleys and towns. My stuffed-up nostrils cleared, and I felt energetically neutral after a few moments of this, so I said a little thanks and used the nearby ‘erratic’ stones as markers to guide me to the Druid’s Circle. I never seem to want to walk along the main path to the circle, for some reason, and I never have yet, whatever the weather.

Notice the line of the boulder which leads the eye to the circle on the hill

Read more…

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Interesting…since my last visit to Alderley Edge and my experience regarding creating a wand, it (the wand making) has been on my mind, almost constantly. To be honest it has been getting annoying – because it has been distracting me from other activities that I am keen on pursuing.

Full Moon

Dowsing rods are useful for exploration of ideas and other musings that pop along the intuitive tract. And this week has been full of them. Fortunately, I have been taking note of these intuitive interruptions and have garnered a list of, hmmm, I don’t know what to call it - knacks maybe?

For instance one particular one that came to me whilst walking along the beach this last week was…

Taking water from the middle (not depth-wise) of the pacific ocean in some test-tube and boiling the water away until only the salt remains. Placing this salt within a glass ampule and then placing this ampule within the core of the wand.

Although this particular knack will not be utilised in my first wand creation I found it an interesting side thought.

Anyways I am writing this post more to point out that tonight’s near full moon was so bright and spectacular that I just had to wander out into the night for some exploration and since my mind has been pre-occupied with wands and wand making I decided to meditate further on this particular ‘venture’ and what a surprising set of results were garnered.

Curious? Alas you’re going to have to wait a bit because this is blooming into a bigger project than I could ever have imagined. So for a list of:

• Skills that I need to learn
• Knowledge that I have to acquire
• Intuitive journeys that I’m going to have to go on

You are going to have to wait a bit and look in a new place that I am creating for this project…

Would it surprise you to learn that the domain name www.TheWandMaker.comis actually available to buy? I was absolutely convinced that it would be – tonight’s full moon energies combined with intuitive dowsing ascertained that.

It’s not up yet – but please watch out for The Wand Maker at the above address as I learn the art and intuitive skills used in creating my wand and…

Kal – The Wand Maker

From the mouth of…

In my previous post, here, I was led to understand that a trip to Alderley Edge forest would bring fruits of wisdom and music. Dowsing had suggested that a sunny – male energy – day would be the most auspicious time for the visit. So, ignoring this advice completely I decided to visit the forest of Wizards this cold, cloudy Saturday.

Alderley Edge

Why we make decisions should be explored as well as what decisions we make. This decision came about whilst I was in converse with a friend over coffee on Saturday morning and he happened to ask, what I was up to that afternoon. I had no plans at the time and it just came out“I think I will visit Alderley Edge forest. On my way home from the cafe I was reconsidering and wondering why I had said that and before I knew it my car was facing eastwards and off I went.

Earth Song

Sounds of Earth Song

Arriving at the Edge some 50 minutes or so later I was pleasantly surprised by the magical mist that lay about the place. I quickly got out my dowsing rods and began weaving in and out of the misty wood. I asked the rods whether today was an appropriate day to listen to “Earth Song”. Yes came the answer, which surprised me because it wasn’t a sunny day.

Next I directed the rods to show me where to go to receive this gift. And I was off! In between trees, up and down mounds, scraping and scratching as I went. Which I now know to be a good thing. It felt great to be wandering in the forest – aimlessly? Not!

The rods took me to a orange leaf tree (which was later identified by Gwas as a Beech). I asked whether this was the place to meditate? No. Then why bring me here??? Anyway, my intuition said that it was a energetic interesting place for me to have seen, ok. So I carried on and came to another leafy tree. Again it was to be an interesting place but nothing more. This happened two more times so that I had been taken to four orange leafed trees (I have to say most of the rest of the forest was barren of trees).  Hmmmm…

Finally I was led to a kind of ravine with a 30 foot high rock edge to one side and this was the place to meditate, with my back against the face. Just above me I noticed a wonderful tree growing out of the wall face.

There I was closing the internal talk and listening for the Earth Song. The place was devoid of people and sounds except for the occasion plane passing over head. The mist was settling about the place quite nicely I have to say and it seemed ideal in all regards.

Chimes

After some time I heard/felt a soft boom. I thought at first it was another plane in the distance but then it happened again and I realised it was coming from underground, rather like as if someone was hitting the ground near my feet with a sledge hammer – but there was no sound of the hammer just a feeling of the vibration it made. Then it came a few more times and I knew its rhythm. it was five beats and a space then repeated. This happened for quite a while until a new sound entered the mix. This sound was added to the “space” in between the five beats. It’s hard to describe, the best I can do is – it sounded like the noise from wind-chimes if they were being hit by rain. So it was a kind of splish-ping.

These sounds five bass-ey beats and then a splish-ping stayed with me for a few minutes – to the point that I could feel that the beats were being played in my abdomen and the splish-ping travelled up to my chest and back too my abdomen.

The experience in total must have been around 15-20 minutes after which both sounds faded away leaving me with a bit of a butterfly-stomach but on the whole good. I dowsed as to whether that had been Earth Song and it was confirmed. I then asked whether it had done anything to me, yes. What? I didn’t feel anything different. Had it had a healing effect? No, Transformational? No, Spiritual? No But something? Yes. A few other questions came up with “No” too and I left it at that for the moment!

So, a confirmation that all was done at that spot left me wondering what to do next, So I asked as to whether anything else was to do here? Yes. Excellent – and off I was following the Rods again…Deeper and deeper into the wood.

The special branch

I wandered and walked in a kind of zig-zag away from where my mind was telling me my car was. Still perseverance is the key, so I carried on walking.

At one point I was walking along some half way up a hill but horizontal to it and the rods were asking me to carry on, but I noted a path further below me and tried to make for it – ooops – I slipped some twenty foot and ended up with mud all down my left side. A word to the wise – follow your guide! – Oooh that rhymes.

Anyway, after straightening my rods out (they got bent in the fall) I carried on, rather bemused at my own lack of faith. Then at one point along this trip (no pun intended) I felt the rods twitch to the left. Pardon? I asked and walked back and got the same response again. ‘Non Comprende‘ I said to them as this was the first time I had had such a response. So I decided to follow this twitch – curiosity after all only kills cats. The rods led me to a branch on the floor. How do I know it was the branch rather than the spot on the ground, You got it – I asked.

I looked down at the branch and asked whether this piece of wood, some 20 inches in length, was significant? Kind-of (Note - must do a post on dowsing rod responses).

Some questions:

• Should I pick up this piece of wood - you can if you want to
• Should I take it with me - no
• Is it important - kind of
• Is it symbolic? – yes
• Is the type of wood important?  – yes

My intuition kicked in at this point and I asked…

• Is this wood the same as the wood from the leafy trees? – yes

You know something, even writing about this adventure 3 days later, my hair stood on end when I wrote the above bullet point. I turned over the piece of wood and it had a “V” shaped groove going along its length. So I asked is that groove in the branch significant? – yes.

Again my intuition was kicking into high gear and I asked whether the whole branch, groove, size, type of wood was significant, and got an almighty YES. Ahhhh.

Note: A friend I was telling this to the other day asked me, “Well, how did you know which questions to ask?” Phew! My answer I don’t know – it has gotten to that stage where just picking up the dowsing rods generate the questions to ask…it’s like trying to find a needle in a haystack with the advantage of a small magnet or metal detector.

I sat on the muddy ground for a while puzzling over this branch, waving it around into my hand and musing. Have you ever had that sensation of watching yourself doing something? It was like that and I saw myself waving the branch doing a “Expeliarmus” When a thought came to me.

Wand

Was this representing a wand? Wow!

The wand chooses the wizard, Mr. Potter. It’s not always clear why.” ~ Ollivander

Was I to make a wand out of this branch? No, now that was well disappointing. Still further perusal via the dowsing rods resulted in the assertion that I would at some point this year be making a wand from beech wood

I always take anything magicalon the web with several pinches of salt, however for the purposes of investigation, here are a couple of things:

Beech Wood:
Male Energy and because it produces nuts it is closely related to the Oak. Associated with the Greek God Apollo and the Elves Sun Lord Obraash. The Celts used the nut of this tree to fodder the sacred swine. Norse tradition says that tablets of Beech were used to make the very first writing tablets for the runes, strong magick for working with the Nordic runes.
Magical Properties: Beech wands are used in the magick of divination. Reduces swellings and skin inflammations. Helps to balance mental health. Aspiration, desire, and victory are all key elements of this wood. Used while working with ancestors, old wisdom, and magickal research. Beech is a sacred wood of the summer solstice.

Source

And some more information:

Beech (Sultan)

Sacred to Obraash the Sun lord, whom the Elves call Alba, Beechwood is closely related to Oak. The Beech tree is a large and spreading tree that bears edible nuts. It was particularly valued by the ancient Celts — and the Elves — as a nut used to fodder animals, especially the sacred swine. Beech is the family of trees to which Oak belongs, thus is Beech sometimes called Atarya Dwyrion, “Grandfather of Oaks.” The name Beech relates to the Germanic word for Book and tradition tells that beech wood was used to make the first writing tablets for the runes. Hence, Beech is deeply associated with learning and lore, and with the divinatory power of the runes. Like Greek Apollo, the Elvish Alba drives his sun-ship across the sky each day and passes to every world of manifestation, sources of light, beauty, and life.

Apollo is also considered to be a spirit of youth, archery, and prophecy, the latter because of his conquest of the Pythian serpent at Delphi and subsequent assumption of the powers of the Delphic oracle. In Celtic tradition many gods are associated with the sun’s light, among them Ogma Sunface, god of eloquence who created the ogham letters, and Oenghus mac Og, god of love and youth. The wood of the Beech has a superb grain that finishes most beautifully.

The Elvish rune Sultan is the same as the Norse rune Sol, the solar rune which has also been interpreted to mean “victory.” Magical operations especially applicable to Beech include: spells of information, especially seeking old wisdom; invocation of ancient guardians or Ancestors; research into old writings and the runes; magick of the Summer Solstice, culmination of desires; magick of victory.

Source

Ok for those Jimmy Randi fans – how many boxes does this tick? Let us see…

• Male energy – so am I
• Sun energy – o me too!
• Book connection – I am writing a book at the moment
• “Finishes beautifully” – great for wand making then
• Aspiration, desire and victory – did I tell of the aspirations that I have? And see the next chapter too!
• Learning and lore – er this is my middle name!
• “ogham letters” is the language of Tree – and who have I been communing with all the while?

My point being – can you have that many hits by random chance? I think not!

Beech Leaf

I will post more on this wand making when I have explored the idea more. Almost certainly it will be investigated deeply. After this interlude I continued on following the rods, wondering about wands and such.

A self-value examination

Due to the aforementioned slippage I was unable to retrace my steps back to the car, also the rods were egging me onwards so, mud covered but excited I carried on. After about fifteen minutes I could see the trees thinning and here the sound of traffic. I knew I had reached the other side of the forest!

The rods however were still playing a part in directing  me so I continued following them. They led me down the road towards Alderley Edge village, along the side of a tennis court. Reason had already informed me that I had at least an hours walk ahead of me, but what the heck! Wands man!!

Anyway, I was walking past these fantastically expensive pads to my left, all set back and gleaming $$ signs.

Alderley Edge House

Then the rods took a 90 degree shift and pointed at one of these houses. From the look of it, it was the most expensive of the bunch. I looked puzzled at the rods?

• Does someone significant live here?
• Is there any important energies here?
• Is this area/land significant?
• Should I climb over the fence and explore more?

All reveled a “No”. So I should pay attention to this house? Yes. Why? I stood there looking at this house for a while and a thought popped into my head, “this must be 2/3 million pounds at least, I could not see myself ever owning something like that” With that thought in mind I instantly returned to the rods. Is this why your showing me this house? Yes.

Now this is a weird and rare scenario. Why? Because I hadn’t asked the rods to show me anything of the kind…so where was the question that led to this answer…indeed one might ask a similar question for the “Wand” experience above.

Usually our rods respond to directed questioning:

• take me to…
• show me where…
• is this…

But what is going on here? Something to explore for sure!

Ok, this house then, your showing me something that I can’t envisage? Yes. Why? Because I need to change my view of myself so that I can envisage it? Yes.

Self-help from dowsing rods? That has got to be a first surely? As a life-coach I understand that we all have limits defined by our beliefs about ourselves. It was interesting to be introduced to one of mine that I didn’t even know I possessed. Watch this space because I have a feeling that although, this was the least magical of today’s experiences I have a feeling that the opposite will hold true! You heard it here first.

Kal ~ Wand Maker

I am reminded of a post that seems so long ago now in which I told you how I found my old beech staff, or rather, how I came across the staff in a magical moment where I asked for one to appear and moments later I came across the perfect branch for the job. In honour of this synchronistic and serendipitous gift I left the staff wholly unaltered and natural. It has served me well on my travels over the past few years, but recently I have not taken it with me for some reason. It felt “light”, or “lightweight”. I felt I had outgrown it in some way. I have left it propped under my apple tree all Winter, and have mysteriously forgotten to take it with me on any walks our outings recently.

This weekend I walked along the Whitegate Way – a well-prepared straight trail following a dis-used railway track in Cheshire. The trail forms part of the Gritstone Trail, I think. The track is lined by many birch trees, and I was delighted to reacquaint myself with this beautiful tree, and it made my heart rise in the depths of Winter, and I longed for the first signs of the new year’s growth, but appreciated the silver glow of the birch’s bark as I walked a circuitous route in and around the Whitegate Way. I had no druidic work in mind, and yet something found me.

Last week I discussed with Kal how I was still at the Yew Stage, and that this year should be about renewing the vigour with which I approached the study that this druidic stage entails: reputedly death, rebirth and transformation. I say “reputedly” because reputedly the Yew tree is symbolic of death and rebirth, and yet we found that it was a pacifying presence, and this alone was the reason for its presence at graveyards, or rather, people came to be buried at places close to yew trees because of the yew’s calming effect upon human death energies. Anyway, the Yew Stage for me is identified by one becoming two – one energy stream has become a twin pair of energy streams.

Ash Trash

As I came to the end of what was frankly a pretty dull walk I was uplifted by veering away from Newchurch Common and getting back in amongst some pine trees. Feeling their enclosed warmth and comforting carpet of needles with their delightful scent invigorated me. I woke up a little and began to appreciate the languishing willow trees sucking on the juices of small ponds; the stubbornly green undergrowth; the row of upcoming birch trees that indicated we were back onto the Whitegate Way and nearly back at the car park.

As the path passed a barrier I noticed there was a smaller path undulating alongside the main straight and flat prepared path. I walked towards it then suddenly stopped dead: at my feet was a perfect length of tree branch, already topped and tailed with neat cuts and a curious y-shaped end. Wow! Although something had run it over scratching its upper bark clean and leaving a scarred bare side I could see the beauty of the wood beneath and I picked it up. It felt good – balanced, weighty, solid,strong. I walked with it on the undulating path – it was a perfect height for me, and walked well. I determined to take it home. The forked end seemed to resonate with me as a perfect symbol of this coming year’s work.

I identified the branch as ash, and when writing this account up I scoured the ‘Net to look up the significance of the Ash tree. This quote from the OBOD site made my eyebrows raise, especially after I had just written the previous statement about this year’s work being related to getting back on track with death, rebirth and transformation:

“The Ash tree has always been given mystical import and character, frequently being associated with healing and enchantment. In Celtic literature, there are many references to the Ash tree, but in particular as associated with the Welsh Magician-God Gwyddion, who bears an Ash staff/wand, a symbol of healing and especially transformation and empowerment in matters of destiny.” [link: OBOD article by Tanequil]

On this path I have chosen to walk, whenever I am walking in the right direction and sticking to The Way, I am given gifts from divine providence to help me. It sounds so corny that I wouldn’t expect anyone to believe it. I can barely believe it myself. Yet always these gifts appear at the right time, just when I need them, and with traditional associations that are perfectly in line with my intentions. Again, another perfect example. The Ash Staff for transformation and empowerment in matters of destiny. The walk continues, now with a new ally.

There is another coincidental element to contend with. A month ago I was reading Oonagh’s Worlds blog (the lovely Oonagh is so talented – see the front page of HD for a link to her blog). She had posted an article about how she had carved a delightful ash staff for a friend, called The Norseman’s Staff. I was so envious! I contented myself with my natural “beech” staff that I have been carrying for over a year, but I couldn’t help admire her work and I commented as much on her blog. You will see what I mean about her amazing carving if you take a look at her post and pictures – it’s truly beautiful. Now my secret wish has been granted! How wonderful. I smiled the whole way home knowing what I was going to do with the staff once I could work on it. The very next morning I went to buy what I needed from the DIY shop.

I spent a couple of hours taking the staff through a process of stripping the bark, smoothing the scratches and sanding the staff completely, and then waxing it with beeswax (natural colour). I am now completely satisfied with its look and feel.

New ash staff

In conversation with Kal it turns out that the two of us were both discovering new wooden tools to take with us on our travels this year – one the same day and at the same time but in two different locations. He was busy finding and learning about how he could employ a beech wand this year. Well, there’s a phrase I also thought I would never write! I told him how I might carve some symbols into the damaged and scratched areas on one side of the staff. He then told me how he was planning to do the same with the wand. We seem to have begun the year in complete synchrony. These things tend to happen when you follow The Way.

Gwas