The Hedge Druid

The Hedge Druid blog has reached 300 posts! Thanks to those of you who are reading our posts regularly, everyone who has contributed to the comments section, and to casual visitors who may just happen on by. We hope you are enjoying the journey along The Path. Our experiences seem to resonate with many of you.

Since late 2008 we have delivered three hundred almost-believable, sometimes vaguely interesting pieces of information to you all. For Kal and I the blog began as a means of recording our experiences whilst out dowsing, and for me particularly it was a means to record the cross-over that I was experiencing with my newly-emerging interest in druidry. Since then we have developed spiritually and the metaphorical goal-posts have shifted somewhat.

It has been to my personal delight that you have followed our progress in increasing numbers. Good on you, but shouldn’t you be out in a field kissing a flower or something? Only kidding. It’s great to have you here, and we hope that our exploits inspire you to try some of the unusual things we get up to for yourself. You’ll notice we often leave the detail for you to work out for yourself? That’s deliberate.

Two years after we started blogging we have hit a major milestone. I feel like we readers of this blog are a small band of Spartans facing the hordes of rationalist unbelievers in their many guises and poking them sternly in the eye with experiential evidence. Of course, we’re all mad. We need to acknowledge that, If anyone asks, you don’t believe a word of this, right?

Over that time we have indeed covered many esoteric and “flaky” subjects: crop circles, crystals, healing with energy, earth energy lines, coincidences, elemental spirits, ghosts, power centres…and many more that I can’t bring to mind but which make me muse and ponder. We aim to test them all in time.

Over that few years we’ve been spending less time dowsing and more time on energy work/magick. Dowsing has currently (and unfairly) been relegated to an aide to our other work. In the near future we’re going to go back to re-investigating the dowsing principles because we think there’s more to learn from that. Expect some updates to the Sacred Sites page with its map of energies. Expect some new ideas to emerge from our findings.

Here is just a flavour of some of the topics we will be covering soons:-

• Lammas – what it means to me and what I will be doing
• Crop circles – our ideas about where they come from and who’s making them, and how they are made, and what their importance might be
• Stone circles – are they schools for passing on mystical information?
• The newly-discovered wood henge near Stonehenge – our first dowse of it
• The power of numbers : five, seven and eleven

Hope you’ll stay with us for the next three hundred. Charge!!!!!!

Gwas.

In a battle between intuition and reason, the most likely result is that intuition is the loser. Why?

Here is a tale of yesterday, quite literally.

About 7 in the evening, as usual I wondered off to the gym. I parked up, as normal in the busy car-park and sauntered towards the entrance. About half-way from my car to the door I realised that I still had my spectacles on (normally I leave them in the car). My intuition told me that I should go back and leave them there but I ignored it and carried on into the gym.

A few seconds later, I was stood by a locker and before taking my clothes off I placed my specs on top of it. As I did, I distinctly recall my inner voice telling me to put the specs in the locker. I ignored it and continued with changing.

30 minutes later I was in the gym speaking with a friend and as I was, my attention was immediately back with my specs (which I had forgotten on my locker). My intuition told me to go and lock them away, but my reason said, “they would be OK, who is going to steal some specs?”

An hour later, I was back at my locker to find my specs gone! No one had handed them in and they were no where to be found!

Today I was at the optician having a new pair made.

Again and again Gwas and I are “taught” to follow our intuition and yet so ingrained is reason that we still have such tales to tell.

Kal Malik – not learning his lessons!

Sunday 30th May – Hill of Tara, County Meath. Ireland.

This is the final post relating to my chakra work in Ireland in late May this year. It has been a long haul for anyone who’s been reading them all! I appreciate you taking the time to stick with it. If you want to read them all in sequence then you just need to search for the tag “gwas ireland” to get them all at once. You think YOU have been babbled at? Wait until you hear about my final chakra encounter at the Hill of Tara complex on our final full day in Ireland!

The place was mobbed. Sunday visitors had the run of the place. We bided our time wandering around and went our separate ways for a while marking time and occasionally dowsing a few things to answer questions that popped into our heads.  I went off to the far north of the site and found an entrance to the site. The entrance consisted of an arc of neutral energy forming an archway. At the base of the archway were two circles of neutral energy, each about two to three feet in width (how many megalithic yards is that – one?). The archway was about five to six feet in width and seven or eight feet in height.

I went in “properly” (i.e. with awareness of what I was doing) through the arcing neutral bridge. Often this changes the way a site responds to your work, and it may account for what happened shortly afterwards.

Two faint faerie rings mark an energetic entrance to Tara

As I wandered back up the slop, following an earth energy line for the hell of it and snaking around from side to side, I decided I had time to visit some of the things that we had skimmed over on our last brief visit. As I had more time I went to each feature and tried to engage with it energetically, with awareness. This approach is always more rewarding that simply being a tourist and taking pictures and wondering why you are there.

The Un-Radiant Stone

I was trying to be clever when I visited this stone. I didn’t dowse it, but instead tried to “feel” it. Sorry. I was crap. I have no information to report back about the stone. It felt kind of…dead. I should have dowsed to see whether it had any energies surrounding it, but I didn’t. Possibly because it was dead? I like to hope so. So, what can I say about it…er…it had a radial brickwork pattern around it – similar to the top of Pendle Hill. The views from that point were stunning and expansive, and the stone was a major attraction for almost everyone visiting the site. I hear it’s a modern reconstruction. Probably why it felt uninteresting. People would arrive, look around, then move on.

View west from the standing stone at Tara

Next on the pagan tick-list was the wishing tree on the western edge of the site. Clearly, this was a more “specialist” attraction. I found that the tree felt rather proud to be bearing the wishes and hopes of so many people – but again this was feeling, not dowsing. The hawthorn was in full bloom and smelled divine, which was reason enough to spend time around the tree. Some people seemed to have attached the most bizarre objects to it, though, including something that looked like a mini pink surfboard! I won’t mention the word “appropriate” in this context. It’s a shame that from the picture you can’t really make out the hundred other small ribbons discretely attached to every branch and twig. A lot of love is hanging on those small old branches.

Wishing tree at Tara - check out the surfboard!

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OK, chastise me if you will, I have been away from this blog for ages. That is not to say that I haven’t been having adventures. Quite the opposite. Many exciting and revealing times continue to pass my way on a almost daily basis.

I am going to have a monumental go at catching up here! It seems a task that may be beyond me. Instead of going back in time and trying to recall my adventures. I will start from this point in time and work my way back and forward.  Good luck to me, I will need it.

Those who are keeping up with our adventures may recall that over the last two years I have gained a few “names”.

Alderley Wizard

The first was “Edge Wizard” and I was given this in a rather unusual way in the forest of Wizards in Alderley Edge Cheshire. I didn’t know what it meant at the time but since then it has become more clear and focused as we shall see.

Ostensibly at the time I thought this was due to my explorations at the edge of normality, which as it happened was true…see below.

Old Yew

About a year or so after this christening I was given the name “Spirit Walker” which I gained as a title at that wonderful old Yew tree in Llangernyw, Wales.

At the time I was given this moniker I was exploring “Death Energies” a truly fascinating exploration of the border between this life and the next. As readers will know it was an uncomfortable and rather scary journey.

Early this year I was given another “nom du guerre” this time it was the odd title of Wand Maker. Again this naming was in that wonderful forest in Alderley Edge.

Enthusiasm in following this “new” path was initially filled with exciting discoveries and possibilities as demonstrated by this website I set up…The Wand Maker blog.

I have been puzzled over the last week about what was going on with all these namings and what they meant for my path. So I had spent some time meditating on this subject and finally the frustration of not getting anywhere had me off to a source of wisdom. Ye oldie yew!

Yesterday, I arrived there in the early hours of the evening and entered the quiet gardens with determination and a list of questions.

Here are some of the answers that were forthcoming…

• If you lack focus and intent, answers are given in accordance with your state.

I was given these names because that was where my thoughts were at the time. Looking back this makes sense, since I was in a period of mourning the passing of my mum when I first became seriously interested in Death Energies.

• The initial name was the best descriptor for me – “Edge Wizard” – the other names are a reflection of this name.

Spirit walker is the exploration of the Edge of this world and the next. As I was given to know at that time but had forgotten. In the experiences I gained at the yew and since. It was/is to gain an understanding of “energy” from a transitional perspective. If we imagine a Venn diagram…

A is life and B is death or existence on the other side. This trip to the Yew garnered that whist we are in life our exploration can only concern the life aspect ‘A’ and the ‘A+B’ bit.

• What of the “B” or existence after life?

The answers I got for this is that it would be fruitless to explore it, In Castaneda’s terminology the “B” lies firmly in the Unknowable. Exploring only leads to confusion and answers that do not make sense. I guess this falls in line with the so many confusing and conflicting tales about what it is like in the after-life.

• How do the other names fall in line with Edge Wizard?

It seems obvious (as it always does after the fact) Spirit Walker is the ‘A+B’ part of the above and Wand Maker…helloooo! “Wizard”? It seems that dowsing energy has non-temporal properties. Thus the naming is something that we can become.

• Where does this leave me?

Focus, the absolute key for me at this time is to focus. Co-creation has a key component of focus. I had this really funny experience at the Yew this time.

I saw a car driving along a long road, like the American highways. As it was going along bits were falling off here and there. I saw sign posts along the road which said things like “Goals This Way”…

It was a puzzling vision. Obviously it was telling me that I should or was heading towards my goals but why the breaking up of the car. As I watched this “drama” unfold I got a close up of the car. It had a sticker on the side with the word “Intent” written on it.

After receiving this vision. I wandered to the back part of the Yew Garden to “walk the path of understanding”, which effectively is a wonderful walk-way between the graves but has been very useful in walking and dowsing for understanding of visions.

I got the idea that although we can have an intent which propels us towards our goals (the car) if we don’t look after our other energies then our intent becomes useless (or broken). What are these other energies (that were falling off the car)?

Our every day thoughts, our physical wellbeing, our energetic well being, everything we do has energetic consequences. Emotional being, what we eat and drink. All these things to some extent have an effect on our being. So if we don’t “fix” these then our intent suffers.

What an analogy! I wonder how my brain (Yew Tree?) comes up with these? I am curious because I thought I was pretty good with all this “life balance” stuff. So my questioning/dowsing continued and I got that I was. Actually I was way better at it than a lot of people (ego?)

• Was this an ego thing?

Apparently not, being “good” at balancing is like being good at art or science. It has no value basis, as in being “better” than anyone else. Phew!

So I have been pretty good at this balancing stuff, well what were the bits falling of the car? It seems that I am on the fine tuning side of things now. Having got rid of the major issues I have now to deal with the fine tuning.

• The verdict?

Carry on as you are McDuff! Be confident that “you” are on the “right” path for “you”.  Can’t say fairer than that!

Bless,

Kal Malik ~ Edge Wizard!

I have been thinking a great deal about the riddle that defines this eighth-part of the year – the time from Summer Solstice to Lammas. The riddle given to me was “Wake the dragon and teach it to fly.” I have therefore been considering what “waking the dragon” might be to start with.

That time is nearly up, and as I promised myself I have managed to schedule a walk up Cadair Idris – Wales’ second highest mountain after Snowdon. I’m also walking up Snowdon soon, too, in aid of the Love Hope Strength cancer charity. I’ll spare you the JustGiving page, because I’m not asking for your money – I’m just spilling my thoughts into the electronic void that is this blog. I just mention it because it’s Snowdon – a favourite mountain of mine.

Inj this post I want to discuss two concepts that have emerged recently – the dragon breath and the dragon pose. Also, I want to look at the various aspects of the idea of “waking the dragon”. As soon as I started looking into “waking the dragon” here are some news, events, concepts and ideas that emerged:-

1. “Waking the dragon“: Proposed giant sculpture.

A new sculpture to mark the pride of Wales could be built by October 2011 at Chirk in North Wales.

Proposed new giant in Wales

Chirk is the town that is in between two other sites that I like to visit – the old oak trees around Pontfadog village, and Dinas Bran, the sublime mound that overlooks the town of Llangollen. Turns out that in between these two oft-visited druidical sites they plan on plonking a huge 200ft statue to rival the Angel of the North and the gigantic White Horse planned for the South of England. It wasn’t surprised that it was a dragon, so much as surprised that it was entitled “Waking the Dragon”. Seemed quite auspicious.

Link: The Daily Mail (yikes!)

2. Raising Kundalini : The Serpent Fire

Something mentioned in hushed tones by C.W.Leadbeater in his various books, especially The Chakras. In that book Leadbeater cautions against this dangerous action being undertaken without the supervision of a guru - the action of raising the serpent fire energy from its sleeping position coiled at the base of the spine like a serpent, and rising through each of the chakras in turn.

I must admit I don’t see the necessity of going through this process. Kal and I have discussed what it means to be “enlightened” and have decided that if it means walking around in a bliss state then it’s not for us.  If it means having a perception of the whole universe in a moment, then we’ll pass on that too. The small steps we have taken to balance and enhance our own chakra points as a means to creating a faster and more efficient interface with the various sentient forces at work in the world we inhabit, then that’s enough for us.

3. Dragon Mounds – Wearyall Hill and Cadair Idris

Wearyall Hill in Glastonbury was the focal point of my vision during the Summer Solstice, a vision of a dragon waking from sleep. After it had awoken I needed to direct the dragon to unfold its wings and fly again after a long slumber. This was the trigger for me to begin to try to understand how this image translated into my life for the next few weeks. Only the next day after the vision I was already somehow certain that Cadair Idris mountain was important and more local to my task.

Cadair Idris mountain translates as something like “The Chair of Idris”. No-one seems to know who Idris was – a Saxon poet, a giant (or both), or something else. Perhaps I get the idea of Cadair Idris from the works of Susan Cooper or from Ivor The Engine, but I associate Idris with a dragon.

Other associations with dragons related to Cadair Idris can be found in Celtic lore:

Dragons and winged serpents were also reported around Lleyn and Penmaenmawr in Gwynedd, the ravines of the Berwyn Mountains, Cadair Idris, the wilds of Cardigan (Dyfed), Radnor Forest (Powys), the Brecon Beacons, the marches of Carmarthen and Worm’s Head, Gower. (source: Celtic Encyclopeadie)

4. Associations with King Arthur

There may be some link between The Pendragon – Arthur – and Cadaer Idris. In an essay published online August Hunt explains:

Triad 52 of the Trioedd Ynys Prydein concerns itself with the “Three Exalted Prisoners of the Island of Britain”. After listing the three prisoners, the Triad continues as follows:

“And one [prisoner], who was more exalted than the three of them, was three nights in prison in Caer Oeth and Anoeth, and three nights imprisoned by Gwen Pendragon, and three night in an enchanted prison under the stone of Echymeint [Llech Echemeint]. This exalted prisoner was Arthur.”

…The word anoeth is used in the STANZAS OF THE GRAVES, where it is said of Arthur that his final resting place in this world is a “wonder” (“anoeth bid bet y Arthur”). As an adjective, anoeth means “difficult” or “wonderful”. The Caer Oeth and Anoeth placename is also mentioned in the Mabinogion tale CULHWCH AND OLWEN, where it is one of the castles Arthur boasts of gaining entrance to. Once again, in the STANZAS OF THE GRAVES, we are told that the burial ground of the host of Caer Oeth and Anoeth can be found in Gwanas, a mountain tract located near Cadair Idris in Ceredigion.

A fuller explanation of some of the more obscure references to archaic Welsh literature and its meaning in this context is given here: http://www.maryjones.us/jce/oethanoeth.html

5. The Dragon’s Back

Looking at an ariel view of the mountain of Cadair Idris I am reminded of the very shape that I saw in the vision of Wearyall Hill. See if you can see what I mean:

The sleeping beast

6. The Dragon Breath and Dragon Pose

One evening I ventured to my new favourite haunt – my nemeton – to further my quest. Once I was firmly ensconced the rain began to come down in buckets. I slowly let myself attune to the atmosphere…the thud of the water, the smell of the leaf-laden earth, and then CRACK – THUMP!! A huge branch from a tree only a few feet away dropped to the floor and landed with a loud bump which startled me, making my blood pump in alarm! I laughed…and then relaxed into the atmosphere again. Clearly, I needed to be both entranced and alert at the same time. A little reminder perhaps?

I began an impromptu ritual of being cleansed in the rain,  adopting a strange pose in response to the feel of the water. I began to think about my task at hand:  waking the dragon. My body began to react to the stream of cold water and my breath began to be forced out. Two thoughts came to mind – this was the physical answer to my question “How do I wake the dragon?”, and that the breathing was “the dragon’s breath“. With this realisation I knew what I needed to do on Cadair Idris. As well as remembering that I could call upon Mab to assist.

The incident with the falling branch reminded me of this quote from the film ‘Excalibur’ (another Arthur/Merlin/Dragon link):

Merlin: What are you afraid of?
Arthur: I don’t know!
Merlin: Shall I tell you what’s out there?
Arthur: Yes, please!
Merlin: The Dragon! A beast of such power that if you were to see it whole and all complete in a single glance it would burn you to cinders!
Arthur: Where is this Dragon?
Merlin: It is everywhere! It is everything! Its scales glisten in the bark of trees, its roar is heard in the wind and its forked tongue strikes like… like…
[a bolt of lightning strikes nearly at their feet]
Merlin: Oh, like lightning! Yes, that’s it!

I reminded myself that, although I was in my nemeton, it was not my space – I was just a privileged visitor to Nature’s space.

How to adopt the Dragon Pose

Legs shoulder width apart and relaxed. Knees slightly bent, as if for skiing. Hands out in front, with palms upwards at stomach height, and cupped as though waiting to collect something in them. Very similar to the position adopted now by Rugby players when they take a kick, but not as exaggerated as that, more relaxed.

I recreated the Dragon Pose today. As soon as I was in the correct position my face flushed and I got a tingle along my spine! I began to feel light-headed, the way I do before some kind of revelation happens. I felt the sweet familiar tingle all over that accompanies me getting totally in tune with Nature. It was very startling how a simple posture could recreate all this! I knew then that this posture was important to me.

What a poser!

I now need to understand more about the dragon’s breath – is it qigong? (e.g. this site) Or something else? I remember a line from the film ‘Excalibur’ in which Merlin mentions the Dragon’s Breath as being a writhing mist or vapour called forth by the Charm of Making. Perhaps I should revisit that charm and consider learning it. Might it be useful to call that upon Cadair Idris whilst adopting my Dragon Pose? Some things will only be revealed during the next week. I’ll report back after my walk up the mountain.

Gwas.

Sunday 30th May – Hill of Slane 

In the latter half of what had been a busy Sunday (and a full weekend, really) we were on the hunt for two final places to visit. The first needed to be somewhere suitable for working on the third eye chakra (or ‘brow’ chakra as it is also known) and then we would go back to Tara to work on the crown chakra. I say “we”, I mean “me” because Kal had his own quest to do, and that didn’t really involve working on the chakras. I’m sure he will explain in good time. For me, the third eye chakra symbolised the concept of mystical vision, whilst the crown I believed to be linked to higher intelligence. 

As we had found before with Four Knocks, sometimes our dowsing took us to the right area (town, village) but not the exact location. Same here. We were directed to be in Slane (even though we had visited it the previous day and vowed never to return because it had nothing we wanted to see, or so we thought). The dowsing rods, combined with the iMegalith app on the iPhone [get me - I'm a  techno-pagan!], took us back to Slane. It directed us to a small barrow (or ‘souterrain’) in a field. We parked, took one look at the “leprechaun hole” that we would need to squeeze through (thorns, hedge, barbed wire) and gave each other a knowing look. Oh no! Not that again! Lesson learned on this occasion. We retreated back to the car to see what else was around the area. 

I found a web site that mentioned Slane Abbey but we couldn’t find any directions. Oh well, let’s just drive up the lane we were on and turn around and maybe go somewhere else entirely. So, we drove a few yards up the hill and within ten seconds we saw Slane Abbey sitting on top of the hill as it opened out before us. How convenient! 

Approaching Slane Abbey

The information on the Mythical Ireland web page included information about how the monastery was once the kingdom of an Irish King called Slaine, a Fir Bolg (giant warrior). Other sites recount the written description of Slaine as an Irish King of the domain of Leinster:

“Slaine, whence the name? Not hard to say. Slaine, king of the Fir Bolg, and their judge, by him was its wood cleared from the Brugh. Afterwards, he died at Druim Fuar, which is called Dumha Slaine, and was buried there: and from him the hill is named Slaine. Hence it was said: Here died Slaine, lord of troops: over him the mighty mound is reared: so the name of Slaine was given to the hill, where he met his death in that chief abode.” (Source: Edward Gwynn – Metrical Dindshenchas, vol 3. Published, 1925)

Note “the Brugh”, as in the “Brú na Bóinne“, the name of the surrounding Boyne Valley area which incorporates the Knowth, Dowth and Newgrange sites among many others. From his perch atop the Hill of Slane the King had an unparalleled view of his kingdom for many miles around.

The Slane Abbey tower

 OK, history lesson over. Slaine was an ancient Warrior King who was reputedly one of the race of giant Fir Bolg who are supposed to have been an early invading race that conquered Ireland. That sets the scene quite nicely for what was to come. None of which I knew about before it happened, by the way. All I knew was that the place was supposed to be the home of some bloke called Slaine, former King of Ireland. I didn’t want to read the information board’s detail – this chakra work was supposed to be using the third-eye chakra! Surely intuition was the order of the day?

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It may be as a consequence of the long hot dry spring going into summer that we’ve had this year in this land of Albion, or it could be because I’m at a particularly hippy-ish point in my spiritual path, but recently I have begun to walk around in my bare feet. I’m sure there are other reasons for this too – the fact that my feet are Size 12 (46 continental size) and getting good-fitting shoes is proving particularly difficult at the moment. Or maybe it’s something to do with me wanting to put myself through some kind of a challenge – a challenge to society (what will your reaction be to me exposing my bare naked foot flesh? ooooh!) or a challenge in terms of overcoming the pain that often accompanies trying to walk over man-made materials.

I suspect it’s all of these things together and none in particular. There’s a philosophy of freedom that begins to manifest itself when you start down the path of druidry. Philip Carr-Gomm’s latest book – ‘A Brief History Of Nakedness‘ – is perhaps a timely reminder to me that the skin loves to breathe too, occasionally.

Those who know me would be surprised at me doing this, because I have always had a “thing” about having my feet covered up. Probably because they’re damned ugly! But all that is changing. Slowly. The start of this evolutionary process is a “small step” (pardon the pun) in a long process. I am really loving the touch of the earth, the feel of different natural textures under my feet, the coolness of grass even on a hot day, the massage of soft earth and sand….the effects are wonderful, liberating, reassuring and soothing.

I was hesitant at first. I have always been of the opinion that we invented footwear for a damned good reason, and I’m pretty sure – after having walked across a long hot tarmac road – that footwear has an indespensable place in the modern wardrobe. I even considered the half-way house of the Five Fingers shoes as a means of getting myself used to it before actually doing it. But there is no substitute for simply jumping right in there and getting rid of shoes and socks when in a suitably natural environment. The rubber-lined foot, no matter how realistic the feel, is simply defeating the purpose of reconnecting with Nature directly and without interference. There’s no halfway house to freedom.

Once one overcomes the initial panic of “how will I appear” and “what if I stand on something sharp” type of questions, and abandons oneself to the care and concern of a guiding force like Nature then She is truly kind to the barefoot initiate! Recent extended jaunts through fields of nettles, thistles and cowpats have been performed without a scratch or a hitch. A walk around Glastonbury Tor’s labyrinth path was similarly trouble-free. I suspect that, done with the right state of mind (i.e. tuned into Nature and trusting to Her) then the rewards are returned many-fold and go far beyond the simple pleasure of walking naturally on the earth.

My goal is now to begin to feel through my feet. To feel the pulse of the earth through my newly awakened land-based organs. I feel like having a t-shirt printed with the slogan “Go to work on your feet” emblazoned, but frankly I work 25 miles from home so I’d be being a bit of a hypocrite if I sported that slogan. Perhaps you could suggest something more appropriate? Amusing, insulting or ingenious – up to you!

Gwas