The Hedge Druid

Good Day,

It was a rainy day (isn’t it always?) when I decided to wander the paths of Alderley Edge Forest, known locally as The Edge. Gwas (see other posts) had been investigating the forest earlier in the week and I decided to try my hand at dowsing it.

I want to just mention here that I had never been to the forest before and new nothing about any of the features described herein.

Parking up deep on the trail I wandered off for a while aimlessly – basically to immerse myself into the place – you will find from future posts that I do that often, in essence to feel the Genius LociGenius Loci means 'spirit of the place' and refers to the geological/gaian spirit of place. It is transfixed to a place – being an embodiment of the collective intelligence of the place. – the Spirit of the Place. As I was wandering around – the rain had stopped completely and it was a nice warm haze – I thought how marvelous it would be to be a Druid, ok, a wierd thought I know, it may have come from my friend Gwas’s influence. Still its important that I mention it, as you will see later.

Oh yes, dowsing, well I decided to ask for the most beneficial energy place for me, and off the rods (or should I say rod) took me. Through brambles and undergrowth, why don’t they follow a more easily followable path?

Anyway, the rod took me traipsing around for about half an hour before it swirled into a spiral, which is how I had told it to indicate the spot, just before a fallen tree.

I will get a picture next time I am there and add it. But this tree had a huge bend in it, about head high and it had fallen so as to create an arch with the bend.

I dowsed all around it and got energies that indicated male and female, in particular some 10 feet away were two tree stubs, in between these was a powerful energy point.

So – trying my hand at druid(ism) I decided to meditate under the Arch. It was quite a pleasant feeling. I said to the tree (or more likely the place – Loci),

‘Greetings from a humble amateur druid’ Strangely the place responded, not in a way that I expected. It said ‘you are not a Druid, you are a Magician.’ Now this is really strange, cause I have not really classified myself as a Magician – but who am I to argue.

‘What do you mean I am a magician?’ I asked and got a response, ‘ You are a magician who creates his own worlds.’ Now that is something that came from nowhere, I have never imagined, said, thought anything like that.

Ok, after this rather unusual meditation, I decided to do some more dowsing in the area. I asked for ‘the most energetic stones in the area’ and off I went again, about 20 minutes of brambles later led me right back to the tree arch. I was really puzzled by this and even prodded the stumps to make sure they weren’t stones in disguise.

Still musing about the Magician thing, I asked, ‘take me to a place that will help to clarify what magician means.’ And off I was taken again, this time the rod really took me through the deepest undergrowth and terrain of the wood, completely bypassing the well trodden paths.

The first place it too me was to the Edge, this is a ledge that overlooks Cheshire, an absolutely fantastic view. Ignore the people in the pic, I got it off the web. It then meandered off into the forest again, not following any ‘man-made’ paths it led me to what I suspect was the other side of the ‘Edge’. Hmmm I began to wonder what was going on here…

The rod didn’t spiral at either of these places and so I knew it wasn’t the place I was looking for. So onward into the brambles and quite slippery slopes it led me, eventually following what looked like a small brook but could have been water from the recent rain. It led me to a fantastic well.

My friend Gwas is more of the well water drinking person than I am so off I went again, wondering if this tour will ever conclude. However the rod seemed to want me to experience the features of the forest fully and the next stop it had in mind was a small but nice waterfall. Quite apt really as I wanted to wash my hands of the mud and grime that I had accumulated by now.

Then it was back to the tour, where now I wanted it to end cause I was getting really tired. And it eventually did, it must have been about two hours worth of walking and I was sweating like the proverbial but eventually at a crossroads in a path by the side of a fence it suddenly swirled.

I was quite surprised because there didn’t seem to be anything of note there, I dowsed over the spot it stopped and didn’t find any energies at all, neither male, female or neutral. and yet when I took a few feet back and asked to show me the ‘place’ again – it spiralled there. Looking around for some help with this I noticed a small sign on the fence, it said Wizards Walk I was stunned.

I will have to muse on “Magician who creates his own worlds” more seriously after that, dare I say magical tour. And so it only remains for me to say that at this point I was well and truly lost.

Having only paid attention to the rod and my feet, I had no clue where I was. I wandered around a bit and finally saw a building that looked familiar but it turned out not to be. Then – of course – I used the rods, ‘take me to my car’ – A mundane question I know – but it took me straight back to it – and by straight I mean – yes you guessed it – through the brambles – barbed fences – and fenced off areas – right to my faithful old banger!

Just as I turned the key in the door, it started to rain again.

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