The Hedge Druid

Friday 28th May - Knowth, Country Meath, Ireland.

The series of large megalithic structures concentrated in the Boyne Valley was the target of our first full day in Ireland. We were stationed nearby at Duleek, so getting to the Newgrange complex was a breeze, and we were properly fuelled by a hearty breakfast including locally-reared produce and home-made soda bread and jams.

We followed signs for Newgrange, knowing that this was the popular site and that it probably would lead us to the rest too. Sure enough as we aprked in the jazzy new car park at the Visitor Centre and walked down to the main door, we knew we were in for the full tourist treatment. Even knowing that didn’t prepare us for the officialdom that was to follow:-

• visitors are directed to state which combination of the sites they want to visit: Newgrange only, Knowth only, or both. Clearly, most went for both or just Newgrange
• a sticker was placed upon you in a visible location indicating your bus time, and then you were directed to the cash point to pay 5 Euros per site (actually, 6 for Knowth becuase it’s a tad further)
• you paid and then were informed about how to reach your first bus, which was a 200 yard walk through the centre, out the doors, across the Boyne, along a winding path, and then up to the circular bus pick-up point.

To say these guys had this regulated was an understatement! Although initially appalled by this we were actually quite grateful that this system, which only permitted a group of around thirty people at a time in a site, actually allowed everyone to enjoy the site’s features without bumping into people all the time. It made sense, even if it was far from what we were used to. It reminded us of visiting Stonehenge.

Rock Art as Energy Symbols

One of my objectives for visiting these popular megalithic sites was to get a comparison of the famous rock art shapes with those that we had discovered through our dowsing adventures over the last few years. Did any of them match? Would we be able to make a sensible guess at the forms and shapes, the symbols and swirls that our neolithich ancestors had taken so much time and trouble to inscribe into rock?

As we waited for our bus I took pictures of the rock art displyed in photographs and pictographs in the free exhibition in the Visitor Centre. On arriving at Knowth half an hour later (after listening to a few minutes of the guide’s useful commentary then making our excuses) I went around with my camera taking snapshots of all of the rock art on the base supports of the large mound. I wanted to compare our energy findings with the shapes represented in the stone. Here are some examples of the interesting symbols. In a subsequent post more of these symbols are explained, but for now, here are the ones we could identify immediately:-

Spiral of seven rings between two standing stones acting as portals

If one looks at the image above as a two-dimensional depiction of a three-dimensional energy field then things become a little easier to understand. The spiral is, of course, what we would call a “power centreA place where a person of a particular alignmentAlignment relates to the concept that humans have their own energy fields that are oriented or formed in a specific way such that the person is either suited better to one energy source of another. Some people have their energy fields empowered by the direct subtle energy force of The Sun, whilst others are empowered by the indirect subtle energy of The Moon. Due to the historical associations and symbolisation of The Sun with masculinity and The Moon with femininity we designate these alignments as either being ‘male’ or ‘female’ alignments accordingly. We interchangeable refer to people as being ‘sun-aligned’ or ‘male-aligned’ and similarly with the female alignment. (see ‘Alignment’) feels particularly comfortable and empowered. The place is an energetic centre where a particularly beneficial combination and formation of energies is formed into a pattern that is harmonic with the person for whom it can be called a power centre.” – a point on the earth where the energies of the earth emerge and merge with the radiant solar and lunar energies. The most ‘sacred’ of these types is the power centre that merges the three ‘alignments’ or types of energy – male, female and neutral.

The two arcs on either side of the spiral are the neutral entrance and exit arcs that we have begun to discover at numerous sacred places, usually stone circles. These arcs form ‘spaces’ in the energy field through which poeple and spirit energies can pass without ‘interfering with’ or being affected by the overall energy field, because to pass through the energy field around a site is to interact with it. These neutral entrances and exits seems to be a bypass to that trip-wire effect, possibly to allow for the ‘safe passage’ of spirit energy through the site, unhindered by the site’s design and potential.

Seven levels of radial energy

It is entirely possible to read too much into the decorative swirls and shapes that adorn the rocks surrounding Knowth’s major mound, and yet one gets the sense that they are not purely decorative. After all – someone has gone to a lot of time and trouble to do this work, and even today we rarely decorate in stone just for the sake of it. Stonework usually has some kind of symbolic significance at least, even if only to express a wider design concept in keeping with our culture. So, it is with some hesitance that I point out the desing of seven concentric circles in the stone above, and mention that this might have a link to the seven chakras. Then, in the stone below, we see five circles. Five pathways for the incoming energies into the human body, according to C.W.Leadbeater in his book “The Chakras”. Again, perhaps the information is for me only to interpret in this way, but 7 and 5 are cropping up again at a site that is associated with human consciousness transformation processes.

I could go on to talk about many many of the symbols that we saw displayed in the exhibition in the Visitor Centre, all taken from parts of the Knowth site. Kal and I went through them all and had reasonable and rational correspondences with shapes we had dowsed, or energy formations that we had traced, for almost every shape on display. Some did seem purely decorative, but I wouldn’t say that we had a full vocabulary of all possible dowsable patterns yet either. On epattern in partucular, the zig-zag pattern, would reveal itself to us soon enough, as it happened.

An Insight Into the Transformation Process

Clearly the central mound at Knowth – the huge mound constructed of interlaced layers of rock and earth materials – was the major feature of the site. That much was obvious. However, it was not central to our investigations on either this first visit or `the next. Not to say that it wasn’t worthy of investigation, but we had so much more to look at first. There were smaller and more available mounds of different types, there were the remains of different shaped buildings, there were grave-like mounds, pits, grassy enclosures, a timber circle and much more! We can come back to the main mound at the end.

We began by looking at the smaller mounds – the satellite mounds that were seemingly randomly scattered around the main mound’s periphery. In fact they were not randomly sited – they were placed upon particular places where the earth energy was coming out of the ground most strongly. That was what determined their siting. Then their entrances were positioned so as to avoid the ingress of the sun where possible. That was the case for those mounds that were used as sensory-deprivation chambers, and whose energies were suitable for transformation of the human chakras, or whatever the neolithic people would have called these personal energy centres – these joining points with the Other dimensions, these energy centres involved in the raising of human awareness and consciosness, of opening the mind up to other dimensions.

One of the first things we found here was that no ley lines come into or cross Knowth. In fact, that was repeated at all of the Boyne Valley sites too. Why? Good question. We worked it out eventually. It was because the sites around the Knowth mound were used as transformation chambers, an initiation process into the higher spiritual consciousness brought about by sensory deprivation and communingAn interaction with an invisible and natural sentient force that is independently identifiable, even if it cannot be named or classified. The interaction takes place at the level of a subtle amalgamation of the mind of the perceiver such that a dialogue or transference of feelings may occur between the two sentient parties. The interaction that is ‘communing’ is purposefully initiated by the perceiver for the express purpose of learning or simply to transfer feelings in a sympathetic manner. with the spirits of ancestors whose ashes and bones may have been deposited in the mounds specifically for that purpose. The energy of ley lines somehow disturbs the Knowth setup – either because the neutral energy travelling in straight lines disrupts the energy work being done there, or because it would allow the energies to travel in a way that was not desirable, that did not assist the transformation process.

Although we didn’t actually dowse the big mound (I have no idea why – I think it was because we were time-pressured each visit with about 40 minutes to follow whatever train of thought we could) we did find out something about its relationship with the surrounding mounds. The big mound was constructed of interlaced layers of earth and rock materials (very much like Wilhelm Reich’s Orgone Accumulator concept). The mound, we decided, was used by the higher-ranking spiritual leaders, or those shamans who had been through all of the other initiations that the Boyne Valley sites offered. We will come to discuss the purpose of the other sites as we get to them.

We were intrigued by the idea that ley lines had been prevented from coming into the sites. How had this been done? The way the megalith builders guarded against the intrusion of ley lines was firstly to site the buildings in the crook of a fast-flowing river, but additionally they also treated the river with the placement of energised stones in order to form a magical barrier against the ley lineThe term used by many British dowsers to describe an energy leyA straight line of neutral energy linking two or more sacred sites or other energetic centres. This is often confused with Alfred Watkins’ concept of the Ley Line. Strictly speaking a ley line does not necessarily mean a neutral energy line, only a sight alignment between notable places, whereas an energy ley is like a radial spoke in a wheel, with energy flowing outwards across the land in a straight line. It has sometimes been found that the energy ley can be diverted from its strict straight path by changes in the landscape or strong attractors that pull it away from its original course. Energy leys may have inter-twining streams of male and female energies weaving along them, as though the energy ley is an attractor, a pathway or a conduit for the male and female energies.. It is easily confused with ley and therefore its use is not recommended by dowsers. energy.  We found later that houses close to the sites have very tall aerials to pick up TV reception! All mobile phones are practically useless in the area too (but that’s probably because they can’t site masts in the UNESCO world heritage area).

Each smaller mound has an area outside of it, often close to the entrance, that is a power centre for naturally-occurring subtle earth energy. The mix of this energy is male + female + neutral = the ideal combination, and hence we dubbed these areas White Power Centres due to the pleasant and empowering nature of that combination.

The Transformation Process

Intrigued by our initial findings we wanted more detail on exactly what these “initiates” had to go through. Did they just sit in the dark until they couldn’t stand it any more? How did it work? The process that the initiate went through was to be placed into the small mound for three days when the moon was full (one day either side the full moon). After three days he would emerge cleansed and stand on the white power centre and would have his energy field transformed within four minutes. The initiate may have fasted during that period to enhance the experience.

Our final finding related to this process was that the smaller mounds could be used whenever the moon was full, but the main mound was primarily used at the Equinoxes, presumably by some of the more enlightened drudes. Possibly it was for all of them enlightened ones at that specific date – a communal transformation, perhaps?

Finally, can we tie the patterns on the stones to the ritual process? Unfortunately we couldn’t find any specific link. We had discovered that the energy formations depicted on the stones showed energy forms that we were familiar with, and that the initiates who had been taken through the rituals at these sites had used the smaller mounds regularly and may have sought to attain entry into the main mound once they had succeeded.

Gwas.

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