The Hedge Druid

I really admire the work that water diviners do in countries that have been stricken by drought. It’s really something for them to go out of their way to bring a village back to life with a source of clean water close by. This kind of activity is strongly promoted by the British Society of Dowsers, which is a worthy activity indeed.

So, when England was recently bathing in sunshine for an inordinately lengthy period, almost unprecedented in my memory, then I began to think about how I too could find water. Crops were suffering under a hosepipe ban, and the surrounding countryside was parched. I began to think about water – the subject kept arising wherever I looked or listened.

In 1985 Kate Bush released her “Hounds of Love” album. I loved one side of it called “The Ninth Wave” (sides of albums – remember those?) but some of the more commercial tracks I didn’t get. One of those tracks was “Cloudbusting“. I had no idea at the time what the song was about. The video didn’t make the subject any clearer to me. Much later I learned about Wilhelm Reich’s Cloudbuster machine and suddenly the whole thing made sense – she was praising Reich’s esoteric genius – he was a rain maker – a weather controller – using a machine that incorporated crystals as its ‘engine’. No wonder he was pilloried and hounded to death! Which of us has the right to change the weather? That’s a question I should have spent more time contemplating…

Herb Leonard's 'Cloudbusting' picture

Calling the rains

I was ‘called’ to the top of a local hill. It felt like one of the many times I had been called there before, but when I arrived I couldn’t work out why I had been asked to visit. Nothing looked unusual at first glance. I walked to my usual haunts – an oak tree, my 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 ‘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.’) 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., I looked around for signs of disturbance or anything unusual. Then it struck me – the issues was all around me – dry grass. Every ounce of green grass was now a pale yellow husk. It was heart-breaking to see everything struggling like this after such a long dry spell of weather – it must have been almost two months since we had a decent amount of rainfall. I felt something needed to be done.

Some dry grass, but you knew that.

Luckily I had everything I needed with me – some incense, lighters, crystals, my staff. All the paraphernalia. I went to my favourite oak tree – would it be alright if I did something about this? I seemed to get a positive response as a slight breeze rustled the branches. I love that. It’s a great trick. If it had been a negative response then I would probably had a bird startle me, or something.

Sitting on my 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 ‘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.’) 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. I detuned and blended the external noise until it formed a hum in my head. I tuned into the ground around me, to the sun, the moon and felt connected. I rose and placed three incense sticks around the edge of the 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 ‘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.’) 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. – one for the earth, the sun and the moon. It felt like the right thing to do. I then held my staff in the centre of my 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 ‘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.’) 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.. I began to walk around clockwise, pulling in male energies – the kind of energies that come from the sun, active energies, energies of change. Having begun to make the change I needed the balancing female energies to assist with this work too. I began to walk around in the other direction, anti-clockwise, drawing in the female energies from the invisible moon and the plants around me. All the time I asked for the rains to come in, the clouds to gather, the weather to change.

The next day nothing much had changed. A few more clouds, but it was still hot and humid. The day after I had to go abroad for a week working. Ironically, it was to a North African country where the weather was incredibly hot! I came back even more tanned than I was already. When I got back I flew through grey clouds. Oooh! What had the weather been like, I asked people? Terrible! Wet! Floods and torrential rain! I smiled. Well, it was a good thing that Nature was being re-balanced at last.

But it didn’t end there. The rain kept coming – for weeks. I felt bad. The rain wouldn’t stop! If I had in any way helped trigger this change in weather then surely it was beholden upon me to help revert it to a more balanced state? For ‘balanced’ read ‘drier’! I went back to the hill, where I did the spell again in a different place (because other people were up on the hill in the full moon!!) and the next day the sun broke out in full bloom. Amazing! It IS possible to do this kind of work. I have amazed and astonished myself. Of course, it’s simply coincidence…..

However – the change in weather only lasted a day. I knew when I did the ritual that it was not being done on the correct place, but I couldn’t get to where I needed to go – other people were out that night too, and I didn’t want to disturb them, or have them disturb me. The lesson I have learned is that the correct place for doing energy work is quite crucial to its success.

What I have seen since is that my triggering of events has had consequences far beyond that I had imagined could happen, and this has not been a necessarily good thing. Trying to influence forces as large as a weather system can muster forces that are way beyond the scope and scale of a human. I thought I was doing good, but in fact I probably was at least partially responsible for ruining some people’s holidays in the local area. Sorry about that! I’ve learned a lesson about working with very large and complex systems. Some things are beyond our total control.

Gwas.