The Hedge Druid

The second part of our Imbolc adventure this year took us deep into the borderlands between Staffordshire and Derbyshire. We were back at Lud’s Church near to the village of Gradbach (the village that SatNav forgot). Actually, it was pointed out to me by Mike that the correct pronunciation of the feature is Ludchurch. I began to use the terms interchangeably from then on, unable to decide which was more appropriate or authentic. I had only noticed this phrasing myself the day before when I re-discovered the Ludchurch blog – a site packed with tales of the local sites in the area around Ludchurch.

Dreaming of a Black Brook

Unbeknownst to my companions, Kal and Mike, I had had a dream the night before about the Black Brook. In my dream the brook was a slow-running stream of foreboding and doom, like a dark treacle of badness cutting off my approach to the sacred ravine beyond. As we began to descend into the vale through which the stream passed on that crisp and cold Winter morning fleeting glimpses and their accompanying pangs of foreboding flickered at the back of my brain only to be overwhelmed by my joy at being out and about on this week day in the clear cool sunlight. We passed the steep path down to the bridge over the brook and for a moment I hesitated. Should we take this path? Something said “Yes, take it!” but it was swamped by a rational sweep of dismissal. “Whatever for?” said my rational self.

We continued on the main path and soon we reached the Black Brook. We could immediately see that it was too full for us to pass. The melting ice and recent rains must have swelled its flow and the stepping stones across the brook were too far apart and too small a target for us to sensibly try to cross. We admitted defeat and had to make our way around to the small wooden bridge nearby in order to cross. The path through the wooded glad was a sheer delight as the sun dappled the light, dropping pools of sun onto the emerging snowdrops and thawing green blades of grass. It was a sheer delight, and it made me glad we had chosen the sensible option. Now we were crossing the bridge and soon onto the other side, safe and dry.

Passing The Guardian

Kal was beside himself as he skipped up to the guardian beech trees – two trees that form a sort of portal through which one should pass with permission in order to achieve the most magical results when visiting Ludchurch. Kal was bouncing around pointing at the Sun as it dripped its honey through the maze of branches to offer us its flickering rays and hypnotize me into the perfect Natural trance, as always. In this state of mind it was easy to commune with the tree, and Kal and I did so readily. We passed through the gateway beech trees – paying our respects to the mighty guardian of the site.

Mike was more hesitant, not sure how to approach the situation. I understood, so as he began to “feel” the tree’s aura in order to gather information. I began the process of introducing him to the tree telepathically through an emotional interchange. Mike turned to face me and said that he felt as though he couldn’t enter just yet, then he turned back to the tree. The tree responded to my request with a warm feeling that flooded my soul and I knew this was a sign of acceptance. A sort of “if he’s with you then that’s OK” message came with it. I smiled and waited for Mike to open his eyes and respond to the change of feeling from the tree.  Mike opened his eyes again and turned to face me once more with a puzzled look on his face – he said that now he felt like the tree was allowing him access because he was with me. “Really?“, I said, with more than a hint of irony. I then had to admit what I had done. Anything else would have been cruel and immodest.

Kal on the site guardian's threshold at Ludchurch

Reverence for Merlin and The Green Man

We walked up the path Kal skipping like a young boy, whereas for me I felt like I walked through several layers of energy field – three in all. The first was a heavier energy than the normal air, the second was much denser still, and the third was like a flowing torrent of energy pushing me away almost! I was the worst affected by this flow. Kal seemed to skim over it, and Mike seemed to recognise it but was largely unaffected by it. At the second layer I mentioned to Mike that I felt the air change into a more sombre form, and Mike said that he felt that we ought to become more serious, although he couldn’t say why. The key word here was “gravity”, as though the gravity of the atmosphere was matched by the density of the air. Mike said that the final level was a “red” colour and Kal said that it imposed a form of reverence upon those who entered into it. This was particularly interesting as Kal had been far away from us as we quietly chatted about the “reverent” nature of the second energy field, and so this was another correlation between our felt information.

As we got to the entrance we paused in order to ensure that we were in the correct mental and spiritual state, and to check that we were allowed entry at this time. Mike told me that he heard the word “Merion” or similar, and did it mean anything to me? I told him that “Merriman” meant something to me – this was the principal character in Susan Cooper’s “Dark Is Rising” series of books, and Merriman was the character that was modelled upon Merlin. This was very significant for me, as I was first introduced to the “old myths” via this series of books.

I began to dowse about what this could mean – was Merlin making a re-appearance here at Ludchurch? Did this have something to do with me? The dowsing told me that Merlin was indeed around at this time, and that it was particular to me. suddenly I knew – after last’ year being an “Arthur” year, this year was going to be another “Merlin” year as 2010 had been. Merlin was back!

The entrance to Ludchurch

As I walked into Ludchurch, the home of the Green Knight or the Green Man, I knew that Merlin was synonymous with this concept. Merlin and the Green Man were one. In my mind, I was re-uniting with Merlin in this sacred place.

The Ash Staff comes alive

Mike called me over to one of the smaller channel on the right of the chasm. He asked me whether I had noticed the dark energy at the bottom of the chasm – just a small pool of almost irrelevant and innocuous bad or mixed-up energy that was fouling the space. I said to him that on my previous visit I had noticed it and had in fact leaped over it to avoid it, but had been occupied with other thoughts at the time so hadn’t bothered to clear it. He felt we should do just that now, and invited me to get my staff to help with the job, which I did.

As I stood on a ledge overlooking the pool of dark energy Mike was standing below me looking at me with distant eyes. I knew that he was psychically “seeing” me and waited to see what he would reveal. He had said that we should deal with the energy together, but then his gaze returned and he complimented me on the power within the staff, saying that it was so powerful now that I didn’t need any help from him to clear this dark energy – I could easily do it on my own using the staff. I hadn’t considered using the staff in this way for quite a while, but as he was confident that I could I decided that I would try.

I connected to the staff and unfocused my eyes, feeling for the power within the ash wood that I held in one hand. I moved the staff upwards, its forked end coming up to meet the dark energy pool beneath me. As the staff moved I felt a rush of energy moving through my body and up into the staff. As it reached the forked end of the staff the energy burst from the end and flew out, hitting the dark energy pool. The motion of the staff continued to rise up, blasting and dispersing and dispelling the dark force into a million tiny fragments, vapourising it until it was blasted into the sky, dissolved into oblivion in a single sweeping motion. I stood amazed at the simplicity, the ease and the power combination. Mike also stood agog. He said that he had witnessed an incredible sight – that as the staff pointed at the dark energy he had seen something ” like a special effect from a film” where forked lightning had come out of the staff and destroyed the dark energy pool. Wow. What an amazing moment!

We discussed more about the staff. Clearly I had underestimated its usefulness, and Mike counselled me that I should perhaps consider that this was the time to begin to harness and make use of its powers more and more. I shouldn’t worry about depleting it either, he said, it had more than enough power, and seemed to recharge itself from the elements around it. I reminded him that it contained the spirits and powers of the Four Elemental Masters that I had gathered from Tinkinswood near Cardiff the previous year. So, the time had come, eh?

Recovering Merlin

We moved on up through the main chasm. The beauty of the icicles as they glistened, arrayed like the teeth of transparent tigers was a wonder to behold. There are some benefits to coming to sacred sites “out of season” or at different times of the year than most other people – you get to see them clothed in Nature’s ever-changing cloak. For me the going was difficult. The others seemed to have no problem ascending the slight incline, and indeed, as the fittest of the three by far I should have had no problems at all. Yet, I was really struggling. I had to stop every five or six steps to get my breath back. I felt like I was walking through a tirade, a torrent of water that pushed me away with incredible force. Yet, I was seeing visions of a pathway that I had to struggle through. I had to force myself to follow it, no matter how hard the going became, This was a test of persistence, and I was as stubborn as the next person, if the next person is a mule!

As we reached the higher end of the chasm Kal appeared. He had been on a “Green Knight Guided Tour” being led around the various paths and alleyways, nooks and crannies that existed at the furthest end of  Ludchurch. Now Mike invited me to determine our path too. I got my dowsing rods out and followed them up the right hand side, still struggling to make progress. At some rough-hewn steps we could see that Kal had put a stick of incense here. My rods indicated we needed to climb out of the chasm, which we did.

At the top of the chasm, in the relative warmth of the Sun again, I felt like I should stand in a particular spot. I used my dowsing rods to find the spot and then stood there whilst the sun lit my face for a few minutes. I meditated on Merlin, and felt like he was close. I grounded and centred myself, and then reached down into the earth, letting my ethericSomething tangible to the heightened senses, but invisible and beyond the normal range of everyday human senses. We use the term to describe the subtle energies that surround the human body. We also use the term “etheric” to describe the energy forms of Nature’s sentient spirit energies that can be detected through dowsing, or through deep meditation or states of heightened awareness. body detach itself from my physical self. It went deep into the earth to a place I recognised – it was the underground chamber with the lake and the island where I had journeyed to find Merlin in 2010, after which we had united. This time Merlin came with me quickly and as I re-entered my physical body so did this dark-haired Merlin figure too. We had re-united! Merlin was back inside me again! I was genuinely overcome with emotion – a kind of knowing joy!

I felt like I should leave some incense as a mark of respect for this magickal moment. I turned around with a stick in my hand to find that there was already one there! Kal had been standing on that same spot minutes before I had, and I hadn’t known! That amused me. We so often find the same energetic places to work.

The yawning chasm of Lud's Church

Following in the Footsteps of The Righteous

Mike and I climbed back down into the chasm of Ludchurch again. Kal was nowhere top be seen – he was off on his very important spiritual Knight’s Quest, we knew. We wanted to give him the space to do this journey alone. We squeezed through the right-hand passage and out onto the ledge where Kal now stood. I was beginning to feel presences around me at this point. I felt like people were walking past me. I could see a stream of figures in long hooded dark robes walking around and around the paths that we had taken just before. I felt they were religious, in some way. No, wait, some were of one religion, but now I could see some others of a different religion, a later religion, walking around in the opposite direction, and these figures were dressed in grey or off-white robes. They were actively trying to “un-work”  the energy forms that the first group had woven through their walking patterns. How interesting!

Kal, Mike and I had walked the way of the earlier black-robed people. We were a small part of the re-establishment of the original energy forms. I knew what the symbolism represented and I smiled. Indeed we were a part of that movement, even though our work was being guided by Nature herself. We simply followed her direction. Others had been guided by their “God” and  that had been their way. This was ours.

Gwas.

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