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.

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!

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!

Next I crossed back to the eatsern side of the site. I noticed that I could see Slane Abbey from this side. Of course, after my recent visit there, I now could make the connection between the sites. It was no longer just a tower in the distance, but a place of fond memories, and I pictured myself looking out from the abbey’s graveyard across to Tara and seeing myself looking back. Self-reflexive? In the dictionary it says “See ‘Self-Reflexive’“.

Slane Abbey looking east from Tara

I decided that the best way to wait for the site to clear of the huge crowds was to sit it out. Kal had wandered off out of sight and I presumed he was doing something amusing and entertaining. Turns out he was, but he’ll get around to telling you, I’m sure. As for me, I asked the dowsing rods to take me to somewhere that I could gather some energy while I waited. They led me here….

Sleepy hollow at Tara

Possibly the most overlooked area of the whole of Tara? A small hollow, large enough to hold my sleeping form. I dozed for an unknown amount of time and then awoke sparkling, refreshed and alive. Well, you might say, of course you did. Power nap. Yeah, something like that. Anyway, now the site was quieter and the really interesting work began…

Entrance to Tara's Mound of the Hostages

Only a scattered few tourists remained now, Kal and I among them of course. It felt like I had had the space to work now, hopefully largely unobserved or ignored by the remaining visitors. I went to the top of the Mound of Hostages to survey the area and to decide what I should do next – how would I awaken, clear or boost the crown chakra, I wondered. What was this chakra all about, then? For me it symbolised a connection point with a higher intelligence, a conduit to unseen knowledge, a focal point for spiritual energies.

The Paths of Synods

I walked around the edge, feeling for an entrance. I passed a simple sign that simply said ‘Path of Synods’. It sounded ecclesiastical, which only added to my idea that this was some kind of spiritual testing ground. Path of the Synods, eh?It felt completely in keeping that this Hill of Tara had been an ancient site for the meeting of important people steeped in an ancient form of spirituality, and that this continued through beyond the Christian conversion that came with the advent of St.Patrick, whose statue dominates the entrance path opposite the former church, now Visitor Centre.

As I walked around it some things became clear – I needed to find an entrance, a proper entrance. I also knew that I had to do this all intuitively –  no dowsing rods could be used to find the path. I also knew that I needed to carry the Neptune Stone, and that I would have to leave it at the end, if I made it that far. One final rule would be imposed – only one attempt could be made to find the right path. This was a one shot deal! No pressure then!! I skulked nervously around the edge, waiting to tune into the labyrinth and begin my journey.

I could feel the edge of the labyrinth with my hands. I must have looked rather strange, wandering around feeling for the edge of the aura. With a vague look posted on my face I followed the edge until suddenly it wasn’t there. Aha – an entrance? I felt my way in, and then began to concentrate on feeling for a kind of compass in my head. When I felt that my head was pointing in the right direction I followed, walking along the winding paths – back and forth, in and out, often going back upon my own route. I was snaking around for ten minutes or so until I ended up at a final point, a sort of promontory,  a circular rise with only a path in and no path out. This was the end! I placed the Neptune Stone in the centre and looked up, expectantly. What would happen?

The Babbling Bard

Immediately a tramp, well, let”s say a “gentleman in reduced circumstances” who had the clearest blue shining eyes I have ever seen and a smell of carbolic soap was upon me. He was pointing out the local hills, naming them. From that moment for a full two hours he didn’t stop talking, spewing out knowledge, myths, facts, legends, lore, superstition, tales, history, politics – it didn’t stop. In those two hours I learned more that I could possibly have read in a short lifetime!!!

Sunset over Tara

That was my gift. I was given some kind of monstrous download of garbled information – a condensed history in one lesson. It felt like the Reduced Shakespeare Company had told me the entire history of Ireland in one performance. My crown chakra had made a connection with a form of divine intelligence alright!! I got tales of the Fir Bolg, The Fomorians, The Tuatha de Danann and many many other tales known and unknown to me.

The Bard, for that was surely what he was, he was contrastingly amusing and bawdy, informative and un-intelligable. He had a catchphrase that was “Did you know that, did you?” which he would repeat in a dense deep Irish lilt like some form of gross punctuation point. Eventually, after he had told a joke about an Englishman, Scotsman and an Irishman walking in the desert. The Englishman and Scotsman are in suitable attire, but the Irishman has on duffle coat, big boots and a thick hat and carrying a car door to shield himself from the sun. After many miles the Englishman and Scotsman are sweating bucketloads and they say to the Irishman, “How on earth are you surviving in this heat with all that gear and carrying that car door?“ “It’s OK“, says the Irishman, “If I get too hot I can just wind the window down!“.

I had to take my leave. He followed us all the way to the car and warned me about having to do penance of I led a sinful life. I told him I lived a life of balance, completely without sin. His last words to me were “If you have no sins to do penance for, make some up!” I felt that was a fitting indictment of the current spiritual orthodoxy and the way it affects some people.

Thus ends my Irish Pilgrimage. Until we came to go home the next day when I learned a very valuable lesson.

Gwas.

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!

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.

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?

Hedge Grump

Whilst Kal went off immediately to the smaller part of the ruins, I acquainted myself with the layout. There was the tall bell tower that signified the abbey ruins on one side, and this incorporated a graveyard with a stunning view of the Boyne region north of Dublin for as far as the eye could see, until it reached the Wicklow Mountains I presume. On the other side of the abbey was a smaller two-storey building that the information sign told me was once a library. I decided to start by dowsing for which place I should go to first. As soon as I pulled out my dowsing rods a Scandinavian kid stopped me, “What are you doing?” he said in a heavily accented sing-song tone. “Nothing.” I responded with a scowl that was not open to interpretation. Normally I would provide an explanation, but today I just couldn’t bear explaining everything from scratch. Time was a-pressing, I felt, and things needed to be done here. Tough luck, kid!

The Bell Tower at Slane Abbey

Neutralising trauma

As I walked into the bell tower I could hear the stark cawing and twittering of old and young crows above. There were clearly a number of nests above and so I watched for falling “debris”. There was a pungent smell in the enclosed space too – the smell of rotting flesh. I looked down to see several fledgelings squashed flat into the gravel floor – a most bizarre sight! I was shocked and horrified for a moment, but then my druid self took over and I realised this was part of the cycle of Nature. However, at the very least I could do something more gracious then to leave them rotting beneath their parents. I dowsed for a suitable resting place nearby, found a stick, and then carried each bird over to the impromptu grave. When all three had been transferred I began to pile up rocks making a small cairn over them. Much better, I felt. Kal watched this funereal process in muted wonderment sporting a puzzled look. I explained to him, “It’s something I have to do.”  It didn’t explain much! This is the “sticky” side of being a Hedge Druid. The unpleasant mixes equally with the pleasant. Balance is the optimal position.

As I completed my task and returned to the bell tower the crows above went into a flurry of squawks. I guess I had been observed during that clearing up process, but I wouldn’t be pout off from it – it had to be done, if only for the sake of other visitors to the site. Now I had neutralised their remains under rock, and dispelled any negative energy that had been locked into the ground. This is something I do with road kill too. If I spot one by the side of the road I mentally neutralise any remaining energies by envisaging a double helix of alternating spirals of energy. I have dowsed what effect that has and to my surprise I found that it neutralises negative energies left there by the trauma of a violent death. Try it yourself – it costs nothing to do and keeps the roads clean of negative energy spots that might accumulate at accident black spots!

Some make it, some don't

I wandered around the rest of the graveyard admiring the view. Kal had wandered off again to go to the library building. I slowly joined him. He was lying in the courtyard on a square of grass, absorbing the sunlight of the bright late afternoon. As I joined him he pointed out that the sun had a corona around it – a halo of rainbow colours, and this seemed to excite him greatly. I couldn’t see it myself because I didn’t have any sunglasses and the sun was far too bright for me to look at, even askance. I gave up and decided to get on with my own work instead.

Halo around the sun

Slaine? Sign here!

As I was in a nice grassy space I decided to dowse for the signature of Slaine himself. Was there any remaining imprint of such a character, whether historical or mythological? I began to roam around the grass, asking the dowsing rods to reveal any energy signature for Slaine. The following pattern emerged:

Energetic formation at Slane Abbey

Apologies from my hasty scribble. You may notice that this shape is remarkably similar to the Cornu spiral – the sun sigil that can be traced by following the path of the sun through its yearly cycle (see this picture). As I traced and re-traced the shape, walking its curly length, something seemed to unlock something in the site and I found renewed interest in meeting Slaine face to face, as it were. I took my leave and set about finding the best place to do that using the dowsing rods. People were milling around now and I knew I needed somewhere secluded and dark, but where? Everywhere around seemed open and bright and next to a path of some sort that people were walking along. I trusted in the rods, and oh my word – did they deliver! 

I followed the rods along the edge of a wall in the library area that seemed to be going nowhere. Right in the corner of the room, however, an opening revealed itself to me only when I got within a few feet of the opening. It was a quiet, dark cubby-hole in which to sit undisturbed and without much daylight. This was perfect, so I began to clear my mind to see what would happen.

Nooks and crannies in the Slane Library

In the sensory-deprivation that the nook provided I was soon drifting into a low-trance state, trying to ignore the voices of the other tourists. It was difficult, but I traced the signature in my mind to try to assist with bridging the gap and making contact. My mind went dark with a blank nothingness, and then…

A large bearded and braided warrior appeared lunging at me, brandished a huge double-edged sword! Seeing his image all sorts of information began to flood into my mind. He was bloodthirsty and successful, subduing all around or slaughtering them. But he was tired of that, yet he couldn’t find any rest in the peace that this success had brought him. He was restless and angry still. He wanted something from me, and in return he would help me to boost the power of my third-eye chakra.

Slaine character from the 2000 A.D. comic

Slaine’s offer was that, if I could heal the bare white tree (a picture of which emblazoned itself in my mind) then he would find his rest and my task would be complete. Well, it sounded like a reasonable thing to be doing – healing a tree – so I agreed, and his image disappeared, leaving the after-image burned into my retina with the feeling of the word ‘ash’ there too. I put two and two together and came up with seventy-six – clearly I was looking for an ash tree! Over to me now, eh? I was on the hunt for a white ash tree. Not many trees on this hilltop, I noticed. I wonder where he was talking about and how far away it might be? I set off to find Kal to see what he was doing – maybe he’d seen the tree?

The White Tree

Kal was now sat on one of the library walls looking like he’d been contemplating the nature of the universe. We exchanged a brief update and I asked about the tree – no, nothing he said distractedly. I looked over the wall he was sitting on and nearly fell backwards! There it was! At the far edge of the hill – a copse of trees and at the closest edge of that copse was a seemingly dead white bare tree. Now things were getting very interesting…. 

The White Tree of Slaine

I strode across the field at the back of the abbey and stood beside the tree, trying to identify it from its remains. It was a lime tree. judging from its remaining few leaves, and was in desperate need of some fertilizer or something! The lower branches had tiny shoots of new growthbut they were struggling. Was this the white tree? What about the “ash” word I had been left with – where did that fit in? The branches were pale and almost dead, and it fitted the image I had envisioned exactly. I wondered as to what I could do, then an idea struck me. My staff was of ash wood and was imbued with healing energies that I had gathered from various places as I travelled around, most recently from Castlerudderystone circle and before that from The Pipers Stones. What if I touched my staff against the tree and transferred some healing energy into the ailing limbs of the lime tree? That’s what I did, coupled with me envisioning my own energy being drawn in from the trees and power centres around me, and then channeling that healing energy through myself into the tree. I did this for about a minute and then felt as though I didn’t need to do any more. I could see the tree leeching the energy into its furthest branch tips and that was enough.

View from Slane Abbey graveyard

I went back to the abbey to catch up with Kal again. I wondered whether I had been successful, and if so, whether Slaine had fulfilled his side of the bargain? Only the dowsing rods could tell me, so I went back to the place where I had dowsed Slaine’s signature. Walking the ‘S’ formation againI asked if I had completed my task – YES. Was the tree in the process of healing? YES. Would it fully recover? NO. Ah, so maybe I could only do enough to allow Slaine to rest – I don’t know. That was over to him now. Was Slaine able to rest now, I asked? YES, was the response. As I walked around the formation I felt a tingle – the kind of tingle that makes your hair stand on end. Something had happened, but I was only partially aware of the change.

As we left SlaneAbbey I was feeling ridiculously pleased with myself. Pleased at how this whole episode had come together; pleased at having solved Slane’s riddle of the white tree; pleased at having been able to deliver some healing to a tree; and pleased at having Slaine deliver on his promise too….and now I felt ready to go back to Tarato tackle the final chakra quest – the crown chakra.

Gwas.

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

Dowth (“The Place of Darkness”) is the lesser-visited site of the three famous megalithic structures in the Boyne Valley complex. It is less visited because there is no convenient bus taking tourists to the site, and instead intrepid visitors have to walk the mile or so from the bus terminus, or a mile and a half from the Knowth site, in order to reach it. Luckily for us this late May day was about as beautiful and sunny as May days get, and so we walked along the blooming hawthorn-lined lanes in utter delight. Some days it pays to be a (would-be) druid.

When we arrived at Dowth we had the place to ourselves with the exception of a solitary photographer who busied himself with setting up some arty shots. We read the information board (always amusing, sometimes useful) and then looked at each other. We felt there was something we should do before going in – but what was it? We decided to wait. We didn’t know what for – perhaps just to let our blood cool from the walk, or to become totally attuned to the ambiance of the site before we entered. We weren’t sure. But we waited for ten minutes, then entered.

Information created by archaeologists

The site exuded a sense of spirituality from the outset. As soon as I entered I got my dowsing rods out and asked them to lead me to the place that I was best attuned to, my power centre, taking me by a “ritual path”, as I called it. My intention, the thought I had in mind, was of the path around Glastonbury Tor – the labyrinthine path that I would soon take again at the Summer Solstice. Eventually, after much to-ing and fro-ing around the edges of the mound I was led into the centre to a spot where someone had had a fire, somewhere near the centre of the hollow that formed a giant hole in the middle of the mound. Kal calls this form of perambulation in trance a “walking meditation” and says that groups he works with do them quite frequently.I wouldn’t know anything about that – I did it because it felt right to do. At the burnt spot the energy spiralled indicating a power centre. It was here that I meditated on my throat chakra. I wanted to clear myself and energise at the same time, with special attention to my throat chakra.

Fire pit power centre at Dowth

Then, like at the entrance to this unusual site, I got the oddest feeling. I felt that I couldn’t progress until I had recited a poem that recounted all my efforts to this point – a kind of announcement as to why I was here. Was I not in a land of poets? Was this not the land where the Blarney Stone is kissed for its gift of eloquence? And so I began to recite some dodgy rhymes, somewhat self-consciously even though there was no-one else around except Kal and he was over the other side of the hill. I told the spirit of the hill all about the other places I had visited to work on various chakras, and what the result of each encounter had been. As soon as I completed my poem I felt a wave of relief (release) and I picked up my dowsing roads again to see where I should go to next in order to work on my throat chakra. I felt like I had opened a doorway into an opportunity, and now was the time to step across this Mercurial threshold.

Kal's vision quest on Dowth

I began to follow a single dowsing road as it led me around the curve of the hollow and back to a new power centre – a rocky scar in the hillside similar to one that I knew from my many visits to Gop Hill in North Wales. I went there and lay down to ‘doze’, to get myself into an attuned and trance-like state of mind, a receptive mind state, if you will. As I entered a light trance state and became comfortable with the hill I heard and fleetingly saw a familiar figure – it was The Lady. The same lady that I had encountered at Gop Hill (this was something I felt, rather than positively identified). In my half-sleep I was able to ask questions of the Lady of the Hill. My questions were answered by the reaction of the sunlight – if it went behind a cloud then the answer was negative in nature, and vice versa. The strength of the heat or cold indicated the strength of the answer.

Some of the information simply formed in my mind, or bubbled up from somewhere, and then I tested its validity using the clouds. This sounds stupidly un-scientific, I know, yet it was utterly consistent. I could ask test questions which had simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answers and the clouds would react accordingly and immediately, uncannily so. Those test questions provided the assurance that this was some form of divination allowing me to interact with this powerful yet elusive Lady figure. This was not the first time I had encountered this kind of divination opportunity, and I recognised it for what it was, and wasn’t about to squander it.

A stony bed upon which to dream

So, what questions did I ask? What information did I learn? They were not pre-meditated questions. The questions arose at the very moment that I wanted to make enquiries – like they had been suggested to me. They almost took me by surprise! I found myself asking two questions:

1. What was my next career move? The answer came to me that I was going to teach people about the megalithic sites and how to dowse them.
2. Would I become a fully-fledged Druid? The answer was that I would never qualify as a Druid, but that if I followed the path and activities of the druid calling then I would become a master of the mysteries that druidry involved.

I spent a while thinking about those things. Neither of those topics were things I spent much time thinking about. I am perfectly happy with the situation as it is now, I said to myself. However, clearly something had bubbled its way to the surface here, prompted by the vision of The Lady. Was my subconscious trying to tell me something? Since finding druidry I had always thought that the teaching stage would entail me having to reach the level of ‘Druid’, having passed through ‘ Bard’ and ‘Ovate’ beforehand. (Actually, these days I see more relevance in the stages of ‘Birch’, ‘Yew’ and ‘Oak’ rather than these role titles recognised by organised druidical orders). I didn’t imagine I could be close to the last stage yet, given that it was reputed to have taken twenty gruelling years of study to reach such a position. I believe I am only in the Yew phase and that I have much to learn before progressing beyond that. Perhaps it was more of a signpost as to a far-distant future scenario….yes, that was more likely. Sometime in the future I could teach people about dowsing and the spiritual dimension of it. Well, that’s something to look forward to, when I get all of these damned tricky remaining questions about it out of the way!

As a Hedge Druid, perhaps I could award myself the honorary title of Druid when the time was right? And give myself a new druid name? The idea amused me and I walked down the hill smiling at the notion of me attending my own ceremony to award myself a badge saying “Honorary Hedge Druid”. The answers to both those questions seemed to round things off for me, to tie up some deep “loose ends” that I didn’t realise I had dangling in my head. It was quite therapeutic.

A peek inside the Hill of Dowth

I saw that Kal was STILL sitting where he had been for the last half hour at least, not having moved from his lofty perch atop the hill and in the shade of a lovely oak tree that grew on the slope of the hill. I decided not to disturb him because I could see crows whirling back and forth and I knew something was going on that he wouldn’t thank me for interrupting. I contented myself with a jaunt around the base of the hill to see what I could find. As I walked around I came across some beautiful kerbstones – long oblong carved stones – that fitted together in some remaining sections to form a rim around the hill. You can see what they might have looked like in the diagram above. Now only a scattered few remained. Nevertheless, the remaining stones were mainly inscribed with whorling patterns and shapes, hidden away beneath long grass or worn to a hint by the passing years.

Dowth's majestic inscribed kerbstones

The picture above shows Kerbstone 51, a ball-achingly prosaic moniker for a piece of delightful and informative rock art. This stone in particular seems to have a reputation for its carvings, but there were a few others too that had marks. Kerbstone 51….I can’t go on calling it that! Let’s call it “The Seven Star Stone” instead – alliterative and palatable. The Seven Star Stone has been described as a possible star map of the Pleiades, that lovable formation that is so linked with the emerging agrarian mind because it is an indicator of the bounds of the Equinox periods int he year, and thus informative of when to sow and to reap crops. Here’s what one site says about this stone’s markings:-

‘Given that there are seven “suns” on kerb 51, and that the mythology about Dowth speaks of a bull and seven cows, it seems likely that the site has some connection with the constellation of Taurus, the Bull, which contains the open cluster the Pleiades, otherwise known as “The Seven Sisters”. This constellation was very important around the year 3000BC, when the Boyne Valley mounds were being constructed, as it contained the Sun on the Spring Equinox, that very important moment of the year when the Sun’s path along the ecliptic crossed the celestial equator heading northwards. It is the Sun’s position among the zodiac stars at this time which determines the current ‘age’ – i.e. the “Age of Taurus”.’ (source: Mythical Ireland)

Yeah, maybe, but I count at least eight circled ‘stars’ marked on a diagram of this famous inscribed stone:

The Seven Star Stone of Dowth

I met with Kal and he told me his tale of a meeting with a healer who was the Oracle of the Hill. He said that people came here to be psychologically healed, and that the oracle answered questions that people didn’t even know they wanted to ask. The similarities between the tale he recounted and my own meeting with The Lady were enough to make me think that something interesting, meaningful and important had occurred at this place, and it was living up to the deep sense of spirituality that we had endowed it with before we had even stepped foot within its bounds.

Before I left I wanted to check  few questions that had arisen from this experience. I dowsed some more information about the relationship between the mound and the areas of the human energy body that it affects. Dowth affects the upper level chakras (the throat, third eye and crown). Knowth affects with solar plexus, heart and throat, but could affect all chakras to a lesser extent. Newgrange was for the lower chakras of root and sacral. Between them, these three sacred sites have it all covered!

Gwas.

This is the fourth of my posts about the journey through the seven chakras. In this post Kal and I returned to Knowth to exclusively dowse it for a purpose this time – for me to find out whether I could work on my heart chakra. This was a necessity, according to the previous day’s work at Kells. You may remember that my spirit guide had helped me to clear me solar plexus chakra and that I had gained insight that the next chakra would be the most important to unblock or empower.

The Neptune gateway and the Carlanstown stone

I’m really miffed now that I didn’t take a picture of the stone that I retrieved from the Carlanstown Spring. I’ve never seen anything like it before or since, and it’s green-flecked appearance is an image that is now only accessible in my memory banks. Sorry I can’t provide you with more than this vague description. As a former geology student I ought to be able to be more specific, but I have forgotten more than I will even learn again, and now even an educated guess would be far out. It was some form of igneous rock, if that helps? Obviously not.

The starting point at Knowth

We started at the timber circle, me with the green-flecked stone in one hand, and a quartz crystal in the other. Ask me not why this was so, for the answer shall be, I don’t know! It felt right. It also felt right for me to walk into the timber circle from the entrance closest to the main mound (the gap closest to the mound in the picture above). Despite having stones in my hand I needed to quickly check some things and got my iPhone out to use the Starwalk app to find out where stars and constellations were positioned at that moment. I was standing in the power centre (where Kal’s stood in the picture) facing the entrance to the timber circle. Which stars or planets aligned with this entrance….why, Neptune of course! The planet associated with the gods of water. Ever after the green stone became known as The Neptune Stone.

Standing in the timber circle I began a process of cleansing and clearing – removing the detritus of this world, the energetic rubbish that we all accumulate around us by passing through strong electromagnetic signals and other energetic influences that we pass through and by during our normal day. Luckily, if you live in the country or in Ireland there is much less ‘stuff’ to accumulate! The ritual is similar to the kind of purification rituals performed by druid types of my ilk who perform group rituals and the like. For me, it is a purely energetic cleansing. For some, they prefer to include a physical cleansing involving some form of washing in spring water or bathing. Whatever floats your candle, and lights your incense.

One of the things I found interesting was to find that, in each of the sensory-deprivation chambers the initiate would have to spend three days. The best three days for the process would be the three days of the Full Moon in each month.

Mapping the Transformation Sites

Having got myself attuned to the Knowth site again, cleansed and powered-up I wandered back over the Kal who had been off dowsing around while I was ‘dallying’. I had asked the dowsing rods to take me to a place that had an energy form that I had not encountered before. A big ask, possibly, but I remained hopeful. As we passed each other Kal said cryptically, “Interesting energies there.” and pointed to a small raised grass embankment shaped like a teardrop. I registered his words but was busy following my primary objective – to go to a place with a new energy quality or form. The rods continued on their wavy course and took me round to the very place that Kal had nodded to. Damn him! He’s always right! I’ll cover what I found in sequence with the rest of the parts of the Knowth site because it fits better in context.

At the place that Kal had pointed to I found some cool stuff to do with attuning the heart chakra. Following on from this I went around the site finding which other parts of the site could be used for which chakras. There was a centre of a particular place and type of space for each chakra, but the heart chakra seemed to be the strongest.

In this next section I will show you what I think each of the unusual parts of the site might have been used for in terms of The Initiate and their spiritual transformation process.

The areas of Knowth that correlate to each chakra point are:-

1. Root Chakra – inside one of the satellite mounds to the side of the main mound. The small mound had two chambers, one of which had an entrance half blocked by a slab of stone. This was intended to allow access, but to cut off as much light as possible to leave the inside deprived of light and sound.

Root chakra - satellite mound

There seems an element of sensory deprivation about this first chakra chamber. The entrance is oriented towards the main mound, almost as though that would shut out the most light. The entrance is very small – merely big enough to allow someone to enter and exit with a squeeze. It would be easy to block out all light completely. We found that when an initiate comes out of this first mound they stand upon a power centre located just outside on a small raised embankment.

2. Sacral Chakra (or Spleen) – next to the small mound used for the root chakra was a coffin-like construction with a single entry hole. Initiates would like down in this structure and work on their sacral chakra.

Sacral chakra - grave mound

Again the entrance is very small to this chamber – just a large enough form someone to lie down in. There seems little room for the idea that this construction was any form of habitation – it was clearly a short-term chamber, and our guess is that it was for working on the sacral chakra.

3. Solar Plexus Chakra – an arrow-shaped triangular room, possibly enclosed by a wooden roof or lined by wooden posts.

Sacral chakra - arrow-shaped room

I have been racking my brains trying to figure out why a chamber for working on the solar plexus (or cross) chakra would be performed in an arrow-shaped or triangular room. I have two theories. Firstly – the shape is a passage of energy feeding into a three-sided shape. The solar plexus chakra is the third chakra – so they have that numerological aspect in common. This site, among many others, associates the third chakra with the triangular form.

4. Heart Chakra – a teardrop shaped enclosure. Oddly, this space dowsed as not having a roof, and so was open to the elements. When I dowsed for the symbol of this particular location I got the symbol of a figure with arms outstretched as though seeking to hold or hug whoever was stood in the teardrop mound.

Heart Chakra - round enclave

If the theory of the number of sides in the structure has some relation to working with the chakras, or some sacred geometrical relationship with the aura of the human field, then all that was thrown out of the window by the next site. The site is a teardrop shape, and just large enough to contain a single person, possibly having to crouch or sit if the enclosure had a roof.

5. Throat Chakra – this was harder to identify. It is an area where flat recumbent stones are laid seemingly at random. In fact the stones enclose a central area where there would have been something like a fire pit.

Throat chakra - speakers space

In this area the initiate would have either listened to the songs and the stories told by bards, or would have been required to tell his own tales. Or perhaps a combination of the two, truly encompassing the sharing aspects that had just been learned in the heart chakra area? This is speculation on my part, but I just got a vision and a feeling when I stood there. It was a ‘gnowing’.

6. Third Eye Chakra – a medium-sized mound, slightly larger than the Root Chakra mound, and having a more open entrance portal. This chamber did not exclude light or sound, but had the accumulating, containing or energy attracting qualities that the layered mound structure offers.

Third-eye chakra - aura enclosure

I believe this site was used to shape the aura of the initiate, drawing down radiant energies through the filtered layers of the inter-laced organic and inorganic materials, and accumulating the earth energies that arose from the power centre inside the mound.

7. Crown Chakra – a timber circle. In this circle the initiate was initially attuned to the energies of the site, and prepared for the process of undergoing chakra balancing or enlightenment.

Crown chakra - timber circle

Now the initiate returned to this place, entering by their known specific entrance, energising themselves in the circle using the astral energies available, and then exited by their specific exit to close the ceremony and return back to ‘normal’ life.

Then it was on to Dowth, both for us and for the initiate, as it turned out! Kal spent time dowsing at Knowth and got some really interesting stuff, including a knowledge of how the site had been constructed. I’ll leave him to tell you that incredible story because it boggles the rational mind. Wouldn’t you like to be boggled? So would I.

Gwas.

On our way back from Glastonbury, having stopped off at the pretty village of Priddy (actually, it was more like a bare triangle of grass, but..) we headed for Caerleon. The damned cheap SatNav I was using on my phone got us totally lost and we ended up having to double back some 20 miles to get here. Add to that the rather confusing one-way system in Caerleon itself, and the roasting hot day, you’ve got a sense of how glad I was to get out of the car and get my feet on the ground to try to find the South-Western ley line that I believed came from Arbor Low down through Caerleon.

Ley Lines in Caerleon

Just to remind you, I was at Arbor Low one day taking compass bearings of the various radial lines that Kal had found in the centre of the site. My compass probably wasn’t very accurate, and neither were my readings (all done with line of sight). However, at least one of the end points has recently been verified by one of this blog’s readers (thanks, Serpenteer – see our comment stream at the bottom of this post) who actually visited Lindisfarne Priory and found our northerrly line. In the same spirit I wanted to see whether my South-Westerly line could also be verified.

The search began at the car park on Cold Bath Lane, a lane so-called presumably because the Roman baths are very close by. As is the Roman fortress that was supposedly the site of King Arthur’s court, as mentioned by Geoffrey of Monmouth.

Arbor Low to Caerleon

We found the line some two hundred yards further on from the edge of the remains of the roman fortress. It emerged into a playing field used by the local rugby club, and they were in the middle of a training match when we arrived with our rods. So, not conspicuous at all then! We took some surreptitious readings with the dowsing rods and I got out my iPhone to try to get a compass brearing. Strange things began to occur. While in the ley line taking a compass reading we couldn’t work out why it appeared to be 20-30 degrees out from what we expected. We took other dowsing readings but none of them explained why the reading was out. Then my iPhone switched itself off – the screen went blank and no buttons worked, despite having a full battery. I resorted to the rods, and they showed SSW as being where we expected it to be, not where the iPhone had indicated. When I walked out of the ley line the phone started working again.

Possible ley through Caerleon

I have often found that Roman structures rarely lie upon ley lines. They are usually off to one side, safely off the line itself. So-called Roman roads, actually built upon the old corpse roads of much more ancient times, are often built upon ley lines however. It seems that the properties of a ley line is compatible with movement, but not with residence. It wouldn’t surprise me if that was the case here too.

Another possibility is one which I first speculated about when I discovered a ley that ran from the Isles of Scilly to Italy. At the end of that line the ley seemed to curl into a spiral (or at leats – that’s the form which best linked the place names I was tracing). I wonder whether the fortress at Caerleon also forms a spiral terminus point. It’s something I will have to go an test. It’s only an idea at the moment.

When I got back home and adjusted the line to align my “on the ground” results with my Google Map of this line several more places whose names ended in “ley” began to surface. I now need to go along the line verifying the locations of the points I suspect have ley lines, and then verifying the exact angle of the ley line, possibly using other navigational aids other than the iPhone! I also still do not know where the line ends, and whether it continues outside of Caerleon.

More soon when I have some better correlating evidence.

Gwas.