The Hedge Druid

Posts Tagged ‘king arthur’

Castell Dinas Bran – Llangollen, North Wales, 20th February. 

There are times on this ‘path’ where a calling is received. It’s not like a phone call, or a text message arriving – it’s infinitely more subtle than that. You begin to receive signals – a name appears somewhere, or someone mentions a place, or you see a picture of it. Most of the time we’re receiving such information all the time and mostly we do not act upon it. Then it becomes more iterative – you see the name again, in another context, or the story is repeated elsewhere, the place gets mentioned, or you see the picture again and again. Soon, you have to act to find out more about what this ‘calling’ is. 

So it was that I started looking at the Megalithic Portal with a single search term: Llangollen. I had been a few miles south of there only the week before, near Chirk. Now I was getting a pull to go to the east of Wales again, this time along the A5, Thomas Telford’sgreat trunk road. I knew this road to be littered with ancient connections, not least of which is Llandrillo stone circle some way south of the A5 and near to BalaLake. Was this the intended destination? The Megalithic Portal churned away, then returned with its results: Dinas Bran was top of the list. I stared at the mound. I knew it – where from? I had passed it many times. Once, long ago, I had climbed it. This was the place I needed to go to. No doubt. My heart had leapt a little when I saw it. I made preparations and left. 

View of Castell Dinas Bran

Part of those preparations was to bring along my new ash staff. I’m glad I did. I parked at an isolated spot “round the back” of the hill, at a small lay-by where a stile offered a gentle path across an inclining field at the base of the hill. It was idyllic – the sun, the view, the objective. I tuned in very quickly to the surroundings and managed to find a wavy path across the field and up the hill. At each stage I let my intuition lead the way and soon I had joined the main path up the hill, with its precarious wooden barrier and well-trodden spiral path. The staff helped enormously. 

As I approached the top of the hill I slowed to a stop. I was beginning to feel the “edge” of the site, it’s aura – the edge of the nemeton. I stopped and tuned into the site, introducing myself and asking to be shown an entrance. I began to walk off the path across some scree. I gulped, but the path was remarkably easy and stable! A pre-defined path was emerging: as I looked back I could see there WAS in fact a trail through the slope of seemingly random stones, and again through the seemingly barren grass, I was actually following a trail. 

The trail ended at a man-made slope. A definite causeway. An entrance undoubtedly. 

South side entrance

Next I was led by the rods to a small break in the surrounding ditch. A path led down the break and up the other side to the castle remains themselves. I followed eagerly, feeling this was the right way into the site for me. As I passed through an archway I felt the urge to be free, so I asked the rods to find a suitable place to drop my bag and leave my staff. It was at the archway itself that was to be my resting place.

My resting place

I set about dowsing the place. What was the relative strength of the energies here, I asked (expecting a low response due to the time of year and the fact that it had been a castle, and was not now an obvious megalithic site). The response I got took me aback : it was a 10/10. Up there with Carnac and Silbury Hill in terms of the strength of these earth energies. The power of the place was apparent in so many ways, too. Look at the number of visitors up here on a freezing cold Saturday afternoon in February – there were about ten people millng about on this steep hilltop. Something was drawing them here. 

Gog and Magog

Perhaps they were drawn by the challenge of the giant Gogmagog, or the lure of treasure: 

“Claims have also been made that the Holy Grail or a golden harp are hidden in the hillock at Dinas Bran and that fairies dwell there.  

According to “The Romance of Fulk Fitzwarine,” the Normans pushed their way into the eastern borderlands of Wales and stopped just beneath the ruins of Dinas Bran. An arrogant knight, Pain Peveril, noticed the crumbling walls and learned that the sitewas once the home of King Bran. Since Bran’s demise, no one had enough courage to stay overnight inside the remains, for fear of evil spirits. To prove their mettle, Pain and some of his cohorts climbed up to the ruins, determined to endure the night. During that night, a storm arose and forced the men to seek shelter.  

Suddenly, an evil, mace-wielding giant appeared. This giant was the notorious Gogmagog, a man possessed by an evil spirit who had terrorized the countrysidefor years. Pain defended his men withhis shield, protected witha cross, a shield so sturdy that it withstood the penetration of the giant’s mace. His brazen defiance startled the giant and Pain swiftly stabbed him with his sword. As Gogmagog died, the evil spirit recounted King Bran’s bravery against the giant’s attacks. Bran had even built the palace atop the hillock to thwart the giant and enraged the evil spirit inside Gogmagog. Then, the giant forced Bran and his followers to flee. The dying spirit also claimed that a great treasure, including a golden ox, was buried beneath the hill.” (source: http://www.castlewales.com/dinas.html) 

In the tale above Gogmagog is the container for “evil forces”. Since the advent of Christian religion in these isles the forces of paganism have been characterised as evil, and attributed to monsters and devils. Of course this is water off a duck’s back to the pagans, who tend to embrace such concepts, but nevertheless it is a slanderous fact, and has involved the re-working of almost all our indigenous myths. What ARE these evil forces that the tale speaks of? The clue is in the name of the monster: “Gog” and “Magog” – the male and female archetype. Gogmagog is the combination of Gog and Magog – the male and female earth energies inherent in the land.

I looked, as I usually do, for the male and female energies of the site. Having a light covering of snow actually facilitated this because I was able to mark out the shapes that I dowsed, and denote the sources and endpoints for the energies. The male energy was sourced from one of the southern arched windows. It was the sunlight from the south that was the source of the male energy at the site. This seemed particularly relevant for the time of year that I was there, for the sun was tracking along the topmost part of the mountains opposite and would have shone all day through the arched window. At this time of year all the light came from the south as the sun moved across the sky from east to west. The male energy then ran around the edge of the inner castle ruins, and down a steep path ending at a sealed dungeon in the north-eastern flank of the castle.

The female energy began a few feet north of the southern arched window, on the other side of the path that cut between the male and female sources. I tracked the pathof the female energy westward (in the opposite direction to the male energy) and it meandered around, coming inwards, until it terminated right in the centre of the site, at a point where the inner mound began to slope. This female terminus pont also turned out to be the power centre to which I was most aligned. I stood within the power centre for a few minutes and felt warm, tingly and enlivened. Oh yes, this was good for me! 

Power centre drawn in snow

At the very moment when I took one step into my power centre the sun, which had been hiding its face behind a cloud for the last half hour, emerged and shone directly in my face. I couldn’t help but smile. No-one ever believes this “salute of the sun”, but it’s one of the most profound elements of the whole “being on a spiritual path” for me. It’s the most obvious and literally heart-warming sign that I’m moving in the right direction.

The Astrology of Dinas Bran

Next on my agenda was to dowse to see whether this site was particular active, energetically, at a specific time of the year. Sites that are like that have an astrological energy formation that can be dowsed for. We have only found this out recently after correlating several dowsing responses relating to the influence of planets, stars and constellations. When I dowsed at this site I found an astrological formation that was like the picture below:

Pisces - Feb 20 to Mar 20

Later, when I could dowse against a list of existing constellations and designs I was able to determine that the astrological form at Dinas Bran was an old symbol for Pisces. Pisces covers the time from 20th February to 20th March. I was visiting in that period of time – here I was, stood in DinasBran at its most energetic time. That would account for the 10/10 rating for the energy strength, then!

The Sign of Bran

If I was at Bran’s Castle, who is Bran? In the tale above he was relegated to the role of King, yet before kingship ever came about as an accepted or necessary concept Bran was also an archetype – a god. Bran is the giant head. He is a giant himself in many other tales, and so we begin to see the confusion emerge as later tales subvert him into human form. In his animal form, The Crow, he signifies transformation, regeneration and awakening.

I dowsed to discover whether this site still had a genius loci – a guardian spirit of the place. It did, so I dowsed for the energetic formation in the sitethat would indicate that spirit’s presence. I was directed to an area of snow close to my power centre, but away from most of the footprints in a little hollow. As I dowsed I felt I recognised the end points – these were clearly spirals. The centre point was an oval shape, and when seen betwixt the two spirals a form emerged – the Head of Bran between the male and female spirals of earth energy that were Gogmagog!

Left arm male, right arm female

What more do we know of Bran from mythology?

“Bran Fendigaid (the Blessed) – Celtic god of regeneration – was the son of the Sea God, Llyr and, maternally, the grandson of Belenos, the Sun God. His name means Raven, and this bird was his symbol. In Celtic mythology, Bran appears as a semi-humanized giant residing at Castell Dinas Bran, the later home of the later Kings of Powys. Though Bran himself was supposed to have been an early King of the Silures tribe of Gwent. There appears to be no archaeological evidence for his worship though perhaps the castle mount was once sacred to him.”

(source: http://www.earlybritishkingdoms.com/bios/bran.html)

“Perhaps the castle mount was once sacred to him.” ‘Once’. ‘Perhaps’. Still! It is! He is there now. His imprint is within the mound – his influence spreads into the valley below, and all the way back to the sea.

I dowsed for other celestial influences on the site. Let’s see if they shed any light on Bran. There was a solar influence from the South, and a lunar influence on Full Moon days. This equates to the balanced male and female energy lines at the site. Together they form the rim and radiating lines of Belenos’ radiant sun shield, or chariot wheel, draw upon the summit of the mound.

As King, Bran led his warriors into battle in Ireland, but the Irish had a magic cauldron that brought their dead warriors back to life and only Bran and seven of his warriors survived the battles. I found it very interesting to read this given that the planetary influence that I dowsed at the site was that of Mars- God of War. There are further connections between Bran and the cauldron as represented in the Arthurian Mysteries as The Grail. Bran’s mortal wounding echoes the story of the Fisher King and Arthur’s wounding.

I took some delightful panoramic pictures from on high, then dowsed for an exit. The exit I had to take was a bit daring -it was a hollow in the wall of the northern side, through an archway, leading down to an ice-covered path that was inches from a sheer drop down the steepest part of the hill. Gulp! I trusted my staff and made my way down along a little-used pathway until I encountered grass that seemed to flow like water down the hill. Being in tune with the energies I felt their tug and descended straight down the hill without hesitation. I hear some onlookers from above geeing themselves up to do the same – ah, the folly of youth! Moments later I heard them falling over themselves and rolling down the hill trying to save themselves from injury. I smiled. They didn’t have my ash staff!

Gwas.

As I reported in my previous Arbor Low post Kal and I were inside the stone circle taking dowsing readings. This post is the product of those readings, and, as I had hoped, the great stone circle did indeed give up some of its secrets that evening. The results I present here are only preliminary and cursory research into the amazing insights that we discovered, and I hope that over the course of the next year I can back up everything I am about to say with some solid on-the-ground fieldwork, dowsing, and more research. However, for now, I must content myself with my initial exciting findings, and must re-iterate that they are currently only theoretical and speculative.

Impossible Bearings

We dowsed inside the inner circle to find the point from which the radial alignment leys that Kal had found previously emanated. The spot was in between the two central large recumbent sets of stones. I stood in the centre whilst Kal walked around this point with his dowsing rods. Whenever he got a reading he stopped, and I lined up the compass with his dowsing rod and noted the bearing. After only two readings it became apparent that something quite exciting was going on here – the numbers were coming out incredibly familiar: Zero degrees – due North! Not 1 degree, 5 degrees, or 10, but spot on zero. Next – 45 degrees! Interesting. Well, it doesn’t take a mathematical genius to recognise these numbers as particularly significant when related to a circle!! Kal was oblivious to this, as he was simply walking around and stopping at particular points when the rods moved to a right-angle. I was the one whose eyebrows rose a little at each reading until I couldn’t contain myself any longer and blurted out something like, “This is impossible!”.

Here are the set of radial ley line bearings taken:-

1. 0 degrees
2. 45 degrees
3. 90 degrees
4. 135 degrees
5. 180 degrees
6. 240 degrees
7. 270 degrees
8. 335 degrees

I took the readings home, quite excited at the prospect of plotting them onto Google Maps and following the result – perhaps this would open up some new avenues of sites to explore along the lines, or new centres of spirituality to visit and dowse this year? Stupid question, as it turned out – of course it did.

The importance of place

If those radials are extended out until they reach significant points, such as the end of the land, or a sacred site, then you get some pretty amazing coincidences across a very large area. How could the circle builders have managed to position the circle with such precision over such a wide area? By using star, sun and moon alignments alone?

Here’s a link to the Google Maps diagram of the radials extended in all directions: Arbor Low radials. In this view you can click on each of the markers and see that each of them is a significantly named place, containing either the name of a Christian saint (popularly “Mary” or “Margaret“), or village names ending in “-ley”, “-lea” or “-leigh”. Some of the villages include the name “Cross“”, which I also think is significant, as it may indicate a location where the alignment leys I have discovered intersect with other ley lines. A rich source of further investigation in the years ahead, I feel. One final criterion for a significantly named place is the inclusion of the word “-stone“, which I believe indicates a standing marker stone may have existed there at one time, acting as a sighting stone indicating the direction and placement of the ley line.

Defining the Criteria for a Ley Line

This has always been a hot topic for leyhunters and critics of them. What constitutes a ley line? One could argue, “Well, you could draw a line anywhere in Britain and find that it goes through a place name like that.“. To a certain extent this is true. Random chance would be one factor, but it may also be that this country is riddled with ley lines, and eventually you are going to cross one or run alongside one if drawing a straight line across country. However, these are the elements I felt constituted a ley line without me having actually dowsed its presence yet:-

1. The town or village must end in “ley”, “lea”, “lee” or “leigh”
2. Such a village/town must not lie more than 1 mile from the central path of the neutral ley line.
3. The path of the line must pass through at least THREE significant ancient sacred sites.
4. There ought to be many references to saints names in the name of the villages, towns or the churches that the ley line passes through.

You’ll find one or two random proximities over any long line placed across the country. I tested this set of criteria, all classic ley line definitions, by starting a line map at a random point in the British countryside, and traced some lines to the cardinal points from there Here are the results for the Random Ley Line:-

1. NORTH: one close and one direct hit on a line extending 118 miles.
2. SOUTH: three close and five direct hits on a line extending 142 miles.
3. EAST:  no hits or near misses on a line extending 99 miles.
4. WEST: two close and two hits on a line extending 140 miles.

Eight hits on the random southern line, eh? But let’s look at the clustering of those hits – they almost ALL appear in the small space between the M40 motorway in Oxford (a hot spot for ancient sites and leys) and the M3 motorway in the space of about 20 miles. I venture to suggest we have actually hit an existing ley line in that area, or some very close to it. The total line extends some 140+ miles in total, mostly devoid of hits.

How many ancient sites were passed through in this test? NONE. How many saints names were in the names of villages or towns near to this random line? NONE. Did it align three or more sacred sites? NO. Okay – so the “ley” name criteria was occasionally met in clusters, but the other criteria were completely devoid.

The Arbor Low Lines

Let’s compare that now with the lines that I found emerging from the Arbor Low stone circle. I’ll do the details later, but for now, let’s just compare those cardinal hits and near misses.

Let’s examine each of those radials in turn, and see which significant places they touch. NOTE: all the lines have at least ONE sacred site because they all emerge from Arbor Low.

1. The Northern Ley

• Bearing: 0 Degrees
• Length: 173 miles.
• Places: 18
• Sacred sites: 2

The northern ley ends at Holy Island, and goes straight into the Lindisfarne Priory and ends at a place called Mary Gate.

One of the descendants of Llywelyn the Great (c. 1173-1240) was born in ‘Raby with Keverstone’, which is an interesting connection to Yr Elen mountain, a peak conjoined with one named Carnedd Llywelyn, meaning “Llywelyn’s cairn”.

Here are the places that are upon or close to this ley line:-

1. Farnley Tyas
2. Aspley
3. Bradley
4. Shipley
5. Burley
6. Ilkley
7. Thruscross
8. Bewerley
9. Pateley bridge
10. West Layton
11. Keverstone
12. Hedleyhope
13. Hamsterley
14. Throkley
15. Kirkley
16. Longhorsley
17. Adderstone
18. Mary Gate, Holy Island (Lindisfarne Priory)

2. The North–Eastern Ley

• Bearing: 45 Degrees
• Length: 71 miles.
• Places: 16
• Sacred sites: 4

Possibly travels through the Barbrook series of stone circles. Cannot find an end point, however, as many of the circles on the eastern seaboard would have been timber circles, and long since disintegrated.

Here are the places that are upon or close to this ley line:-

1. Bakewell (St.Peter’s Well)
2. Handley
3. Pilsley
4. Birchen Edge cairns (between Wellington’s and Nelson’s Monuments)
5. Ramsley (reservoir)
6. Whickersley
7. Bramley
8. Alverley
9. Cantley
10. Wheatley
11. Twin Rivers (at the mouth of the Humber where it divides into two rivers)
12. Crabley
13. Hunsley
14. Rowley
15. Westwood Common timber circle
16. Beverley

3. The Eastern Ley

• Bearing: 90 Degrees
• Length: 73 miles.
• Places: 6
• Sacred sites: 3

The line ends, I believe, at Bolinbroke Castle, made famous for being the seat of many of England’s kings, as recounted famously in several Shakespearean plays such as Henry IV, who was born there. Wikipedia link. The only other significant place I could find on this line is the Nine Ladies Stone Circle, also in Derbyshire. Perhaps the line ends there – this is something I will have to test out in the field by checking points along the line.

The funny thing about this line is that its bearing is not exactly 45 degrees. If a line is drawn at exactly 45 degrees then it slightly misses Nine Ladies, and misses Bolinbroke by a mile or so by the time it gets out east. Now, despite what I said earlier about the fact that the line as measured on the night was 45 degrees exactly, I actually think this might be a case for saying that I may have taken the measurement slightly wrong for this line. I say that because I am, indeed, fitting this line retrospectively based on the evidence of the sacred sites and villages named “ley” that I only discovered when I traced the line across the land. If you follow the line and see that the sites fit if the line is angled slightly further than 45 degrees I think you’ll agree it’s a more convincing case for the existence of a ley line.

Here are the places that are upon or close to this ley line:-

1. Nine Ladies Stone Circle
2. Clay Cross
3. Lower Pilsley
4. Pleasley
5. Clipstone
6. Bolinbroke Castle

However, by the criteria I laid out earlier, this line is not wholly convincing – only two ancient sites appear on it, and not three – unless Bolinbroke Castle could be considered to be an ancient site. We may never know. Where’s Time Team when you need them?

4. The South-Eastern Ley

• Bearing: 135 Degrees
• Length: 155 miles.
• Places: 12
• Sacred sites: 3

The least convincing of the radials, as I can’t find many ancient sites along this line for quite a long stretch. This is the problem with most of the lines that extend over the eastern side of the country – the geology of the area does not encourage the building of stone monuments. Instead, it would appear that their ancient monuments were rendered in timber, and then never upgraded to stone, as they had been elsewhere where suitable stone was abundant.

Here are the places that are upon or close to this ley line:-

1. Brightgate
2. Matlock Bath (petrifying well, Heights of Abraham, Rutland and Great Masson caverns)
3. Lea Bridge
4. Lea Brooks
5. New Brinsley
6. Felley (old priory – information contributed by reader ‘Pat’)
7. Mapperley
8. Lambley (The Lambley Spring)
9. Wiggenhall St Mary Magdalen
10. Tivertshall St.Margaret
11. Pulham St.Mary
12. St.James South Elmham

There is clustering of sites on this line, with a section in the middle (between Lambley near Nottingham and Wiggenshall SMM in Norfolk) where there are neither correspondences or ancient sites listed. I am quite unsure about whether the line continues beyond Nottingham at the moment. The only thing I have to make me want to keep the line the length it is would be the end point being the mouth of the River Blyth, which is such an exact geographical feature for a line to end at. A mile further north or south would have been less convincing. End points being the mouths of rivers seems to be a feature of the Arbor Low radials.

5. The Southern Ley

• Bearing: 180 Degrees
• Length: 167 miles.
• Places: 25
• Sacred sites: 5

The southern ley ends at St Catherine’s Hill on the northern edge of a town called Christ Church at the mouth of the River Avon and River Stour. Either that, or it ends at the Breamore (Bremmer) sites just a few miles further north, where there is a “Giant’s Grave” long barrow, a “Giant’s Chair” and an ancient turf maze called the Miz-Maze. Passes next to Stonehenge and other Wiltshire sites, and through Marlborough.

Of Catherine’s Hill:

“One “miracle” legend that local heritage does not play up is that Christchurch, like Vortigern’s citadel, was reportedly consumed by fire from heaven – no doubt because the reason given is that it was devastated by a fire-breathing dragon sent to punish the town for its wickedness. An account by a visiting French monk, Herman of Laon, has the town being burnt by a fire-breathing flying dragon in 1112/1113. Herman came here with a group touring SW England to raise funds to rebuild their home church, but got an unwelcome reception here. As Herman’s group left, they looked back and were pleased to see the town being burnt up by a dragon in revenge for the insult to their Lady of Laon.

Dragons are often associated with “fire from Heaven,” but despite new-age attempts to equate dragons with ‘serpent lines’ (rather than ley lines) of esoteric or geomantic force, no link with St Catherine’s Hill is apparent, Herman’s dragon rising from the sea. There is a local land-based serpent-dragon legend, but it is localised across the valley at Bisterne (which means beast’s or pest’s secret place). Or at least the family whose ancestor supposedly slew it resided at Bisterne, with the dragon carved on their stone gateposts in commemoration, the dragon itself alighting at Burley Beacon nearby to drink the milk the fearful locals left out for it. (For more on dragons and the theory they are linked to ley lines, see Here Be Dragons (2008), by Michael Hodges, author of the history of St Catherine’s Hill pictured right.)

The notion of the hill as a still actively pagan site in the Middle Ages is supported by some slight circumstantial evidence. At some point a chapel was built on the hilltop either in addition to, or else instead of, the planned hilltop priory church. This is despite the fact the downtown Priory site had up to nine chapels or altars there already. One theory is a hilltop church was erected to displace ongoing pagan use of the hill. It was the policy of St Augustine that the early Saxon church should take over ‘wood and stone’ pagan sites and give them a cosmetic makeover to convert them into Christian ones, beginning around 600.” (Source : http://www.south-coast-central.co.uk/n&q/stcatherineshill.htm)

Here are the places that are upon or close to this ley line:-

1. Fenny Bentley
2. Cubley
3. Fradley
4. Hilliard’s Cross
5. Lea Hall
6. Bentley Heath
7. Hockley Heath
8. Henley-in-Arden
9. Billesley
10. Blockley
11. Coln St.Aldwyns
12. Blunsdon St.Andrew
13. Westlea
14. Rockley
15. Lower Everleigh
16. Salisbury Cathedral
17. Clearbury Ring
18. The Giant’s Graves and Chair, and Miz-Maze
19. Gorley
20. Hangersley
21. Ashley Heath
22. St.Leonards and St.Ives
23. South Ripley
24. Sopley
25. St Catherine’s Hill

6. The South-Western Ley

• Bearing: 240 Degrees
• Length: 120 miles.
• Places: 14
• Sacred sites: 2

Passes through the legendary site of Caerleon, reputed site of King Arthur’s Camelot and long-time Roman Fort. link.

“When the feast of Whitsuntide began to draw near, Arthur, who was quite overjoyed by his great success, made up his mind to hold a plenary court at that season and place the crown of the kingdom on his head. He decided too, to summon to this feast the leaders who owed him homage, so that he could celebrate Whitsun with greater reverence and renew the closest pacts of peace with his chieftains. He explained to the members of his court what he was proposing to do and accepted their advice that he should carry out his plan in The City Of The Legions.

Situated as it is in Morgannwg (Glamorgan), on the River Usk, not far from the Severn Sea, in a most pleasant position, and being richer in material wealth than other townships, this city was eminently suitable for such a ceremony. The river which I have named flowed by it on one side, and up this the kings and princes who were to come from across the sea could be carried in a fleet of ships. On the other side, which was flanked by meadows and wooded groves, they had adorned the city with royal palaces, and by the gold-painted gables of its roofs it was a match for Rome.”

“After the death of Uther Pendragon, the leaders of the Britons assembled from their various provinces in the town of Silchester and there suggested to Dubricus, the archbishop of the City Of The Legions, that as their King he should crown Arthur, son of Uther. He called the other bishops to him and bestowed the crown of the kingdom upon Arthur. Arthur was a young man only fifteen years old …”

(from ‘History of the Kings of Britain’ by Geoffrey of Monmouth).

I suspect that the ley line may end at Butterdon Hill in the Dartmoor National Park. There is only circumstantial evidence for this based upon the frequency of nearby villages with the word “ley” or “leigh” in their names. Perhaps there is stronger evidence for the end point being Caerleon.

Here are the places that are upon or close to this ley line:-

1. Farley
2. Checkley
3. Church Leigh
4. Dodsleigh
5. Chartley
6. Shirleywich
7. Teddesley Park
8. Gailey
9. Wrottesley Park
10. Romsley
11. Upper Arley
12. Tedstone Wafer
13. St Weonards
14. Caerleon

7. The Western Ley

• Bearing: 270 Degrees
• Length: 92 miles.
• Places: 6
• Sacred sites: 2

The western ley goes to the imposing mountain of Yr Elen. No-one seems to know why it is dedicated to Elen, but I can hazard a guess – it is Elen of the Roads – the spirit who shows the seeker the way, who makes visible the invisible paths of energy, the ley lines, and here stands this summit: due West of Arbor Low, on a ley line, and dedicated to Elen. No other sacred sites along the way though, unless you include the town of Mold, which is steeped in history and pre-history, and whose castle may have been the site of a former, much more ancient, fort or protected sacred space. Or perhaps its church dedicated to St.Mary may have a much older history. But that’s speculation.

Here are the places that are upon or close to this ley line:-

1. Healthylee
2. Wimboldsley
3. Tarporley
4. Buckley
5. Mold (St Mary the Virgin church)
6. Yr Elen (mountain)

8. The North-Western Ley

• Bearing: 335 Degrees
• Length: 68 miles.
• Places: 6
• Sacred sites: 2

The north-west ley ends up at Blackpool’s South Shore. Not generally considered to be a sacred site (although it oculd be considered to be the spiritual home of Mecca Bingo) until you do a little  reserach on the subject. Here’s a quote about Blackpool’s megalithic history from the Megalithic Portal site concerning the one sacred site known about in Blackpool:

“Information from Pastscape:

“The Rev William Thornber states that a round cairn or cairns formerly stood on the site of the Lodge of Stonyhill, and he was told that Mr. Fisher, the proprietor of the field, had carted away upwards of twenty loads of soil, burnt red and black, from the site of a large circular cairn, which had made it difficult to identify. He also states that adjoining the cairns are two wells, one called the Fairy Well, or Wrangdomwell, and the other Bull Spring, which issues from a huge oblong mound of stones, in the Bull Meadows, which he supposes to be of artificial origin. He says that the Fairy Well was still resorted to with offerings of rags , nails and pins, and that he had found, himself, nails, leather thongs and-an old shaped knife, after the meadows had been ploughed.

This area is now completely covered with modern buildings.” Source: http://www.pastscape.org/hob.aspx?hob_id=39366“

Here are the places that are upon or close to this ley line:-

1. Fernlee Reservoir
2. Pott Shrigley
3. Gatley
4. Tyldesley
5. Crosstown
6. Blackpool

Again, I’m  not sure if this line really constitutes being called a ley line. There are very few sites above random chance, the sacred site at the end of the line may or may not have been of significant size and status, and there are no known extant or remnant sites in between Arbor Low and Blackpool.

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As you can see, some of the radials are more convincing than others. Over the course of the next year I aim to see whether there is any dowsing evidence, or local custom that would back up these suppositions.

Gwas.

Cumbria – September 27th, 2009

This is the final part (although it may be a long one) of our Cumbrian day out in late September of this year. Kal and I had spent the morning visiting the famous sites of Castlerigg and Long Meg, and then had retired to Penrith to reflect on the morning’s work. The afternoon promised much more to come – the intriguing sounding Mayburgh Henge, King Arthur’s Round Table right next door, and some smaller cairn circles that were situated close to the M6 motorway. Finally we would complete the day’s work at Gamelands stone circle nestled in the bosom of Knott Hill.

Mayburgh

Not far from where we dined we discovered Mayburgh Henge, situated uncomfortably close to the very busy northern arterial motorway that links the borders of Scotland with the northern reaches of England – in itself an uneasy relationship historically. Mayburgh Henge is well signposted, sitting at the southern end of Penrith town. No-one else was visiting that day so we had the site to ourselves. From the old sketch shown below you can see the arrangement and scale of the site in relation to the so-called Round Table of Arthur, a site whose name is shared amongst many other ancient earthworks and sacred sites.

Thomas Pennant's diagram (1769)

We climbed the relatively tall earthenwork surround passing between the evenly spaced trees that line it. The dowsing rods showed us our relative entry points. I asked to enter by the original entrance and was taken to a gap closest to the motorway on the western side. From there a path snaked into the centre, and I made my way in as Kal followed his own entry point – one that was most energetically suitable to him. The arena housed a sturdy standing stone, a remaining one of perhaps four that had stood there at one time.

I dowsed for the aura of this stone and found one some 20 feet away from the stone. My next quest was to find the most suitable power centre for me – typically a female energy centre. I found one, lip-shaped and of a slightly different grass to the surrounding greenery. The power centre was at the very edge of the stone’s nemeton field (or aura). The lip shape didn’t connect with me until I heard Kal exclaim and point to a white shape in the grass near to the the stone. I went to inevstigate….

It was a pair of white knickers! Obviously some courting had been going on here during the quieter hours and these undergarments had been frivolously abandoned in the frenzy! There was clearly something quite attractive in the energies of this space still!

We circled the central stone looking for something that we couldn’t vocalise. As I stood exactly opposite the entrance something emerged from the stone in the afternoon light – a face in the stone, like at so many other sites.  This looked like the face of a heavily bearded man, or perhaps a lion with a majestic mane. Photographs never do the phenomenon the justice that one’s own eyes do, but I hope that if you unfocus your perception a little you might catch the essence of what we saw in the stone. At least he appeared to be smiling!

Kal asked if there was anything “energetically interesting” (which has come to mean something that we haven’t discovered before, or which would help us on our journey through dowsing) and the answer came back a flat “No”. I did the same and got the same response. Perhaps our time would be better spent elsewhere, we concluded. The site seemed….changed. Perhaps we were there are the wrong time, or the site was too damaged. Whatever the reason I began to look for the exit, which I found to be a gap in the northern edge of the earthwork ridge.

King Arthur’s Round Table

On the way to Mayburgh we had passed a sign for Arthur’s Table, so on the way back out we stopped briefly so that I could photograph it. We didn’t bother with any dowsing here as there were several cairn circles and more that we wanted to get to. There didn’t seem to be much to the site. I trusted Kal’s intuition – he normally gets attracted to interesting sites, and that’s why he’s so useful on these expeditions, although we are both sometimes surprised by places that initially seem to be nothing at first glance, but which turn up unusual features. I leave you with some pics and info to decide for yourself.

I tend to agree with the views of authors like Thomas Green, who wrote the book “Concepts of Arthur“, and who believes that Arthur was a mythical archetype who had subsequently been subjugated and sublimated into historical record, force-fitted if you like, for the aspirational purposes of whomsoever needed him influence during their own reign as King of Britain. I tend to agree that Arthur fits the archetypal sun hero mythology with an extra dimension of being seen as one with the land.

Oddendale and Seal Howe

The clouds began to thicken and the wind picked up markedly as we arrived at Oddendale by a road that can barely be described as such. It didn’t take us long, tramping over the bleak limestone laden moorland, to decide that the rag-tag arrangement of rocks that barely resembled any form of structure might be the remnant of a cairn circle as noted by Burl, but frankly we didn’t care. Follow the link in the previous sentence for a better view, because it appears more exciting on that page. For us, we didn’t “get” anything about it or from it. The wind whipped us, and rain threatened, and we decided that we should head back to the car in search of more rewarding features.

In retrospect I think we missed the point with this circle, but at the time we weren’t keen on it. We laughed at the idea of dowsing what was left and headed back to the car down the track that was marked as the Coast To Coast trail. As we go to the point where the trees met the path our eyes were drawn to a small ensemble of rocks, almost simultaneously. Here was a ring of stones, right next to the path, but not marked on the OS map. How curious? Who was it not on there, because clearly the stones were a circle, and equally clearly they were obviously not a new construction?

Suddenly this assumed a huge importance as it was found to be quite energetic. Our dowsing motivation returned with a vengeance and we were suddenly highly engaged in this tiny circle of small stones in a way that the larger circle a few minutes ago had not managed to do. We soon found that, although highly energetic, the circle was in need of “repair”. As usual, Kal dowsed for which of us should get engaged int he task, also as usual hoping that it wasn’t him. It was him! I laughed – served him right for trying to be lazy! “The rods had spoken!”

I watched in amusement as Kal assembled some increasingly large rocks and placed them appropriately at points around the circle, wherever the dowsing rods informed him to place them. Once he tried to pick up a tiny rock that was next to a large boulder and he gave me a sideways glance. Oh no! I dowsed for which rock would be most suitable to the task and confirmed it was the larger rock, which again amused me no end.

Kal introduced the healing energies of a nearby tree into the circle to kick-start the healing process, and then confirmed that the process was complete, as the energies were already beginning to change in response to the new rocks, the intent that Kal had invested, and the living energies of the tree. We rather punningly named the ring cairn “Kalmott ring cairn“- a combination of our given names – and on our return I posted it to the Megalithic Portal. To our astonishment, the entry was validated and published.

As we left the site we spotted three stones in alignment. How had we missed this on the way in? How had we missed the cairn circle? It was all very strange. Here were three stones that I dowsed as entrance stones. They were in alignment with the Oddendale circle and the cairns on the hilltop in the distance. It looked to us like this whole area had at one time been full of important megalithic structures. It certainly was for us!

Gamelands

Gamelands circle was quite easy to get to as well. Seems as though many of the circles in Cumbria are quite accessible, or perhaps that’s just how it happened for us on this visit. I found an entrance point on the eastern side, shown in the picture below. Directly behind us to the east was Knott Scarr, a rather dramatic small hill that also seemed to feature a pair of cairns atop it, just like Oddendale. Taking this concept further I dowsed as to whether there was any energy coming down from the hill, like at Monzie Circle in Perthshire. Indeed there was, and it flowed straight into the entrance of the circle. Interesting, I thought. A feed.

Our respective power centres were quite close to each other. Mine was at a recumbent smooth rounded female stone topped with lovely fresh sheep droppings. Nice! Kal’s was a less than obvious male stone without the usual point. Most unlike Kal! He’s always got a point to make!

Whilst I dowsed away quite happily, tracing flows around the circle and finding energy paths, Kal was busying himself making friends with the herd of cows on the other side of the fence. Bovine relations took a curious turn when Kal tried to walk away and some of the cows began to follow his movements, heading towards the open gate that linked the stone circle field to the cow’s pasture land. Ut-oh! Cows are too curious about dowsing for my liking. I had had a recent experience at St.Elmo’s Summer House in North Wales where I had to abandon my dowsing when the cows got quite upset at me walking around the ring, and finally they chased me away. Here was Kal positively inviting the cows to come and join the dowsing work. I foresaw imminent bovine botheration coming out way.

I found a strong link between two female stones on either side of circle. The farther one was heavily pitted with cup-marks or weathering, or heavily weathered cup-marks – it wasn’t possible to tell which with this limestone rock. Either way, that was the only female connection, as the rest of the site was very male-dominated, possibly a result of the strong energy flow off the hill.

Shortly after finding this out the cows got too inquisitive and began to crowd us – abandon ship! It was getting late and we had several hours of traffic jams to get through yet, although we didn’t know that yet.

The day was done. We had seen some amazing circles, saw the most beautiful landscapes, a stunning sunset, had done some worthwhile dowsing, had meditated purposefully at several sites, and had a good laugh as we went around too. And all this was mere scouting for the inevitable further visits we will do with some more intensive dowsing, mapping and meditating in the coming months. Cumbria is a treasure trove of great sites!

Here are some links to external sites with more information:-

• Gamelands: http://www.visitcumbria.com/pen/gamelands.htm
• Mayburgh Henge and King Arthur’s Round Table:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mayburgh_Henge

Gwas.

I have just finished two of the most impressive books on the subject of the Western Mystery Tradition’s greatest and original prophet: Merlin.To most of us, to almost everyone, Merlin has been portrayed as a caricature, a cartoon character, and a convenient symbol of a “wizard” with a Celtic flavour. With the exception of John Boorman’s excellent film “Excalibur” Merlin has been degraded into a mythical similie of mystical power.

For a more level-headed, considered, erudite and focused study I urge you to read Robert J.Stewart’s two books in sequence: “The Prophesies of Merlin” and the even more astounding “The Mystic Life of Merlin“. In the prophesies book, as you might expect, we get a clever deconstruction and interpretation of the meaning of Merlin’s supposed prophetic utterances. The back story is remarkably well explained and decoded, which leads beautifully into the convincing middle section. This is where Merlin’s predictions are considered in the light of historical record, and with startling results. Stewart then goes on to reveal Merlin’s continued stream of consciousness until the end of mankind. We are left with a clear wake-up call to our own consciousness – our consciousness of life, the universe, history and future.

In the partner sequel, “The Mystic Life of Merlin” Stewart delves into a number of interesting areas. He follows Geoffrey of Monmouth’s “Vita Merlini“ in terms of exposition, but interweaves elements of the Prophesies where it re-enforces his argument for an extremely early Celtic origin for the story. It derives, he claims with consistent evidence, from a western mystery tradition of training in natural magick – although that is my terminology that I’m employing. Taliesin, the Welsh bard of legend, is also associated closely with helping Merlin understand the world through an ancient catechism in which Taliesin reveals that forces at work in the world and beyond it. Stewart presents a good case for a geometric link between the forces at play in Merlin’s life as it pertains to the stages of psychological development along the path from king to madman, to seer, magician and prophet, and eventually into enlightenment.

We also get a link in with the origins of Tarot Cards, relating the characters of Merlin’s life story with the original Major Arcana depictions. The Rider Waite set also retain many of the personae and events from the story of Merlin’s life in their composition, meaning and detail.

It’s an astounding and revealing interpretation of a system of magickal teachings passed down through first oral, then written tradition. For those who seek to re-discover some of those abilities, these books point the way.

Gwas.

Following in the footsteps of the dragon.