The Hedge Druid

Archive for the ‘Modern Druidry’ Category

Okay, just in case you haven’t got the other 4 related posts on this, here is a link (Knights Pilgrimage) to them. Excellent! Now continue….

Steps of the Pilgrims

Let’s start with a recap.

1. I was waylayed by my Totem into going on a pilgrimage that I hadn’t needed or planned for, impromptu you might say.
2. Then I found a couple who were lost in the Forest of Dean.
3. I, with reluctance on their part, helped them find their way out.
4. Only to find that, in all the forest, both our cars were parked within feet of each other.
5. The importance was the fact that they had been lost.
6. Then it was off to the Merry Maidens (only 5 hours away!) to have a dream about the DragonDragons are spirit or energetic beings that reside in sacred sites and have a particular location in them and also move throughout the day (and or season). They also leave the sacred site on occasion, which again differentiates them from Genius Loci which don’t. and the Phoenix
7. Then a realisation that this was something that I had lost from the quest, an opportunity to create a Knights Crest.
8. The next day I was off to Tintagel, where a vision of Cailleach told me that I needed to accept help from a Knight.
   

   My personal spot

And now, I had just arrived at Glastonbury from Tintagel. It was 3.30pm in the afternoon and I was stiff from all that time in the car.  Grabbing some food I headed to the place I knew I wanted to be. The Chalice Well gardens. I get lucky with that place often, i.e. the whole garden to myself. This was no exception. I didn’t need to dowse for my power spot in here. It was beneath the hawthorn tree. I sat and meditated for a good half-hour. Feeling thoroughly relaxed and refreshed. I had closed my the whole time and when I finished them I looked in front of me and there were three people sat there facing me.

Okay… now that is freaky. Two ladies and a gent were sat in front of me, some ten feet away and meditating too. I kind-of gave a bit of a cough and one of the ladies, opened her eyes. She smiled at me (fortunately not one of those psycho-killer smiles) and I smiled back (un-encouragingly).

“We saw the energy coming out of you,” she said quietly, not disturbing the others. “Ah, okay,” I said, thinking, what energy? Her companions had also come out of their meditation now and were smiling disconcertingly at me. “Yes,” the other woman said. “You were radiating like the sun.” Er, ok, I replied, I didn’t notice.

The man asked me whether I was a healer, I replied that I occasionally dabbled. He told me that I had a gift for it and that I should share it. Seriously? Career advice?

“Thank you,” I told him, “but I think it was more the trees energy than mine.”

“Ah yes, of course it was, we are but the channel.”

“We are indeed,” I intoned as I hastened from the gardens.

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This is a tale about my knights pilgrimage. Click that link to get them in some order, or just jump in and enjoy.

Pilgrimage

Tintagel Waterfall

Have you ever wondered, when does a pilgrimage start? Is it at your door? Is it when you decides it starts? Is there a marker point? Believe it or not I have actually been on a holy pilgrimage to Mecca, namely the Hajj. The Hajj is a seriously complex affair for those who know nothing about it, i.e. me. However what can be said is that it has a definitive start and end point. There are several start points and they depend on the direction of travel. For me I was going from the UK to Saudi-Arabia, thus for me, the start point was Cairo. I don’t know why that is. I didn’t study that part in detail. Perhaps it has energetic, historic, port significance. My point is that there is a definitive start.

What then of my Knights Pilgrimage? Did it have a definitive start? A question to ask in the Travel Lodge car park, I fancy. The answer was Yes. Had I started it? Yes. When? Right now! Oh. What do you do with a response like that? Nothing except shout out, Tally Ho!

Where to next…Tintagel? Yes. First question, first answer, Excellent. Is the sun shining? Yes! Bonus!

Castle of Kings

Tintagel. You have to be there to feel the energy of that place. No, really you have to. The pics look amazing but they don’t do the place justice, not by a long margin. I arrived at the castle around 11 and set of for a leisurely look around. Introducing myself to the spirit of the place so to speak. Gwas is mad! He has only been here once. Yes, it’s a zillion miles away, but come on? Merlin, Arthur. This IS the place to be.

I was fortunate enough to have stayed an hour and half away from this castle last year and so had several trips out to it. Each one was an occasion to be remembered and as I walked through the ruins and remains of this majestic place those memories came back. Particularly the Huge Quartz crystal I had found in the waterfall after being directed by Cailleach.

• Can I just say guys, if you’re looking for a particular post on this blog, forget the search button on here. Just use google. For instance I found the above link by searching…“hedge druid Tintagel cailleach” it was the top link!

After meandering through the grounds a few times and taking a trip to the bottom of the waterfall. It was a gorgeous day. I decided to find the place where I could learn something. After some difficulty I determined that it was inside one of the caves. Time to get wet. Why am I always getting wet?

A helping hand

Okay, I confess, I didn’t dowse for the best place in the cave it was difficult enough to navigate without trying to dowse as well. So I found a comfortable spot and dangled my feet into the cool water and let my mind float. It was a nice feeling and I could have sat for a good while there. My thoughts were on my previous visit when that ‘ol dear Cailleach had produced a crystal of some size for me to take away. Whether it was because I was thinking of her or not. A few minutes later the lady appeared. As per usual she was a stunning beauty. Why is she so often depicted as a crone?

As I looked at her, she came right up close to me. Frighteningly close. I could see right into her eye (yes that is a singular) she had stars in her eye. I stared into that eye for ages.

• Oh and no their depth didn’t entice or engulf me, much though poetic license might let me say.
  

  Star Eye

As I looked into that eye, the thought of the knight who had stood over me at Gop Hill came to mind. Weird and why? Were parallel thoughts.

You need a helping hand. She had stepped back. It is a flaw in you. You won’t accept helping hands. She laughed, not unless they trick you into it. Of course she was referring to herself in this regard. I had refused her in Ireland and then found myself taking up her challenges 8 months later at St Helen’s well. But for you, that is how it is. I looked at her askance and O my gosh. Some deep flooding memories came to me…

• In one of Castaneda’s work. He talks of the abstract. Don Juan, his mentor, tells him of how the spirit entices the warrior onto his path. It does so through trickery because a person won’t accept it at face value.

If you have read that particular work (I think it was in the Power of Silence) then you will be feeling the same awe that I felt at that time. Even as I write this my hair is curling up on my neck.

She, Cailleach, smiled. She knew what I was thinking (of course she did, she is a figment of my imagination, I thought). Of course I am, I told you that last year. She drew close again and I looked into her star filled eye. Yes, she had. Although it isn’t as simple as that, it never is.

You need help, she said again. Yes, well, you’re helping me aren’t you? I said. No, you need a Knights help. Why? I asked. Again she moved close and I looked into her eye. Nothing. Rather disappointing I have to say, and a slight dig in my ego. I sometimes feel it is a test, don’t you? I could hear the waterfall outside and my thoughts went to the bowling ball sized quartz that I picked up from there. What ever happened to that? Oh yes, I had left it by the side of a couple of Yew trees at my old lodgings. Why did you do that? I was startled out of my pondering by the question. I don’t know, I responded.

Exactly. You can’t know at this time. but you will know later. She looked at me and if I had to guess I would have though that she was looking into my eye. What? Will you accept the Knights help? Do I have a… she sighed. Okay, I accept. She vanished. Hey!

That’s it! She just vanished, no puff of smoke, no nothing. Just gone. Great (laced with sarcasm).

The rods agreed with me that my time at Tintagel was concluded and so with the lighting of several incense sticks in gratitude. I left that remarkable place.

I dowsed for the next stop on my pilgrimage, after confirming that it wasn’t finished yet. Again, my first suggestion of Glastonbury was accepted as Yes. So off I toddled, A mere 120 miles away!

Kals Knight Pilgrimage continues

This is part of my knights pilgrimage. for all the other posts related to this please click this (Knights Pilgrimage)  link and follow in order. Or just dive in and have fun!

Cars

In the previous post I had just left a couple on their way to their car and I was walking down a path which I hoped would lead to mine as the night was closing in. Fortunately it did and I was amazingly relieved. Hang on though, I thought as looking for my keys. Where am I supposed to go next? And had I done what was needed at the Forest of Dean? I asked the latter question first.

• Was I done with the forest? Yes. Considering all I had done was show a lost couple out of the forest. Was this what I was supposed to have done? Yes. That’s it? No. Was there a lesson in it for me? Yes.

I am not one for lessons, I have to say. And as I considered this, I heard some people walking towards me and stopped my dowsing to let them pass. I was shocked when they came into the light of passing cars. It was Beverly and Darren. The couple I had just left in the forest. They were as surprised to see me as I was them.

Lost

“Are you still lost?” I asked. They responded no, and pointed to the only other car parked near mine. “That’s our car.” I was stunned. What! I pointed to the other car and said to them. That’s mine. I was expecting surprise and shock. What I got was suspicion. “Well, thank you for your help.” They sidled passed me got into their car and drove off in haste. Gosh! People!

A little tip for you. When we’re out in the midst of sacred sites looking for direction and guidance. One of the ways we try to find the relevant event or incident is simply by breaking up the events into parts and asking, “was that relevent?” for each part. Simple, stupid, but often effective.

So, I began asking about each part of the day to find the missing link so to speak.

• Was it the crows that led me to the forest? No
• Was it my adventurous spirit to go? No
• Was it bumping into the couple? Kind-of (Ok, this is where one rod swings in but the other doesn’t. Come on you know this already, right?)
• Was it helping them find their way out? Kind-of.
• Was it that their car and mine where in the same place? No. I was expecting a yes here.
• Was it that they were lost? Yes.

Lost? Why was their being lost the message or guidance for me. Added to this was helping them find their way out. Definitely something to muse over on my pilgrimage.

Pilgrim notes

As an exercise, I thought that I would compile a notebook for the specific messages that I got on this diary so here it is so far:

1. Following and trusting my totem (crow)
2. Finding a couple who are lost
3. Helping them (reluctantly) find their car.

The Longest Drive

Was my pilgrimage complete? No. Come on, I had to ask. Okay where to next? Which direction? Thank god for my iPhone compass. I dowsed in a circle and ended up pointing south, according to my compass.

I thought of some places to the south, bare in my mind that my geography is appalling.

• Glastonbury? It was an obvious choice and the No wasn’t surprising.
• Avebury (was that south of here?) no matter, the answer was no.
• Stonehenge? No
• Tintagel? Okay, I know it’s South-West from the forest now, but at that time I didn’t. Anyway the answer was No.
  

  dean to merry maidens

Alright, it was time to try a different tack. Was it further than Glastonbury? Yes. Further than Stonehenge? Yes. Was it a (known to me) Sacred Site? Yes. Had I been there? Yes. Was it further than Tintagel? I was really hoping for a no to this one, but got a yes. O Crap! I cast my mind back to my stay in Devon and the sites I had visited.

• Hurlers? No
• Pipers Stones? No
• Any of the number of churches? No
• The Fogou, the name escaped me. No.
• Merry Maidens? Yes.

What! Seriously? The merry maidens? Why? Did I have to go there now? Yes. What? Why? I plugged the destination into my sat nav. 240 miles! Just under 5 hours! It was 7pm now! Am I insane? Don’t answer that.

The Dancing Coven

I drove and drove. Luckily or not, I’m used to these loooong haul drives having done them for a year or so. Even so. I had better get something useful out of this. Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone, written by J.K. Rowling and read by the amazing reader, Stephen Fry was my companion on this long journey. Amazingly I was only up to the point when they (Harry, Hermione and Ron) go down the trapdoor when I turned onto the lane that is adjacent to the Merry Maidens. I parked up the car and looked across into the field. There was a small fire burning in it. I got out of the car and for some reason, quietly closed my door so the sound wouldn’t carry. After waiting a few moments I walked up to the edge of the surrounding bushes and peered into the field. There were several people in the field. I wondered if they had spotted my car. It wasn’t visible over the bushes but the light must have been. Hang on though I thought, I had as much right to be here as anyone else. So why was I hesitating?

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In the final part of my Spring Equinox posts for this year I have a small tale to tell that demonstrates how following your path leads to results even in the face of adversity and seeming inactivity. It’s a tale for those to whom perserverence is a watchword. The story follows directly from our encounters in Dove Dale. You may remember that I had met The Lady of the Dove at Lover’s Leap rock, high above the River Dove in the late evening sun. I had requested her help to know the next part of my journey and she had offered her help, but had told me that such knowledge would not (indeed could not) be given at Dove Dale. I already knew this, as I had dowsed that I would need to visit Parwich Hill in order to find such an answer.

Prangs for the memory!

We drove the few miles down the A515 then down a small country road to the village centre. From there we would have to find our own way to the hill depending on how things looked when we arrived. On arrival the village was surprisingly busy. There were narrow streets, parked cars, people milling about, and most surprisingly a coach was trying to reverse down the road that I thought we might need to go up to get to the hill. I looked across to Kal and reminded him of Imbolc when such blockages had been a sign not to visit a particular place with bad energies. Was this another bad omen? As I thought that I reversed to make space for the coach to come out into the main road and managed to back my car into a low wall. A sickening crunch and scrape noise was heard from the back of the car. Although startled, I reckoned it didn’t sound too bad and resolved to look at it later. For now we needed to find a place to park before the sun went down completely. We still had the hill to climb and we had done a lot of climbing and walking already this day. The closer I could get to the hill the better.

We parked and I looked at the scratch. It was bad. A paint job definitely – this wouldn’t wax out! Never mind. I just hoped it wouldn’t sour the visit. We found a footpath up the hill and began our final climb of the day. Ten minutes of burning calves later we were on the top of the hill looking out over the village and the surrounding countryside. I appreciated all the work I had done in the last year on getting fit! In the late evening sun the view was beautiful. We headed for a clump of trees on the summit and wandered around inside looking for the best place to meditate.

The copse on Parwich Hill at Spring Equinox

We knew where we wanted to sit, and when I found the best spot – sunlit and between two mature trees – then we settled there in order to absorb the day’s last rays. Kal sat against one and I was against the other, and each of us did our own work in the fading golden light. We had again timed it just right because the place where we sat was only now in sunlight, and when we arose it was in shadow again. We had picked the perfect time to be in the most obvious meditation place. We confirmed our intuition with the dowsing rods, but this was a formality. We already knew this was the bets place to be.

Now began to meditation to discover the purpose of my journey for the next several weeks until Beltane.

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Forest of Dean

In my previous post I told how I was waylayed on to a pilgrimage journey. I had set out for a short trip in Wales and ended up on course for the forest of Dean some 180 miles away! Crazy. Fortunately the weather was fabulous. It could have been confused for a sunny summer’s day and yet we are on the eave of spring. After a long…long drive I arrived at the edge of the Forest of Dean. I had been here a few times before. One more memorable event was when I had a vision to get in touch and repair my relationship with my sister. I wasn’t expecting something as amazing as that, but hey you never know.

Sunlight Shining Through Forest

Not really knowing the road structure around the forest. I just parked up at a convenient spot and trundled into the forest. It is an amazing forest I have to say. To me, it feels a lot younger than Alderley Edge and Delamere forests with which I am more familiar with. Hmmm A kind of fresh cleansed feeling, if you know what I mean? Maybe it was a feeling of up coming spring? I don’t know.

Anyway, I had walked along the paths for about an hour, which isn’t long in this size of forest, when I felt the urge to leave the beaten track and wander into the undergrowth. It was about 3 in the afternoon and I wasn’t too worried about getting lost, not with the trusty clink of my dowsing rods.

I asked my dowsing rods whether this was the place that I was to start my pilgrimage? Yes. That was good, but since I had already had a message to say my quest was complete. I wanted more answers. So I determined some more answers.

• Was my quest complete? Yes.
• Was this pilgrimage to do with my quest? Yes. That was rather confusing.
• Did I need to complete this pilgrimage? No.
• Would it provide me with some insight if I did? Yes. This was a strong YES by the way.

I guess that is good enough for me to burn a couple hundred pounds worth of petrol. Hmmm! I asked if there was a particular place in the forest that I needed to be? Yes. Taking a lesson from Gwas’s dowsing, I asked how far this was? Between 20/30 minute walk. That was OK with me so I set of following the rods through the semi-dense trees of the Forest of Dean.

I  would occasionally check my watch (iPhone) and finally 30 minutes had passed and I had not come to a stop. Why do the rods take you on a windy route? Why?? Anyway, I stopped. It was getting really hot and I was getting a bit worried. Sun set was around 2 hours away and my iPhone signal was nil-point! I asked the rods again, how many minutes walk and they responded 20/30 minutes! What the Great Prophet Zarquon! I double checked that nothing was interfering with my dowsing, there wasn’t.

Lost couple

I was ready to quit, when I heard a noise. Remember I was in the undergrowth. Not on a path. I waited a few seconds and heard a couple of people some distance ahead of me. From the sounds of it, they were arguing. I listend for a minute, but could make out what was going on. So I decided to get about my business. Again, I followed the rods.They pointed in the direction of the talking people. But knowing that they swerve a lot I wasn’t too worried and off I went. A few seconds later I came out on the path. Right in front of the arguing couple (yes, they were a couple).

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After the evening at Gop Hill (see  nightly revelations) I had missed the message that my knights quest had completed, successfully I might add. As I said in that post I was rather disappointed at its conclusion as I had been looking forward to the challenge of completing a south-north pilgrimage. And indeed had been informed at Dinas Bran (see Dinas Bran shows the way) that my pilgrimage should start at the Forest of Dean.

Anyway a week had past since our visit to Gop Hill and I was beginning to accept the completion of my quest. You might “how did it feel?” Not any different I’m afraid. I have to say that I was/am looking forward to the Spring Equinox ( a week away) which being a sun person will, I feel be very enlightening.

It was a bright sunny morning and I had decided to go for a drive and a walk. I had plenty of work to do so did not feel the urge to go too far, perhaps an hours drive. North Wales seemed like a reasonable destination. A few minutes in the car however had me feeling that maybe the Wizards wood at Alderley Edge would be a better direction. So I took the relevant turn and off I went. Some 10 minutes later I came to a junction where the left would have taken me towards Alderley. I had a strange compulsion to take the right turn instead and so I did.

I pondered whether I should stop the car and determine a destination via the dowsing rods, since I was getting some intuitional urges. I left the matter for the moment and carried on driving, fortunately the night before I had filled the petrol tank to the max.

I drove along the motorway for some 40 minutes before deciding to pull into a service station. As I sat in the car pondering whether to get out a grab a coffee and sandwich a noticeable crow flew over my car, circled in a wide arc and flew off in the direction I had been driving. Okay, I thought, forgot the coffee and hit the highway again. I had driven along this particular stretch many times and knew that there was a distinct lack of sacred sites along it. Unless…

As I drove, I realised that this route would take me south and towards the Forest of Dean and beyond. But it was a 2.5 hour journey to the forest, not including the hour I had already driven. Surely not! I hadn’t prepared for such a long journey, and what if it continued on after that?

Well, I wasn’t going to make that journey without more concrete instructions than a Crow! So, again at another service station I stopped, this time at a quiet corner of the car park to do some surreptitious dowsing. But I didn’t get the chance. As soon as I got out of the car 3 Crows flew over squawking and in the direction of travel. Okay! So be it. I got in the car and set the Sat Nav for the Forest of Dean (which was to be the beginning of the adventure).

Kal Malik

Kal sits in Dove Holes caves at Dovedale in Derbyshire

I wasn’t sure what to expect from the Dove Holes. I had visited Thor’s Cave in Derbyshire at Winter Solstice and that had been impressive. The Dove Holes were equally impressive. My mind was taken back to the episode in the books I had read where the questors met with the spirit they called “Gweveraugh” – a sort of female deity figure that they associated with a tribal leader from England’s history. I wondered if there was any sign of such a presence here in these caves at this moment. Kal and I sat in the caves but I felt no presence there at that time.

Kal began making sounds within the caves so I began to try some sound experiments too. I did some humming of various frequencies that I associate with opening my chakras (after putting up some protection, of course – lessons learned and all that). The procedure felt really good and I was enlivened by the response of my sound in that cave environment. Then Kal called over to me, “Hey – try expanding your aura in the cave” he suggested. We had done this kind of thing before at Park Wood in South Wales so I tried it again. As my aura touched the cave walls I began to get “feedback” – my temples began to pulse and throb like they do just before a thunderstorm.

Kal looked over at me,

“When you expand your aura do your temples throb just like before a thunderstorm?”

Was he reading my mind? I confirmed that they did. How odd! I wonder what all that was about?

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