The Hedge Druid

Archive for the ‘Theory’ Category

The year has only just started and already I am way out of line with my posts and the dates upon which the action took place. I fear this year is going to be SO busy that we are going to have to start posting smaller and faster just to keep up. In this post I revisit the Llangernyw Yew tree that is the starting point for many of my previous years’ quests and adventures. This year was no exception. This episode occurred in late January, before Imbolc. Yes, we have all the Imbolc posts still to come! So much to tell you about already this year. On to this story.

It is a philosophical point as to whether the tree really communicates with the druid. Perhaps its still nature and deep-rootedness simply allow you to go deep within yourself and find a small reflection of your own wishes that are then brought out to serve as an inspiration for the elaboration that is to come? Certainly, that is often how it appears, yet there is always something that you never actually know yourself, something that you couldn’t have known, something that surprises you and this element is the unquestioning influence of the yew tree itself. It is for this reason that I visit the tree so often, and always at the start of the year. The yew tree starts the year, offering me its guidance on the theme of my work for the coming turn of The Wheel.

The massive Llangernyw Yew tree

Kal and I split up as usual, he going off to tour the graveyard briefly before settling into his own meditations around the tree, whilst I got straight to work beneath the mighty ancient yew. The weather was cold, but crisp and the sun was shining which made the day feel warmer than it should have been at that time of year. The yew tree would normally have been subdued by a biting frost and a layer of snow in January, but instead it felt ready to burst back into life as though Spring were upon us, even though Spring was still two full months away.

I settled into a meditation after dowsing for the best place to work from, and a direction to face – into the Sun, unusually. Little did I know that this would become a recurring theme for this year, as I will show in later posts. Within minutes I was deep inside the yew tree after setting up protection and doing my grounding and centring visualisations. They came easily, and the yew responded with a warm and deep hum like the clearing of an ancient throat at length. In humility I directed a question, a thought-idea at the yew and hoped for a response: “What is my direction for this year?” I asked. Deep quiet. Long silence. Then a stirring, and a word moving up from the depths of the roots into my consciousness: “Renown”. Just that one word!

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Welcoming Nine Stones Close

This post is preceded by Part One (A Call to the Nine Ladies) and Part Two (Doll Tor and the Hidden Gem).

A trip to Derbyshire isn’t complete without visiting the fabulous Nine Stones Close sacred site. I have to say that our first visit to this site wasn’t promising. We had felt that the energies were strong there but not aligned with us. We were young, we were foolish, we were unrecognising the beautiful but ill Oak tree in the adjacent (but close) field.

Fortunately we have learned. Nine Stones is now one of my favourite sites. There I have danced with Pan, healed a so grateful Oaks aura and been blessed with its protection. I owe the site a lot and as I approached it across the muddy fields I knew without communingAn interaction with an invisible and natural sentient force that is independently identifiable, even if it cannot be named or classified. The interaction takes place at the level of a subtle amalgamation of the mind of the perceiver such that a dialogue or transference of feelings may occur between the two sentient parties. The interaction that is ‘communing’ is purposefully initiated by the perceiver for the express purpose of learning or simply to transfer feelings in a sympathetic manner. that it was shouting a tally-ho across the fields. I know sounds like a lot of hubris, but in some cases, I am sorry guys, you just have to be there. Experiences are visceral.

This was the third sacred site that I visited and I felt I was on a wonderful role. With my meeting the Maori spirit singer at nine ladies, the energised Lapis at Doll Tor and now the welcoming nine stones close. Okay I was up to my ankles in mud, but hey, the sun had broken through the clouds and I was joyous.

Propping my bag on the stone wall between the tree and the stones I did some preliminary dowsing…

• Was the Oak healthy? Yes. Good, that Oak is my friend.
• Was there any work for me to do at the site? Yes.
• Did the site need any healing? No. Good, since Gwas the Earth healer was absent.
• Was the work on myself? Yes.
• Did I need to meditate? No. O Okay.
• Did I need to visualise? Yes. Ah…er…what’s the difference?
• Did I need anything? Yes.

I asked to be taken to what I needed and was led to my bag. I opened the bag, which alas has so much clutter in it, it would make a Feng Shui practitioner scream. Anyway I asked which section of the bag I needed to look and was after a few more questions pointed at a folder of notes.

Side note: Having progressed along the path of getting my book published by Hay House (see Kals 3 Goals) I am in the process or rather beginning the process of creating an audio/visual version of it (Active Enlightenment). To that end I have been failing miserably at trying to order the book in accordance with its new form. The notes for this was contained in tha bove mentioned folder.

I have a theory, please let me know what you think in the comments. My theory is that if something is playing on your mind then dowsing and communingAn interaction with an invisible and natural sentient force that is independently identifiable, even if it cannot be named or classified. The interaction takes place at the level of a subtle amalgamation of the mind of the perceiver such that a dialogue or transference of feelings may occur between the two sentient parties. The interaction that is ‘communing’ is purposefully initiated by the perceiver for the express purpose of learning or simply to transfer feelings in a sympathetic manner. and visiting of sacred sites will take this obsessing into account in its direction – sometimes. What do you think? Why are we directed/guided as we are? For instance, what the heck is the Knights Quest all about? Would love your thoughts on this.

The beginning

And so I have been playing with this content for the last 3 weeks in attempt to bring order to chaos. Now, here I am with this pile of notes, in a muddy field, with four huge rocks in it. Question time…

• Are these notes what I am being directed at? Yes.
• Am I to read them to find what I am looking for? No
• Is it the notes as a whole? Yes.
• Should I do a visualisation on them? Yes

Okay, first thing is that there were a lot of questions – that in honesty I feel foolish in repeating, so I wont, secondly. I had no idea what “visualise on them” meant. The best I could manage was to sit on the stone wall under the oak facing the circle and look through my notes. And then it happened…

As I leafed through the notes, looking at all the permutations that the topics could go in, I saw what was needed. Not only did I see this but also the music from the Maori singer came to mind. She hadn’t been singing in a rhythm that went fast at all. She had been singing in a spiral. It was so clear that I saw the image float in 3D space in front of me. With the image came an unblocking, as if the mental gates had opened and the process could run freely. Honestly, I cried.

My purpose for the next few weeks is to create that vision,

Kal Malik

One of the starting points for a journey into the world of the mystical is synchronicity. Synchronicity could be considered to be simply defined as the act of attaching significance to the confluence of activities. In other words, if something happens that causes your attention to focus upon two events or actions coming together, and you remark upon it by relating it to your own life in some way, then you could be said to be partaking in an act of synchronicity.

Fluffy the Goldfish represents sychronicity

Here’s an example. Let’s say that you have been in a low mood for a few days due to the death of your pet goldfish, whom you called ‘Fluffy’. A few days after this tragic event you happen to see a car bumper sticker that says “I love goldfish“. At that same moment on your car radio someone says the word “fluffy” . You look out of your car window to see an advert on a hoarding that contains the phrase ”living in a goldfish bowl“. This causes you to think about your pet goldfish and realise that this date is actually the date when you bought Fluffy the Goldfish a couple of years ago. Several things come together at a point in time that were only of significance to you, as though the Universe was constructing these elements just to point something out to you.

These confluences can be easily dismissed, of course. Chance, inevitability, irrationality – all these terms remove the obligation to dwell upon the confluence, and to consider the concept any deeper. However, once you begin to regularly notice these synchronicities, and once you attribute some meaning to them, then the world necessitates deeper consideration. How are they being created? Who is creating them? Am I constructing my own reality? What do they mean in a wider context? Am I going mad?

Once these questions have been considered and investigated then the result of that can often be a profound sense of joy. Yes, joy. One begins to enjoy spotting these little “glitches in The Matrix” as they have been popularly termed. I prefer to call them “node points” – gatherings of strands of the tapestry of possibility that is woven through Time and Space and which, bundled together, create meaning, drive purpose, and satisfy a very human need for a glimpse behind the veil of the Mystery that life surrounds itself in. For a fleeting moment we see how the Universe flows, and we see how we are woven into its grand design.

As Jake Kotze says in his article written for The Sync Book:

“ Syncs offer endless insight into the world, but their most essential quality is in vivifying what and who really allows for them.” (source: The Sync Book)

That sunchronicity happens is not as important to us as the notice we pay to it and the attribution of meaning that it has for us. Synchronicity makes us feel more connected, and more alive.

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Changes with The Moon

My wife had a friend. She has worked with this friend a long time ago and they used to have happy times, but then her friend began to succumb to the stresses and strains of working in the mental health profession, and rapidly began to suffer from the very symptoms she was trying to cure. Friendship became strained. Honestly, her friend has never really recovered properly. and now, perhaps cruelly, her name is often accompanied by the prefix “Mad…” Everyone who knows her expects a whirlwind visit near to a full moon. Oh yes, despite what sceptics say, experience has taught me that this so-called myth is very true – people affected by the moon are prone to lunacy when the moon is full.

One night I heard a knock at the door. My wife was away and it was 8pm. I opened the door and Mad Lady walked straight in, chattering about seeing our cats, and 101 other topics within a ten-second burst. Definitely “hyper”! She is a buddhist and spotting an ornamental buddha perched on our fish tank she began to bow to it in little fast bows, hands clasped in prayer, and muttering incomprehensible mantras to herself and her deity. I calmly asked whether she would like a cup of tea, if she was staying? To my surprise she said yes, so I began to prepare the necessaries. All sorts of thoughts were going through my head. Mostly, “What am I going to do now?“. To be honest I had always let me wife take the brunt of her behaviour and had taken every excuse possible to slip away.

Sounds harsh, bur this lady has a lot of issues and she is a vortex of negative energies. She is a “taker”, but when well is equally a “giver”, so you just have to know when to catch her right. Sadly, she visits people most often when she’s in need, and in “take mode”. Tonight was clearly such an occasion, and this time there as no escape. this time I would have to deal with her on my own. The test was obvious to me. She was going around in circles with grief, stuck in a time loop, weighed down by the grief and guilt that accompanied the suicide of a former lover. She is spiritually and intellectually active but I know that very few of the people that she encounters are prepared to deal with her frantic and overpowering curiosity combined with such a strong neediness. People often are willing to help, but she is like a vortex of neediness that people get quickly depleted.

This time, however, the test was mine and mine alone. I prepared myself.

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Douglas Adams

A few years ago we lost that remarkable genius, Douglas Adams. Both Gwas and I have been a fan of his work for years. From the original Hitch-Hikers Guide to the Galaxy (known amongst aficionados as hhgttg, or H2G2) to the less famous, but equally recommended Dirk Gently series.

Not a month goes by when we come across a life situation that is comically mirrored in either of the above mentioned series. One such example we have purloined for the energy world was referred to in the hhgttg as The S.E.P Field.

Somebody Else’s Problem

From the book then we have…

An SEP is something we can’t see, or don’t see, or our brain doesn’t let us see, because we think that it’s somebody else’s problem…. The brain just edits it out, it’s like a blind spot. If you look at it directly you won’t see it unless you know precisely what it is. Your only hope is to catch it by surprise out of the corner of your eye.

The technology involved in making something properly invisible is so mind-bogglingly complex that 999,999,999 times out of a billion it’s simpler just to take the thing away and do without it……. The “Somebody Else’s Problem field” is much simpler, more effective, and “can be run for over a hundred years on a single torch battery.”

This is because it relies on people’s natural predisposition not to see anything they don’t want to, weren’t expecting, or can’t explain. [source]

As I said, Gwas and I have purloined this phrase to describe a rather interesting phenomena that is put out (or radiated like a field) by energetic entities. As you will have read on a few occasions Gwas and I have interacted with energetic awareness or entities that have been bad for our energy. Out in the wilds we have sometimes referred to them as Leprechaun EnergyAn intelligent and aware energy with a penchant for causing mishaps, stealing treasured items, and being territorial.. The SEP field described herein is more to do with bad energies we have found in homes.

Often we have found these entities lingering in homes (even our own homes) and have thought to do something about them. Which (again as demonstrated) we are quite able to do. However an unusual energy that these entities put out can only be referred to as an SEP field. Basically the phenomena can be described thus…

We will find, or be told of, a bad energy in a home. We will resolve to do something about it. We might get a look in to dowse the thing but whenever we think to do something about it, a lethargy sets in or some other task will seem more important or we will just plain forget it. Only to recall hours later (or even days) that we were meant to fix something.

We have named this phenomena an SEP field, in honour of Douglas Adams, whose works continue to inspire us. Some other notes on this field are…

• Distance seems to be a factor in that the further you are the more you can think about it.
• It is usually something in your own home rather than someone else’s (we seem to be able to deal with entities in other people’s houses).
• We are more able to talk about them with each other rather than think about them when we are on our own. This seems to be related to the above point in that the SEP field might only affect the home owner/resident.
• This invisibility field is related to the strength of the entity. The stronger the entity the stronger the field.
• Putting up protection does not seem to work in resolving the field.
• It seems that they really do have to be caught off guard. i.e. in passing we will think of it, grab our rods and do something about it.

To say that these fields are annoying is an understatement. Because they seem to affect the owner (in this case Gwas or I) we have founded them (and I quote) “Maddening”

Kal Malik

Dark Entities and SEP fields

Gwas here. I’d like to add my information as a supplement to Kal’s points. I agree with everything he’s said so far, but there are a few additional things I’d like to explore that have come to my attention about this problem.

The first aspect is that the phenomenon may not be linked solely to “bad”, “dark” or “ill-intentioned” energy forces. Certainly, is it much more within the nature of the deceitful spirit to want to keep its presence quiet, or force anyone’s attention away from its workings. That is defnitiely one aspect fo what’s going on here. However, I feel that all intelligent unseen entities have this capability. How it gets used may differ according to the entity’s personal character and motivations.

So, I think there is a level of assumed intelligence in operation here. That means that you are potting your wits against anything that you can detect is using an SEP field to distract your thoughts away from its work, and you may question why it would want to do that to you. Is it for your benefit, or because it wants to keep you in a particular state of iignorance and apathy?

This would be the point at which you should determine whether you are a “food source” for this entity!

Draining and complaining

Why am I so tired

One of the symptoms of being energetically drained by an intelligent entity is that the “victim” begins to complain about lethargy. As the victim’s energy field is depleted they may begin to take steps to generate mroe energy, but to no avail. They may begin to do more exercise but just feel tired. They may eat more but not be satisfied. They may do more spiritual or psychic work but find that this is not as productive or as helpful as they are used to. They may become ill more frequently. At this point you may begint o get really concerned about the effects of this force, and rightly so.

As Kal has pointed out, putting up protection is not going to stop you being drained. If you are already having your energy depleted then whatever protection you put up is likely to be at the very least weakened, and at best it may have a temporary protective effect, but it’s going to cost you energetically to maintain this protection. So what can you do? Get help! Either from someone who knows what they’re dealing with, or if you have the knowledge of how to do this yourself, then begin to take steps to deal with it. Here is my recommendation for the self-help process:-

1. Get out of its way – go somewhere far away from it’s influence, and make sure that you haven’t taken it with you.
2. Visit a place of power. Open yourself up to this place’s healing and re-balancing, its energising and nourishing energies, and get your energy levels back up. This may take more than one visit. You wil have to identify such a place of power yourself. You already know one, even if you think you don’t.
3. Learn about the entity. You may need to be far from it to do this. Why not start in your place of power? Find out about it – male/female, beneficial/harmful, strength, any impressions about its intentions, was it human once/nature spirit, and so on. Knowledge will help you. Tarot cards are a good way to reveal information.
4. Confront it when you’re at your strongest. Catch it off guard. Psychically get hold of it and act out the act of cutting the connection it has made to you. Then send it away with your strong intention and the pwoer of your will. Act this out physically if this helps, with gestures and expressions.
5. Seal the area. Put up protection around yourself and the affected area (maybe your home) to prevent it coming back in easily.
6. Watch for its return. Some entities are clever and persistent, and will try to get back at you if you have been a good source of energetic ‘food’. Watch for its return.

Of course, these are pathetically generalised instructions, but they may help you find your own way to deal with these things.

Other things that can help you focus are: burn incense to clear the space, use crystals (especially quartz) to focus intent and energies and offer some additional protection.

I would recommend reading about other methods by such writers as Ted Andrews, David Furlong or Judy Hall. Fore-warned is fore-armed, as they say. My main advice is – don’t ignore these things just because they want to be ignored. That’s usually a sign that you should be finding out what it is that wants you to be unaware!

Gwas.

Later...

Kal here again. I was pondering this some more last night when I had a thought. Perhaps the reason why our protection against such SEP fields wasn’t working was because they were already inside our threshold?

Thinking back over our experiences, I feel that the SEP field is more like a chameleon’s camouflage i.e. something innate rather than something that is intended. Just a feeling I have. Also I suspect that historically we were more able to see/sense these creatures than we are now. Hence why there were more reports of supernatural beings in the past than there are now. Perhaps this is because belief has waned?

I really like Gwas’s self-help ideas. Perhaps a how-to post is in the offing? I would point out though that the SEP field itself stops us from doing these things. Even as I write this I know that there is some energetic thing in the other room that is actively stopping me from thinking about it. Maybe I should do something about it now…just let me finish another post…

Kal Malik

I was lost. I had been in New York city for the past 3 weeks and was looking for a connection. There are many times in life when one can reach out to guides or teachers for help and direction. These guides don’t have to be the mundane kind (i.e. people), they can be of an esoteric nature.

As I said, I was lost and in need of some simple direction, at the very least a nice commune with that gorgeous goddess Caileach would have been pleasant. Brilliant though the brick city is, one can’t help but wonder where is the natural touch?

I meandered around Central Park in the hopes of finding a suitable connective media. A bit like wandering the city trying to find a free WiFi connection. Alas nothing was in the offing. I was confounded! As readers may know I have gained a certain sympathy with trees and yet here I was being blanked.

I got my dowsing rods out and after a while came to the conclusion that I wasn’t being blanked at all. In fact what was the case was that there was no significant energy amongst the trees in this park. My intuition (which was confirmed with dowsing) suggested that the constant inter-play with human energies had left this park feeling and being empty. Wow!

Nevertheless I tried to commune with Caileach, my erstwhile mentor(ess?) and failed miserably. But surely we are talking about a Goddess here, not your average entity. So I tried again a few times and nothing. What was going on?Was she being blocked? Was my calling not loud enough? What???

Musing and pondering (with the addition of dowsing) led me to an interesting conclusion. Caileach is a Goddess of Britain and Ireland. Her power here is amazing, in other lands her reach is as good as those (and amount matters) followers she has there. Which I am guessing in the States isn’t too many.

We have so many theories about deities. Here is one: surely Caileach is an aspect of the Goddess and in other lands she is known by another name and so should still be able to be invoked? No. Really? Yes, really. No.

Invoked is the wrong word to use, communed with, or asked for help of, might be better.

Ask the dowsing rods yourself. Apparently Caileach is a local goddess (entity). This goes against a lot of book learned law I know but I am only going by what I have dowsed. Thus in the land of the America’s I was unable to connect with her.

Gwas and I speculated as to how we could bridge this gap and we came up with a theory. If we could find a connective object which we could associate with (or create an association with) Caileach perhaps this could be used to commune with her from a distant place. Gwas has created numerous such bridges and connections so I was eager to try.

Yesterday, I travelled to a Sacred Site that I really feel a deep connection with, Alderley Edge. At the Magicians wood I asked some questions to confirm my (our) hypothesis and the answers came back as true. I could indeed create an associative object that would allow me to commune with Caileach wherever I was. As I was dowsing these findings a thought came to mind from the works of that famed shaman, Carlos Castaneda. The memory was of him going to a watering hole to find a spirit catcher. My intuition and dowsing told me that this was exactly what I needed. A spirit catcher is a bridge between you and an entity.

Yes, you guessed it, I am out looking for a spirit catcher, the spirit I am interesting in catching (metaphorically speaking) is Caileach.

Kal Malik – in search of a spirit catcher

You may have noticed the lack of podcasts this year on Hedge Druid? There’s a reason for that. In the first half of the year the reason could be put down to a mounting pressure of “work”. Mostly this was spiritual work, and with all the good weather we have had in England this year then the Great Outdoors claimed a large part of my time, and this was reflected in the amount of time-consuming podcast work that I could do. Right, that’s my pathetic excuse out of the way. Now, what about the recent months? I did intend to re-establish the podcast once the weather got worse. It has worsened, but still I don’t feel inclined to get back into the studio to record and edit an hour’s worth of audio. Why not? I think there’s a deeper and wider reason.

I have been noticing that other pagan blogs have also begun to falter in their regularity and their commitment. Could it be that we all expanded too quickly, and pushed ourselves too hard to produce content? Possibly, but I think the real reason is due to a difficulty in maintaining momentum when this year has been out of synchronisation with itself. Let me explain.

The Moon, The Sun and The Earth sources

Last year our blogs flourished. Mostly these are blogs that are talking about magickal work, mystical happenings and spiritual progress. What general effect has happened that could account for the difference between last year’s ease and this year’s difficulty? Simple. It is the synchronisation of the phase of the Moon with the Celtic Festival dates. Last year the high points in the solar cycle were matched by high points in the lunar cycle. In other words, at the major lunar festival dates the Moon was also usually in its Full Moon phase.

Celtic Wheel of the Year

The Celtic Wheel of the Year is a cycle that records the high points of the year’s energies. It tells the pagan watcher when the Earth itself is producing the most energy in its co-operative cycle with The Sun. In my experience, and I speak only for myself here, I do not use The Sun as my primary magickal power source. For me it is The Moon. Last year was therefore a “bumper year” in terms of the number of coincidences between the Solar and Lunar high points. Magick was abundant and easy. Motivation was plentiful, and so a great deal of work flowed, and many posts got produced. Blogs flourished that dealt with these subjects.

This year the story has been completely reversed, and how dispiriting must that have been to many of our pagan friends whose magickal sources are Moon-dependent? This year the Full Moon phases NEVER coincide with any of the Solar Festival dates in the Celtic Year. Only Spring Equinox came close. The result of this, goes my tenuous hypothesis, is that motivation has taken a battering. Magickal people must have found themselves either doing Sun OR Moon work, but never being able to being the two together.

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