The Hedge Druid

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 post describes my investigations into the powers of my staff. – an incidental tale whose only relevance  is that it shows what can be done with a combination of intuition, divination and dowsing.

After the Spring Equinox I was left with a starting point for how I should proceed along my path for the next few weeks. The instruction was suitably vague yet clear: “Determine the powers of your staff” was my guidance. How I was supposed to do that was for me to work out. Whenever I encounter uncertainty I first turn to my tried and trusted resources. In this case I turned to the Wildwood Tarot deck for inspiration.

Before I did a draw of cards I needed to ask the dowsing rods to assist me with creating a framework for doing the draw. For example, how many cards would I need, and why? What kind of a layout would this suggest? I began to dowse for some initial answers. As is often happening these days, when I blank my mind to get into “dowsing mode” the answers are placed in there even before the rods have been brought into action. It is then a question of using the dowsing rods to confirm the information that Intuition has provided me. This is a potentially dangerous step away from pure objectivity, I know, but anyone who thinks that dowsing is a purely scientific approach is deluding themselves in any case. It is merely a means to interact with an interface to knowledge that we label as “intuition”.

NOTE For me at this stage of my development, the use of psychic/intuitive responses is becoming a valid information source. Still, I treat the responses with as much scepticism and testing as I do the dowsing response. Oh yes, dear readers, even at this stage both Kal and I still often double or triple-check our results. Nothing can be taken for granted!

The Wildwood Tarot deck - a boon for divinatory druids

 Therefore, it will not surprise you to learn that as I began to ask questions concerning the source of the powers in my staff the answers began to emerge – from memory, from my ‘subconscious’ or from elsewhere – I cannot say for sure – yet they arrived. Here were my questions and their answers:-

1. Is my staff imbued with some form of magickal power? Dowsing rods said, “Yes”.
2. Is there a single source for these powers? Dowsing rods said, “No”. Further dowsing said “Two sources”.
3. How many powers were contained in the staff? Dowsing suggested FIVE separate powers.
4. What are the sources of the powers, I wondered…. The Elemental masters, and your Spirit Guide, was the intuitive response. Dowsing confirmed this.
5. Was each power aligned to a specific master or guide? Dowsing confirmed “Yes”.

It seemed that I could therefore draw a set of five cards from the tarot deck, and ask that each one show me some information that would guide me to an understanding of the powers contained in the staff. Seemed logical? A simple elemental cross with a central card for the spirit element seemed like a sensible layout. I did the draw, and the results sent such a shock through my system that I had to leave the room and walk away from the cards for a minute to calm down.

See why….! Read the rest of this entry »

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

When Kal suggested a visit to Gop Hill on a fine late Winter evening my first thoughts were “A feminine site on a full moon night? I’m supposed to be working with male energy and Light!”. The scenario seemed contrary to my supposed direction this year, so I had to re-shape the proposal. How could I take advantage of this wonderful opportunity, and still fit in with my directive? I pondered a while and came up with this – what if I tried to speak to the energy form known as Merlin, and to ask him whether he could assist with with spirit release work? I am currently reading Sue Allen’s book “Spirit Rescue” and in the current chapter it has been talking about Merlin being an excellent resource to call upon to help with Spirit Rescue.

As we navigated through the darkness without torches we were ‘lucky’ not to trip or stumble. I guess we have become accustomed to walking in such conditions now. You would have expected that the Full Moon light would have guided us, but the moon was nowhere to be seen. We sort of felt cheated, but then realised that there was currently a great deal of solar activity (an X-Class flare was blasting our ionosphere at the time). The fullness of this solar energy seemed to balance the fullness of the lunar energy, and this night felt like a good night for working. We reached the hill and I stopped to ask for entry. Granted. We walked to the top of the hill.

On the top of the hill we suddenly were made aware of the strength of the wind. Up to that point I can’t say I noticed it, but on top of Gop Hill the air was roaring around us. Kal lay down and mentioned that the wind was much easier to deal with lying down. I lay down too and the wind just…well…stopped! I could hear it roaring above me, but there was nothing touching me at all. I looked left and right – no barriers or crests on either side of me – so how was….? I switched off my rational train of thoughts. The rational part of my brain was now beginning to get in the way.

I sat in the power centreA place where a person of a particular alignmentAlignment relates to the concept that humans have their own energy fields that are oriented or formed in a specific way such that the person is either suited better to one energy source of another. Some people have their energy fields empowered by the direct subtle energy force of The Sun, whilst others are empowered by the indirect subtle energy of The Moon. Due to the historical associations and symbolisation of The Sun with masculinity and The Moon with femininity we designate these alignments as either being ‘male’ or ‘female’ alignments accordingly. We interchangeable refer to people as being ‘sun-aligned’ or ‘male-aligned’ and similarly with the female alignment. (see ‘Alignment’) feels particularly comfortable and empowered. The place is an energetic centre where a particularly beneficial combination and formation of energies is formed into a pattern that is harmonic with the person for whom it can be called a power centre. that I had found for myself with the wild wind stilled temporarily as though deflected by a pure glass dome that I couldn’t see. The space I was in was warm and comforting – I was in the bosom of the female spirit of the hill, I felt. Yet, my quest at this time was to meet with a male force, so I turned my attention to that instead. I connected by grounding and centring myself into the hill and around it. The connection came easily with all the energy around that evening. I began to send out the intention that I wished to communicate with the spirit that I recognised as Merlin….

..there was a sharp and noticeable gust of wind that managed to find its way into the stillness centre that I was lying in, and it made itself known to me. Rational Brain began to pipe up, “Just a gust of wind; could have happened at any time; maybe will happen again if you wait; can’t get meaning out of that; it’s just wind….etc.” I fought to turn the dialogue off again. Honestly,the rational brain is like some kind of geyser – when the pressure of silence has held it down for too long it has to blow in a gush and a rush of babbling nonsense disguised as a logical thought process. I went back into meditation again, concentrating but not concentrating on being still and quiet.

I had encountered coincidental gusts of wind before. They were usually a sign (not always, but often). Taking the gust of wind as a sign that Merlin was around, I then asked if he would join with me and my spirit guide to help us at some future point should we need to do some spirit release work, returning energies to a state of equilibrium and harmony. I’ve been listening to some talks by Christian Kyriacou recently and I am coming around to his idea of re-balancing energies in the “energy matrix”, rather than the traditional approach of sending spirits to the light. The series of podcasts published by the British Society of Dowsers is a good starting point for understanding this point of view.

In response to this request for assistance my right ear got a short blast of air. I took this as an answer, but was it a YES or a NO? I asked another question to which I knew the answer was a definite no, and the short blast resounded in my left ear this time. I therefore knew that the first answer was a YES. Always testing.

Pareidolia for Pagans

Soon after I began to emerge from my meditative stare. I half-opened my eyes, looked straight up into the darkening sky and noticed the cloud formation directly above me. There was a definite shape to the one cloud that had any distinctive elements to it. There was a man in a pointed hat sat at a desk reading a book. It was Merlin! Of course we always make the amorphous shapes of clouds into shapes that we recognise. I understand that. I have experimented with such things on many occasions both as a child and as an adult. I know how this works – there’s even a psychological terms for it – pareidolia. More often than not there is no discernible shape to any cloud, and it takes a monumental feat of imagination to form one into anything even remotely similar to a recognisable shape. Yet here – almost upon request – was the shape of a bearded wizard figure reading a book. There it was. Unchanging. unmistakable, unique and probably only for me to see.

Of course, all this is a manufactured coincidence created within my febrile mind due to lying about on a cold hill in early March. Yet I came away from that evening with the feeling that I had gained an ally in my inevitable future work with healing sacred places.

Gwas.

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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