The Hedge Druid

Posts Tagged ‘allé couverte’

Introduction

This year has been the most fascinating year of my life. I have embraced areas of study that I has only ever fantasized about being involved with. I have learned things that I never believed in before, and have travelled further along my spiritual path than I thought I could. I am more aligned with my life purpose through the work I have done this year than I expected to be. I have visited places that I never thought I would see, and am more in touch with earth energies as a result of it.

In the following sections I answer some general questions that I posed to try to encapsulate this progress. Also included is Kal’s interpretation of those same questions – you will find these in the last post in the series. I hope that by the time you finish reading our summary of this year you will see just how far we have travelled in such a short time span. Some people we meet still pour scorn on our relative “youth” in these subjects. Of course they are right, we never know enough, but when you see how much information we are consolidating from so many sources, I think you will see that we are working hard to cover all aspects of subtle energy research, and our work is fast-paced, thorough, considered and wide-ranging. Compared to many of those we meet, who seem to have a part-time dalliance with these subjects, I’m sure you will agree our work is fast, deep and meaningful, and everything we learn we gain from direct practical experience.

In the light of the amount of information produced this year I have divided the summary of the year into NINE posts, which I will be releasing for the rest of this month up until Christmas. Between Christmas and New Year I hope to reveal the results of the work that we were supposed to have undertaken this year – to find out whether earth energies do respond to specific times of the year. I think we have our answer already, but I’m going to wait for the Yule Winter Solstice to cap that research off.

What have I learned this year?

I learned so much this year that I almost feel as though my life’s education has started again. When I wrote it all out I found that I had accumulated so much information that I have had to divide it up into separate posts. The topics I chose to organise them into are:-

1. Natural Magick
2. Dowsing and Earth Energies
3. Tree, Spirit and Death Energies
4. Astrology and Astronomy
5. Ancient Sites
6. Miscellaneous
7. Highs, lows, surprises and disappointments
8. A list of all the sites we visited this year
9. A summary from Kal’s perspective

Please forgive the inevitable cross-over between these categories – I have tried to place the information into the category that was most pertinent, with the inevitable “other” or “miscellaneous” bucket to catch the overspill.

A big growth topic this year was that of Natural Magick, as was the Tree,Spirit and Death Energies category. It seems that Kal and I have had many of our preconceptions overturned and have had to eat our words on many occasions as a result of some detailed dowsing work and an open mind in researching those areas. I will start off with Natural Magick.

Section 1: Natural Magick

The following information can loosely be classified as “Natural Magick” – the use of nature’s own energy forces and human creative potential to produce new effects and visions. My definition, as you can see, is quite general – I don’t include the usual categories associated with Natural Magic, such as herbology, spell-making, and the like. I started out the year by defining the rules of working in this manner, and the additional information is supplementary to that, and only limited by those rules and the human creative potential, it would seem. The information is on no particular order, other than being grouped here.

1-1. Some rules of Natural Magick:

• Intention must be honest, if only to yourself, in order to succeed
• The desired effect cannot be commanded, it must be negotiated, or asked for respectfully
• To contrive a circumstance in order to display an effect will guarantee failure,if not abject humiliation
• Your abilities are limited by your desire to learn, and the depth to which you can form a trusting relationship with Nature
• A degree of humility is required to execute natural magick, and smugness at a positive outcome will garner no respect.
• Conviction and sincerity make the relationship stronger, and the outcome more defined.
• Leave your intention fuzzy and a fuzzy event will occur which only partially fulfills the intended result.
• Results come when they should be delivered, not when you want them to be. Again, tied to the concept that the forces of Natural Magick will not be ordered around.

First stated early February. I have not been able to contradict any of these as the year progressed.

1-2. The historical/mythical figure of Merlin is a significant totem figure for me. He is like a form of spirit guide, but not personally connected to me. I encountered his presence at the ancient site of Dinas Emrys, near to the mountain of Snowdon in Wales – a place traditionally associatesd with Merlin.

1-3. Totem animals: Kal has the crow, I have the dove/pigeon/eagle. Theysometimes indicate significant events, sights or show us direction, and can guide our intuitive responses when we go out to sacred sites.

1-4. A pilgrimage may seem like an old-fashioned concept, something that may only be a religious remainder. Our experience of inadvertantly making such a journey was something quite profound: a spiritual journey through the chakra points, each one awakening at the special places we visited, and each one progressively opening up channels to higher spirituality and connectedness.

1-5. This year saw the emergence of the double helix of energy in my meditations. I now began to connect using two threads – one male and one female. This seemed to echo my progress into the second stage of Druid development – the Yew Stage.

1-6. Following a path with a heart has opened up my life to influences that have enhanced my well-being and desire for life. A path with a heart may be defined as being acts or intentions, decisions or choices that one makes that are instinctively right, and not based upon the usual rational characteristics of what is sensible, beneficial, rewarding, or easy.

1-7. Some sacred sites promote the ability to perform magical acts, such as telepathy. I encountered this particularly at sites that were less “famous”, i.e. less visited, and yet which still maintained a strong energy. The covered alleyway at Créhen in Brittany, in particular, demonstrated to me how easy it was to transmit information to another person whilst there.

1-8. Seeds or fruits containing seeds seem to serve as perfect gifts or things to leave at sacred sites. I felt from the outset that something ought to be given in return for gaining skills, visions or information, but the usual trinkets (ribbons and the like) did not suit me. Instead I have found that, for me, a seed, an apple or a pine cone, or something similar always gets a positive response when dowsed as to whether it is a suitable or fitting gift to leave at a site.

1-9. Sigils, often dowsed as manifestations of a site’s energy signature, can be found and used as means to gain entry into an energetic relationship with a site.

1-10. Cup-marked standing stones within stone circles have been found to be maps which can unlock the power centres within the circle for energy work. This now needs to be tested at a greater number of sites, but for several already this has proved to be accurate.

1-11. Setting up protection before doing any energy work in a new place is essential to self preservation. I now have to thank the unusual small man whom I met in Alderley Edge a couple of years ago – you were right and I was wrong – thanks for your advice!

1-12. Overcoming fear in a forest or other natural space allows you to be as one with the place, and this opens up the range of possible experiences, as animals will not be frightened of you. I now want to discover how being fearful may change one’s energy field.

1-13. I was shown a vision of an ancient magician performing a ritual in which the circle’s energy was activated and he was in charge of the energy. The elements of his work are things I will now have to put into practise myself next year. I have learned that rituals have their place, but that their paraphenalia is not for me.

1-14. Sigils and crop circle formations ought to be meditated upon to act as keys to the entry into the Otherworld. This was the lesson of the Knighton Hill maize circle. I have yet to discover anything from these patterns, however, so can’t confirm this.

1-15. A dream seat can be found at major stone circles used for transformation – this promotes shamanic flying, or out of body experiences of the profoundest kind. The Llangernyw experience definitively proved this to me, as did the Castlerigg stone circle.

The most magickal experience of the year

Glastonbury at Summer Solstice when I felt integrally connected to the whole area’s energies and felt like I was in an increasingly mystical state of mind.

Gwas.

Sunday 10th May – Créhen, Brittany

What I thought was the last of my dowsing trips on this holiday was to a small structure situated in the middle of some agricultural land just outside the village of Créhen near the northern coast of Brittany. Luckily the site is signed by one of the small blue signs that show the interested observer (because they’re easy to miss) that a megalithic site is close by. A small area large enough to park two cars allowed us to pull off the D768 road in order to visit it.

The way to the site was along a lovely tree-lined path kept clear for visitors by some helpful agency. We travelled along three sides of a square field until we saw a group of tree-infested large stones that were the remains of the Créhen covered alley. The trees were poking out of every available crack between the capstones, of which there were five, two of them very large indeed – some ten feet square.

I inspected one end and found what looked like a collapsed entrance. Two rounded smoothed pillar stones seemed to mark an entrance and I peered under the leaning capstone to see that the alley extended the full length of the stones, although this was difficult to see with the varying angles of the leaning capstones.

I checked for a nemeton field around the site. Nothing. None existed. I asked the rods if the site was still energetically active and got a positive response. ok. Well, let’s see what that meant. I checked the alignment of the passageway and found it was aligned East-West with the entrance facing eastwards.

Crehen - The FEMALE portal

I examined the two ends of the structure. Both had a small area large enough for a person to stand in. Interesting. I dowsed for a power centre and found a male centre at the western end in the space where a person could stand. I followed the line as it wandered along the top of the capstones to end in a spiral on the eastern end capstone. Then I asked of there was a female power centre. Indeed there was. It was centred in the small open space at the eastern end of the passage. I followed the path of this energy as it gently meandered along the capstones to terminate in a small spiral on the westernmost capstone. The two energy lines and power centres were mirror images of each other, travelling in opposing directions!

Crehen - the MALE portal

This struck me as full of potential, On the spur of the moment I asked M to stand in the female power centre, whilst I stood in the male power centre. We were about fifteen feet apart. I shouted to her, “Close your eyes – relax – and think of a colour.” I did the same on my male power centre. As I closed my eyes I saw a blue circle appear with a pink centre that then instantly flipped into a dark orange colour. It stayed that colour, as though I had looked too long at a circle of light and was seeing the after-image of it. I looked at M and shouted to her, “Orange!” She opened her eyes in astonishment. “Yes! Burnt orange was the colour I was thinking of !”

She asked if we could repeat the experiment, as she was quite excited at what had just happened. I explained that, like when I pass the cars at particular dark energy spots on the road to work every day, if you think that you can make something happen, i.e. you consciously intend to do something or to make use of this ‘ability’ then it never works out. We should just leave it at that – an extraordinary event of ridiculous coincidence.

We walked back to the car and headed off to the beaches of northern Brittany where we spent a lovely day admiring the coastline, the beaches and the wonderful “galette” crepe pancakes that are a speciality of this area. Strange things can happen when you visit ancient sites. We were now accumulating quite a wealth of such experiences, and I for one was becoming increasingly convinced that magickal things can be brought about by tuning into them.

Gwas Myrddyn.

In search of the strange