The Hedge Druid

Posts Tagged ‘Arbor Low’

Scattered throughout the last year or so of this blog is the term Genius Loci. As I did some research (on our own blog) I found that the term has escaped its original use and is getting bandied about a bit – by me no less, the guy who coined it in the first place. So before proceeding let me clarify the term.

Genius Loci then translates from the Latin, “Spirit of the Place”. I first came across the phrase in an episode of that short-lived (sadly) TV series, Crusade…

I procured the term to represent the energy (sentient it seems) that resides within sacred stone circles. Although as I mentioned the term is getting a wider usage herein, I want to bring it back to its original usage for this post.

Over the last year Gwas and I have occasionally explored the Genius Loci of stone circles and determined the following information.

• Not all circles have a Genius Loci although most of them do.
• They have been dowsed to be in a specific position in the circle when we have visited but do move around within it.
• In previous explorations we have found “Entrances” and “Exits” to stone circles, we have/had assumed that these were where people entered but we have also determined an entrance and exit that the Genius Loci uses. It is still to be determined whether these are one and the same.
• The entrance and exits that the Genius Loci uses are neutral energy arcs. Again we have found other arcs too – notably at Arbor Low – which we will be exploring in detail
• The entrance and exits are almost but not quite opposite to each other and don’t seem to have a astrological/astronomical relevance.
• Using dowsing you can track the route a Genius Loci took after it entered into a stone circle to the place where it is currently at rest.

• Genius Loci’s seem to be aligned to astrological phenomena. For example the one at Arbor Low is aligned to Taurus, whereas the one at Nine Stones Close is aligned to Pan and the one at Nine Ladies is aligned to Mercury.

Note: This isn’t a direct alignment it is more that they share the same hmmm properties/characteristics.

• The Genius Loci do not reside in the circles all the time and this is odd but as far as we have dowsed Genius Loci’s we have found that they left the circles about 1100 years ago and returned about 700 years ago.

Note: I have dowsed about 8 Genius Loci’s so far and have found this date to be consistent. Further more, they were “summoned” by a human in the Middle-East around the Iraq area. Why and How we don’t know. I know – wow – but here is the thing – consistently those dates and information is accurate.

• When the Genius Loci’s returned from this enforced sojourn their “alignment” had changed. We have determine that this was  to do with changes in peoples beliefs. But not how or why.

So far so good, fascinating and curious information which came from the sacred sites in the UK. Now we go to a stone circle in Ireland.

We were visiting the Piper stones circle in Ireland this year, our first circle abroad.

Here is a link to how that encounter went, Freeing the Dragon. But to pull some relevant data from that encounter to this post.

The Irish Genius Loci is the only one we have encountered that was trapped. It had been summoned and had gone when they were “called” 1100 years ago. This result surprised me. I was expecting different answers for some reason.

This Genius Loci is the only one we have had a seriously long encounter with. Again see the above post link.

As you can see, there is a whole world of exploration that can be done with this topic alone. Just as there is with so many others on this fascinating field.

What Gwas and I are finding is that should a topic need further investigation, it will crop up on our radar again and again and again. For now we keep moving forward, quite literally on the Edge!

Kal Malik

CropCircleConnector – the site that I trust to deliver sensible and timely information about the location and circumstances of the latest crop circles – has posted pictures of the first 2010 circle to appear. Yet again it has started in Wiltshire, and again the location is significant to those of us who watch for such things. The bigger question though is – what does it signify?

That has been a difficult question, but not one to which I have placed much of my attention, time or focus over the last year as I casually observer their appearance, and equally casually admired their form. This time, however, the formation seems to be particularly relevant to my researches at this very moment. Timely in a spookily coincidental way – the kind of coincidence that makes me prick up my ears and have a good sniff of the flow of consciousness as it passes.

Here’s what it looks like (courtesy of CCC’s site):

Old Sarum's consciousness map

What this means to me

My reading of this formation is entirely personal, and I urge you to make your own reading to suit yourself. This is in no way relevant for anyone else, but in case you’re interested, here’s what it means to me. Remember that this eighth part of the year I have recently found to be concerned with the study of how to investigate, understand and utilise the seven chakra energies that can be produced from the white light of neutral light energy? There was also the suggestion that I work at uniting the two energy centres of the lower and upper energy stores in order to work towards this understanding of the seven energy powers.

So, I look at this picture and I see the eye in the lower half – the observant eye – the eye that is looking at the seven circles – the seven vortices – the seven chakra points. Above it I see the upper wider eye symbol, which I take to be the third-eye – a stylised and symbolic eye, more perfect and with wider vision than the lower “real” eye. Through that third-eye flows five lines of energy, that may either be passing through, emanating from the power point, or flowing into it. Perhaps all three directions at once?

I think the five energy streams are five levels of consciousness through which I have to pass as a result of working with and understanding the seven forms of vibrational energy form that can be diffracted from the white light energy source of the neutral energy form. That’s about as mad and esoteric as it needs to get, right? Clearly, I’m cracked and ought to have voted Monster Raving Loony. But there’s one more thing…

The formation is reputedly laid out on the ley line that Danny Sullivan documents in his book “Ley Lines” on page 199, and which he credits to Sir Norman Lockyer and Alfred Watkins, calling it perhaps the oldest identified ley (by modern man). He names this as being the “Old Sarum Ley”.

It passes through the following sacred sites:-

1. Durrington Down tumulus [link]
2. Stonehenge [link]
3. Old Sarum [link]
4. Salisbury Cathedral
5. Clearbury Ring [link]
6. Frankenbury Camp [link]

That’s a lovely North-South line, and it comes close to a line that I identified as passing through Arbor Low as it travels further up north. I will see whether I can get anything more about those five lines of consciousness change. I have a draft post that I was already preparing about the numbers 7 and 12. Well, I don’t need to point out to you that 7+5….. Things just keep knitting together in this line of work!

Gwas.

Introduction

I had been looking forward to Beltane for a while. The promise of warmer, longer days to work in plus the chance to get back to some of the best ancient sites in Derbyshire had been whetting my appetite for a few weeks, making all else seem like filling in time until the Big Day. For us, we had worked out that Beltane was happening at the full moon on the 27th and 28th April. This is, of course, different from the ‘new traditional’ concept that Beltane is the 3rd May. Some say the 1sy May – May Day. Others maintain that due to the calendar shift caused by Pope Gregory XIII that the actual date is 23rd April.  You see how confusing this all is?

Our reasoning was simple – we timed the change from the third eighth of the year to the fourth as being when the full moon’s energies signalled a phase change, not on an arbitrary and disputed calendar date. After all, for us the interesting change was a change in subtle energies, so why not connect it to a major factor in the strength of those energies, namely The Moon?

Off we ventured with the intention of visiting as many sites as we could within one day. On our list were Arbor Low, Nine Stones Close, Doll Tor, and possibly Nine Ladies if we had time. Oh, we had time! Arbor Low, Nine Stones, The Andle Stone and Doll Tor will all be covered in this first post.

In part two of this set of posts I will describe our experiences at Nine Ladies, but also The Bullstones and The Bridestones which were also added to the list. We worked efficiently and effectively on this auspicious day and here’s the beginning of my account of our work and our findings.

1. Arbor Low and Ringham Low

The purpose we had set out with for this first site was to check our recent information about the movement of the ‘spirit of place’, the Genius Loci (henceforth – ‘GL’). Kal had found at Penmaenmawr and subsequent places that the GL enters an energised sacred site like a stone circle through an arc of neutral energy – like a fashioned gap or portal into the dome of energy covering the site. The same was true of the exit too – there was an arcing neutral energy that formed a kind of doorway.

Our intention was to verify whether the neutral arc I had found on my recent visit to Arbor Low was in fact an entrance or exit point for the GL. Here is what we found:-

• The Genius Loci travels along a neutral North-South ley line that connects to other distant sacred sites
• It enters the site at the place I identified last visit
• The exit is directly opposite, at the northern-most point of the stone circle
• The path of the GL oscillated more strongly as it approached the embankment of the site
• The path circles around the position where a standing stone would once had been placed on the earthwork (now all missing)

Satisfied with these findings we headed off to a site I had spotted marked on an OS map as being near to Arbor Low. This site as called Ringham Low, but when we got to the place where it was marked on the map, there was no sign of it. We walked the field for a while then got dowsing rods out. We found a circle thirty feet wide on the slightly sloping ground, and wondered what might once have been here. Then we moved on. More interesting work was due next at Nine Stones Close.

2. Nine Stones Close

Our second site was up on Harthill Moor, and was a site we were both very familiar with – our old friend Nine Stones Close. My intended purpose for visiting this site was to try to establish my wider purpose for the fourth eight-part of the year – the time between Beltane and Summer Solstice. We always have a little chuckle about what people might think when they encounter “Nine Stones”, with its four standing stones. Do they think it might once have had nine? It didn’t. Possibly five, but never nine.

Dull weather at Nine Stones Close

Despite the passing human traffic, ramblers and school outings everywhere, I was able to meditate quite deeply at Nine Stones, and to get a lot of dowsing done too. As a precaution, remembering the warning that I had been given by the Llangernyw Yew tree, I put up some energetic protection around myself. According to Kal that did its job, because a passing inquisitive person thought twice about approaching and came nowhere near whilst I has meditating. Just lucky, I guess.

Here’s what I found out:-

• I identified the purpose of the time between Beltane and the Summer Solstice
• The purpose of this time of the year is to learn how to diffract, dissociate and extract the different frequencies that my energy field can generate. Then to learn how to bring those frequencies together again to form a pure white energy form.
• I found that my meditation visualisations have changed from streams of fire to those of water – streams, fountains and geysers.

That purpose seemed like a natural extension of the research I had done for the previous eighth part of the year, which had been to learn how to work with neutral energy. I have yet to discover whether there is something about the energies of this time of the year that promotes or encourages that kind of work – this I will try to discover in the next few weeks.

From Nine Stones we headed towards the imposing gritstone structure that is named Robin Hood’s Stride.

3. Robin Hood’s Stride

There was not much to do at Robin Hood’s Stride. The huge outcrop of gritstone is impressive against the surrounding skyline of rolling hills and tree-studded fields, and something made us both want to go and pay it a visit. The one time we had felt like that previously we had found respective power centres, but that had been such a long time ago (in our minds) that we had forgotten where those were. We decided to re-dowse them to see if we could verify the original findings and to see whether that would jog our memories.

Minutes later Kal had found his centre in a small sheltered cave-like formation on the side of the Stride, whereas I was being directed into a crevice. I looked up the crevice to see that there was some kind of hit-like formation of rock slabs above me. Seems like I would have to climb up. I remembered from the last time that I had had to do that to find my power centre, so I hoped I could find it again, now that the rods had led me to this spot directly underneath this unusual slab formation fifteen feet above my head.

Once on top I followed the rods until they crossed and circled around inside a square box of a rock shelter. Inside I felt cushioned from the cold winds of early Spring and my voice resonated within the stone chamber as I called forlornly to my now absent friend below. As usual Kal had gone a-wandering. There was a beaten and chewed stick that some dog must have deposited within the chamber which kept attracting my attention. I picked it up and started to bounce it off the walls and floor of the chamber like a drumstick. For several minutes I beat out strange rhythms that seemed inspired by the sound of the wind on the walls of the chamber, but which were immensely pleasing. This was the place I had found the last time too.

Here’s a link to a YouTube video showing you Robin Hood’s Stride.

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The Llangernyw Yew : April 19th 2010

After our visit to The Druid’s Circle at Penmaenmawr we sidled off into the sunset heading inland cross-country to Llangernyw. I had a few random items on my agenda to work on, whereas I knew that for Kal this was the main reason for his visit. He was at an important juncture in his life and was looking to his old friend the archetypal “Tree” for some guidance. Having made contact with this helpful entity via the ancient yew tree at Llangernyw before, he was confident that he could do so again.

Late evening yew

For me, I had been guided recently to carve a symbol into my staff. I knew not why, yet. I’m sure that will become clear soon enough. For now, I wanted to confirm which symbol that should be before I started carving. On previous occasions when I had dowsed for this information it had been indicated that it should be the Dinas Bran sigil. This evening, as the sun was setting, I approached the ancient yew tree with respect and asked if I might dowse for some answers. I got a positive response and so began to do some dowsing.

I dowsed at the edge of the tree’s canopy, on a flat section of ground indicated as a good place by the dowsing rods. I asked which symbol I should carve and began to follow a spiral pattern around from one side to another, in a familiar pattern. Was this like the ‘Bran the Blessed’ sigil? It was like that but the head was upside down! In fact it resembled the Arbor Low sigil too.I asked the rods if this was correct several times and they repeatedly said yes. When I sought an answer to this I got the impression that it was a symbol that was personal to me yet a reflection of both places, even literally a reflection in the sense of being upside down in parts.

Inside the mighty yew

You may remember from my recent posts that I had been trying to draw together the four elemental forces of Nature in order to assist me with my coming work this year? There was one that I had not managed to re-engage with and that was the fire element. On this lovely sunny evening as the great fireball dropped slowly over the hills of Penmaenmawr I decided to try to resolve that oversight. I walked to the side of the church where I knew my power centre to be, but oddly I walked straight past it without a second glance, and went to stand before the two pillars of stone that seemed like an entrance or exit portal for something. I began to dowse…

Were these stones and entrance or an exit? An exit. Were they for some form of energy (thinking back to Druid’s Circle) to be directed through? Yes. Was that energy spirit energy? Yes. Was it earth energy? No. Was it the energy of the yew tree? Sort of – the rods came together slightly, but not firmly. Was it the spirit of the place that passed through this portal? Yes. Was this a good place for me to regain my fire energy? A strong yes.

With that affirmation I went to go and sit on the flat tombstone behind the two stones, and immediately got a sharp pain in both kidneys. I took this as an indication that this was not a good place to sit! I stood between the portal stones, looking due west, and drew down the fire of the setting sun, as the saying goes in such circles. The rods confirmed what I felt – that this had been done successfully. Now I felt more ‘complete’ – like I had access to all the powers of Nature (except spirit, or aether, the fifth element).

An energetic exit portal

Whilst I was stood between the two energetic stones I felt like I could use that energy to get another burning question answered. I had one that was uppermost in my mind., The final task of the time between Spring and Beltane was to learn how to connect to the earth’s own energy grid. So far I had not one clue how this could be done, other than perhaps to be stood somewhere that neutral energy may naturally emerge, or something like that. I decide to seek some guidance, any clue at all.

I asked the yew tree to help me to imagine what I should do to link to the neutral earth grid – and I was shown several places very quickly that I couldn’t make out because they were too quick. Then I was shown an image of me nestling into the bosom of the earth – literally two small humps of grass between which I was curled in a foetal position, soothed and sleepy. I was to find a place where I felt that comfortable and then bathed in warmth and comfort I could connect to the earth’s own energy system and draw upon the neutral energy – the pure energy of the earth. I was amazed at the wonderfully intuitive way the information was given to me, and extremely grateful to have been shown this vision. Now, all I had to do was to find such a place….

The warning place

I thought I was finished for the evening – hey, hadn’t I got everything I came for and more? I certainly had. Kal popped around looking pleased with himself and his exploits, which I intended to ask him about as soon as we were on the road again. “Have you finished?” he asked me. “Let’s ask the rods!” I quipped, expecting a ‘yes’ response. I got a ‘no’. Apparently, there was more! I asked the rods to take me to the place where I could find out about this other information, and soon I was walking along the side of the graveyard, past gravestones, until the rods swung back on themselves to point to a grave close to the edge of the path the surrounds the lower site.

There was an inscription on the gravestone. I read, “Oft in danger, oft in woe“. i thought this was very unusual inscription, as I had never seen anything like it before! It was the inscription that was important. It took me several minutes of narrowing down the field before I hit upon the relevance of these words: it was to do with me not putting up energetic protection when I visited sacred sites. I had become too complacent and trusting, relying on my intuition to warn me of potential problems. So far I had been lucky and had visited sites when no-one else was around which has prevented problems so far (apart from one episode that really stuck in both our minds of an encounter at Llandrillo). Now, as I moved into the warmer lighter months I was being warned that other people may cause me problems unless I protect myself appropriately when I go out in the near future. Memories came flooding back and I felt I knew what was being suggested.

I asked if that was all? No, there was more. Again I let the rods take me on a little wander, this time only ten or fifteen feet away from where I was. The rods swung dramatically again to point at what seemed like an ordinary grave of a couple. Again it took me several minutes to divine the answer through a series of questions and response. The couple had been “energetically aware” people, but had died due to some misfortune brought about by an encounter with some form of deviant spirit energy. This was a stronger re-enforcement if I needed it, and I will heed the warning and will be more careful from now on, especially in the presence of other people, whether they mean harm intentionally or not!

All in all, a strange end to the evening for me. For Kal, however, the evening had been highly positive. He had received advice from the yew tree that he should ride out his current issues without trying to resolve them for himself. They would all, apparently, be taken care of – despite how impossible that seemed at that time. A week later everything righted itself against impossible odds and in quite incredible circumstances. Never would we doubt the power of this tree, or its influence over this churchyard!

Gwas.

The evening of Thursday 8th April seemed like as good a time as any for me to venture forth on the second of my investigations into the nature of NEUTRAL subtle energy. The air was relatively warm, the sky was clear, there was barely a breath of wind, and hardly a cloud in the sky – surely we would not fall foul of the curse of Arbor Low this time – a curse which guaranteed that no matter what the weather was like anywhere else on the planet that Arbor Low would somehow manage to minimise our time there by conjuring up the most adverse weather possible, be that wind, rain, sleet, snow or hailstorm? Surely, on a day such as this, such a thing would not be possible, even for Arbor Low?

Ley Lines and Hubs

We arrived with our dowsing rods and a pack full of handy gadgets intent on obtaining some useful information. Kal perhaps even harboured thoughts of having a snooze and a daydream in the late evening Spring sunshine as we arrived, seeing as there was nary a cloud to be seen. We were in high spirits as we walked up, throwing our customary tribute of £1 into the tin laid out to pay for ice cream for the farmer’s kids, or whatever it goes to. We paid our tithe, noticing that now there was an additional purchase available – a pamphlet on the history of the circle –  and strode up to the earthwork ring that contains one of the most fascinating places in Derbyshire. We wondered whether the pamphlet would mention any of the things that we knew about the place – the alleyway entrance, the site guardian and its sigil shape, the three energetic entrances, the power of the central stones to heal and commune, the power centres we knew of, and the fact that it was the hub of six strong and wide ley lines that all joined at this point.

The fact that, for us, Arbor Low is a hub for ley lines was perhaps the primary reason that I was here this evening. If ley lines were neutral energy, as I believed then to be, then perhaps there was more neutral energy here too for me to learn about? I was to find out more than I could have hoped I would!

In the diagram below you will see two cardinal lines passing straight through the site on a North/South axis, and an East/West axis. That makes two lines. Then you will see four more lines emanating from the centre. These lines are individual lines oriented on their own unique courses. These four, plus the two cardinal lines makes six ley lines of neutral energy that we had identified previously.

I began by confirming the orientation of these existing lines. They were all found again, on exactly the same courses as found last time. Nothing had changed in respect of those lines, and that was quite reassuring, because it confirmed my suggestion that these lines are in some way pinned in place by being connectors between particular sacred sites that occur along their direction of travel. The most interesting of these lines is the one that travels SSW and passes through the ancient town of Caerleon, known to be a very special place – a place of Kings, and a seat of Arthur in times long gone and now mythological.

Kal had wandered off on his own course of investigation, as was usual. I wanted to keep moving around now because a slight wind had arisen that was bringing in a very cold stream of air that made standing still feel quite the wrong thing to do if you wanted to stay warm. I decided to find out a good place for me to be within the site, and was expecting to be directed to a particular spot or somewhere that had been identified before. I was quite surprised to be taken on a continuous tour of the inner ring of recumbent stones, walking round and round until I realised that it wasn’t going to stop. I was being told that there was a band of energy that encompassed the inner ring of stones, and it was this energy ring that was beneficial for me this evening. I took that as a good sign to obtain some more information!

View of Arbor Low's inner ditch and stones

I went on to obtain some more information about the nature of neutral energy, some of which was confirmatory, other findings were new to me. Here is what I found out:-

1. Neutral energy is same a ley energy
2. Neutral energy naturally travels in straight lines
3. It can be formed into other shapes by animals, plants or human activity and interaction
4. It shares some of its frequency range with male and female radiant energies
5. It is not compatible with male and female earth energies
6. It can be a container, but cannot itself be contained
7. It cannot be attracted or repulsed by any material
8. Neutral forms of subtle energy can be created by and strengthened by the input of radiant energies

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

Impossible Bearings

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

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

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

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

The importance of place

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

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

Defining the Criteria for a Ley Line

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Arbor Low Lines

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

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

1. The Northern Ley

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

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

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

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

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

2. The North–Eastern Ley

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

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

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

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

3. The Eastern Ley

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

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

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

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

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

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

4. The South-Eastern Ley

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

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

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

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

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

5. The Southern Ley

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

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

Of Catherine’s Hill:

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

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

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

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

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

6. The South-Western Ley

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

7. The Western Ley

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

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

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

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

8. The North-Western Ley

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

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

“Information from Pastscape:

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

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

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

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

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

—————————————————————–

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

Gwas.

Arbor Low stone circle, Derbyshire – November 17th 2009

We had decided to go to Arbor Low on a crackpot mission. Previously, Kal had discovered some radial ley lines emanating from the centre of the site like some kind of ancient spoked bicycle wheel, and I was determined to get some spot on bearings for these radials using my whizzy and shiny and accurate compass. In the high wind that blew that evening, and in the almost complete darkness, this seemed like the kind of foolhardy mission that even a buddhist monk told to sweep up leaves in a hurricane would decline!

Arbor Low is now fully recumbent, like a set of toppled dominoes. When the stones that formed the inner circle within the henge had been standing this must have been one of the most impressive megalithic features anywhere in the north of the country. Still, despite its ruinous state there’s something very active about Arbor Low. Kal in particular always seems to have a very positive experience here. I, on the other hand, am largely ambivalent about the place. I admire it, but I rarely get any meaningful experience from it. Tonight was slightly different – it would be the dowsing that stole the show, and I would be more than impressed by the outcome.

We parked up in the darkness of late evening, having just driven through a tempest of hard rain. We mentally prepared ourselves for the onslaught and stepped out of the car – no rain! Eh? We didn’t argue, but instead kitted ourselves out with packs, torches, hats, gloves – all the usual Winter clobber. Arriving minutes later up at the final gate into the site we stopped to appreciate the fact that the strong wind had dispersed the rain clouds just in time for our visit. What a lovely coincidence, as we had been preparing for days to get wet as usual when visiting Arbor Low. Tonight, it was windy, cool, but not wet, and we were thankful.

I had come here with a secondary objective – to find the site’s sigil, or it’s energy pattern manifested in a shape. I then proposed that we use the sigil to introduce ourselves at the entrance to the site, in the same way as I had done at Wayland’s Smithy. My reasoning was that this intuitive approach back then had ensured I had a good and profitable interaction with the site – perhaps the same could be achieved again if we approached the site in a similar manner? This is how superstitions start!

Kal invited me to get my dowsing rods out with the kind of mischievous air that meant, “You first, you nutter!“, and I knew it. When I had finally found a pair that matched, I took a deep breath, settled into the dowsing mindset, and walked off following the intention to be taken to a place where I could find the site’s signature sigil shape, and off I went round to the right hand side of the raised earthwork, heading up the slope. Immediately I clicked into a snaking path that was characterised by a long peak away from the earthwork, then taking me back along a shallower bend as I approached the edge and so on, until my foot stopped as it hit a rapidly rising piece of land. I had found the “avenue” that leads south-east from the outer earthwork of Arbor Low, and whose purpose no-one has satisfactorily explained. “A ritual processional avenue” is probably the best, but unproductive, guess. Kal was moments behind tracing the same path as myself, but not he wandered onwards to the other side of the avenue. I was vaguely aware of him as the sound of his footsteps moved around but I couldn’t really see him.

I followed the rods as they led me out along the avenue’s edge until they twisted and circled into a spiral some thirty feet out from the earthwork’s outer edge. I looked up – Kal was only ten feet away on the opposite side of the avenue and he was also walking in a circle. We looked at each other in the deep gloom and both said: “Here!”. “Now what?” said Kal. “We ask for the spirit of Arbor Low to manifest its sigil formation.” I directed, and we paused to make that connection and implored the site to respond with a dowsable pattern. With one rod in hand I stepped away from the spiral I was stood on and approached it again with the question, “Is there an energy manifestation here?” to which the rods crossed in affirmation. Stepping back I asked the rods to follow the shape of the formation. I just hoped Kal was doing something similar because I couldn’t see him.

The rods began to twist taking me up the ridge of the avenue and across it in a straight line. Inside the avenue itself the rod swirled back on itself taking me back to where I had started, almost. Just before I got there it twirled around again and began to form a half circle, but then twisted back on that shape too, taking me round the inside of the circle. Then it drew the symmetrical opposite of that shape on the other side (with a little bobble at the top) until I was back where I had started. In my mind I traced the shape several times until I got familiar with it. It was a sophisticated shape – like a man with bowed legs, or an Egyptian ankh, or something similar. I went into the avenue to see how Kal was getting on. “Done.” he said. “What did you find?” I described the shape to him and he nodded with every curve and line I described and then said, “That’s EXACTLY what I got!” and he said it with genuine astonishment. Now, I’ve know this man for some time – he’s not usually disposed to humouring me, and if he gets something different he’s more than eager to tell me so. We got the same shape, in the symmetrically opposite points along the avenue, by independent dowsing, in the dark. If that’s not a test that dowsing works…well…it just does.

Here was she shape we dowsed that night:-

Now, in a minute I’ll tell you how we used that sigil to enter the site, and the other dowsing results, but in preparing this post something quite significant happened. As I looked at the sigil shape, and thought about, “Yes, it’s all very well finding the sigil, but what does the shape mean?” I held that thought and did a Google image search for some stock photographs to add to the text, and came across this ariel photograph:

Minus the “arms” there’s the incomplete double circle and the bump on the top. Strange, huh?

 A Bump On The Head

So we had our sigil – what next? We needed to find the entrance to the site – the place where we could draw the sigil and announce our presence to the genius loci of the site, and perhaps unlock some of its secrets by doing so. Again we asked the rods to show us, independently, where was the entrance? We both wandered off in the darkness following our own path, but as we rounded the earthwork, passing the southern “entrance” we began to converge on the same dowsed line, although Kal was some ten feet behind me. As I got close to the “head” mound the rod swung to the left at a slight indentation with a path on it. As I stopped Kal came level with me and his rod swung at the same point. We looked at each other: “This would be the entrance then.” I said and we clambered up onto the mound. We were stood in between the two “eye sockets” (see picture above) of the skull-like feature, and in the space between them we dowsed that this was the place to put the sigil pattern.

But how were we supposed to transcribe it? Again, we dowsed for the answer: should we draw it in the air? NO. Could we trace it in our minds? NO. Trace it on the ground? YES. Could we walk the shape? YES. So, we walk it. I did so, and Kal did the same just afterwards. I respectfully asked if I could enter and waited for a sign. The howling wind suddenly eased to a whisper, and I felt that now familiar tug at my energetic centre area around my belly button. I could enter, and so I did.

The wind picked up again as we headed into the inner circle and we spent a few minutes wandering around the stones, feeling for which ones we should spend time at. Minutes later we were dowsing for those radial ley lines that Kal had previously discovered, and then a whole new story was set in motion, but that’s another post!

Gwas.

Making the sign of the bow-legged man.