The Hedge Druid

Posts Tagged ‘astrology’

As I was travelling home from work last week I felt a strong connection with a star that wouldn’t leave my attention. It was Friday 13th, and although unlucky for some, it felt like a lucky occurence for me. I had that “Lucky Star” feeling – that this was a significant energy that I was feeling and that the star had a personal connection to me.

I decided that I shouldn’t ignore such a powerful emotion, and so I drove past my home exit and instead drove towards my nearest hill in order to get an unobstructed and unpolluted look at the star from height. Being January and cold there was no-one else around as I sat in my 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 ‘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.’) 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. gazing at the captivating star. Using my phone’s StarWalk application I was able to identify the celestial object as Venus in conjunction with Neptune.

(source: Wikipedia)
As I went into a light dazed state of mind, directing my unfocused attention to the twinkling pair of objects above, I felt an energetic connection on two parts of my body. I first felt a tug on my heart chakra, which I opened. A flood of gentle, clear and pure loving energy seemed to fill my being. Then there was a tug on my head, but I couldn’t identify which chakra point that was connected with exactly so I opened them all to its influence.
I felt like there was a direct connection with me and the planets – the shining star’s radiance was filling me with a distant but powerful light. The Venus connection almost made me cry with its strong emotional content.

The Neptune connection had a less identifiable influence. However I felt an incredible emotion of a pure love. I sort of expected this in as much as I knew this was Venus’ influence. It was nice to have this echoed back to me later when I read an astrologer’s interpretation of this conjunction:

“Venus conjunct Neptune invokes the principle of ‘higher love’ — the kind that’s not beset by jealousy or possessiveness but which has an egalitarian, humanitarian spirit” (source: PlanetWaves.net)

That was exactly how it felt. A pure love not connected with sexuality or a single relationship, but a wider feeling of love and kinship with all things. Very unlike my usual traits!

Here’s something else that struck me. I have been getting all sentimental in the last few weeks – buying old movies of Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire. I love their dancing in particular, but I must confess that my wife and I have been enjoying their old-fashioned romantic plot lines too. This is VERY MUCH not like me. So not like me that my wife has commented on how I must be going soft in my “old age” and even saying “What’s happened to you?“.

Here’s another astrologer’s interpretation of the Venus-Neptune alliance:-

“Sentimental and compassionate, natives with Venus conjunct Neptune are easily touched by others’ kindness, music, poetry, dance, and most any art that evokes emotion.” (source: CafeAstrology.com)

Research since then has led me to conclude the following:-

a) I am being strongly affected by the movement and position of the planet Venus this year. More so than any year previously.
b) Whilst I am developing a certain ‘vulnerability’ and sensitivity to Venus’ influence, I am also being shown that this is a means of tapping into an “emotional content” that will become a part of my energy-working and hedge druidry later in the year.

I have a feeling that emotional content is going to be an energy signature that pervades my work this year.

Gwas.

Well, I see that Kal got his summary out first. Still, “if you can’t beat them…”

Generally, what type of year it has been? Dis-jointed, slower than last year’s breakneck speed, measured, with lots of deep synchronicities. When I come to review the year I realise that I still made lots of progress on the various tasks that I was lead to perform in order to progress along my path of Druidry.

Below are the main topics that I have picked out from this year’s blog posts. I have tried to keep the explanations to a minimum, so have included links back to the original postings if you want the detail for each of the topics. What I thought was a quiet year has actually turned out to be incredibly packed and busy. The topics are in no order whatsoever, which kind of fits with the way that the year’s learning has come about – seemingly haphazard, but all threading into and through itself like some kind of cat’s cradle whose overall pattern will only be known when the final moves have played out.

26 topics I have been involved in this year:-

a) Healing – Most of the year has been spent developing healing skills, whether that was using remote energies, balancing the chakras, healing with the hands, or with crystals. I have realised that I am more attuned to healing places than people currently, but that is changing. The healing energies can be attuned to different colours for particular effects. To work with these energies I need to understand which “colour” is missing from a site and then call upon the energies of the local living entities to gather together to create this missing colour and thus heal the site. [related posts: My Five Healing Rays, Healing Rays Explained]

Also, in conjunction with my friend Mike, we created a new healing centre at The Bridestones in Cheshire. [related posts: A New Healing Centre]

Chakra colours, energy frequencies and healing may be linked

b) Re-discovering the bard - Discovered great new music (and that I like the new forms of folk music) at The Green Man Festival, and saw Roy Harper in concert in London. This year music has really connected with my heart and stirred great emotions. I have written more poetry this year than in other years too. [related posts: Green Man Festival, Roy Harper]

c) Astrological links to Venus, Orion’s Belt and Sirius affirmed at almost every site. Also Scorpius, astrological links to Arthur and the Great Bear constellation. The constellations of Serpens, Corvus and Perseus have been especially meaningful to me this year, guiding me along a very meaningful path from one end of an energy leyA straight line of neutral energy linking two or more sacred sites or other energetic centres. This is often confused with Alfred Watkins’ concept of the Ley Line. Strictly speaking a ley line does not necessarily mean a neutral energy line, only a sight 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. between notable places, whereas an energy ley is like a radial spoke in a wheel, with energy flowing outwards across the land in a straight line. It has sometimes been found that the energy ley can be diverted from its strict straight path by changes in the landscape or strong attractors that pull it away from its original course. Energy leys may have inter-twining streams of male and female energies weaving along them, as though the energy ley is an attractor, a pathway or a conduit for the male and female energies. to another. [related posts: Serpent at Castlerigg, Arthurian Archetypes of Corvus, The Berth and Death of Scorpius, The Three Stars of Fertility, Absorbing Orion at Lud's Church]

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I rarely use Tarot Cards. That’s mainly because they are so damned spookily accurate! They make me nervous. There was a spell when Kal was using the cards regularly, for himself and for others, and he found the same. He told me how it was useful for obtaining the kind of information about a situation that couldn’t be obtained (or would take a very long time to narrow down) with dowsing. So, I gave it a go. I learned a single layout, and then I used a couple of reference books to interpret the cards. One word – accurate. Those of you who may have tried this will know what I mean. This is not your “Sun Sign Astrology” tabloid newspaper kind of accurate. This is the “are you reading my mind?” type of accurate.

Of course Tarot cards are symbols, symbols of some human psychology, and there are levels of interpretation required to make something meaningful come out of a reading. Yet, whenever I have done it, and I can count the number of times still on one hand, I have been flabbergasted, nay overwhelmed by the pertinence, the serendipity, the degree of coincidence, however you want to term it. It was spot on. Whether for me, or for someone else. I have been told that I “have the gift” with the cards. Well, so did Solitaire (Jane Seymour) in the James Bond film “Live and Let Die” and look what happened to her! (Actually, what did happen to her, I can’t remember….?)

'Pick a card..any card ...(except that one)'

Why Druids should use Tarot

Good question. Sounds like a statement but it’s also a question – why should druids use Tarot, or any method of divination? Well, the druid revivalist culture seems to purport that there is some historical precedence for a link between forms of augury or divination and the druid class. The Romans (and where would we be without the Romans, with their aqueducts, laws, sewage systems….etc) included instances in their reports of Britain about the scrying and divining abilities of the druids.

Don’t let history (even if it was dubious political history) be your only guide, however. There are other sound reasons to adopt a form of divination. Is dowsing not a form of scrying, of obtaining knowledge from a gnostic source, that can easily be turned towards divination tasks too? Indeed it can. The humble dowsing rod can be used for many purposes, but the further away from dowsing in connection with the land the less credible the results feel to me. This may be a personal thing, however, because I admit to having used dowsing for divination, even if the results have always seemed less reliable and more likely to change. But then, that’s the future for you – always changing!

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Section 7. Summary of the Year

In order to organise our thoughts Kal and I came up with some questions the answers to which we hoped might summarise the way that year has gone for us – what were the bits we expected, what exceeded our expectations, and which things arose to meet us on this path that we didn’t anticipate? Here are my answers to this year’s questions.

What did I think I was going to learn?

1. Whether specific periods of the year are more energetic than others, and whether those periods align to the calendrical eight-fold year.
2. How stone circles work in terms of their energy
3. Whether specific geology affects the energetic responses from sites

By the summer of 2009 I had already established to my satisfaction that there was a difference in the strengths of energies at the Spring Equinox and Summer Solstice. I was sure that there was more powerful sun energy (i.e. stronger male energy) at the Summer Solstice. The Spring and Autumn Equinoxes were very similar in strength, and were a balance of male and female earth energies. At the Winter Solstice the male energies were very weak, as was the Sun. The female energies fluctuated only in relation to the strength of the Moon and the input from nearby trees, again weaker in Winter.

Determining any objective means of measurement was difficult, as our own energy levels seemed to be a factor in how well we could dowse or do energy work at a site, however a scale of measurement (strength from 1-10) seemed to work for the purposes of obtaining some data that could be compared between sites. The solstice and equinox dates depended upon the quality of the Sun to determine the amount of additional energy was at the site compared to our visits to them on other dates.

The Celtic Festival dates (Lammas, Beltane, Samhain and Imbolc) in between those times were much harder to figure out. These dates seems to depend upon the position of the Moon for their effects upon ancient sites., rather than the Sun’s effect. I will be posting much more on this soon, complete with a table of the relative energy levels at various sites dowsed this year.

Further theories have emerged concerning the operation of energies at stone circles and other sites too. See the Earth Energies and Ancient Sites Summary posts for details on those.

We have kept a weather-eye on the geology of sites whilst dowsing this year. It started for me in Carnac when I discovered that the stone rows were placed along a shelf of rock quite different from the surrounding geology of the rest of the nearby coastline. We have concurred with the popular dowsing theory that geological faulting is important to the situation of ancient sites, as is often the presence of water, but we do not wholly agree with the necessity of water (or a ‘blind spring’ formation) being present at all ancient neolithic sites. Some major sites such as Stonehenge and The Rollright Stones do have this water formation, however, and we think these popular sites may have led to the popularity of the idea amongst the dowsing fraternity that such a formation is necessary to a strong energy site. We do not find this to be true.

'CARNAC: Des Pierres Pour Les Vivants' by Pierre Mereaux

What’s been the surprise?

1. Crop circles being designed by some intelligence beyond the confines of this planet – expected them to be of human design and manufacture.
2. The energetic and healing potential of running water – Pistyll Rhaeadr and Viktor Schauberger convinced me of this at different ends of the year. At Pistyll Rhaeadr waterfall my wife’s twisted ankle was healed in minutes. Later I read Schauberger’s theories on the properties of water and I understood how this could have come about.
3. A spiritual pilgrimage being worthwhile doing, and not some soulless religious historical trail as I had imagined it to be.

1. Astrology - There is a correlation, a link, between the relative positions of the stars and a human being. My natal chart is stunningly accurate in assessing my personality traits. Kal and I have also discovered that we are energetically linked to particular planets – Kal to Mercury and myself to Venus. We are more energetically ‘loaded’ or ‘charged’, and more energy work is possible, when our respective planets are visible. I have tracked this since the beginning of the year and have each dowsing response confirms this.
2. Elemental beings and cloud sylphs – I see some this year on four separate occasions and each time I was stunned by the effect – this was no mere simulacrum. Seeing faces in the clouds must be the third and conclusive qualifying factor in any signs of madness developing – that much I do appreciate, but nevertheless, they have been present at quite specific times of high energy.

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Section 4. Astrology and Astronomy

This is the fourth in the series of posts that review the findings of this year. In this particular post I am discussing the relationship between earth energies, human energy fields and the wider cosmos.

I have used the classification of ”astronomy” to describe the information I have discovered (of course, ‘re-discovered’, or ‘uncovered’ would be more appropriate terms) that relates the movement of the major planetary bodies of our solar system to the energy fluctuations in our remaining ancient sacred sites. Very little “astrology” comes into it, really, except that we describe the influence of such bodies upon ourselves.

4-1. Star energies : These types of energy include the influence of planets, which have more effect than we had realised. At the beginning of the year we discovered that “star” energies are also being drawn down into stone circles, just like sun and moon energy. Later we discovered that it was the energy of specific major planets that was being drawn into the circles, or cast upon them. In particular I found a couple of instances where the energy of Venus was being used, and this was at stone circles where the design of the circle itself was based upon the sacred number of that planet (see table below).

4-2. Sacred Numbers : There is a relationship between the planets within our solar system and numbers. This correspondence was obtained by dowsing for this relationship. The number relates to an association between the number and the planet, and that correspondence has a link to the geometry of sacred sites and their dedications. For example, a site dedicated to the goddess ‘Venus’ is found to have a structure that is based upon the number five.

Here is the list of correspondences:-

          1 = Moon
          2 = Mars
          3 = Mercury
          4 = Earth
          5 = Venus
          6 = Jupiter
          7 = Saturn
          8 – Uranus
          9 = Neptune
        28 = The Sun (7+6+5+4+3+2+1)

4-3 Planetary Influence: I learned this year that Venus has an influence over my energetic being. When it is present I am “stalked” by the white light of its presence (seen physically by some people), and am drawn to sites that are in some way connected to it, either geometrically or energetically. Kal is influenced by Mercury’s presence.

4-4. Site ‘alignments’: Some sites are solar-dominated, whilst others are lunar. I react well to lunar sites, whislt Kal feels better at solar sites. Balanced sites suit both of us. Sites that are aligned to the sun have dominant male energies, whilst those that are aligned to the moon have female energy in abundance. No sites that we have found so far are predominantly aligned to any specific star, constellation or planet. In 2010 we will check this more thoroughly, however, as it’s not a question that often gets asked.

4-5. Astrology: My astological natal chart is incredibly accurate in describing my tendencies and characteristics. It goes wrong when the topic is broadened to “how my type of people” think and feel, but when it refers specifically to me, and describes the influence of specific planets upon my birth, then it would seem to me that such tendencies have indeed been “stamped” into my very core, and are still being exhibited some 40 years later.

Gwas.

Although I often notice the occurrence of synchronicities, which makes me smile to myself every time they happen, today seemed replete with them from the moment I awoke. Something was in the air. I am currently working away from home in Germany and so my normal routine does not apply, including not having my usual trinkets and trappings around me.

The first inkling I got that today was going to be different was actually late yesterday. I had been making arrangements with a colleague in a nearby office for us to meet up for lunch. She is part of my extended team, and this was a chance to meet the rest of her colleagues and make some valuable connections that might help me in my work, as they all have many more years experience than me. We had been Instant Messaging each other yesterday afternoon and somehow, during the course of the conversation, she hinted that she was a witch. Only hints, mind you, but it made the prospect of today’s meeting more interesting. Was she in fact a witch? Or just enjoyed all things ‘witchy’? Perhaps today I would find out.

That in itself set the scene for the day. In the morning it was raining steadily – not a good omen, as it would make travel less enjoyable. I set off to work on the train and arrived at the office only to realise I hadn’t got my usual cigarette lighter with me. Never mind, there was a colleague in the office who smoked too – he would have one. For the first time in two weeks he wasn’t in today. Never mind, I could ask someone in the designated smoking room for a light. I double-checked my bag – did I have a spare lighter in there? After a thorough search I concluded that I didn’t. I began to rehearse the German phrase for ‘Have you got a light, please?’ – ‘Haben Sie feuer, bitte?’.

In the middle of the morning I got up to go to the smoking room. I’ll just double-check my bag again. The first pocket I went to – there was a lighter! Eh? I had really searched it before, but here it was – straight into my hand. Odd. I gave it not a second thought, but went upstairs for a smoke. The smoking room is full of people sitting alone at tables or in small groups, and rarely if ever does anyone approach anyone else. Today, as I sat down a man approached me saying, ‘Haben Sie feuer, bitte?’. My eyebrows raised and I smiled to myself. I was going to say that! No-one had ever approached me before in the whole two weeks I had been there. Today – someone asks me the same question I was going to ask them!

I confirmed the arrangements for lunctime and joked with my colleague that, as it was now sunny she must have magically affected the weather for our meeting. She responded that a witch never tells her secrets, and I chalked that up to our previous discussion where the word has been mentioned before. Coincidence, I thought.

Midday arrived and I set off on the shuttle bus to the nearby building, a few miles away. I had never seen my colleague before, but a couple of weeks ago I had looked her up on the staff directory and thought to myself then, ‘You remind me of someone.’ I regretted not having refreshed my memory again before I left, and I hoped that she would recognise me as much as I recognised her, and that we would somehow meet up alright. I sat staring out of the bus window trying to remember who she was similar to, and then it came to me – her hair was like Kate Bush from her ‘Wuthering Heights’ era, when she first emerged onto the pop scene. That’s who she reminded me of! I sat back, satisfied that I should just look out for someone who looked like Kate Bush, and I was sure I would recognise her. Ten seconds later the German radio station that was playing stopped chattering, and with a jolt my ears pricked up: what was that introductory refrain from? Which song? The opening lines blared out in the confines of the small quiet bus:

“Out on the wiley, windy moors
We’d roll and fall in green
You had a temper, like my jealousy
Too hot, too greedy.”

(Kate Bush - ‘Wuthering Heights‘, 1978)

I smiled a broad smile. Coincidence number two! Already today was shaping up to be a magical day. I took that as a good omen, and sure enough I met my colleague without any trouble, and we shared a lovely lunch time eating, walking, buying presents for my colleagues back home, chatting and meeting her team. I didn’t mention anything about her possibly being a witch though – it didn’t seem the polite thing to do – perhaps I was mistaken, and she was just using it as a symbol of her empowered femininity? Anyway, I left it unspoken. Later that afternoon I messaged her again thanking her for her hospitality, and again she dropped hints of things ‘supernatural’. Now I wasn’t imagining things!

Later in the day I was heading back to the apartment a few miles away from the office. A short train ride away. That gives me just enough time, sitting at the station and on the train, to read another few pages in the excellent book ‘Spirals: Patterns of Existence’ by Geoff Ward. I have nearly finished it now, so I picked up at the point where I had left off yesterday where he was talking about C.G.Jung and synchronicity. Aha, so of course it was uppermost in my subconscious this morning. I read about Jung and Wolfgang Pauli, who was trying to find a scientific basis for dream synchronicities and worked with Jung on the concept. Then suddenly the text changed tack. Now it was talking about Astrology, and not your Sun Sign tabloid daily guff about meeting talk dark strangers and making career choices, but as he termed it ‘serious’ astrology. Ward made a statement that really resonated with me, he says, talking of Dr Percy Seymour’s book ‘The Science of Astrology’ (2004) :

‘Seymour’s challenging view is that ‘serious’ astrology… is an attempt to understand our own internal schedules formed over long periods of time and which we inherit genetically. He thinks that the fluctuations in the geomagnetic field synchronise the internal biological clocks of the foetus which control the moment of birth. The ‘tuning of the foetal magnetic antenna’ is carried out by the inherited genes, and this to some extent will influence personality characteristics. The positions of the planets at birth do not alter what we have inherited genetically, but instead ‘label’ our basic inherited characteristics of personality. Cautious support for Seymour’s ideas has come from an unexpected quarter – no less than Richard Dawkins…’

Well, well. Dawkins. Arch-enemy of all things mystic. Is there any clearer sign of convergence between science and mysticism?

That quote was as far as I got when the train stopped and I had to put the book away. As I walked back to the apartment something was nagging me about that passage. It seemed awfully familiar….oh yes – I had written a draft in preparation for my fourth part of the year’s summary of findings only last night. In the draft I had written a paragraph about how this year, one of the most startling findings for me has been to discover that planets have an influence on myself and Kal. They actually affect our behaviour, and determine what activities are going to be more beneficial for us. I’m not going to spoil the draft post, but needless to say I had left it at that point, wondering how on earth I was going to explain that. How was I going to be able to justify that I had suddenly become a believer in astrology? From having rubbished it all my life, to now saying, ‘actually, there’s something quite profound in it.’

I had even gone further, for last night I had gone to the online Astrolabe program and had let it draw up (or ‘cast’ I believe is the correct term) my natal chart. It even gave me a small reading explaining the influences of the planets on my behaviour. I had no idea why last night I would do this. None. And anyway, I was truly all prepared to pick fault with it, just as I had done with so many newspaper and magazine horoscopes before, except that I couldn’t! It was absolutely accurate. Completely me. Now, I’ve also seen that Derren Brown trick where he gives 12 people the same horoscope and because of the way it is written they all think that it is them to a tee, but this was different. There was very little generalisation, it was quite specific and certainly would not apply to anyone else I know.

So, another very major synchronicity. I had been “looking” for some way to explain my new stance on the subject without sounding superficial, and Mr.Ward’s book kindly provided it to me on a plate, just when I could make use of it.

Today has been a day of witches and synchronicities, and it has been hugely enjoyable. I hope all our days are just like this too.

Gwas.

p.s. Here’s one of my personal favourite Kate Bush clips.

When Kal and I first visited the Moel-Ty-Uchaf stone circle at its lofty perch above the village of Llandrillo near to Bala in North Wales, I was particularly taken with it. Despite the immensely steep climb to reach it I have always felt that the view was worth the effort, but there was more to it than that – from the first visit I felt very comfortable in the circle – even attracted to it at the oddest times of the year and the most inappropriate times of the day and night.

Keith Critchlow’s Time Stands Still book says that Moel Ty Uchaf stone circle is geometrically configured based upon a pentacle shape. In other words, when it was designed and laid out the geometry used to create it was based upon five circles, with the stones marking the outer perimeters of those circles.

Critchlow associates the number five, and therefore the dedication of this stone circle, with Venus. Why? As he says on p.205:

“Venus, as seen from Earth, moves around us, looping in close five times in eight years before repeating the cycle…It was on the basis of this pentagonal archetype that we proposed Moel Ty Uchaf  may have been dedicated to the goddess ‘Venus’ or by whatever name the building community called this planetary archetype.”

The geometric pattern descrbed by this motion is pentagonal in nature.

Of course I was not prepared to simply accept this theory – as a dowser I intended to do some additional work to verify this correspondence between sacred geometry, number and planetary dedication. Venus, goddess of love, may seem like a Roman divinity, but to me, the Venus under discussion here was clearly the planet and its appearance as the Morning or Evening Star at particular times of the year. The calendrical alignments of stone circles has been proven time and time again by a continuous overlay of theories since the discoveries by academics like Professor Thom.

Before I had even read “Time Stands Still” I had found a strong Venus connection when I dowsed there in late 2008, but had no idea why such a correspondence was significant until I read Critchlow’s book. As soon as I read about the layout and the potential dedication of the site memories came flooding back to me – memories of how I had been called by some invisible urge to visit the site on 22nd October when, in a moonless clear sky, the Milky Way and all the stars were on display and I had spent several hours gazing in awe at them sitting in the stone circle, wondering what I was doing there. You can read about that experience here.

So, was Venus around on that date? I consulted the internet to find out, and found this on the AstroPlanet blog:

“Venus is the Evening Star for the entire month of October. Venus begins the month in the constellation Libra, the Scales, and on October 17th, moves into the constellation Scorpius, the Scorpian.”

At the start of October I had been spending time with a friend who has an ability to see energies around people as points of light. He had informed me that he had begun to notice just such a light perched over my left shoulder, above and behind, and he simply pointed it out to me. Intrigued, I had spent a while dowsing the possibilities of what it could be. After a week or so I had worked out that it was a planet – the planet Venus specifically. I tracked its presence for a few weeks and noticed that it changed position around me, starting off over my shoulder and moving around to about 90 degrees to me on my left side over that time. Unsure of what to do about this discovery, I didn’t think any more about it – until I got the urge to go to Llandrillo.

That night back in October 2008 I discovered the power of the stars, and their effects upon my ability to connect with the energies of the Moel-Ty-Uchaf stone circle. Now I realise there was probably another influence in effect that night – Venus. I notice that I needed to draw upon “love” energy in order to connect with the energies.

Wishing to discover more about the planets, sacred geometry and numbers I dowsed for the association between the planets in the solar system and their respective number in terms of the geometry of sacred sites, specifically stone circles. I came out with the following results:-

1= Moon
2 = Mars
3 = Mercury
4 = Earth
5 = Venus
6 = Jupiter
7 = Saturn
28 = The Sun (7+6+5+4+3+2+1)

Now, this does not correspond with Critchlow’s reading. He has a more classical interpretation which has the sun in the centre, whereas I have the Earth centrally placed. Also, in my scheme the Sun is the sum of all the other numbers. However, I find the result pleasing, and interestingly, Venus is five. I will now see how that corresponds with stone circles I have visited, and will include this aspect in future site visits. I am considering dowsing their geometry from pictures I have taken of sites, as I think that may be possible, but I would prefer to dowse the geometry on site – there’s something more “real” about being there.

Venus on Anglesey

There’s one final twist to this tale – another coincidence, another piece of the puzzle, another bit of information that I missed at the time, but which makes perfect sense to me now that I have done more research. That is the riddle of the Venus Symbol that I obtained from a visit to Bryn Celli Ddu on Anglesey. The post related to this visit can be read here.

So, again, where was Venus on March 16th this year? [note: this was corrected from 24th - 16th was the visit date, 24th was the date of the post about it]. Here’s an extract from another of those helpful astrological sites:

“In the evenings, you will see Venus slipping closer to the horizon, eventually merging with the Sun and becoming lost from sight toward the last week in March. Venus makes a conjunction with the Sun on March 27 and then begins the part of her journey as the morning star, which will become visible early in the mornings during the first week of April.

Venus making this transition in her sign of exaltation, Pisces, is especially powerful. Venus is the planet of connection, relationship, love and beauty and it is located in Pisces, Jupiter’s water sign, that represents the domain of universal understanding and wisdom.”  (source: PlanetaryInfluence.com)

What I had seen then, in the western skies whilst sat on top of Bryn Celli Ddu’s mound, had been the sliver of Venus’ crescent. Only now, after listening to Manly P.Hall’s excellent lectures on AstroTheology – The Zodiac and The Platonic Year –  do I realise that this is what I was seeing. Again, the first few minutes of his lecture caught my ear:

“We find in other parts of the ancient world (other than ancient China) the full and obvious knowledge that the Egyptians, the Greeks and the Persians, at an ancient time, knew definitely that the planet Venus was never visible to us as a complete sphere, but most often like a minute lunar crescent.”

This was all beginning to make sense. I was drawn to Bryn Celli Ddu one night, going there to contemplate why I have dowsed that I am being tracked by the planet Venus, and to find out why I seemed to have some kind of connection to it. As I sat on the mound I observed a strange star and saw a symbol, which I recorded. That symbol contained a crescent shape that was not the moon, which puzzled me at the time. Now I find that the shape was Venus itself!

So, bringing all this together I think I can now say that I do finally understand the Venus Symbol. I now understand that I am influenced by the position of Venus – its presence in the sky, and that this influence in some way affects my energy field, jst as I have previously discovered that the phases of the Moon do. I can also see that something was trying to tell me about this influence, because many things began to coalsce in a short span of time that brought together all of the evidence I would need to work it out. Of course, dowsing helped a great deal, as it always does, but meditation and listening to that intuitive call from “somewhere” meant that I was in the right place at the right time to experience what I needed to see and feel in order to gather this evidence.

For me then, sites that are dedicated to Venus, and thus, by implication sites that are geormetrically constructed using the number five, or pentagonal design, are sites that I seem to have particularly powerful energetic and meaningful experiences at. This I have now learned, and will begin to make use of that when I plan my visits to sites next year. I will now be asking – what is the geometry of the site? When is the planetary influence for this site most active? Just another aspect to working with these ancient marvels of engineering and astronomy to add to the growing list!

Gwas.