The Hedge Druid

Posts Tagged ‘bakewell’

3rd November 2008 (full moon)

This is the first installment of a three-part post about a visit that Kal and I undertook to Nine Ladies stone circle in Stanton Moor, Derbyshire one dark winter evening. It’s a tale of adventure involving dowsing, druidry and darkness.

PART ONE

It was a dark and stormy night….no, it wasn’t actually. It was a fairly light evening, misty and very still, with only the occasional breeze stirring anything at all. We drove over the Cat & Fiddle route (A537) from Macclesfield and straight into a fog bank near to Tegg’s Nose Country Park (how can a nose have a whole country park to itself – surely a gross waste of space!?).

Inching along we managed to find our way back to Stanton Moor on the far side of Bakewell in Derbyshire by instinct alone (and the fact that we’d been here many times each independently, and once together). Tonight was different from all other times though. It was night time and the moon was full. Oooh! Spooky! Not really. If you’ve followed my recent posts “Alone in the Dark” (Part 1 / Part 2) then you’ll know I’ve been preparing myself for things like this already. Kal has been trained by long night walkabouts and so we were both completely unfazed by the journey across dark fields, through the woods, and into the circle of stones on Stanton Moor. The gentle hooting of owls was almost comical. Comedy was the theme of the evening, as it turned out, but I’ll come back to that later.

In the ambient moonlight cast through the low thin cloud cover there was a silver path picked out through the woods by a quirk of the angle of light. It led us with ease towards the circle without putting a foot wrong in the darkness. We both remarked, somewhat gratefully, that the going was easy and pleasant on this unseasonably warm evening. There was a slight haze of mist, but that just added to the wondrous effect.

As we approached down the sandy and subtly moonlit path I again felt the urge to arrive at the circle via the short path through the trees. We had walked in from the Stanton Lees village side (not across the moor) as this path was shorter. As we walked up the rise to the circle I felt a wave of energy that hit me, as before, gently in my stomach. “Can you feel that?” I asked Kal. “Oh yes.” he responded. Then he walked ahead of me and began to really feel it. He stopped too, “It’s really strong here.” “I’m sparking with it!” I responded. My hair felt like someone was holding a balloon above it and my face was tingling gently. This was either a particularly energetic time, or we were getting better at detecting it. An owl hooted in agreement, and I smiled. Coincidence.

The circle awaited us like some sleeping giant’s crown waiting to be snatched by midnight thieves as we stole up to a point ten feet away and breathed in the night air. It was as though we were taking in the aura of the place, deep into our lungs, in order to quickly acclimatise to the flowing, sweeping energies we could feel that the site was bathed in.

We placed out backpacks just below the rise to the circle and got out our copper L-rods. Why copper? Because they look nice. Our first mission was to get accustomed to the circle again. We consulted our crib sheet of questions and suggestions for things to look for. We started by sitting on each of the stone in turn to see if we could find a stone that drained energies. We had found one here before, and I had found one since then at Cerrig Pryfaid. Quickly we identified it as a small stone with a flat top, perfect for sitting on. Just like the one at Cerrig Pryfaid. Good start. “A draining stone!” I claimed. “A grounding stone!” Kal retorted. Possibly either or both, we agreed. Same function, different slant.

Kal walked off to the King Stone with his rods clinking his location as he disappeared into the night’s shadows. I decided to approach the tree. As I got within a few feet of the edge of its canopy, I introduced myself to the tree (rather matter-of-factly, on reflection) in my mind. Immediately I felt a block pushing against my stomach, the area that Castenada would call the Assemblage Point. I recognised this from previous encounters with oak trees – I was being barred! I didn’t need a second hint, so I stopped and walked away back towards the circle, vowing to return soon when I was in a better frame of mind. Too hasty! I scolded myself. Always too hasty with oaks. They’re slow, old, and demand a greater respect than other types of tree. One day I will abide by The Rules. I’m still trying to work out what they are, but the nature spirits (or Genius LociGenius Loci means 'spirit of the place' and refers to the geological/gaian spirit of place. It is transfixed to a place – being an embodiment of the collective intelligence of the place., as Kal refers to these sentient entities) are being very patient and consistent with me, which is helping the process along nicely.

I walked up to the King Stone to see what Kal was up to. He was dowsing down towards me in a tell-tale meander from side to side. “Male line.” he responded to my pending question. “Coming out of the King Stone.” I had found such a line on a previous visit, as had Kal. I was sure I remembered there was a female line coming out too, so I dowsed for that, and found it going alongside the path Kal had just described for the male energy lineThe direction energy takes when moving. It may be straight or curved, in several dimensions and be composed of one or more different types of energies, i.e. negative, positive or neutral. Energy lines can be found at standing stones and ancient sites but are a general feature in all energy fields.. I did the male line as well and found it curved in exact opposition to the female line. Another double-helix formation like Cerrig Pryfaid! We dowsed some more questions – taking turns to verify each others findings, which seemed particularly validating because we wouldn’t take any visual cues from each other as we could only see each other’s rods as we got a foot or so away from the stone.

• We asked for the direction of the flow? – The rods swung towards the stone circle.
• Was the King Stone the source of the energies? – Yes.
• Did the King Stone have a connection to the circle? – Yes.
• Did the King Stone have any energy of its own? – Yes.
• Was the King Stone exclusively male? – No.
• Was the King Stone exclusively female? – No. – Oh! A surprise there. Could it be neutral?
• Was the King Stone exclusively neutral – No. NO! Well, then what was it? A combination?
• Was the King Stone a combination of male and female ? – Yes. Ahhhhh. Interesting!
• Did the energy go out of the King Stone away from the circle as well as towards it? – No.

Kal then dowsed the auric extent of the King Stone on the side away from the circle and found it to be about 7-8 feet away, surrounding the stone in a circle. So that was the extent of that stone’s ‘influence’, if you like. Its energies were contained within a small circle, and bound to the stone circle down the way from us, linked by a double helix of male and female energy lines.

So it seemed the stone, containing a combination of male and female energies was able to either split the energies and propel them towards the stone circle, or, the circle was drawing male and female energies simultaneously but separately from the King Stone, and drawing them down to itself. Either way it was connected, so where did it go after it left the King Stone? I followed the two lines simultaneously by instructing one rod to follow the male line, whilst the other should follow the female line. Would it work? Indeed it would, but it was very easy to get into all sorts of weird Hannibal Lecter poses if you weren’t careful. At times the relative amplitudes of the waveforms meant that I lost connection with the waves until they converged again further down their paths. Eventually they parted company at a point five feet in front of the stone circle, each going around the circle – male left, female right – until the male line continued around the circle to rejoin itself. The female line spiralled into a flat stone on the right of the circle (looking from the King Stone). This flat stone registered for female energy too. You’d think so, I guess, if a female line comes into it, but I thought I’d check anyway. These things have a habit of overcoming your assumptions regularly, and making you look like a lost Mark Thatcher.

As I stood on one side of the circle I found that I could see the stone circle’s nemeton, the energy positioned seven feet away from the circle, as a band of pale moonlight. I gazed amazed. It was probably because that’s the path that people take to walk around it and the grass is flattened down making it shine, I told myself. It’s a trick of the light caused by the reflection of moonlight on the ridge here that’s reflecting the light down to its base and…I looked at other places where people walked – other paths – no light. And I could see the nemeton circling the site, so it wasn’t a feature of the light falling at a particular angle relative to where I was standing – I could walk around along its path and it was still visible as a whole circle around the stones at every point.

I stopped wondering how I could see the ring of light, and just wondered. It was a clear path like to one I had followed down from Moel-Ty-Uchaf one night, the path that had delivered me safely to the farmer’s track without a stumble. Then it had flowed in straight lines, turning at acute angles when it needed to bypass uncomfortable drops in height. I had considered it to be starlight because the stars were the only source of illumination; but on this night, with the cloud cover and a full moon, this must be moonlight, right? Flowing in a circle. I don’t know. But it was there – a ghostly pale ring of light that formed a perfect circle around the stones.

I wanted to know more about it so I confirmed that the nemeton’s direction of flow was clockwise, and then set off with an instruction to the rods to follow the nemeton energy. I know what you’re thinking – did he check which gender the nemeton registered as? Yes, I did. Remarkably I remembered to do that this time – it was male, in line with the direction of flow of the male line coming out of the King Stone. Oh, was this the King Stone energy then? I followed with interest to see if the line rejoined itself. It was looking like the male energy line was forming the outer energy extent – it’s auric reach.

I followed the nemeton’s line around back to the entrance gap in the circle. There it moved slightly inwards from its seven foot diameter. Now it was a foot to the right, a foot nearer the circle. I walked around again. At the entrance it moved again. Now it was tracing a circle, still clockwise, alongside the stones themselves. This was the third revolution. As I came to the entrance a third time the line dove into the circle to describe a spiral inside the circle itself. It spiralled round about four or five times before ending at the exact centre of the circle. Not a place we had really investigated yet. I remember that the exact centre was the crossing point for the neutral lines that criss-crossed from stone to opposing stone. That I had found on my last visit. Would they be here again? I made a mental note for us to check tonight.

While I had been busy with the nemeton, Kal had been dowsing the energies inside the circle. He had found female energies inside that went between certain stones – a handy-for-sitting-on flat stone, and a stone about four positions away from it. He had also stuck his umbrella in the power centreA place where a person of a particular alignmentAlignment relates to the concept that humans have their own energy fields that are oriented or formed in a specific way such that the person is either suited better to one energy source of another. Some people have their energy fields empowered by the direct subtle energy force of The Sun, whilst others are empowered by the indirect subtle energy of The Moon. Due to the historical associations and symbolisation of The Sun with masculinity and The Moon with femininity we designate these alignments as either being ‘male’ or ‘female’ alignments accordingly. We interchangeable refer to people as being ‘sun-aligned’ or ‘male-aligned’ and similarly with the female alignment. (see ‘Alignment’) feels particularly comfortable and empowered. The place is an energetic centre where a particularly beneficial combination and formation of energies is formed into a pattern that is harmonic with the person for whom it can be called a power centre. that I had found on all my visits there. I was barely visible in the gloom, but you could see it before you walked into it, which saved us from castration on several occasions. Wherever we dowsed inside the circle and outside of it we always ended up back at that power centre, slightly offset from the exact centre, close to the entrance gap in the stones. This thing was a hub for these lines. Male lines flowed into it, and female lines flowed out of it. The male lines came in clockwise, and the female lines emerged roughly anti-clockwise (some went through the air, and under the ground, but their direction of flow was always anti-clockwise). I laughed uncontrollably sometimes as I arrived yet again directly to the umbrella unfailingly even though it was barely visible (a black umbrella – I ask you! Luminous orange would have been more helpful!) Kal made a quip about the circle not having seen such mirth since mediaeval times, or something. Well, you have to enjoy yourself, don’t you? It tickles me when the dowsing is so unerringly capable of sending you round a path a hundred metres long, only to bring you back to join again at exactly the place you started from – in the dark. The Cosmic Giggle is felt in many ways.

Other formations that we found at the site that night were:-

1. arcing energies both over and under ground from and to the power center and a stone
2. a manifestation that I made on the power centre of four petals (I had tried to visualise three, but it changed in my mind to four)
3. Kal made a manifestation of what he called a “PentiKal” – a five sided shape.

We stopped at this point for a break. Much of the preparation for energy work seems to be to dowse for the placement, orientation and nature of the energy lines first. Then we have a starting point for any energy work later. Now was the time to switch tack. We ate our snacks underneath the Wishing Tree oak, but I could tell Kal was restless there, whereas I was perfectly at ease.

I took the chance to do a proper re-introduction to the Wishing Tree oak as Kal went off to do some more dowsing on the King Stone. I wasn’t looking for anything ‘deep and meaningful’ with the oak, just a chat, so I only went into a light trance. I was pleased to get a polite but friendly connection (how can I describe that feeling? It’s how you feel, not anything you hear or see). In that state the oak and I shared snappy funny comments with each other, and I ended up laughing heartily again. This was a sure sign of madness. Look it up in “The American Psychiatric Publishing Textbook of Personality Disorders (Edited by John M. Oldham, M.D., M.S., Andrew E. Skodol, M.D., and Donna S. Bender, Ph.D.). Or read about it in some good druid books like “Tree : Essence, Spirit and Teacher” by Simon & Sue Lilly or “Living Druidry” by Emma Restall-Orr.

You may remember from previous posts that it was at this tree that I received the message “The Sun is the Key. The Moon is the Door.” on my last visit. This had set me thinking for a while until I realised that I just had to let the answer reveal itself. That was the mode of thinking that I was learning to trust again. It was just up to me to invest enough energy in the idea to set the thread running, then be attentive to the sign leading to the answer in the future. I invested emotion into it – I projected love tempered with gratitude for a few moments. A breeze whipped up for a second stirring the branches of the oak, then just as quickly calmed. Thank you. I was on the right path. An important thing to know.

Gwas

Making friends with wise trees.

July 6^th 2008 : Arbor Low and Birchen Edge, Robin Hood, near Bakewell

Arbor Low

On Sunday I ventured forth with my understanding friend Kal Malik. We made our way into the Derbyshire hills again in the trusty steed Peugeot, rods clanking away in the car’s side pockets, and in the engine as we attempted to negotiate the Cat & Fiddle route across to Buxton, and on towards Ashbourne to get to Arbor Low stone circle.

The sky soured as we got towards Macclesfield and we knew we were in for another damp encounter with the Stonehenge of the North. Sure enough it started to make the wipers work hard as we got nearer. We turned into the small lane and got prepared. Kal, as usual, opted for his trusty knackered trainers and sponge-like suede jacket. I’d remembered to wear proper walking boots this time, and felt like it was a sensible decision.

The rain got worse as we neared the circle, and we gave a knowing look to each other of “let’s make this quick!”. I immediately asked for a female energy detection and walked from the entrance towards the centre stones. I got a cross and walked on. At the smaller ring it stopped responding, so I switched to “detect male” and it crossed again, getting stronger towards the centre.

Then the rods parted again, and I switched to female for the last few feet to the centre stones. Kal was looking puzzled and increasingly soggy. “Do it again.”, he nodded. Same. “Hmmm…I got the opposite.” he remarked.

I decided to try following the energy lines instead of detecting their size and position with the two rods. I had become accustomed to following single paths, rather than tracing areas. I started at the entrance and asked for female. Immediately I found a line close to the left side of the entrance gap. I followed it past the surrounding mound and into the ditch, where it spiralled to a point.

“Kal – I’m getting female in the ditch?”. “Then you’re doing it wrong.” came a bemused response through the veil of raindrops now bucketing down on us. “Hmmm…” mused Kal, “I think I know what it might be….”. He left the thought hanging and wouldn’t elaborate just yet. The rain running off my jacket and hat had formed a confluence in my jeans pockets and I was sinking.

“Abandon ship!” I was thinking furiously, and I proposed we beat a hasty retreat to somewhere warm and well-stocked in the cake department. I knew he’d suggest his favourite café in Bakewell. “TOP” sandwich and a chance to dry off? Done deal.

Birchen Edge

The sun broke through the clouds as we munched into our scran. I figured the next place to try was G—- Edge just ten minutes car drive away on a road out of Bakewell. It was close and new – possibly something and nothing? It seemed to have a lot of stone cairns and a standing stone on it, so it had potential.

We parked next to the Robin Hood pub (feeling good about the coincidence of The Green Man and the energies appearing so often in this trip). Casting around for the path we walked up the road and found a path very quickly leading up the ridge. It was labelled “Birchen Edge” on a green sign. “Though it was something beginning with ‘G’?” I thought to myself and walked on.

On the way up Kal experimented with finding an energy on the path and quickly located one winding its way up the ridge path. He got bored following it and stopped just as we arrived at a fork in the pathways next to a many-trunked birch tree with a large stone at its base. Here the path went on wards and also turned right up the hill quite steeply. I dowsed that the right hand path was the better option, because its energy was linked to the stone’s, and we headed up, forgetting about Kal’s vertigo. Well, I forgot about it – not sure if he did.

I had liked the tree too. A birch – the emblem of the first stage of Druidry. The symbol of renewal, seeing afresh, learning new ways of being, and looking with child-like wonder at the world. What had I read about many-trunked trees being more powerful? That seemed to tie in with the Delamere experience, when my “quest” had ended with a Pine and Birch tree living together at the corner of a junction of paths. That was the day I had recognised the unmistakeable significance of the smoothed beach stone in amongst the ferns on an energy path. I had recognised that it had both purpose and meaning, if only I could let them emerge when they should.

At the top of the ridge the path smoothed out to a gentle uphill amble next to a large expanse of heather to our right. We started to notice the ridge. In amongst all the trees was a fantastic protuberance of rock with a ready-made man-sized sentry position looking out over the whole sweep of the surrounding valleys.

We both stood in it, and I was drawn to the beech tree that framed the view, as it filtered the sunlight just nicely in the mid afternoon. I walked over to it and felt ready to try to talk to it. Kal already had his hand on it and a wistful aloof air. I put my hand on it and relaxed my vision. In this relaxed state I was able to talk to myself without interrupting myself or becoming distracted. I heard thoughts in my voice that was an interesting dialogue between me and myself! It went:

Me: “What should I find here?”

Myself: “Powerful and beautiful energy.”

Me: “Where can I find this energy?”

Myself: “Look for the bird. Follow the bird.”

I came back to my senses with the last thought ringing in my ears. Look for the bird! I told Kal. He said nothing. I could hear birds singing, but as we headed back to the path to investigate more of the unusual rock formations on the ridge I kept hearing a songbird in the trees further back down the path we had climbed up. I didn’t feel ready to go back yet, so we walked on up the path. I was on the lookout for flying birds, but none were around, so I put the thought away for the moment to concentrate on more “real” matters of finding energy lines.

We tracked a line up the hill with the directive “Find the most powerful energy source on this ridge” as we trudged upwards. Soon the sight of three massive fifteen-foot high rocks and an obelisk topped by a ball came into view in the middle distance. The path was heading for them, and we gave each other a look which said “It’ll be them that we’re heading for then.”.

Suddenly we were heading into the heather to our right, following what looked like a rabbit path. Then a swerve left to circle into a spiral around a faerie ring in the midst of the heather. It was unmistakeable in nature – light green moss atop a lush grassy mound, and then the heather all around.

We spotted a large animal-sized stone and dowsed towards it. From there we picked up six more stones in a circle around the faerie ring and stunted heather centre point. Most of the stones were invisible until you stumbled onto them in the heather, or could scrape the moss off a corner in order to identify them. Unmistakeably a circle! But invisible from the path twenty feet away.

We walked back to the path and on to the Nelson’s Monument area where the obelisk and three large stones were. They were all very interesting, marked as they were by roughly-carved slogans – “Defiance”, “Victory” and “Royal Soverin [sic]”. On a stone beneath them was the artist’s initials “G.C.” and “1766”. A good year for patriotism, I believe, if not for spelling.

As we wandered around the stone, Kal into the heather, me around the big stones, I spotted a pigeon on one of the huge stones that formed the ridge next to the monument.

Despite the undoubted updraft from the ridge it was sitting there without shifting, and seemed to be inviting me to join it on the rock in the warm afternoon sun. “Look for the bird. Follow the bird. “ I thought, and began to approach the rock slowly and deliberately. The bird never stirred. I climbed the rock at it lowest point and slid myself up the rock until I was lying on my back in the middle, three feet away from the pigeon. I expected it to flap and fly at any second, but it just watched me, head bobbing and flicking whenever I moved.

I lay there quietly for a minute then ventured a look at the pigeon. I could see it was being blown by the winds, but it hadn’t flown yet. Now it started to move away from the edge and walked in a clockwise fashion on ever-increasing circles and then stopped to look me in the eye. I gulped. It had a crap, then walked to the farthest edge away from the ridge and stopped. Then it came back to the top of the rock, and stood on the ridge again, looking out into the valley. I slowly turned until I was lying flat and could see what it could see.

“What do you see, pigeon?” I asked it out loud. “How do you find your way? How can I find mine?” I chuckled to myself at the ridiculousness of throwing a metaphysical quandary at a humble pigeon. I was really beginning to lose it with this “communingAn interaction with an invisible and natural sentient force that is independently identifiable, even if it cannot be named or classified. The interaction takes place at the level of a subtle amalgamation of the mind of the perceiver such that a dialogue or transference of feelings may occur between the two sentient parties. The interaction that is ‘communing’ is purposefully initiated by the perceiver for the express purpose of learning or simply to transfer feelings in a sympathetic manner.” lark! I sighed, relaxed and gazed out over the landscape. I looked straight ahead – there was a church spire. I looked at the pigeon again – it was looking at the church too, I believed. Then it looked left a bit. I copied it, and my eye was transfixed by the shape of a circle marked out in a field by trees. A grove circle? A druid’s grove tree circle?

I looked back at the bird. The bird had got bored with staring and waiting around, and had wandered off to the back of the stone again, where this time it flew off back down the path we had come up.

I reeled from what had just happened. Had that bird just shown me a site that only I would be particularly interested in? How else would I have found that? Why did I find it today? Why hadn’t that bird flown away as I climbed onto the rock with it? At one point I had been only inches away from it? What the hell was a pigeon doing on that ridge?

Of course – he had tags on – he was just resting and preparing to navigate back home. He was just showing me how he too uses the alignments and energy lines to find his path out and home again. It was a shared interest. Then, I am convinced, he led my eye from the church spire to the Druid’s grove circle. Of course, I could have seen it just by studying the view at any time, but I still felt like I had been meant to be the one who saw it, and that the bird was helping in some way to make that happen. Craziness, I know.

Kal finds his own new circle

Whilst all that had been going on Kal had been tracing a serpent energy through the heather and had found another, larger, circle a short distance behind the three large stones dedicated to Lord Nelson. I verified it’s centre and stones, and then I told Kal about the incident with the bird. “Well, “ he said, “You followed the bird!”. Indeed I had.

As we walked back down the path with the sun starting to noticeably begin to descend, I contemplated this area. It was like Helsby Hill, Stanton Moor, Harthill Moor – all magical places where energy gets compressed and invigorated by the rocky outcrops. There were also some many birch trees I could barely overlook the symbolism which was all around me, and the communion with the birch which started it all off.

As we descended we came back to the large sandstone block at the base of another birch tree – this one the many-trunked Shiva of the birch trees that we started with earlier. I stopped to dowse the connection between the birch and the rock only to find that it was strong, and the tree seemed to supply not only energy to the rock, but also to both paths up the ridge too.

As the slowly setting sun twinkled between the birch branches I felt another magical moment arriving. To awaken it I instinctively started to circle the tree clockwise. On the first attempt I caught my foot clumsily as I stepped over its lowest smallest branch, and I laughed at my own ungainliness. Next time around I stepped over with ease. The third time around I got faster, lightly hopping the low branch like a teenager. On the fourth time around I felt slightly out of control and positively leapt the low branch before stopping myself at the stone and laughing deeply at the build-up of energy I had felt by doing that. It was like the buzz you get off a merry-go-round before you feel too sick.

I started to sense the power of these trees. The birch was answering my questions with the patience of a mother. It was showing me new things, making me feel child-like amusement and wonder, and was promoting simple and honest communications with nature – a deeper appreciation for its powers and ways. I was beginning to see the signs and walk a truer path through the first stage of Druidry.

Looks like we’d made a good choice to take a wrong turn at the bottom of the hill and come up this ridge instead. Funny how these things work out!

Gwas Myrddyn.