The Hedge Druid

Posts Tagged ‘Beltane’

My Beltane quest, to be completed before the Summer Solstice, is the “See with the eyes of The Hawk”. That was the message from the ever-useful Llangernyw Yew tree meditation that I did within the hollows of one of its ancient branches. Whilst trying to interpret this information I had tried to elicit a bit more information from the other sites I had visited that Beltane day on the 1st May and had found out that the vision was an ariel view of a landscape figure showing a hawk in flight.

Whistlebitch Well

The starting point to find this figure in my locality would be a sacred spring or holy well somewhere in Cheshire. It didn’t take me long to draw up a list of the 20+ wells in the county and then work my way through them with the help of the dowsing rods to eliminate all but the last – Whistlebitch Wellnear Utkinton. Seemingly, at one time this was a much-visited attraction, but its whereabouts are much harder to discern today. I went out one evening in the fading sunlight to try to find it. If it still existed then perhaps I could try to get in touch with the spirit of the well and reveal some more information about my quest?

I passed a gentleman walking his dog in the woods close to the well and asked him if he knew of it. He knew of many of the features of the surrounding woods, having spent thirty years walking the area, and was able to show me pictures of many of the features too! He was unsure about the well, though, unless I meant the old St Stephen’s Well that was close to where we stood chatting? That must be its alternate name, I said, there was only one well in the area. He said he thought it was connected to the stream we were standing on top of, so I bade him a kindly farewell and followed my instincts to walk through a field next to the stream. Then I heard what sounded like a water source in the damp ditch next to the field. I gingerly waded through the nettles to find the remains of a signpost and a square iron cover – just like the pictures on the Megalithic Portal – this was it!

Whistlebitch Well near Utkinton, Cheshire

After having uncovered the well and washed my crystals in its waters I laid them our around me and meditated to the sound of the trickling waters. Soon I was in contact with the spirit of place, a male water spirit, who was very glad that someone had visited and more so that they were being respectful of the place. I asked the spirit what he knew of The Hawk of May, but he was unable to expand upon that concept. He was only a lowly Nature spirit watching over this well, and who did not go anywhere else or meet any Hawk of May spirits. I would have to figure this one out alone.

The Landscape Figure

Back at home I began to investigate maps of the area around Whistlebitch Well. Would anything reveal itself to me about the outline of roads, paths, tracks and rovers in the area, or be revealed in the names of places? I had experience of reading about Katherine Maltwood‘s Glastonbury Zodiac figures, and Mary Caine‘s subsequent revival of the concept which she then began to apply to the Kingston-Upon-Thames area too. I knew what a landscape figure might look like, but could I find one in a modern map?

After several hours of scrying, this figure appeared:

The figure is formed primarily by the crag ridge of Willington village, and is centred on the village of Utkinton. It extends as far as Cotebrook at its east side, and Duddon to the west and Boothsdale to the north. At its northern extent is the natural feature of Primrose Hill, and within that is Whistlebitch Well. A road extending from the hawk’s beak seems to tether it to the village of Clotton. [full size map here].

The shape of the figure was suddenly so obvious to me that I started to get excited. What could this mean in terms of my current quest? Now that I had identified a possible landscape figure, what next? I was at a loss as to what to do with this information, and when in such a situation I tend to turn to a favourite divination tool of mine – the tarot.

Tarot reading about the quest

It just so happened that a friend of mine had gifted me some tarot cards that they didn’t want. They thought they would use them, but actually they weren’t suitable, but they thought that they would be perfect for me to use. I already have the Druidcraft Tarot, and was perfectly happy with the success of this deck, but nevertheless I decided to try out the “new” deck – The Tree Angel Oracle – to see how effective it might be. I must admit, I was slightly put off by the “Angel” reference and wondered if they might be a bit too “New Age” and “airy fairy” to be useful.

I would start simply – a three card draw to answer three simple questions about how I should interact with this Hawk of May and the landscape figure.

1. What gift should I bring for the Hawk? Card = The Pear – the gift should be intuitive.
2. How will we interact? Card = The Yew- in silent meditation, possibly at a yew tree, crossing into the Otherworld to meet The Hawk of May.
3. What will I gain? Card = The Sycamore – “Precision of the eagle”, “Clarity of the blue skies”, “The power of lightening” and “Breath of the winds.”

This is remarkable considering the reading was about my quest for “Meeting the Hawk of May”. Did this mean literally control of lightening and wind? I asked a psychic friend to interpret these symbols for me, and he told me that it was more to do with the wind symbolising the concept of sound, a sweeping away of barriers, and that this would signal the rise of a clairaudient ability. The lightening flash, he said, was symbolic of the ability to control these new druid powers that I was gaining. I was a little embarrassed by this, and the proof of it remains to be seen.

Soon I will recount the tale of meeting the Hawk of May and how prescient and useful these tarot card readings would be!

Gwas.

Our second stop on our Beltane journey after performing a cleansing and energising routine at Dinas Bran was to head for our venerable and reliable teacher – the Llangernyw Yew tree – Wales’ oldest tree. This tree is tucked away in a small village just behind the Conwy hills and was easy to reach from the A5 road that runs the length of North Wales.

Whilst Kal busied himself with the graveyard (his favourite part) I went straight to the tree – no messing. As I walked up from the graveyard towards the tree something unusual happened. I began to sprout ethereal wings! I felt them spread and rise to either side 9f my shoulders and my head began to form into a sharp-pointed beak. This was a highly unusual feeling, but I recognised the figure that was forming around me like an energetic head-dress – it was the form of a hawk.

I had the tree to myself briefly and made swift work of setting my place. I put incense sticks where I felt they needed to be – three of them – and I lit them before looking for a position to sit.

The Oldest Tree in Wales

I found a hollowed bole that seemed to be a perfect platform upon which to sit. I wondered why, in all the visits I had made here previously, I had never noticed this place before? Well, it seems we find the things we need when we are ready for them when on a spiritual path. I sat and began to enter into a blank state of mind. Soon I was deep in meditation and my mind seemed to have split into two parts. My ‘ordinary’ mind was keenly aware of the noises around, even though they were all just a mosaic of sounds rather than anything distinguishable. My meditative mind was travelling deeper into the rabbit hole provided by the Yew Tree and its conducive environment.

I heard people milling around but I had no idea what they were doing or saying. My meditative mind had the upper hand and was interested in focusing on the questions I had come here to answer. I began.

1. Was I right in thinking that I had a bit more time to complete my previous quest? – YES, until Solstice, but beyond that the advantages would be rendered useless.
2. What is the nature of my Beltane quest? – To find this answer you must go deeper.
3. Is the quest related to a hawk, the Hawk of May – YES, but to find out how you must go deeper. Give more of yourself.

I decided to go deeper. I re-doubled my efforts to sink deeper into trance, blocking out all the real-world noise that was still lingering in the other half of my mind. The noise went quieter and quieter until it was a distant whisper compared to the infinite blackness of the Yew Tree’s enshrouding presence. I began to open my chakras up to the influence of the old tree – I trusted it implicitly now. I poured out my spiritual experience through the chakra points in turn. As I got to the third-eye chakra there was an intensifying violet colour in the front of my mind. I decided that I should stick with this as it was the only chakra point that had shown a colour during the opening process.

As I filled my inner vision with this violet pigment suddenly I heard the message loud and clear – “See with the hawk’s vision!”

The magical yew tree's insides

Here was the hawk as a symbol of this day again – The Hawk of May. I pushed further. What kind of vision, I asked? I was suddenly elevated to a view over the land where I could see for miles in each direction, yet I could also bring my vision to a fine point in order to focus on one small aspect of the landscape below with an uncanny precision. Was this literal, or a metaphor?

When I came back to consciousness I was surrounded by four tree tourists – two couples who had come to see this famous tree but, as is often the way with people who are energetically unaware, they didn’t know what to do with themselves when they got to the tree and they quickly began to look around the church itself, and then even more quickly they moved on. One of the girls was interested enough to ask if it was a nice spot that I was sitting in. I replied that indeed it was, and that she should try it herself. I shouldn’t tease like that, but sometimes you do encounter energetically-aware people and it’s nice to pass on your experiences if you can. She lasted three seconds. Oh well!

Kal re-joined me and we discussed our stories about our recent experiences. Kal suggested that “the vision of the hawk” might be the next turn on the spiral of remote viewing. In other words – was I supposed to have another session of remote viewing but this time with all that I had learned since last time? Something I would have to consider and try for myself over the next few weeks, I thought.

Little did I know that soon the information would be revealed about what exactly the phrase “See with a hawk’s vision” meant. But that is for the final Beltane post coming soon.
Gwas

This is the first of a three-part post on my Beltane exploits this year. As usual I went out into the countryside accompanied by my amiable sidekick Kal, and I had the intention of discovering my next quest for this part of the year – my Beltane Directive, if you will.

Our first stop was Llangollen – a small town burgeoned by tourism in the summer months, and swelled by bikers for the rest of the year. In Llangollen’s dim and distant past it was an historic place and remains the home to some homely remains. Therefore, our first stop was the hard trek that is the steep sloping sides of Dinas Bran – a mound and ruined castle  that dominates the approaches to the town from the east side.

The morning was sunny but stirring with the swelling winds of Spring. We walked up the spiral approach path to the castle in good humour and soon we were treated to the 360° views that we now had become accustomed to, but which nevertheless inspired a reverential awe whilst recapturing one’s breath at the summit.

As we crested the summit we realised the full impact of the strength of the winds that morning as every part of our clothing was pulled in varying directions at once by the ravenous air elementals. As I sought shelter from the strong cross-winds in order to light some incense I noticed that we were the only ones braving the site at that time of the morning, Lucky us! The incense was lit but soon blew out, so I left it spluttering in the corner of the site and went to sit on my favourite spot – a place that I associated with Bran the Blessed, or whatever was currently representing itself as the spirit of Bran. In the many encounters I had had previously at this place Bran had always spoken to me in Welsh, which has caused me to have to learn a little bit of that language along my journeys. Note – no dowsing rods needed at this stage to find the best place to be – all intuition so far.

I did a mental meditation, opening a spiral of anti-clockwise energy that spiralled into the ground and which acted as a “sink hole” into which I poured all of my worldly energies, divesting myself of their clammy touch. I imagined the energy being drawn out of me, sinking into the site, then being dispersed far and wide across the landscape, and dissipating into harmless ions of worldly energy that could then be re-distributed as Nature saw fit. Next, I went through a process of opening my chakras using my ascending chant to feel each one open in turn, whilst simultaneously imagining their spinning vortices gathering speed. Now I felt ready to connect to Bran.

The Hawk of May

I sat on 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. – the portal through which I can commune with this ancient spirit – and I faced the raging wind head on seeking solace in its ability t drown out all other sound. In the deepest part of the meditation I heard a single word – “Gwalchmai“.

My studies of welsh mythology and Arthurian legend meant that I knew this reference. Gwalchmai means The Hawk of May and is the title given to the Arthurian knight Gawain. I was being given a clue to something, something that trelated to the May Day quest, I felt sure.

As we were about to leave Kal had to go back to do something, and I stood on the edge of the castle, looking out at the landscape below, admiring the height and views from this wonderful mound. At that moment a pair of hawks came rising from the base of the hill to exactly the height level with my eyes. The pair circled around only yards away from where I stood amazed and still, frozen in wonder. They occasionally cried to each other – were they guiding each other to their prey? This event seemed symbolic of my own quest that day. Bran was guiding me through the image of the Hawk of May to reach the target that I intended to home in on too. I sent a connection to them, extending threads from my sacral chakra towards the birds, and I felt as though I could see through their eyes for a moment…the ariel view of the land below, it’s patchwork patterning of villages and fields, the V-shape of the distant valley on the skyline….then I was back in my body again, grounded but exhilirated.

This encounter set the tone for the rest of the day which proved to be equally exciting, as I will explain in the related posts to come. When I got home I did some research on Gwalchmai, and here is what I found:

“Gawain, or Gwalchmai (Hawk of May) was chief among Arthur’s nephews and eldest of the “Orkney Clan”. Gawain is usually said to be the son of Arthur’s half-sister Morgause (or Anna). When Uther became king, he marries Morgause off to Lot of Orkney and Gawain was their eldest offspring. Tradition has it that Gawain was educated at Rome in the papal household and later became a leading member of the Round Table. Reminiscent of the ancient Celtic sun-heroes, his strength used to increase till noon and decline afterwards. As with Kay, later legend condemned him as a womanizer and cheater, but he was full of courage and, at his best, a model of chivalry. ” (source: Celtic Twilight)

Here I was, at one with the Hawks of May at Beltane, and ready to see what else I could learn from the Llangernyw Yew tree about what my next quest would be. Already I felt the move into the next part of the year, the Wheel of the Year turning to touch the land again, and me turning with it.

Gwas.

Dinas Bran Window

It was a fabulous sunny day when we met up on the festival day of Beltane. Accompanying the sun was a fresh breeze that would be accompanying us off and on throughout the day. I had a feeling and decided to change the itinerary. Dinas Bran was to be the last place we were going to visit. However I felt that we should visit it first and so that was to be our place of beginnings.

We arrived an hour or so later and began the climb. Both Gwas and I have been increasing our physical fitness and so the climb itself was of no consequence. Other than the wind howling around us of course. As is becoming the norm, once we reached the top we split up and both headed in a direction that was purposeful for us.

As an aside Gwas noted a Bee (my new totem) floating around the entrance to Dinas Bran. He queried it as to whether we were allowed in and it flew into the castle giving as a well received sign.

On a previous occasion I had left a stone for my Energetic Double at Dinas Bran and although I had picked up a stone (on the slopes) for this purpose I felt that it was something that I would be carrying around for the day. Having said that my first stop was to sit in the window where I had left that earlier stone. As the wind howled an impossible thought occurred to me, we can only leave when the wind stops, I told myself. Even if it takes all day. Oh dear I thought immediately after this, sometimes I don’t half put myself into a predicament.

As I sat there the wind howled in through the gap and my attention was caught by the t-shirt I was wearing on the day. It had wolves on it. I placed the rock on a ledge with the intention of picking it up at the conclusion of this visit and was off, feeling my way around the site looking for a place of appropriate energy. I finally found a place that I had to climb up a wall to reach,

Sitting facing the sun I opened my thoughts to any impressions that would lend themselves to me. Let me say that although I had been promised another Blue Key (see this post). I had no idea of what to expect. Within an utterly surprising time I was visited by that wondrous being Cailleach. She smiled her signature smile and asked “How are you student?” Excellent I replied, I have given up fighting the notion that I am not her student, although it took me a while to do so.

Again she was presuming to read my thoughts. “That is good to hear, because you have had it all wrong about me.” I was puzzled and asked her to explain. “Last year when I came to you, you felt that if you became my student you would lose yourself and become a follower of me and mine?” Yes, I replied, wondering if it was a question. “That is where you are wrong, I am a teacher of the subject that you bring”, What? I queried, wanting a better explanation. “There is no Way of Cailleach,” she said, “There is only your way. You wanted to learn to release your Energetic Double, I taught you. You wanted to learn to become a Knight, I am teaching you.” She smiled,“I can only teach you what you want to learn”

There was a pause as I took in this really profound knowledge. A quick reprise of the last year’s (I first encountered Cailleach almost a year ago) experiences revealed exactly what she said. She wasn’t teaching me the way, she was teaching me my way. Profound!

Rather grudgingly, I said that perhaps I should have trusted her more. She laughed, “You had to fall before I can catch you” she said,I didn’t understand that Koan and let it slide.

I sat for a moment longer and noticed that the wind had stopped. It was a surprising experience because it had looked like the wind would be blowing all day. But it had stopped completely. I wondered whether this elemental magic was Cailleach doing, she wasn’t saying.

Cailleach

Cailleach turned to me then and showed me something, here it becomes difficult, because I can’t describe well what it was that I saw, but it felt like an elastic that had been stretched. Over the last year I have been stretched, now I am at my maximum and today, Beltane’s day the elastic was to be released. This day!

As is my rational want, I wondered whether ‘all this’ was an illusion created by an over active imagination or whether it was ‘real’. I noted the oxy-moron of asking Cailleach the question even as I voiced it.

Still she had an answer, cryptic as always. “Yes and no, I am what I am, but for you I am limited to what you can believe.” I was pondering these words even as I returned from my revelry…what you can believe, not what you believe?

The conclusion of this experience was noteworthy by the fact that as I turned to look at Gwas, he too looked up at me, having concluded his commune, coincidence of course.

We gave thanks to Dinas Bran and as we did many other travellers appeared from both sides of the castle. We had been fortunate to have had the whole hill to ourselves.

As we cleared up to leave I was reminded of the rock I had placed on the ledge and I went back to collect it. It had gone! Seriously it had gone! How? Who?

Kal Malik – being released

At the end of our Yorkshire outing [two-part posts coming soon about that visit] I discovered that I had forgotten (possibly deliberately) to discover the quest that I had to undertake in the first eighth part of the year. Luckily I had a few spare days before the official Imbolc date of 1st February. We are never too hard-lined about getting the cross-quarter dates perfect. These dates are more about a feeling than a rigid division of the year. They are about being ready for transition, not for clock-setting. I used my dowsing rods to determine that the best day would be Monday 31st January this year. On that day, a still and clear night, and very cold, it would be the perfect conditions for discovering this quest.

The druid stage signified by the oak

I chose an oak tree that I was becoming quite familiar with at the end of last year. I had come to feel that I had reached the third stage of druidic development, one that was signified by the symbol of the oak tree. I realise now that one never stops learning from the birch or yew stages either, one simply passed beyond them, taking their legacy and teachings with you as you progress. Both birches and yews will always have special memories for me about how I started out on this path, and then how I deepened that search through the portals of life and death itself, but I felt that now I was comfortable with the mantle of teaching, and thus I was at the oak stage.

The oak that I had in mind stood proudly at the heart of a small wood near to my home (only a few miles away). I drove up to the wood all togged up ready for a long stay in the cold and that’s exactly what I got. Although I was welcomed into the forest and could see quite easily to find my place beneath the great oak, the cold weather made it hard to keep still. It took me over half an hour to get into the right mindset to be able to meditate deeply enough to make contact with the oak. There is also the problem that at this time of year these great trees are barely coming back to life, so their voice is weak too.

I must admit that I really struggled to get any contact made with the tree, but eventually we were talking. Just as I got some words out of it – a large animal, probably a fox, barged into the clearing and smelt my incense burning, running away in a mad scramble that startled me out of my trance. I spent another ten minutes getting back to the point where I was calm enough to connect again.

Spiritual happenings beneath the oak

I gave out love, gratitude and feelings of peacefulness. I wished the forest a fruitful year, and offered my physical protection as much as I would be able. In return I got an image, and an instruction. I saw the line of chakras all along my spine. Each one was a different colour from red at the base to violet at the crown. My attention was drawn up each of the chakras in turn. As my eyes moved upwards, each chakra “chimed” and sparkled. I knew that it was being “opened” by a sound. By the time I got to the top of the spine I was in a very excited state. I felt amazing, and I knew what the quest was. I had to learn to make the sound that would be capable of opening each of my chakras.

Wow. Something amazing to spend the next few weeks doing before Beltane on 1st May. Perhaps then I can put my “singing” into practice and see what happens?

Gwas. Singing for his spiritual supper.

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 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. (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 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. travels along a neutral North-South ley lineThe term used by many British dowsers to describe 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.. It is easily confused with ley and therefore its use is not recommended by dowsers. 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 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., 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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Throughout this year there has been a single overriding concern that has permeated everything that I do regarding dowsing or druidry: there must be a purpose to it. By that I don’t mean that I haven’t had fun, or avoided doing frivolous things. Not at all. However, each visit that I have embarked upon has been characterised by my having a purpose to go there with. This was the message that I got out of the consolidation period at the end of 2009, that period between Samhain and Yule when one should bring all things learned in the year together, sort through them, and resolve them into a unified approach for the next year’s work. Like some kind of meta-idea, the concept emerged that for 2010 my task would be to determine the purpose of each eighth part of the year – to understand the eight-fold year.

There seems to be a common acceptance of what is considered to be the revived concept of the eight-fold year amongst Neo-Pagan and Wiccan circles. This has all the dates that are close to what may be the ‘original’ divisions of the year. Truth is, no-one really knows how the divisions of the year were named, or upon which dates these divisions actually fell. What has been reconstructed has come to us through a combination of modern research into old customs, or through the collective acceptance of dates that feel familiar and proper. It has largely been a process of re-appropriation of existing festivals such as Christmas, Easter and Hallowe’en, wresting them from the clutches of the Christian sovereignty.

Whilst there is a certain concensus as to what those specific division dates mean, what is not clear is what the time in between those divisions means. I have been following the year’s divisions closely since Winter and have communed and divined for myself what those in-between days (cf. The Cure) mean to me.

There is a certain difficulty with being precise about these division dates too. Nature does not appear as being very precise to us humans because we cannot comrpehend all of the factors involved in what makes The Great Clock tick! The combination of influences from stars, planets, conjunctions, and who knows how many other influences is simply beyond our comprehension. Therefore, we can only “best guess” when these times arise besed on previous experience, and then we need to be flexible about it all, because we probably won’t guess entirely correctly. Does precision matter in working out these division times? I don’t think so, becuase most of the divisions are largely dependent upon the Moon, and the Moon’s influence occurs over several days, and this gives us a certain amount of lee-way.

One final caveat: the information I have discovered is, I believe, probably quite personal to me. I am not, therefore, espousing a new system to explain the Eight-Fold Year as a replacement for other systems that are out there or that you may be using already. Nor am I trying to back up my claims with astological, scientific or any other form of knowledge system. These explanations may be entirely my own – I don’t know until I have had perhaps several years worth of data to analyse. This is my first year of gaining this knowledge, so please bear that in mind when you read this. It is for your edification and information only, and it is merely presented so that it may suggest things for you to try out for yourself.

So, that said, here goes. So far I have discovered the following stages:-

YULE to IMBOLC

The division line may actually be Twelfth Night rather than Christmas Day. I will have to check that when it comes around again this year to get the precise cut-over, not that any of these divisions are precise, because they’re not. However, I think it’s worthwhile me finding out whether it’s Christmas or Twelfth Night.

PURPOSE:

1. To be still and quiet.
2. To engage in no activity of a magickal nature at all.
3. To cleanse the mind of the information from the previous year.

Anything that has not sunk in already after the period immediately prior to this one (which I think is about consolidating information) should not be brought forward into the new year. The purpose of this period is to cleanse oneself of all that “baggage” and to leave the mind in a state whereby new knowledge, new seeds, can be planted upon a well-prepared but settled soil. As with meditation, achieving stillness is the key to appreciating this time of the year. The “season of peace” indeed!

IMBOLC to SPRING EQUINOX

PURPOSE:

1. To awaken the energies of ancient sacred sites.
2. To awaken, pay homage to, or recall the guardian spirits of such places.
3. To prepare the ground for the year’s energy work, by preparing self and place.

This is an interactive stage of the year, and is the first involvement by the participant (the seeker) with the land and its spirits and energies. I found that I was asked to visit many of the places that I had found the be especially find of (read – ‘connected to’, or ‘aligned to’) and that when I was there I would go through a process of firstly finding out what state the place was in, then I would connect to the site, and finally, if necessary, I would invoke the spirit of the place – that guardian spirit – to ask that it return if I found it to be absent. Of course, I could only make a request of the spirit to return, and only if I had prepared the ground appropriately, so to speak.

All of this work, of visiting sites, connecting to them and contacting or invoking the spirit of place, it was all a form of preparation for the work that was to come. A sort of re-introduction, a gentle re-awakening to energies and spirits.

SPRING EQUINOX to BELTANE

PURPOSE:

1. To connect to the earth’s energy grid.
2. To understand the nature of Neutral earth energy forms.
3. To extract and utilise Neutral energy.

I think there is a general principle at work during this period, and that is for the seeker to learn to connect into the land. As the earth energies begin to be enlivened by the radiant energy of the sun, and together with the moon this draws life from the land. That signals the time for the seeker to spend time connecting with this upsurge of energy. In some mystical systems the human is the mid-point between the Sky and the Earth, and I think this is a symbolic memory of our ability to actually be the conduit and focal point for the two forms of energy – earth and radiant. We are the combiners.

As for myself this year, I have found that there was an additional task which was to learn in a theoretical and a practical way how I could extract the neutral energy form and store it within me. I learned how to re-charge myself with this energy using my navel chakra point as a storehouse for the neutral energy form – in exactly the same way as in chinese qigong meditation.

In addition to simply drawing out and collecting this energy I learned how to use neutral energy to ‘coat’ objects in order to preserve their energetic imprint. This was a means of creating so-called “power objects” I realised. In other words, it was a way of retaining those special qualities that people had invested into an object – whether that be a memory, a feeling, or some other form of energetic input. I learned how that energy could be retained within the object by using raw neutral energy to preserve it like a coat of varnish.

BELTANE to SUMMER SOLSTICE

PURPOSE:

1. To understand the nature of the neutral or white light energy form and how it is composed
2. To practise diffracting and re-combining the seven coloured frequencies of light
3. To make practical use of these energies to elevate consciousness

I believe this part of the year’s cycle concerns the effort to raise one’s level of consciousness to an opportunity point in the middle of the year when the energies are at their strongest, and one stands the greatest chance of elevating into an enlightened state, or achieving a blissful and revelatory state of mind.

So far I have found that for me this will involve me learning about how to bring together the two inner energy centres – the neutral energy store of the lower dan-tian or navel chakra point, and to combine that with the influx of light energy through the third-eye chakra point in order to diffract the energy into any of the seven frequencies of subtle energyA form of energy that has so far eluded scientific definition. It is neither electric, magenetic, nor electro-magnetic, so far as our current technical equipment can measure. It does, however, exhibit many of the characteristics of magnetism and electricity in terms of its effects and properties. It may be a form of either or both of those energies that we have not yet identified. that I require to be able to perform whatever task I need (for example, to heal an imbalance, or to utilise a particular frequency for a specific task). At this moment I don’t know what tasks those frequencies can perform, but that is learning that I still have to go through.

I suspect that there may be some esoteric benefit to being able to draw in each of the frequencies of this spectrum of light individually and to recombine them somehow to form a white light frequency, and that this may be the “light at the end of the tunnel” or the blinding inspiration that is described as accompanying an enlightenment process. My quest, however, is to understand the purpose of being able to do that, not just the mechanics of making it possible!

So, not much to do then in the next few months!

Summary

That is my current understanding and recap of the year’s inspirations and the paths along which I have travelled during this year. I feel that much of that information is general enough for most people to get some correspondence with, or for it to resonate with most people. Much of it is also personal and relates to my own quest for knowledge, understanding and wisdom in working with the energies of Nature. You decide where that take you. I will, as ever, go my own way.

Gwas.

Related post: My Eight Fold Year – the final four folds