The Hedge Druid

Posts Tagged ‘cardinal points’

In the final part of my South Wales posts I will be telling you about the amazing chamber of Tinkinswood, and how dowsing revealed some intriguing explanations for the usage of the chamber and how it was powered by Elemental Masters. What are ‘Elemental Masters’? Good question. Read on!

We parked at the entrance to the field with the sign pointing towards the Tinkinswood Chamber [map]. We had only gone slightly out of our way – entering the edge of Cardiff itself – before we realised our mistake and doubled back. Once we had our bearings finding the chamber was relatively easy, with some helpful brown tourist signs along the way near to the village of St Nicholas. Tinkinswood chamber itself was also easy to get to with a short walk down into a shallow valley and back up into the next field. As you rise up into the field the chamber hoves into view like some neolithic battleship.

The site is beautiful, surrounded by trees (although they had been severely cut back when were visited, which made us wince a little). The only other blight is the nearby electricity pylons, but they don’t seem to be affecting the power and quality of the energies at this site. Possibly they are just far enough away not to affect it. There really does not seem to be any geographical reason why the pylons were brought anywhere near to the site, but that’s the way it is.

Side view of Tinkinswood chamber

The sun was beginning to near the horizon as we arrived, and the early evening light lent the scene a mystical quality that backlit the chamber in a fascinating way, and made the sun twinkle through the trees around the site. As we approached the chamber neither Kal nor I felt any need to go into the chamber itself even though it was incredibly open and inviting. For some reason we both completely avoided going into it throughout the whole visit. Possibly we do not need the initiatory energies that lie inside it?

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I have recently been working with the cross shape. It is such a loaded symbol that I have felt the need to mentally cleanse it of prior meaning. I had been trying to work with the elements for some time now, and frankly had been primarily failing. Finally I worked out why this was – I had been using the orthodox positions for the elements. Not something that ought to cause a problem, but actually it had been foiling my efforts because instinctively it had felt wrong, and so I had been unable to work effectively.

I had received a head start in this respect when I visited The Cheesewring in Cornwall recently. There I had learned that my head was equated to the position of Air, and my feet were the position for Earth. I was less certain about the East – which I felt might be my right hand and equated with Fire, because it was warm despite the wind. My left hand was wet with the driving rain that day on Bodmin Moor and I equated that with Water.

As I am currently undergoing a period of “making magic manifest” this was becoming a problem. I needed to work out what the correct positions should be. It happened one evening as I sat on top of a local sacred hill, looking out over the surrounding countryside in several directions. I was in a meditative state and began to pose the question – what are the correct elements positions for me to fill my cross? Slowly I was lifted up above the land to have a bird’s eye view of the nation – just like using Google Earth.

The Aristotelian Elemental perspective

I looked North and saw the tall mountains of the highlands of Scotland. Over the top of these mountains and through their valleys roared an icy cold North wind. As it streamed towards me I felt its rushing power and knew that North was Air.

Behind me the land settled into a large mass without mountains – the Midlands, the southern counties, the South West – a vast expanse of earth. I realised that this large land mass represented the Earth element in the South.

Living on an island I wondered which side of the land would be representative of Water. Of course, given that I live near to the western coast my vision panned over to the west coast and I knew that the West was Water.

This left the East. Would the vision reveal the traditional sign for Fire in the East? Indeed it did – the Sun rose into my view and I knew that the East was Fire.

Interestingly, I found that this particular arrangement was the same as that posited by Aristotle. Who would have thought it? On a more personal level I realised that this actually matches the geography of where I spend most of my time – my home. For me the big mountains and strong winds are in the north. The sun rises in the east. The most extensive land mass is to the south, and the sea is close by to the west.

This seems to hold true irrespective of where I am – it seems like my elemental cross is effective wherever I am from now on. It has been set by where my own home 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. is – the one that I created for myself. This, it would seem, defines where I am based, and where my elements position themselves around me most comfortably

Gwas.