The Hedge Druid

Posts Tagged ‘cave’

When the weather has been dry for several days in England then it would be rude not to go out into the world and see if you can feel the forces of Nature at work. Not wanting to be rude Kal and I gave a large part of our eating and drinking time over to a journey to our favourite magical woodland – Alderley Edge. It was the first visit of the year, and although it was definitely not Spring-like weather yet, at least it was dry and had been for days, which meant that we could walk around without fear of falling foul of a foot of mud and slutch.

As if our wont, we had to have a question to be working with in order to make the experience bring true reward (yes, wandering around aimlessly can be its own random reward, but if you want to make steady and sure spiritual progress then you need a mission, a plan, a guided meditation). For my part, I had questions about my recent work with The Sword and The Shield. I had managed to absorb some energy into my shield stone and this was very satisfactory. Now, I wanted to know about the Sword aspect. What was it, and how could I go about obtaining it so that I could fulfil my healing potential using these two magickal symbols and their associated energies.

My research into the figure of Galahad had shown that he had encounters involving a sword and a shield. For Galahad they were to be found like this:-

• The Sword of Spirit - a sword drawn from a rock
• The Shield of Faith -  a shield found at the altar of a white abbey

Galahad or Arthur pulling the sword from the stone?

Well, that was all to plan so far. I had found a white abbey (Valle Crucis), its ancient altar location, and had transferred the energy of the “shield” into my shield-like stone, and was now able to use that to quickly protect and retain energies for sacred sites. My thoughts thus turned to The Sword. Drawn from a rock? Really? Like Arthur’s sword, Galahad also had to draw a sword from a rock?

Who owns the sword?

Last year I had been doing some research into Gawain. During that year I had some experiences, particularly on Iona, the led me to believe that the Sword is identified with the Will. This is especially true in magickal work. However, was the sword that I would work with this year related to Galahad, Arthur or Gawain? It was a confusing picture! Did it matter? Could the dowsing rods sort it out for me? Or maybe a tarot draw?

The dowsing rods were able to help me divine the answer. It is Galahad’s Sword that I am to find and work with.

“Sir Galahad survives this test [being sat in the Seige Perilous seat], witnessed by King Arthur who, upon realizing the greatness of this new knight, leads him out to the river where a sword lies in a stone with an inscription reading “Never shall man take me hence but only he by whose side I ought to hang; and he shall be the best knight of the world… Galahad accomplishes this test with ease, and King Arthur swiftly proclaims him to be the greatest knight ever. ” (Source: Wikipedia)

Now, on to the Alderley Edge tale, where I find out more answers than I bargained for!

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The Hawk Vision

Standing in the amphitheatre half way up the Delphi temple complex I had beautiful scenes in either direction down the valley. Yet, it was not the scenery that captured the imagination, but the sonics of that space. I still find it incredible how perfectly mathematical the calculations were for such structures. Standing in the “play space” – a crescent of smooth stone at the base of the structure – I could project the smallest whisper upwards with no effort until it was amplified around the seats above. Incredible. Every time I visit an amphitheatre it amazes me. I imagined how it could enhance a sound vibration in a meditation – imagine a didgeridoo here!

Above the Delphic amphitheatre – playing with hawks

The dowsing rods then lead me upwards on a small path that seems to lean nowhere. That ‘nowhere’ turns out to be a vantage point above the amphitheatre affording a holistic view over the feature. I begin to get a ‘feeling’, and so I pay attention to it. The feeling exerts itself as an impulse, then emerges into a voice. “Sit back and relax!” it says to me. I look behind me and see a rock large enough to lounge against, and with a convenient ‘seat’. So, I sit down. “Lean back and relax!” I am instructed. OK, no harm in having a moment’s rest in the sun – I am on holiday, after all.

I am now practically lying back on the rock. My gaze goes skyward, and at that exact moment I hear the cries of a bird of prey slightly behind me. I look right up into the sky and see two hawks come out from the top of the cliffs behind me, performs a few circles, and then move back out of sight again. Wow! I wait to see if they re-appear, but they don’t. That moment was just for me to see.

The “inkling” leaves and I return to the dowsing rods to lead me onwards. They now stop me at a point in the path where the main path carries on upwards with its modern stone tessellation, but there is an alternate path – one which is overgrown but somehow ‘older’. The rods point over the restraining rope towards the old path, the lush green path, the path that leads into the woods. Time to make a decision.

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In the second part of my Winter Solstice expedition I hereby present the story of  Thor’s Cave. You may remember that I was directed to seek the sanctuary and sanctity of a cave atmosphere as a suitable space within which to see out the end of what has been a very interesting year. I think there are several reason why a cave would be a suitable space. Firstly, because I was visiting at the Winter Solstice, this time of year is all about closure. It is about letting go of any tensions built up in the year, of concentrating all of the information learned in that yearly cycle, and then of closing down to wait for the energies to re-appear at Imbolc in February. With a cave’s aura-shaping capability, it made sense to me that seeking a dark enclosed space within which to agglomerate all of the year’s teachings would be the ideal choice. Kal and I learned about the aura-shaping aspects of caves earlier in September from our visit to South Wales.

Thor’s Cave is probably quite easy to get to if you approach it from the road below, but you would be presented with a very steep climb. Instead, Mike and I approached from the footpath just at the edge of Wetton village and there was very little climbing involved, but the ground was wet, muddy and slippery in many parts so we had some amusing episodes both there and back as we struggled for grip. One you reach the front of the cave, however, the entrance is awe-inspiring in size.

Entrance to Thor's Cave - he was out when we called

It may not be obvious from the pictures but you can’t walk into the cave – you have to climb. For us at this time of year this meant scrambling over wet smooth rocks and all hands and feet were needed to get into the cave without sliding back out. I would recommend you visit on a dry warm day. For some reason I was totally unprepared this day and hadn’t brought a torch! Luckily, Mike had – this was a complete role-reversal that amused us both for ages.

Shafts of remaining sunlight filtered into the cave from the huge entrance and the tall slit in the rocks at the side of the cave, letting in enough light for us to make our way slowly and carefully to the back of the cave. There, the ground rose slightly and split into several hollows arranged around a central protrusion of rock. We tried to make ourselves comfortable to begin a meditation, but the intense slope of the ground and the dampness of the rocks made it difficult to find a comfortable position. We rapidly decided that a standing meditation would be sufficient today. “Adopt, adapt and overcome“!

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In the second part of the tale I tell of how Kal and I went looking for a cave that was in the Parc Le Breos site near Parkmill, Swansea in South Wales. The idea was to begin the process of consolidating the information we had learned so far this year. Caves are ideal for this purpose, I believe, and so I was going off to prove this to myself and to Kal. He was completely unaware of my dastardly plan.

As we walked up the main path we scanned the nearby shrubbery and tree-lined hillsides for caves. Within fifty feet of the burial chamber I saw a path going up the hill to the right. It looked narrow and rarely used. I walked on. My intuition rang a warning bell, but I ignored it. Overruled by my rational brain, I’m afraid. In another fifty yards there was a much wider and recently used path. It was muddier, but it looked like it led somewhere, so I called Kal’s attention to it and we went to inspect it. On arrival we found it to be quite muddy. Kal backed away, unsure. I persuaded him it would be fine. As we ascended he grumbled about slipperiness and I made comments about inappropriate footwear. The path got steeper and muddier. As we reached the top we saw our destination only a few feet away – it was a chicken coop! Damn!! We turned around and went back down the slippy, treacherous path. I cursed my rational brain.

We marched onwards, but now the sky was closing in on us and threatening rain. In another hundred yards we felt the first spots of rain and ran for the shelter of the trees at a crossroads. Had it not rained I’m sure we would have picked one of the adjoining paths and carried on walking, but now we were pinned to the spot by a torrential downpour that would have soaked us in seconds. After five minutes the rain eased and we decided to head back to the car instead of continuing our foolish quest for the cave.

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In August of 2008 Kal and I visited several sou-terrains (chambers constructed by the placement of supporting stones and a large capstone, often beneath alternating layers of clay and earth). At each site we visited we asked the dowsing rods whether the purpose of the site was the burial of the dead. Our responses led us to the following conclusions:-

• Dead people had been buried at these sites, but in very small numbers
• The burials we performed much later in the development of the site, not as part of its initial construction
• The primary purpose of such sites was for the transformation of consciousness (to connect with another form of intelligence)

During these investigations we repeatedly got this intuitive response – so much so that we began to get rather annoyed by the labelling of the sites as “burial chambers” because to us this was clearly not the case to us.

David Cowan in a souterrain

During this Winter I have started to dig into my ever-expanding collection of books about earth energies, and thankfully I have re-discovered David Cowan‘s amazing work that he did up in Perthshire decoding the cup-mark ley systems that he spent many years travelling with dowsing rods.

As well as opening my eyes to a previously unexplored connection with The Dead, in terms of the energy that recent or notable burials can engender into such circuits of energy, he has confirmed for me the true purpose of the chamber sites that we have been exploring. Here is what he says about it:

“If the energy from cup-marked stones can, indeed, allow access to the system for the spirits of the dead, then it must also do the same for the living, so building an underground chamber or souterrain with a powerful cup-marked capstone in the roof and below it, in the passage, another upright inside the entrance so that initiates, wizards or shamans could meditate or perhaps retrieve knowledge would be an important part of the ceremonies of the ancients. The Native Americans had a similar procedure, building subterranean kiva (magnetic chambers), where they could achieve lucid dreaming and imagery, helped by hallucinogenic plants.”

“Ancient Energies of the Earth” – Ch.14 ‘Rebuilding the Ancient Magic’ pp.170-171.

It seems that field work does eventually yield concrete results, even if you can’t immediately get the confirmation that your rational side craves.

Related posts:

• Trance-formations in Lligwy Chamber
• Lligwy Chamber: a tranformational vision
• Bryn Celli Ddu visit in August
• Bryn Celli Ddu visit in July

Gwas.

Follow to the hollow.