The Hedge Druid

Posts Tagged ‘chalice wells’

Okay, just in case you haven’t got the other 4 related posts on this, here is a link (Knights Pilgrimage) to them. Excellent! Now continue….

Steps of the Pilgrims

Let’s start with a recap.

1. I was waylayed by my Totem into going on a pilgrimage that I hadn’t needed or planned for, impromptu you might say.
2. Then I found a couple who were lost in the Forest of Dean.
3. I, with reluctance on their part, helped them find their way out.
4. Only to find that, in all the forest, both our cars were parked within feet of each other.
5. The importance was the fact that they had been lost.
6. Then it was off to the Merry Maidens (only 5 hours away!) to have a dream about the Dragon and the Phoenix
7. Then a realisation that this was something that I had lost from the quest, an opportunity to create a Knights Crest.
8. The next day I was off to Tintagel, where a vision of Cailleach told me that I needed to accept help from a Knight.
   

   My personal spot

And now, I had just arrived at Glastonbury from Tintagel. It was 3.30pm in the afternoon and I was stiff from all that time in the car.  Grabbing some food I headed to the place I knew I wanted to be. The Chalice Well gardens. I get lucky with that place often, i.e. the whole garden to myself. This was no exception. I didn’t need to dowse for my power spot in here. It was beneath the hawthorn tree. I sat and meditated for a good half-hour. Feeling thoroughly relaxed and refreshed. I had closed my the whole time and when I finished them I looked in front of me and there were three people sat there facing me.

Okay… now that is freaky. Two ladies and a gent were sat in front of me, some ten feet away and meditating too. I kind-of gave a bit of a cough and one of the ladies, opened her eyes. She smiled at me (fortunately not one of those psycho-killer smiles) and I smiled back (un-encouragingly).

“We saw the energy coming out of you,” she said quietly, not disturbing the others. “Ah, okay,” I said, thinking, what energy? Her companions had also come out of their meditation now and were smiling disconcertingly at me. “Yes,” the other woman said. “You were radiating like the sun.” Er, ok, I replied, I didn’t notice.

The man asked me whether I was a healer, I replied that I occasionally dabbled. He told me that I had a gift for it and that I should share it. Seriously? Career advice?

“Thank you,” I told him, “but I think it was more the trees energy than mine.”

“Ah yes, of course it was, we are but the channel.”

“We are indeed,” I intoned as I hastened from the gardens.

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Over the last 2/3 years Gwas and I have ventured to Glastonbury on numerous occasions. Whether individually or together that place has been a definite experience generator. So it was that one fine Saturday in April 2011 I was heading out to Glastonbury. My main purpose was to meet up with the High Druid Brian Conquer and ask about a Wand making workshop. Since I have been directed that I will need a wand as part of the Knights Quest.

Glastonbury Tor

As always, I was also looking for clues, divination’s and any other signs and omens along the way. My first stop was the Chalice Wells. A totally beautiful place with an energy that always delights me. Although the day was gorgeous, warm and sunny I had exclusive use of the gardens. After completing a relaxing commune with the Hawthorne tree there (nothing to report) I headed to the desk to enquire about the High Druid. Alas the fella had been unwell for some time and no classes were forthcoming.

Having reached and empasse on that front I decided to venture up the Tor. I recall the first time I climbed the Tor and being out of shape and suffering from some vertigo issues I found the experience semi daunting. Now however I walked up the Tor, following my dowsing rods, without a care. Just shows how far I have come with that issue.

Reaching the top and slightly off to the side of the structure (which is where the rods finally spiralled) I sat down and communed with the Genius Loci. My thoughts were around my continuing Knights Quest and whether there was anything I could learn here. The answer…No. Not very helpful, I thought, so I pursued the “why” of it and finally my dowsing rods and intuitive answers aligned. Because this is a place of beginnings.

It seems to me that fabled Isle of Avalon is a place to begin quests, or to realign ourselves with a quest should we become lost. Since at this time I was doing rather fine on my quest there was quite literally nothing for me at Glastonbury.

Kal Malik – Knight Errant

Signs

It was a freezing winter Saturday and I was suffering from a terribly tickly cough that I decided that a trip out into the world of Edge Wizardry was out of the question.

As an alternative haunt I decided to opt for the warmth of Costa coffee cafe with extra helpings of toast. As I sat there listening to some classical music on the ol’ iPod (much better than the ever-present xmas tunes) the playlist gave an uncharacteristic lurch and landed in an audio book by the master of motivation, Tony Robbins. He was right in the middle of a tirade on not putting off until tomorrow what you can do today…

I stopped sipping my drink at this sudden interuption and after only a moment of pondering and breaking the “comfort” of the warm lazy seat I was up and out into the blast of a ultra cold wind.

My heart had been set on Glastonbury as a place to visit for a few days and so within minutes of leaving the cafe I had turned my car in the direction of that fabled Avalon and was off.

The journey time was around one and a half hours and as I drove down the main road towards the M5 (I was setting off from Barnstaple) the hills and fields were covered in a gorgeous snow.

Even as lunch time approached the sun came out of the clouds and shined down upon me. As readers will know, the sun has ever been an auspicious sign and this was no exception.

The Plan

As I left the M5 and made my way down the winding road towards Glastonbury I was planning where and what to do. My thoughts turned to our last visit this summer and I concluded with the following order of things…

• Chalice Wells – Tor – Abbey

I arrived in the town and drove around aiming for a parking signs, the first two were full and the third one luckily was half-empty. With relief I drove in and as I got out to get a ticket I realised that I had parked in the Abbey car park.

If there is any place in the country where dowsing rods are an accepted feature it has got to be Glastonbury. So without a thought I got my rods out and asked…

• Is the first place for me to go the Abbey? Yes!

Excellent, paying my dues I wandered into the ruins of the ancient abbey.

The Abbey

Cold wasn’t the word for it, freezing might be more accurate as me and a couple of other souls shivered our way around the abbey.

I had the rods take me to the most beneficial place for me to be and I ended up facing a couple of large ruins that for all the world resembled a portal.

Since Gwas wasnt with me on this sojourn I had brought along my own selection of crystals and incense. I asked the rods whether any of these were required for this visit? Three incense sticks was the response. As I laid them out I realised that they formed a triangle, with me in the center.

Before I began my commune I asked whether there would be anything relating to my Energetic Double going to happen? No. O well.

So I stood, the ground was wet, on the grass facing the portal and awaiting any thoughts/feelings/impulses.

After a few seconds it started to snow.

I could only last about ten minutes before I was in danger of solidifying and nothing intuitive was coming to mind so I finished up with a thank you and wandered off towards the exit.

As I got close a woman and her daughter (or sister) were coming in. The younger of the two ran across some of the more jaggedy rubble and was being told off by the elder to keep to the path and not do dangerous stuff. A curious message as we shall see later.

The Tor

As I left the abbey I wanted to go to the chalice wells. It was the place I had come most to visit. However a quick check of the rods pointed me in the direction of the Tor. So off I trotted as per there direction.

You can’t really miss the Tor it being a huge man-made mound however, I wanted a more intuitive route up it and so I let myself be guided by the rods.

As I should have known, they took me off in the opposite direction to the Tor, which wouldn’t have been bad on a sunny summers day but on this icy day, seriously?

Anyway after a hike of about a mile in an adjacent direction and a hop over a fence or two I recognised my approach to the Tor. It was the same as the one Gwas and I had used two years ago when we had created a pilgrimage around a visit to Glastonbury.

Now If you had asked me to find that route again, I would never have been able to do it. My navigational skills are legendary in there inaccuracy (as Gwas will testify) and yet…here I was making my way up a couple of fields that had been part of our pilgrimage path! Amazing!

The walk up the Tor was truly tremendous! In that it was a continuous blast of cold. It was frozen icy and slippery ground.

As I made my way up I realised that I was the only fool who was silly enough to be making this trek in this weather. So be it!

After a long cold slog I had made it to the top. The view from the top was crystal clear. and the wind was truly biting. I managed to dowse for a good spot to stand and surprisingly the rods took me to an edge of the building that was least wind facing of all. There I was directed to light two incense sticks (it was 3 at the Abbey).

Unbelievably I managed to light 2 nag champa sticks (im sure they have been made to test the patience of Druids) and stuck them in the walls of the building atop the Tor.

Huddled into the tight space against the chill of the wind I attempted to meditate. After a few minutes I heard the noise of people and found myself in the company of the two ladies from the Abbey.

Again, and this is when I noticed the conversation, the elder was telling the younger to be careful of the edge and not to go too far. The younger lady was again ignoring this advice.

I wondered about this synchronous message…did it mean anything? Was it a warning or a enticement?
With the weather as it was, I decided that it was a message of some kind, that I had received it successfully and that it was time to get the flock out of there (as the actress said to the bishop).

As I made my way down, I recalled how on my first visit to Glastonbury, only two years ago (feels like a lifetime) when Gwas and I had stopped in the late evening on passing this way. How afeared I had been. Being a sufferer of vertigo I had been quite apprehensive on that trip. And now I was leaping down the mound like a goat.

Chalice Wells

As I have already mentioned my navigational skills are exceptional in there absence and so at the bottom of the Tor I looked out for a sign to the Chalice Wells and found the garden right at the exit, so to speak, of the path leading down from the Tor.

I love the gardens, they have been the site of some magnificent meditations (well two, since that is the number of times we have been there).

I paid my dues at the entrance and wandered around the gardens, which were slightly subdued in the winter but still rather gorgeous.

After paying my respects to the couple of Hawthorns (children of the great tree of Arimathea fame). I followed the rods to a suitable place to meditate and was led to the back of the gardens, just by the Well from which the garden gets its name.

With no surprise at the answer I was directed to light one incense stick.

Although an interesting synchronicity had occurred I was pretty unimpressed with my visit to Glastonbury. After the previous visits had been so highlighted.

But I speak too soon…

Of the three places that I had visited the Chalice Garden was the most welcoming weather wise. Perhaps it was the seclusion of the walls and the little nooks and crannies that made it so, or maybe it was the lack of people, again I was the only one present in the whole garden.

Anyway I was happily snuggled into a corner of the garden awaiting inspiration. I had followed the dictates of the rods in exacting detail. Surely some reward would be forth coming…

After a few minutes of meditation I got an odd feeling. At first I put it down to the cold or the seclusion of the garden. But as I mentally ruled them out I could feel that the odd tone of the place was still there.

I wondered whether it was because of the energies of the place, so I got to my feet and did some quick dowsing… Was there anything unusual about the energies of this place? No. Was there any shrouds or other out of the ordinary presences? No. Was I just feeling the cold? No. Was there something to the mood that I was feeling? Yes.

Some quite neat dowsing led me to an interesting but not relevant piece of information. The energies Glastonbury are much more strongly aligned with the sun and summer energies than with winter ones. The best work at that site can be done in the Summer.

So there I was with an odd feeling to explore. I sat back down and pondered the state of things? Something was wrong? That was the culdesac that I kept being pointed at.

Again, I got up and did some more dowsing…Was this wrongness to do with the Garden? No, Was it bigger? Yes, Was it bigger than this area (I was thinking of the Tor)? Yes. Bigger than Glastonbury? Yes.

Wow! Sometimes when Gwas and I get really unreasonable answers from the rods we have to ask a few checking questions. Post our Ireland trip the foremost of these is often…Am I being affected by any Leprechaun energy? I got a No answer, phew! More mundane “testing” questions are “Do pigs fly?”, “Am I alive”. You get the picture.

Anyway they all were no, so it seems that I was on target. So was this “wrongness” county wide? No, Was it Albion (Blame Gwas for the terminology) wide? No.

I took a deep breath, Was this wrongness at a world level, was there something wrong with the world? Yes…

What are you supposed to say to that?

I double and triple checked and got the same answers. I sat back down on the bench and pondered this result. What could be wrong with the world? What could I do about it? Was I supposed to do anything about it?

You might be thinking that these are questions for the rods, right? The thing is, while you havent asked the answer you dont have to do anything about it. So I wasn’t about to explore this odd turn of events at this time.

A couple of days later I was on the phone to Gwas with this tale and he asked whether I had dowsed correctly, the answer was a startling yes.

Kal Malik – worried about the world