The Hedge Druid

Posts Tagged ‘champ dolent’

Section 5. Ancient Sites

From the beginning of my journey with the tools of dowsing I have sought to understand the way in which ancient sites may have been used, and how the energies of those places were shaped by the formation of the ancient monuments. During the year this directive has had to sit alongside the fascinating development of my work with Nature itself, however, some very interesting developments have occurred not in spite of that growth of spiritual practise, but because of it. Here are some of the main points that have been gleaned from dowsing and druidry this year concerning the nature and function of sacred sites.

This year has seen us visit some of the most awe-inspiring ancient sites from the stunning background scenery of the Cumbrian circle, to the fields of stone rows at Carnac, the giant megaliths of Brittany, and the quaint but powerful sites along the Ridgeway in Oxfordshire and Wiltshire. Not forgetting, of course, all our favourite sites in North Wales, Shropshire and Derbyshire, with which we are becoming quite familiar.

5-1. Recurring features of stone circles: We have found some identifiable and consistent component parts of a stone circle’s layout:-

• a King Stone – sometimes called a ‘Heel’ stone as well. This is a standing stone of a height similar to the stones within the circle, but outlying the circle. The distance from the circle itself can be quite variable, from a few feet (Druid’s Circle) to a hundred yards (Mitchell’s Fold). We term the stone ‘King’ stone because tends to dowse as being ‘male’, and usually has a source of male energy. This male energy is obtained from two sources: The Sun’s radiant energy, and the placement of the stone upon underground flowing water at a geological fault.
• a Transformer Stone. I also call this a ‘Queen Stone’ because it draws down the radiant energies from The Moon and transforms them into female earth energies to add to the stone circle’s energy flows. The other source of female energy is energy from structure of the rock – either from the stone itself or the geology beneath the stone.
• a Grounding Stone. So-called because its function is to draw down energy from anything that interacts with it. If a person sits on such a stone they may begin to feel drained or tired. People sensitive to subtle energies can feel the energy being drawn into the stone and surrounding earth. It seems to have a cleansing effect leaving a person’s energy aura “cleaner” – i.e. free of the detritus of modern life, such as electro-magnetic radiation (this is just a working assumption at the moment – an intuition). When considering the concept of ‘cleansing’ before any ritual or energy work, we now consider this stone to be part of the preparation for that work.
• Male and female energies. We have spoken many times on the fact that male and female energies are present at sites, and on their relative strengths and qualities, even on their possible sources. What we discovered this year was their interaction with each other. The male and female energies, like the double-helix of a DNA molecule, interact by alternately attracting and repulsing each other, and this dynamism creates the ‘vibrancy’ of the energy at a site.
• Neutral energy flows in straight lines across a site, travelling through it, and providing a course for the helix of male and female energies to latch onto. 
• Celestial bodiesaffect the flow of energies within a site. We are not yet sure whether the design of the site determines which planet’s radiant energy is able to be captured, or whether the planet’s energy has determined which type of structure would be built.
• A double helix of male and female intertwined energies, usually flowing to and from the outliers (e.g. King Stone or Grounding Stone).

5-2. Home-grown circles: We could build our own stone circle this year at Castell Dyserth by placing rocks. This was re-inforced for us when we repaired an existing circle’s flows by adding in these extra home-made circles.

A home-made stone circle

5-3. The geology of sites: seems to affect the purpose, but not type, of the energy present at the site. For example, limestone sites are useful for healing and purification, whereas granite sites are useful for transformation, and for fixing information in place which may be recalled later. It is particularly female earth energy whose character and purpose seems to be determined by the geological properties of the area.

5-4. A site with a strong nemeton attracts visitors, or, a well-visited site reflects the energy of its visitors in a stronger dowsing signal.

Le Champ Dolent - a well-visited megalith

5-5. Some standing stones and their notches serve the purpose of showing astrological alignments of sun, moon, planets and stars. The notches have been made by human hands specifically to record such alignments, presumably to inform people of the time of the greatest energy flows when planets are at their zenith or in conjunction, or when the moon or sun are at a specific phase.

5-6. Aligned entrances: Sacred sites have entrances. Some sites have one for solar-aligned people and another for lunar-aligned people. Some sites have specific entrance stones that have an energetic barrier between them. The purpose of this is not exactly known yet.

Solar southern entrance

7. Ritual paths: Some sites have ritual entry paths. As we can’t be sure whether we are picking up the traces of previous ritual paths determined by the long-term use of humans, or if those paths are naturally-occurring doe to the formation of the sites themselves, we can’t be sure of their exact purpose.

5-8. Tall artificial moundslike Silbury Hill focus energy to the peak of the mound. Like the capstone of a pyramid Silbury Hill, for example, focuses all of its energy flows into a conical space at its peak. It seems designed specifically for this purpose, energetically speaking.

5-9. Chambered ‘tombs’: have small chambers that serve specific purposes, which can be decoded using the rods. These chambers can be used for vision quests and transformative experiences.

5-10. Petroglyphs: can be linked to specific places in the site. In other words, by dowsing it is possible to be taken from a cup-mark, hollow or line to its corresponding place within the site. In this way petroglyphs or cup-marked stones can be seen as “maps” of the energetic places within a site.

Gwas.

Brittany, Thursday 7th May
This is the fourth post in my Brittany dowsing series, and for a brief moment I will be back-tracking. On the same day as we went to Mont St.Michel we had a small diversion to Dol De Bretagne, a town just off the main route along the Cotes D’Armour coast between St.Brieuc and St.Malo. In this town, reputed to be the source of the Stuart royal dynasty, we found the Dol De Bretagne menhir, or the Champ Dolent stone.

The Champ Dolent Stone

It would have been rude to pass up such an obvious invitation to dowse some stones before the main event. The fairly large-scale road map we had showed a menhir located in the town of Dol De Bretagne called ‘Le Champ Dolent’ meaning the Field of Sorrows, supposedly. Well, on arriving at the stone the clouds parted and the sun began to smile down on us. Whilst we were at the roadside site (with picnic tables) that surrounded the stone there was a constant stream of visitors. People are still fascinated by these menhirs and ancient sites. I wonder what it makes them think about? I think about the energies there.

Creation Myths made cartoon

As you approach the well-maintained path to the gigantic menhir there is some information on a sign. The cartoons depicted the various ‘creation myths’ that accounted for its presence of the stone, and a tale warning of disaster if it was allowed to wear down to nothing! We see that God dropped the stone to separate two warring armies, and also that Satan, in a jealous fit, threw the giant stone at an Abbey that had been built nearby, but missed. Always amusing how these stories are quite similar all around the megalithic zones along the west coasts of Europe.

The Dowsing Bit

What a stone, though! As I poised the rods I took a moment to take it all in. I didn’t even see the picnic tables dotted around the small avenue of trees and grass that cushioned the narrow path to the menhir. I was captivated by its size. This stone was at least thirty feet high and six feet thick. It was slightly squared and tapered to a beautifully crafted peak. Again, it seemed to be made of the local pink or light salmon-coloured granite. It had very few marks on it either. A few lines and battles scars, but mainly perfectly smooth and sculpted – ‘dressed’ as they say.

I started dowsing at the small ‘King Stone’ that was close to the site’s entrance. This stone was about a foot and a half wide by two or three feet long and just an inviting height to want to sit on. I asked if it had any energy of its own? NO. Was there any energy around it? YES, a female spiral. I dowsed that it came to a spiral on the stone. If this wasn’t the stone’s own energy then I wondered if this stone was just transforming some energy source? I asked if the energy was coming up from the earth into the stone? NO. From the sun (which was now shining merrily)? NO. Going well! From the moon? YES. Fitted with the female spiral. Was this a transformer stone? YES. Like Nine Ladies and many others. A stone that transforms the moon’s radiant reflected energies in some way.

I looked for a link to the big menhir some fifty feet away. Was there any energetic link between the two, I asked the rods? YES. I followed the female spiral out of the Queen Stone as it wound its way from tree to tree, side to side up the avenue of ten feet tall tree that lines the route between the two stones. It ended up going around and close to the menhir before pulling the rods into the left-hand side. Good. A connection made.

The connection between the two stones prompted me to think about the consequences of that link. Which stone was feeding which with this female energy? I checked the direction of flow. From the large menhir to the small stone. But then where? I dowsed to find where the energy went after it reached the Queen Stone and was taken in a circle, across the road on which we had parked, into the field opposite (luckily they don’t go for hedges much in France) and back to the smaller stone again. It was a twenty feet wide circle of a feminine energy field emitted from the Queen Stone. Interesting. I wondered what effect that had on anything, after all – it’s fine to find these fields but what are their effects? I didn’t yet know, either here or anywhere else yet. I turned my attention back to the menhir again.

After my recent experience with the St Uzec stone I was keen to see what the nemeton of this stone was like. I walked all the way back to the small road we had come in on, close to the outlying Queen Stone. I dowsed up the path to the menhir but only travelled some five feet before the rods gave a barrier sign! That was massive – the biggest nemeton field I have ever dowsed, for definite. HUGE! The picture above shows the extent of it. I dowsed all the way along the nemeton’s edge and found it to be not quite as large on the other side where it went through a ploughed field (only twenty-five feet or so). Nevertheless, it encompassed almost all of the path leading up to itself on the side where people would approach it, I checked for male lines – none. Neutral lines? None. This was an exclusively female + moon energy site.

I now felt like doing a little energy work. I asked to find the best place to stand to be in tune with the stone and to feel re-charged, Well, I was on holiday! The rods led me to the left-hand side of the stone again. I tried not to stand in the small dog turd at that spot. We find this kind of thing often at power centres. Animals like to defalcate there for some reason. Not always but too often to have gone unnoticed as a coincidence. I stood near to the stone at that side, touching its huge side and relaxed. Soon I felt a dual drawing-out motion at my feet and a filling-in from above, like being showered in very smooth and light water.

I picked up the rods again, Please show me the most energetic path to walk, I prompted. The rods moved around the back of the stone to pass over the small un-energetic stone that lay at the base of the menhir (another handy chair for tired tourists) and then down through three female spiral power centres until finally curling back around the Queen Stone, inviting you to sit on it and muse awhile, which I duly did. This site felt great. Not at all like the St Uzec stone. Both M and I felt completely at home here, happy to linger for ages. Many people came by, had their sandwiches gazing at the stone, then left only to be followed by yet another person “just stopping off”. It was nice to see that other people agreed with this feeling. It was nice to be around such a beautiful and energetic monument to an ancient people’s harmony with nature,

I asked M to follow me as I wound my way down this energetic trail of three power spirals, and she felt the stone’s intense buzz as she neared it. She had a low grade headache that morning (probably from squinting in the bright sunlight) but by the time she had walked the trail this had disappeared. Coincidence, I’m sure, but this is not the first time that has happened. Psychological and auto-suggestive it may be, but it works every time.

The powerful and impressive Dol De Bretagne menhir is certainly worth a visit if you’re in that area. But I guarantee you won’t be the only one there!

Gwas.

Following everyone else, it seems!