The Hedge Druid

Posts Tagged ‘consciousness’

Friday 28th May - Knowth, Country Meath, Ireland.

The series of large megalithic structures concentrated in the Boyne Valley was the target of our first full day in Ireland. We were stationed nearby at Duleek, so getting to the Newgrange complex was a breeze, and we were properly fuelled by a hearty breakfast including locally-reared produce and home-made soda bread and jams.

We followed signs for Newgrange, knowing that this was the popular site and that it probably would lead us to the rest too. Sure enough as we aprked in the jazzy new car park at the Visitor Centre and walked down to the main door, we knew we were in for the full tourist treatment. Even knowing that didn’t prepare us for the officialdom that was to follow:-

• visitors are directed to state which combination of the sites they want to visit: Newgrange only, Knowth only, or both. Clearly, most went for both or just Newgrange
• a sticker was placed upon you in a visible location indicating your bus time, and then you were directed to the cash point to pay 5 Euros per site (actually, 6 for Knowth becuase it’s a tad further)
• you paid and then were informed about how to reach your first bus, which was a 200 yard walk through the centre, out the doors, across the Boyne, along a winding path, and then up to the circular bus pick-up point.

To say these guys had this regulated was an understatement! Although initially appalled by this we were actually quite grateful that this system, which only permitted a group of around thirty people at a time in a site, actually allowed everyone to enjoy the site’s features without bumping into people all the time. It made sense, even if it was far from what we were used to. It reminded us of visiting Stonehenge.

Rock Art as Energy Symbols

One of my objectives for visiting these popular megalithic sites was to get a comparison of the famous rock art shapes with those that we had discovered through our dowsing adventures over the last few years. Did any of them match? Would we be able to make a sensible guess at the forms and shapes, the symbols and swirls that our neolithich ancestors had taken so much time and trouble to inscribe into rock?

As we waited for our bus I took pictures of the rock art displyed in photographs and pictographs in the free exhibition in the Visitor Centre. On arriving at Knowth half an hour later (after listening to a few minutes of the guide’s useful commentary then making our excuses) I went around with my camera taking snapshots of all of the rock art on the base supports of the large mound. I wanted to compare our energy findings with the shapes represented in the stone. Here are some examples of the interesting symbols. In a subsequent post more of these symbols are explained, but for now, here are the ones we could identify immediately:-

Spiral of seven rings between two standing stones acting as portals

If one looks at the image above as a two-dimensional depiction of a three-dimensional energy field then things become a little easier to understand. The spiral is, of course, what we would call a “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.” – a point on the earth where the energies of the earth emerge and merge with the radiant solar and lunar energies. The most ‘sacred’ of these types is the 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. that merges the three ‘alignments’ or types of energy – male, female and neutral.

The two arcs on either side of the spiral are the neutral entrance and exit arcs that we have begun to discover at numerous sacred places, usually stone circles. These arcs form ‘spaces’ in the energy field through which poeple and spirit energies can pass without ‘interfering with’ or being affected by the overall energy field, because to pass through the energy field around a site is to interact with it. These neutral entrances and exits seems to be a bypass to that trip-wire effect, possibly to allow for the ‘safe passage’ of spirit energy through the site, unhindered by the site’s design and potential.

Seven levels of radial energy

It is entirely possible to read too much into the decorative swirls and shapes that adorn the rocks surrounding Knowth’s major mound, and yet one gets the sense that they are not purely decorative. After all – someone has gone to a lot of time and trouble to do this work, and even today we rarely decorate in stone just for the sake of it. Stonework usually has some kind of symbolic significance at least, even if only to express a wider design concept in keeping with our culture. So, it is with some hesitance that I point out the desing of seven concentric circles in the stone above, and mention that this might have a link to the seven chakras. Then, in the stone below, we see five circles. Five pathways for the incoming energies into the human body, according to C.W.Leadbeater in his book “The Chakras”. Again, perhaps the information is for me only to interpret in this way, but 7 and 5 are cropping up again at a site that is associated with human consciousness transformation processes.

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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

“Beyond Coincidence” is the very intriguing title for a book. Its authors Martin Plimmer & Brian King hint at the possibility of a sensible discussion of highly anomalous and unusual phenomena related to extreme probabilistic events. The book tells us many stories that seem to defy the mathematics of probability itself. At the end the authors make a frankly cursory and flimsy attempt at an explanation. Their conclusion? In a world of almost infinite probabilities anomalous events must eventually occur, and the recording of these events in history, when presented together seem more than they are when taken in isolation, and merely demonstrate the vagaries of chance. The book is now selling in the New & Used section for one pence.

When I read this I was more than disappointed, I was annoyed. The authors had gone to all the trouble of collecting and collating stories, some more probable than others, but then ducked out of a viable discussion of the possibilities underlying the events by deferring to mathematics. I was left wholly unsatisfied with the treatment. Since reading that book several years ago I have been collecting my own tales of coincidence. With the addition of Kal’s unusual life events this has become a compendium that now rivals the Beyond Coincidence book in its scope. Take, for example, today’s events. Now, when I tell you this, you will be able to explain it all away easily – the factors involved are probabilistic, in that they all have a potential for occurrence, and the events must, at some point, occur together. I don’t disagree with their inevitability - what I draw your attention to is this: should you turn your own attention to such coincidences in your own life, you will find that mathematical probability becomes seriously warped and it will make your head swim with questions of a philosophical nature. Here’s the story:

Kal was sitting in a cafe in a large town. He is engaged in conversation with friends when he thinks he sees an old friend who he hasn’t seen for many months passing by the window. Except, his old friend looks slightly thinner and her hair is shorter, but nevertheless he is struck by the fact she has walked by and decides that, when he has finished in the cafe, he might have a walk around to see if he can bump into her in order to say hello and catch up on events. So, several minutes later he is walking around the town centre visiting places that she may frequent, but with no joy. She is not there, and now he begins to doubt whether he really did see her. Giving up, he heads back to one of the many car parks around the town. As he makes his way along a street he looks up - there, heading towards him is his old friend. But she is not thinner, and her hair is still long! The woman he saw earlier was not his old friend, but someone else who reminded him of her!

Coincidence, certainly, but it doesn’t end there. I am at work and it’s lunchtime, so I’m on the blog seeing which draft posts I still have on the go. I find that I have one whose subject is itself ’coincidence’. I begin to edit the post in order to flesh out the ideas I had jotted down. I am absorbed with writing, and as I start a sentence with the words, “Kal and I…” I see a new e-mail arrive in my postbox. It’s Kal, telling me the story of his extraordinary coincidence.

How’s that for a bundle of coincidences? Now, that’s all very mundane and ordinary as examples go, but such is the web of most of our lives. What it is an example of is not just coincidence, but rather something more extraordinary than that, and far less mundane.

As we approach the end of the Mayan Calendar, whose end date is 2012 (arguably) people like Ian Xel Lungold and Carl J.Calleman speculate that the planet is going through the latter stages of a change in consciousness. This consciousness change is being manifestly accelerated by our modern inventions, as it always has been. In other words, our society and its overall consciousness is evolving at an increasingly fast pace, and in definite step changes. Lungold makes the case, convincingly enough to me, that throughout evolution there have been moments when consciousness changed to a higher level. The consciousness changes are charted in a 9-step pyramid form as:-

Each stage is a foundation level upon which we build, opening up new levels of consciousness as each cycle is attained. Each stage introduces new laws of possibility which govern our development. Of course it is simple to “prove” the dates incorrect because we were all there at the birth of the internet, right? We all know EXACTLY when that happened, right? Let’s not be bound by an anal kind of exactitude. What is undeniable is the flow of consciousness evolution, and it’s not just human consciousness, but the consciousness of everything. I urge you to watch the YouTube videos in which Lungold explains Calleman’s ideas – it will be three hours of your remaining conscious time that you will never regret.

As you can see, the final stage is still to come. The change we have just entered is “Galactic Consciousness” in which we realise that the power structures upon which we rely are actually unreliable, and we enter into an ethical structure that takes greater responsibility for what we consciously create. The final stage – “Universal Consciousness” – involves a realisation of the process of conscious co-creation. It will be the realisation of our ability to consciously and clearly co-create experience with each other and the rest of existence. To put it plainly, we will make the world what it will be through our thoughts and actions. We will integrate our consciousness in a working relationship with Nature, or The Other, and the unfolding of time.

That’s the theory, but what might it mean in practise? Who knows. I certainly don’t think that all the planet will be affected by these changes at the same time. I think these timings and stages of consciousness as defined indicate the threshold points where human consciousness can CONCEIVE OF them. Once we conceive of something as a possibility, then we slowly begin to make it happen in reality in our own time. It’s like the inventor – he can’t invent something until he has conceived of the possibility of it first. His next step is to theorise as to what is possible, and finally to make it happen. I think these processes may unfold in the same way. What they represent is the potential to begin to make these changes manifest in the world of human consciousness on a meaningful scale – i.e. if enough people “get it” then it begins to take shape in the everyday reality of more and more people until the change becomes integrated as the new reality that everyone accepts and can understand.

We may be heading for just such a change in possibility soon. Certainly, my own spiritual journey seems to be timed to coincide with these events. If I look back at how I thought only two years ago many of the concepts I now consider to be integrated and everyday were so outlandish and unproven to me that they were irrelevant. Now I have experienced conscious co-creation and coincidence more regularly I have the experiences to back up my newly evolving thought processes and my boundaries of possibility are extending.

The extent and pace of the progress also seems to match the speed of approach and trajectory of 2012, but I still don’t know what to make of that, other than that Ian Xel Lungold’s theories are the only 2012 theories that make any sense to me, and which have practical manifestations in the world around me and in my head.

What I’m suggesting, in relation to the story of Kal and his old friend and myself, is that we are beginning to consciously co-create events in conjunction with the flow of the universeTo join with the flow of the universe is to follow a natural progression in tune with Nature’s own direction of development. Religion has called this concept “following the divine will”, but then has proceeded to make it a law, rather than a useful option for personal and communal progress. itself. As we progress along our spiritual paths we are increasingly entering into the flow of consciousness and its evolutionary timescale. As we synchronise with this flow these events begin to occur more frequently, and we become much more involved in their occurrence. The world changes from being a mechanical, Newtonian, pre-defined, mathematical, quantifiable entity to become a world of imaginative magical possibility when one joins the flow and steps beyond coincidence!

The whole concept particularly resonates with me because the final step into Universal Consciousness begins on my birthday in just over a year’s time.

Gwas.

p.s. After publishing this post I went downstairs for a drink. Whilst there I switched on the TV to see what was on. It was “The Matrix”. The last five minutes. I joined the film at the point where Lawrence Fishburn’s characters says “He’s starting to believe” until the point where Neo overcomes the matrix through an evolution of consciousness…into conscious co-creation! Sometimes when you’re in the flow, the coincidences let you know.