Posts Tagged ‘cosmic giggle’

Dealing with The Logos: rules of the game

In his introduction to the book “Sun, Moon & Earth” Robin Heath states:

In an uncoordinated attempt to better understand and control the material universe, our present culture has strayed so far from simplicity and beauty that we are often startled and afraid when it reveals itself.”

The Logos IS that startling material universe that reveals itself. According to Wikipedia,

Heraclitus (ca. 535–475 BCE) established the term in Western philosophy as meaning both the source and fundamental order of the cosmos…. The Stoic philosophers identified the term with the divine animating principle pervading the universe.”

Dealing with The Logos, the Other (the greater intelligence, Nature, the Divine, however you wish to term it) used to be commonplace, and incapable of being dissociated from people’s thoughts - Greek writers record many such stories where the “voices in the mind” were considered to be the intervention of a divine being. Rational science has always been equally cursed and blessed with angelic beings or gifts from God that guide the finest minds to previously incomprehensible new discoveries and theories. Many of the recognised great thinkers of human history attribute their inventions or theories to divine revelations (e.g. Descrates, Newton and Einstein, for instance).

The concept of the “other” in druidry is usually conceived of as some aspect of Nature. In this post I will contract that concept down to its essence and call it The Logos. This is the term used by Terence McKenna to describe this infinite and ineffable ‘otherness’. However, is it totally ineffable, or unknowable? I think it is knowable in terms of establishing a relationship. I think it is possible to know a great deal about the way it operates (or wants us to operate), even to the point of being able to define The Rules of The Game. I think this because there are certain things that it is possible to do with Nature, and other things that are simply impossible at a particular time. Also, the communication link is also governed by rules of behaviour, courtesy  or etiquette.

In this next section I list some of the elements of dealing with The Logos. I do not attempt to describe what The Logos is, or state whether these rules apply to all. They are the rules I have drawn out of my own dealings, and some of the rules I have found are also in place for other people too. I therefore present them to you for your consideration – please test them out for yourself.

In no particular order…..

The Rules:

1.“Have no expectations.”

Approach with respect and not expecting anything particular to occur. Failure to comply results in antithetical contrary responses – you get the opposite of what you expect, or nothing at all. This also applies to dowsing – the rods will move whichever way you want them to, so if you want an objective response that can be trusted you must remove all assumptions and expectations to leave a clear and connected mind, not an intentional mind.

2.“It will not be commanded.”

The Logos won’t be instructed, directed, or expected to perform on demand. You are dealing with a relationship of equals working in partnership to achieve enlightenment, wisdom and understanding. If you ask it to perform parlour tricks it is most likely to confuse you and act up. This is the Trickster element of the Logos. Imagine a four year old child attempting to command a Professor to do things for him on demand. Some witty trickery is likely to ensue, resulting in a life lesson for sure.

It cannot be bent to your will. Answers are most forthcoming when there is no intention of trying to elicit an particular response. Willing an action in dowsing brings about unsatisfactory, misleading and confusing responses. In druidry it leads to self-deception which is invariably discovered to be unfounded or just plain ineffective if attempted.

As Kal points out, however, there is a form of energy work in which the energies are harnessed for selfish or egotistically-driven purposes, and this proves to be an exception to the rule. In our experience this form of energy work is predicated upon the enslaving of cosmic energies and the creation of human energies for manifestation and direction. In this mode, energies are commanded for the duration of the ‘spell’, or until it is broken or diminished by opposing energy frequencies (e.g black streams composed of male and neutral energy can be diminished and eventually dissoluted by the input of strong female energy). This form is not a path we follow or encourage, although we acknowledge its existence and are respectful of it.

3.“Don’t take it too seriously.”

The Logos likes a laugh, so if you want to be serious about your work you need to establish that fact by adopting a sober state of mind that is clear and focused (ironically, because at the same time you need to be empty of thought and alter your consciousness level – a state most assume to be a fuzzy and moronic state). Not necessarily so. Make time to have a laugh. There’s nothing like laughter for building the relationship up through mutual enjoyment and developing trust. This is a similar concept to McKenna’s “Cosmic Giggle” theorem.

4. “Trust must be at the foundation of the relationship.”

Trust has to be won and earned, but also given by you. If you establish an agreement on how you will deal with each other at the outset of the relationship then you are making solid ground to work on. In this agreement it may be wise to establish that you will not be asking frivilous, inane questions for the sake of it; that you may ask for clarification or confirmation, but that you will do so in the spirit of rational enquiry; that you will not attempt to “trick” the Logos; and that you wish to receive the same treatment. Once established you can trust the answers you receive, although I would still recommend the occasional test question for confirmation, but ultimately this is a placebo, because you can never actually 100% trust any form of knowledge. However, if it feels like a trusted response then go with it. It will get you far.

5. “Love and gratitude facilitate progress.”

Be prepared to exchange emotional energies. You have the ability to generate these at will. Exchanging emotional energy is a powerful act, so I suggest it is done in good faith and only when necessary to progress in your work. I haven’t found that physical gifts are necessary. It seems to me that it is the emotion invested in the gift that is important, and the idea that the energy is released over a longer time period than a spur-of-the-moment act of gratitude in your relationship with nature. It need only be proportional to the amount of exchange going on. If you get a fantastic revelation, a vision, learn something new, change your life after the event – these things merit some reciprocal investment of kind energies, wouldn’t you think? It’s only polite, and seems to ensure a warmer reception on your next visit. I have never found it to be essential, however, nor need it be ritualistic. Empathic expression is all that is required on most occasions. Love and gratitude are the keys that unlock the communication channels with other intelligence forms.

Like all good trade there has to be something in it for the other party too. If you only want to take, take, take in that relationship then the bond won’t last long, and it will never get very deep. You have to learn to give a little too – even if it costs you your dignity (a garish pontification of the ego), time, or a gift. Strangely, that works. It seems so superficial, but I guess that the charitable act of giving goes a long way to cement a relationship.

Giving out love energy must be done with an unfettered mind, unconditionally. It can be spread like roots and branches, feeling its way across the landscape in search of contact.

6. “Results cannot be forced.”

If you’re told an answer to a question, even if you don’t like it, it will be correct. For example, I used to ask whether I would be successful at such and such, told no, and would try it anyway. Whatever experiment it was always failed. However, sometimes I learned what not to do, and how best to do it when I got the go ahead at some future point, when either I was ready or when the energies were. But don’t bang your head continuously against the same brick wall. Take it as a sign that something needs to change, and ask what that change needs to be. Then you may know what needs to be done and your approach will be better informed next time.

7. “Learn to accommodate paradox.”

Coincidentia Oppositorum: the Union of Opposites. This is an alchemical term describing the necessity of bringing together two seemingly opposed ideas (or materials) to effect their co-operative union. When dealing with ideas or images it required a state of mind where two opposites can be held in mind simultaneously and reconciled as being joined, combined, or even wholly one. This kind of thinking is essential to working natural magick. Resolving paradox, accepting the impossible, are entry requirements for dealing with The Logos, as it constantly challenges you to make progress by adopting new concepts and envisioning new possibilities. It makes the impossible possible.

8. “Know your limitations.”

Very Clint Eastwood!. I’m not encouraging you to not extend yourself in this work, merely to be aware of the extent to which you can go at any particular time. We have talked several times on this blog about The Trickster. It is an aspect of The Logos that arises occasionally if you are working at the very edges or boundaries of your knowledge and intelligence. If you are asking questions that are beyond your ability to conceive or control the answer then you are likely to encounter a Trickster response: a response that confounds and confuses you. This response demonstrates that you have gone too far for your abilities at that time. If you continue to push it you will receive a response that results in you having to take on a certain humility.

McKenna says: “Nature loves courage.” and that nature rewards courage by the removal of obstacles to the impossible. Courage often makes progress possible and speeds up the learning process. McKenna also states that there is a sense of FAIR PLAY ruling over the relationship that is established with The Logos. I interpret this as, if you follow the rules you get rewards proportionate to your abilities. If you try to take too much at once, you get slapped back into place. You will get contrary results, results that confound you completely, that make no sense, that may put you in an embarrassing situation. The end result will be that you will be highly aware of your place in this relationship – a humble human.

Truth, respect and fairness should be the basis of all your dealings. If you are unfaithful in your approach then you invoke Pan, the Trickster spirit that will do his utmost to humble you at every opportunity, especially if you invite him to do so with expressions of pride or arrogance.

You are always limited in terms of what is possible by your ability to deal with the result. In other words, if you’re not physically, spiritually or intellectually prepared to deal with an answer, then the answer becomes a challenge, a test or a quest. You are given information in the way that you can conceive of it, given as much information as you can deal with, and even if you don’t understand the answer you know that the response has been crafted in such a way as it only has meaning and importance to you. This can be a humbling and frustrating response, but it is always the correct one for you at that time. Once you get to the point of understanding the information, you usually realise that this was the case.

9. “The energy going in equates to the energy coming out.”

Dealing with The Logos uses visualisation at more energetic levels to focus towards a desired effect. The more energy is put into the visualisation the more profitable and effective is the work. If you use visualisation during dowsing work it can often reveal many hidden correlations, but it can also lead you astray by suggesting energy forms that are almost impossible to confirm physically.

This rule also covers another aspect of energy work. i.e. that Nature abhors a vacuum, such that if you remove energies from a place then the place will be filled with something else. If you add something to a place, then you are pushing some other energy out of that place. It seems to follow the laws of physics as we currently understand them in this respect. I have read recently that psychic energy may be likened in behavioural terms to plasma energy. I can’t comment on that, really, except to say that it flows and pools in a similar way to water, and is affected by gravity.

———————————————–

This is my current working list of The Rules. Every interaction informs me further. I will update this post whenever I discover anything different or additional. I hope they help you steer a truer course.

Gwas Myrddyn.

Nine Ladies stone circle: Dancing in the dark – Part 3

3rd November 2008

This is the last part in the account of our time at the Nine Ladies stone circle in Derbyshire. In this part I relate how we attempted some psionic experiments, I get to talk with the Wishing Tree, and we stumble upon the haunt of some exponents of sacred geometry. Oh yes, it’s all going on in this part of the tale! We really start pushing it now!

PART THREE

At the end of the last post we had been trying to figure out the unusual response (one rod straight ahead, one turning to point back at you, or swivelling round). We were thinking along the lines of Kal being attuned to male energies, whereas I was more attuned to female. On this full-moonlit night it seemed as though I was finding it easier to tune it to some of the features of the site in particular.

We decided to begin some experiments. We asked for the best place to do some energy work, and were each directed to a different power centre. Oddly, Kal was standing on the one where he had planted his umbrella, which I had taken to be the one I would go to. Oh no. I was directed to stand in the one that Kal had been sitting in, and had dowsed into a spiral earlier. So be it.

Nine Ladies stone circle

Nine Ladies stone circle

We decided beforehand that we would try to get into a state of mind where we might be able to connect to each other. The two power centres were linked by arcing neutral energies, connecting male to female, and travelling over and under in a vertically circular trajectory. We hypothesised that we may be able to send each other images. I tried to relax on the power centre, but I had a Kings of Leon tune running around in my head that wouldn’t shift. It kept repeating the same refrain. This was not funny! I was trying to work here! No good. I was mainly ‘awake’ and could tell my focus was wandering – what was Kal imagining, would it be a shape, or an animal? Oh, dear. This was hopeless! Despite the stillness of the dark night I kept dropping out of trance at the slightest sound – a distant rumble, a passing car on the hillside, a hooting owl, a gust of wind.

We tried. We failed. We weren’t even close. And it was because I couldn’t get into it. Was this another effect of the grounding stone? Had I not charged myself back up, or something? I pondered on that for quite a long time before heading off to the Wishing Tree for a drink. Time to get back to dowsing to reconnect with the stone circle. We headed to the grounding stone again, as it seemed to be the hub of the action this night. Hoping to get some answers I dowsed the stone again asking,

“Do I need to clear myself through this stone to regain my connection (with nature and the circle)?” I asked. The rods crossed for a ‘Yes’.

I put the rods down again and placed my hand on the stone instead of sitting on it I started to tune in. My mind started to gently swirl around like someone had taken the sink plug out and my brain was draining its water into the stone! Then it got faster. The vortex in my head reached such a pace that it sent me dizzy! I spun away from the stone, but kept turning around and around, staggering like a drunk whilst laughing elatedly at the madness of being spun around. My head was swimming in a really fun way, like having spun yourself around a broom handle and then tried to walk in a straight line.

Kal just stood looking on curiously as I waltzed around giggling and laughing. I asked something, anything, to give me a hand here! Couldn’t something help me to get out of this tailspin? A split second later I was prodded forcefully right in the back of the neck by one of the Wishing Tree’s branches! I jumped – woke up – and stopped spinning, thankfully. “Thank you!” I responded with genuine gratitude. I felt a warming under the tree’s canopy the air got lighter and more friendly. We had re-established a connection! That was just great. Now I was really happy, not giddy.

Back to the dowsing. Time must have been drawing on, but really I didn’t care what time it was. It wasn’t important. I had to know more before we left the site. Rods in hand I walked back to Kal in the circle to continue trying to locate some connections and flows. The first thing we found were the male and female spirals coming out each stone. Just like many other sites, but with the male spirals on the inside, and female spirals on the outside. Other sites have it the other way around.

Next we located the neutral lines that went between the stones. I went for the concept of opposing stones being connected and found a connection for each pair. Oddly, all of the lines were perfectly straight except for one, which bent back into the circle stone in a short curve. Was it going bending in order to avoid something? It seemed to coincide with the avoidance of the location of the two power centres we had been standing on. Noted anyway, if not understood. Kal, however, had found a few connections that were not a part of this perfect ‘spoked wheel’ pattern. Some stones connected with others that were not directly opposite. We vowed to return to map them all when it was lighter and we could draw them out.

Whereas our sketches of energy patterns at sites are representational (and not always to scale) you should compare them with those of StoneDowser on his site (listed also in our links section on the right hand side of this page). Mr. Ian Honeygood, now sadly passed away, was quite precise in some of his diagrams, although he only seemed to recognise two types of line: a radial spoke and a ‘ritual path’, which he surmises was the path taken by the worshippers at the sites. Well, that concept doesn’t convince me, I’m sorry to say, but that’s a discussion for another day. Either way, he has done some accurate and helpful diagrams to show those two types of energy formations.

StoneDowser’s ritual path is what I would call the unwinding of the nemeton of the site. Like Hamish Miller we often find three (he finds more, but then he’s like that) circles of male energy enclosing sites, and this energy trail then comes into the site to spiral to a point which we usually confirm as being a power centre for one of us (i.e. male or female oriented energies dwell in or emit from these points). Each time around the three outer spirals of the male nemeton energy the path gets closer to the stones. At Nine Ladies it started about three feet away from the stones, going to about one and a half feet, then six inches for the last time around. The path then turns into the ‘entrance’ of the site before looping into a spiralling energy centre.

On my last visit to Nine Ladies I had dowsed a link between the Wishing Tree oak and the main power centre, coming into the site via the ‘entrance’. I decided to verify if that was still present or not. It was. Exactly the same path, same entrance point, same power centre, same direction of spiral, everything. Good. Consistency was being achieved in some of this dowsing now.

As we were near the tree Kal decided to try his luck in doing a bit of communing with it. Now, I have already recounted my own difficulties with this species, and particularly this tree. It is amenable to contact, but it has to be handled very carefully and with great patience. Kal is, how can I put this, not one for such finesses! In all openness and in his usual hearty style I watched him outstretch a metaphorical hand of welcome. And then I watched him knock his head on a low branch and stumble over a tree root. I pretended I hadn’t noticed this blatant rebuttal. He tried again, complaining to it that he was trying to be nice. Nothing. What did he expect? He was not one for the patient building of relationships that such communications often insist upon. His talents lie elsewhere, I guess. I tried to wipe off my wide smile. “Give up, mate!” I implored. He was fighting a losing battle, it seemed.

One thing we both noticed about the site that night was how slow the energies were. As we dowsed them we walked slowly; as we circled the site the energy plodded along with us but didn’t overtake us as it has at other circles in sunlight, or my time at Moel-Ty-Uchaf. The Genius Loci was docile this evening. Nocturnal nature, however, was wide awake. Occasionally we would get a hint of agreement at just the right time whilst dowsing or communing – a sudden gust of wind, or a hooting owl would chime in at just the apropos moment.

Things had gone well. We had learned useful things about the way that energy was being transformed in the circles by specific stones. With this, and more, still buzzing in our heads we retreated one last time to the Wishing Oak to pack and leave. On my way there my eye was drawn for a fourth time to a twig of laurel lying by the north side of the circle – the moonlight made its dark leaves shine with an odd tint. I picked it up, and placed it inside one of the many crevices formed by the oak’s roots, and left it with thanks and good wishes to the tree. It gave enough out often enough – why not have some back? ;-)

As we wandered back to the car I asked if we could try to see what kind of place might be benefiting from the flow of energy that I knew went down the cliff edge via a steep gulley. Kal was game, so we drove down a side of the hill that I had never been down before. Kal said this was the way he often came up, so I was confident we could find our way back to the Bakewell area pretty easily soon enough. Ten minutes later Kal was saying, “Well, I’ve never been in this bit before!” as we trundled curiously through a small town that suddenly arose next to a river.

We passed a pub called “The Square and Compass” and that struck a chord – that was a masonic sigil. It would seem that Darley Dale, as the place turned out to be, was home to at least one group of people who were interested in ancient secrets! Societies are not for me, however. My path is mainly alone or with Kal, and my progress is swift because of that, I feel. It’s my path I’m treading, not following someone else’s agenda.

There was a lot to think about, and it kept us in conversation for several weeks afterwards. To recap, we learned:-

a) The rules of the collaboration with Nature must always be followed to get good results – a quiet mind is essential; good strong intent; a clean body (not caffeine-fuddled, tobacco doesn’t help the cause either); be prepared for fun, but do your work seriously and focused.
b) The double helix appears at several stone circles, possibly many more, linked to an outlier stone, which is identified as a main feature of the energy field system at a stone circle
c) Moon energy is slower, possibly weaker than sun energy. Certainly it is less vigorous.
d) A stone in or close to the circle, usually flat, acts like a solar, lunar and stellar panel that absorbs the radiant light.
e) In moonlight, on the correct power centre, we were both unable to experience any intuitive responses either between each other or towards any external location. The EMF was supposedly low, as it was night time. A lecture by Serena Roney-Dougal taught us that at times of low EMF are more favourable for telepathy and remote viewing. I blew that experiment by not being able to quieten my mind.
f) Although StoneDowser didn’t dowse this site (to our knowledge) his ‘ritual path’ was present – a spiraling line coming from outside to inside the circle. The radial links between the stones that he drew at other sites were also there. We thought that the lines bent between some stones sometimes, and that there were more links than simply those that were opposing stones.

It would seem that manifestation patterns can be willed into a particular shape, although my intention got transformed whilst I was forming it in my mind. Is this due to an interactive collaboration between human and nature, or was I simply unable to hold a shape using my willpower? The shape dowsed as increasingly complex when Kal came to verify it. I also verified Kal’s shape too. “Thaat be a pentangle, and no mistake, zurr.” What is it about wizards and their five-sided shapes?

Don’t phone in – it’s just for fun! ;-)

Gwas.

Nine Ladies stone circle: Dancing in the dark – Part 2

3rd November 2008

This is part two of a three part account of our time at the Nine Ladies stone circle in Derbyshire. We visited in the late winter evening and in this part we found out the importance of particular stones in the circle.

PART TWO

We continued our dowsing in the moonlit deep and misty darkness of Stanton Moor’s finest neolithic structure – The Nine Ladies stone circle.

We had identified this particular flat-topped square stone in the northern side (due north), when we had dowsed the circle earlier, as being a stone that had a mixture of male and female energies. When we sat upon it there was the distinct impression that something was being drawn out of you slowly. If you sit on such stones in circles for more than a few minutes you feel sapped of energy, literally lethargic and your mind is drained of will power – you can’t think of anything worth doing! It’s very strange. You have to try to shake yourself out of it – almost re-invigorating yourself to make neurons fire again and generate some momentum. Kal called these stones “grounding stones”, which contains the implication of in some way discharging the body of electrical energy, of neutralising it.

A test of this phenomenon might be to identify people with different energy levels, and to see what effect the stones have on them. Is the draining effect stronger on those with more energy? Would this mean that we should see the greatest effect with such people, the greatest degree of change in mood and activity? We will check this in due course.

In addition to any grounding effect Kal identified that this stone would also be the stone to re-balance any imbalances in our own energy fields. I have little experience in such things, so I am open to simple experimentation, and I usually try these things out. This time I found that when I sat on it I got the same draining effect which I left until the very last moment when I felt I had enough will power to do what I needed to do next! Which was to head for the main power centre to “re-charge” myself – which it duly did, and very quickly. I noticed this at Cerrig Pryfaid recently too. A discharged body feels a much greater surge of energy when standing on a power centre in a stone circle than if you are already well balanced and full of energy. Feel free to disagree with that outrageous generalisation and irrational assumption as you see fit. I would go test it for myself, if I were you.

I remember walking for over and hour and a half, and finally up a very steep hill to get to Pentre Ifan in Pembrokeshire (see previous post). By the time we arrived at the stunning cromlech I was exhausted on what was a very warm day. I will never forget the feeling that both M and I got from standing with our backs to the central pillar stone. It was a surge of joyful energy so emboldening that I burst out laughing and had a moistness in the corners of my eyes. It was that incredible. Never forget it. I haven’t laughed so much since the last time I saw Bill Hicks. Except this was a rush of pure joy. An ecstatic moment.

Oh, I’m rambling again. Back to the story for a brief spell (there’s one of those puns again). Feeling re-invigorated we wondered at the purpose of these stones. Were they for discharging energies that were blocked, absorbed by people, or built up to harmful levels? How was this stone being powered? What was the nature of the energy exchange in and around this stone?

Kal identified that the stone was the most important stone in the circle, but not the most important at the whole site – that was the King Stone. Again we spent a moment considering the implications of this gnowledge we had been given by the dowsing rods. Even if we were merely expressing some of our own guesses at a subconscious level this was taking us in an interesting and very coherent direction. It was suggesting to us that the King Stone as the engine of the energies. With it being the source of the twin energy streams that formed the double helix which ultimately encircled the whole site the King Stone was vital, in every sense of that word, to the functioning, the correct and continued functioning of the circle’s energies. This was a very important working assumption that felt like confirmation of something we had guessed but never really thought about.

Recently, after this episode, I found a site where energies were again fed into the circle by an outlying stone, and which also split into two streams – a male line going anti-clockwise around to join a large circle stone, and the female line that went in a clockwise direction to also re-join in the same large stone. Clearly, to me, this was showing me that the circle was powered, and its energies contained, by the outlier, or King stone, and that the two streams formed a complete circuit of energy. Does this specific formation occur naturally anywhere else? Has anyone found such a formation anywhere else? I haven’t heard of anything like that elsewhere, or found anything similar at natural features such as Lud’s Church ravine, or in a cave. In places such as that the energies are much more organically distributed and connected, whereas at man-made sites the energies form geometric patterns, shapes and alignments.

So, what was the grounding stone’s part in the circle. Kal identified that it was important to the circle, and it’s functions. We determined to find out a bit more about its function. I suggested we start by determining how the stone was using energy. For every question we asked we told each other what we were going to ask so that we could do the same. Even though we were only feet away I couldn’t see what Kal was doing other than making out that his shape was getting larger as he moved forwards. Well, another validating test, I mused. We looked up at the bright full moon. Hmmm. We asked about the stone:-

  • Was there moon energy going into this stone? – Yes. Strongly yes. Full across-the-chest crossing of the rods.
  • Was there sun energy going into this stone? – A tiny bit. A tiny bit? Well, we considered, moonlight is actually reflected sunlight, so…. we suppose that’s technically correct!
  • Was there star energy going into this stone? – Yes. A small amount. A bit more than the sun energy registered for.
  • Was there male energy going into the stone? – Yes.
  • Was there female energy going into the stone? – Yes. Oh – so both – that confirms our earlier dowsing findings.
  • Was there neutral energy going into the stone? – No.
  • Were male/female/neutral energies coming out of the stone? All three got a positive response.
  • What about a combination of the types? Was the sun energy the same as the male energy? Yes. And the moon energy was the same as the female? Yes. Was the star energy the neutral energy? No. So there was some alignment there, but neutral was not the same as starlight energy.

On to questions about how the stone worked now. Still with us? Good. We asked:-

  • Was the stone absorbing the moon and other energies? Yes. Tonight it was predominantly the moon, of course. You could almost feel it being stood over it – the top of the stone was perfectly reflecting the moon directly above it. It looked like a lunar and solar panel. not forgetting starlight.
  • Was the stone literally transforming the moonlight and starlight into energy that fed into the circle? Yes. Strongly yes. Strongly is not the right word. More…encouraging: “Well done, you’ve got it!”. It’s funny, You feel a little pleased during the reaction of the rods that you asked the correct question.
  • Were the male and female energies coming out of the stone powered by that transformation of energies? Yes. I’m giving you the highlights here.

There were some stupid questions that I’ve omitted for brevity (Ha ! Brevity !) and you’ll know which those are as soon as you dowse them. I try to ignore my stupid questions and hope they’ll go away in their own time.

Our next set of questions related to, well, how we related to the stone. How else can I say it? We didn’t intend it that way, but that was how it turned out. I asked whether the stone was inherently ‘male’ in itself. I got a positive response. Kal did the question and got the same response. I asked if it was also female. It was. Kal dowsed it and got his funny reaction again. He got one rod turning in at 90 degrees, the other didn’t move. Aha! A chance to see if we could work this out. I got Kal to ask exactly what I had asked. Same response. But I got a positive response – clear – typical. Kal’s was atypical, that’s for sure.

I asked a straight out direct question. Was the reaction Kal was getting due to our own differences as people? Yes. Kal confirmed this as he dowsed the same question. We already knew that Kal had more favourable responses, and was intuitively guided to, power centres of pre-dominantly male energy, whereas I had an affinity for the female power centres. Here was Kal being unable to dowse for the inherent female-ness of the stone, but he could for the male. Under the strong moonlight I could do both. Was the moon having that effect, or was there the possibility that the roles may be reversed elsewhere in bright sunlight? We wait for some bright sunlight to test this! It is winter in England.

Sunlight is at a premium!

Gwas

Follow a moonlit path.

Nine Ladies stone circle: Dancing in the dark – Part 1

3rd November 2008 (full moon)

This is the first installment of a three-part post about a visit that Kal and I undertook to Nine Ladies stone circle in Stanton Moor, Derbyshire one dark winter evening. It’s a tale of adventure involving dowsing, druidry and darkness.

PART ONE

It was a dark and stormy night….no, it wasn’t actually. It was a fairly light evening, misty and very still, with only the occasional breeze stirring anything at all. We drove over the Cat & Fiddle route (A537) from Macclesfield and straight into a fog bank near to Tegg’s Nose Country Park (how can a nose have a whole country park to itself – surely a gross waste of space!?).

Inching along we managed to find our way back to Stanton Moor on the far side of Bakewell in Derbyshire by instinct alone (and the fact that we’d been here many times each independently, and once together). Tonight was different from all other times though. It was night time and the moon was full. Oooh! Spooky! Not really. If you’ve followed my recent posts “Alone in the Dark” (Part 1 / Part 2) then you’ll know I’ve been preparing myself for things like this already. Kal has been trained by long night walkabouts and so we were both completely unfazed by the journey across dark fields, through the woods, and into the circle of stones on Stanton Moor. The gentle hooting of owls was almost comical. Comedy was the theme of the evening, as it turned out, but I’ll come back to that later.

In the ambient moonlight cast through the low thin cloud cover there was a silver path picked out through the woods by a quirk of the angle of light. It led us with ease towards the circle without putting a foot wrong in the darkness. We both remarked, somewhat gratefully, that the going was easy and pleasant on this unseasonably warm evening. There was a slight haze of mist, but that just added to the wondrous effect.

As we approached down the sandy and subtly moonlit path I again felt the urge to arrive at the circle via the short path through the trees. We had walked in from the Stanton Lees village side (not across the moor) as this path was shorter. As we walked up the rise to the circle I felt a wave of energy that hit me, as before, gently in my stomach. “Can you feel that?” I asked Kal. “Oh yes.” he responded. Then he walked ahead of me and began to really feel it. He stopped too, “It’s really strong here.” “I’m sparking with it!” I responded. My hair felt like someone was holding a balloon above it and my face was tingling gently. This was either a particularly energetic time, or we were getting better at detecting it. An owl hooted in agreement, and I smiled. Coincidence.

The circle awaited us like some sleeping giant’s crown waiting to be snatched by midnight thieves as we stole up to a point ten feet away and breathed in the night air. It was as though we were taking in the aura of the place, deep into our lungs, in order to quickly acclimatise to the flowing, sweeping energies we could feel that the site was bathed in.

We placed out backpacks just below the rise to the circle and got out our copper L-rods. Why copper? Because they look nice. Our first mission was to get accustomed to the circle again. We consulted our crib sheet of questions and suggestions for things to look for. We started by sitting on each of the stone in turn to see if we could find a stone that drained energies. We had found one here before, and I had found one since then at Cerrig Pryfaid. Quickly we identified it as a small stone with a flat top, perfect for sitting on. Just like the one at Cerrig Pryfaid. Good start. “A draining stone!” I claimed. “A grounding stone!” Kal retorted. Possibly either or both, we agreed. Same function, different slant.

Kal walked off to the King Stone with his rods clinking his location as he disappeared into the night’s shadows. I decided to approach the tree. As I got within a few feet of the edge of its canopy, I introduced myself to the tree (rather matter-of-factly, on reflection) in my mind. Immediately I felt a block pushing against my stomach, the area that Castenada would call the Assemblage Point. I recognised this from previous encounters with oak trees – I was being barred! I didn’t need a second hint, so I stopped and walked away back towards the circle, vowing to return soon when I was in a better frame of mind. Too hasty! I scolded myself. Always too hasty with oaks. They’re slow, old, and demand a greater respect than other types of tree. One day I will abide by The Rules. I’m still trying to work out what they are, but the nature spirits (or Genius Loci, as Kal refers to these sentient entities) are being very patient and consistent with me, which is helping the process along nicely.

I walked up to the King Stone to see what Kal was up to. He was dowsing down towards me in a tell-tale meander from side to side. “Male line.” he responded to my pending question. “Coming out of the King Stone.” I had found such a line on a previous visit, as had Kal. I was sure I remembered there was a female line coming out too, so I dowsed for that, and found it going alongside the path Kal had just described for the male energy line. I did the male line as well and found it curved in exact opposition to the female line. Another double-helix formation like Cerrig Pryfaid! We dowsed some more questions – taking turns to verify each others findings, which seemed particularly validating because we wouldn’t take any visual cues from each other as we could only see each other’s rods as we got a foot or so away from the stone.

  • We asked for the direction of the flow? – The rods swung towards the stone circle.
  • Was the King Stone the source of the energies? – Yes.
  • Did the King Stone have a connection to the circle? – Yes.
  • Did the King Stone have any energy of its own? – Yes.
  • Was the King Stone exclusively male? – No.
  • Was the King Stone exclusively female? – No. – Oh! A surprise there. Could it be neutral?
  • Was the King Stone exclusively neutral – No. NO! Well, then what was it? A combination?
  • Was the King Stone a combination of male and female ? – Yes. Ahhhhh. Interesting!
  • Did the energy go out of the King Stone away from the circle as well as towards it? – No.

Kal then dowsed the auric extent of the King Stone on the side away from the circle and found it to be about 7-8 feet away, surrounding the stone in a circle. So that was the extent of that stone’s ‘influence’, if you like. Its energies were contained within a small circle, and bound to the stone circle down the way from us, linked by a double helix of male and female energy lines.

So it seemed the stone, containing a combination of male and female energies was able to either split the energies and propel them towards the stone circle, or, the circle was drawing male and female energies simultaneously but separately from the King Stone, and drawing them down to itself. Either way it was connected, so where did it go after it left the King Stone? I followed the two lines simultaneously by instructing one rod to follow the male line, whilst the other should follow the female line. Would it work? Indeed it would, but it was very easy to get into all sorts of weird Hannibal Lecter poses if you weren’t careful. At times the relative amplitudes of the waveforms meant that I lost connection with the waves until they converged again further down their paths. Eventually they parted company at a point five feet in front of the stone circle, each going around the circle – male left, female right – until the male line continued around the circle to rejoin itself. The female line spiralled into a flat stone on the right of the circle (looking from the King Stone). This flat stone registered for female energy too. You’d think so, I guess, if a female line comes into it, but I thought I’d check anyway. These things have a habit of overcoming your assumptions regularly, and making you look like a lost Mark Thatcher.

As I stood on one side of the circle I found that I could see the stone circle’s nemeton, the energy positioned seven feet away from the circle, as a band of pale moonlight. I gazed amazed. It was probably because that’s the path that people take to walk around it and the grass is flattened down making it shine, I told myself. It’s a trick of the light caused by the reflection of moonlight on the ridge here that’s reflecting the light down to its base and…I looked at other places where people walked – other paths – no light. And I could see the nemeton circling the site, so it wasn’t a feature of the light falling at a particular angle relative to where I was standing – I could walk around along its path and it was still visible as a whole circle around the stones at every point.

I stopped wondering how I could see the ring of light, and just wondered. It was a clear path like to one I had followed down from Moel-Ty-Uchaf one night, the path that had delivered me safely to the farmer’s track without a stumble. Then it had flowed in straight lines, turning at acute angles when it needed to bypass uncomfortable drops in height. I had considered it to be starlight because the stars were the only source of illumination; but on this night, with the cloud cover and a full moon, this must be moonlight, right? Flowing in a circle. I don’t know. But it was there – a ghostly pale ring of light that formed a perfect circle around the stones.

I wanted to know more about it so I confirmed that the nemeton’s direction of flow was clockwise, and then set off with an instruction to the rods to follow the nemeton energy. I know what you’re thinking – did he check which gender the nemeton registered as? Yes, I did. Remarkably I remembered to do that this time – it was male, in line with the direction of flow of the male line coming out of the King Stone. Oh, was this the King Stone energy then? I followed with interest to see if the line rejoined itself. It was looking like the male energy line was forming the outer energy extent – it’s auric reach.

I followed the nemeton’s line around back to the entrance gap in the circle. There it moved slightly inwards from its seven foot diameter. Now it was a foot to the right, a foot nearer the circle. I walked around again. At the entrance it moved again. Now it was tracing a circle, still clockwise, alongside the stones themselves. This was the third revolution. As I came to the entrance a third time the line dove into the circle to describe a spiral inside the circle itself. It spiralled round about four or five times before ending at the exact centre of the circle. Not a place we had really investigated yet. I remember that the exact centre was the crossing point for the neutral lines that criss-crossed from stone to opposing stone. That I had found on my last visit. Would they be here again? I made a mental note for us to check tonight.

While I had been busy with the nemeton, Kal had been dowsing the energies inside the circle. He had found female energies inside that went between certain stones – a handy-for-sitting-on flat stone, and a stone about four positions away from it. He had also stuck his umbrella in the power centre that I had found on all my visits there. I was barely visible in the gloom, but you could see it before you walked into it, which saved us from castration on several occasions. Wherever we dowsed inside the circle and outside of it we always ended up back at that power centre, slightly offset from the exact centre, close to the entrance gap in the stones. This thing was a hub for these lines. Male lines flowed into it, and female lines flowed out of it. The male lines came in clockwise, and the female lines emerged roughly anti-clockwise (some went through the air, and under the ground, but their direction of flow was always anti-clockwise). I laughed uncontrollably sometimes as I arrived yet again directly to the umbrella unfailingly even though it was barely visible (a black umbrella – I ask you! Luminous orange would have been more helpful!) Kal made a quip about the circle not having seen such mirth since mediaeval times, or something. Well, you have to enjoy yourself, don’t you? It tickles me when the dowsing is so unerringly capable of sending you round a path a hundred metres long, only to bring you back to join again at exactly the place you started from – in the dark. The Cosmic Giggle is felt in many ways. ;-)

Other formations that we found at the site that night were:-

  1. arcing energies both over and under ground from and to the power center and a stone
  2. a manifestation that I made on the power centre of four petals (I had tried to visualise three, but it changed in my mind to four)
  3. Kal made a manifestation of what he called a “PentiKal” – a five sided shape.

We stopped at this point for a break. Much of the preparation for energy work seems to be to dowse for the placement, orientation and nature of the energy lines first. Then we have a starting point for any energy work later. Now was the time to switch tack. We ate our snacks underneath the Wishing Tree oak, but I could tell Kal was restless there, whereas I was perfectly at ease.

I took the chance to do a proper re-introduction to the Wishing Tree oak as Kal went off to do some more dowsing on the King Stone. I wasn’t looking for anything ‘deep and meaningful’ with the oak, just a chat, so I only went into a light trance. I was pleased to get a polite but friendly connection (how can I describe that feeling? It’s how you feel, not anything you hear or see). In that state the oak and I shared snappy funny comments with each other, and I ended up laughing heartily again. This was a sure sign of madness. Look it up in “The American Psychiatric Publishing Textbook of Personality Disorders (

You may remember from previous posts that it

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Making friends with wise trees.

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** COMING SOON ** - Our Imbolc 2012 day out posts.
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* Moon Page updated with 2012 Full Moon table (Jan)
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Brighid Song
Kellianna's song 'Brighid' from her album 'Lady Moon'. Seemed appropriate.
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Bryn Celli Ddu - Autumn Equinox 2011
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