The Hedge Druid

Posts Tagged ‘cotes d’armour’

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!

In the third part of my Brittany visit report I will be covering two sites: the legendary Mont St.Michel and the lesser known Temple of Mars.

Mont St.Michel

Mont St.Michel has a number of things about it that should pique the interest of any dowser, or anyone interested in ancient earth mysteries. Firstly, it is situated on a mound that has legendary association with St.Michael and The DragonDragons are spirit or energetic beings that reside in sacred sites and have a particular location in them and also move throughout the day (and or season). They also leave the sacred site on occasion, which again differentiates them from Genius Loci which don’t. – a signifier of the ‘pinning’ or ‘taming’ of earth energies. Secondly, it is part of the 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. of sites that Hamish Miller discusses in one of his books. Thirdly, the abbey situated at the pinnacle of the mound is crammed with architecture that references The Green Man, dragons, Celtic motifs and pineal glands – not to mention its ‘divine proportions’. All in all, it’s a full day for anyone interested in the Western Mystery tradition!

Nothing radical happened in terms of dowsing, and no major energy work was done there. Instead I went with the intention of seeing whether the information I had been reading from different esoteric authors was accurate. Was there evidence in the form of symbols, Celtic patterns, sacred geometry, number and legend to believe that the concepts and properties of earth energies were known many years ago? Was there evidence of the veneration and preservation of a very ancient knowledge pre-dating the Christian and Roman civilisations that have dominated historical record and study? Was that knowledge built into the very heart and soul of Mont St.Michel?

In addition to keeping an eye out for historical, architectural and decorative symbolism I was also keen to verify Miller’s scant report from his “In Search of the Southern Serpent” book in which he mentions a ‘crossing point’ in Mont St Michel’s Abbey of the Apollo-Athena ley lineThe term used by many British dowsers to describe an energy leyA straight line of neutral energy linking two or more sacred sites or other energetic centres. This is often confused with Alfred Watkins’ concept of the Ley Line. Strictly speaking a ley line does not necessarily mean a neutral energy line, only a sight 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. between notable places, whereas an energy ley is like a radial spoke in a wheel, with energy flowing outwards across the land in a straight line. It has sometimes been found that the energy ley can be diverted from its strict straight path by changes in the landscape or strong attractors that pull it away from its original course. Energy leys may have inter-twining streams of male and female energies weaving along them, as though the energy ley is an attractor, a pathway or a conduit for the male and female energies.. It is easily confused with ley and therefore its use is not recommended by dowsers., a line that runs between two energy lines – the so-called Becker-Hagens grid. There’s a Google Earth overlay displaying just such 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. points. Mont St Michel is situated between two major lines of the icosahedron, but I have my doubts as to the exact placement of the Becker-Hagens lines. Their major crossing points – the concentration of many lines – fall near to but not on some very important megalithic sites. This got me thinking.

Shifting the centre

If the whole grid were shifted such that the crossing point aligned with The Scilly Isles, then suddenly a lot of lines identified by dowsers begin to make sense – the Apollo-Athena line fits next to the Mary and Michael Line through Stonehenge and Dartmoor, on to the tip of Cornwall. The red line in the diagram below is the Apollo-Athena line, but Becker-Hagens have it fifty miles or so off-centre to where Hamish Miller and John Michell have placed it. That’s just how However, it is possible to align at least two well-documented major ley lines by shifting the centre 67 miles westward onto St.Mary’s or St. Martin’s Church on the Isles of Scilly off the tip of Cornwall. Doing that pulls these lines onto with known energetic centres. If you do that 67 mile shift due West you also connect London with Paris! An interesting correlation. Far from fact yet, but it makes me think about the larger picture and the possibility of mapping these ancient energy points in a mathematically cohesive geometry that works worldwide, and that’s an exciting prospect!

One approaches the abbey via a winding, nay spiralling, path up through the many tourist shops, restaurants, and ‘attractions’ designed to inform the casual tourist of the bloody and saintly history of this place. I ignored the lot and made my way as quickly as possible to the abbey up the steep paths and steps, paying a princely sum for the privilege on arrival at the box office. I have to say that I was not unimpressed by the size and majesty of the place, and the architecture was delightfully intricate and divinely proportioned, but more about that later.

The search for the Apollo-Athena Line

Once I stepped into the abbey I made way to the outside right edge and got rods out. I moved along the abbey’s aisle along a dark and narrow flagstoned floor, past a group of tourists being given a tour in the centre. I dowsed in and out of the small rooms along this southern edge for the crossing point that Miller vaguely described and found it two-thirds of the way down the right-hand side. It was at a point where a stone trapdoor sat in the floor, covered by a pew – a very unassuming and unexpected place!

Looking later at the plan of the abbey I could see that this southern edge had a small chapel beneath it – exactly at the point I had found or so very close to it that it made me sure I’d found the right place. a chapel built into the very rock of the mount itself. I refer you to the book by Marc Déceneux called “The Mont St Michel : stone by stone” for just such a diagram. The exact feature underneath the trapdoor I had found was the ancient Crypt of St.Martin.

On my return I consulted Miller’s book again to compare this point with the description given by Miller in ‘In Search Of The Southern Serpent’ book:

“After three days we somewhat disappointingly located  the crossing at a totally innocuous place in the side aisle of the great Abbey. It was only when the resident electrician pointed out a little used wooden trapdoor revealing wooden steps leading to a cellar below that we began to feel elated. There directly below the spot we had marked, we found the remains of the altar of the first chapel ever built on the island.”

Hamish Miller and Barry Brailsford – Penwith and StonePrint Press (2006)

I couldn’t be sure from that description whether Miller meant that the crossing point was exactly ON the wooden trapdoor, but I would suppose that he would mention that in his original description? Anyway, I found it two thirds of the way along the southern edge, whilst the wooden trapdoor was close to the northern edge, near to the entrance we had come in when first entering the abbey. I checked for the direction of flow for this powerful 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. – it crossed the abbey from the stone trapdoor towards…the wooden trapdoor! Well, that seemed like an interesting 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..

I later checked the supposed direction of the Apollo-Athena line and found a sketch showing exactly such a NNW-SSE angle. All the correlating information came only when I had returned home to England a few weeks later, I hasten to point out, which made it all the more convincing for me.

Next, on to the other parts of the abbey, most notably the Cloister, although each part of the abbey held some interesting secret – even the seemingly dull parts. It’s all a case of what you’re looking for, I suppose!

Motifs in stone

One of the things that struck me as I walked from room to room in the abbey was the amount of subtle (and some less subtle) carvings of certain features that seemed to depict certain Celtic energy motifs such as:

• pineal glands sprouting from swirling greenery
• three and four leaf designs
• dragons laying at the feet of holy men, subdued by knightly saints, or couched within the greenery
• mythical creatures with human heads

This seemed to me to be remarkable decoration for a Christian church! It spoke to me of the Green Man legends, of the prominence of the dragonDragons are spirit or energetic beings that reside in sacred sites and have a particular location in them and also move throughout the day (and or season). They also leave the sacred site on occasion, which again differentiates them from Genius Loci which don’t. as a symbol of natural forces, and of the use of sacred number that was employed throughout the architecture of the whole abbey in terms of its sacred geometrical proportions for rooms, doors and other major features. This whole structure was shouting that mysterious forces were built into the very structure of the abbey, and at one time were not only understood by the inhabitants, but may have been encoded to retain their importance.

There layout of the abbey, its 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., its architecture – everywhere this church employed and upheld the concept of sacred geometry – in its arches, its floor plans, its vaulted ceilings, its motifs carved in stone, even its gardening. According to the guidebooks the finest scholars came from Paris to lend their special knowledge to its design. Indeed. Such knowledge was encoded everywhere. Threes, fives, sevens, twelves – golden sections and ratios abounded in every ceiling and carving.

(Picture courtesy of ThinkQuest)

The stained glass Celtic designs and rainbow colour tints

In some of the rooms the stained glass windows had decidedly Celtic designs. Apart from the design aspects, another interesting element was the way that the stain of the glass was chromatically ‘spectrified’ – if that’s a phrase that conveys the sense that it ranged through rainbow colours along the length of the window. It was done in such a way that particular colours might predominate at different altitudes and angles of sunlight, I supposed. I wondered what effect this might have on a meditating priest at different elevations of the sun? Would the light falling on his eyes change, and therefore were specific times of the day likely to be accompanied by light of a particular part of the spectrum? I also found it interesting that rainbow colours had been selected for the staining, as we often dowse rainbow colours as part of the nemetons of energy fields around sacred sites.

Frozen dragons and pinning sword of St.Michael

The patron of this joint is St.Michel. Michael to us. Many things to many other cultures, but in the Western Mystery tradition he personifies the triumph of light over darkness. In a slightly deeper interpretation this concept also contains the symbolism of the human ability to ‘pin’ earth energy to a place so as to be able to utilise it’s energies, whether that be for healing, for assisting with spiritual transformation, or whatever other purposes this energy can be used for that may have been known about. Michael is the archangel, the archetype solar hero, the knight who slays the dragonDragons are spirit or energetic beings that reside in sacred sites and have a particular location in them and also move throughout the day (and or season). They also leave the sacred site on occasion, which again differentiates them from Genius Loci which don’t. – the dragonDragons are spirit or energetic beings that reside in sacred sites and have a particular location in them and also move throughout the day (and or season). They also leave the sacred site on occasion, which again differentiates them from Genius Loci which don’t. being the representative of the feminine or ‘darker’ forces – the subtle earth energy forces of the underground, pinned into place by the lance or sword of pure light, or intention. For me this myth contains an ancient knowledge and shows a dutiful respect for the ones who can tame the raw energies through enlightenment and spiritual ability. From this evolved the Christian concept of conquering evil through the light of truth obtained as a gift from God upon achieving spiritual pureness and holiness.

I followed a spiral path down and outwards until the causeway returning me back to normal consciousness amidst this tourist frenzy and I felt the urge to buy some local cider. Dry but flavoursome. You should try some! I felt that the mound was one of those places that you would just have to come back to. May is a good month to visit it too. I was lucky.

Temple of Mars

On the way back from Mont St.Michel there was just enough time to stop off at a site close to where we were staying – the invitingly entitled Temple of Mars near the lovely town of Corseul. Mars had been used by the Romans as a replacement for an earlier Celtic god called Teutates, or Toutatis. As a god of war, a very masculine pursuit, I was interested to see what this might mean in terms of the energies present at the site, if there were any.

As we approached the site, perched as it was overlooking a typically beautiful Cotes D’Armour valley. We could see the partially re-constructed ruins of a tower built to give an impression of the overall size, scale, height and impressive build quality of the Roman original. I say original, but perhaps the temple had been built upon the ruins of an even older Celtic temple at that place?

The rest of the site had a boundary wall whose size was only inches high, and two stairwells had been re-built to show extent of and entrances to the temple. The reconstructed portion of the temple showed seven levels were originally present in the design of the round tower. That number again. Given the quite large area this temple covered it must have been quite important. I resolved to look it up in the history books on my return, maybe

I got the copper L-rods out and asked for most energetic place of the site. I was shown a slightly raised area in one of the ‘rooms’, shown on the plan map to be of unknown purpose.

The room had a male 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. in it and a circle going around that 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. which extended as large as the room it was in. Coming out of that centre point were seven radial lines, each extending outwards beyond the confines of the room. When I stepped back I saw the pattern – it was a sun symbol, and a wheel of life. All male energy here, though. There was no female energy at all in this temple site.

I dowsed as to whether there was any other formation. YES. A spiral went from the nemeton perimeter into the centre point, slicing across the seven uneven radials in a Fibonnaci spiral of divine proportion – the golden section. It looked just like a Hamish Miller picture. So, although I couldn’t be sure whether or not my results differed from Hamish Miller’s at Mont St.Michel, I had definitely seen evidence of one of his regular energy formations at the Temple of Mars. “You lose some, you win some.” With that we returned to our base for cider and cheese.

Gwas

Following a radiant spiral.