The Hedge Druid

Posts Tagged ‘cows’

For several weeks I had been passing by Old Oswestry Hillfort in Shropshire on my travels to Wales and to some of the closer megalithic sites in North Shropshire. Every time I passed it my eye was caught by its level top and the sheer size of it. I loved the sight of its steep front, and wanted to see whether it had any energetic remainders or interesting energy forms in it. One evening I couldn’t contain myself any longer, and I got on my motorbike and rode down to Oswestry on the pretext of giving the bike a bit of a run to charge up the battery. Any excuse!

At the back of my mind I had another agenda too. I had wanted to find out whether I could really make use of The Fitzalan Shade that I had picked up from Clun Castle the week before (see previous post: Clun Castle and the Shade of the Warlock) – the spirit of a warlock with whom I had negotiated a bargain for knowledge sharing. Now was the time to test this out. Would the arrangement be up to anything at all, or was I wasting my time?

Guinivere’s Touch

Before we get into the nitty-gritty of this story, let me take you on an interesting diversion. As often happens in my unusual life when walking The Shining Path (I give this questing life many names) I go to places that have intuitively called to me. Afterwards when I do my research on the sites I find that they have some link to my spiritual progression that I had not expected. Such was the case with Old Oswestry. To me, it was that hill fort that I kept seeing and which called to me this year (even though I have been passing it for many years now). This year has seen a change in my Arthurian archetype. Last year I was completely bound up in quests for Merlin, culminating with his spirit merging with my own at Dinas Emrys.

This year I have been inextricably woven into the fabric of Arthur’s life – first at Tintagel, then at places such as Arthur’s Cave at Symond’s Yat, then Arthur’s Grave in Pembrokeshire. The sites have been never-ending, each linked to King Arthur and me seemingly destined to visit when my tasks and destinations have been dowsed and plotted on maps. Such has been the course of this year. How intriguing then that when I researched Oswestry Hill Fort I find that it too is strongly linked with the Arthurian myth. More weft for the rich tapestry.

Oswestry: The Welsh name means City of Gogyrfan. According to legend, Gogyrfan was father to Queen Guinevere and therefore father in law to King Arthur. This fort was said to be Guinevere’s birthplace. (source: Oswestry Town Talk)

Ariel view of Oswestry Hillfort

Now I will tell you all about my first usage of the Fitzalan Stone and whether it truly does have magickal properties.

Read the rest of this entry »

Although we set off in the early afternoon Kal and I intended to pack as much as we possibly could into our day out in Shropshire. Our intention was to visit one of the few remaining megalithic circles in the county – Kerry Hill, close to the small village of Kerry (or ‘Ceri’, in Welsh). The site is also called Kerry Pole, which is good to know because that is the name of the hill on which it lies.

A signpost for Ceri Wood on Kerry Pole hill

Sadly, most of Shropshire’s megalithic history has been lost to the farmers of many centuries. When you drive through the rolling hills and lush pasture land you can perhaps understand why, yet many of the stone circles now listed as destroyed were in existence within the last hundred years, and we have hardly been on the brink of starvation as a nation at any time during those hundred year. Such a shame we have destroyed our heritage for the sake of a few measly ploughable acres. It can only be greed, ignorance or dis-respect that drove such destruction, none of which is an estimable human quality.

Back to the action. We followed the satellite navigation that brought us to the ‘back’ of the site – in other words we would approach the circle from the top of the hill instead of climbing up to reach it. Having visited before we knew approximately where the circle could be found, which is just as well because there are no signs to guide you, no indicators of any sort, and the stones that constitute the circle are very small making it difficult to spot. As with our first visit we were almost on top of the circle before we spotted it, hidden amid a herd of Herefordshire cattle. From the look on Kal’s face I could tell he was looking at the stocky black cattle and thinking “Bullocks!“.

Being watched at Kerry Hill stone circle

When we had dispersed the cattle we settled into the circle. Kal dowsed as to who was due to do any work here and found that it was for me, this trip. Before I would launch into my work I did some videos of my dowsing the unusual arcing neutral energies that flow from each of the stones into the central stone. The few other circles that remain in Shropshire have similar central stones, however this is the only one that we have found has these arcing energies into the centre.

Next I would prepare myself for interacting with the circle and seeing whether I could learn anything from it.

Read the rest of this entry »

Section 6 : Esoteric learning

Originally I called this section ‘Miscellaneous’ but on reading back through it again I thought that moniker did it a dis-service, because the information in here is really more about various pieces of esoteric learning that I have come across in the last year. Each piece is a piece of a larger puzzle. Each piece offers a tiny glimpse of this larger picture that I recognise now as Nature.

Many of the topics I had dismissed long ago when I had first looked at them in my youth. Coming back to them in later years, with more knowledge, more access to knowledge, and greater resources available to me, I have found that most of the topics have some element of value to me. I am always aware, however, that each subject in itself could consume a person and drive them to distraction, so I take their practical essence, learn some basic techniques or practice, then leave the wilder and wider areas to those who wish to become absorbed by them. To me they are all pieces of a larger puzzle.

6-1. Crop circles: Definitely something odd about them. Created using earth energies, and designed by some other unknown motivational force which seems to be external to the Earth (‘extra-terrestrial’ being in the sense of some intelligence that is not born of this planet, whatever that may be). I participated in some way in the triggering of the creation of a crop circle’s formation somehow when I passed by the place where one would shortly come to be produced. The site was in between two established earth energy sites on a ley line that I had visited that same day. Crop circles patterns are made to trigger a revelation in human consciousness, Whether this be on an individual or a more global basis is as yet unknown.

Knighton Hill crop circle

6-2. Tarot cards: I tried the tarot cards again properly this year, and under the guidance of Kal, who had learned them thoroughly. What I was surprised to learn was that they are a useful means of obtaining more information about the qualities and intentions of the sentient energies that we encounter. They are not, as we originally thought, the product of a deranged imagination. As one might expect they also are capable of reflecting one’s own psychology very well too, and have been a valuable tool for self-analysis. However, I use them sparingly, and am quite appalled sometimes by their accuracy. I started using a Celtic Cross formation, but went on to devise my own layouts for the cards, as befitted the situation I was asking about. I now exclusively use the Druidcraft Tarot from Stephanie & Philip Carr-Gomm, only because the symbols make sense to me.

Druidcraft Tarot

6-3. Salute of the Sun: Both Kal and I have observed separately and together a phenomenon that we call “The Salute of the Sun”. This refers to the sun coming out when we do something that progresses us along our spiritual path. For example, we may be visiting a stone circle on a cloudy dull day, but the moment we make our connection with Nature during meditation, and then ask a question whose answer indicates a new direction or an answer that will help us know more about a subject, then we have noticed that the Sun comes out from impossible angles to shine upon us. This has happened so often now that we can no longer simply call it coincidence. As we have trained ourselves to recognise significant signs, we feel this is the most significant, as it is never “looked for”, but always makes us feel reassured, and we smile to ourselves.

6-4. Intuition: Following intuition has guided us very well this year. There is little point in trying to intellectualise this. Something that started out as something to try has become something of a waymarker on our spiritual path. If we follow intuition it guides us well. If we ignore it then we have to work much harder to achieve things. If we follow it, new opportunities appear – if we ignore it they close off. Simple as that.

6-5. Sacred Geometry: Gardens and building designed by noted Freemasons contain elements of sacred number and geometry that enhance the energetic potential of their sites. They encode these principles and retain the ability to attract people, power, good fortune and wealth. This is the art of Feng Shui in action. This has informed us that there was a knowledge of the power of place and energy in the Western Mystery Tradition as well as the Eastern, and that it was highly active until quite recently, in the 20th Century, when these principles were seemingly ignored and “sick” buildings began to be built.

6-6. The Shining Ones: Whoever the Shining Ones were their principles of geometry and sacred site building are inherent in the design of ancient sites. When we dowse about the influence of this little-known group of humans upon the design of ancient sites it always comes back that their principles were encoded in the designs, but that they were not personally or directly involved in the building of most of the ‘provincial’ sites. We still have to check whether they were involved in the building of the major sites, such as Stonehenge. Still a mystery!

Bringers of Esoteric Knowledge

6-7. Healing With Water: Hydrotherapy has less to do with the mineral qualities of water, than with the energy generated from its source, the amount of light it is subjected to, and its movement. This concurs with my research of Viktor Schauberger’s work, as he notes that the movement of the water is paramount in determining its qualities. The amount of radiant energy that the water consumes seems also to be highly relevant – the sunlight and moonlight appears to affect the healing qualities of water greatly.

6-8. Orbs:  I never gave Orbs a second thought until I photographed a few accidentally. They keep being photographed on power centres in sacred sites. We don’t know what relevance they have right now, but we will have to do some more research into this topic. They cannot simply be dismissed as specks of dust, or the reflections of light on the camera lens. I took two identical pictures a second apart (guided by intuition) of the chamber inside West Kennett Long Barrow in identical conditions. One has no Orb, the other shows one quite clearly! This, I cannot explain.

Note the orb positioned above the feather at the back

6-9. Animal interest: Rather annoyingly cows are over-actively interested in dowsing, for some reason. This has disrupted our dowsing trips on a few occasions because if you let them they’ll come right over and actively interfere with the dowsing process, blocking your path, chasing you away, nudging your arms. It’s quite strange! What DO they think they’re doing?

6-10. Sound and colour frequency: At Long Meg stone circle we proved to ourselves that it is possible to correlate sound frequencies with the chakra rainbow spectrum of frequencies, thus demonstrating to us a correspondence between light and sound frequencies. Interesting, but has led us nowhere else yet.

6-11, Crystals: As well as being able to transform energy from the earth into a subtle energetic form (possibly via the action of water), they also have the power to concentrate that energy and store it. This makes crystals almost indispensable when working with subtle earth and radiant energies. I intend to study this further to try to describe this quality of crystals in a much more scientific way, but for now I merely want to point these qualities out, as this is the truly important information.

Gwas.

Cumbria – September 27th, 2009

This is the final part (although it may be a long one) of our Cumbrian day out in late September of this year. Kal and I had spent the morning visiting the famous sites of Castlerigg and Long Meg, and then had retired to Penrith to reflect on the morning’s work. The afternoon promised much more to come – the intriguing sounding Mayburgh Henge, King Arthur’s Round Table right next door, and some smaller cairn circles that were situated close to the M6 motorway. Finally we would complete the day’s work at Gamelands stone circle nestled in the bosom of Knott Hill.

Mayburgh

Not far from where we dined we discovered Mayburgh Henge, situated uncomfortably close to the very busy northern arterial motorway that links the borders of Scotland with the northern reaches of England – in itself an uneasy relationship historically. Mayburgh Henge is well signposted, sitting at the southern end of Penrith town. No-one else was visiting that day so we had the site to ourselves. From the old sketch shown below you can see the arrangement and scale of the site in relation to the so-called Round Table of Arthur, a site whose name is shared amongst many other ancient earthworks and sacred sites.

Thomas Pennant's diagram (1769)

We climbed the relatively tall earthenwork surround passing between the evenly spaced trees that line it. The dowsing rods showed us our relative entry points. I asked to enter by the original entrance and was taken to a gap closest to the motorway on the western side. From there a path snaked into the centre, and I made my way in as Kal followed his own entry point – one that was most energetically suitable to him. The arena housed a sturdy standing stone, a remaining one of perhaps four that had stood there at one time.

I dowsed for the aura of this stone and found one some 20 feet away from the stone. My next quest was to find the most suitable power centre for me – typically a female energy centre. I found one, lip-shaped and of a slightly different grass to the surrounding greenery. The power centre was at the very edge of the stone’s nemeton field (or aura). The lip shape didn’t connect with me until I heard Kal exclaim and point to a white shape in the grass near to the the stone. I went to inevstigate….

It was a pair of white knickers! Obviously some courting had been going on here during the quieter hours and these undergarments had been frivolously abandoned in the frenzy! There was clearly something quite attractive in the energies of this space still!

We circled the central stone looking for something that we couldn’t vocalise. As I stood exactly opposite the entrance something emerged from the stone in the afternoon light – a face in the stone, like at so many other sites.  This looked like the face of a heavily bearded man, or perhaps a lion with a majestic mane. Photographs never do the phenomenon the justice that one’s own eyes do, but I hope that if you unfocus your perception a little you might catch the essence of what we saw in the stone. At least he appeared to be smiling!

Kal asked if there was anything “energetically interesting” (which has come to mean something that we haven’t discovered before, or which would help us on our journey through dowsing) and the answer came back a flat “No”. I did the same and got the same response. Perhaps our time would be better spent elsewhere, we concluded. The site seemed….changed. Perhaps we were there are the wrong time, or the site was too damaged. Whatever the reason I began to look for the exit, which I found to be a gap in the northern edge of the earthwork ridge.

King Arthur’s Round Table

On the way to Mayburgh we had passed a sign for Arthur’s Table, so on the way back out we stopped briefly so that I could photograph it. We didn’t bother with any dowsing here as there were several cairn circles and more that we wanted to get to. There didn’t seem to be much to the site. I trusted Kal’s intuition – he normally gets attracted to interesting sites, and that’s why he’s so useful on these expeditions, although we are both sometimes surprised by places that initially seem to be nothing at first glance, but which turn up unusual features. I leave you with some pics and info to decide for yourself.

I tend to agree with the views of authors like Thomas Green, who wrote the book “Concepts of Arthur“, and who believes that Arthur was a mythical archetype who had subsequently been subjugated and sublimated into historical record, force-fitted if you like, for the aspirational purposes of whomsoever needed him influence during their own reign as King of Britain. I tend to agree that Arthur fits the archetypal sun hero mythology with an extra dimension of being seen as one with the land.

Oddendale and Seal Howe

The clouds began to thicken and the wind picked up markedly as we arrived at Oddendale by a road that can barely be described as such. It didn’t take us long, tramping over the bleak limestone laden moorland, to decide that the rag-tag arrangement of rocks that barely resembled any form of structure might be the remnant of a cairn circle as noted by Burl, but frankly we didn’t care. Follow the link in the previous sentence for a better view, because it appears more exciting on that page. For us, we didn’t “get” anything about it or from it. The wind whipped us, and rain threatened, and we decided that we should head back to the car in search of more rewarding features.

In retrospect I think we missed the point with this circle, but at the time we weren’t keen on it. We laughed at the idea of dowsing what was left and headed back to the car down the track that was marked as the Coast To Coast trail. As we go to the point where the trees met the path our eyes were drawn to a small ensemble of rocks, almost simultaneously. Here was a ring of stones, right next to the path, but not marked on the OS map. How curious? Who was it not on there, because clearly the stones were a circle, and equally clearly they were obviously not a new construction?

Suddenly this assumed a huge importance as it was found to be quite energetic. Our dowsing motivation returned with a vengeance and we were suddenly highly engaged in this tiny circle of small stones in a way that the larger circle a few minutes ago had not managed to do. We soon found that, although highly energetic, the circle was in need of “repair”. As usual, Kal dowsed for which of us should get engaged int he task, also as usual hoping that it wasn’t him. It was him! I laughed – served him right for trying to be lazy! “The rods had spoken!”

I watched in amusement as Kal assembled some increasingly large rocks and placed them appropriately at points around the circle, wherever the dowsing rods informed him to place them. Once he tried to pick up a tiny rock that was next to a large boulder and he gave me a sideways glance. Oh no! I dowsed for which rock would be most suitable to the task and confirmed it was the larger rock, which again amused me no end.

Kal introduced the healing energies of a nearby tree into the circle to kick-start the healing process, and then confirmed that the process was complete, as the energies were already beginning to change in response to the new rocks, the intent that Kal had invested, and the living energies of the tree. We rather punningly named the ring cairn “Kalmott ring cairn“- a combination of our given names – and on our return I posted it to the Megalithic Portal. To our astonishment, the entry was validated and published.

As we left the site we spotted three stones in alignment. How had we missed this on the way in? How had we missed the cairn circle? It was all very strange. Here were three stones that I dowsed as entrance stones. They were in alignment with the Oddendale circle and the cairns on the hilltop in the distance. It looked to us like this whole area had at one time been full of important megalithic structures. It certainly was for us!

Gamelands

Gamelands circle was quite easy to get to as well. Seems as though many of the circles in Cumbria are quite accessible, or perhaps that’s just how it happened for us on this visit. I found an entrance point on the eastern side, shown in the picture below. Directly behind us to the east was Knott Scarr, a rather dramatic small hill that also seemed to feature a pair of cairns atop it, just like Oddendale. Taking this concept further I dowsed as to whether there was any energy coming down from the hill, like at Monzie Circle in Perthshire. Indeed there was, and it flowed straight into the entrance of the circle. Interesting, I thought. A feed.

Our respective power centres were quite close to each other. Mine was at a recumbent smooth rounded female stone topped with lovely fresh sheep droppings. Nice! Kal’s was a less than obvious male stone without the usual point. Most unlike Kal! He’s always got a point to make!

Whilst I dowsed away quite happily, tracing flows around the circle and finding energy paths, Kal was busying himself making friends with the herd of cows on the other side of the fence. Bovine relations took a curious turn when Kal tried to walk away and some of the cows began to follow his movements, heading towards the open gate that linked the stone circle field to the cow’s pasture land. Ut-oh! Cows are too curious about dowsing for my liking. I had had a recent experience at St.Elmo’s Summer House in North Wales where I had to abandon my dowsing when the cows got quite upset at me walking around the ring, and finally they chased me away. Here was Kal positively inviting the cows to come and join the dowsing work. I foresaw imminent bovine botheration coming out way.

I found a strong link between two female stones on either side of circle. The farther one was heavily pitted with cup-marks or weathering, or heavily weathered cup-marks – it wasn’t possible to tell which with this limestone rock. Either way, that was the only female connection, as the rest of the site was very male-dominated, possibly a result of the strong energy flow off the hill.

Shortly after finding this out the cows got too inquisitive and began to crowd us – abandon ship! It was getting late and we had several hours of traffic jams to get through yet, although we didn’t know that yet.

The day was done. We had seen some amazing circles, saw the most beautiful landscapes, a stunning sunset, had done some worthwhile dowsing, had meditated purposefully at several sites, and had a good laugh as we went around too. And all this was mere scouting for the inevitable further visits we will do with some more intensive dowsing, mapping and meditating in the coming months. Cumbria is a treasure trove of great sites!

Here are some links to external sites with more information:-

• Gamelands: http://www.visitcumbria.com/pen/gamelands.htm
• Mayburgh Henge and King Arthur’s Round Table:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mayburgh_Henge

Gwas.

I have tried to visit The Golden Grove before, but couldn’t find it on that occasion. This time I had better map, not just a printout from MultiMap. This reference may help you locate the site if you wish to find it yourself, because it’s not signposted in any way – SJ085817. Also, here is a link to a description and location details on The Modern Antiquarian: http://www.themodernantiquarian.com/site/6123/st_elmos_summer_house.html

The first time that Kal and I tried to find The Golden Grove we were coming from the Dyserth side, but failed – we couldn’t find anything that day and were already tired from having spent the day walking around Dyserth, When I visited on my own this time I came by the village of Gwaenysgor, from the A55 side, and had the time and energy to persevere in locating it, right at the top of a path marked as the ‘Clwydian Way‘ in a field on the left as you begin to see Prestatyn and the ‘fun-filled’ holiday coastline of North Wales.

St Elmohas an association with both sailors (this site overlooks the North Wales coastline) and also with the electrical weather phenomenon (as it is ‘scientifically’ termed) that produces glowing light around ship’s masts and suchlike. As stated in the scientific explanation int he link below, St Elmo’s Fire is in fact plasma. Although if you try to get someone in the scientific community to define what plasma is, you’ll have an interesting discussion! Just remember – it’s a fact.  That’s all you need to know. Because facts are the only form of information worth knowing, right? Here is a link to more information about this if you have never read anything about St.Elmo’s Fire – http://wapedia.mobi/en/St._Elmo’s_fire. Note: it’s also an easy-listening pop song by John Farr that was the title track to a 1980s American film. Neither the film nor the song are as interesting as the ‘plasma’; phenomenon, nor hopefully, as long-lasting in the collective memory.

The Eagle As Signpost

On my way up the hill I took a diversion towards where I felt the Golden Grove should be situated. I could feel it’s presence as I got to a gate at the edge of a field that I suspected was next to the grove. As I stood at the gate contemplating whether to enter the field full of sheep, but seeing the farm buildings so close by, a full-sized eagle emerged from somewhere and began to circle around my head, only tens of feet above me! Rather hopefully I asked it to show me The Golden Grove’s location, and to my surprise (why does it still surprise me?) it then changed course to circle in a figure-of-eight over the very place that I had been observing – the lower end of the woods that were shrouded in mist just on the opposite side of the field. I took this as confirmation of my intuitive response – the Golden Grove was in there somewhere, but quite close to the farm buildings, I felt. This made me nervous – would I dare to approach it from this open and gated direction? Not yet. I headed off back up the hill I had been climbing in search of St.Elmo’s Summer House. At least that had a marked path and I wouldn’t be trespassing.

Hill to climb before reaching St.Elmo's Summer House

Upon reaching the crest of the hill I veered left. I was following a combination of bad map-reading skills and occasional dowsing rod confirmations. As I neared where I felt the site was the field was full of young bulls intent on making a nuisance of themselves, I could tell. I tried to ignore them as marched through them up another small hill.

I located the ancient site at the peak of the field. My dowsing rods had indicated that this was the direction to go in when I checked progress with them (I try not to follow them blindly these days, but rather to use them as confirmation of my intuition – I guess I’m working my way towards trying to do without them!). The rods had again proven to be correct. I would have spent quite a bit longer trying to find the site without their gentle confirmations of direction and distance. Who needs GPS? Ha ha. I do! And considering I have a very good one I really should have used that, but I forgot to bring it with me that day.

St.Elmo’s Summer House

St.Elmo’s Summer House is only discernible by a thirty-or-so feet wide ring depression at the top of the hill. As I reached it I noticed that the young bulls were beginning to assemble and come towards me! I continued to try to ignore them, and began to take some energy readings with my dowsing rods.

The remains of whatever Summer House had been built there was signified by two embedded square concrete slabs, the remainder of some form of structure I suppose. Around these slabs were randomly strewn bricks and rocks. As with the legends of many such structures that man tried to build upon a magical place the structure has had to be taken down. Seems like its presence was not tolerated or had been abandoned for some unknown reason.

There is a history of man-made structures that are built upon supposedly magical or sacred ground having had their construction disrupted, or having to be taken down and rebuilt elsewhere. Here are a few links to articles recounting stories of structures (usually Christian churches) that have had their construction disrupted by, well of course, The Devil if you’re Christian! Older stories say The Faeries did it.

• St Mary’s Church, Ambrosden : http://www.mysteriousbritain.co.uk/england/oxfordshire/legends/st-marys-church-ambrosden.html
• Waldron and Alfriston Churches in Sussex: http://www2.prestel.co.uk/aspen/sussex/devil.html

There are so, so many such tales. The underlying theme seems to be either related to the power of the earth energies at those sites, or that the sites have a reputation for being sacred to pagans, or believed to be the site of a crossing point between this world and The Otherworld of faeries and earth or elemental spirits. It was interesting to actually be stood on such a site, and I can tell you from first-hand experience that there was something about the energy field at this site. It was palpable! That’s all I can say at the moment. I need to visit it again at a crossing point of the year such as a cross-quarter day, at sunset, or in full moonlight- preferably at a combination of those times. Then I feel I may understand more about the forces there.

Angry Young Bulls

By now the young bulls had decided that my dowsing was not appropriate, and began to assemble, then follow me around the ring as I dowsed. The more I dowsed the closer they got until I could feel their breath on my elbow! They eventually forced me to abandon my quest and beat a hasty retreat for the nearest gate as they started to get a strange look in their eyes and become increasingly …well, angered by my presence is the only way to put it. I knew that they didn’t want me there once they saw/felt what I was doing.

The Golden Grove

I beat a hasty retreat to the other side of a nearby gate followed rapidly by a stampeding herd of bulls. I stood the other side of the gate, out of breath and somewhat annoyed at having been ousted before I had managed to absorb the atmosphere of the place, and to finish dowsing for whatever energies were there (and there were some, but they went completely out of my head as I dashed for the gate). I decided to head for the woods to have some lunch and recover from the heat.

A I entered the woods I realised that I must be somewhere near Golden Grove. I tried to orientate myself as I ate, then wandered down the hill in the shade of the woodland trees. Suddenly I was on a defined path, edged by stone. Why was this here, in this innocuous wood? As the trees became bigger and more beautiful I realised that I had found a way to The Golden Grove! The defined path showed me that at some time or other this had been a well-trodden path, as someone had gone ot the trouble to make it.

Then, at a junction I stopped. I knew that I had arrived by the girth and height of a ring of trees that sat in a triangular space between three paths.

Standing in what could only be The Grove I could feel the power and presence of these old trees, and looking at them I could see faces and features in their ancient bark patterns.

There was something very anthropomorphic about the way the bark was smooth, and had contours that resembled the marbling of flesh. I thought I could make out faces and features on each and every tree in that small circle. It made me feel that I was in the presence of some very special trees that had a life force that was not only apparent, but insistent on making me aware of their presence and dominion over this area. It was a feeling whose source was intangible but collectively those trees made that feeling very real and clear. It got the the point where I began talking to them, and addressing them ‘face to face’ when doing so!

I wished I could have stayed longer, but the dogs on the very nearby farm were sensing a different presence – me – and were beginning to react as they usually do. I thought about making myself invisible to them, as I had done once before when visiting Llandrillo circle late at night. I didn’t feel as though I had the motivation to maintain such a ‘cloak’ and relax into the presence of the trees in the grove at the same time – the two things felt incompatible.

I decided it was best to leave this time.I couldn’t resist masking my presence to the dogs as I left and very soon I heard the barks subside as I slowly walked away back down the hill to where I had parked. That’s a useful trick to learn, by the way. I learned it from reading Emma Restall-Orr’s books and find it very useful if I am visiting sites close to habitation. I may have left this time, but I am determined to re-visit the site to spend some contemplative time there one day soon.

Gwas.

Guided by eagles – bullied by cows and dogs.