The Hedge Druid

Posts Tagged ‘cumbria’

Well, I see that Kal got his summary out first. Still, “if you can’t beat them…”

Generally, what type of year it has been? Dis-jointed, slower than last year’s breakneck speed, measured, with lots of deep synchronicities. When I come to review the year I realise that I still made lots of progress on the various tasks that I was lead to perform in order to progress along my path of Druidry.

Below are the main topics that I have picked out from this year’s blog posts. I have tried to keep the explanations to a minimum, so have included links back to the original postings if you want the detail for each of the topics. What I thought was a quiet year has actually turned out to be incredibly packed and busy. The topics are in no order whatsoever, which kind of fits with the way that the year’s learning has come about – seemingly haphazard, but all threading into and through itself like some kind of cat’s cradle whose overall pattern will only be known when the final moves have played out.

26 topics I have been involved in this year:-

a) Healing – Most of the year has been spent developing healing skills, whether that was using remote energies, balancing the chakras, healing with the hands, or with crystals. I have realised that I am more attuned to healing places than people currently, but that is changing. The healing energies can be attuned to different colours for particular effects. To work with these energies I need to understand which “colour” is missing from a site and then call upon the energies of the local living entities to gather together to create this missing colour and thus heal the site. [related posts: My Five Healing Rays, Healing Rays Explained]

Also, in conjunction with my friend Mike, we created a new healing centre at The Bridestones in Cheshire. [related posts: A New Healing Centre]

Chakra colours, energy frequencies and healing may be linked

b) Re-discovering the bard - Discovered great new music (and that I like the new forms of folk music) at The Green Man Festival, and saw Roy Harper in concert in London. This year music has really connected with my heart and stirred great emotions. I have written more poetry this year than in other years too. [related posts: Green Man Festival, Roy Harper]

c) Astrological links to Venus, Orion’s Belt and Sirius affirmed at almost every site. Also Scorpius, astrological links to Arthur and the Great Bear constellation. The constellations of Serpens, Corvus and Perseus have been especially meaningful to me this year, guiding me along a very meaningful path from one end of 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. to another. [related posts: Serpent at Castlerigg, Arthurian Archetypes of Corvus, The Berth and Death of Scorpius, The Three Stars of Fertility, Absorbing Orion at Lud's Church]

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I was at the Mysterious Earth Conference this year. The conference was held at the Village Hall in the village of Grimsargh near Preston in Lancashire, England. Kal had come up so that we could go to this event together, which was very nice of him to make the effort. There were four speakers lined up, but we only found three of them to be relevant to our studies and research, so I will concentrate on the positives and tell you about these three.

This year's Mysterious Earth lectures

The three speakers of interest to me were:-

• Kevin Rowan-Drewitt – Neolithic Observatories
• Pete Knight – West Kennet Long Barrow: Ancestors, Landscape and the Cosmos
• Gary Biltcliffe – The Belinus Line & The Spine of Albion

Here is a run-down of their primary themes and some notes that I took about each of their lectures.

Neolithic observatories by Kevin Rowan-Drewitt

Kevin Rowan-Drewitt

Kevin’s talk was informative and a feast of facts. Having read many books on the subject of Alexander Thom, his Megalithic Yard, and of his convincing argument that most if not all stone circles are designed as neolithic calendars to track the movements of the sun and moon, I didn’t find too many points that were new to me. However, Kevin’s lecture was clearly delivered, well structured and well-argued, even if he was simply relating other people’s theories. For those who may have been new to the concept of neolithic astrological observatories it would have been truly enlightening.

Some notes that I made that were particularly significant for me were:-

• Bryn Celli Ddu on Anglesey has in-built alignments for tracking Venus and the Summer Solstice. You may remember that I was called there in 2009 to observe Venus, even though at the time I had no idea what I was seeing.
• Mayburgh Henge in Cumbria is aligned to the eastern sunrise
• The book ‘Uriel’s Machine‘ by Christopher Knight & Robert Lomas contains the practical workings out of the theories of ancient astrological circle structure, and they based much of their work on the ‘Book Of Enoch‘, particularly the section ‘The Book of Courses of the Heavenly Luminaries’
• In the Book of Enoch the circle-makers are mentioned as The Watchers. Rowan-Dewitt interprets this as being the Beaker People.

Personally, I feel this Bronze Age Beaker culture only created some of the last generation of megalithic structures, not the first ones, even if their structures were the most sophisticated, impressive and enduring. The astrological know-how was already in existence and evidenced by timber and rudimentary stone circles before the arrival of the so-called Beaker culture, so this doesn’t hang together for me.

• Also in that ancient text, The Nephilim are mentioned as being from the Orion Constellation.
• Newgrange, in the Boyne Valley in Ireland is aligned with the Winter Solstice sunrise but also with Venus too, on an eight-year cycle.
• The line of ‘lozenge’ shapes or crosses on the lintel at Newgrange may denote the Venus cycle, as there are eight such symbols in a row.
• Thornborough Henge in Yorkshire is aligned to Orion.
• The Sun has a 32-year cycle until it rises at exactly the same spot on the horizon. This fact is used by Rowan-Dewitt to support the idea that astrological observances and star lore must have been passed down through the generations or preserved in some fashion because neolithic people had a relatively short life span.
• Most measurements of megalithic structures are in 0.5 Megalithic Yards, or 16.32 inches. The Megalithic Yard of 2.72 feet was used for convenience by Alexander Thom.

West Kennet Long Barrow by Peter Knight

Peter Knight

Peter Knight is a well-practised and engaging speaker. His presentation was slick, precise and moved you from one concept to another easily and with a sense of passion. I am a fan of the West Kennet Long Barrow myself and have had many visits to the site mostly unaccompanied and without anyone else around, so I have been able to practise many of the things that Peter talked about in the shamanic parts of his talk. However, in the first part he went through the various alignments with the surrounding megalithic sites such as Avebury, Silbury Hill, East Kennet, and many of the lesser-known circles, tumuli and hills that form the rich Wiltshire megalithic landscape.

Some notes that I made on this talk were:-

• There are sun and moon rising or setting sight alignments from West Kennet to many of the surrounding features.
• Some of the lesser-known sites include Belas Knap chamber, Silbaby (or Woden Mound), Morgan’s Hill and Harestone stone circle.
• The long barrow itself is constructed with layers of large rubble, then fine rubble, turf, then a sarsen stone core. The layering is reminiscent of Wilhelm Reich’s Orgone Accumulator principle.
• There is an acoustic “hot spot” close to the stone called “The Skull Stone” which is considered to be a portal to the Underworld.
• Long barrows and chambers in the area are mainly aligned to the South-East (the Midwinter Solstice).
• East Kennet is aligned to the Orion constellation, West Kennet to the Gemini constellation.
• A cave was usually associated with a process of initiation or transformation.

PETER’S WEB SITE: Stoneseeker

The Spine of Albion by Gary Biltcliffe

I have been eagerly awaiting Gary’s book about this subject for over a year now. Hopefully it is due to be published soon. Gary has spent a lot of time, effort and money on travelling up and down the country in pursuit of a 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. that he is calling the Belinus Line, after the ancient Celtic god Baal or Bel. The name thereafter got associated with a king of England called King Belinus, who was supposedly one of the great road-building kings, although many believe that the lack of historical evidence suggests he may be a mythical figure rather than an actual king. Certainly, it is not uncommon for people in power to associate themselves with great engineering from lost generations, for example the Romans simply paved many of the existing spirit roads that were created as embankments by the druid culture and those before them too. We all now know these roads as ‘Roman Roads’ which is testament to the power of a written historical record, rather than to the feats of engineering.

For the talk in Preston Gary concentrated on those sites which were more local to us, rather than describe all the sites along the line. Given that it had taken him 20 years to follow them, he was unlikely to get through them all in an hour!

• Seven Barrows Down is the crossing point for the Belinus Line with the Michael/Mary Line.
• The village of Dunsop Bridge is the geographical centre of the Belinus Line
• North/South ley lines are associated with physical and East/West lines with the spiritual, thus the Belinus Line is mainly a physical line with very few spiritual centres on it.
• The line goes through various centres including Lichfield, Birmingham, Manchester and Carlisle.
• 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. stories hint at the location of sacred sites such as caves, wells and mounds.
• The Belinus Line has twelve bands of energy – balanced with 6 male and 6 female.
• Guy Raglan Philips was the first to identify the line.
• The female lines are violet in colour and the male lines are gold/yellow
• The line goes through The Bridestones – formerly one of England’s largest long barrows.
• Marton church gives a unique view of the sunrise over The Cloud in Cheshire
• Shap has an avenue of stones similar to Avebury
• The Kemp Howe stone circle is on the line
• Other sites on the line are Merlindale, Knowlmere, Alderley Edge, Caverswall, The Rollright Stones, and Uffington 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. Hill and White Horse
• In Carlisle Catherdral is a stone carving of kissing dragons
• Arthuret Church in Cumbria holds a familiar title of King Arthur’s burial place, and has a well called St.Michael’s running through it.

GARY’S WEB SITE: The Belinus Line

I hope those comments make some sense to you! They are slightly out of context, but they may be more relevant if you get to see them speak for yourselves.

Gwas.

Kirksanton stone circles - bird's eye view

We dowsed that these stones in this highly-disrupted set of circles no longer had any energetic qualities to them, and were disappointed. We both noticed that there were more stones in the distance, some few hundred yards further on from the outer rim of this circle. I dowsed to see if they had energy in them and found that they did. Kal had already felt the pull of these stones and was already jogging over to them as I dowsed this answer.

The Second Circle

As I got to the second circle I could already see that this megalithic sites was ALSO a double circle. This was highly unusual – two stone circles side by side with each other was strange enough (The Hurlers in Cornwall is three side-by-side) but the idea that they were also both double circles was right out there on the ‘unusuality’ scale! I began to take an interest in the central stones of this second circle, and from a close examination in good light I could see that there were some interesting cup-marks.

The cup-marks int he stone suddenly hit me like a bolt of inspiration. Three circular marks at an angle and in a row, and then a fourth circular mark further down the line and off to the left….seemed very familiar to me. I knew this 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. to be one of the alignments I study most – Orion’s Belt pointing to Sirius! Unmistakeably, that was what I was seeing. So, did this site have a particular link to either Orion or Sirius? I dowsed that it linked to Orion’s Belt, and that the first circle we had visited was the circle that was linked to Sirius. Interesting to me as I had once found that I energise my crystals best by orienting a formation towards Sirius, so it had particular significance for me.

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St Catherine’s Well – Boot – [Portal] [Map]

In the fourth part of our Spring Equinox journey you find the intrepid adventurers heading for the Eskdale Valley – a ravine of insurmountable beauty that forms the vista for the Hard Knott Roman hillfort at its eastern end. In the basin of the valley is the village of Boot. Perhaps I should have said “At the foot of the valley…”? We parked at Dalegarth railway station and walked to the junction where the Brook House Inn marks the starting point for many of the walks in the area. We were heading southwards towards the River Esk in search of St.Catherine’s Well – a recently re-discovered and restored well that was somewhere on the hillside nearby.

St Catherine’s Well

Taking a right turn at Brook House Inn we walked along the track past some houses until we reached a small church, To my eyes it had the distinct look of a Templar church design – a flat design with protrusions at either end but which were staggered rather than directly opposite each other.

St Catherine's Church, Boot - a Templar design?

From the church the path then follows the River Esk, and soon we were walking upwards onto the slopes of the hills that border the river. We stuck to the left-hand side and when we came to a fork in the path we chose the left-hand path. This led us to a gap in a wall where we found a beautiful path of moss-covered stones leading up the hillside. We were sorely tempted to follow it, but the spot on the map indicated that the site might be further along so we continued for a short while, but then Kal twisted his knee in a moment of over-exuberance. We stopped and re-assessed. Was this a sign not to continue on this lower path? We turned and walked back to the mossy path and picked our way through the rocks up the hill until it opened out into a thrashed bracken heathland, spotted with old gorse bushes. Now we felt we were close to the well. Moments later we felt we had found it.

A beautiful mossy carpeted entrance

There were two possible sites. One was ringed by a stone construction but didn’t appear to have much water in it, and the other was more watery, but had fewer stones around it. As they were next to each other we got the dowsing rods out. Which one was the correct well? They both were! They were connected and the spirit of whatever we might determine “Catherine” to be was at both of them. We settled down in the afternoon sun to rest a while and breathe in the Cumbrian ambience. It was delightful – Spring was making itself felt and I for one was letting it!

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Blakeley Raise stone circle - [Megalithic] [Map] [Megalithic Walks]

This is the third part of our Spring Equinox posts for 2011. In this post I recount the tale of how we re-aligned the stone circle at Blakeley Raise. In keeping with our day so far we were having navigation problems – Kal had his iPhone 4, I had mu 3GS version, and neither of them were helping us much! I realised how reliant I had become on technology in that I hadn’t printed a general OS map of the area, just of the detail within a mile of the site, but first we had to find the site!

We drove up what we guessed might be the right road south from Ennerdale Bridge, and soon it became a strip of thin tarmac in the middle of nowhere. I had a funny feeling we had missed it so we stopped. Kal’s phone reckoned it was half a mile backt he way we had come, and my cdetailed map agreed – providing we were actually in the right road in the first place! We parked at the bottom of the slope that we imagined it might be on and walked over the rise, or should I say, “The Raise”, for as we crested the hill there was the circle – only twenty feet from the road! We had driven right past it without noticing! D’oh!

We stopped to admire the view – the circle was positioned in a prime location with wide views iof the north and west – going down to the coast. It was also framed beautifully by the eastern hills, and in the glorious sunshine of the day the circle provided us with some excellent photographs.

For some reason we both hung back a moment when we saw the circle. It looked alright, but something wasn’t quite…right about it. We stood a moment longer, not saying anything, then broke the silence and wandered up to the circle. We hadn’t been able to say what it was that was wrong and so our reason had decided to override our intuition and move our bodies onwards. Things to do – places to go!

One of the first things that Kal did here was to check the veracity, the authenticity of the stones. He found that most were re-positioned. Only four of the eleven remaining stones were actually in the correct position (those over on the right-hand side of the photograph above – the eastern side). Many of the stones had been “helpfully” concreted into position! Good grief! Thousands of years ago we were clever enough to be able to make these stones stand firmly for millennia, but today we have to concrete them in? Shockingly poor demonstration of how far (backwards) we have come.

This time there was work for Kal to do (why is he always so begrudging about this – it’s exciting?). He quickly determined that he needed to do some work to re-align the stone circle back to its original star 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. by modifying the way that the energies were concentrated within the circle. He did this by moving a nearby sandstone block and placing it slightly off-centre on a power centreA place where a person of a particular alignmentAlignment relates to the concept that humans have their own energy fields that are oriented or formed in a specific way such that the person is either suited better to one energy source of another. Some people have their energy fields empowered by the direct subtle energy force of The Sun, whilst others are empowered by the indirect subtle energy of The Moon. Due to the historical associations and symbolisation of The Sun with masculinity and The Moon with femininity we designate these alignments as either being ‘male’ or ‘female’ alignments accordingly. We interchangeable refer to people as being ‘sun-aligned’ or ‘male-aligned’ and similarly with the female alignment. (see ‘AlignmentAlignment relates to the concept that humans have their own energy fields that are oriented or formed in a specific way such that the person is either suited better to one energy source of another. Some people have their energy fields empowered by the direct subtle energy force of The Sun, whilst others are empowered by the indirect subtle energy of The Moon. Due to the historical associations and symbolisation of The Sun with masculinity and The Moon with femininity we designate these alignments as either being ‘male’ or ‘female’ alignments accordingly. We interchangeable refer to people as being ‘sun-aligned’ or ‘male-aligned’ and similarly with the female alignment.’) feels particularly comfortable and empowered. The place is an energetic centre where a particularly beneficial combination and formation of energies is formed into a pattern that is harmonic with the person for whom it can be called a power centre.. We then did some work to “pin” this energy in place so that the circle was aligned with the frequency of the star that best suited the circle’s energy structure. It so happened that the circle needed to be pulled back towards the sun, as this was the strongest source of energy for it, and it kept the circle’s energies flowing the strongest.

The final aspect of this work was for us to “stir up” the energy flow around the circle – thus re-energising it and waking it up, so to speak. For this we both walked around the outside of the stones in a widdershins direction, following a dowsable energy trail wherever it led us. Normally, such a direction would actually quell or calm down energies, but in this instance the circle was in need of re-balancing through the injection of some female energy, and our perambulations were getting the energies to go wider and farther out as we walked and walked around. Each time we circled the stones, sometimes going in and out between them, the peaks of the wave forms got larger.

We both noticed how the energies of the circle followed a very ragged pattern. Around the area where the original stones were they hugged the stones, weaving playfully in and out of the edge of the perimeter. As we made our way to where the stones had been re-positioned the energy form was highly disturbed! The peaks were wild and unconfined, jagged, un-subtle, sharp and ragged. They were anything but “natural” feeling. They had little symmetry or subtlety. We felt increasingly aggrieved again about the poor quality of the re-building of this circle, and were not surprised that it needed a little bit of work doing to it. We felt we had at least contributed to it in a sympathetic manner, even if we couldn’t physically re-locate the stones to resolve the issue fully.

Later in the day, on the way home, just talking about this circle would provoke us into a very dangerous comment – that we would attempt to build o9ur own stone circle this year, and to employ within it all the things we had learned about how stones should be positioned, and how energies should be treated. Let’s see if we live up to that boast!

Gwas.

High Harrington – a return to dowsing roots

On our way over from Castlerigg to Ennerdale I noticed that we would be going within a short distance of the village that I used to live in when I lived in Cumbria. It was too good an opportunity to miss, especially as I suddenly thought of something that might make the visit a bit more interesting – High Harrington was the first place that I ever dowsed, when I was about 11 or 12 years old. How about going back to discover what it was that I found int he field opposite my old house?

Despite the fact that the satellite navigation on my phone was really playing up that morning I still remembered enough about the area to be able to navigate us to the right place (after one false alarm due to new construction). I pointed out old haunts on the way through the village from the east side and eventually we parked opposite my old house, next to the field I had first dowsed in (not the house pictured, but similar if much smaller).

Yes folks, it really is as exciting as it looks!

The first thing I noticed about the house was that the neighbours had cut down their beautiful cherry tree – the one bit of joyful colour in this otherwise drab street. Shame, because it would have been in bloom at that time of year. Now there was just an bland gap. Fools! We made our way to the field and hopped over the gate for a swift bit of dowsing – surely no-one would mind two fellas swinging rods around in a grassy field?

I asked the rods to find the exact spot where I had got a dowsing reaction 30 years ago, although back then I knew not why, of course. I was within ten feet of the spot and it only took me seconds to locate it. Now I had the knowledge to find out what the reasons for the reaction were. So, I asked the rods for more information about the spot. It turned out to be a very weak female spiral caused by some underground water at that spot. Wow – after all these years the round trip was completed, and the mystery solved!

Just as we were climbing back over the fence a farmer appeared asking what we were up to. Funny how he appeared just at that moment – almost like one of the locals tipped him off, or something? Still a bunch of close-knit nosy parkers then? Nothing changes up that part of the country. I explained my situation, my history and what I was doing. Farmers are often sympathetic to this. Indeed he was quite reasonable, not flinching one bit at the dowsing, and in fact confirming that there were several water springs in the field that he had come across when working the land over the years. Excellent – conformation of my findings too. What a bonus! I thanked the nosy parkers for their hidden intervention, and turned my suspicious thoughts into unqualified thanks.

Ennerdale Water – an exchange of spirits

The next destination we headed for was another one of my re-visitations. We drove to Ennerdale Water, one of the smaller lakes and the one closest to High Harrington (okay – maybe Loweswater is slightly closer – don’t be pedantic – it’s poetic license). I remember cycling to Ennerdale on several occasions on warm weekends and when I arrived I would usually walk around the lake, up into the hills, and sit by a stream or just look out over the lake for a while, then ride all the way home. No wonder I had legs like tree trunks as a youth!

In my mind I had a vivid memory of standing on the shore of Ennerdale, almost saying goodbye to it before I moved away. Now I was back. We parked at the car park and walked the short walk down to the edge fo the lake. There was no obvious way to get TO the lake itself so we walked around for a while, and then I insisted that we find a way down to the lake shore, so we plunged through the long grass whereupon I found an almost invisible animal track and we followed that. At the end of the track it opened out onto a pebble-strewn cove of some fifteen feet across and only a few feet in depth. I stopped shocked. This was the exact place I remember last standing in my memory of the place! I had found the exact point thirty years later. The power of the subconscious mind, eh?

It wasn’t warm, though. Kal and I skimmed some stones for a few minutes, admiring the ones that bounced several times and boo-ing the ones that plopped unceremoniously into the dark blue repository. It was a moment of youthful playfulness. Then I felt a tug, a need to connect to the lake. I have always had good experiences connecting with the spirits of lakes, but despite that I put up some protection. One never knows what’s out there, so it’s best to be safe.

The Blue Stone to White Stone exchange

With my protection in place I extended my aura out into the lake asking for any water spirit that wished to connect to do so. I also took out my set of elemental crystals (the only ones I had brought with me to the lake) and tried to remember exactly which one was for the water spirit. After a minute of deliberation I chose a blue agate that I had recently introduced into the set for some reason. I called upon the water spirit that I have become familiar with to move herself into this crystal so that I could work with her.  I felt a distinct..unwillingness for her to do that! I picked out the other crystal that she might reside in (or through which I could contact her) and asked if she was in that one – YES. But it was an indistinct clear quartz crystal and it was easily confused with the other one in the collection. I needed to change this, so I asked the lake spirits if I would be allowed to remove a stone from the lake within which to re-house my familiar water spirit. The roar of approval was almost deafening to my internal ears, as it were. The overwhelming feeling of “rightness” was the permission I needed.

I picked up my staff and looked into the lake – which one to choose? There was a small white stone about six feet into the shallows that caught my eye. I asked, would that stone be suitable? Again the lake’s spirits responded encouragingly with a tingly pleasant feeling in my stomach, like excitement.

By the way – some signs for disapproval include birds making noises around me, anything that is very distracting just after the question is asked, or a feeling of queasiness in my stomach. The birds I take as a warning, the distraction is telling me that I should be looking elsewhere for an answer, and the queasiness tells me that the thing I am about to do is not good for me.

I fished out the stone, not wanting to touch the lake until the last moment when I picked the white Dolomite stone out. Kal kept saying, “Come on! Just pick it up!” but I had to do it carefully, with the minimum of disturbance and not too greedily. It had to come because it wanted to, not because I wanted it to. It arrived easily and willingly.

On the shore I held the stone for a short while and then was pleased to find it was warm and perfectly dry, despite the cold weather and my cold hands. Odd, but a good sign – it meant we were compatible. I asked my water spirit ally whether she would transfer her connections into the new stone and there was a whoosh of swirling energy around my head as the transfer took place. This was obviously a better place to live!

I took the blue agate stone that I could find no use for and filled it with my own energy – experiences of this day, my feelings for this region, my memories of the place, my stories from a life lived here – and then I hurled the stone into the lake where it disappeared instantly, never to be seen again. It belonged to the lake itself now. We had exchanged energies. The lake spirits had given me one of their precious stones, and in return I had done the same. I like that – I like to be in balance, neither in debt nor owed anything.

That was all we had to do – to evoke memories and exchange spirits. Quite a beautiful experience amid the dramatic cloud, water and hills around.

Gwas – finding a new home for an old friend

Our Spring Equinox adventures began at the most beautiful stone circle in England – Castlerigg in Cumbria. As if that weren’t enough of a good start to the day we had a clear run to get there, and when we arrived the sun had cleared the sky to imbue the scene with such photographic potential that even a ham-fisted amateur photographer like myself could get a picture that was worthy of being a regular feature in any scenic calendar.

I didn’t know what Kal wanted to achieve this day, but my own personal agenda was the usual – to ask what my quest would be for the next eighth-part of the year. I wanted to know whether I had successfully completed the previous quest – to learn the sonic vocal qualities required to open my chakras – and then to know what my next quest would be. What would I need to learn next in order to progress on this spiritual path of druidry?

I remembered one or two things from our last year’s visit here – that the entrance for me was at the “back” or southern end of the circle, and that there was an in-built area which was specifically for cleansing myself of “ordinary world” energies. These two aspects were what I would concentrate on first.

Castlerigg at Spring Equinox

I walked around the edge of the stone circle’s aura, which I felt rather than dowsed. Today was an experiment in deviceless dowsing wherever possible – I wanted to feel rather than find the energies. At the unfashionable end of the circle I approached in reverent silence, head slightly bowed, and I felt for an answer to my question about whether I might be allowed to enter – I felt the familiar tug of acceptance. Off to a good start!

Inside the circle I walked straight to the Sanctuary enclosure – an array of stones laid out in a rectangle. There I positioned myself where it “felt best” and that happened to be on a small tuft of lush green circular grass - a power centreA place where a person of a particular alignmentAlignment relates to the concept that humans have their own energy fields that are oriented or formed in a specific way such that the person is either suited better to one energy source of another. Some people have their energy fields empowered by the direct subtle energy force of The Sun, whilst others are empowered by the indirect subtle energy of The Moon. Due to the historical associations and symbolisation of The Sun with masculinity and The Moon with femininity we designate these alignments as either being ‘male’ or ‘female’ alignments accordingly. We interchangeable refer to people as being ‘sun-aligned’ or ‘male-aligned’ and similarly with the female alignment. (see ‘AlignmentAlignment relates to the concept that humans have their own energy fields that are oriented or formed in a specific way such that the person is either suited better to one energy source of another. Some people have their energy fields empowered by the direct subtle energy force of The Sun, whilst others are empowered by the indirect subtle energy of The Moon. Due to the historical associations and symbolisation of The Sun with masculinity and The Moon with femininity we designate these alignments as either being ‘male’ or ‘female’ alignments accordingly. We interchangeable refer to people as being ‘sun-aligned’ or ‘male-aligned’ and similarly with the female alignment.’) feels particularly comfortable and empowered. The place is an energetic centre where a particularly beneficial combination and formation of energies is formed into a pattern that is harmonic with the person for whom it can be called a power centre., clearly. I felt for the direction to face and it was West. I lit two sticks of incense (suitable for me) and admired their flavours. I turned West and asked to be cleansed of the world’s detritus energies – energies I may have accumulated form elsewhere, bad energies I may be carrying with me, foul energies I may have generated myself. After a few minutes Kal came over to chat and absent-mindedly I wandered off with him. “Have you finished?” he asked. “Could you check for me?” I asked, seeing as he had his rods handy. NO – not finished! I went back into the Sanctuary with a wry smile – it was worth a try, but this was one aspect of the energies that I wasn’t feeling – I had no idea when I had finished with the cleansing process.

Castlerigg at Spring Equinox - view of The Sanctuary

Luckily we pretty much had the circle to ourselves early on, but by the time I had emerged from the Sanctuary there were people milling around and observing our antics. I now moved to a place that I felt was my empowering 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. (as opposed to a cleansing one – two types: filling or emptying, draining or empowering, cleansing or energising – any of those diametric concepts will suffice). Again I felt I should face West and I brought my incense sticks with me. I also laid out the one set of crystals that I had brought with me from the car – my protection set, but this set also doubled up as the set that I used to align to significant stars to attune to their energies. You’ll see how this comes into play in a moment.

I placed the five stones around me in my usual protection configuration, with the pillar quartz stone pointing West – the direction that felt right. I set an intention of being guided successfully on my quest today, and for enough energy to get through what was likely to be a long and arduous day of physical, mental and spiritual effort. In my mind two spiralling strands of thick energy (they used to be thin, now they’re fatter – aren’t we all?) coursed up through my body to reach to the sun, moon and then back down into the earth’s core. I remarked to myself how much thicker these energy lines were than the last time I had performed this meditation. Progress? This went on for about five minutes until I brought the energies “to heel” and created a sphere of protective energy centred on myself. I was sparkling with effervescent “aliveness” and jumped up refreshed and smiling. All psychosomatic, of course. I felt I had created a protective shell that would see me through my work this day, and also recharged my batteries, as it were.

Kal had been sitting directly opposite me in the circle, which we thought was notable given that this was Spring Equinox and the Sun and Moon were in exact opposition today. I also felt as though I had been facing West for a reason, so I asked the dowsing rods whether this stone circle was aligned to a particular constellation? YES. I then asked them to point to the constellation – they pointed West, in the direction I had been facing. Was the constellation visible now? YES. I used StarWalk to find some possibilities, but there was one obvious one staring me in the face – Serpens. Now, this opens up a whole facet of synchronicity. Let me explain.

The quartz pillar of my crystal layout had been focused on the constellation Serpens - the Serpent. As I did that my meditation has taken for the form of strong twin energies boosting my inner serpents – my twin coils of energy – my inner double helix. Not only that, but the constellation Hercules (Ophiuchus), the solar hero, is seen wrestling Antaeus (Serpens), the sea snake in the ancient depictions of the two neighbouring constellations. This is the old ritual of the Summer King battling with the Winter King (The Oak King and the Holly King) and on this Spring Equinox day they were in complete deadlock with the Oak King on the verge of achieving ascendancy. Interesting that this day my crystal layout was aligned to exactly that constellation, the very one which astrologically symbolised the Equinox point! Honestly, this stuff writes itself sometimes.

Castlerigg at Spring Equinox - layout

So there were three primary themes emerging from this work:-

1. Forces in opposition creating energy – the astrological Hercules and Typhos, the equinoctal Sun and Moon, the druidical Kal and Gwas
2. The double helix and the serpent energies, and their link to our human physiology – feeling empowered, cleansed, alive.
3. The stone circle being aligned to a constellation that was suited to the time of the year. Does this mean that all stone circles change their star alignments over the course of the year?

Gwas