The Hedge Druid

Posts Tagged ‘cumbria’

Hi everyone,

Also in this month’s podcast we talk about Kal’s Knight’s Quest, mention where we will be dowsing soon, let you know about an upcoming dowsing course in Cheshire, and there are all the usual features plus some cool new music.

Love and gratitude,
Gwas.

We chose Cumbria’s southern circuit of megalithic sites to be our venue and host for the Spring Equinox of 2010. The area had just the right balance of sites – waterfalls, stone circles, beaches, and hill forts – all of which we wanted to visit for a special purpose on this day. This Sunday 22nd March I was going to attempt to reconnect with the four elemental forces of Nature and thus kick-start my year’s energy work by doing so.

I had other agendas too: I wanted to find out the significance of the time between Spring Equinox and Beltane – did it have a particular activity associated with it that I should be involved in? Finally, I wanted to get understand what the Spring Equinox itself might mean in terms of energy.

Birkrigg Circle

The morning started brightly as we approached Cumbria’s southern fells, but there was a light cloud cover over the area once we actually got off the main southern road and began to approach Birkrigg Moor – the scene of our first encounter – the small stone circle of Birkrigg. Birkrigg circle is also known as The Druid’s Temple, but we won’t go into that! Recent scholars have argued the point that the creation date of these circles far predates the arrival of any known druid culture, but there does seem to remain a mythical attachment of the druids to the stones, in legend, lore and fable. I suppose people like me are only re-enforcing that view now that we are in some small way reclaiming these sites for our own usage, and are performing acts of natural magickThis is a system of belief that is often defined as being the appropriation and re-use of naturally occurring forces for the purposes of healing, transformation, communication, or a host of other subtle effects. The natural elements of the magick can also be seen by the under-pinning concept that the use of these forces should be co-operative rather than coercive. there.

We had parked a way away from the circle and had to tramp across the bleak moor to find it nestled overlooking Morecambe Bay and the southern tip of the Lake District. At one point we considered using the dowsing rods to find it, but instinct led us there before we needed to resort to that.

It took us a few minutes to work out that this was actually two circles one within the other. The inner circle was obvious, but the outer one was demarcated only by embedded recumbent small-ish stones. Quicker than that Kal felt an affinity with the site and began to absorb the atmosphere, mentally preparing himself for communingAn interaction with an invisible and natural sentient force that is independently identifiable, even if it cannot be named or classified. The interaction takes place at the level of a subtle amalgamation of the mind of the perceiver such that a dialogue or transference of feelings may occur between the two sentient parties. The interaction that is ‘communing’ is purposefully initiated by the perceiver for the express purpose of learning or simply to transfer feelings in a sympathetic manner.. I, on the other hand, was totally indifferent to the place. Sure, I wanted to dowse the energetic properties, but for all it being called a Druid’s Temple I was prepared to stand aside afterwards and relax for a bit.

Here’s a summary of the energetic findings and properties of this stone circle:-

1. The circle is at its energetic peak at the Summer Solstice
2. It is most suited to those who are sun-aligned people [something you can dowse to check - what do you mean you haven't done it yet? ]
3. The size of the stones and their placement were significant factors in forming the energetic qualities of this site
4. There was no astrological significance to this circle
5. There was a genius lociGenius Loci means 'spirit of the place' and refers to the geological/gaian spirit of place. It is transfixed to a place – being an embodiment of the collective intelligence of the place. (a site guardian) for the site, and it has a sigil that is the ‘sun sigil‘ (see recent Nine Stones Close post).

I sat and watched as Kal began to do some work with the energetic qualities of the site. I dowsed to find the most energetic place for me to sit whilst Kal did his thing. I was just drifting off minutes later into a kind of far-away thousand-yard stare when I became aware of a movement in the corner of my eye. I looked to the centre of the stone circle expecting to see a dog running across it or a wandering sheep, perhaps. There was nothing there. I unfocused my eyes again, and there it was again. A movement. I concentrated on trying to describe the movement – it was a spiral, moving from the edges of the circle upwards to a point some fifteen feet above the circle. My eyes, providing I didn’t look directly at this movement, were able to see this shape, this invisible shape, this overlay, and were able to describe the shape of a spiral – a cone of energy.

I emerged from this state quite excited and Kal happened to be emerging from his seated posture too at this time. I eagerly told him about the experience, and then we had one of those ‘I know’ moments, as Kal described the visualisations he had done, and that a spiral in the centre of the circle had been the major process. I’ll leave it up to Kal to tell you what he went through that day – it’s his story – but my story was already getting interesting. As the cloud cover thickened and the wind picked up from off the sea to chill our bones we decided to generate some heat by walking quickly back to the car and on to the next site: Swinside circle.

Swinside Circle

There’s no easy way to get to Swinside circle. Although there is just about enough room for three cars to park in the lane near a farmhouse just off the A595 in a C-class road. It is signposted, but you have to look carefully. From the place where you park you walk left up a small track that rises steeply. All around you are even steeper fells until you open out onto a valley between Swinside Fell and Mere Crags almost opposite. It’s only once you are walking through that wind tunnel that you begin to appreciate the stunning situation of this incredibly well-preserved and quite large stone circle.

The first thing we did on arrival was to get some shelter from the biting cold and harsh wind from off the fells. We decamped behind the relative shelter of the wall that defines the field in which the circle dominates. The circle is constructed on virtually the only flat ground around, and has views that rival any other I’ve seen for sheer aesthetic qualities. For a site without trees it’s remarkably beautiful, ans I wish we’d seen it on a clearer calmer sunnier day.

While Kal roused himself to do some of his own work, I went about my business in a ..well, business-like manner. This was not a place to be hanging about in today, and both of us would be doing only what we felt we needed to do, and no more, to save our hands from the freezing winds. First thing I did was to find my compatible entrance to the circle. This turned out to be the entrance closest to where you enter the field, and the natural place for most people to enter the circle, I suspect. This was the moon entrance that faces you as you approach the circle. The sun entrance was immediately opposite on the other side of the circle where a large gap between stones could be plainly seen.

I deposited myself on a stone that seemed strangely familiar and sat thinking about the layout of the circle and looking at the stones, trying to get familiar with the ambiance of the place and to feel whatever feelings might arise from being here – ‘being and seeing’ as Paul Devereux puts it. I recognised the shape of the stone I was sat on – it was identical in every single feature to that of a female stone that was my 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 ‘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. at Druid’s Circle on top of Penmaenmawr in North Wales. When I dowsed this stone it turned out to be my power centre here too, and it was a centre of female energies.

Kal and I discussed whether there might be other entrances other than simply Sun and Moon aligned ones. Quickly we found entrances for the planets Mercury and Venus too, although at the time we didn’t have any way to confirm this. Now I have some nifty software that should be able to confirm these alignments when we dowse for the time that the entrances are supposed to be energetically active. We can check this now, which is going to be interesting.

Big Stones and Little Centre

As I sat on my female power centre huddling from the roaring wind behind me I noticed that my eyes were moving between two stones. To my right there was a round-topped striated stone with a leaning sentinel alongside her. I knew the stone was female as I have become adept at recognising the differences between the two types (mostly) after spending so much time seeing rows upon rows of them and dowsing along the lines at Carnac in Brittany. On its opposite side my eye was being drawn to an inverse triangular stone, which was taller than the others and so obviously of a male shape. Male to female, female to male. My eyes were drawn across the circle, and passed through a little ring of stones placed geometrically in the centre. I hopped off my stone to see what the dowsing rods would make of these things. Would they confirm them, or lead me elsewhere?

I asked the rods to lead me to the strongest male stone in the circle. I was led by a wobbly path to the angular stone that I had thought it would be. As I approached the stone the path deviated off to circle around it and finally the rods touched the back of the stone in the centre. This was something that I had seen happen many many times when dowsing particular stones – the ‘entry’ or ‘exit’ point for the trail of energy was usually on the outward-facing side of the stone, even though the trail went inwards.

Was this stone linked to any other stone in the circle, I asked. The rods began to twitch and lead me off back into the centre circle of little rocks before changing direction and spiralling out of the centre and out to the other side of the main circle. Moments later I was circling around the largest female stone. Just as I had intuited, these two were somehow linked through the centre of the circle.

I dowsed for the energetic centre of the circle and arrived at the little circle of placed rocks that someone had made. So this was the connection point for the male and female energies of the biggest stones, but more interestingly, someone had specifically marked this spot with stones. Other dowsers? Or who? Someone energetically aware, that was certain.

The Work of This Time

One of the agenda points I had wanted answers to this day (because we’re dowsing and doing energy work with a purpose these days) was that I wanted to know what the purpose of the time was between Spring Equinox and Beltane at the start of May, which was the next significant marker in the eight-fold year. I was assuming that there was 0ne, given that I had been working to a theme for the previous eighth of the year between Imbolc and Spring Equinox. What was the purpose of this next phase, I wondered?

To find this out I needed to immerse myself in the energies of this circle, I felt. I spent some time dowsing for where I should stand, in what order, and to see whether I would need anything like incense sticks to help me. When I got my answers I set off positioning the incense, lighting it in the gale-force winds (a test of patience, surely) and then trying to relax into the feeling of the site. I was attempting to make contact with whatever helpful forces might be around, in whatever form that might be.

After what felt like an Ice Age I emerged from my half-sleep trance state with a quite clear thought running through my head: this next phase was about achieving balance, finding neutrality. Those were the themes. During the meditation I had been shown as the very centre point between forces above and below. I was the nexus point in the interchange of those forces, the neutral point, the axis. I was shown that if I could connect into the ‘network’ of neutral energy within the planet then I could use this energy to divert, shape and collect the male and female energy and to use it for my own purposes – I was being given the secrets of how the ancients began to collect and utilise earth and celestial energies.

This was quite a revelation, and far beyond what I was expecting. Suddenly I felt a huge burden of responsibility coupled with a dread as to the amount of work I might have to do to take on such a task. I would have to centre myself to such an extent that I could withstand the centrifugal forces of the energies that spun around me as I connected to the very subtle energyA form of energy that has so far eluded scientific definition. It is neither electric, magenetic, nor electro-magnetic, so far as our current technical equipment can measure. It does, however, exhibit many of the characteristics of magnetism and electricity in terms of its effects and properties. It may be a form of either or both of those energies that we have not yet identified. grid of the planet, drawing from it and shaping the energy into a meaningful form.

It all felt a bit too much to cope with. What would I have to do? Could I stand it? Did I have the mental strength, the ability, the sense of responsibility to try to do this? How did I go about connecting? What would I have to endure? What would I be shaping the energies into? For what purpose? A million questions exploded like emerging stars on a dark night.

We reconvened behind the wall to discuss our findings and Kal’s were equally interesting. It looks like we had both got a lot out of this visit. The clouds were thickening all the time and the temperature felt like it was  a few degrees cooler than when we had started that morning. We decided we had withstood enough, and packed to leave, facing into the harsh wind once more as we tramped back down the track to the car.

Despite the chill wind and occasional sleet the lambs in the fields indicated the coming of Spring. It was a joy to see a few white and a pair of black lambs prancing about in the rugged fields back down near the farm buildings. It heralded the advent of Spring. even if the weather was not yet in agreement with that.

In the next post I will tell you how the day progressed. The first half of this day of balance had been filled with sun and light, but moving steadily towards a darkening. Next we went to search out Stanley Force – a waterfall in a beautiful setting near to the village of Eskdale. We would then climb again up the impossibly steep Hardknott Pass to the Roman fort  to complete the day’s undertakings.

Gwas

Section 8 – SITE VISIT LIST for 2009

The penultimate post is a reminder of the sites we have visited this past year. The sites are ordered from North to South.

• Callenais I, II and III, Dun Carloway Broch, The Truiseil Stone and other sites on the Isle of Lewis, Outer Hebrides, Scotland [Callenais I, Callenais II, Callenais III, Truiseil Stone]
• The Eassie Stone, Glamis Castle, St.Fergus’ Well, The Fowlis Wester cross, Lundin Farm circle, and Monzie circle in Scotland [Eassie Stone, Glamis Castle, Fergus' Well, Fowlis Wester cross; Monzie Circle; Lundin Farm]
• Castlerigg circle, Long Meg and Her Daughters circle, Little Meg circles, Mayburgh Henge, Oddendale, Kalmott ring cairn, Gamelands circle in Cumbria [Mayburgh, Kalmott, Oddendale & Gamelands; Long Meg; Little Meg; Castlerigg]
• Pendle Hill in Lancashire [Pendle Hill]
• Arbow Low, Nine Ladies stone circle, and Nine Stones Close circle in Derbyshire [Arbor Low 1, Arbor Low 2, Nine Ladies, Nine Stones Close]
• Alderley Edge, Delamere Forest, Frodsham Caves and The Bridestones in Cheshire [Alderley Edge, Delamere 1, Delamere 2, Bridestones]
• Bryn Celli Ddu, The Soar Stone, the Bryngwyn Stones and Lligwy Chamber on Anglesey [Bryn Celli Ddu 1; Bryn Celli Ddu 2]
• Cerrig Pryffaid, Dyserth, Moel-Ty-Uchaf, Penbedw Park, Pistyll Rhaeadr Waterfall, Dinas Emrys, Snowdon, and Penmaenmawr Druid’s Circle, Rhosesmor, Hawarden and Conwy Falls in North Wales [Dyserth, Moel-Ty-Uchaf, Pistyll Rhaeadr, Dinas Emrys, Druid's Circle, Rhosesmor]
• Golden Grove and St.Elmo’s Summer House in Mid-Wales [St.Elmo's & Golden Grove]
• Llangernyw village, Lake Vyrnwy and Bala Lake in Wales [Llangernyw 1, Llangernyw 2, Llangernyw 3]
• Mitchell’s Fold and The Hoarstones circle in Shropshire [Mitchell's Fold & Hoarstones]
• The Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire.
• Waylands Smithy, Uffington Chalk Horse, and The Rollright Stones in Oxfordshire [Wayland's Smithy, Uffington, Rollrights 1, Rollrights 2]
• Alton Barnes White Horse, Winter Hill, Windmill Hill, Silbury Hill, West Kennett, and Avebury in Wiltshire [Alton Barnes, Silbury Hill, West Kennett 1, West Kennett 2, Avebury]
• Crop Circles at Knighton Hill, Alton Barnes, Silbury Hill and others in Wiltshire [Knighton Hill, other crop circles]
• Stanton Drew stone circle, Barrowbridge Mump and Glastonbury in Somerset [Stanton Drew, Glastonbury]
• Carnac, Locmarquier, Créhen, Lampouy, Ile Grande, Merlin’s Tomb, Mont St.Michel, Champs Dolent and St.Uzek stones in Brittany, France [Merlin's Tomb, Lampouy, Créhen, Carnac 1, Carnac 2, Carnac 3, Champ Dolent, Mont St.Michel, Ile Grande]

====================================================================================

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 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 ‘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. 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.

Little Meg

Little by name, but great in terms of energy. We had to look very closely to find this stone circle, which is dwarfed by her companion site Long Meg. Everyone visits Long Meg but very few visitors seem to bother with Little Meg. Well, sometimes that’s just the way we like it. We certainly enjoyed visiting her. Little Meg is formed by two circles next to each other. If the larger circle were considered to be the size of the earth, then the smaller circle next to it would be about the size of the moon. I wonder if that was in any way deliberate by the circle builders? Certainly I got very strong lunar energies from the stone just peeking out from behind the large stone on the right in the picture below.

The larger stone was strongly sun-aligned, as Kal found out when he was drawn to sit upon it and then wouldn’t move – at all. I deposited my bag next to the ‘moon’ stone and we were both happy with our arrangements. The concave shape of the moon stone made me think of another Dream Seat (theme of the day, it seemed). The site felt very pleasant, despite the lack of warmth that day.

In the picture below you can see the tiny ring cairn that sits next to Little Meg. A stone lies off centre at what might be considered to be the focal point of the parabola, and at a place where we commonly find power centres located. I must admit, I didn’t specifically identify its purpose or energetic imprint, as I was more taken with the relative sizes of the two circles and how they might represent the proportionate sizes of celestial bodies.

As I pondered this idea I walked around the circles in a figure of eight shape and felt the energies stirring from both circles. Kal was unfazed. He simply kept stating how nice it was to sit on his sun stone. Nutter! Meanwhile I’m walking around and around while the farmer collects the mown crop and every now and again drives out of the field to deposit it at the nearby farm. Despite the impossibility of sun breaking through the clouds the more I walk the thinner the cloud gets where the sun is positioned. Kal says he’s making it come out through sheer willpower. I almost agree as the watery sun tries desperately to break the dense cloud cover. The air warms slightly, and I have to take off my coat.

We depart for our next target – Addingham Church, which the OS map shows has an old sculpted stone cross somewhere in its vicinity. We decide to quickly investigate, although lunchtime is rapidly approaching. We find several candidate crosses converted into headstones int he church’s graveyard, but the one pictured dowsed as being the original one that all the fuss was about. What an unusual cross! Still, this is Cumbria, and things are a little different up here to the rest of the country.

As I take my snaps Kal is busy at the back of the churchyard, taking particular interest in a tiny tree that can barely be seen beneath its wire mesh cage. He invited me to dowse its aura, which I did. About 10 feet wide. Kal then pulled the wire cage off the little tree and I measured the difference in the aura – three times further with the wire cage off! Thirty feet wide now. People started to arrive at the church so I urged Kal to replace the cage, but he was very reluctant. So now Kal has become Protector of Trees, eh?

We drove on to the next site – a ring cairn near Glassonby village. We could see the cairn circle through the broken boughs of a massive ash tree, so we trotted through the field to reach it. The circle was badly damaged, and there were rabbits tunnelling all the way through it, but it was inactive energetically and needed nothing from us, nor inspired us to do anything. Kal did some cursory dowsing, and I spent my time trying to see if any of the stones were aligned with nearby hills like at Castlerigg.

I found one interesting correspondence between the shape of one stone and the hills behind…but it was hard to be sure.

That was our morning complete. We headed off for some lunch in a fabulous Cross Keys inn near to Penrith, before we would visit Mayburgh Henge, Gamelands stone circle, Seal Howe and Oddendale cairns and then we would find a site that hadn’t previously been listed on the Megalithic Portal, which was quite exciting!

Gwas.

Long Meg and Her Daughters – September 25th, 2009

The first thing that strikes you as you approach this site is the sheer size of it. Avebury could be considered to be massive, as it hosts a village at its centre, but Long Meg is also in the category of huge sites. Unlike Avebury very few of the stones are huge in themselves, but their spread is very wide. Wide enough for a narrow road to pass through its focal centre.

Kal in particular was disinclined to dowse here. Although he made some intial attempts, these were merely investigative dowses to determine whether there was any energy work to be done. He soon found that he was going to be kept busy in dull grey late morning by some healing work that he needed to do upon himself – some psychological healing. His recent personal circumstances warranted such work, so i left him to quietly get on with it, whilst I went around the site finding out some interesting things about it.

First of all, it was clear that I was not going to be able to map out the energies. The site was too large for that. Had it been a sunny day in summer, and this had been the first and only site we would be visiting, then such work may have been completed, but we had a big agenda this day and our visits would have to be targeted and investigatory. So be it. I started with Long Meg, the tall pointed upright stone that dominated the near corner of the site.

The Long Meg stone and her spirals

The Long Meg stone was fascinating in itself, never mind in its relationship to the rest of the site. The first thing that caught my eye was the notched cut-out on the top of the stone. This reminded me of a similar stone just to one side of the Carnac fields of stones. It had a similar notch on top, and when I dowsed the Carnac stone I learned that the notch was aligned to predict the position of either sun, moon or star constellations at certain times of the year. I wish I had known more and been more specific at the time, but that was the outcome then.

Long Meg’s notch is aligned to the moon, so the rods informed me. A touch more specific, although I didn’t go through a process of working out exactly when the alignments might occur. It probably changed every year anyway. That information wasn’t too important right then, as I didn’t intend to make use 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. anyway. But now you know, you moon ritual people could always go and check it out for yourselves if you needed it, right? I presume you’d need to observe it from a specific place such as your own power centreA place where a person of a particular alignment (see ‘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..

The stone had inscribed upon it some spirals that intruiged me – I would have to find out what they meant. I placed me hand over each of them in turn, feeling for rather than dowsing for energy. When I placed my hand over the top-most spiral I felt a shiver, despite the fact that the spiral felt warm as my hand moved through the air above it. Strange! I tried the lower spiral – nothing. No reaction at all – no felt energy.

Where did the spirals connect to, I wondered? I found the link for the top-most spiral and later Kal found the link for the bottom-most spiral. We both confirmed each others dowsing too in order to satisfy ourselves that this was consistent irrespective of who dowsed for it. The top-most spiral linked to a spiral power centre right between the two entrance stones (these are the pair of round-topped stones shown in the middle of the picture below). The lower spiral was found to link through the entrance but then terminate in a spiral between the pair of stones in the foreground of the picture. Interestingly, the entrance spiral was pleasant to stand in, but Kal found the other power centre to be quite detrimental and quickly moved away from it once he had confirmed his results.

Kal had discovered that one of the site’s major benefits is to promote healing work, as I mentioned. He went off to involve the two trees in the centre of the circle in some healing work on himself. After visiting the two trees he then went to the Dream Seat stone which you can see in the picture below – there’s Kal in the far distance next to a tall wide stone just to the left of the left-most tree.

As with Castlerigg there was a Dream Seat stone, but this one was a little less comfortable. It was more of a large hollow that you could lean against or sit with your back against, but it served much the same purpose, according to my dowsing results. There was certainly a strong flow of energy coming from that “scar” on the rock, and the angles and points of the rock’s general shape seemed to focus the energies to that point where the concave had been created. I sat there for a few minutes and could feel the strong waves and pulses of subtle energyA form of energy that has so far eluded scientific definition. It is neither electric, magenetic, nor electro-magnetic, so far as our current technical equipment can measure. It does, however, exhibit many of the characteristics of magnetism and electricity in terms of its effects and properties. It may be a form of either or both of those energies that we have not yet identified. coming out of it. More deviceless dowsing, huh?

Getting more purposeful

This was all well and good, but what was the site for? I ran through a list of usual suspects. The idea of the list of not to pinpoint a single possibility, because I think most sites have several ways in which participants can work with the energy depending upon need, ability and timing. Rather it is to hone down the list from every possibility to those that react the strongest and thus demonstrate to use the best possibilities for achieving something useful with the site’s powers.

Long Meg dowsed for having capabilities including regeneration (healing, empowerment), education (they almost all seem to respond to this element) and for revelation (i.e. transformation of consciousness). It also registered as being primarily a lunar energy driven site.

Given the lunar notch on top of Long Meg I was hopeful that it would dowse as a calendrical site too – it did. So, there were stone positions at the site that were paced in specific positions to mark certainn times of the year such as solar risings and settings, and lunar positions such as the Lunar Major Standstill and Minor Standstill points. I left the exact positioning of these stones until I come back to do a full dowse and mapping of the energies and stones. Maybe next summer.

In Earth Memory there is a summary of some astronomical findings related to Long Meg that adds weight to this:

“At midwinter sunset, John Glover observed that the shadow of Long Meg is thrown across the vast circle, so that the tip of the shadow touches the opposite side of the stone ring. R.D.Y Perret later showed that at the equinoxes Long Meg’s shadow provided true tangents to the circle.” (pp.116)

I obtained one final bit of information before Kal returned from his meditation adventures/healing session. I found that there were many more grounding and energising stones int his circle than I had found elsewhere. Maybe I had stopped at finding one at other circles, but here I walked around identifying THREE grounding stones (i.e. stones that would draw your energy from you) and FIVE charging stones (i.e. they robbed you of small change as you sat on them – no, I’m joking, I mean they would imbue you with subtle energy like charging a battery).

Off-the-scale dowsing

Our final bit of dowsing was to try out an experiment in dowsing the aura around Long Meg. We wanted to see if there was any association between specific musical notes and the chakra or rainbow colours of the aura. We firstly identified the red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet bands of the aura. We placed a peg to show us where these bands started, and as at other places where we had done this the bands were wider at the outer edge (the red, orange and yellow bands) getting progressively narrower as the colour frequencies increased towards violet, which was only a few inches away from the stone.

Then I got out my MP3 player and plugged in some battery-powered speakers. I had pre-recorded the C2 range of notes, and the idea was to see if we got a dowsing response from any of the notes in this octave. We did indeed. The red band responded to the third note, the orange band to the fifth note, and the yellow band to the seventh note. The we ran out of notes! Damn!

I played a longer recording that went through more scales but it was impossible to keep track of where the notes were when the rods crossed. I would have to try this again somewhere else and this time include a spoken element stating which note was being played all through octaves C2 to around C4, I reckoned. Still, interesting correlations between the chakra bands and musical notes. Perhaps Pythagoras’ musical theory of harmonics had a resonance with colour frequencies and subtle energy fields? More testing required, I think.

On our way out of the site we came across a tree with lots of rags tied to it. Aha – another ‘wishing tree’ in active use, just like at Nine Ladies in Derbyshire and West Kennet, and many other sites. It seems this custom is being kept very much alive. Notice that, despite several photos being taken of this tree none of them came out sharp – they were all blurred. None of the other photographs of the site were blurred. I find this interesting. It’s happened before when taking photos of trees. I wonder if its something to do with their energy field? I had a similar experience at the Forest of Dean when I had to take five photos and really concentrate on holding the camera particularly steady before I got anything like a reasonably clear photograph. Very strange!

Time to move on to the associated ‘sister’ site of Little Meg, which was somewhere nearby.

Gwas.

Tying a yellow ribbon round an old thorn tree.

Keswick, Cumbria – 27th September

In the first part of our day-long epic journey into the vast wilderness of the Lake District in search of the sacred circles we had heard so much about Kal and I began by visiting what must be one of the busiest circles we’ve ever stepped foot in. Not a moment’s peace was to be had at Castlerigg on a Sunday morning, despite the fact that we pitched up at 9:30am. There was barely a parking space left amid the camper vans, mobile homes and country capable cars that lined the sides of the small road on the edge of Keswick town.

Were we not in the middle of nowhere of note? We were. Still, on this day it seemed like every man Jack and his dog was visiting this sacred site, and not many of them were being very sacred. There was a photographer or three knocking about positioning tripod in awkward positions, parties of American tourists with overly-white hair and bright clothing milling about in herds like bewildered dayglo sheep, and families with hyped-up kids clambering all over the stones. A motley bunch. Then we arrived looking for peace and solitude to bathe in the morning mist that clad the site and surrounding hills. Not a chance, lads. Not today.

Not today Kal!

The mist quickly cleared off to the higher ground, but the crowd only grew thicker. We realised that whatever we were going to do here was going to draw attention. By this stage in our dowsing and spiritual development this mattered little to us. Kal immediately set about determining whether there was anything in particular that we should be doing here – perhaps to re-balance the energies, or ourselves, or what? He found that it was all down to me this morning. A convenient finding, I thought, but that’s how it goes.

I was in no rush, however, having an agenda of my own in terms of dowsing. I wanted to see whether I could answer a few questions that had been buzzing around my head for the last few days. These questions were:-

1. Could the site be considered to be “active” in terms of energy?
2. How accurate were the visual alignments between the stones and the surrounding landscape, that I had seen depicted in Paul Devereux’s book “Earth Memory“?
3. Did any of the stones display a magnetic charge when a compass was held near to them?
4. Were there any dowsable emissions of radon or radioactive energies coming out of the stones?
5. Was there a “dream seat” at the site?

In “Earth Memory” Devereux tells of a shaman who takes a man to a place where there is an ancient stone seat that shamans sit upon. When they attune to the spot the seat produces visions and dream states where the shaman can experience “shamanic flying” or out-of-body experiences. I liked this idea, and it reminded me of the two similar “seats” at Avebury that are such intruiging shapes:

I went in search of a Dream Seat at Castlerigg and an obvious candidate emerged, worn smooth by the number of people who had leaned against it observing the view. I elected to try it out shortly.

All these questions plus the usual suspects concerning the discovery of the uses for the site were uppermost in my mind. As it turned out Kal beat me to the punch with the “use of the site” questions. He had over heard a tour guide telling the tale that the site had perhaps once been used as a place of barter for tradesmen – a kind of market meeting place. Spurred on to test this he got his dowsing rods out and began his own investigations. Was the site constructed for the purpose of trading? NO. So, it may have become a trading post, but he didn’t feel as though that’s how it started out. Of course not – why would there be so many celestial alignments and carefully placed stones if the purpose was to create a trading space?

I began my own investigations to answer my new questions.

• Was the site energetically active? YES. Was it still functioning? YES.
• Did any of the stones show any magnetic charge? YES, four of them moved the compass needle slightly away from North. These stones were on the South-Western end of the circle. This did not correspond with what I had read in “Earth Memory” where one stone at the Western cardinal point had registered for magnetic charge.
• Were there any radioactive emissions coming out of the stones. NONE. I checked them all. But then I wasn’t using a scientific device, I was using a copper rod. Perhaps no surprise then!

I then went on to check some of the alignments. The most obvious one could be seen from….the Dream Seat stone! No wonder many people had sat on it – 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. was both obvious and sublime:

I’m afraid I didn’t get the angle just right for the photo, but trust me – it’s a perfect fit with the two foreground hillsides. I carried on with my questions regarding the purpose of the site now that I had found the Dream Seat:-

1. Was it an astral observatory, and aligned to celestial bodies? YES.
2. Was it used as a calendar to track the position of the Sun and Moon at specific times of the year? YES.
3. Were any of the stones used as: an altar – NO. A grounding/cleansing stone – YES. I found one such stone. An energising stone – YES. I found three of them.
4. Did the circle draw energy into it? YES, from the sun, moon and stars.
5. Did the circle push energy out? YES, into the surrounding land.
6. Was the circle used for communication of any kind? NO.
7. Was there a specific entrance? YES, for me it was at the South cardinal point.
8. Was there 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 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. running through the site? YES, in a NE to SW direction.
9. Was there a specific path required to be followed to activate the energies of the site? YES.

This ‘ritual path’ (as Stone Dowser terms it) was particularly interesting. The energy path for me to follow was through the southern entrance, to the Sanctuary enclosure for some cleansing and statement of purpose, then out the eastern edge to the Dream Seat to see what needed to be done, then back out the eastern edge again to finish.

The South Entrance

This last piece of information was particularly interesting as it encompassed the Dream Seat. I had wanted “a go” on it anyway, so here was my chance. Despite the endless stream of visitors I told Kal what I intended to do, and he said he would “observe”, which meant that he was going to have a laugh at me trying to make something happen here.

It took two attempts to make my meditative connection work, but I finally attuned to the site and had a vision sitting on the Dream Seat. In the vision I was spinning around above myself, hovering over the stone circle. From there I could see myself, and I could see that I was “spineless”. In other words, my spine was hollow, but nothing was flowing through it. I ‘knew’ I had a blockage in my chakras, and that it was glowing softly red at the base of my spine. The root chakra needed some work, I surmised.

My power centre in The Sanctuary

After two attempts to unblock it I succeeded eventually. Much to everyone’s amusement I’m sure, watching a man with a stick moving from place to place around the circle and meditating for a while at each spot. In the end I felt “dreamy”, like I had awoken from a deep sleep – a feeling that didn’t really leave me until the end of the day on the way back home!

For me, it was a wonderful experience, and despite the heavy tourist traffic, very peaceful and calming. I went on to enjoy the rest of the sites that day. Out next stop would be Long Meg and Her Daughters and the companion site Little Meg.

Gwas

Floating on air.