The Hedge Druid

Posts Tagged ‘dolmen’

In the final part of my South Wales posts I will be telling you about the amazing chamber of Tinkinswood, and how dowsing revealed some intriguing explanations for the usage of the chamber and how it was powered by Elemental Masters. What are ‘Elemental Masters’? Good question. Read on!

We parked at the entrance to the field with the sign pointing towards the Tinkinswood Chamber [map]. We had only gone slightly out of our way – entering the edge of Cardiff itself – before we realised our mistake and doubled back. Once we had our bearings finding the chamber was relatively easy, with some helpful brown tourist signs along the way near to the village of St Nicholas. Tinkinswood chamber itself was also easy to get to with a short walk down into a shallow valley and back up into the next field. As you rise up into the field the chamber hoves into view like some neolithic battleship.

The site is beautiful, surrounded by trees (although they had been severely cut back when were visited, which made us wince a little). The only other blight is the nearby electricity pylons, but they don’t seem to be affecting the power and quality of the energies at this site. Possibly they are just far enough away not to affect it. There really does not seem to be any geographical reason why the pylons were brought anywhere near to the site, but that’s the way it is.

Side view of Tinkinswood chamber

The sun was beginning to near the horizon as we arrived, and the early evening light lent the scene a mystical quality that backlit the chamber in a fascinating way, and made the sun twinkle through the trees around the site. As we approached the chamber neither Kal nor I felt any need to go into the chamber itself even though it was incredibly open and inviting. For some reason we both completely avoided going into it throughout the whole visit. Possibly we do not need the initiatory energies that lie inside it?

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In this second part of my Anglesey outing for Lughnasagh I will be telling you about my meditation at the Benllech dolmen, and a revealing dowsing encounter.The story is also a warning to those who are still struggling to allow their intuition to be their primary guide through life. Sometimes our tales are of greatness, and sometimes of woe. As you have come to know we do not spare the truth to save the story.

3.Benllech dolmen (Megalithic)

I knew where the stones were even before I parked. Yes, I had studied a map as best I could to get a feel for their location, but this was the now familiar extra-sensory feel which has all the feel of a magnet being positioned at a certain point around the head. I simply had to face into the magnetic stream to let it position my gaze in the right direction. “Simply” I say, as though it were the easiest and most natural thing in the world – which it is. But there’s the trick – to let it happen.

Having located the general direction I began to pick apart the clues in the surroundings – a footpath sign, a track through a field over a stile, a gateway without a gate. As I crossed a field my gaze was taken by a startled hare that was out in the dew-laden field whose morning misty veil had only just lifted to reveal a pleasanter day that had been forecast. The hare and I observed each other, both our senses feeling for warning signs before retreating into cover. Our precedence does us no favours among the timid.

I noted the path across the field, and then spotted one up through the gorse. I decided to follow my rational sense. There was a prostrate footpath sign and my rational brain worked out that it could only be indicating the path across the field given the configuration of pointers. I went the way I had been instructed, yet hankered after the gorse path, looking back at it longingly, whilst my rational brain began to assess the possible ways beyond the field, scanning for the continuation of the decided path. After fifteen minutes of searching atop the field I didn’t find the dolmen and had to go back to the fallen sign. Then my intuition told me again that the dolmen was not far along the smaller path through the gorse. This time I followed my intuition and within two minutes I had found the dolmen nestled within a clump of bushes and not obvious at all. Yet I walked straight to it when I switched off my ‘primary senses’ in favour of my primitive ones.

I asked the dowsing rods if the site was energetically active? YES. Could I do work here? YES. As I began to prepare for a ritual by getting some incense out and lighting it I had another intuitive feeling, so I asked the dowsing rods was I going to be interrupted during the ritual? YES! I decided to slightly change me plans to accommodate this. I began to dowse around to find out which energies were in the area. I found one male and one female energy centre inside the dolmen. I was directed to sit at the female centre. I knew this already somehow – both its position and orientation. I had felt its presence by tuning my mind into the frequency of the energy I wished to find. It had shown itself to me as a feeling of an invisible vortex being in the periphery of my sight. I knew its nature even though I couldn’t actually see it.

I followed the lines I had dowsed = the male and the female – to their sources. The male energy came from an elder tree right next to the dolmen. The female line came from a hawthorn tree some fifteen feet away. As I began to think about wrapping up the dowsing a seagull flew in figures of eight above me squawking wildly. I reasoned that it was probably warning me to stay away from it’s nest. It was, however, most insistent even though I was not moving anywhere. I decided to follow it. It led me away further into the bushes along a well-used path – cawing occasionally in a less insistent voice – a confirmatory voice. “That’s right, this way” it seemed to say. At a 90 degree bend in the path the seagull circled squawking noisily in a tight circle above me. I looked up from my dowsing rods to see them pointing off to one side at a large stone that had been used to prop up a fence post. I dowsed it and found it was a strong female energy emitter. The seagull flew back towards the dolmen at this point, singing in a seagull shanty. Something else to show me, I mused? I followed the line out of the stone. It headed back to the dolmen.

I followed the line all the way back to within sight of the dolmen’s slanted stones when the female line went around the dolmen site – call it the periphery of the site’s aura – at a distance of some twenty five feet. Once I had fought my way through the bushes to discover its total circumference the gull suddenly stopped and flew off! A sure sign that I had found what I had been invited to find. My mind turned to thoughts of how this site might be used by a neo-shamanic druid with no particular purpose.

Let them pass, sir, let them pass!

I secured the boundaries of the site using the female perimeter line, washing it with intent and preventing intrusion by unwanted or unhelpful energies or people. I arranged my crystals – four elemental crystals – to coincide with the cardinal points. I let the crystals form an energetic shape that would attract the elemental energies – they formed a simple cross. Some incense was lit to clear and prepare the air for meditation. I stood at the entrance to the dolmen, letting its acoustic properties become my earphone as I awaited the “interruption” that I had been foretold would happen. Suddenly I could hear voices and the hammer of hooves slowly plodding. A troupe of small ponies and riders appeared moments later on one of the paths close to the dolmen. After saying hello and letting them pass I was on my own. At last!

Then I went into the dolmen and asked the Spirit Of Place if it was permissible for me to draw a circle. I got a positive response (slight breath of wind in my face) so I created a druid circle in which to work. Once secured and sealed, I began to ask the Spirit Of Place  for some information about my healing quest.

The information I got was simply this – should I continue learning healing, or do something else? Learn healing. How should I progress with this? A picture of turquoise appeared. Only that. I should concentrate on learning about the turquoise healing frequency and master it. To me this frequency is associated with divine energy and healing from the heart or with love.

This was enough for me, and I said my farewells, leaving a posy of gently tied wild flowers wrapped around a white feather that I had brought from Glastonbury. This was my Lammas gift – a symbol of the abundance of Nature at this time of the year, and respectfully asking the permission of the plant spirits to use these specimens, saying how much I appreciated the beauty of Nature’s gifts. I did each pluck of the stems with loving care in the name of The Goddess and in tribute. With this simple decomposable posy I marked the passing of one energy season to another – of the wane of summer and the waxing of autumn. I acknowledged the energy balance begin to shift towards decay. I noticed the fallen leaves and the yellowing leaves at the base of shrubs and trees. I felt the first afternoon chill lay upon the island stronghold of the druids and I felt like I was with them across all senses of time, marking the things they had marked but in my own way

This was new tradition. Remembered or imagined, I was making it real and present.

Gwas.

August 23rd, 2010 – Tal-y-Fan Mountain, Conwy, North Wales.

In this second post describing my day’s visit to the sites around the Tal-Y-Fan mountain I describe some standing stones that are nearby to each other, and then a visit to a cromlech (or dolmen). After visiting the stone circle of Cerrig Pryfaid I was aware that the rain clouds were coming over the hills behind the stone circle, so i drove back down the track to the junction, parked there, and made preparations for a wet visit to the next few sites, all of which would be new to me.

Ffon-y-Cawr (The Giant’s Staff) and Ffon-y-Y-Cawr (The Giant’s Stick, or Picell Arthur)

I was able to locate these stones thanks to them being listed on a site called Megalithic Walks. I have used this site before to locate local megalithic sites because their directions and walking instructions are both accurate and helpful. What I should have done was to take a closer look at The Megalithic Portal before I went, because there were some more sites in the area, but I was in too much of a rush to spend the time to research the area properly. Still, it leaves me with a good excuse to go back at some point.

As I walked down the track, past two gates, then I noticed the blade-like shape of The Giant’s Staff. I approached it from the southern side and took some photographs. I wouldn’t say that it was too windy to dowse, because I have dowsed in a gale before, but it was discouraging and so I didn’t do much more than confirm the presence of some female energy, and measure and aura around the stone. I was intent on finding the dolmen, and it had just started to rain. For me, the idea of climbing inside a dolmen sounded quite appealing at that point.

The female Ffon-y-Y-Cawr stone

As I continued on my way down the track that was rapidly turning into a shallow stream something int he field to my right caught my eye. I stopped to peep over at the sheep and saw that, in amongst them was a directional needle stone – later I found out it was called The Giant’s Stick. It was pointing towards the lakes in the valley below, it seemed to me. I will try to get an exact bearing next time I visit in good weather, but I would say it was pointing roughly North East – towards the sunrise at a significant point in the year, I would suggest.

Ffon-y-Cawr - The Giant's Stick

Maen Y Bardd cromlech (The Poet’s Stone)

The main event loomed into view. It was unmissable, and I was glad that my walking boots had ensured allowing me to reach this point in relative dryness. Now the rainw as coming down much harder and I made towards the cromlech in search of shelter. Any fun intestigating it would have to wait. I dived inside as the winds howled and the rain lashed. In my haste I nearly tripped myself up getting in, but recovered and sat down in a heap. To complete stillness inside! It was like someone had put a great lid on a jar of angry bees. A tickle of air squeezed through the tighly-fitted stones at the back, and outside – as though on a television screen – I was horizontal rain passing by like an angry swarm of some biblical plague. Inside, all was dry and welcoming. I sat back and made myself comfortable, which was surprisingly easy despite the confined space. It was lovely. You know that feeling of being inside when all hell is breaking loose outside and rain is battering your window panes, but you’ve got a warm fire going inside and you’re dry? That was how I felt then. Safe, secure, home.

Whatever the intended purpose of these cromlechs, one of their functions is quite clearly practical! If you’re out on those hills and the weather turns on you, there’s no better place to sit it out. It was as though someone had oriented the stones to form the perfect barrier – no wind, no rain penetrated. And yet, I sat looking out of the side of the structure like looking through a huge window at the valley below, wreathed in the mists of rain. I was protected even though the “window” was wide open. Genius design.

Spirtual centre and element shelter

The homely feel began to have its effect. I began to zone out and ponder. I didn’t yet know that the structure was called The Poet’s Stones, and yet there I was dreaming about the majesty of the view, the way the lakes lay static and glistening in the valley below, and was creating metaphors for the rain in my mind. I was just thinking that this would be a delightful view on a sunny day when the rain began to ease off. Minutes later the sun broke through a spotlit several patched around. Again my mind went into poetry mode and I stared admiringly at this natural spectacle, taking photograpsh that I knew would never capture the beauty of those moments, the intense lighting and contrast, the suddenness of the shifts in weather. The atmosphere was highly spiritual.

View down the valley from Tal-Y-Fan

Back to practical matters. With the rains easing and the sun out I dowsed the cromlech I found that it was energetically clear and neutral. There were no energies present inside, no genius loci, no nature spirits, no elementals, no earth energies – nothing. There was nothing to ask permission from, so I added violet and gold energies to make the site more inviting to anything that may wish to inhabit the space, and asked for green natural lines to be attracted to the site by linking it to the stone circle above. Next time I visit the little hideaway I will check to see whether lines such as those are present or not.

So, there’s still more to see in this area, and of course, just over the other side of Tal-y-Fan are all the sites around Penmaenmawr which deserve more time too. Oh, if only the week was ten days long!

Gwas.

20th August, 2010 – Trevethy Quoit, St Cleer, Cornwall

It is not very often that Kal and I go on a wild goose chase. We are usually quite well prepared, and we have technology to back us up. More often than not we have hard copies of bits of Ordnance Survey maps accompanied by copious notes. For our journey into Devon, however, we had none of that and were utterly reliant upon a good internet connection, and the usually good advice of Aubrey Burl’s ‘Guide to Stone Circles’.

Let me please advise anyone planning a journey into Devon – neither of these sources is going to be good enough if the rains come down, the mist rolls in, and fog settles on the moors! We wasted a full day in persistent foggy drizzle and lashing rain traipsing back and forth trying to follow vague directions and a high level map that didn’t include most megalithic sites. Poor preparation, and we paid for it. By the end of the first day in Devon we had all but given up hope of finding a stone circle with relatively good access that was in good condition, despite having a list of at least four candidates! A dismal day.

All that was about to change, however, as we moved towards Cornwall. Bless lovely Cornwall! I picked a site that was at least marked as a tourist attraction on my high-level map, and we decided to attempt to make that our destination for a night-time visit. Yes, despite missing stone circles in the fog and mist in the day time, we were prepared to venture out into the fog and mist at night, expecting to find Trevethy Quoit! Were we mad? Luckily for us, fate lent us a hand and we were guided in using all the techno equipment we could muster!

Trevethy Quoit just as I sketched it yesterday

Scanning the site

Once we got some space to dowse when the local village dog-walkers had retired for the evening, we did so. I went about finding the energetic aura of the site, which was about thirty feet around the site, although I didn’t follow it all the way around to where the houses backed onto the site. It may have flattened there, I don’t know. I’m lax – slap me! (“Hi Lax, you’re a slacker” – *SLAP*).

Before things got interesting I dowsed to see if there was any form of energetic entity in the area. I have been practising putting up protection recently so I wanted to know if I needed to do that here too. Apparently I did need to, for a couple of reasons. Firstly, Kal had found a male genius loci and I found out that I wasn’t compatible with that and that it was wise for me to protect my energies in such circumstances. This seems to be generally true – I am moon-aligned (i.e. compatible with female energy forms) and so if I encounter a site which has a male energy signature I have found out that it is sensible for me to protect my energy field from degradation, depletion or attack.

Death energy path to quoit entrance

Another good reason or me to put up protection was that there was an energetic shroud (or Shade) that was still registering an energetic imprint on the site. This death energy form was buried at a spot facing down the hill from the quoit, but it had a series of five linked male power centres which curved in a parabolic sweep right up to the entrance of the quoit’s inner space. This death energy was still active and could be utilising whatever went on inside the quoit to persist and replenish its own energy. I wasn’t going to be party to that! I had recently been reminded about protection and this was a good opportunity for me to re-visit an old mental routine for establishing that protection. I could have used a crystal layout but I prefer to be able to do things mentally if possible, using crystals as a last resort only if the mental space is too crowded (from noise or other distractions). The dowsing rods led me outside of the site’s aura as a safe space within which to set this protection up, and I did so gratefully.

The Sirius Meditation

TQ in sunlight - possibly the only photograph in existence

I will be publishing a post soon with lots more detail about the information I have discovered about the star Sirius, but for now let’s just say I had some questions that I still needed answers to because it was a difficult subject to take on board without boggling the brain. With the Moon almost full I squeezed into the quoit’s cramped inner dark space in order to connect with the site and get some answers. Four sticks of incense were required to help me. In such a small space that was quite pungent!

TQ's rabbit hole

Fifteen minutes later I emerged with some interesting information that would challenge many of the assumptions that I had read about and which many magicians take for granted, especially natural magicians. Such a series of assertions was going to have to be well researched and considered, but I want to give you the highlights so that you can be considering your own questions to bring to the Sirius post. Hopefully I will have managed to weave together enough information by then to make it all coherent and intelligible. For now, here is what I learned for you to think about, challenge and test for yourselves:-

• It is Sirius, not The Moon, which governs the forces of fertility and protection
• Sirius emits a powerful radiance which facilitates the process of enlightenment for humans – the frequency of its rays resonate with our etheric energy points known as chakras.
• Sirius is a strong force radiating blue light which resonates with our throat chakras, facilitating communication. More so than Mercury is supposed to.
• Above all, Sirius’ light is a motivational force – it is the impulse that drives humans to learn. The more aware and open a person is to the forces of Sirius then the more they are motivated to learn and grow mentally and spiritually.

That was the information gleaned from the first site visit in Cornwall. I have three more to post including The Hurlers, The Cheesewring and Tintagel Castle. Hope you enjoy them soon.

Gwas.

This is the last, final and ultimate post on this year’s Ireland trip. We only went for a weekend but it has generated so many posts because so much happened in the three days we were there! This is the last one, and probably the one that taught us the most valuable lesson, even though that lesson was once again a painful one. 

On the Sunday evening we had discussed what we should do the next day. Kal wanted to show me a bookshop he had discovered at Tara and said that I would be interested in talking to the proprietor. Sounded good, so that was our plan. Monday morning over breakfast I had forgotten all about that for some reason. Only later would the reason be known to me - by that time I had attracted the unwelcome attention of a leprechaun from Tara. I was no longer making sensible decisions, as the events of this day and Kal’s behaviour towards me would bear out completely. 

 

 
 We had trouble finding the village for starters. A seemingly easy route that would take us most of the way towards the Ferry Terminal at Dun Laoghaire, and yet we managed to make it very difficult to find. We parked miles away from the supposed location of the portal tomb, and decided to walk what seemed a simple route to access it. Again, nothing about this day would turn out to be easy. We walked up tiny tracks (barely roads) past houses that weren’t marked on my GPS map, and were always being diverted and lead away from our intended destination! How frustrating! We persevered, climbing over a gate to follow an overgrown track alongside a field lined by prickly hawthorn hedges. Now we could at least see the dolmen, perched on the opposite hillside to where we were, only a few tantalising fields widths away from where we were. Surely this track would lead us there? No. It ended, and we were presented with a small hole in the hawthorn through which we might be able to squeeze if we wanted to. Does this sound familiar? Kal sounded a warning shot across the bows! I urged us closer and we scrambled through into a field in the full heat of the midday sun. Sweat broke out, and we paused for breath. Then onwards in a curious silence across the field. 

Next we fought our way through two fields, crossing a stream on the way between them. Somehow Kalmanaged to fall into it and get his feet wet! At the end of the field we were a mere hedge’s width away from reaching a road that looked like it could only lead to the dolmen. However – it was a hedge that even a Hedge Druid balks at – Red Rum would have thought twice about leaping this one! However, something was driving me on without any thought of sense and I urged Kal to use the old martial artist’s trick ‘walking lightly’ – this is where one imagines one is light as a feather and walks accordingly. Honestly, once mastered you’d be astounded by what this can achieve. As with dowsing, the trick is not to think at all about what you’re doing - just believe that you can do it. Next thing you know I was walking on top of the hedge and leaping down to the side of the road. Kal went next and immediately plunged knee deep into the prickly hawthorn branches! Honestly, I almost stifled my laugh, but not completely. Kalwas beginning to get annoyed at this journey now. Like I wasn’t?!! We were both sweating cobs, and Kal was wet and lacerated into the bargain. Hmm….still we were almost there now….only a few hundred feet to go. 

The Kilternan Dolmen 

Sure enough, a few short minutes later we were alongside the open field where the dolmen say resplendent in the summer sunshine. I was drawn towards it, passing under the electric wire that was designed to keep the one or two small horses that grazed the field in check. Kal faltered. He wouldn’t pass the electric barrier and retreated giving me stern looks. I was away, however, taking his reticence for a bad mood after the hedge-scraping incident. I shouted back at him -’I'll do some quick dowsing and then we can get off’. But it wasn’t going to be as simple as that. 

Kal retired to a boulder next to the road and began to take an interest in the horses that were wandering down towards him. I, on the other hand, had my dowsing rods out and was eager to check this hard-won site out:- 

1. Was there energy here? YES. Good, because I was concerned about the use of concrete pillars to support the capstone and whether this had affected the energies.
2. Had the power of the site been adversely affected by the concrete pillars? YES. But some energy remained? YES.
3. Was it beneficial energy? YES, sort of. That half yes response again which meant – “re-formulate your question slightly“.
4. Was it beneficial to me? YES. Was it beneficial to Kal? NO. Oh! Perhaps he had intuitively recognised that?
5. Could I do some energy work here? YES.
6. Did the site need healing? NO. Was it balanced? YES. Hmmm…then what to do….?
7. Was there a spirit of place here? NO. Did there used to be one? YES.
8. Is the cave-like interior suitable for shaping my aura? YES. Could I do that today? YES.
9. Would that process be helped by incense? YES. How many sticks? 3. I lit three sticks and went to sit inside the dolmen’s small interior.

Minutes later I was imagining the seven colours of the chakras I had been working with all integrating into my aura as one white light. The shape of the interior seemed to facilitate this intuitive imagining, and I felt like it helped to compress the various frequencies of light and colour into the one blended layer. I felt…integrated with myself and satisfied. I emerged to re-join Kal to see if he was over his strange mood. 

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After Bryn Celli Ddu we travelled further along the southern coast road towards the village of Brynsencien. We had discovered some interesting new patterns of energy around the ancient mound and chamber, and had spent time drawing upon the Winter Solstice energies. Now we wanted to see whether those energies might change at the next set of sites we planned to visit: The Bryngwyn Stones and The Soar Stone.

2. Bryngwyn Stones: SH462669 – off the A4080 towards Newborough (South West Anglesey) 

We had a vague idea about the whereabouts of the remaining two massive stones that had once formed part of two small circles, and it was much easier to find the location this second time. We parked in a small lay-by next to the A4080 just past the village of Brynsencien and made our way over a stile through the heavily muddied fields towards the imposing sight of the two tall stones in the stark sunlight. 

What's left of the Bryngwyn circles

 In contrast to the smooth clean paths to Bryn Celli Ddu the Bryngwyn stones were surrounded in deep mud, and I was glad of my walking boots. If you plant o visit these stones – be warned – choose a dry summer’s day, and watch for the heavily pitted approach to them, as cows have turned the fields into battlefields. 

The Bryngwyn Stones fascinated us on our last visit because they dowsed as being two small circles, despite the imposing size of the stones themselves. The remaining stones mark the boundary between two fields, but also between the two circles – each original circles must have been in either field. Oddly, we decided to dowse for the position of a King Stone, which I got to be some thirty feet away from the remaining stone in what can only be described as a faery ring – that unique circle of differently-coloured grass in a ring that marks this feature. Kal confirmed the position for me, and we judged that the King Stone was probably quite close to the outer edge of the original stone circle, almost providing the view in the photograph above.

Excellent hide-and-seek material

Kal began to become interested in bathing in the sunlight that was being captured by the smaller female stone (the one with the flat top). I, on the other hand, had positioned myself resting in the completely diametrically opposite position of lying against the flat and upright male stone in the shade. Not a position I would have chosen, ordinarily, but one which the dowsing rods had led me to take up. Again, this was not something that we noticed initially, but realised when we came to talk to each other – “Oh – look where we’re positioned – opposite each other and standing against the stones that are opposite to our usual polarities!”.  Yes, these are the kind of conversations we have.

I meditated in the shade of the tall male stone and I felt the energy that I have gathered at Bryn Celli Ddu begin to, well, I can only describe it as…consolidate, or agglomerate. It was like it was re-arranging itself and compacting at the same time, sort of…sorting itself out, if you like. Later, Kal described much the same process, and we again were astonished at the similarity of the experience. We had both experienced it differently, but the effect was the same. We both used different terms to describe it, but the process we were describing was unmistakably similar.

Rear view of the Bryngwyn stones showing the thin male stone

 As I “came to” from my meditation I began to focus on a point in the distance. I had my back to the flat male stone was the angle made my eyes unvaryingly come to rest upon a small mound that stood out in the middle distance that seemed to have a megalith or a structure on top of it. I couldn’t make it out properly at the time, but when I got home I found that this line led to a Dolmen called Bodowyr.

One day I will walk to it and investigate it, because at the time I felt it was a significant alignment, if only for me. Apparently it stands on a rise that has a view down to the Menai Straits, exactly where the Bryngwyn Stones are situated.

3. Soar Stone, SH319864 – Llanfaethlu village on the A5025 (North West Anglesey) 

The tall Soar Stone is situated next to a church building just off the A5025 Valley to Cemaes road at Llanfaethlu village. It is in a field right next to the road. The stone is about 10 feet tall, flat and encircled by male earth energy. This stone is not connected to other sites, but is self-contained, which is rather unusual, so we have found. We took some photographs, did enough dowsing to realise that there was only a ring of male energy around the stone and that’s it, and then Kal wanted to go. I didn’t, however.

The Soar Stone next to a church

I stood on the sunny side of this male stone. Kal did not need to do any energy work at this site, so stood idly by complaining about the bitter cold and how I should hurry up. I relaxed and began a quick meditation, ignoring his complaints. The only purpose I could determine for this stone was to further charge up my heavily-depleted male energies. I came to realise that I had been working almost exclusively with female energy over the last year, and that over that period I had created a huge imbalance. The Soar Stone, catching the Winter Solstice sunlight square on and being enclosed by a male earth energy field, was helping to bolster my male energy and bring my into a state of equilibrium. After five minutes I felt very balanced (purely subjective, of course) and we were able to take our leave. Simple – effective. 

The 'powering up point' of the Soar Stone

Now that I had achieved and energetic balance Kal was eager to get to the final site that we needed to visit on our little tour of Anglesey – Lligwy Chamber. He felt that something exciting was going to happen there on this special day, and his infectious enthusiasm meant that we headed there without distraction or delay. You can read all about that, including a new energy map of the site, in the next post. 

Gwas Myrddyn.

This post follows on from the first part of the Rollright Stones complex, which can be found here. In the previous post I had been dowsing arounnd the King Stone. I had identified a female line that followed the course of the path that leads up to the stone, and now I was following it back to see whether it connected to the King’s Men stone circle, as it appeared to if I followed the line of sight.

I wandered across the road following the zig-zag motion of the female energy line, which got decreasingly erratic as is moved towards the King’s Men circle. The rods showed me that the line went into the northern end of the circle, so, as I couldn’t follow it directly through the fence and hawthorn trees, I opted to pick it up again from the other side. So I made my way into the signposted stone circle area, where I was accosted my a modern day highwayman! Stand and deliver! He wanted a whole engligh pound sterling from me, which I duly obliged him.

As it turned out, a pound was a cheap price to pay for some priceless dowsing tips from the old man. We started off on the wrong foot as he challenged my tools of the trade for being un-sheathed. His, by comparison, were contained in copper handles, but looked too thin and wiry to be of any use in a stiff breeze. I retorted that there were no rules regulating this dowsing lark, and that my opinion was different to his – I liked to feel the response of the rods as they turned so that I could gauge the strength of the reaction, and feel for whether it was a true response or caused by an external factor like the wind. This didn’t go down well – a relative youngster debating with a seasoned pro – and he went on to present his credentials: 50 years dowsing and a former member of the BSD (“too many silly people with their own pet theories“). Oh dear, I didn’t let on that I might be one of those very people whom he detested – an independent thinker with my own ideas. I did the polite thing and appeared impressed, but in my experience longevity is not a good indicator of ability.

We discussed the nature of the site, and he swung into action with his own theories on “positive” and “negative”, or helpful and harmful energies. He was a healer who had spent a lot of time at this circle, which he claimed had healing properties because it was composed of limestone, which was porous, and therefore capable of absorbing harmful energies and purifying them. This he opposed to granite sites, which he categorised as generally harmful and the cause of illness. “Ah, geopathic stress” – I responded. I mentioned that I wasn’t much into healing, but that I was interested in understanding the workings of the site’s energies. “Well, you’ll find lots of energies here.” he stated emphatically. He wasn’t wrong.

Later, as I dowsed, I was treated to both a display of his “twirling rods” as they helicoptered and whirred around in the centre of the circle, and then to a display of his healing capabilities as he wobbled a lady’s head around until she told him she felt better. I’m not going to say anything about either display, as I’m a mere youngster who understands nothing, and have much to learn yet.

The Nemeton’s Edge

I started my own investigations by looking for an aura, or nemeton for the circle. I got a boundary response from the rods about 25 feet outside the stones on the south side (the site is approached from the south-east end). I followed this male edge line clockwise around the site and found that it narrowed up to the stones themselves at the western side before increasing again to about 10 feet wide coming back around the northern edge. By the time the nemeton was back at the south side it was back out to 25 feet wide.

Cross Leys and Entrances

Two neutral alignment leys traversed the site – one running North-South and the other travelling East to West. At the point where the east-west ley line hit the western edge of the circle, at the nemeton’s thinnest point, I found an entrance to the circle. I later discovered that there were two entrances to the circle – one for lunar-aligned people, and another for solar-aligned people. The western entrance was for those people aligned to the moon’s energies, whilst the more “famous” southern entrance was that discovered by archaeologists and other dowsers, many of whom must have been solar-aligned people, I reckon.

As a reminder, you’ll know if you’re solar or lunar aligned from standing in the power centre that is either male or female. If you stand on one that is not aligned to your energy field (and it doesn’t matter if you’re male or female as to whether you’re solar or lunar aligned) then you’ll feel a certain discomfort after a while, such as a tense head, even a headache, feelings of queasiness or a tight stomach, or more generally just an inclination to move away from that place. Luckily, most of us intuitively go to stand on places to which we are aligned. Sensible us!

Central healing spirals

After having seen the old gentleman doing his twirly rods show for tourists I decided to take a look at the centre point. I firstly dowsed for a male energy and found a spiral starting some six feet out from the brown bare patch of earth that marked the middle. A tight spiral (unusual) of male energy spiralled densely-packed lines into the centre, but the outer edges didn’t go anywhere – this spiral was self-contained. Again, quite an unusual finding.

Next I dowsed for any female energy, and found a much looser spiral going anti-clockwise and overlaid on top of the male energy spiral. This female spiral was not quite so tightly-wound (again, quite unusual), but its terminus point was outside of the circle, as the energy of the third spiral snaked off through the western entrance and into the trees and the setting sun.

In my experience a combined male and female energy, in addition to the crossing of the two ley lines, would form a powerful positive energy formation, and this seemed to be what the old man was demonstrating with his healing and twirling displays. As he looked on I credited him with choosing the perfect spot to perform with energy work, to which he winked knowingly.

As I dowsed for the suitability of the site to various purposes the only strong response was to “healing”. Again, it looked like the old man was right to say that the limestone circle was suited to healing and purification. Equally, despite his idea that granite-based rocks generate “bad” energy, I was certain from my own findings that granite stone circles are suited to transformation of consciousness. But he didn’t look like he cared for that kind of thing, so I kept it to myself.

Western entrance to the right of the stones

Male and female stone balance

I decided next to dowse each individual stone to find out how many were male and how many were female. The general outcome was that there were two banks of female stones consisting of at least two sets of 5-8 stones at the western and eastern points. The northern and southern edges were much more complicated, alternating frequently between small groups of male then female stones, sometimes even single stones going M-F-M-F. There were, however, three banks of male stones consisting of at least 5 stones in the south-western edge, the north-western edge and the eastern edge. All in all the number of male or female stones seemed well balanced, and this was certainly how the site felt.

‘Hairy’ stones

Each stone has an energy spiral coming out of its exterior face, and a short spiral going around the base of the stone. Female spirals are anti-clockwise (although they start off circling clockwise around the stone before turning back on themselves outside the circle to form an anti-clockwise spiral). Male stones do the opposite, but with slightly less tight spirals (fewer turns). We have found this at many other sites like Gors Fawr and Nine Ladies to name but two where we have looked for it.

The Southern View

The King Stone connection

I found the female line from the King Stone over the road coming in at the north-eastern edge of the circle. This line terminated at a female spiral at the northern end of the circle. However, there were four other female centres connected to this line, and they appeared all around the western edge of the circle, going from the north to the south, and including my own power centre. In all, five female power centre spirals connected to each other on the western side of the circle.

This was somewhat mirrored by the two male power centres I found that were connected to some circle stones on the eastern side of the circle. Starting at the eastern edge a male energy line moved in and out of the stones, sometimes circling them, to eventually terminate at a spiral in the south-eastern edge inside the circle.

Both sets of male and female connected centres had energy flows that were bi-directional – they flowed back and forth between the first and last power centres, and presumably back to the King Stone in the case of the female lines. The male centres were again, like the central spiral, a self-contained energy system.

Staff marking my power centre

Finally I asked a series of questions that I have asked at other sites recently. They were:-

1. Is the site still capable of performing its original function? - NO.
2. Is the site still energetically active? - YES.
3. Can the site be activated, or when is it best to activate it? – Activated by human activity at Samhain (Oct/Nov).
4. Is the purpose of the site education, revelation, healing, transformation, communication, purification or some other purpose? –  HEALING, PURIFICATION.
5. Does the site need restoring, healing or balancing? – NO.
6. Is a genius loci present at the site? – YES, a female energy.
7. Does the site respond to human interaction, the position of the sun, moon, or stars? – HUMANS, SUNSET, FULL MOON.
8. Can the site be used as an observatory, a calendar, for initiation or as a burial place? – CALENDAR, INITIATION
9. Is there underground water at this site? – YES, at the western entrance flowing SE out of the circle. (i.e. from the point of the narrowest part of the nemeton to the point where it was at its widest).

Armed with that information I headed off South East towards the site of the Whispering Knights, a ruined dolmen that stands at the south-easterly edge of the adjacent field to the King’s Men circle. When I arrived I was of course disappointed to find that these stones were also caged. Presumably to stop them wandering around the countryside mauling unsuspecting meek children?

I found that the aura of the stones was again contained within the iron cage, but there was a combined male and female line coming out of the north-westerly edge, and the rods were pointing directly at the King’s Men circle. I dowsed as to whether the two sites were connected by this line and got a positive response.

In addition to this there was a line coming out a little further north. It was a male energy line that connected to the raised mound I had seen next to the King Stone some hours ago. So, more dowsing will have to be done to prove that this line connects directly to that mound, but that is how is appears at the moment. I will have to do some more work on that mound next time I come down to the Rollrights.

Gwas.

Visiting an old stalwart.