The Hedge Druid

Posts Tagged ‘dyserth’

When Kal suggested a visit to Gop Hill on a fine late Winter evening my first thoughts were “A feminine site on a full moon night? I’m supposed to be working with male energy and Light!”. The scenario seemed contrary to my supposed direction this year, so I had to re-shape the proposal. How could I take advantage of this wonderful opportunity, and still fit in with my directive? I pondered a while and came up with this – what if I tried to speak to the energy form known as Merlin, and to ask him whether he could assist with with spirit release work? I am currently reading Sue Allen’s book “Spirit Rescue” and in the current chapter it has been talking about Merlin being an excellent resource to call upon to help with Spirit Rescue.

As we navigated through the darkness without torches we were ‘lucky’ not to trip or stumble. I guess we have become accustomed to walking in such conditions now. You would have expected that the Full Moon light would have guided us, but the moon was nowhere to be seen. We sort of felt cheated, but then realised that there was currently a great deal of solar activity (an X-Class flare was blasting our ionosphere at the time). The fullness of this solar energy seemed to balance the fullness of the lunar energy, and this night felt like a good night for working. We reached the hill and I stopped to ask for entry. Granted. We walked to the top of the hill.

On the top of the hill we suddenly were made aware of the strength of the wind. Up to that point I can’t say I noticed it, but on top of Gop Hill the air was roaring around us. Kal lay down and mentioned that the wind was much easier to deal with lying down. I lay down too and the wind just…well…stopped! I could hear it roaring above me, but there was nothing touching me at all. I looked left and right – no barriers or crests on either side of me – so how was….? I switched off my rational train of thoughts. The rational part of my brain was now beginning to get in the way.

I sat in the power centre that I had found for myself with the wild wind stilled temporarily as though deflected by a pure glass dome that I couldn’t see. The space I was in was warm and comforting – I was in the bosom of the female spirit of the hill, I felt. Yet, my quest at this time was to meet with a male force, so I turned my attention to that instead. I connected by grounding and centring myself into the hill and around it. The connection came easily with all the energy around that evening. I began to send out the intention that I wished to communicate with the spirit that I recognised as Merlin….

..there was a sharp and noticeable gust of wind that managed to find its way into the stillness centre that I was lying in, and it made itself known to me. Rational Brain began to pipe up, “Just a gust of wind; could have happened at any time; maybe will happen again if you wait; can’t get meaning out of that; it’s just wind….etc.” I fought to turn the dialogue off again. Honestly,the rational brain is like some kind of geyser – when the pressure of silence has held it down for too long it has to blow in a gush and a rush of babbling nonsense disguised as a logical thought process. I went back into meditation again, concentrating but not concentrating on being still and quiet.

I had encountered coincidental gusts of wind before. They were usually a sign (not always, but often). Taking the gust of wind as a sign that Merlin was around, I then asked if he would join with me and my spirit guide to help us at some future point should we need to do some spirit release work, returning energies to a state of equilibrium and harmony. I’ve been listening to some talks by Christian Kyriacou recently and I am coming around to his idea of re-balancing energies in the “energy matrix”, rather than the traditional approach of sending spirits to the light. The series of podcasts published by the British Society of Dowsers is a good starting point for understanding this point of view.

In response to this request for assistance my right ear got a short blast of air. I took this as an answer, but was it a YES or a NO? I asked another question to which I knew the answer was a definite no, and the short blast resounded in my left ear this time. I therefore knew that the first answer was a YES. Always testing.

Pareidolia for Pagans

Soon after I began to emerge from my meditative stare. I half-opened my eyes, looked straight up into the darkening sky and noticed the cloud formation directly above me. There was a definite shape to the one cloud that had any distinctive elements to it. There was a man in a pointed hat sat at a desk reading a book. It was Merlin! Of course we always make the amorphous shapes of clouds into shapes that we recognise. I understand that. I have experimented with such things on many occasions both as a child and as an adult. I know how this works – there’s even a psychological terms for it – pareidolia. More often than not there is no discernible shape to any cloud, and it takes a monumental feat of imagination to form one into anything even remotely similar to a recognisable shape. Yet here – almost upon request – was the shape of a bearded wizard figure reading a book. There it was. Unchanging. unmistakable, unique and probably only for me to see.

Of course, all this is a manufactured coincidence created within my febrile mind due to lying about on a cold hill in early March. Yet I came away from that evening with the feeling that I had gained an ally in my inevitable future work with healing sacred places.

Gwas.

Dowsing Results for 2009

At the start of the year I faithfully followed the proposed dates that aligned with the current Gregorian calendar. As the year progressed beyond Summer Solstice I came to feel that the dates that were marked as celebration dates bore little relation to the times when earth energies were specifically active. The Gregorian dates for the Pagan Festivals in particular felt wrong, and were egergetically unremarkable. I started to align my visits with other criteria. My reasoning was that, for Equinox and Solstice days - celebrations of the sun – then the exact day as stated originally was accurate. For the pagan festival dates I took the nearest full moon date to be the correct day to try to do some dowsing. Often, this didn’t quite work out because I had already booked the Gregorian dates off work and so was often only free to dowse at sacred sites on those dates.

Here were the dates that I had written down as being the days to test for subtle energetic potential:-  

• Imbolc – 1 Feb (First Quarter moon)
• Spring Equinox – Thu Mar 20 5:48 GMT
• Beltane – 1 May (almost First Quarter moon)
• Summer Solstice – Sun Jun 21 0:59 BST
• Lammas – 1 Aug (six days from Full Moon)
• Autumn Equinox – Mon Sep 22 16:44 BST
• Samhain – 1 Nov (Full Moon)
• Winter Solstice – Sun Dec 21 12:04 GMT

You will notice that I have used the original Gregorian dates rather than those that I shifted eleven days prior to these trying to account for the calendar shift in the Middle Ages. Here were my original propositions and thoughts as a reminder of what I was trying to do:

We’re going to have to dowse on those days as we go through the year and see what happens. When does it feel right, and when are the energies particularly active? … I would hope that the male energies would be more active on the days of solar worship such as Summer Solstice, or the Equinoxes. If we get sun in Britain on those dates then we have a chance to test this theory out by visiting some of the sites we went to over this Winter period, when the energies seemed distinctly quiet and weak, with no evidence of male energy activity at all. On active solar days we would expect to find the qualities associated with maleness – protection, transformation through initiation, and the manipulation of energy.

The festival dates when the moon is very present coincide with the lunar festivals of the cross-quarter days (Beltane and Samhain) this year. That’s lucky for us and we can report on the status of the female earth energies at sites on those dates. We expect that the traditionally female aspects will be in evidence on those dates, that is fertility powers, sanctuary and healing.

We hope to be able to answer whether the times of year of the festivals correlate to a particular quality of the powers of the moon or sun at that time. The White Virgin (the first stage of the goddess) is linked to Spring. Are fertility powers stronger at Beltane and Spring Equinox? May Day was always seen as a fertility festival. Imbolc is associated with Brigid and healing. Are the healing energy frequencies strongest at this time?

Not all dates were able to be tested due to circumstances or time restrictions, but where they could then I have recorded the results. My conclusions will be compared with my expectations as recorded at the beginning of the year.

I am very unhappy with the quality of the results for this experiment. There were notable times when we didn’t take any measurement of the relative strengths of the energies and this has made the results quite inconclusive. Therefore, I will endeavour to be more rigorous this year and to try to capture the information more reliably and objectively. Therefore, please consider these results as an “indication” of what might be the case.

I also believe that there are some factors that have come to light this year that affect the results, i.e. the position of various planets at that point in the year, the position of the sun and moon, how clear the skies were, and to take into account the strengths of male and female energies separately, as well as differentiating between earth and radiant energy strengths.

Therefore, all in all, I feel the results from 2009 are of purely subjective value. However, I am including what data I did gather so that I can compare this year’s information with it to see if anything at all does begin to form a pattern.

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IMBOLC – February 1st

Actual visit date(s): February 1st & 2nd

Moon Phase: Almost First Quarter

Location: Dyserth village

Sites visited: St.Bridget’s Church, Castle Dyserth (quarry where we made a stone circle), Graig Fawr hill, Dyserth Waterfall, Gop Hill

Dowsing results: A significant change in the strength of the male energies from 1st to 2nd February. As there was significant cloud cover I could not attribute this increase to the appearance of the sun.

Activities: Only dowsing. Nothing relating to energy specifically.

Post Link: Dyeserth 3

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SPRING EQUINOX - March 20th

Actual visit date: March 20th

Location: Bryn Celli Ddu, Anglesey

Sites visited: Bryn Celli Ddu, Penmaenmawr stone circle

Dowsing results: The energy “felt” balanced. We were not inclined to dowse much at all. What dowsing was done turned up a perfect balance between male and female energy strengths. Was this purely suggestive, or was it real?

Activities: Attuning ourselves on top of an ancient mound, healing a stone circle with positive balancing energies.

Post Link: A Balance of Light & Dark

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BELTANE – May 1st

Actual visit date: May 1st

Moon Phase: Almost First Quarter

Location: Helsby, Cheshire.

Sites visited: Helsby Hill, Woodhouses Hill and a modern man-made mound.

Dowsing results: Again, we failed to measure the relative strengths of the energies. Energy was successfully sent from one site to the next, however.

Activities: Lighting incense and manifesting energies from hilltop to hilltop.

Post Link: Firing Manifestations

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SUMMER SOLTICE – June 21st

Actual visit date: Jone 20th and 21st

Location: Glastonbury, Somerset,

Sites visited: Barrowbridge Mump, Wearyall Hill, White Spring, Glastonbury Tor, Gog and Magog trees

Dowsing results: Very strong male energies, overwhelming the female energy (which wasn’t weak either). Strongest male energy of the year.

Activities: Meditating at various sites, being intuitively led to them, and instinctively having our chakras opened at those places to receive an influx of positive inspirational energies.

Post Link: The Opening of the Chakras

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LAMMAS - August 1st

Rejuvenated forest clearing

Actual visit date: August 1st

Moon Phase: 5 days from Full Moon

Location: The Sandstone Trail, Cheshire.

Sites visited: Beeston Castle, Peckforton Castle, Utkinton, Delamere Forest, Frodsham.

Dowsing results: Finding healing white energy spirals (composed of female tree and earth energy).

Activities: Drawing energy from the land (energising), healing,

Post Link: Llamas and Lammas

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AUTUMN EQUINOX – August 22nd

Actual visit date: August 19th and 20th

Location: Wiltshire and Oxfordshire

Sites visited: Alton Barnes White Horse, Wayland’s Smithy, Uffington White Horse

Dowsing results: Unusually strong male and female energies that were well balanced. The sun was glorious for these two days, and I felt completely relaxed, to the point where I was “spaced out” by being at sites – this “good feeling” was due to the “white” energy of the balanced and combined male and female energies, I believe.

Activities: Using sigils, following intuition, a pilgrimage of ancient sites, balancing chakra energies, transformation process.

Post Link: Trail of the White Dragon

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SAMHAIN – November 1st

Actual visit date: November 2nd

Moon Phase: Full Moon

Location: Wiltshire.

Sites visited: Silbury Hill, West Kennet Long Barrow.

Dowsing results: Stronger response than first visit I made some months earlier. The energy was male energy atop this mound. It was so strong it made me dizzy! I felt highly charged with subtle energy, and I could draw upon both male and female forms. Dowsing response was incredibly strong under the full moon.

Activities: Meditating, shamanic flying, empowerment of energy fields.

Post Link: None.

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WINTER SOLSTICE – December 21st

Actual visit date: 21st December

Location: Anglesey

Sites visited: Bryn Celli Ddu, Bryngwyn Stones, The Soar Stone, Lligwy Chamber

Dowsing results: Stronger female energies surrounding Bryn Celli Ddu; minimal male energy coming only from the stones. Male energy at Soar Stone restricted to close to the stone. Weak in nature. Male energy at Lligwy was confined to power centres, whilst female energy was again enclosing the central stones, as though protecting them? Our normal alignments (m/f) were reversed for this day – Kal went for female energy whilst I sought out male energy.

Activities: transformation, shamanic flying, empowerment, balancing of chakras.

Post Link: Anglesey Winter Solstice

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CONCLUSIONS

There are hints within this set of information that various factors such as the time of year, and the position of the sun and moon, all affect the strengths of the subtle energies at sacred sites and elsewhere. However, the poor quality and consistency of the information I gathered does not allow me to make any clear statement to that effect. Therefore, this year I will try to take more accurate, consistent and objective records of this data, including the new factors that I believe may be relevant including the influence of planets, and whether the sun or moon are visible when the dowsing takes place.

Watch for this post next year to see if I can get anything that might be approaching a conclusion!

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]

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Gwas.

Section 5. Ancient Sites

From the beginning of my journey with the tools of dowsing I have sought to understand the way in which ancient sites may have been used, and how the energies of those places were shaped by the formation of the ancient monuments. During the year this directive has had to sit alongside the fascinating development of my work with Nature itself, however, some very interesting developments have occurred not in spite of that growth of spiritual practise, but because of it. Here are some of the main points that have been gleaned from dowsing and druidry this year concerning the nature and function of sacred sites.

This year has seen us visit some of the most awe-inspiring ancient sites from the stunning background scenery of the Cumbrian circle, to the fields of stone rows at Carnac, the giant megaliths of Brittany, and the quaint but powerful sites along the Ridgeway in Oxfordshire and Wiltshire. Not forgetting, of course, all our favourite sites in North Wales, Shropshire and Derbyshire, with which we are becoming quite familiar.

5-1. Recurring features of stone circles: We have found some identifiable and consistent component parts of a stone circle’s layout:-

• a King Stone – sometimes called a ‘Heel’ stone as well. This is a standing stone of a height similar to the stones within the circle, but outlying the circle. The distance from the circle itself can be quite variable, from a few feet (Druid’s Circle) to a hundred yards (Mitchell’s Fold). We term the stone ‘King’ stone because tends to dowse as being ‘male’, and usually has a source of male energy. This male energy is obtained from two sources: The Sun’s radiant energy, and the placement of the stone upon underground flowing water at a geological fault.
• a Transformer Stone. I also call this a ‘Queen Stone’ because it draws down the radiant energies from The Moon and transforms them into female earth energies to add to the stone circle’s energy flows. The other source of female energy is energy from structure of the rock – either from the stone itself or the geology beneath the stone.
• a Grounding Stone. So-called because its function is to draw down energy from anything that interacts with it. If a person sits on such a stone they may begin to feel drained or tired. People sensitive to subtle energies can feel the energy being drawn into the stone and surrounding earth. It seems to have a cleansing effect leaving a person’s energy aura “cleaner” – i.e. free of the detritus of modern life, such as electro-magnetic radiation (this is just a working assumption at the moment – an intuition). When considering the concept of ‘cleansing’ before any ritual or energy work, we now consider this stone to be part of the preparation for that work.
• Male and female energies. We have spoken many times on the fact that male and female energies are present at sites, and on their relative strengths and qualities, even on their possible sources. What we discovered this year was their interaction with each other. The male and female energies, like the double-helix of a DNA molecule, interact by alternately attracting and repulsing each other, and this dynamism creates the ‘vibrancy’ of the energy at a site.
• Neutral energy flows in straight lines across a site, travelling through it, and providing a course for the helix of male and female energies to latch onto. 
• Celestial bodiesaffect the flow of energies within a site. We are not yet sure whether the design of the site determines which planet’s radiant energy is able to be captured, or whether the planet’s energy has determined which type of structure would be built.
• A double helix of male and female intertwined energies, usually flowing to and from the outliers (e.g. King Stone or Grounding Stone).

5-2. Home-grown circles: We could build our own stone circle this year at Castell Dyserth by placing rocks. This was re-inforced for us when we repaired an existing circle’s flows by adding in these extra home-made circles.

A home-made stone circle

5-3. The geology of sites: seems to affect the purpose, but not type, of the energy present at the site. For example, limestone sites are useful for healing and purification, whereas granite sites are useful for transformation, and for fixing information in place which may be recalled later. It is particularly female earth energy whose character and purpose seems to be determined by the geological properties of the area.

5-4. A site with a strong nemeton attracts visitors, or, a well-visited site reflects the energy of its visitors in a stronger dowsing signal.

Le Champ Dolent - a well-visited megalith

5-5. Some standing stones and their notches serve the purpose of showing astrological alignments of sun, moon, planets and stars. The notches have been made by human hands specifically to record such alignments, presumably to inform people of the time of the greatest energy flows when planets are at their zenith or in conjunction, or when the moon or sun are at a specific phase.

5-6. Aligned entrances: Sacred sites have entrances. Some sites have one for solar-aligned people and another for lunar-aligned people. Some sites have specific entrance stones that have an energetic barrier between them. The purpose of this is not exactly known yet.

Solar southern entrance

7. Ritual paths: Some sites have ritual entry paths. As we can’t be sure whether we are picking up the traces of previous ritual paths determined by the long-term use of humans, or if those paths are naturally-occurring doe to the formation of the sites themselves, we can’t be sure of their exact purpose.

5-8. Tall artificial moundslike Silbury Hill focus energy to the peak of the mound. Like the capstone of a pyramid Silbury Hill, for example, focuses all of its energy flows into a conical space at its peak. It seems designed specifically for this purpose, energetically speaking.

5-9. Chambered ‘tombs’: have small chambers that serve specific purposes, which can be decoded using the rods. These chambers can be used for vision quests and transformative experiences.

5-10. Petroglyphs: can be linked to specific places in the site. In other words, by dowsing it is possible to be taken from a cup-mark, hollow or line to its corresponding place within the site. In this way petroglyphs or cup-marked stones can be seen as “maps” of the energetic places within a site.

Gwas.

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

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

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

The Eagle As Signpost

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

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

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

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

St.Elmo’s Summer House

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

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

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

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

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

Angry Young Bulls

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

The Golden Grove

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Gwas.

Guided by eagles – bullied by cows and dogs.

If you remember, I had got to the end of a good day’s dowsing with Kal and was parked ready to walk to another site when I realised that I had forgotten my staff. I slightly panicked, but quickly quelled it. Oh la merde. Where had I left it? A quick flick through recent stopping points…at the caves above Dyserth Waterfall. I had put it into one of the adjoining cave mouths and I remembered thinking, “Don’t leave that here or someone will take it for definite.” I wouldn’t do that. I wanted fizzy pop and ginger beer, and the sun was shining. What could possibly go wrong? It doesn’t matter how many horror films you watch, the human mind has an incredible happiness-overrides-sense-of-impending-doom capability.

We could go back for it after we had finished looking for the Golden Grove. Right. What to do in the meantime so that I didn’t have it dominate my thoughts and block any dowsing potential? I would try to connect to the staff and protect it somehow. I had no idea how, but I went with whatever would come to mind. I relaxed and prepared my mind for a moment to have a think. As my brain waves altered I unfocused my eyes and imagined the staff. I could picture it clearly where I had left it. It was like looking at a cartoon of it, a photo-realistic cartoon, like the imagery in the film “A Scanner Darkly“, if you’ve seen that. I saw it bathed in a light blue glow from top to bottom, a Ready-Brek glow. The fact that I could see it so clearly, and that it was ‘alive’ with energy made me feel confident about the next bit.

Staff Leaving Place

I focused my attention on the staff, saying to it that if anyone picked it up they would find that it made their head spin, and that this feeling would make them feel a bit sick, like taking a corner too fast in a car. They wouldn’t be able to hold their attention and would feel compelled to drop the stick to stop the feeling. I could feel that feeling, and although it was a bit nauseating it wasn’t too unpleasant – just unpleasant enough. It felt alright to do this, if slightly awkward about the need to do it. I hoped no-one had found it since we had left a half-hour ago.

An hour later Kal dropped me off in a narrow steep and muddy lane as I attempted to find a quick route back to the top of the waterfall. I found a path across the fields on the top of the waterfall and made my way down its steep clay slope until I found the caves again from above. I rushed straight to the lunchtime spot …. no staff. It had gone. What now? I stopped to calm down. “It was just a stick. You can go get another one.” I wasn’t prepared to let it go that easily. I walked around by the river to the other cave entrance for a look. Around the corner, there it was, lying with other much smaller sticks, looking intact. I stopped before it and laughed.

Staff Finding Place

I didn’t know what to say so I didn’t say anything. After all, this is all nonsense and coincidence. You make of it what you will at the time. I picked up my staff and almost pole-vaulted myself back to Kal’s car in a proud and happy moment that rescued the day for me. Something had returned my staff to me. Our adventure continues.

Theory: Over the next few days I considered how this kind of thing came about. What I resolved was that an opportunity arose in the form of an event in time that revealed a potential for me to effect change. Once I had decided, or believed, that I could generate a protective thought-form around the staff, once I had that intention that grew out of concern, then the visualisation of that event emerged in my mind. Powered by a measured flow of loving vibes this protection seems to have been enacted upon the staff such that it did indeed have a shield around it, and this may have caused the person who took it to drop it rather shortly afterwards, leaving the staff in plain sight next to the river. Whether that did indeed happen is sort of irrelevant, because the outcome was the desired effect.

Apparently our brains are programmed to quickly establish cause and effect relationships, although whether they were always so is another matter. This is not the first time I have noticed that acts of natural magick work most effectively providing the conditions are right. Such conditions as I have uncovered I will list:-

• Intention must be honest, if only to yourself
• The desired effect cannot be commanded, it must be negotiated, or asked for respectfully
• To contrive a circumstance in order to display an effect will guarantee failure, if not abject humiliation
• Your abilities are limited by your desire to learn, and the depth to which you can form a trusting relationship with Nature
• A degree of humility is required to execute natural magick, and smugness at a positive outcome will garner no respect.
• Conviction and sincerity make the relationship stronger, and the outcome more defined. Leave your intention fuzzy and a fuzzy event will occur which only partially fulfills the intended result.
• Results come when they should be delivered, not when you want them to be. Again, tied to the concept that the forces of Natural Magick will not be ordered around. They may co-operate under the right circumstances, but take offense at being expected to deliver.

These are part of The Rules as I have uncovered them so far. I’m sure there are many more, like in any complex system. Yet so far the outcomes I have seen and experienced from using these principles has more than enhanced my life – they have changed my worldview, and made me much more interested in the wonders of our world. Perhaps they may do the same for you.

Update: I went walking this week along the Sandstone Trail. A robin greeted me from a position two feet away as I began the walk and I stopped to listen attentively, although I didn’t understand what he wanted to communicate. Nevertheless I made it known that I was delighted by the encounter, and walked on after he flew off. An hour or so later ,as the circular walk wound back around Bickerton Hill, I turned a corner to find three pieces of a fallen beech tree branch. One piece was a useful 5′ tall, straight and in good condition. I took hold of it and it felt sturdy and supportive. As I walked it moved easily and swung truly. It would appear that I have found a spare staff! Even in Winter, Nature provides.

Gwas

Retracing my footsteps

Monday 2nd February – Dyserth, North Wales.

In this final part of my account of a visit to the sites around Dyserth village near Rhuddlan I describe what happened when I returned early the next morning after having dowsed various sites the day before. I was keen to find out whether there was any difference in the strength and character of the energies that we had found the day before. This is part of my plan to test each of the four solar and lunar festivals to discover what effect they have upon the energies.

Monday morning I was up and out for 7am. I needed to be at Dyserth for sunrise because my intention was to see how I felt when I tuned into the energy patterns at a known site. That site was going to be St.Bridget’s Church again. The previous night’s snowfall meant I didn’t get to the village until 7:50am – just when the sun should be appearing over the hills at the back of the church. I wondered of there would be a shaft of light slithering to cross the large stained-glass window?

St.Bridget’s Church

It was unsurprising that I was the first pair of footprints in the snow that layered the churchyard. It was an entirely different scene from the previous day. Today it looked like a proper Winter scene, and I hoped I was going to be able to do something useful in the still-freezing air as I took out the copper rods and drank in the atmosphere as I stood next to the tall and wide window at the back of the church building. There was no shaft of light, no St.George’s lance. No St.Michael’s flaming sword to pierce the gloom of dawn. Instead the greyness shifted rapidly through lightening tones until the dawn had almost slipped past unnoticed. A light grey day emerged, threatening snow. But had anything happened to the Male Sun energies? I prepared to test the wide stream of energy coming into the window.

I needed a way of measuring the relative strengths of that band of Male Sun energy, and quickly determined a way of doing it. I stated that the strength of the energy going into the church window the previous day was rated a ’5′ on a scale of ’1′ to ’10′ – one being the weakest the energy could be, and ten being its strongest. I then asked what strength the energies were today and the rods reacted to a rating of ’7′ (half reaction) and ’8′ (stronger reaction). Somewhere in between seven and eight, then. Therefore the energy strength had increased this Imbolc Monday morning since I last dowsed there, only the previous day.

With that established I switched to the yew tree whose nemeton I had traced the day before. I found that the yew tree’s nemeton was consistent with the canopy again, but if I asked to trace just “energy” around the tree I traced a square shaped cross (like a fat plus sign) around the tree that went towards and around particular graves situated next to the tree, but seemed to avoid others. Hence the plus-shape.

Skull and crossbones - a significant grave

So, this seemed to indicate that something’s aura or nemeton is a distinctly different energy formation and extent than that of it’s energy generally. I confirmed that what I had dowsed as just “energy” was in fact its rainbow colour patterns, and I got a positive agreement from the rods. Exactly what Kal and I had found recently at Delamere Forest. Two are at least two distinct ranges of energy fields – the nemeton and the aura of rainbow colours.

Here I was finding that I need to be careful when bandying around terms. An aura consists of rainbow colours that can be affected through the manipulation of coloured energy bands of differing frequencies. A nemeton is a different energy field. How are they different, though? They seem to overlap, so was there anything they had in common? I dowsed for the answer:-

• Are the two energy fields inter-related? – Yes.
• Can a person be healed by changing their rainbow colour field? – Yes.
• Is this healing via the rainbow colour field done by stimulating the chakra points? – Yes.
• Can a person be healed by changing their nemeton? – Yes.
• Is this healing via the nemeton field done by stimulating the chakra points? – No.
• Are a person’s nemeton and their rainbow energies the same energy frequencies? – No.

So, these two fields overlap, but they resonate at different frequencies. The rainbow colour field can be healed via the chakra points, but the nemeton is not healed in that way. I asked some more about the nemeton:-

• Is the nemeton a measure of a living thing’s extent of inter-connectedness? Yes.
• Was it also a measure of that living thing’s energetic influence? Yes.

I had enough to think about. I wanted to get back to some real-world measuring again. I dowsed the Male Sun energy across the window and found that the energy still came into the window at the same width as they day before. Time to move on to the next site now that it was daylight. The Imbolc sunrise had arrived by the back door and slipped in almost unnoticed. Confound our cloudy skies!

Return to Castle Dyserth

The first thing I wanted to test here was the “little castle”, the almost circular small ring cairn in the field before the site of the old castle. This had been a spot that I couldn’t stand on the previous day. Today I found that I could stand on that spot without any adverse effects! I questioned the rods – was I able to do this because it was Imbolc today? Yes. And did that change the nature of the energies through this cairn? Yes. Good stuff!

Next I wanted to dowse the two circles that Kal and I had built on the castle site: Kal’s was created from Male Sun energy, whilst the one I had built had attracted Female Moon energy. It turned out that things has got much more complex than had been in evidence the previous day. Here’s what I found:

• Confirmed female energy emitting from the crack high up, and that male energy was coming out of the massive rockfall stone at the bottom of that slope.
• A female attractor was identified between the rocks, just like Sunday. I found that the mound of stones was acting as a male attractor.
• The trail of Male Sun energy went from the large stone to a small pile of stones nearby (outside the circle). Then to another pile of stones at the back of the circles, on to the large man-made mound of stones, back to a small pile of stones and spiralling into a power centre. A little male energy circuit! One line then came out of this system to join to Kal’s Male Sun circle.
• Likewise for female energy – it went from the crack high up then went to the Female Moon circle, went around the perimeter three times, and then back through the gap between the fallen large stones.

There were many more spirals and interconnections between the two new circles that there were the day before – the whole patterning of paths of energy had linked to the existing source and had developed into a complex circuit of Male Sun spirals, out of which emerged Female Moon paths and spirals, out of which came another male path and spiral – and so on until returning to the source(s).

I spent the rest of the day seeking out and visiting caves, which was very exciting. I get scared by the sense of claustrophobia that such places engender, but they fascinate me. I found some great caves to visit and to meditate in when the weather gets a little warmer. For some reason I didn’t dowse the various caves. I can’t explain why, though, looking back. It seems rather odd. One of those things, I guess.

Gwas

Following Offa’s path