Posts Tagged ‘energy lines’

Brittany 2011 – The Needles of Stone

On a recent holiday to Brittany I was able to visit some new amazingly tall menhirs, standing stones, and some ones that I had visited before. As ever I was impressed by their sheer size, and I briefly had the chance to try to extract some more information about the stones and their properties. In this post I will discuss some of those properties, and how I think they may be generally applicable to standing stones.

Before I go on to my theories, however, I want to hark back to one of the pioneering ideas concerning standing stones. As you may know, we at the Hedge Druid Blog do not stand on ceremony and are more than willing to fly in the face of any established theory providing we have our own evidence to back such statements up. Just preparing the ground a little, you might say. Now, Mr Tom Graves is the exprt on the matter of standing stones, and his theories are expressed in his book “Needles of Stone” (download the book in HTML format here).

“Return to that stone circle that we saw before, glowing and pulsing with points and lines and zones of coloured light. As you watch, the battered and timeworn stones seem to dislimn, becoming smoother, finer, sharper: needles of stone set in the body of the earth, to match the needles of bone the ancient Chinese set in the body of man. Stone or bone, the needles controlled, and still control, the flow of energy through each body.

But stand back – you stand too close to see. Rise up into the air, higher, higher, like a hawk: the stone circle recedes to a glowing dot in a landscape that rolls away into the distance below you, a patchwork quilt of light. Around the circle the glowing lines spread out to connect every cell of that body: you see a fine filigree of threads just below the surface, weaving their way outward from the centre that glows; you see harsh beams of light connecting centre to centre across the country in straight lines. These centres are dotted along every line, but here and there you can see major intersections of the straight lines and the filigree, like focal points in a vast multi-layered cobweb. In some ways the whole scene is reminiscent of a micrograph of nerve cells and their ganglia, but on a much larger and brightly-coloured scale: in a sense, that is what the centres are, for in a sense what we see here is the circulation and nervous system of the body of the earth.

The focal points, the node-points in this matrix of energies, are the equivalent of acupuncture-points on a landscape scale. And set into these points are ‘needles’ not just of stone, but of all the five elements: a lone Scots Pine on a One-Tree Hill for wood, a sacred well for water, a barrow-mound for earth, and an ancient beacon for fire. For metal, a modern steel microwave mast, or the postbox that replaced the mark-stone on a lonely crossroad. The pattern of the past repeats itself in the present.” (Ch.5 ‘Needles of Stone’ -  Tom Graves)

Dislimn” – that’s a great word, isn’t it? The WordPress spell-checker threw a wobbly at that one! It means to efface, or to cause to become indistinct. Such a poetic and infrequently used word, but so gorgeously succinct. You’ve got to hand it to the man – he can write beautiful phrases, and he sweeps you away with his ideas.

So, the idea he is expressing is that standing stones are just one aspect of the many megalithic or natural features that form the energetic body of the land. He is stating that they serve a purpose in pinning, locating, diverting or alleviating the subtle energetic forces within the landscape just as a practitioner of Chinese systems of medicine would do with their methods.

Next I will discuss my own theories on the way in which these tall stones work.

Read the rest of this entry »

Arbor Low – Part 2: The Ley Line Connections

As I reported in my previous Arbor Low post Kal and I were inside the stone circle taking dowsing readings. This post is the product of those readings, and, as I had hoped, the great stone circle did indeed give up some of its secrets that evening. The results I present here are only preliminary and cursory research into the amazing insights that we discovered, and I hope that over the course of the next year I can back up everything I am about to say with some solid on-the-ground fieldwork, dowsing, and more research. However, for now, I must content myself with my initial exciting findings, and must re-iterate that they are currently only theoretical and speculative.

Impossible Bearings

We dowsed inside the inner circle to find the point from which the radial alignment leys that Kal had found previously emanated. The spot was in between the two central large recumbent sets of stones. I stood in the centre whilst Kal walked around this point with his dowsing rods. Whenever he got a reading he stopped, and I lined up the compass with his dowsing rod and noted the bearing. After only two readings it became apparent that something quite exciting was going on here – the numbers were coming out incredibly familiar: Zero degrees – due North! Not 1 degree, 5 degrees, or 10, but spot on zero. Next – 45 degrees! Interesting. Well, it doesn’t take a mathematical genius to recognise these numbers as particularly significant when related to a circle!! Kal was oblivious to this, as he was simply walking around and stopping at particular points when the rods moved to a right-angle. I was the one whose eyebrows rose a little at each reading until I couldn’t contain myself any longer and blurted out something like, “This is impossible!”.

Here are the set of radial ley line bearings taken:-

  1. 0 degrees
  2. 45 degrees
  3. 90 degrees
  4. 135 degrees
  5. 180 degrees
  6. 240 degrees
  7. 270 degrees
  8. 335 degrees

I took the readings home, quite excited at the prospect of plotting them onto Google Maps and following the result – perhaps this would open up some new avenues of sites to explore along the lines, or new centres of spirituality to visit and dowse this year? Stupid question, as it turned out – of course it did.

ariel_view_with_radials

The importance of place

If those radials are extended out until they reach significant points, such as the end of the land, or a sacred site, then you get some pretty amazing coincidences across a very large area. How could the circle builders have managed to position the circle with such precision over such a wide area? By using star, sun and moon alignments alone?

Here’s a link to the Google Maps diagram of the radials extended in all directions: Arbor Low radials. In this view you can click on each of the markers and see that each of them is a significantly named place, containing either the name of a Christian saint (popularly “Mary” or “Margaret“), or village names ending in “-ley”, “-lea” or “-leigh”. Some of the villages include the name “Cross“”, which I also think is significant, as it may indicate a location where the alignment leys I have discovered intersect with other ley lines. A rich source of further investigation in the years ahead, I feel. One final criterion for a significantly named place is the inclusion of the word “-stone“, which I believe indicates a standing marker stone may have existed there at one time, acting as a sighting stone indicating the direction and placement of the ley line.

Defining the Criteria for a Ley Line

This has always been a hot topic for leyhunters and critics of them. What constitutes a ley line? One could argue, “Well, you could draw a line anywhere in Britain and find that it goes through a place name like that.“. To a certain extent this is true. Random chance would be one factor, but it may also be that this country is riddled with ley lines, and eventually you are going to cross one or run alongside one if drawing a straight line across country. However, these are the elements I felt constituted a ley line without me having actually dowsed its presence yet:-

  1. The town or village must end in “ley”, “lea”, “lee” or “leigh”
  2. Such a village/town must not lie more than 1 mile from the central path of the neutral ley line.
  3. The path of the line must pass through at least THREE significant ancient sacred sites.
  4. There ought to be many references to saints names in the name of the villages, towns or the churches that the ley line passes through.

You’ll find one or two random proximities over any long line placed across the country. I tested this set of criteria, all classic ley line definitions, by starting a line map at a random point in the British countryside, and traced some lines to the cardinal points from there Here are the results for the Random Ley Line:-

  1. NORTH: one close and one direct hit on a line extending 118 miles.
  2. SOUTH: three close and five direct hits on a line extending 142 miles.
  3. EAST:  no hits or near misses on a line extending 99 miles.
  4. WEST: two close and two hits on a line extending 140 miles.

Eight hits on the random southern line, eh? But let’s look at the clustering of those hits – they almost ALL appear in the small space between the M40 motorway in Oxford (a hot spot for ancient sites and leys) and the M3 motorway in the space of about 20 miles. I venture to suggest we have actually hit an existing ley line in that area, or some very close to it. The total line extends some 140+ miles in total, mostly devoid of hits.

How many ancient sites were passed through in this test? NONE. How many saints names were in the names of villages or towns near to this random line? NONE. Did it align three or more sacred sites? NO. Okay – so the “ley” name criteria was occasionally met in clusters, but the other criteria were completely devoid.

The Arbor Low Lines

Let’s compare that now with the lines that I found emerging from the Arbor Low stone circle. I’ll do the details later, but for now, let’s just compare those cardinal hits and near misses.

arbor_low_map

Let’s examine each of those radials in turn, and see which significant places they touch. NOTE: all the lines have at least ONE sacred site because they all emerge from Arbor Low.

1. The Northern Ley

  • Bearing: 0 Degrees
  • Length: 173 miles.
  • Places: 18
  • Sacred sites: 2

The northern ley ends at Holy Island, and goes straight into the Lindisfarne Priory and ends at a place called Mary Gate.

One of the descendants of Llywelyn the Great (c. 1173-1240) was born in ‘Raby with Keverstone’, which is an interesting connection to Yr Elen mountain, a peak conjoined with one named Carnedd Llywelyn, meaning “Llywelyn’s cairn”.

Here are the places that are upon or close to this ley line:-

  1. Farnley Tyas
  2. Aspley
  3. Bradley
  4. Shipley – confirmed energy ley running N/S – 29th Jan 2011
  5. Burley
  6. Ilkley
  7. Thruscross
  8. Bewerley
  9. Pateley bridge
  10. West Layton
  11. Keverstone
  12. Hedleyhope
  13. Hamsterley
  14. Throkley
  15. Kirkley
  16. Longhorsley
  17. Adderstone
  18. Mary Gate, Holy Island (Lindisfarne Priory)

UPDATE 31st January 2011. I have been to Shipley and confirmed that a neutral energy ley exists in the town centre running North-South through the Hockney pub, a memorial statue and a labyrinth design depicting twin entwined serpents. I dowsed that this is the same energy ley that connects to Arbor Low. I suspect that other energy leys exist in the area too, attested by the sheer number of places ending with the suffix “-ley”.

2. The North–Eastern Ley

  • Bearing: 45 Degrees
  • Length: 71 miles.
  • Places: 16
  • Sacred sites: 4

Possibly travels through the Barbrook series of stone circles. Cannot find an end point, however, as many of the circles on the eastern seaboard would have been timber circles, and long since disintegrated.

Here are the places that are upon or close to this ley line:-

  1. Bakewell (St.Peter’s Well)
  2. Handley
  3. Pilsley
  4. Birchen Edge cairns (between Wellington’s and Nelson’s Monuments)
  5. Ramsley (reservoir)
  6. Whickersley
  7. Bramley
  8. Alverley
  9. Cantley
  10. Wheatley
  11. Twin Rivers (at the mouth of the Humber where it divides into two rivers)
  12. Crabley
  13. Hunsley
  14. Rowley
  15. Westwood Common timber circle
  16. Beverley

3. The Eastern Ley

  • Bearing: 90 Degrees
  • Length: 73 miles.
  • Places: 6
  • Sacred sites: 3

The line ends, I believe, at Bolinbroke Castle, made famous for being the seat of many of England’s kings, as recounted famously in several Shakespearean plays such as Henry IV, who was born there. Wikipedia link. The only other significant place I could find on this line is the Nine Ladies Stone Circle, also in Derbyshire. Perhaps the line ends there – this is something I will have to test out in the field by checking points along the line.

The funny thing about this line is that its bearing is not exactly 45 degrees. If a line is drawn at exactly 45 degrees then it slightly misses Nine Ladies, and misses Bolinbroke by a mile or so by the time it gets out east. Now, despite what I said earlier about the fact that the line as measured on the night was 45 degrees exactly, I actually think this might be a case for saying that I may have taken the measurement slightly wrong for this line. I say that because I am, indeed, fitting this line retrospectively based on the evidence of the sacred sites and villages named “ley” that I only discovered when I traced the line across the land. If you follow the line and see that the sites fit if the line is angled slightly further than 45 degrees I think you’ll agree it’s a more convincing case for the existence of a ley line.

Here are the places that are upon or close to this ley line:-

  1. Nine Ladies Stone Circle
  2. Clay Cross
  3. Lower Pilsley
  4. Pleasley
  5. Clipstone
  6. Bolinbroke Castle

However, by the criteria I laid out earlier, this line is not wholly convincing – only two ancient sites appear on it, and not three – unless Bolinbroke Castle could be considered to be an ancient site. We may never know. Where’s Time Team when you need them?

4. The South-Eastern Ley

  • Bearing: 135 Degrees
  • Length: 155 miles.
  • Places: 12
  • Sacred sites: 3

The least convincing of the radials, as I can’t find many ancient sites along this line for quite a long stretch. This is the problem with most of the lines that extend over the eastern side of the country – the geology of the area does not encourage the building of stone monuments. Instead, it would appear that their ancient monuments were rendered in timber, and then never upgraded to stone, as they had been elsewhere where suitable stone was abundant.

Here are the places that are upon or close to this ley line:-

  1. Brightgate
  2. Matlock Bath (petrifying well, Heights of Abraham, Rutland and Great Masson caverns)
  3. Lea Bridge
  4. Lea Brooks
  5. New Brinsley
  6. Felley (old priory - information contributed by reader ‘Pat’)
  7. Mapperley
  8. Lambley (The Lambley Spring)
  9. Wiggenhall St Mary Magdalen
  10. Tivertshall St.Margaret
  11. Pulham St.Mary
  12. St.James South Elmham

There is clustering of sites on this line, with a section in the middle (between Lambley near Nottingham and Wiggenshall SMM in Norfolk) where there are neither correspondences or ancient sites listed. I am quite unsure about whether the line continues beyond Nottingham at the moment. The only thing I have to make me want to keep the line the length it is would be the end point being the mouth of the River Blyth, which is such an exact geographical feature for a line to end at. A mile further north or south would have been less convincing. End points being the mouths of rivers seems to be a feature of the Arbor Low radials.

5. The Southern Ley

  • Bearing: 180 Degrees
  • Length: 167 miles.
  • Places: 25
  • Sacred sites: 5

The southern ley ends at St Catherine’s Hill on the northern edge of a town called Christ Church at the mouth of the River Avon and River Stour. Either that, or it ends at the Breamore (Bremmer) sites just a few miles further north, where there is a “Giant’s Grave” long barrow, a “Giant’s Chair” and an ancient turf maze called the Miz-Maze. Passes next to Stonehenge and other Wiltshire sites, and through Marlborough.

Of Catherine’s Hill:

“One “miracle” legend that local heritage does not play up is that Christchurch, like Vortigern’s citadel, was reportedly consumed by fire from heaven – no doubt because the reason given is that it was devastated by a fire-breathing dragon sent to punish the town for its wickedness. An account by a visiting French monk, Herman of Laon, has the town being burnt by a fire-breathing flying dragon in 1112/1113. Herman came here with a group touring SW England to raise funds to rebuild their home church, but got an unwelcome reception here. As Herman’s group left, they looked back and were pleased to see the town being burnt up by a dragon in revenge for the insult to their Lady of Laon.

Dragons are often associated with “fire from Heaven,” but despite new-age attempts to equate dragons with ‘serpent lines’ (rather than ley lines) of esoteric or geomantic force, no link with St Catherine’s Hill is apparent, Herman’s dragon rising from the sea. There is a local land-based serpent-dragon legend, but it is localised across the valley at Bisterne (which means beast’s or pest’s secret place). Or at least the family whose ancestor supposedly slew it resided at Bisterne, with the dragon carved on their stone gateposts in commemoration, the dragon itself alighting at Burley Beacon nearby to drink the milk the fearful locals left out for it. (For more on dragons and the theory they are linked to ley lines, see Here Be Dragons (2008), by Michael Hodges, author of the history of St Catherine’s Hill pictured right.)

The notion of the hill as a still actively pagan site in the Middle Ages is supported by some slight circumstantial evidence. At some point a chapel was built on the hilltop either in addition to, or else instead of, the planned hilltop priory church. This is despite the fact the downtown Priory site had up to nine chapels or altars there already. One theory is a hilltop church was erected to displace ongoing pagan use of the hill. It was the policy of St Augustine that the early Saxon church should take over ‘wood and stone’ pagan sites and give them a cosmetic makeover to convert them into Christian ones, beginning around 600.” (Source : http://www.south-coast-central.co.uk/n&q/stcatherineshill.htm)

Here are the places that are upon or close to this ley line:-

  1. Fenny Bentley
  2. Cubley
  3. Fradley
  4. Hilliard’s Cross
  5. Lea Hall
  6. Bentley Heath
  7. Hockley Heath
  8. Henley-in-Arden
  9. Billesley
  10. Blockley
  11. Coln St.Aldwyns
  12. Blunsdon St.Andrew
  13. Westlea
  14. Rockley
  15. Lower Everleigh
  16. Salisbury Cathedral
  17. Clearbury Ring
  18. The Giant’s Graves and Chair, and Miz-Maze
  19. Gorley
  20. Hangersley
  21. Ashley Heath
  22. St.Leonards and St.Ives
  23. South Ripley
  24. Sopley
  25. St Catherine’s Hill

6. The South-Western Ley

  • Bearing: 240 Degrees
  • Length: 120 miles.
  • Places: 14
  • Sacred sites: 2

Passes through the legendary site of Caerleon, reputed site of King Arthur’s Camelot and long-time Roman Fort. link.

When the feast of Whitsuntide began to draw near, Arthur, who was quite overjoyed by his great success, made up his mind to hold a plenary court at that season and place the crown of the kingdom on his head. He decided too, to summon to this feast the leaders who owed him homage, so that he could celebrate Whitsun with greater reverence and renew the closest pacts of peace with his chieftains. He explained to the members of his court what he was proposing to do and accepted their advice that he should carry out his plan in The City Of The Legions.

Situated as it is in Morgannwg (Glamorgan), on the River Usk, not far from the Severn Sea, in a most pleasant position, and being richer in material wealth than other townships, this city was eminently suitable for such a ceremony. The river which I have named flowed by it on one side, and up this the kings and princes who were to come from across the sea could be carried in a fleet of ships. On the other side, which was flanked by meadows and wooded groves, they had adorned the city with royal palaces, and by the gold-painted gables of its roofs it was a match for Rome.”

“After the death of Uther Pendragon, the leaders of the Britons assembled from their various provinces in the town of Silchester and there suggested to Dubricus, the archbishop of the City Of The Legions, that as their King he should crown Arthur, son of Uther. He called the other bishops to him and bestowed the crown of the kingdom upon Arthur. Arthur was a young man only fifteen years old …”

(from ‘History of the Kings of Britain’ by Geoffrey of Monmouth).

I suspect that the ley line may end at Butterdon Hill in the Dartmoor National Park. There is only circumstantial evidence for this based upon the frequency of nearby villages with the word “ley” or “leigh” in their names. Perhaps there is stronger evidence for the end point being Caerleon.

Here are the places that are upon or close to this ley line:-

  1. Farley
  2. Checkley
  3. Church Leigh
  4. Dodsleigh
  5. Chartley
  6. Shirleywich
  7. Teddesley Park
  8. Gailey
  9. Wrottesley Park
  10. Romsley
  11. Upper Arley
  12. Tedstone Wafer
  13. St Weonards
  14. Caerleon

7. The Western Ley

  • Bearing: 270 Degrees
  • Length: 92 miles.
  • Places: 6
  • Sacred sites: 2

The western ley goes to the imposing mountain of Yr Elen. No-one seems to know why it is dedicated to Elen, but I can hazard a guess – it is Elen of the Roads – the spirit who shows the seeker the way, who makes visible the invisible paths of energy, the ley lines, and here stands this summit: due West of Arbor Low, on a ley line, and dedicated to Elen. No other sacred sites along the way though, unless you include the town of Mold, which is steeped in history and pre-history, and whose castle may have been the site of a former, much more ancient, fort or protected sacred space. Or perhaps its church dedicated to St.Mary may have a much older history. But that’s speculation.

Here are the places that are upon or close to this ley line:-

  1. Healthylee
  2. Wimboldsley
  3. Tarporley
  4. Buckley
  5. Mold (St Mary the Virgin church)
  6. Yr Elen (mountain)

8. The North-Western Ley

  • Bearing: 335 Degrees
  • Length: 68 miles.
  • Places: 6
  • Sacred sites: 2

The north-west ley ends up at Blackpool’s South Shore. Not generally considered to be a sacred site (although it oculd be considered to be the spiritual home of Mecca Bingo) until you do a little  reserach on the subject. Here’s a quote about Blackpool’s megalithic history from the Megalithic Portal site concerning the one sacred site known about in Blackpool:

“Information from Pastscape:

“The Rev William Thornber states that a round cairn or cairns formerly stood on the site of the Lodge of Stonyhill, and he was told that Mr. Fisher, the proprietor of the field, had carted away upwards of twenty loads of soil, burnt red and black, from the site of a large circular cairn, which had made it difficult to identify. He also states that adjoining the cairns are two wells, one called the Fairy Well, or Wrangdomwell, and the other Bull Spring, which issues from a huge oblong mound of stones, in the Bull Meadows, which he supposes to be of artificial origin. He says that the Fairy Well was still resorted to with offerings of rags , nails and pins, and that he had found, himself, nails, leather thongs and-an old shaped knife, after the meadows had been ploughed.

This area is now completely covered with modern buildings.” Source: http://www.pastscape.org/hob.aspx?hob_id=39366

Here are the places that are upon or close to this ley line:-

  1. Fernlee Reservoir
  2. Pott Shrigley
  3. Gatley
  4. Tyldesley
  5. Crosstown
  6. Blackpool

Again, I’m  not sure if this line really constitutes being called a ley line. There are very few sites above random chance, the sacred site at the end of the line may or may not have been of significant size and status, and there are no known extant or remnant sites in between Arbor Low and Blackpool.

—————————————————————–

As you can see, some of the radials are more convincing than others. Over the course of the next few years I aim to see whether there is any dowsing evidence, or local custom that would back up these suppositions.

Gwas.

Brittany 6: Carnac alignments – Kermario

Kermario, Carnac – 8th May 2009

In this sixth installment of the Brittany series, the second part of the Carnac visit, I found possibly the most interesting aspects of the whole Carnac visit (not to put you off the next post, but this is the ‘main feature’, if you like).

kermario-plan

Entrance stones

As we walked across the road to the next section, called Kermario, we walked into a larger section of woodland than was around Ménec.On either side of the road winding through this woodland were two large boulders.

kermario-carnac

I stopped as I reached the point between them. I could feel a barrier of energy! There was a definite flow of energy between them that made my midriff feel a tug, just like when I walk the energy paths down a hill, or stand next to a large menhir. What was the purpose of putting these two stones here? I glanced around. I had missed two other similarly sized boulders that were fifty feet or so away. They were sites in an enclosed field nearby. Two pairs of boulders? The previous pair looked like they might designate the end of the Ménec field, whilst the pair I was standing between might demarcate the beginning of the Kermario field, I wondered? I dowsed between them – a strong male line going back and forth between them. I asked for permission to enter and the energy stopped tugging at my stomach, so I passed through. Hmmm….entrance stones for the energetically-aware?

Nemeton size: more guerrila dowsing

I was glad we were walking instead of driving now. I was seeing much more than if we had just whizzed by on a whirlwind tour from the car as most people seemed to be doing. This fast-paced tick-in-the-box tourism was beginning to become anathema to me. We stopped alongside the Kermario field of stones.

kermario-carnac-5

It was an even more impressive sight than Ménec, because you could see down the slope through several fields, and the alignments just kept going on and on into the middle distance. We had found a nice spot amongst some outlying rocks that were not fenced off, but were close to a point that looked convenient for hopping over the fence unseen to most eyes. Whilst I waited for the occasional couple of tourists to wander by I did some dowsing at the edge of the field of stones.

kermario-carnac-10

I wondered if all those stones were producing any kind of nemeton field collectively? I walked back into the woods some fifty feet, then asked if I was in the nemeton field and got a “NO” response. I walked towards the fence surrounding the stones until I got the familiar barrier response indicating the extent of the nemeton. It was about 20 feet from the nearest row. I tested for its qualities – FEMALE and NEUTRAL EARTH energies were found. I have begun to differentiate between male, female and neutral earth energies and the corresponding genders of human energies. Kal and I have found that when the earth produces a “white stream” of positive, beneficial energy it is a combination of male and female. Since discovering this I have begun to qualify the energy types by stating whether they are earth energies, radiant energies, or human energies. This nemeton field was earth energy.

The Energy Engine

As we progressed down the path alongside the fields of stones, admiring the amazing lines that flowed in parallel across the undulating landscape we spotted a tower in the distance that looked like a great vantage point from which to view the whole scene.

kermario-carnac-23

Before we got there I wanted to ask the rods some more questions about how the purpose of this place. A convenient stopping point was where the path crossed between two fields of stones near to a ‘creperie’, actually a farmhouse built right in the midst of the aligned rows of stones. At this point the rows seemed artificially disconnected by the path and farmhouse, so I took the chance to check my findings so far, and verified them all. Now that I knew the way the energies flowed I was less inclined to continue asking the same questions all over the site. How about finding something out about what this was all for?

I knew that archeo-astrologers and other researchers have picked up on solar, lunar, maybe even stellar alignments, and like most sites I knew that this was a comp0onent of their construction, but not their entire purpose, I felt. Only part of the story. I suspected that the astrological alignments simply told the druids and other people who understood these sites WHEN they would be at their maximum and minimum in terms of their energetic potential. The question now was what would they be doing with this energy, and why was this particular site built like this? I asked the following questions whilst standing in the energy flow between the disconnected rows of two fields of stones:-

  • Was the purpose of this site to gather energy by transforming radiant energies and drawing up earth energy like some kind of massive energy generator? YES, came the response.
  • Was the whole series of stones all one big engine? Er…NO, not really. OK, let’s be more specific.
  • Is this Kermario section all one engine? YES. So, was each named area an engine unto itself? YES.

Wow, this must be some huge engine! Where was the energy going?

  • Was the energy produced in each section of the Carnac site going to a specific place? YES.
  • In the Kermario field, where I now stood, was there a single nexus point for the energy? YES. Would I be able to locate it? YES.
  • Was it on a path accessible to most people (I asked hopefully)? NO.
  • Was it within a mile of where I was? YES.

Armed with that much I set off intent on finding this single point where all the energies of this huge field of stones was focused. I asked to rods to take me to this focal point, and I followed them as they led me down the path alongside the field of stones towards the tower in the near distance. As I approached the tower, wondering to myself whether this was the place, the rods swivelled left and I turned with them to see where they were now pointing – at two small green mounds ten feet in at the end of this section of stone alignments! I hadn’t even seen them as I approached, but now they stood out like…well, like a pair of green breasts on a nun!!!

The Mounds and The Tower

kermario-carnac-26

Again I hopped the fence. Luckily the mounds were only a few feet away from the path that intersected the fields of stone rows. I asked the rods to take me to the exact place where the energy from the alignments went to. It was the mounds. The rows of stones petered out before the mounds. I couldn’t tell exactly where the energy from the rows came in, but the flow was certainly directed into the mounds. I checked for a nemeton around the mounds and found it circling the two small mounds in a sort of kidney shape, indented more on one side than the other, but flowing around the two of them. It registered for male and female energy combined – a white stream nemeton of earth energies, flowing anti-clockwise. Possibly the male energy went clockwise, I don’t know. I didn’t want to linger too long in this forbidden territory!

I now asked several miscellaneous questions in an attempt to get some idea of its strength. If this was the focal point for all these stones then it might be quite strong. Asked for its relative strength on a scale of 1-10 and got a response at 9. Was it ever a 10, I asked? YES. When? January? YES. February? Less so. March and April? A decreasing response until at April the rods parted. May? The rods began to cross again slightly. June? A more positive response. July? YES. Full cross. August? Less of a response. OK – January and July it was. Two months? I thought about other sites I knew of that were powerful, and asked how this site measured against Arbor Low, for example. Please tell me how many times stronger these energies were. Same strength? NO. 1.5x stronger? NO. I kept going up until I got to 8. Then the rods crossed. Eight times stronger than Arbor Low! Kal would love it here.

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When I got back home I checked my “In Tune With The Moon” book which tells me exactly what phase of the moon occurs when in the year. In 2009 the full moon in July coincides exactly with the apogee – one of the two times in the year when the moon is exerting its strongest influence. In January the full moon was at its perigee – i.e. at its nearest, pulling most upon this side of the planet. In July it would be pulling the other side of the planet strongest. I asked the rods if the sun energies would be strongest at the Summer Soltice in June to which the answer was, YES. I was beginning to see how these calendar times meant the times of the greatest energetic potential of the sun and moon radiant energies in relation to the stones at Carnac.

I wondered if the energy came out of the mounds and went anywhere else, so I asked to follow any energy line coming out of the mounds. I was taken back over the fence and down the path back towards the road. It led me through the woods on the far side of the road, along a barely-visible trail, then back along the road, back up the path and around the tower. Beyond the tower it went into the woods on the other side of the field and emerged again to re-join the mounds (more fence-hopping). The shape was somewhat like a three-fingered hand, or a shamrock, an elongated trefoil shape.

As I was back at the mounds I asked if the field was male, female or neutral. I got a response for a mixture of male and female. So, the area defined was all white stream positive energy. I asked too whether there were any burials within the mounds, as they were suspiciously human sized – NO. Looking down the rows I thought about their placement. Were these rows placed because of the geology of the rock beneath them, I asked? YES. Well, I could investigate this at some future point when I had access to more information. As it turned out, I checked a geological map of the area and found that the alignments were all placed on a shelf of granite that began at Carnac. Interesting. We have found this at every ancient complex of sites – they all make use of solid crystalline volcanic rocks. The crystalline nature of the rock seems important to their function as energy generators or harnessers. This was something I was about to put to the test in my own small way.

A sense of purpose

Now I turned my attention to establishing the purpose of these incredible alignments of stones. What were they here for? I had a series of things I wanted to test for using the dowsing rods. I stood in the field emanating from the mounds and began to ask some serious questions:-

  • Was this site an engine to generate energy? YES
  • Could it be used for healing? YES.
  • Could it be harnessed for transformation of human consciousness? YES.
  • Could it be used to create a protective field? YES.
  • Could it be used for any ‘magickal’ purpose? YES.

This was amazing. It seemed as though this energy could be utilised in any way that seemed appropriate to the requirements of those who built and used it. This amazing energy generator would create energies that could be employed for any kind of energy work that was needed. As Kal mentioned to me later - is this akin to the legendary Philosopher’s Stone?

Healing with crystals

People were starting to wander up to the tower from the road again, so I hopped back over the right side of the fence. M was sat atop the tower but now she joined me again, complaining about her joint pains, as she frequently does. I wondered if I could harness the positive energies that surrounded us at this moment? I asked if I could use some crystals to do some healing work and the rods happily crossed. I set up my five crystal Venus set according to where the rods said I should put them. It was almost in the usual formation, but two of the crystals were interchanged. I dowsed for where M should stand, and where I could stand to help direct the energies. I asked M to imagine drawing up the energy from the floor whilst I gave the intention to heal her joints. Several minutes later I cleared the crystals away and asked M how she felt. No pain now, she said, but that could have been a placebo effect, however she didn’t complain about her aching joints for the rest of the week, so I guess that tells you something. Believe me – she had been mentioning it several times a day before this incident!
It’s amazing stuff this crystal work. A year ago I would have laughed myself out of the country for doing such a thing (Kal: Don’t worry - I still laugh at you :-) ).

The Alignment Stones

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Now I hadn’t completely dismissed the idea that there were parts of the complex at Carnac that were used calendrically. As we walked back to Ménec alongside the Kermario field we spotted two standing stones that were a hundred feet off to one side. It looked like a make-shift car park that very few people used, but at the end were two standing stones of an odd shape. We have seen shaped stones like this before at sites. I can think of Callenish in particular where the notched shapes of the stones were almost universally believed to provide sightings for alignments of the sun, moon and with particular stars like Aldebaran. These two stones looked just like those shaped stones. I decided they warranted some investigation.

The taller pointed stone only has one “disfigurement” – a slight chunk taken out of its western edge. The smaller stone which stood only six feet away from it had a profound notch hewn from it that meant that its top half was only half the width of its base. I dowsed for energy coming out of the stones and found that a male line emerged from the hewn edge of the smaller rock and led to the flat hewn edge of the pointer larger stone. Interesting. Again, this correlates with so many other stones that have been similarly worked.

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Next, I concentrated on finding out which types of energies these stones might be pulling down from radiant sources or drawing up from the earth. The taller stone was drawing male sun energy and also pulling female energy from earth, as was the smaller stone too. Presumably they were also pulling down moon energy, but I forgot to ask! Silly me. It’s easy to be “completist” about these things after the fact. The two stones were involved with both drawing energy from the Kermario field of stones as well as sending it back to them in a sort of circuit.

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I asked the rods whether the notches on the smaller stone aligned to specific celestial objects and got a positive response for sun, moon and star alignments. That confirmed their purpose for me. These stones were here to allow users of the energies to determine specific times of the year when the energies were best suited to their purpose, I theorised.

With that we walked back to the car in order to head out to the furthest field – Kerlescan. Here there was another field of stones, but I wanted to concentrate on the side shows – The Giant’s Stone and The Quadrangle, said to once have been a large tumulus.

Gwas Myrddyn

Following an intuition

Union of the Snake ~ black and white streams

For a few months I have been studying what researchers have written about so-called black streams. These are streams of energy that are reputed to have a range of dysfunctional effects upon human energy fields, eventually causing physical complaints and ailments, even disease.

For my own purposes I have wanted to particularly focus on what has come out of practical dowsing that I have done myself, and that I have verified many times. I have relied upon my usual “20 questions” dowsing approach to lead me towards an increasingly refined concept of what the black and white energy streams may be. From what I can gather the concensus of other people’s published opinion seems to accumulate into these primary concepts:-

  • Black streams cause human dysfunction to varying degrees over time
  • The cause of black streams are either the proximity and intensity of electricity, or geological faults and stresses
  • Crossing streams have a more stringent effect upon the energy fields at the crossing point

David Cowan, whose work I have featured here recently, adds another dimension to this as he includes the attraction of energy paths to sites where the energies of the recent and time-honoured dead are emanating.

Black streams

I don’t feel I have enough information yet to be able to specify the exact origins of black streams, or say too specifically how they are formed. What I have found out through dowsing is that they can be created by the input of negative human emotions, by death (especially violent and sudden death where powerful energy imprints are left).

From Alex Stark

Accident Black Spots

This feeds into my research on accident black spots, which I have been reviving now that the Winter seems to have eased in preparation for Spring. On some local roads that I have been travelling on my attention has been drawn to several locations in the roads where cars are likely to pass each other. Seems a strange indicator, I know, but when you have a couple of close shaves with on-coming cars you begin to take note of the spot.

Then I noticed that other cars seemed to have encounters at those places too! On a Winter’s morning, on an otherwise empty road, two cars travelling in opposite directions, unaware of each others’ locations, would more than likely pass at these specific places that I was noticing! When I later dowsed several of those sites they were a mixture of strong male energy and a weaker neutral ‘transport’ path, but always dowsing as not beneficial to humans. Often the paths of these black streams went into a gate, a hole in an otherwise perfect hedge, or a lane. A path of least resistance, I observed.

Not only did the black streams choose a convenient path, they flowed with gravity. Perhaps something as attractive as a recent grave may be able to pull the energy from that line of least resistance – I will have to test this whenever I find a convenient location. David Cowan also notes that large bodies of water may act as attractors for streams of energy.

Human Dysfunction

I do not doubt that they are correct in any of these points. I have, as yet, not had cause to correct any human illness, pathology or disease through the correction of black stream flows, although I have ‘pinned’ an energy line and changed its energy from ‘unhealthy’ to ‘healthy’ in my own garden. There have only been positive outcomes from that work, so I trust this concept has some merit that I have yet to fully explore. Time will tell on that one.
Kal, however, regularly uses energy for healing work, and I hope he will add his text or comments on the effects he has witnessed over the years. His experiences add a great deal of weight to my conviction that healing is a time-honoured practise of the shaman of the tribe, and that energies can be converted for healing purposes using ancient sites.

Electricity

Every time I encounter a line of electricity pylons, or an electricity sub-station, the results are categorically the same: male energy forms a wide stream encompassing the width of the electrical output. In other words, if I dowse across a line of pylons I will start to get a gradual turning of the rods as I get close, from the moment your ears first hear them buzzing. Then the rods cross for the width of the pylons’ arms, then begin to slowly un-cross as I step out from directly underneath them.

Geological Faults and Stresses

“It’s not their fault – they’re stressed!” Oh dear, back of the class Myrddyn! I have an Ordnance Survey-produced map of the geological strata underlying North West England and North Wales, so it is on my list of things to do this year to overlay the locations of sacred sites and see how they correspond to the geology of the areas they are situated in. A brief study so far indicates bedrock with a high quartz content or a similar large crystalline structure seems to be the foundation of many of the North Wales and Derbyshire sites in particular. Certainly volcanic igneous rocks, and also metamorhic rocks too. This year I plan to be much more specific about that with the aid of the GPS unit, to be able to record exact locations and correlate these with the geological map.

White streams

A subject of less discussion than black streams, the white stream is an interesting proposition. A white stream is composed of both male and female energy lines combined. They are attracted to come together to form a contra-rotating double helix stream through the power of positive emotional energy from humans and other sentient life. Yes, that’s right, we’re not the only contributors to positive energies on this planet, yet our contribution is mutually beneficial, so it seems ludicrous to waste such an opportunity to improve our environment and ourselves at the same time.

How is this unification, or conjunction of male and female achieved? Well, in the old traditional fashion – through a kind of courtship. During your interactions with energy, if you wish them to combine to form white streams, you will need the power of love energy to achieve this union. You are effectively creating the right conditions for loving vibes to be created, and in that ambience energies of opposite polarity can come together to form white streams. In essence this is the Kundalini energy, the sacred serpent, sexual energy. Some people like Aleister Crowley have taken this to extreme degrees, but at a conceptual level, and in terms of the kinds of feelings that facilitate attraction and thus bring about the ‘union of the snakes’, then this is the sentiment that appears to make it happen. Humming Duran Duran‘s “Union of the Snake” may not work quite as well. What WAS that video about? Still, good sax solo – terrible re-introduction back into the second bridge.

White streams feel great to stand on. Overwhelmingly the experience has been positive, at times too lovely for words. There is a rising trickle that tickles your spine in an enjoyable way. You feel infused and enthused, clear-headed and bright after spending time standing in the flow of a white stream, much more so where they form identifiable power centres, and the white energy swirls into an ever-tightening spiral. Turning around on a power centre in the direction of flow feels good too. Often, ideas or fleeting visions are left in your mind by doing this simple act.

I am sure there is mileage in investigating the healing effects of such a stream of energy, and the next time I’ve got a cold (which turns out to be a pentagram shaped virus) I’ll try working with a white stream, or better, a power centre formed from a white stream. Luckily, I found one near to my house only last night, so that’s handy! Interestingly, it occurred to me after finding it that the site was a very popular hiding place for lovers who park their cars in the tiny nook. How there’s a classic chicken-and-egg scenario as I try to work out whether the power centre attracts such activity, or the sexual energy enriches the power centre. I’m gonna feel like a sexual parasite dowsing that one!

The Behaviour of Male and Female energies

Sometimes the male energy emerging from a source finds itself upon or close to a neutral line. I have dowsed several cases where the two lines run alongside each other. It seems as though the neutral lines provide a trackway, a means of moving around the landscape over large distances, and their flow can carry male lines along, to places far from the original source. This is not the case with female lines, however. Female lines stay much closer to their origins, rarely venturing further than the natural confines of the source’s immediate vicinity.

Do you see how, despite the ever-shifting polarities of cultural opinion about the roles of the male and female in society, the energies around us follow some very simple ‘cosmic’ laws that govern their inherent behaviour. Like humans, their fellow sentient energy forms, these energies travel, get involved with each other, form communities, and they affect the way we perceive and react to places and objects around us. All we are required to do is understand their role, and like our ancestors, put that knowledge to good use in the unfolding course of our journey together.

Gwas

Following the light, then the dark.

Manifestations 1: drawing patterns with energy

Well, my faithful (i.e. full of faith) sidekick Kal has beaten me to the punch! Posting about manifestations! Mind you, this has been lounging around for a few days. You can’t rest in this pursuit! So, here’s the post he referred to.

Last weekend I took the opportunity of some fine winter weather (what a good dry spell we’re having recently – unseasonable) to go up Helsby Hill. The view was stunning – you could see clear across the River Weaver to Liverpool and Southport, and to the end of the Wirral. Although there were the usual “viewers”, passers-by and dog walkers up there I decided to find a spot for some dowsing experiments.

The view

The view

I found a place with my trusty L-rods designated as suitable for producing manifestations and began a test of whether images that I pictured could be produced as energy patterns around this found clear spot (which was conveniently away from any path, but close to the cliff edge). Here are the patterns I tried to produce:-

1. A square

Success. Perfect square. Consistent form as I dowsed (not larger or smaller). Cleared it away for next experiment successfully.

2. Long triangle (imagined an electricity pylon shape)

Failure. I had set my eyes upon two points ahead of me as though to fix the tip of the triangle before dowsing. As I dowsed those two points became the extent of the radii of two circles which formed both in front and behind me around the centre I was standing on.

When I tried to clear the pattern ready for the next session I was lazy and I half-thought that I had only swept the pattern to either side of the existing shapes. When I dowsed to check that it had been cleared it registered as oblongs, whose sides had extended as far as I had imagined clearing the patterns! I had stretched them, not cleared them. Went through clearing process again.

3. Equilateral triangle

Tried to imagine a single equilateral triangle, but my mind kept overlaying it with a second triangle forming a six-pointed star instead. When I dowsed, however, I didn’t find the star. Instead I was sent around the centre point on long paths that seemed to have no discernible pattern.

4. Twelve-petalled flower

Tried to imagine a 12-petalled flower, but when I imagined the shape it kept transforming into a triangular shape where each point had a circle on the end of it so that it looped back on itself before going to the next “point” in the triangle. A sort of Celtic design, and fractal. It was an image that had many (sub-)cultural references for me – the Cream night-club logo, crop circle designs, a psychedelic but geometric paisley pattern.

Didn’t argue, but dowsed for that pattern. It was there, and kept expanding slightly as I dowsed. This pattern seemed to resonate with me strongly, and I enjoyed walking around it.

5. Six angled lines

A real test now! Could it produce six 45 degree angled lines that didn’t join together, that had no other connections? To be honest, I wasn’t sure how I came up with that idea – was it from me or elsewhere? I was beginning to doubt the degree to which I was controlling these mental images! I imagined the lines and then dowsed. They were there. All six. They went off into the distance in either direction, dead straight.

Gave up to go and think about it some more….

I know what you’re asking yourselves: “how did you clear them?” Well, it was simple visualisation of water being dropped around me, spreading across the ground and clearing the energy that was formed there. Perhaps this needs a bit more work, or maybe I need to apply some intent to it in order to be able to do it properly. On the whole it worked, so I’m sticking with the visualisation for now.

Gwas.

A game of Cup and Ball: Moel-Ty-Uchaf and Pistyll Rhaeadr, Wales

East Wales, Sunday 12th October 2008

1. Pistyll Rhaeadr Waterfall

We started our day in bright sunshine, heading south towards the town of Oswestry on the A483, close to the border between England and Wales. Three times previously Kal and I had tried to find a waterfall called Pistyll Rhaeadr. I think our misdirection had come from a mapping web site’s mistake which meant we were looking in totally the wrong area! This time I had prepared – I had cross-checked, double-checked and validated the directions until I could do them in my sleep. This time – we found it. As we approached the view was stunning….

The road to the waterfall was narrow and winding, but that morning we encountered no problems with other traffic. We parked at the base and headed straight to the bottom of the falls. A few other people were knocking about too. I headed off to the far side, across a bridge, and up onto the slope amid the pine trees to get a better place to take photo from. On the little promentary I could only see the waterfall in front of me, and it felt like I was alone with the tumult of water. I stood soaking in the awe-inspiring power of the falls, and feeling the light mist of droplets wash my face. Stood there with my staff it felt wonderful to be alive. I drew in that feeling, deep into myself.

When I glanced over to Kal, he was slithering around on the flat rocks in the river trying also to get a good photo opportunity – splosh! Oops! I caught a sneaky picture of him standing deep in the water and laughed heartily – sorry, Kal! Looks like a damp start to a sunny day!

We hiked to the top of the waterfall (Kal took a little persuading – heights are not his favourite places). We found, on arriving, the most beautiful glades next to the gently rippling and fluming river that suddenly plummeted over the sheer precipice that forms the waterfall. It all had a very druid-like atmosphere and I felt very comfortable there.

2. Take your medicine

I had a headache which had persisted from the previous evening. I couldn’t relax and enjoy the surroundings with this tight head. I looked to the largest tree which stood in the lovely glade. I walked towards the tree by passing between two unusually placed stones. I asked to approach the tree respectfully, then placed my bottle of water in a handy knot-hole in the tree’s trunk. The tree allowed me into it’s enfolding nemeton, and I relaxed, seeking communion.

When connection was established I asked for assistance in getting rid of my headache. The answer came gently: “Take of the waters.” Just that. How quaint! I hadn’t heard that syntactical construct for years..”Take of…”. Lovely. The water had a brown rust tint to it, so I wasn’t keen on drinking it – nevertheless I carefully gathered some in an empty water bottle and sipped a bit. Yikes! Not the nicest I’ve tasted!

Minutes later we had ventured down to the, seemingly, purpose-made rock shelter that overlooked the head of the falls. My headache was still there. Then Kal had his boots off and was paddling in the river! Was he crazy? He invited me in too – no way! However, he persuaded me it was a nice feeling on the smooth pebbles in the shallow section, so I walked in too. It was freezing!!! But lovely. When I got out I realised my headache had gone. I had “taken of the waters” and was cured of my malady. Just coincidence I’m sure.

We dried our feet by lying with our feet in the sun beneath this superlative rock formation, gazing peacefully out over the head of the falls into the quiet valley beyond. “This is a good place to meditate.” Kal stated. Indeed it was.

We gathered our things together, put our boots back on, and I retrieved my staff, which I had placed in a slot between two rocks that was, well, almost custom made for it! See for yourself in this photo:

Before we left I picked out two smooth rocks from the river which appealed to me: one hand-sized and flat, the other the same size but round and with thick marbled veins. Handy for later, I thought to myself. With that, we descended back down the hill to head off to Llandrillo, on the other side of the mountains to Pistyll Rhaeadr.

Llandrillo – Moel-Ty-Uchaf circle

Kal and I have discussed this stage of the visit, and have considered that the whole episode was sublimely balanced, instead of, as we expected, an exultant experiment in energy work. It seems that Nature has a way of keeping the energy work within certain parameters, and with us being so powerfully energised and eager to dowse after visiting the waterfall, well, our positive energies got balanced out by a strong negative influence. The end product was a satisfactory and balanced result, which was more fitting. Let me explain!

1. The Lost Sheep

On the long steep slog up from the outskirts of Llandrillo village towards Moel-Ty-Uchaf we met a farmer blocking the road. He had stopped to rescue a young sheep that had got itself stuck between the wire fence and the short hawthorn hedge on the edge of the field next to the road. On our last visit we remembered coming down from Moel-Ty-Uchaf and finding a lamb in the road which had broken free from its designated field and was eager to return to its mother. On that occasion we helped by herding it back until it found the break in the hedge from which it had squeezed an exit. Now here we were helping again! We noted the coincidence, and forged upwards once the young sheep was safely on its way, thanks mainly to the rugged tugs of the old farmer, for whom this must be a daily occurrence.

As we got within a few minutes of the stone circle I got out my new list of dowsing questions. I had a new category: “Questions to ask on approaching a sacred site“. We will publish this list soon, once we tidy the post up a little. From this set of questions we determined that today was a good day for doing energy work, that we were in the right frame of mind, but that everything was not in order – a malevolent influence or unhealthy energy stream was causing dysfunction at the circle. We decided to wait until we were at the circle before we delved any deeper. This level of dowsing questions seems to be more effective the closer you are to the source of your inquiry. Of course this would be contradicted by quantum theory, in which distance would not need to be considered, but we have found that stronger readings are possible, and answers are clearer the closer you get to the source or object of the query. The circle was undeniably registering some sort of imbalance, and that was enough to spur us on.

We reached the knoll near the circle’s King Stone and parked ourselves in unceremonious exhaustion, to drink in the view over the western range of hills and lush Welsh valleys. Are you sure this is October in Britain? We were sweating like a nun’s…never mind.

After a few minutes of relaxation we grabbed our dowsing rods and started asking our next set of questions concerned with finding the layout and energy types that make up the outline and patterns of the site. We started at the King Stone and asked about its relevance to the site. One glance and Kal saw the face in the rock! Just like the stones at sites such as Lligwy Chamber and Alderley Edge (see previous posts on those sites). Interestingly, the top three holes form the layout of the three key energy points within the circle – the two power centres are the right eye and nose, whilst the left eye is the large female rectangular stone that dominates the northern edge. Their spacing proportions you should check with the map I drew of the energies in our Sacred Sites section. Look for Moel-Ty-Uchaf. Sometimes we find these “maps” on outlying stones – take a look at the outlying stones at Nine Ladies in Derbyshire, for example.

Kal dowsed that its eye sockets were a good place to leave our bottles of water, so we put them there and wandered off to the circle itself. later Kal would grab his water and decide it wasn’t such a good place after all! If you check the diagram you’ll see that he put his bottle where the female stone is – he has more affinity with male energies. My bottle was on the female power centre’s location. I felt no such qualms at leaving the water there. Coincidences, only coincidences.

2. Describing The Circle

As we approached the circle we asked whether there was any particular entrance point – No, came the reaction of the rods. We instinctively wandered around to the northern side and began to ask more questions about the purpose of the site – was it for healing? No, not healing. What about communication? A slight reaction. OK, so not it’s primary purpose. Was it used for spiritual transformation? Yes. Strongly, yes.

We moved into the circle to look for the power centres. Kal found the same one he had last time, and I did the same. Kal’s registered as a male energy centre. Mine was a female centre. Typical! We’ve found this before at other sites too, although we don’t often find two centres in one circle.

We dowsed for any connection between the centres, as we had found at Arbor Low. Indeed there was. A neutral line connected the power centres. Kal dowsed further. We dowsed for aerial and underground lines – yes – they were there too. Also of a neutral type. But there was more to this connection than just its 3D neutral connections – there was a female line that went either side of the central mound that formed the centre of the circle. The lines (neutral and female) could be traced going into either side of the large rectangular stone that stood out in the northern edge of the stone circle. Intriguing, that they seemed to form a circuit weaving underground, along the ground and through the air as they traced paths through the three main elements of the female power centre, the male power centre and then the large stone, and back.

Kal then dowsed for radial (alignment) leys running through the site and reported back that there were three lines that intersected close to the centre of the circle, running in the two main cardinal directions of North-South and East-West, but also one running NE-SW too. One seemed to be missing….

3. Hairy circles and a male embrace

The circle felt similar to The Nine Ladies circle in Derbyshire, so, like that circle I dowsed each stone for a reaction. Like Gors Fawr in Pembrokeshire too, this circle had a male spiral emanating from every alternate stone, and a female counterpart spiral on the inside. When drawn out it looked like a beard of spirals inside and outside the circle! You can’t get a more endearing image of gender equality than hairy males and females!

Our last ‘topograhical’ question concerned the male lines. The female lines were in the circle itself (again, a regular occurrence now). We dowsed inside and out for male lines and found one coming from each side of the King Stone, curling to an end alongside the northern and southern extremes outside the stones of the circle. It looked like the King Stone was embracing or cupping the circle! Like a game of ‘cup and ball’ (see Blackadder II for that reference: “How about a game of cup and ball and a slap-up tea at Mrs. Miggins’ pie shop?“).

We stepped out of the circle to do some testing of the perimeter. How far did the circle’s nemeton (or auric edge) extend? About ten feet, we found. We checked the direction of flow of the nemeton – anti-clockwise. Was that right? Surely not! We asked if this was having a beneficial effect on the circle’s energy systems – very strongly NOT. OK – but was the effect simply a matter of the time of day, or the time of year? Was it a normal effect that needed no attention? We double and triple checked our findings with variations on the questions. The answers all came back quickly and strongly – ‘Something should be done to correct this‘ – that is the purpose of your visit. Point taken. We can take a hint! This was an effect to consider correcting. However, we still had some more questions.

4. Rainbows and cute reactions

Further to our experiences with rainbow colour reactions at Runcorn Hill we tested for rainbow colours moving in from about twenty feet away. At ten feet we got the nemeton’s edge and it read for the colour ‘red’. Then we did ‘orange’, ‘yellow’, ‘green’, ‘blue’, ‘indigo’ and ‘violet’. We consistently got them in that order, but always at different widths from each other! Again we checked our results. Same. We picked random colours from the list – same results. OK. That tallies with our initial efforts at Runcorn Hill where we got that effect, but then as we agreed on questions to ask our results began to merge together. A lesson there. Today we kept our questions to ourselves!

We were just about to stop dowsing when Kal moved towards the circle and got a funny reading close to the circle’s outer edge – one rod was stiffly pointing straight forward, and the other had swung inwards at a 90 degree right angle. He tried again, Same result! “Hey – come and look at this!” he shouted to me. “What did you ask for?” I said, curiously. “A power centre for spiritual transformation.” he said. Strange! We never get this odd reaction of one rod doing something different to the other!!! I tried. I got the same! It felt weird though, not like a normal reaction, and this formation wasn’t even in our dictionary! I walked slowly forwards, close to the circle. The left-hand rod continued to swing around, now pointing straight back at me, then stopped moving and went stiff like the right-hand rod. “Hey Kal – it’s turned right around, and what’s with this static solid right hand business?” I asked. We looked at each other blankly. What did this mean? We were very confused. Without any question being asked the rods were determinedly pointing in opposite directions along a North-South axis, through the gap in the southern side of the circle.

We shrugged and decided to peg out one of the female and male spirals with some ribbon Kal had bought, and some plastic pegs I had acquired for the purpose.

5. Transformers – robots in disguise.

We cleared the circle and commenced our energy work. As usual we had no pre-prepared ritual or script – this would all be done intuitively, and with dowsing to direct us. We asked if we should sit on our respective centres – Yes. Should Kal use the transformational power of this circle? No. Should Gwas use a druid connection to reverse energy flow – Yes. My turn to be the focal point, then. OK. I was ready, excited even.

Should we use crystals to focus the energies? – No. Oh! OK. Let’s see what happens. All we know is that we need to reverse the nemeton’s energy direction. Let’s see how it goes! Kal sat on his male centre. I walked around tapping my two stones against the stones with cup-mark depressions in them. Kal meditated. I asked him later if the sound had had any affect? No. Except to form a beat to meditate to. I hadn’t felt anything whilst doing it. I’ll try vibrational sound when I go somewhere a bit quieter.

I took my two stones from the top of Pistyll Rhaeadr waterfall and placed the flat one underneath me, put my staff across my lap, and held the second stone in cupped hands. I meditated to try connecting to the energies of the site. Kal got up and started walking around the circle carrying his rods. I started to quieten my thoughts and relax into the energies of the site so that I could feel them. After a minute I was beginning to make progress, and barely noticed Kal parading around the circle’s outer edge.

6. The adrenal dump of Negatives

Suddenly there was a man’s voice! He quickly approached up the southern slope, and stopped at the southern gap, shouting questions at Kal with a very aggressive rather than inquisitive manner. Asked what the tapping noises were. Kal deflected his questions with innocent, curt, closed answers and carried on walking. I tried to block him out and maintain search for connection, but I could feel the huge amount of negative energy this man had brought with him seeping into the circle as he walked around with Kal, still quizzing him as he walked around, standing very close to him, observing.

Are you doing a ritual?” – “What are you doing?” – “What was that tapping noise?” – “Did you know this site is protected by English Heritage, you know that?” – “Have you got the permission of the farmer? He looks after this site…..” The questions came regularly and I faltered in my concentration, becoming bound up in thoughts of this intruder into our work. I hadn’t put up a protective shell or circle to protect against this. This is exactly what Emma Restall-Orr warned about, as have many other druid books on these subjects. Oh no!

Kal started to clank together his dowsing rods as though to ward the stranger off! I wasn’t going to be phased by the commotion, though. I pushed out a protective ball of light which described my nemeton, and hardened it against noise and the negative energy. Then I imagined energy flowing through me from the sun, drawing it down into the stone, through my staff, and into the smaller stone I was sitting on. From there is circled around the inner circle, to Kal’s power centre, and then to the female rectangular stone, back around the inside of the circle underground, and back to me. Then it described the same path but in its opposite form – through the air, along the earth, underground, and back to me. And this flow got stronger and faster as I held the vision.

At first my eyes were following the flow easily, soon the flow was going around this 3D lightbulb formation that the inner energy paths were describing – but now too quickly to follow as a flow, it became the image of a glowing lightbulb. As I realised this the flow broke out to spin around the inside of the circle, sunwise. As this flow too became too quick to follow – forming a complete ring of energy with no gaps – so it moved through the female stone out to the outer edge of the circle’s nemeton.

On the outer edge the energy flowed sunwise, faster and faster as Kal walked around and around, seeming to pull it along with him until it overtook him. The energy became a complete band of light spinning around the circle clockwise inside and out and around the lightbulb formation in a dizzying formation that reminded me of those long-exposure photographs of car lights at night where the lines all merge into a blur of white curved lines.

7. Blissed out but chastened

At that moment I came slowly back to an awakened state. I felt blissful. I saw Kal slowing to stop, and he looked over at me as he came back towards me. We knew we had done something positive, despite the presence of the inquisitive walker. I placed the stone I was holding on top of the stone I had been sitting on and walked towards Kal and the stranger.

Kal stormed past me onto his power centre and sat with his eyes closed, in a quite deliberate disconnection from communication with the stranger. Still feeling blissed out, but ensuring that my nemeton was firm and strong (I could almost see it at that point) as I gauged the distance to stand so that the man could feel its outer edge. Kal later told me that he had assisted me in protecting myself by imagining a protective sphere around me as well as himself (a ‘shell’ he calls it). I’m sure the positive vibes helped, because I was able to chat and answer his questions easily, and maintained an air of assuredness and content which seemed to neutralise his pointed questioning. Instead I ended up questioning him! “And so what is your purpose in visiting stone circles?” I asked forthrightly. He swayed a touch and muttered something about “History, and a bit of spirituality.” Indeed. Why not?

8. Manifestly a manifestation

Kal awoke and stated we needed to leave. We gathered up our belongings. Before I left I dowsed to see if there was a manifestation where I had been sitting (marked by Kal in the picture above) – a small four petalled flower had formed, interwoven with four larger petals that reached to touch the circle’s stones. I smiled.

We dowsed the nemeton again to check which direction the energy flowed in. It was now strongly flowing in a sunwise direction – clockwise. I had learned a lesson in protection. I had sounded the stones thinking I was connecting with the circle, or generating positive energies, when actually it seemed to draw towards us an incarnation of negative energy! When it happened I hadn’t protected myself against the effects of this and had to struggle to maintain discipline of mind to ignore his activities and deflect his bad energies. As we were leaving the stranger drifted down the hill awa from the circle. Within moments he had disappeared beneath the slope’s convex horizon.

I will endeavour to remember to invoke this protective sphere myself whenever I need to work again. Emma Restall-Orr says it, several other books about druid magic say it, the diminutive gentleman at Alderley Edge couldn’t contain himself from telling me that I should, and was astonished when I said I didn’t. Even my thick skull can sometimes be porous enough to absorb information. Lesson learned.

Gwas

Cup and ball – Holy Grail

Helsby, Cheshire – 8th July

Sundown, Thursday 10th July.

If you’ve been following these posts you’ll know that I have been tracing a straight ley line (one which aligns without deviation through several points of ‘ancient’ or ‘sacred’ significance) that I believe runs from at least Overton Hill in Frodsham to the field which sited the 2007 Welsh Eisteddfod just south-east of Mold in Clwydd.

Actually I suspect it runs much further, and may end at Honley in Yorkshire at its northern-most point, and a mountain overlooking Llyn Bodlyn, which is just inland from Cardigan Bay in west Wales. Hawarden (see earlier post) is also on this line. But more on those and other sites when I get the chance to dowse them.

This particular evening I decided to stay closer to home and look at the intersection points with easily accessible roads from the ley which I think runs stright through Helsby village, across the face of Helsby Hill, and then on to the monument on Overton Hill atop Frodsham in Cheshire.

I printed off a map with some rough estimates of crossing points and headed to dowse them to check whether they were where I thought, and to see whether I could actually sense the presence of the earth energy at those places I had plotted, or close by if my estimates were off.

Of course, I held open the possibility that I may get nothing at all too. Fair’s fair! The dowsing and I have to work together on this one – no tricks! It was a gentlemen’s agreement we had. I would ask sensible questions, where possible – the responses would be accurate and true, where possible. It had worked so far with very few exceptions, all of which could be put down to over-stretching the mark on my part, either with the line of questioning, the intention of those questions, or my stubborness to listen to the answer. All this must be worked out like learning to ride a bicycle again. It is humbling, but exciting. If you follow simple rules of humility, good intent and a willingness to engage – unusual stories are created for you. In many ways you truly become a ‘follower’ – following the paths, the energies, the beautiful landscapes, the occasional sign, leting the rods lead you on to places you wouldn’t normally go….you are a follower. Often it takes a while to catch on. I put that down to the social conditioning, and many people can teach you how to break those barriers down. Choose your teachers carefully and begin your own search for yourself!

Enough pontificating! Push onwards!

“Now is the Winter of our disconten…” – only kidding. Enough speeches.

I started in the village of Hapsford – embarrassingly close to the A56 – I still haven’t learned to relax about dowsing in front of people yet. Another lesson I’m learning as quickly as I can. I dowsed down the road into the village and asked for a powerful straight ley line. Just at the end of the row of houses the rods started to turn inwards. It was a slow process which spanned 12 or so feet in width, the crossing getting strongest at the middle and then ebbing away to an uncrossed position next to a Public Footpath sign. Next!

A quick hop to park at the bottom of Lower Robin Hood Lane (Robin Hood? You mean The Green Man?). At the corner of the park it crossed again. Then at a junction at the foot of the hill. Then again on Old Chester Road, just past the intersection. Regular. Strong. Repeatable. Straight. Dead straight.

I was drawn into the trees on the far side of Old Chester Road and found a path weaving in a long pulse left and right along the bottom of Helsby Hill. I asked to be shown the nearest power centre – a place where either lines cross, or energies begin to create a swirly, a vortex if you will, of concentric energy lines. Often we have seen these formations in the centre of stone circles, ancient or modern, and often being ‘fed’ or ‘transmitted’ by a large tree.

I soon came across a widening in the path – a bulge in roughly circular formation, and as I approached the centre of it, as the rods directed me to, they started twirling around in my hands – the indicator movement for finding what you asked for. In this case – a conjunction point. I looked around. To my right a path down the hill joined just on the edge of the power centre (which was slightly on an incline, just where it’s lush grass and ferns wouldn’t be disturbed by walkers on the path.

I pushed on. What else was there to find, I wondered to myself? I asked the rods to trace the path onwards, and I absent-mindedly followed the rods again (or one rod in this instance – a favourite method of mine). In the centre of the crossing of the lines was a stunted, spiral-branched half-alive birch tree. I rested my hand on it, and thought to myself – after what happened at Birchen Edge, I wonder if it would happen again? Was I about to get a rude awakening? Or an earthly delight?

I lowered my eyelids until I could only see flickers of light through the branches in the lowering sunlight of early evening. I relaxed and thought, “What are you got to tell me about today?”. Another thought followed as if in answer, “Follow the bird and see!”.

Not this “follow the bird” thing again! That’s what had happened at Birchen Edge. There it had led me to see a ring of trees on a distant hillside, which I interpreted as a Druid’s Grove. What now? The answer came immediately as I looked up – a bird flew from the road, through the tree, across the path not six feet in front of me!

I lowered the rods for a moment, and walked apace further along the path. Around the next corner I felt attuned to the direction of the energy I had been dowsing, enough to trust it was flowing beneath (and around) me. I looked up and saw the bird sitting on a horizontal birch tree branch, as if waiiting for me. By now, I was ready to notice a signal, and as I approached the tree the bird took flight again off up the hill.

I rested my hand on the trunk of the birch tree. Again, the light from the westward setting sun through the trees dappled the light so that it sparkled in my eyes. I relaxed.
“What is the nature of male and female energies?”, I asked.

An image formed in my mind of a ray of sunshine beaming in a straight line, and this was accompanied by the words, “Male energies are like the rays of the sun – they wish to be straight, force through, push on.” The image changed to in fade out the sun, and the round pale image of a moon over water began to come to the foreground.
“Female energies are like the tides of the moon – they swirl and weave, ebb and flow around.”
I saw a picture of the serpentine energies flowing around obstacles, oscillating along paths, and concluding their journey as swirls.
I tried to burn that image into my memory to think about later, and then asked another question. “How can I distinguish between the two energies?”
The answer came back as a thought, “You are in a good place here to find out.” came the response. I shook myself out of my reverie with the intention of trying it out straight away!

From the vision I saw that the two energies must be linked to the influences of the planetary bodies to which they were linked – male energies may be influenced by the position and strength of the Sun in terms of their oscillation rates, their strength and possibly their direction of flow? Female energies may be linked in a similar way to the Moon’s qualities?

I took my rods back to the energy centre back along the path. I asked to find ‘sun/male’ energy, and within a foot I had crossed rods, so I followed their direction. They oscillated gently between the outer edges of the path.

I went back to the centre again. I asked to find ‘moon/female’ energies this time, and within two steps I had a cross. This time the energy zig-zagged with higher, shorter waves around the line of the path, but then curved sharply left to swirl into the centre of a clump of ferns and some lush-looking grass. Wow! Different types of lines – different behaviour.

As a third experiment I asked to trace the route of the straight ley that ‘guided’ those sun and moon energies, and this time to rods went in a straight line from the energy centre, along the path, and into a large pine tree that stood at a kink in the trail. The path re-joined behind the tree.

Three types of energies. Each with its own characteristics. I felt I had been answered. I thanked the forces which had guided me, and I headed back to the car, pondering the nature of energy lines.

Seems you can have fun on your very own doorstep!
Gwas Myrddyn.

Follow your true path.

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Kellianna's song 'Brighid' from her album 'Lady Moon'. Seemed appropriate.
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