The Hedge Druid

Posts Tagged ‘Forest of Dean’

This is part of my knights pilgrimage. for all the other posts related to this please click this (Knights Pilgrimage)  link and follow in order. Or just dive in and have fun!

Cars

In the previous post I had just left a couple on their way to their car and I was walking down a path which I hoped would lead to mine as the night was closing in. Fortunately it did and I was amazingly relieved. Hang on though, I thought as looking for my keys. Where am I supposed to go next? And had I done what was needed at the Forest of Dean? I asked the latter question first.

• Was I done with the forest? Yes. Considering all I had done was show a lost couple out of the forest. Was this what I was supposed to have done? Yes. That’s it? No. Was there a lesson in it for me? Yes.

I am not one for lessons, I have to say. And as I considered this, I heard some people walking towards me and stopped my dowsing to let them pass. I was shocked when they came into the light of passing cars. It was Beverly and Darren. The couple I had just left in the forest. They were as surprised to see me as I was them.

Lost

“Are you still lost?” I asked. They responded no, and pointed to the only other car parked near mine. “That’s our car.” I was stunned. What! I pointed to the other car and said to them. That’s mine. I was expecting surprise and shock. What I got was suspicion. “Well, thank you for your help.” They sidled passed me got into their car and drove off in haste. Gosh! People!

A little tip for you. When we’re out in the midst of sacred sites looking for direction and guidance. One of the ways we try to find the relevant event or incident is simply by breaking up the events into parts and asking, “was that relevent?” for each part. Simple, stupid, but often effective.

So, I began asking about each part of the day to find the missing link so to speak.

• Was it the crows that led me to the forest? No
• Was it my adventurous spirit to go? No
• Was it bumping into the couple? Kind-of (Ok, this is where one rod swings in but the other doesn’t. Come on you know this already, right?)
• Was it helping them find their way out? Kind-of.
• Was it that their car and mine where in the same place? No. I was expecting a yes here.
• Was it that they were lost? Yes.

Lost? Why was their being lost the message or guidance for me. Added to this was helping them find their way out. Definitely something to muse over on my pilgrimage.

Pilgrim notes

As an exercise, I thought that I would compile a notebook for the specific messages that I got on this diary so here it is so far:

1. Following and trusting my totem (crow)
2. Finding a couple who are lost
3. Helping them (reluctantly) find their car.

The Longest Drive

Was my pilgrimage complete? No. Come on, I had to ask. Okay where to next? Which direction? Thank god for my iPhone compass. I dowsed in a circle and ended up pointing south, according to my compass.

I thought of some places to the south, bare in my mind that my geography is appalling.

• Glastonbury? It was an obvious choice and the No wasn’t surprising.
• Avebury (was that south of here?) no matter, the answer was no.
• Stonehenge? No
• Tintagel? Okay, I know it’s South-West from the forest now, but at that time I didn’t. Anyway the answer was No.
  

  dean to merry maidens

Alright, it was time to try a different tack. Was it further than Glastonbury? Yes. Further than Stonehenge? Yes. Was it a (known to me) Sacred Site? Yes. Had I been there? Yes. Was it further than Tintagel? I was really hoping for a no to this one, but got a yes. O Crap! I cast my mind back to my stay in Devon and the sites I had visited.

• Hurlers? No
• Pipers Stones? No
• Any of the number of churches? No
• The Fogou, the name escaped me. No.
• Merry Maidens? Yes.

What! Seriously? The merry maidens? Why? Did I have to go there now? Yes. What? Why? I plugged the destination into my sat nav. 240 miles! Just under 5 hours! It was 7pm now! Am I insane? Don’t answer that.

The Dancing Coven

I drove and drove. Luckily or not, I’m used to these loooong haul drives having done them for a year or so. Even so. I had better get something useful out of this. Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone, written by J.K. Rowling and read by the amazing reader, Stephen Fry was my companion on this long journey. Amazingly I was only up to the point when they (Harry, Hermione and Ron) go down the trapdoor when I turned onto the lane that is adjacent to the Merry Maidens. I parked up the car and looked across into the field. There was a small fire burning in it. I got out of the car and for some reason, quietly closed my door so the sound wouldn’t carry. After waiting a few moments I walked up to the edge of the surrounding bushes and peered into the field. There were several people in the field. I wondered if they had spotted my car. It wasn’t visible over the bushes but the light must have been. Hang on though I thought, I had as much right to be here as anyone else. So why was I hesitating?

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Forest of Dean

In my previous post I told how I was waylayed on to a pilgrimage journey. I had set out for a short trip in Wales and ended up on course for the forest of Dean some 180 miles away! Crazy. Fortunately the weather was fabulous. It could have been confused for a sunny summer’s day and yet we are on the eave of spring. After a long…long drive I arrived at the edge of the Forest of Dean. I had been here a few times before. One more memorable event was when I had a vision to get in touch and repair my relationship with my sister. I wasn’t expecting something as amazing as that, but hey you never know.

Sunlight Shining Through Forest

Not really knowing the road structure around the forest. I just parked up at a convenient spot and trundled into the forest. It is an amazing forest I have to say. To me, it feels a lot younger than Alderley Edge and Delamere forests with which I am more familiar with. Hmmm A kind of fresh cleansed feeling, if you know what I mean? Maybe it was a feeling of up coming spring? I don’t know.

Anyway, I had walked along the paths for about an hour, which isn’t long in this size of forest, when I felt the urge to leave the beaten track and wander into the undergrowth. It was about 3 in the afternoon and I wasn’t too worried about getting lost, not with the trusty clink of my dowsing rods.

I asked my dowsing rods whether this was the place that I was to start my pilgrimage? Yes. That was good, but since I had already had a message to say my quest was complete. I wanted more answers. So I determined some more answers.

• Was my quest complete? Yes.
• Was this pilgrimage to do with my quest? Yes. That was rather confusing.
• Did I need to complete this pilgrimage? No.
• Would it provide me with some insight if I did? Yes. This was a strong YES by the way.

I guess that is good enough for me to burn a couple hundred pounds worth of petrol. Hmmm! I asked if there was a particular place in the forest that I needed to be? Yes. Taking a lesson from Gwas’s dowsing, I asked how far this was? Between 20/30 minute walk. That was OK with me so I set of following the rods through the semi-dense trees of the Forest of Dean.

I  would occasionally check my watch (iPhone) and finally 30 minutes had passed and I had not come to a stop. Why do the rods take you on a windy route? Why?? Anyway, I stopped. It was getting really hot and I was getting a bit worried. Sun set was around 2 hours away and my iPhone signal was nil-point! I asked the rods again, how many minutes walk and they responded 20/30 minutes! What the Great Prophet Zarquon! I double checked that nothing was interfering with my dowsing, there wasn’t.

Lost couple

I was ready to quit, when I heard a noise. Remember I was in the undergrowth. Not on a path. I waited a few seconds and heard a couple of people some distance ahead of me. From the sounds of it, they were arguing. I listend for a minute, but could make out what was going on. So I decided to get about my business. Again, I followed the rods.They pointed in the direction of the talking people. But knowing that they swerve a lot I wasn’t too worried and off I went. A few seconds later I came out on the path. Right in front of the arguing couple (yes, they were a couple).

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After the evening at Gop Hill (see  nightly revelations) I had missed the message that my knights quest had completed, successfully I might add. As I said in that post I was rather disappointed at its conclusion as I had been looking forward to the challenge of completing a south-north pilgrimage. And indeed had been informed at Dinas Bran (see Dinas Bran shows the way) that my pilgrimage should start at the Forest of Dean.

Anyway a week had past since our visit to Gop Hill and I was beginning to accept the completion of my quest. You might “how did it feel?” Not any different I’m afraid. I have to say that I was/am looking forward to the Spring Equinox ( a week away) which being a sun person will, I feel be very enlightening.

It was a bright sunny morning and I had decided to go for a drive and a walk. I had plenty of work to do so did not feel the urge to go too far, perhaps an hours drive. North Wales seemed like a reasonable destination. A few minutes in the car however had me feeling that maybe the Wizards wood at Alderley Edge would be a better direction. So I took the relevant turn and off I went. Some 10 minutes later I came to a junction where the left would have taken me towards Alderley. I had a strange compulsion to take the right turn instead and so I did.

I pondered whether I should stop the car and determine a destination via the dowsing rods, since I was getting some intuitional urges. I left the matter for the moment and carried on driving, fortunately the night before I had filled the petrol tank to the max.

I drove along the motorway for some 40 minutes before deciding to pull into a service station. As I sat in the car pondering whether to get out a grab a coffee and sandwich a noticeable crow flew over my car, circled in a wide arc and flew off in the direction I had been driving. Okay, I thought, forgot the coffee and hit the highway again. I had driven along this particular stretch many times and knew that there was a distinct lack of sacred sites along it. Unless…

As I drove, I realised that this route would take me south and towards the Forest of Dean and beyond. But it was a 2.5 hour journey to the forest, not including the hour I had already driven. Surely not! I hadn’t prepared for such a long journey, and what if it continued on after that?

Well, I wasn’t going to make that journey without more concrete instructions than a Crow! So, again at another service station I stopped, this time at a quiet corner of the car park to do some surreptitious dowsing. But I didn’t get the chance. As soon as I got out of the car 3 Crows flew over squawking and in the direction of travel. Okay! So be it. I got in the car and set the Sat Nav for the Forest of Dean (which was to be the beginning of the adventure).

Kal Malik

I was in the South of the country this weekend and happened to spot a place called the Forest of Dean. Being a “woods-man” I decided to head there on Saturday afternoon with a friend in tow.

Forest of Dean

A couple of hours drive later we were wandering amongst these wonderful trees. It is a great pace to visit with lots of paths – both natural and sanded. In many places the trees are really thick and one can wander into them and “almost” get lost within another world.

My friend, I have to say isn’t much of a nature person and was feeling out of place, but I had told him that I might be doing some dowsing and also perhaps a 15 minute meditation and so he was prepared for my “weirdness”.

As we walked through some freshly fallen snow, which made the place that extra magical, I marvelled at the sense of peace that was about the place.

Forest

It wasn’t long before I had my dowsing rods out and was asking whether “this” place was good to do some work? Yes. Excellent!

What kind of work? Both healing and trans-formative got a lukewarm yes. And how was I to do this? With a meditation. So with my friend at my back I was off following the dowsing rods to some “suitable place”. After about twenty minutes, deep into the forest I came to a stop.

My friend had complained that we would become lost as soon as I stepped off the beaten path. My assurances that we had the “rods” was met with a unfavourable response along with a statement to the effect that mobile signals were not working! To which I responded in a positive way I might add.

The rods had stopped in the center of a square formed by four rather nice (fern?) trees. I say a square, though of course if anyone else had looked at them, they may have just seen trees.

forest

So I took of my coat and placed it on the snow and sat down, whilst my friend wandered over to one of the trees and lurched against it smoking a rollie. I lit some incense and composed my thoughts. After a moment I got an image of a young crying child. It was a baby not more than a year old, crying.

Ok, that seemed like a good place to start. I made an intention…”Tell me more about this crying child”…

Spider

I found myself crawling through a dark muddy tunnel, there was no source of light to speak of, but I could see the walls and path before me. After crawling some moments I was confronted by a large spider. The spider must have been human height and a kind of shiny black colour.

spider

Almost instinctively I grabbed hold of its foremost pincers and held it close. I could feel myself shaking and wandered for a minute if my friend would see me holding my hands out in front of me. My hold on the spiders pincers/legs was very tight and I was both frightened and surprised.

The reason for this is because I am a bit of an arachnophobe and don’t do too well with spiders.

I looked into the glistening eyes and face of the spider before me and and a realisation came to me…”You are a guardian” this was followed by another realisation…”You are fear”.

After this realisation dawned on me I pushed the spider to the side and consciously realised that it didn’t vanish but just remained to the side of me as I passed by.

The three fates

I continued on along the tunnel until finally I came to an opening. There in front of me were three persons. For some reason I knew instantly that these were the three fates, Past, Present and Future. I stood before them for a moment. One of them screams at me “You dare? Who do you think you are that you dare?”

I was quite surprised at my own tone of voice and replied with a calm tone “Yes I dare. I am a flame of a candle that knows that it is a simple flame of a candle.”

The fate known as Present grabs a shining thread from the Weave and says, “I could snuff you out.”

Again, in a rather simple voice I reply, “Go on then.”

Three Fates

Nothing happens…then I say “show me”…and with that I take up the Weave and find the “crying child”.

It is my younger sister Noor.

I don’t want to go into her story too much here but just to say that she has been for many years in a place of difficulty and far removed from help from the rest of her family, including me. In the couple of attempts to help her she has backed of at the last moment and so in “our” i.e. her sibling’s mindset she had sealed her own fate. And to be honest, that is how we have described her situation.

As I examined the Weave surrounding and following her thread I can see her life as it is and as it was. Even to the events of our childhood where we used to play together. And now how she was alone from her family. I saw real images and metaphorical symbols too. “the sun never rising, the warmth of the breeze never flowing” I could feel the tears falling down my cheeks as these images from the Weave came to me.

I looked into her future and see that her fate is sealed, she has sealed her fate with her choices, and more…”I” have sealed her fate???

At this moment I look across at the three sisters – with a question in my mind – there is no answer. Gently I change the weave, it is so delicate, I unseal her fate – it is done.

Future, looks at me and asks “How?” – I don’t understand her question. But I find myself saying…

“I will be her sunrise, her warm breeze, the laughter of birds, I will be love…the confidant, the teller of tales, I will be her connection…” and I end with tears again falling, …”I will be her brother”

Future – again asks “How?”

“I am a candle that shines” was the only reply I could give

As I come out of the trance/meditation I wipe away the tears and look across to where my friend is now sitting. Did he see anything of this? I cannot guess and am too embarrassed to ask.

Kal

Post Script

My sister Noor emigrated to Pakistan several years ago and I have only been in contact with her a handful of times and not for many months. Yesterday I called her up and we shared our tales.

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.