The Hedge Druid

Posts Tagged ‘healing’

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

3.Benllech dolmen (Megalithic)

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

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

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

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

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

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

Let them pass, sir, let them pass!

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

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

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

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

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

Gwas.

Often Kal and I time our visits to meet the requirements of whether the ‘sacred date’ (of the Celtic Year) comes closest to a Full Moon or a New Moon. One such visit coincided with a New Moon on July 30th. This coincided with the Lammas (or Lughnasagh) Festival. We decided that a visit to Lud’s Church in Staffordshire would be the best option because it combined Kal’s wish to see the place with the idea of going to a place “underground” to coincide with the new moon energies. Our hope was that this coincidence would be good for allowing visions and getting answers to questions.

We did a hasty jaunt out to the Staffordshire and Derbyshire border, very close to the Macclesfield Forest. I went via a route that I didn’t normally use, and soon we were lost! In the right area, but definitely lost. Kal had to turn on his charm and extracted useful directions from a local old man. Soon, I recognised where I had gone wrong and we were only minutes away from the Gradbach village (which doesn’t appear on any of my Satellite Navigation systems as a valid destination – helpful!).

Lud's Church near Gradbach

If you plan to go yourself, take my advice and use SatNav to guide you to SK17 0SU, or to one of the following nearby villages: head for Allgreave if you want to come in from the North or West. Head for The Roaches via Danebridge if you want to come in from the South or South-West. Head towards Flash just off the A53 of you are coming from the East (say, from Buxton). None of those villages will get you to Gradbach, but they’ll get you close! Once in that area you will find Lud’s Church here.

The sun was setting as we arrived finally at the car park that is at the base of a hill leading to the Gradbach Scout Camp and Youth Hostel. A gentle walk at a brisk pace up the hill and down into the dale where the Black Brook flows brought us to the ‘entrance’ to Lud’s place – the entrance being a huge beech tree that I felt compelled to show to Kal. He was awestruck by the majesty of the tree and could immediately feel its power, as I have many times. We briefly stopped to pay our respects, and I asked permission to enter and for the tree’s blessing on our vision work to come. This delightful beech tree seemed only too pleased to be asked, and to have some form of reverence shown to it. Of course! What else would a Hedge Druid do?

So, with the beech tree’s blessing, we began to climb up to the our destination – the temple of the god of light.

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In this post I am going to tell you about the single most powerful and fascinating true story of some work I did with a healer friend as we worked on resolving a long-standing energy problem at a sacred site in Cheshire. Every word is true and as it happened. I think you will find it a good example of earth energy healing, a telepathic incident, and also a curious tale of an encounter with a dark energy form.

I have talked many times with my friend Michael about energy healing. Sometimes he talks about me getting involved in healing, with the presumption that this means people. Sometimes I talk to him about healing, with the presumption that I mean earth energy healing. Sometimes we are on the same wavelength. One evening I went to see Michael in Congleton and I felt like it was the culmination of a series of events that were bringing our wavelengths together.

Michael barely had time to say hello before I was asking whether he could accompany me on a special journey to a local site. He didn’t need much persuading, and in a few moments we were heading off to The Bridestones – a site that Michael lives close to but which he had never visited close up (he has passed by on many occasions). He said he never felt that there was anything there for him to go for. I understood that feeling, for it is exactly the same feeling that Kal has about the site – a distaste for it.

As we drove the few miles out of town I explained how I had come to choose this site. I had been doing a tarot reading about where I should take my healing work and it had suggested I would work with someone who was already skilled in healing. Well, I only knew one person who fitted that bill! Then the cards suggested earth energy healing, and I began to wonder where Michael would fit into this particular picture, as he was a healer of people. He responded that actually he had been receiving information telling him that he would be doing more earth energy healing soon. Looks like I turned up at the right point then?

Finally, I explained how I had found the site by dowsing questions. After going through a list of “North/South of Britain”, “East/West”, type of questioning I began to narrow it down to specific counties, and then I could begin to narrow the search down by asking whether it’s a site I have visited before. When the answer came back that it was a known site I only had to go through a list of the sites in that county, and soon I had my answer -  The Bridestones. I knew instantly that the choice of Michael by the tarot cards was perfect – he had local knowledge, and healing abilities. It was a perfect match and it felt right.

So, we visited The Bridestones on a sunny evening in late July, just as the sun was moving towards the horizon and the shadows growing long. Here is the tale of our epic work at this site.

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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.

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Glastonbury Abbey

Talk about a quest! In a previous post I told of how I had to incorporate healing my diabetic condtion as part of the “strength of arm” blue key on my knights quest.

And then last weekend I was out at the KnightsHeys national trust site having made a potetial list of ways and means of healing trying to figure out what and which would help me towards achieving this key.

I came back with a good set of answers and had spent a couple of days refining them into a program of change. With this program already in action I set off for Glastonbury on the summer solstice of 2011.

A curious note. I was waiting for news of a contract extension at work, having predicted that I would get one in this post here. After waiting all day and an extra hour to boot for this news, I found myself frustrated at not having the answer on the Solstice day. Finally I left my work place vowing to the my manager that I had the extension, and to just sort out the details. He was non-plussed of course. But the signs are the signs, right?

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Dr Wayne Dyer

Synchronistic backlash from the questions I had thrown at The wood of Magicians yesterday came to kick me in the butt the next evening some 300 miles away!

It was Monday afternoon and I was heading for London to listen to the man who had changed my direction in life several years ago. Known to the world as the father of motivation, he shouldn’t need any introduction, Wayne Dyer. In terms of the content of his work I would suggest that it used to be 80% psychology and 20% spirituality. In latter years that has shifted to the other way around.

I have read and listened to pretty much all of his work and once had the privilege of being asked whether I was channeling him (since my talk of the previous hour had reflected a lot of his wisdom, indeed using his terminology too).

I’m there with a packed audience of 1100! at £25 a pop in a theatre in London (Peacock). The chap is on for 2.5 hours and for the first 2 hours he is going through his usual material about how our beliefs limit our thinking…and about, well basically us (the life that Gwas and I lead) really i.e. living an intuitive (extraordinary) life. So i’m getting this validations feeling from what he is saying and the examples he is giving, since my life currently reflects an extra-ordinary one (see pretty much all of my posts).

Now then about 2 hours in his focus shifts on to physical healing (and this is a real departure, as I have said I have read all his material) and how to heal yourself does form a very small part of it (his main focus being positive psychology.

At the beginning he talks about the use of the power of intention (and quotes Castaneda a couple of times, which is what had brought Wayne to my attention some years ago).

Then he brings on this lady who had healed herself of multiple cancers. Amazing! Then he starts talking about Diabetes…and i’m like…what the Zarquon! It is almost as if he is talking to me! Just as i’m thinking, How could this validatory synchronicity be occurring literally 24 hours after I had asked for it, when the universe had another surprise for me.

As Wayne continued on with his talk about healing the body, he started to focus on Diabetes. He talked about the need to have a positive intent with regards to healing and as he continued this vein along with dashings of motivational triggers I found myself getting teary eyed. What a message to receive so soon! But we weren’t done yet as a few moments later Wayne introduced an author who came from the medical profession. Her years of experience and knowledge brought an interesting healing modality. Altering diet in an attempt to coerce your body to heal itself using the energy.

In essence changing your DNA was the position she was aiming for. Again I was surprised because Gwas‘s latest quest was to change DNA!

Then he brings on this Dr lady who talks about how diabetes is completely curable using a hmmm intuitive healing approach of diet, exercise and energy (although she called energy spirit). And then they brought on another lady who had been given two days to live and how she had cured herself through the power of intention and being visited by an Angel (nature spirit?) that healed her.

It might not have been as impactful if for the fact the day before I was told to do this and I responded by asking for a sign and guidance! I was totally gobsmacked!

As you readers know, this is the world of the wierd we are walking…but let me tell you this…Nearing the conclusion of his talk Wayne said that one of the most affirming intentions you can have, is to begin it with, “I am” he then went to point out some instances of this in particular, Jesus “I am the resurrection”

he deconstructed this (and others) and said that the sentence doesn’t make grammatical sense…but if we use it and others as a template we arrive at…
“I am perfect health” … it blew me away when he kept repeating those words…

I was driving back to Devon that night from London! but you know! I was totally juiced!

Kal Malik – Amazing Knights Quest

My Glastonbury pilgrimage is always a major event in my life. Each year it signals a major change in motivation towards achieving something amazing and progression along my spiritual path is always much faster and furious after the pilgrimage. Sometimes the visions that I receive are life-changing. Sometimes they take me in a direction that I didn’t expect. This year they took me in a direction that I did expect – but one which I had been putting off for years. Now I was given a clear sign that I have to become a healer if I wanted to fulfil the role of a druid in modern society. There was simply no getting away from it this time!

In a meditation with the female forces that are commonly identified as simply “The Goddess” she showed me that my healing ability would come firstly through my palms, and that I could use this to heal myself first. Once I had learned that then I would use the power to heal others as repayment for this self-healing. I felt this was a fair exchange, and though I have nothing medically wrong with me I do a lot of physical training that often leads to strains and tired muscles. I am hoping that I will be able to repair the muscles and get back to full fitness quickly if I develop these healing techniques that I am being guided towards.

Thereafter I hope to be able to heal others, but I have a long way to go to get to that point. I seem to have a natural affinity for identifying people’s aches and pains, but I’m less skilled in resolving them. However, I do a form of acupressure that seems to have spontaneously emerged several years ago and which I suspect will be my starting point for what I am about to learn.

The History of the Palms

Let’s stay away from the obvious Christian associations with the palms – the crucification of the great bearded one, for example – and focus on how the palms are represented in traditional healing folklore. Healing hands have long been the province of the witch or cunning person of the village before the establishment of certified medicinal practises. In eastern philosophies the palms form an obscurer but no less important part of the chakra system of power points on the human energy field that interact with the divine energies of the surrounding world, and the palms have been seen as a means to be attract and transmit healing energies.

Learning to develop and channel healing energies

I am finding my own way – as usual – with the help of the wilderness voices. I am going into meditation in Nature and listening to the advice of trees and other guiding entities who wish to reveal to me the methods and powers with which I can begin to develop this healing practice for myself, and for the benefit of others. Of course, being an avid book collector I am also seeking out sources of written information to suggest techniques or areas into which I could develop, providing that these techniques that I read about are endorsed or confirm the techniques that I am discovering through communingAn interaction with an invisible and natural sentient force that is independently identifiable, even if it cannot be named or classified. The interaction takes place at the level of a subtle amalgamation of the mind of the perceiver such that a dialogue or transference of feelings may occur between the two sentient parties. The interaction that is ‘communing’ is purposefully initiated by the perceiver for the express purpose of learning or simply to transfer feelings in a sympathetic manner. and meditation. Nature is my teacher – the rest of confirmation or expansion.

I am trying out some of the meditation techniques from The Well of Light by R.J.Stewart. Actually, they are incredibly similar to ones that I already worked out for myself, or went through by accident. Funny how this all works the same way, no matter how you come to the information! If I find them successful I will write about them soon so that you can see how they are constructed, and consider how they might be similar of different from your own visionary work.

To get some more information about this topic I went to a favourite grove of mine that I haven’t visited at all this year. I was welcomed back and it was nice to be “home” in this ring of trees only a few miles from my house. Whilst there I was free to commune fully with the teacher beech tree that is the master of the grove and he led me to some thoughts about healing through the palms. The beech tree guided me to work on my five chakras to develop a circulating energy flow that went clockwise – in through my left palm, round my body, and back out again from my right palm. To enable this I had to hold my palms opposite each other in front of me, and to hold them at the height that corresponded to one of the five chakra points on my body. Bu doing this I was able to circulate my own body’s energy flows through my palms.

However, this was not all. I knew I couldn’t just use my own energy to heal - what if I needed more energy than I could muster to do the healing, or my own energy was not the right kind for the healing work? How could I channel energy from elsewhere? More meditation, and the tree suggested two sources for me. In the daylight hours I could draw light energy from the sun’s rays through my left palm and give them out through my right palm. At night I could use the energy of the moon. At any time I could use the energy of living things, particularly trees, to assist me in channelling energy into a healing form through this chakra meditation technique. Brilliant!

The Season of the Sources

These techniques for drawing energy from other sources are similar but different to those taught by the Reiki attunement levels, it seems. From my limited understanding of the Reiki system I believe that practitioners are taught to draw from a generalised universal life force. In my case I have been given specific sources to draw from to suit particular times of the day or night, and of course for particular times of the month and year too. For me, the sources and strengths of the life force to be drawn from will wax and wane with the day, with the phase of the moon, and with the seasons.

I expect the most abundant sun energy to be available at noon on a sunny day at the summer solstice, whereas the most abundant moon energy will be on a clear night at a full Winter moon when the moon is closest to the planet (the apogee). The other factor involved will be the strength of the trees that are nearby, and their levels of power and co-operation. Quite different from the simpler Reiki approach, I feel.

Some associated resources:-

1. Woodland Wellness
2. Reiki
3. Tonohira Ryoji – Reiki palm healing
4. Pranic healing
5. Using your palms for healing
6. Palm qigong
7. Hand Chakra awakening meditation video

Gwas.