The Hedge Druid

Posts Tagged ‘ley lines’

Often I need to squeeze an evening out of nowhere in order to get my spiritual path moving a little. I had been stagnating for a while, burdened by “life” getting in the way of what I wanted to do. It happens sometimes. So, I made some time and invited Kal to come with me on a ridiculous quest to Sherwood Forest in the early evening. This evening I would feel the heartbeat of the forest, discover a hidden sacred site, and have a vision that would leave me wondering what I had got involved in! Here’s the first half of that tale.

Unlike my previous visit to the forest I had a particular reason for being here tonight. Last time I had met the Spirit of Place which we all know as the legendary Robin, a title later to be assumed or subsumed into a figure who some believe may have real historical roots – it’s a long debate for another time. On this occasion I was in search of the place known as Thynghowe, an ancient artificial mound that I consider to me my spiritual centre in the land on this side of the Irish Sea. Of course, as I explained in my previous post about finding the centre – it’s not a case of finding the physical exact centre based upon geography. It’s a spiritual place, and I was here to find out what that meant for me.

You may remember that my reason for locating this centre was a vision I had that I called “the dragon at the solstice centre”? Well, I was late for the solstice part of that, but I was in the right place regarding the dragon element. “Thing” places are the mounds of ancient law-giving, renowned as meeting places and moot hills, and central to the lands in which they are situated. They also usually have a tale of dragons fighting associated with them. I understood that to mean a site where male and female energies interacted in an interesting way – sometimes in conflict, sometimes in harmony.

Information board about Sherwood Forest

As we arrived I could already see that it was more resplendent in Summer than it had been in Winter. Obvious, really, but would it feel good too? It was  a wet day everywhere, especially through Derbyshire, and the sky was grey and the air filled with drizzle. We got kitted out for the occasion. It was New Moon, and only days before Ramadan. New Moon generally means a time of difficult energy working for me, given that I am a moon-oriented energy person. So it would turn out to be.

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Karnak Temple

Karnak temple is only a few miles outside of Luxor. The temple is connected to Luxor temple via a row of hundreds of carved sphinxes – nothing like the size of the famous Giza sphinx, but with each one being at least man-sized or slightly larger that makes for one hell of an impressive sight when you see them lined up in a vast avenue. There is a dowsable energy ley line linking the two temples of Karnak and Luxor along which the sphinxes are placed.

Talking of impressive, the Karnak temple complex covers a vast area in itself. With several generations of pharaoh adding their own impressive extensions to the original temple there ended up being six distinct “pylons” or gates before an invasion of Persians then Romans put a stop to the proceedings. In addition to the huge main area dedicated to Amun-Re (the Precinct of Amun-Re), there are smaller satellite temples dedicated to the female deity Mut, and their son Montu. This makes the place sound quite simple – in fact it is incredibly complex having been presided over the at least thirty pharaohs.

View along the main Karnak temple aisle

The Aura of the Scarab Statue

The final touch is the inclusion of a sacred lake, and a scarab beetle statue which has a myth attached to it concerning it being a wishing status. The idea is to walk around the statue seven times in an anti-clockwise direction and your wish will come true.

I started the dowsing in the middle of a crowd of tourists at the scarab beetle statue. M wanted to walk around the scarab, so I let her. She was the only one doing this at first, but within two circles she was being joined by others who were copying the idea. By the fourth time around she had about 20 people circling around with her! I began to dowse when she started the perambulation. Was she generating any energy doing this, I wondered. She was, it seemed. I took a reading of the aura of the statue at that point. It was about ten feet wide.

As she continued to circle and more people joined her I could feel the aura expanding. I kept taking readings all the way through her walk. The aura seemed to be expanding faster than I could take dowsing readings! The more people that joined in, the faster the aura expended. Soon I had to stop at the lake that was 20 feet away because the aura was heading out into the water! She came back to join me. I didn’t ask what she’d wished for. It was for her to find out if such ideas came true.

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Well, I see that Kal got his summary out first. Still, “if you can’t beat them…”

Generally, what type of year it has been? Dis-jointed, slower than last year’s breakneck speed, measured, with lots of deep synchronicities. When I come to review the year I realise that I still made lots of progress on the various tasks that I was lead to perform in order to progress along my path of Druidry.

Below are the main topics that I have picked out from this year’s blog posts. I have tried to keep the explanations to a minimum, so have included links back to the original postings if you want the detail for each of the topics. What I thought was a quiet year has actually turned out to be incredibly packed and busy. The topics are in no order whatsoever, which kind of fits with the way that the year’s learning has come about – seemingly haphazard, but all threading into and through itself like some kind of cat’s cradle whose overall pattern will only be known when the final moves have played out.

26 topics I have been involved in this year:-

a) Healing – Most of the year has been spent developing healing skills, whether that was using remote energies, balancing the chakras, healing with the hands, or with crystals. I have realised that I am more attuned to healing places than people currently, but that is changing. The healing energies can be attuned to different colours for particular effects. To work with these energies I need to understand which “colour” is missing from a site and then call upon the energies of the local living entities to gather together to create this missing colour and thus heal the site. [related posts: My Five Healing Rays, Healing Rays Explained]

Also, in conjunction with my friend Mike, we created a new healing centre at The Bridestones in Cheshire. [related posts: A New Healing Centre]

Chakra colours, energy frequencies and healing may be linked

b) Re-discovering the bard - Discovered great new music (and that I like the new forms of folk music) at The Green Man Festival, and saw Roy Harper in concert in London. This year music has really connected with my heart and stirred great emotions. I have written more poetry this year than in other years too. [related posts: Green Man Festival, Roy Harper]

c) Astrological links to Venus, Orion’s Belt and Sirius affirmed at almost every site. Also Scorpius, astrological links to Arthur and the Great Bear constellation. The constellations of Serpens, Corvus and Perseus have been especially meaningful to me this year, guiding me along a very meaningful path from one end of an energy ley to another. [related posts: Serpent at Castlerigg, Arthurian Archetypes of Corvus, The Berth and Death of Scorpius, The Three Stars of Fertility, Absorbing Orion at Lud's Church]

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Even though Kal and I had gone to Lud’s Church for Lughnasagh (Lammas) I wanted to do something of my own, so I took some time off work to go on a little outing of my own. The dowsing rods had indicated that the best place to visit would be Anglesey, and so I sought out some sites that were of interest to me given the moon’s phase, the nature of the festival day, and my preference for wanting to know more about standing stones.

Thus, I chose to visit three sites along the A5025 which courses through Anglesey’s eastern side. I have seen many of the sites along the coastal regions all around the island of the Druids, but this road was a little further inland, so it was new territory for me. The weather was cloudy with occasional showers, but I was not going to be put off. I had work to do!

1. Ty Gwyn standing stone (Megalithic)

Standing on a small hill above a number of car salesrooms this standing stone is easy to find, and relatively easy to access (if you don’t mind hopping over gates). The stone stands proudly on the crest of the hill and the hill provides stunning views of other hills around, and across the Menai Straits to Snowdonia. The stone is shaped in the classic fashion – a wide flattened shape with one relatively pointed edge and the other side a more rounded edge.

Upon dowsing I found that there was male energy emerging from the pointed flat edge of the stone, and directed due eastwards towards the next standing stone at Llandegfan called Pen-Y-Maen. I put down the dowsing rods and stood in the flow of this male energy. With my hand I could feel the strong stream of subtle energy flowing out of this sharp edge.  Male energy and I are not very compatible so it was only a few moments of standing in this flow of energy before my head began to tighten, which is the prelude to me getting a headache. I stepped out of the flow and the tightening eased off immediately.

Llandegfan energy ley line

I found that the male energy was emerging from the geology beneath the stone. The stone had been positioned on this point because it was a natural weak point where male earth energy emerged. It was also the point where this weakness intersected a neutral ley line. Putting a stone of this shape at this point, broadside on to the neutral ley, meant that the male earth energy would rise into the stone and be directed to the narrowest point of the stone. This point was angled towards where the male energy was intended to go.

I don’t yet know why this male energy is important in the wider sense, except that male clockwise-spiralling energy has the properties of invigoration and motivation. On a map, if the line is extended eastwards it joins with hut circles and settlements on the North Wales coast at Llanfairfechan and atop the Penmaenmawr hills. Continued further it ends up at St.Asaph. Interesting, but inconclusive of any kind of theory about the usefulness or purpose of this male energy at the moment.

The Ty-Gwyn standing stone overlooks car showrooms

The next unusual finding was related to a patch of flattened grass. There were cows in the field so it was a fairly safe assumption that the cows were responsible for the flattened patch that was concentrated neatly around the sharp point of the stone. It would seem, then, that the female cattle were quite content, nay preferred, to deposit themselves for periods of time at the place where the male energy was emerging from this stone. Obviously, this would not have provided them any shelter at all! So, it may be an indicator that cows like male earth energy?

Cows seem to enjoy the energy output from this stone

2. Llanddyfnan standing stone (Megalithic) [Map]

A few miles further down the road from the previous stone was the much-easier-to-spot stone of Llanddyfnan. In fact, if you’re driving from Pentraeth to Talwryn (a common route for everyone, surely?) then you can’t really miss the stone. It is in a field right next to the road and next to a farm. With it being early in the morning I didn’t want to disturb the farmer with my request to visit, so I simply hopped over for a quick peek and a quick dowse. The only curious onlookers were the herd of bulls in the field adjacent, who again showed an amazing level of interest in what I was doing. Cattle and dowsing!

When I dowsed I found many of the same properties as the previous stone:-

• Male energy emerging from the “cutting’ edge of the flat stone
• Stone positioned to be broadside on to a ley line (in this case running North-South)
• The male energy was being sent off in a westward direction, following the angle of the stone’s thinnest edge.

Another male energy generating stone side on to a neutral ley

So, some corroborative evidence concerning the nature of standing stones and their orientation. It seems that stones are either chosen for their angular qualities, or were shaped accordingly so that there was one thinner edge and a broad side to the stone. The purpose of this seems to have been to mutate, or harness the existing earth energies by placing the stone on a spot of weak geology where earth energies are being emitted from under the ground. The spot was also chosen because it coincides with the path of a neutral energy ley. The stone is fitted broadside on to the energy ley, and its width matches that of the energy ley so as to capture all of the flow.  Some form of transmutation seems to occur within the stone as a result of this, and the resulting male energy tends towards the thinnest edge of the stone where it is emitted as a concentrated ray of male energy.

That being established, I moved on to deal with a more druidic aspect of my work – to seek knowledge through meditation at a sacred site. I chose a dolmen near to a place called Benllech further down the A5025. I will tell you about this episode next time.

Gwas.

This post is all about the ley lines that I dowsed in Paris. There’s quite a lot of information in here so I have decided to put a bullet-point summary here at the beginning so that you can see what topics I am going to discuss:

• Chris Hardy’s book “The Sacred Network” and the Decumanus Lines of Paris
• Finding the Luxor Obelisk using intuition alone, and its link with Kal in New York
• The major and minor leys centred on the obelisk
• The Jardin Des Tuileries and the strongest ley I’ve found yet
• Being guided to find a smooth stone
• How the Arc de Triomphe de Carrousel splits a major ley line
• How the Louvre pyramid plays a part in the line’s reconstitution
• The Louvre’s link with the “Axe Majeur” created by Francois Mitterand at Cergy-Pontoise

Have I whet your appetite? Great, then read on!

Sometimes life throws an opportunity your way and you just have to go with it. Such a chance came to me when work decided that I needed to be trained up and to do that I would be sent to Paris in May for a week. Well, what can one say to a chance like that? Yes, of course! I had just bought Chris Hardy‘s book “The Sacred Network” and been marvelling at the many pages about Paris’ ley lines. Here I was being given the opportunity to go test them for myself, first-hand.

Chris Hardy refers to two main lines in Paris which she calls the West and East Decumanus lines. I drew myself a pair of lines on Google Maps from her rough indicator points, and then I could refer to that later. There are plenty of other leys referenced, but these are the main ones that cross so many of central Paris’ main attractions, for example – the Champs Elysses, the Arc de Triomphe, La Defense, The Louvre to name but a small selection. What I wondered was, are these lines natural ley lines, or created by humans? Secondly I wanted to know whether they had any energy associated with them? That was all I was looking for. Time would be short, and dowsing in a city always has the possibility of attracting unwanted and often unshakeable attention, so it would have to be swift and to the point.

Luxor Obelisk with full moon

How to find your way in a city

From what I can gather from reading Hardy’s book most of the main leys of Paris seem to be centered on the Luxor obelisk (or ‘Obelisk of Ramases‘). I decided that this would be my starting point for an exploration of which leys were which, and which were important for me to dowse. The very evening that I had goot clear to do this investigation work Kal sent me a long text epxplaining how he had found the Genius Loci for Central Park in New York, and that it was found at….an Egyptian obelisk (see Kal’s Dowsing in the City post).

There was nothing else for it – now it was confirmed. I didn’t know Paris or yet have a good handle on the underground train system, so I decided to walk to the obelisk. The only problem was… I had no idea where it was! I decided to trust to fate and began to walk down whatever street took my fancy, so long as it looked like it was heading towards the Seine River, which I figured would identify the centre of Paris. It was a foolhardy and naive assumption considering the length of the Seine, but I wanted to see what happened.

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Imbolc – 29th January, 2011 – Yorkshire

It had been a long time coming. Kal and I had intended to go to Lindisfarne in Northumberland for Imbolc, and in fact I had stated as much in the previous podcast for January, but when I worked out how much of the short day I would be spending in the car…well, we turned our attentions to one of our other focal areas for this year – Yorkshire. Now, I’m a Yorkshire lad, born in the county but having moved after only a few years there. I don’t remember anything about it, so whilst it felt like a homecoming of sorts, it didn’t feel like my spiritual home, which is Wales.

The had an itinerary of sites to visit which Kal had dowsed, and then I had added to and plotted the most efficient journey between them. Seemed like a perfect combination, although asking Kal to navigate is like asking Norman Wisdom to be your wedding planner – comic moments were bound to arise!

The day’s sites

1. Shipley to test the Northern ley line from Arbor Low. [Shipley on a map / Link to Arbow Low Energy Ley map]

Shipley is not the most picturesque town in northern England. I’m sure it has some redeeming features but we felt, as we stepped out of the car, that we ought to get our dowsing done as quietly as possible and as soon as possible. Kal deferred to me to do that job – thanks Kal! Using a single dowsing rod I asked whether there was a ley line passing through Shipley – there was. I asked to be shown to where it was, and to get directions at each junction. As we walked towards the junction of each road I got the dowsing rod out and it quickly swung to show me which way I should walk. Left, then right, the slightly left, then left again, right…now we were walking down a back street with very few people around. Better for dowsing than the main market square which was thronging with Saturday shoppers. Just as we were wondering what on earth there could be to see down this back alley we arrived at the Hockney pub and the rod took me right up to the door and spun around – a sign that we were at a conclusion point.

I got out my iPhone compass application and set it to magnetic North in the settings. I ahd to wait a while because the compass had interference again. Every time I come to use a compass in an energy ley – there’s interference. Eventually it settled down and caught up with itself. I aimed in the direction of the ley line – North. Due North. The line ran North-South. Exactly as expected, even though we had no idea which direction we were facing when we got the rods to align to the energy ley. Proof enough for me. Here was the final test – I asked the dowsing rods whether this line was the same line that existed at Arbor Low – YES. Strongly affirmed.

The orientation of the energy ley was a 45 degree angle through the front entrance porch of the pub. Oddly, I took several photographs of the pub and the entrance but they have all disappeared from my camera. Hmm…more interference. In the photograph below the ley line follows the angle of the telephone wire that you can see.

A strange place to find a major ley line

We followed the line back towards the centre of Shipley town now that we had an orientation to follow. As we approached the market area we came across a couple of surprises. We saw how the line went through a statue of a ram sitting upright. In heraldic terms this silver ram denotes peace and authority. This statue was dedicated to the memory of Princess Diana, which seemed odd for it to be on an energy ley. This is reminiscent of things that David Icke talks about in terms of the memorial that was placed on top of the Pont D’Alma bridge under which the ill-fated Mercedes car crashed on the night she died. There is a theory that energy leys form a network of channels along which both good and ill energy can be spread. Hamish Miller, the legendary dowser, had a keen interest in this aspect and would work with a group of like-minded friends to attempt to restore these lines to have beneficial properties.I say “restore” because I believe that at one time this is how they were charged – with positive energies.

From that point the energy ley then goes through a simplified mediaeval labyrinth design inlaid into the floor of Shipley town centre. Notice the intertwining red and black serpent shapes. I find it interesting that this coincidental pattern is at the exact spot where the energy ley is. Perhaps the spot was chosen because it “felt right” or it was the symbolic centre of the town. Either way – it is a rapid way to identify the ley’s crossing point now. We should have walked the labyrinth, but it didn’t occur to us at the time – we were more interested in sandwiches, if I recall! A wonderful opportunity presented but missed, I feel.

Labyrinth on the Shipley ley line

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It seems sort of fitting that this post is the 400th post on this blog. We have come a long way since we started in late 2008. All of that seems so long ago now, because so much has happened since then. We have grown. So I present the 400th post – a summary of the year’s work for 2010.

Like Kal I intend to do this summary in a single post. Last year it spread across about seven posts. I have learned to be more disciplined in this last year, and I will keep it to one. So, having sifted through all the millions of posts this year here are the absolute best bits. I didn’t believe that 2009 could be bettered, but I was wrong – 2010 was a vintage year that will live long in my memory, and below you will find out some of the reasons why.

PERSONAL HIGHLIGHT

Meeting and integrating with the spirit of Merlin

Things had been progressing towards this all year. Firstly I had met Arthur’s shade at Tintagel, and he tasked me with keeping Merlin’s legacy alive by connecting up and re-energising sacred sites. Then shades that I interacted with began to call me “Son of Merlin”, which I took to mean “follower” rather than literal progeny, or “spiritual inheritor” perhaps. Finally, at Dinas Emrys, it all came together and I descended into the Underworld to meet with Merlin’s shade, and as we emerged onto earth we merged in a kind of Rosicrucian marriage of male and female energies.

Of course, all of this can and perhaps should be seen symbolically, rather than literally. It works from any point of view – psychologically as the culmination of some form of inner desire, or as a desire to perpetuate a myth symbolically because it serves some psychological purpose. I’m sure it could be read many ways. For me, it was the fulfilment of my magical self. It was the integration of the intention with the delivery. It was the satisfaction of the edict “Make magick manifest”.

Meeting Brian Conquer and Feeling The Goddess in Glastonbury

Man, I almost forgot this. I was thinking about something completely unrelated and suddenly the whole experience came back to me and I had to add this bit into the post on 14th January 2011.

I remember being at the Chalice Well Gardens this year and meeting Brian Conquer, “Just a silly little Hedge Druid” as he described himself to some American tourists in search of free wisdom. I was intrigued by him - his eyes told me he knew many things and together we scolded those who leave Nature in a mess and praised those who make their own tools with love and care. That made me think of Oonagh.

Later, as I walked around the grounds he caught up with me and gave me a precious gift – a rugged clear quartz crystal. “Take that and go stand between the yew trees.” he instructed with a twinkle in his eye. “Call for the goddess.” I did what he said and minutes later she responded by visiting me – getting right inside me - expanding my aura to an incredible size and strength. So much so that a lady who was standing behind me went nuts, “Oh my God!” she kept screaming, “That’s AMAZING!“. I knew. I was feeling it. A stunning unforgettable moment for which I will repay Mr Conquer one day. 2011 is my year of service, after all.

WHAT I LEARNED

Here is a list of the twenty most valuable lessons that I learned from this year’s tasks, quests, encounters and experiences….

The Bull sigil

1. Sacred sites have an energetic imprint that can be dowsed. This imprint or sigil can reveal information about significant dates associated with the site. For example, the date when the site is most energetic, or the date when the site was created. Some reveal a sigil specific to the resident Genius Loci.

2. Most sacred sites have some form of astrological alignment – either they are oriented towards the Sun, Moon (as calendars), or they may be designed upon a sacred number that is associated with a particular planet, or they are imbued with (or resonate to) the frequency of energetic emanations from particular stars. Often particular entrances can be found that align to celestial bodies, or significant stones are aligned to these heavenly objects are particular times of the year. These then act as guides to the types and timings of subtle energies within that sacred space.

3. There is a fourth kind of subtle energy beyond the male, female and neutral forms – Primal Energy. This is energy without gender association, and which has yet to be shaped or transformed by any agency such as the sun, moon or human. We recognised it first in crop circles, but then realised that we had been dealing with it energetically for some time without knowing what it was. I do nto have a clear distinction in my mind between primal and neutral energy forms and this is something I will endeavour to clear up in next year’s work.

4. It is possible to imbue objects with energy such that they can retain that energy and it can be drawn out from the object at a later date by those who are aware of it. The energy imbued is in a primal energy form – neither male nor female until shaped after extraction. One one occasion I absorbed the remaining spirit energy from an ancient dying oak tree before it was lost completely.

5. It is important to have a purpose when visiting sacred spaces. Having a purpose means that the rewards from the visit are less random, and the information can be chained together over a period of time leading to pools of new insights, rather than just patches of new knowledge.

6. Spirits are real. Whether these be further sub-divided into spirit, shade or ghost I have come to learn that they have a real existence beyond my imagination. This has seen a complete reversal in my belief system on these subjects. Previously I imagined them to be something created by humans, or were simply an expression of Nature in her many forms. Now I know that they are sentient and purposeful in their own right, and only an expression of Nature insomuch as we are all an expression of Nature.

7. I have developed trust and lost a fear of the dark. By walking barefoot at sacred sites for much of the year, even at night, I have learned to overcome my fear of being hurt, and to place my trust in those spirits who are concerned with my welfare.

8. The earth’s energy grid is in need of healing. I have been led to this conclusion by many different experiences over the year. At the start of the year I was told to go and re-awaken some sites. Later I would re-energise and link sites up. After that I would create my own neutral energy bridge between sites after pledging to take this role on, in the spirit of Merlin. I suspect that we have simply demolished, destroyed, desecrated and saturated too many of our “earth acupuncture” points on the earth grid upon which our islands lay. I feel it is my task to make what efforts I can to re-energise these points, especially after the death of Hamish Miller this year.

9. Arbor Low is a hub for neutral energy lines. This finding sparked a deep investigation into the nature of neutral energy. We later found that this sacred site was particularly beneficial for learning. I spent a time tracing where these neutral radial lines went to and found some amazing correlations which all need further investigation.

10. Stimulating, cleansing and closing the Chakras are a means to controlling the flow of subtle energy between the human energy form and other energy repositories. I spent a long time this year working through these processes at various sites and found the whole process very mystical and beneficial to my understanding of how the human energy system can be controlled.

11. The sacred geometrical numbers five, six, seven, eleven and twelve kept cropping up this year. Particularly, ’5+7=12′ and ’5+6=11′ were important equations. The 12 equation represented the current order of things: five being man, seven being spirituality and twelve being civilisation. The 11 equation seemed to represent an alternative or older way of thinking: five being man again, six being magick, and eleven being a bridge between worlds. It was like I was being shown that there was an alternate route to a higher consciousness through other numbers than those which society currently enshrined.

12. My spirit guide can be communicated with via symbols of crosses, particularly ancient Celtic crosses. It took a visit to Ireland to discover this, but I have since found it useful in this country too. I haven’t found out why this is so yet.

13. Wounds from the past can be healed by acts of redemption in the present. I found this out when I was encouraged to clean up a local pond. I took a day off work to do it. No-one saw it, no-one helped me, but when I had finished I had healed a deep distant scar from yesteryear.

14. The Arthurian metaphor works best for me. The symbols of the dragon (spiritual energy), Merlin (celestial energy), Arthur (earth energy) and all those associated medieval concepts – these are the images that I work best to interpret and bring through into my magickal learning. There is no value in my spending time learning any other symbol system or lore.

15. The star Sirius has emerged as an important energetic influenceon many things – it affects fertility, offers protection from harmful radiation, is a facilitator of the enlightenment process, radiates a blue light that resonates with our throat chakra, and it provides a strong motivational energy.

16. Weather systems are very complex and shouldn’t be toyed with. It almost didn’t need saying, yet I learned a valuable lesson when I tried it.

17. Crystals and incense are valuable tools for creating the right atmosphere, and for taking the burden when performing magickal rituals. I am now well stocked with both and appreciate their value after extensive use this year.

18. Giving promotes the right state to receive. This year I have done a lot of energy healing on humans and sacred sites. I have also done more charitable work than ever. All of this has been done unbidden and I in return I feel that I have been offered more gifts than I can possibly take on board. I hope to continue with this form of work.

19. Using the proper respect when dealing with sentient entities has led to easier access to their knowledge and beneficence.

20. Coloured energy lines can be used to reveal a picture of the energy status of a site. For example, black lines indicate an unhealthy influence on the site, whereas white, gold and purple lines are very positive and healthy. This is an area that deserves a more detailed examination next year.

THE HARDEST LESSON

In amongst all of the good things that happened there were some hard lessons. If I were to resolve all of those lessons down to the one important factors that is going to change the way I view life then it would be this…

Warning signs should be heeded.

The leprechaun energies of Ireland taught me that. Now I pay special attention. Signs generally are more worthy of our attention, especially if we are following the ‘flow of the universe’ through the ‘wheel of the year’ (see glossary). The more in attunement with Nature, the more we should pay attention to her signs.

The consequences of ignoring signs deliberately can be dire and dramatic.

NEW PATHS STARTED

When the Wheel of the Year turns around to a new year it is very difficult to see where the rotation of the wheel will take you on that journey, or what wonder you will pass on the way. This year here are some of the new paths that I have ventured down, or threads that I have picked up from previous years’ work.

Spirits (including Siddha). Specifically I have become attuned to and aware of a spirit guide. Beyond that I have extended my awareness to include a spirit helper for healing, and have acknowledged a spirit guardian. Up until this year I would say that I was one of the last people who would have acknowledged these forces, yet they have graciously made their presence known when requested to do so, and I have received nothing but help and kindness from them.

Shades. I had no dealings at all with death energies of energy forms until Kal relinquished his dealings with them part way through this year. Then, from that moment on, I seemed to get requests to learn about and deal with shades. Shades, as we denote them, are the remnant energy forms of spirits that once inhabited human bodies. Having moved on they can leave a form behind unless this energy is grounded properly (as it was in earthen mounds in ancient times through ritual and right attitudes to death).

Ash staff. I have found and restored an ash staff this year. It is now one of the most treasured objects that I take with me to sacred sites. My interactions with the staff have been crucial this year, and it has become a powerful druidical tool for me to wield out in Nature.

OLD PATHS DISCARDED

Of course, no path is ever completely discarded – it is only passed by on this journey. Later in the journey the path may re-appear. However, these are the aspects of my spiritual journey that I have chosen not to pursue further unless I need to.

Crop circles. After finding that they were created by extra-terrestrial forces and then filtered through Siddha, we gave up trying to understand their relevance to us on our spiritual quest. They remain an interesting quirk that I predict will end by 2013.

Tarot. Although I have found a talent for using the cards I have found little use for them despite believing that I would. I am not discarding them completely, and I encourage anyone to use them if they would be of value, but for me they have little use compared to the inter-relationship with spirit forces. I think the cards are just a means to access this same information anyway, and I now prefer a direct spiritual connection rather than a symbolic one. Again, I re-iterate, they have their uses, but I don’t see much use for them myself. Watch next year be totally dominated by tarot now!!

THE UNEXPECTED

There always seems to be something unexpected arising on my journey. This year I have been surprised by getting involved in the following things….

1. Shades and spirits – thought they we a bit of nonsense, actually, but found I was very very wrong. Might all still be in my mind, but if that’s the case then my mind is very very wrong!
2. Charity work – I wasn’t one for doing “good deeds” until this year. Then gradually I have been finding myself saying ‘yes’ to more and more events, and going off doing things just for the sake of it and without recognition or reward. Most unlike me! But I like the new me.
3. Psychics – I met a psychic and listened to him rather than laughed at him. Well, I could hardly laugh at him now that I was talking to spirits myself! Anyway – turns out he made a great deal of sense, and has been very insightful. I am pleased that I was led along this path to meet him.

WHERE THIS LEADS ME

Looking back I think that all of this leads me to begin the next year by turning my attentions to the following areas:-

Colour dowsing – I need to know what the colours mean (for me) and what colours can be found in Nature and specifically at sacred sites.

Sacred geometry – I kind of left this one hanging, but I mean to dowse for the sacred structure of stone circles and see if this has an astrological correspondence.

Earth energy grid – I want to determine why certain sacred sites seem to be linked together energetically, and if those links are damaged I want to set about repairing them, to restore the sites to their full working capacity where possible.

Book – yes, folks, I have been ‘advised’ that I should write a book. Never one to question the muses I will be putting pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard) almost as soon as this post goes live. I don’t even know what it’s about yet, but I’m hoping ‘unseen forces’ can help there. I hope to post status updates through next year.

SUMMARY

Of course next year I will continue to follow the seasons and the Wheel of the Year, but I suspect I will not be as keen to mark every full moon. Yet the full moon is definitely an indicator for me that the energies around that time can be put to good magickal use and I will continue to preference dates close to full moons as opposed to their strict calendrical dates.

This year has been the most remarkable year of my life so far. Thanks, as ever, to my faithful sidekick Kal for his courage, inspiration and motivation - he truly does make this all worth the effort. Thanks, too, to those who have helped me. That includes you. dear readers, who have have witnessed my remarkable year on these pages, and I hope that you too have been inspired to go out and make your life’s quest as meaningful and magickal as you can. I am looking forward to what next year will bring if only to see if it could possibly match the wonders of this year.

Happy New Year, folks.

Gwas.

Related posts:-

• My Eight-Fold Year – The First Four Folds
• My Eight-Fold Year – The Final Four Folds