The Hedge Druid

Posts Tagged ‘llandrillo’

At the end of August 2011 I found myself with an evening free and an urge to visit a sacred site where I could learn more about the five healing rays that I have been studying. As a reference for those of you who haven’t been following this particular series from the beginning, here are the related posts:-

• My five healing rays - in which I identified the rays, and their basic principle

In this visit I was hoping to have some information revealed to me that would show me how these healing rays could actually be used, in other words – how does one invoke them, and how are they utilised once invoked? The beautiful circle of Moel Ty Uchaf was to be my teacher this evening.

A stunning rain and sun backdrop above Llandrillo

On my journey up the steep trackway to Moel-Ty-Uchaf stone circle I was welcomed by a rainbow, which was somehow fitting considering I was here to try to get some more answers about the nature of the healing energy rays that I can work with. Apparently I have until Samhain this year to get my theory and practise all sorted out, because then I will face a challenge, a task, a test of skill, perhaps an opportunity to progress. I knew what failure meant – another turn on the Wheel of the Year to go around in a circle rather than a corkscrew movement upwards. I was taking every opportunity I could to do my homework.

As I passed the trees that line the lower part of the route up the hill I asked them about their energies. Are they male if the tree is male, and so on? The answer was that trees have no gender, they are both male, female and neutral, and so they can create living energy lines that are of any of these “flavours” depending on what the tree wishes to harmonise with, draw from, or support. Its own intent creates the required alignmentAlignment relates to the concept that humans have their own energy fields that are oriented or formed in a specific way such that the person is either suited better to one energy source of another. Some people have their energy fields empowered by the direct subtle energy force of The Sun, whilst others are empowered by the indirect subtle energy of The Moon. Due to the historical associations and symbolisation of The Sun with masculinity and The Moon with femininity we designate these alignments as either being ‘male’ or ‘female’ alignments accordingly. We interchangeable refer to people as being ‘sun-aligned’ or ‘male-aligned’ and similarly with the female alignment..

With all my physical training I found that I didn’t need to stop once going up the hill. At the top I was breathing deeply, but not out of breath for once, nor tired or leg-weary. My calf muscles were also intact for once. Amazing result! But nowhere near as amazing as the view that I was about to be presented with as the clouds that had dogged my ascent began to part letting through the rays of the setting sun over the Conwy Mountains. In the picture below, look for the unusual photographic artefact of the sun converging to a turquoise point! Or is it something from the ground opening a hole in the clouds?

The sun appears over Llandrillo - view from Moel Ty Uchaf

I ate my Co-Op convenience catered tea at the King Stone and began to introduce myself once more to the Genius LociGenius Loci means 'spirit of the place' and refers to the geological/gaian spirit of place. It is transfixed to a place – being an embodiment of the collective intelligence of the place., asking for permission to work with her to ask questions about healing. Using my rods I determined that she would co-operate with that, but I felt that I would have to offer her something in return. Intuitively I was given the sense that there was some earth energy healing that I would have to put into practise here. This wasn’t going to just be a one-way theoretical lesson!

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Despite the previous night being a great night for star-watchers, I felt a ‘pull’ to go to Llandrillo’s stone circle on Tuesday 15th March. The day was cloudy and murky, but relatively warm, and the evening was the same. There would be no star-gazing this evening!

I was going to Moel-Ty-Uchaf for many reasons:

1. To confirm a recent warning received via Kal from the Llangernyw Yew tree and to see what mitigating action I might need to take
2. To pay my respects to the people who have died in the Asian Pacific region recently, and to send calming thoughts to the earth in that region
3. To test my fitness – it’s the steepest longest climb I know to any sacred place except Snowdon
4. To create an energetic shield to fight off infection and heal myself

I better explain that last point. It wasn’t that I was ill as such, just that there were at least two people who I worked close to who were coughing and sneezing and, as seems to be the case these days, making no attempts or efforts to block those coughs from being spread all around the air-conditioned room. I felt like it was a matter of time before I came down with something – and in fact that evening I had felt my stomach being a little bit upset. Was this the sign that I was about to get ill? I didn’t want that – let’s see if I could modify my energy field at a stone circle to prevent it.

Moel Ty Uchaf evening shot

The evening was misty but the roads were dry and the mist was a welcome addition to the atmosphere of this extraordinary place. As I walked up – without my staff for once, I wanted to do this work unaided entirely – I began to work my way through the various chakra points, five in all, and I used my recently-acquired knowledge of the correct vocal sounds to activate them in sequence. By the time I reached the top of the hill I was aware that I was energetically ‘ready for action’ as it were, and I put up some protection too in order to retain this energy, to stop it from dissipating or being taken by anything that I wasn’t expecting to be on this hill. Best to be safe than sorry, eh?

I made it to the top of the hill in record time, with no stops on the way to catch my breath, and with my calf muscles tight but not burned out. This was a major improvement over the last time I visited when I stopped at least three times, was covered in sweat despite it being the middle of Winter, and I had to take a 10 minute rest on the top. Tonight, no rest was required at all! Progress.

I sat on the King Stone for a moment to decide what I should do first. My first decision was that tonight I would not use my dowsing rods. I would have a dowse-less experience and see what happened. It was a long way to climb to get it wrong, but sometimes you have to test yourself to the limits to make headway and break barriers.

I decided firstly to pay my respects and try to do some remote earth healing. It seemed a bit like I was spitting into a forest fire by doing such a thing, but maybe the intention was worthy in and of itself? I took out three sticks of incense and lit them. I approached the stone circle, feeling for the energies and was taken off to one side, around the edge of the circle at a distance of eight feet or so from the stones. I walked around until I came to the southern entrance and waited for permission to enter, which was duly granted. Now the fun was about to start…

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This month’s podcast is now available on the Podcast page for you to enjoy.

www.hedgedruid.com

No lecture this month, instead a change of style as I tell you about the latest blog news, mention the highlights of the recent Autumn Equinox visits, and hint at the wonders to come in this month’s pending posts.

There are some Druid Diary mini-podcasts due to accompany the recent posts too, and they are also available on the podcast page. These small snippets of on-the-go narrative give you a slightly more revealing look at the visits we do with dowsing rods and staff, and hopefully give you some of the atmosphere of the places we are visiting too.

Thanks for visiting us again on the Hedge Druid blog. More soon.
Gwas.

Thursday 23rd September – Moel-Ty-Uchaf stone circle, Llandrillo, Meirionethshire.

Llandrillo was the third site we visited on our Autumn Equinox tour. We had been to Llyn Brenig and then to Llangernyw village, now we travelled over the welsh mountains and down into the valley of the A5 road, heading for the junction just before Corwen that took us to Llandrillo. Having done this journey int he daylight and the darkness I knew the route instinctively, and knew the waymarkers to watch out for. If you’re trying to find this particular stone circle yourself, I recommend a very good OS map and a slow pace unless you want to miss the tiny little road that leads to the circle.

It’s not possible to drive all the way up the hill. In fact, it’s best to park near to the bottom at a perfect lay-by that is big enough to leave your car without it being a nuisance to the local farmers. From there, brace yourself for a long, steep, unrelenting climb. For us the weather was perfect – cool enough to be helpful, warm and clear enough to be a beautiful climb.

Once at the top we rested, as is almost obligatory, admiring the little fluffy clouds and the peaceable rustle of the fir trees, the scuttling squirrels and shy sheep skulking and shuffling away from our blatant intrusion into their upland domain.

Staff for scale on the King Stone

Druid Diary excerpt from Moel-Ty-Uchaf #1 : DD-MoelTyUchaf1

 

Coloured lines and healing forces

I have this new thing: finding coloured energy lines. It’s no longer enough to find male, female and neutral lines, or pools of primal energy with as yet unassigned gender. Now I have to go and look for particular colours of energy too. This just adds to the list of stuff to look for, but it does begin to increase my vocabulary of how to describe the state of sites.

At Moel-Ty-Uchaf we found two sets of lines, one created by Kal and one by me. I had left a gold and violet linethat spiralled into the centre of the circle from my power centreA place where a person of a particular alignmentAlignment relates to the concept that humans have their own energy fields that are oriented or formed in a specific way such that the person is either suited better to one energy source of another. Some people have their energy fields empowered by the direct subtle energy force of The Sun, whilst others are empowered by the indirect subtle energy of The Moon. Due to the historical associations and symbolisation of The Sun with masculinity and The Moon with femininity we designate these alignments as either being ‘male’ or ‘female’ alignments accordingly. We interchangeable refer to people as being ‘sun-aligned’ or ‘male-aligned’ and similarly with the female alignment. (see ‘AlignmentAlignment relates to the concept that humans have their own energy fields that are oriented or formed in a specific way such that the person is either suited better to one energy source of another. Some people have their energy fields empowered by the direct subtle energy force of The Sun, whilst others are empowered by the indirect subtle energy of The Moon. Due to the historical associations and symbolisation of The Sun with masculinity and The Moon with femininity we designate these alignments as either being ‘male’ or ‘female’ alignments accordingly. We interchangeable refer to people as being ‘sun-aligned’ or ‘male-aligned’ and similarly with the female alignment.’) feels particularly comfortable and empowered. The place is an energetic centre where a particularly beneficial combination and formation of energies is formed into a pattern that is harmonic with the person for whom it can be called a power centre.. Kal found a mixture of red, gold and violet in a line that extended from the large female stone into the central hole or pit. We remembered then that Kal had helped me to create a balanced and energised energy form on one of our previous visits, and this must have been the result. Now we could dowse for its form and its colour content and see that it was still here, still working, and that it had a form to it. Wondrous!

Another thing we checked was the astrological alignments. We found several: Venus, Uranus, The Sun and The Moon. I confirmed that the circle was built upon the sacred number of five, the pentagram and pentacle, and this is Venus’ influence as it reflects her orbit around the Earth. Next we began to ask about what kind of sentient entities were present in the circle and things began to get interesting!

View from high up above the A5

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Introduction

When I ask the powers that be (the ones that reveal knowledge previously lost or hidden from me through the medium of my dowsing rods) I can often begin down a road whose destination is so far over the horizon, and along so many potential paths, that I initially believe I can never reach the end in my lifetime. Then The Other places helpful signposts along the way, and coupled with my intuition and reason I begin to unveil some of the mystery and begin to walk the paths with more confidence. One such path presented to me was the mystery of The Lunar Eleven. In the following series  of posts I will be discussing my current theory that the numbers Five, Seven and Eleven share a mystical resonance, and that this resonance has particular usefulness for those of us who have identified ourselves as having a “lunar alignmentAlignment relates to the concept that humans have their own energy fields that are oriented or formed in a specific way such that the person is either suited better to one energy source of another. Some people have their energy fields empowered by the direct subtle energy force of The Sun, whilst others are empowered by the indirect subtle energy of The Moon. Due to the historical associations and symbolisation of The Sun with masculinity and The Moon with femininity we designate these alignments as either being ‘male’ or ‘female’ alignments accordingly. We interchangeable refer to people as being ‘sun-aligned’ or ‘male-aligned’ and similarly with the female alignment.”, i.e. those of us who feel related to or spiritually guided by the powers of The Moon.

However, to get to The Eleven I first had to go through two other numbers – The Five and The Seven. Whilst following my spiritual path I came across a directive that asked me to consider the meaning of The Five and The Seven. I took this to mean that the two numbers had some form of relationship and that one I found the nature of this relationship then I would know what to do : something would make itself known to me that involved five and seven. That was true, I did manage to find the relationship, but as with so many of these riddles one question led to another. No sooner had I discovered the meaning of The Five and The Seven than the next riddle was offered to me to solve – what was The Eleven to me?

The first thing you will notice is that I have turned those numbers into proper nouns. They were clearly identified to me as representing all possible forms of their real numerical values, yet the implication in the riddle was that the numbers would mean something in particular for me, and that I had to find out what that was. Here in this series of three posts I will try to explain what each of those numbers meant to me, and to hopefully inform you of some interesting tidbits of knowledge about those numbers along the way. Don’t worry – this is not a mathematical treatise! I began this journey into these numbers knowing only the most basic of mathematical knowledge, and I haven’t needed to move far from there to find my answers, and I don’t believe you will need to either.

In the first of the posts I will deal with The Five.

The Number Five

From the shape of leaves and petals, to the internal form of fruit, to the proportions of the human skeleton, Nature is defined by the form of five. There is a relationship between the form of five and the number twelve because twelve pentagons put together will form a dodecahedron – a twelve-sided shape which is supposed to be the inherent form of the earth’s geometry.

Human Pentagram

If a five-pointed star is drawn by lines then the form contains a pentagon at its core. If the points of that pentagon are joined then another five-pointed star shape is drawn. This regression can go on infinitely, and so five-sided shapes contain the concept of fractal geometry – the repetition of self-similarity within an infinitely regressing design. It is said that the Pentad – the five – underlies the form of the spiral via the Fibonacci sequence. The Fibonacci series is created by zero and one (nothing and everything) adding to itself successively. For example, 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, etc… The series is a self-accumulating sequence that grows from within itself and it takes nothing from outside the sequence in order to grow. Growth is the essence to the Pentad’s principle of regeneration – self-replicating growth – which begins from nothing and becomes all.

Interesting, but not where we’re heading right now. Let’s get back to how we use the number five. Mankind has developed systems involving the number five. Specifically I am thinking of the Chinese five elements, but five also relates to the druidic system of elements too: air, fire, water, earth and the fifth element of aether.

The Fifth Element

When we think of The Elements as discussed in traditions such as druidry we think of the four elements that we usually assign to the cardinal points, particularly as described in Wiccan ritual. My five is the druidic elements slightly altered: water, fire, air, earth and wood. The wood comes from my staff, which I take with me to sites and which stands with me in power centres – it has a central role. I have the co-operation of four other ethericSomething tangible to the heightened senses, but invisible and beyond the normal range of everyday human senses. We use the term to describe the subtle energies that surround the human body. We also use the term “etheric” to describe the energy forms of Nature’s sentient spirit energies that can be detected through dowsing, or through deep meditation or states of heightened awareness. spirits – one for air, water, earth and fire.

The fifth element that I associate with wood, wood being the physical representation of that element, is aether. Aether is essentially synonymous with spirit in the sense of “essence”. I differentiate essence from other  manifestations of spirit, such as death energy, energetic shroudAs coined by Kal after reading the definitions of C.W.Leadbeater – the early 20th Century mystic. Leadbeater considered that man, when he died, could become stuck in a “ShadeA shade is the energy body of a human being that has become transfixed at a geographical location. The shade retains many of the qualities of the human that it was attached to (memories, character traits, a level of sentience, movement between places known in life).” – an energetic shell that would retain many of the characteristics of the human in his physical life. It is frequently taken to be what is termed a ‘ghost’ but although it has a certain amount of sentience, it would seem to be limited in terms of its ability to move from the space within which it has anchored itself. It must be stated – it is NOT the person who has died – it is a remainder copy that contains the memories and characteristics of the original energetic fields of the human, but now has no physical organism to work with., apparition, earth light, UFO, poltergeist, or any host of other names for spirit. When I say spirit I mean the essence of an energy form that contains a sentience, and awareness, an intelligence. Jaq D Hawkins defines it as the medium through which sentience is permeated, a kind of spiritual dark matter. I mean it as a discretely identifiable sentience, often which can be identified by a name. Classically these may have been thought of as the pantheon of spirit energies from gods and goddesses reigning over a civilisation, down through to lowly nature spirits watching over the growth of a small cluster of plants.

As an interesting aside I had an encounter with the force of the aether spirit in such a small way the other day, but which made such a direct choice in my life. I was simply looking for the next book to read that would help me on my way down The Path. I closed my eyes in front of four long shelves of books and asked my spirit guide Theodora to guide me hand to the book that was most useful for me next. My fingers came into contact with a book and I lifted it out off the shelf without looking. I opened my eyes, “The Spirits of Aether” by Jaq D.Hawkins. The one in the series that I hadn’t fully finished reading. Clearly, now was the time!

Everybody say "MOOlti-pass"

“The Fifth Element” is also a futuristic sci-fi romp starring Bruce Willis and Milla Jovovich, and happens to be one of my favourite films. It’s the only film I’ve watched more than three times, and I never get tired of it. Ideally, I suppose, I should watch it FIVE times.

The Geometry of Five

Five petals like five fingers

The geometry of five became important to me in a series of revelations that formed a connected pattern over the space of a few months in 2009. Firstly I was shown Venus in the night sky, and traced a sigil that I then associated with that planet. [see post]. Then I visited Moel-Ty-Uchaf and discovered that the circle was aligned to Venus, and that it drew its power from that planet’s influence. [see post]. Finally, I read about the orbit of Venus and how it forms a five-pointed star as it moves around in the night sky relative to the Earth. Finally, I dowsed that Moel-Ty-Uchaf stone circle is based upon the sacred geometry of the number five and the pentagon. Together, this information showed me the importance of Venus and the sacred geometry of the number five.

Five is the “number of life”, so-called because it is the form through which Nature expresses the life force. Much growth in Nature is performed through the five shape – the pentagon, the pentagram, and it is the number associated with making the life force transform into magical force – through the pentacle.

When it comes to my own work with Nature, five is number of external power shaping my consciousness, and assisting me in my weaving of the elemental forces into natural magickal form. The five powers that I employ – air, earth, water, fire and aether or spirit are the natural powers of Nature that I align myself with, and ally myself to, and the ones with which I have the most empathy, sympathy and resonance.

The Fifth Chakra

The fifth chakra is the Throat Chakra (not the Solar Plexus, as previously published in error). During my work with chakras I had to do a lot of work using my fifth chakra. Traditionally, this chakra is associated with communication:

“The Throat chakra would seem to rule the faculty of speech, being midway between the heart and the tongue.  It is also associated with clairaudience (hearing spiritual voices), and with hearing sounds, words, and music, and with taste, smell.  Another function associated with this chakra is taking in and assimilating of physical and emotional nourishment.  On the gross level this manifests as sensuous desire and enjoyment for food.  This chakra could be associated with the astrological sign of Taurus, which in current astrology is said to ruled by the planet Venus.

In Tibetan Buddhism, this chakra is associated with the dream state of consciousness.  Both Tibetans and Taoists use this chakra to access the dream state and develop the faculty of lucid dreaming.” (source: Kheper.net)

C.W.Leadbeater talks about the five channels of the chakra energy entering the human body. These five energies then get channeled to the seven chakra points in the body (possibly more in some systems). For me, there seemed to be a transition from learning about five into learning about the relationship between five and seven.

That seems like a natural segway into investigating the number seven in the next post.

Gwas.

When I get a call to go to Moel-Ty-Uchaf then I know that I have to go. Sooner or later I have to go. It starts, as Kal has explained in other posts and so have I, as a coincidence, then becomes a niggle, then a constant presence, and finally a nag. For me, I woke up with the words ‘Llandrillo’ going around my head constantly like a stuck record. There’s only so much of this you can take before you do something to appease a plea like that. Let’s face it – it’s always a plea that brings some kind of reward, even if the damned effort of getting to Moel-Ty-Uchaf stone circle should be accompanied by a medal ceremony and full brass band.

As I walked up in the darkness of the night I remembered my last visit – the stars, the Milky Way, the spectacle of the incredibly clear but moonless night…Tonight was the polar opposite – the moon was hidden somewhere behind the veil of clouds and I could feel its presence. There was nary a star to be seen except three bright stars that almost formed a line. Initially I thought they might be Orion’s Belt, but later I realised that they weren’t. It was difficult to orient myself astrally that evening.

As I walked higher up the steep slope I was somewhat surprised to come across the remnants of the previous week’s snowfall. Somehow I hadn’t been expecting to see any, and its appearance reminded me that I was going to be high in the hills of Wales tonight, and that it might get cold. I added gloves and a scarf at this stage, before pressing onwards and upwards towards the circle. Despite the backlit darkness I knew my way by now and picked my path carefully. Clearly, tripping and spraining an ankle alone in the darkness with no phone coverage was not an option. I trusted my welfare to Nature’s guiding hands.

Some questions answered

I reached the top of the hill and spent a few moments recovering my breath. This stone circle always makes you work hard for your rewards, and I was paying in sweat again – a sweat that was congealing quickly in the penetrating cold night air. Hanging about dithering wouldn’t help me tonight, so I quickly took the reins and set about my work. What was my work tonight? I reminded myself that it was to activate the energies of this circle. I confirmed this with some quick dowsing:

• Was that a suitable thing to be doing this evening – Yes.
• Was I ready and able to do it? Yes.
• Did I have permission to do so? Yes.
• Was that the purpose of why I was here? Yes.

Always worth checking, or I would have been forced to simply sit there and meditate to find another reason for my journey. Of course, I am always fully prepared to do that – but that was last year’s direction – to sit and wait to discover the purpose of such visits. This year I had been forced into a situation where I had to know my purpose before I visited, and it seemed to be working out just great. I was getting good confirmation that this was the correct course of action. Not only were the dowsing rods confirming this for me, but everything that happened was seemingly occurring in just the right way – things were being done easily, and there were confirmatory signs accompanying the work. This is good ‘intel’ that the right methods are being employed, and I am ‘on the path’. The right path.

A slight philosophical diversion at this point. It seems to me that we spend much of our lives wondering why the forces of Nature are against us and why ‘Fate’ is working against our plans. We wonder why we cannot achieve the things we believe we want – why unseen forces work against us, unpicking our plans, making us look and feel stupid and clumsy in our efforts to make progress. We (sometimes literally) stumble around, tripping ourselves up, then looking for the culprit who tripped us. I have found that once one acknowledges one’s place in the flow of the way of being, the flow of the forces of Nature, and takes on the rightful role of making one’s life flow in that same direction, then the walk becomes easy. 

To work in harmony with that flow and acknowledge our own humble place in that all-encompassing scheme of the flow of time and destiny that IS Nature’s movement in the Universe is a right and fitting goal to life. Things click into place. Help is at hand. The struggling is eased. The work is still hard, don’t get me wrong. Harder than ‘normal’ life even. But the rewards are endless, proportionate, useful, purposeful and beneficent. If your life is a struggle for fruitless progress, then perhaps it may do you some good to take yourself out of that flow that you are currently in, take time for yourself to examine your place, and commune with Nature to ask her to show you how you might make some changes to re-align yourself with a truer purpose – your true purpose in this life.

Amazing things can occur on a daily basis. This is what I have found, and since I have, my only goal is to keep making those right and true choices, because life is so much more fulfilling ‘in the flow’ and ‘on the path’.

I stood at the King Stone of the circle, an outlier some forty feet from the main circle. I could see the stone circle of Moel-Ty-Uchaf outlined perfectly, like a set of ragged teeth against the deep blue misty backdrop of the night sky. I decided to do some dowsing first. Where was the aura of the circle tonight – this might indicate the strength of the energy that I would be working with? It was close to the King Stone, some thirty feet from the circle – twice as wide as my last visit, or any other time I had tested that. Was this strength related to the position of the Sun? No. To the Moon? Yes. To the position of Venus? No.

I continued asking about Venus, since I had discovered that this circle was aligned to and energised by Venus when I had read that the circle’s design was based upon the number five, and that it was once dedicated to the goddess Venus. Was this circle influenced by Venus? Yes. Was it designed based on the number five? Yes. Was Venus influencing the energetic state of the circle tonight? No. Was this aura’s size a product of the Moon’s energy alone? Yes.

Well, that was as much as I needed to know at that stage. Something was tugging at my attention trying to make the dowsing stop – a sudden sharp gust of icy wind caught my attention and broke my dowsing concentration (or rather, ‘un-concentration’, a totally different type of focus is required to dowse). Some form of bird made a loud call in the still chill air, and a sheep joined in the noise too. I was aware that I was being ‘told’ to get on with my purpose, so I put the rods away and went back to pick up my staff from the King Stone. Time to go to work.

Flowing and knowing

I stood with my staff and relaxed, attuning myself in a similar way than I would if I were dowsing, but to a much deeper extent. This was more meditation mind than just ‘zoning out’ and not letting rational thoughts bubble up. This meditation involved projecting myself outwards, upwards, downwards and inwards in cycles of shifting attention, moving my energy around and through the earth, the site and the celestial objects around me. Soon I was introducing myself again, stating my name and purpose – preparing myself and the site for the energetic interchange I hoped would take place, although the exact workings of how that would be done are never planned – I just let them occur as they will. They have their own paths, just as I have mine. I am simply working to a directive, but I never insist upon the direction. I am an actor in this play, not its director.

I entered stage right, through the gap in the site’s aura and the gap in the stones of the circle. This I felt for, rather than dowsed. By now I was working with my senses and intuition, feeling the gentle subtle edges and flow of the site’s energy fields, and how they flowed and interacted, ebbed and spun. I have good druid teachers to thank for realising this: every sense should be used to take in and respond to Nature’s information: sight, smell, touch, taste and hearing. But especially the sixth sense of intuition – that unified sense of knowing.

However, saying that, I still have moments where I need ‘real’ confirmation. I do not yet totally give myself over to intuition, I don’t totally trust it yet. It’s a weakness I feel, and I’m working on it. I needed some guidance about how to proceed: where was the best place to stand? I followed one dowsing rods in a circle as it led me to a place that I recognised – this was the same power centreA place where a person of a particular alignmentAlignment relates to the concept that humans have their own energy fields that are oriented or formed in a specific way such that the person is either suited better to one energy source of another. Some people have their energy fields empowered by the direct subtle energy force of The Sun, whilst others are empowered by the indirect subtle energy of The Moon. Due to the historical associations and symbolisation of The Sun with masculinity and The Moon with femininity we designate these alignments as either being ‘male’ or ‘female’ alignments accordingly. We interchangeable refer to people as being ‘sun-aligned’ or ‘male-aligned’ and similarly with the female alignment. (see ‘AlignmentAlignment relates to the concept that humans have their own energy fields that are oriented or formed in a specific way such that the person is either suited better to one energy source of another. Some people have their energy fields empowered by the direct subtle energy force of The Sun, whilst others are empowered by the indirect subtle energy of The Moon. Due to the historical associations and symbolisation of The Sun with masculinity and The Moon with femininity we designate these alignments as either being ‘male’ or ‘female’ alignments accordingly. We interchangeable refer to people as being ‘sun-aligned’ or ‘male-aligned’ and similarly with the female alignment.’) feels particularly comfortable and empowered. The place is an energetic centre where a particularly beneficial combination and formation of energies is formed into a pattern that is harmonic with the person for whom it can be called a power centre. that I had identified on previous visits. Damn. I should have known that. Right, could I use incense to help me create the right ambiance to awaken the energies? Yes. Was incense a necessary component? No. Would incense help me to do the work? Yes. How many sticks would I need? Six. Hmmm…not five, I noticed. I dowsed for the places to position them, and was led around the inside of the stone circle from my power centreA place where a person of a particular alignmentAlignment relates to the concept that humans have their own energy fields that are oriented or formed in a specific way such that the person is either suited better to one energy source of another. Some people have their energy fields empowered by the direct subtle energy force of The Sun, whilst others are empowered by the indirect subtle energy of The Moon. Due to the historical associations and symbolisation of The Sun with masculinity and The Moon with femininity we designate these alignments as either being ‘male’ or ‘female’ alignments accordingly. We interchangeable refer to people as being ‘sun-aligned’ or ‘male-aligned’ and similarly with the female alignment. (see ‘AlignmentAlignment relates to the concept that humans have their own energy fields that are oriented or formed in a specific way such that the person is either suited better to one energy source of another. Some people have their energy fields empowered by the direct subtle energy force of The Sun, whilst others are empowered by the indirect subtle energy of The Moon. Due to the historical associations and symbolisation of The Sun with masculinity and The Moon with femininity we designate these alignments as either being ‘male’ or ‘female’ alignments accordingly. We interchangeable refer to people as being ‘sun-aligned’ or ‘male-aligned’ and similarly with the female alignment.’) feels particularly comfortable and empowered. The place is an energetic centre where a particularly beneficial combination and formation of energies is formed into a pattern that is harmonic with the person for whom it can be called a power centre. inwards in a male clockwise spiral. As I neared the centre of the circle the incense sticks got closer together until the last one was directly in the middle. I lit them all in the order I had placed them (with my windproof lighter, although there wasn’t a breath of wind to speak of).

I began one final question with the rods, but by this time I already “felt” the answer. Which direction should I face, I asked. The rods moved around until the faced down the valley to the north-east. I already knew this, for some reason. I put the rods away for the final time tonight. They were of no use now. I was attuned and things were becoming known. I could feel a strong connection with the circle and revelled in the sweet smell of the incense as I sat on my female power centreA place where a person of a particular alignmentAlignment relates to the concept that humans have their own energy fields that are oriented or formed in a specific way such that the person is either suited better to one energy source of another. Some people have their energy fields empowered by the direct subtle energy force of The Sun, whilst others are empowered by the indirect subtle energy of The Moon. Due to the historical associations and symbolisation of The Sun with masculinity and The Moon with femininity we designate these alignments as either being ‘male’ or ‘female’ alignments accordingly. We interchangeable refer to people as being ‘sun-aligned’ or ‘male-aligned’ and similarly with the female alignment. (see ‘AlignmentAlignment relates to the concept that humans have their own energy fields that are oriented or formed in a specific way such that the person is either suited better to one energy source of another. Some people have their energy fields empowered by the direct subtle energy force of The Sun, whilst others are empowered by the indirect subtle energy of The Moon. Due to the historical associations and symbolisation of The Sun with masculinity and The Moon with femininity we designate these alignments as either being ‘male’ or ‘female’ alignments accordingly. We interchangeable refer to people as being ‘sun-aligned’ or ‘male-aligned’ and similarly with the female alignment.’) feels particularly comfortable and empowered. The place is an energetic centre where a particularly beneficial combination and formation of energies is formed into a pattern that is harmonic with the person for whom it can be called a power centre., offset from the middle of the circle. I realised I was facing the powerful female flat stone in the northern side of the stone circle and my attention was drawn to it no matter where I looked. Clearly, this was my starting point.

Awakening the energies

I traced a path of energy coming out of the female stone, and spiralling clockwise around the inside of the circle, following the line of incense sticks glowing in the darkness. Their inwards spiral drew the energy down into a sink-hole in the centre, down into the earth. My eyes moved to the outlying King Stone. Here I felt the energies re-emerge, to re-join the outside of the stone circle, again clockwise, and travel around and into the ‘entrance’ gap in the stones. The trail of energy then went through me, and joined to inward spiral again to form a complete circuit. Around and around I traced this path, over and over, each time it became more definite, more self-propelled, needing my input less and less. This energy path was being defined for itself. These energies were now awake, I felt, working for themselves.

As I detached slightly from the process, simply sitting in their flow now, a thought struck me. These energies had emerged from the female stone. Why were they then flowing clockwise? Shouldn’t they be flowing anti-clockwise, I wondered? I decided to see what would happen if I tried to get an anti-clockwise flow going. I concentrated again on the female stone and drew out more energy, trying to trace a counter flow to the existing circuit. My eyes traced only a few feet when it all felt wrong – and the energy got swept up into the clockwise flow again. How odd! Clearly, this was not the right thing to be doing! I got the dowsing rods out again. I walked from the outside of the circle dowsing the ‘flavour’ of the energy – it was male as it came out of the King Stone and flowed around the circle, then as it crossed the entrance it changed to female energy inside the circle, disappearing into the centre. How odd! Something similar to this had been found at Bryn Celli Ddu one time, when the flow went male-female-male-female all around that ancient mound, much to our puzzlement. Something similar was at work here – male then female as it flowed around, then inside the circle.

I felt I needed to do one last thing. I walked around the outside of the circle, pushing the energy along as I went. With each circumperambulation of the stones I felt the flow’s speed increase, and with it the strength of the cold night air increase from a whisper to a roar! Yes, the wind was increasing in proportion to my walking! This was truly astonishing. On my third time around the energy had a flow all of its own and I stepped out of the subtle energyA form of energy that has so far eluded scientific definition. It is neither electric, magenetic, nor electro-magnetic, so far as our current technical equipment can measure. It does, however, exhibit many of the characteristics of magnetism and electricity in terms of its effects and properties. It may be a form of either or both of those energies that we have not yet identified. flow knowing that I could do no more. I listened to the increasing sound of the wind blowing across my ears, and watched it begin to bend the grass and blow my coat with more and more strength. Amazing! Literally a minute before there had been utter stillness and silence.

The circle has been woken – the energies were alive! As I stopped walking something caught my attention. I could clearly see every blade of grass – why? I looked up and saw that The Moon, close to full, was shining through a tiny gap in the blanket of clouds illuminating the site. I couldn’t help a huge smile and sigh at that point. Job well done!

 In this time between Imbolc and the Spring Equinox I had now awoken several sites – stone circles, mounds, trees, all sorts. This felt like the most right thing to be doing at this time. What I still didn’t know was – how many more would I have to do before I moved into the next phase of the year, and what would the purpose of the next phase be? All in good time. The Spring was rapidly approaching, even if the snow still lay on the higher ground.

Gwas.

When Kal and I first visited the Moel-Ty-Uchaf stone circle at its lofty perch above the village of Llandrillo near to Bala in North Wales, I was particularly taken with it. Despite the immensely steep climb to reach it I have always felt that the view was worth the effort, but there was more to it than that – from the first visit I felt very comfortable in the circle – even attracted to it at the oddest times of the year and the most inappropriate times of the day and night.

Keith Critchlow’s Time Stands Still book says that Moel Ty Uchaf stone circle is geometrically configured based upon a pentacle shape. In other words, when it was designed and laid out the geometry used to create it was based upon five circles, with the stones marking the outer perimeters of those circles.

Critchlow associates the number five, and therefore the dedication of this stone circle, with Venus. Why? As he says on p.205:

“Venus, as seen from Earth, moves around us, looping in close five times in eight years before repeating the cycle…It was on the basis of this pentagonal archetype that we proposed Moel Ty Uchaf  may have been dedicated to the goddess ‘Venus’ or by whatever name the building community called this planetary archetype.”

The geometric pattern descrbed by this motion is pentagonal in nature.

Of course I was not prepared to simply accept this theory – as a dowser I intended to do some additional work to verify this correspondence between sacred geometry, number and planetary dedication. Venus, goddess of love, may seem like a Roman divinity, but to me, the Venus under discussion here was clearly the planet and its appearance as the Morning or Evening Star at particular times of the year. The calendrical alignments of stone circles has been proven time and time again by a continuous overlay of theories since the discoveries by academics like Professor Thom.

Before I had even read “Time Stands Still” I had found a strong Venus connection when I dowsed there in late 2008, but had no idea why such a correspondence was significant until I read Critchlow’s book. As soon as I read about the layout and the potential dedication of the site memories came flooding back to me – memories of how I had been called by some invisible urge to visit the site on 22nd October when, in a moonless clear sky, the Milky Way and all the stars were on display and I had spent several hours gazing in awe at them sitting in the stone circle, wondering what I was doing there. You can read about that experience here.

So, was Venus around on that date? I consulted the internet to find out, and found this on the AstroPlanet blog:

“Venus is the Evening Star for the entire month of October. Venus begins the month in the constellation Libra, the Scales, and on October 17th, moves into the constellation Scorpius, the Scorpian.”

At the start of October I had been spending time with a friend who has an ability to see energies around people as points of light. He had informed me that he had begun to notice just such a light perched over my left shoulder, above and behind, and he simply pointed it out to me. Intrigued, I had spent a while dowsing the possibilities of what it could be. After a week or so I had worked out that it was a planet – the planet Venus specifically. I tracked its presence for a few weeks and noticed that it changed position around me, starting off over my shoulder and moving around to about 90 degrees to me on my left side over that time. Unsure of what to do about this discovery, I didn’t think any more about it – until I got the urge to go to Llandrillo.

That night back in October 2008 I discovered the power of the stars, and their effects upon my ability to connect with the energies of the Moel-Ty-Uchaf stone circle. Now I realise there was probably another influence in effect that night – Venus. I notice that I needed to draw upon “love” energy in order to connect with the energies.

Wishing to discover more about the planets, sacred geometry and numbers I dowsed for the association between the planets in the solar system and their respective number in terms of the geometry of sacred sites, specifically stone circles. I came out with the following results:-

1= Moon
2 = Mars
3 = Mercury
4 = Earth
5 = Venus
6 = Jupiter
7 = Saturn
28 = The Sun (7+6+5+4+3+2+1)

Now, this does not correspond with Critchlow’s reading. He has a more classical interpretation which has the sun in the centre, whereas I have the Earth centrally placed. Also, in my scheme the Sun is the sum of all the other numbers. However, I find the result pleasing, and interestingly, Venus is five. I will now see how that corresponds with stone circles I have visited, and will include this aspect in future site visits. I am considering dowsing their geometry from pictures I have taken of sites, as I think that may be possible, but I would prefer to dowse the geometry on site – there’s something more “real” about being there.

Venus on Anglesey

There’s one final twist to this tale – another coincidence, another piece of the puzzle, another bit of information that I missed at the time, but which makes perfect sense to me now that I have done more research. That is the riddle of the Venus Symbol that I obtained from a visit to Bryn Celli Ddu on Anglesey. The post related to this visit can be read here.

So, again, where was Venus on March 16th this year? [note: this was corrected from 24th - 16th was the visit date, 24th was the date of the post about it]. Here’s an extract from another of those helpful astrological sites:

“In the evenings, you will see Venus slipping closer to the horizon, eventually merging with the Sun and becoming lost from sight toward the last week in March. Venus makes a conjunction with the Sun on March 27 and then begins the part of her journey as the morning star, which will become visible early in the mornings during the first week of April.

Venus making this transition in her sign of exaltation, Pisces, is especially powerful. Venus is the planet of connection, relationship, love and beauty and it is located in Pisces, Jupiter’s water sign, that represents the domain of universal understanding and wisdom.”  (source: PlanetaryInfluence.com)

What I had seen then, in the western skies whilst sat on top of Bryn Celli Ddu’s mound, had been the sliver of Venus’ crescent. Only now, after listening to Manly P.Hall’s excellent lectures on AstroTheology – The Zodiac and The Platonic Year –  do I realise that this is what I was seeing. Again, the first few minutes of his lecture caught my ear:

“We find in other parts of the ancient world (other than ancient China) the full and obvious knowledge that the Egyptians, the Greeks and the Persians, at an ancient time, knew definitely that the planet Venus was never visible to us as a complete sphere, but most often like a minute lunar crescent.”

This was all beginning to make sense. I was drawn to Bryn Celli Ddu one night, going there to contemplate why I have dowsed that I am being tracked by the planet Venus, and to find out why I seemed to have some kind of connection to it. As I sat on the mound I observed a strange star and saw a symbol, which I recorded. That symbol contained a crescent shape that was not the moon, which puzzled me at the time. Now I find that the shape was Venus itself!

So, bringing all this together I think I can now say that I do finally understand the Venus Symbol. I now understand that I am influenced by the position of Venus – its presence in the sky, and that this influence in some way affects my energy field, jst as I have previously discovered that the phases of the Moon do. I can also see that something was trying to tell me about this influence, because many things began to coalsce in a short span of time that brought together all of the evidence I would need to work it out. Of course, dowsing helped a great deal, as it always does, but meditation and listening to that intuitive call from “somewhere” meant that I was in the right place at the right time to experience what I needed to see and feel in order to gather this evidence.

For me then, sites that are dedicated to Venus, and thus, by implication sites that are geormetrically constructed using the number five, or pentagonal design, are sites that I seem to have particularly powerful energetic and meaningful experiences at. This I have now learned, and will begin to make use of that when I plan my visits to sites next year. I will now be asking – what is the geometry of the site? When is the planetary influence for this site most active? Just another aspect to working with these ancient marvels of engineering and astronomy to add to the growing list!

Gwas.