The Hedge Druid

Posts Tagged ‘maiden’

Back in the day (early Feb 2011) when I was setting out on my Knight’s Quest. I had learned that an interesting and perhaps conclusions part of the quest would take place at Lud’s Church. A place I have yet to visit. I was at a loss as to how to begin this quest and so turned to my partner in…er…questing for some assistance. My question was simply…

• “So…any ideas of what I can look up re: the knight thing?”

Something to do on a rainy day

Gwas, as ever filled to the brim with knowledge arcane, responded with a few quick, off the cuff, suggestions…

Lud’s Church is an old pagan site dedicated to the god Lugh, who is the God of Light. No surprises there (sun boy!).

Lugh is the god to whom the festival of Lughnasagh (or Lammas) is dedicated. Therefore, I reckon that the CONCLUSION (the “crowning moment”) of your quest will be at Lud’s Church on Lammas in August

However, before that you will need to have undergone some trials – every knight has to take on a quest. Here are some typical examples:-

• To rescue a maiden
• To slay a dragon
• To find the grail

Thus spake Gwas!

I reflected on these suggestions and as was my want ignored the first, Maiden? What? Unlikely?

As readers of this blog know, “dragon” generally applies to a being that inhabits sacred sites. As far as I could muster there was no reason to slay one. I also noted that in Chinese energy work a Dragon was also known as a Ley line and so Gwas suggested that that might be what it was referring to.

The most famous of knights quest was for the holy grail, which in history and myth has been associated with everything from the Christ birth-line to a cup that grants eternal life. I wondered if this would have any significance in my quest?

Kal Malik – pondering the life of a knight errant

ps: I had this in an email but never posted thinking it largely irrelevant, as is the norm however, it has come back to bite me in the Ass, so I dug it up and posted it now.

St Catherine’s Well – Boot – [Portal] [Map]

In the fourth part of our Spring Equinox journey you find the intrepid adventurers heading for the Eskdale Valley – a ravine of insurmountable beauty that forms the vista for the Hard Knott Roman hillfort at its eastern end. In the basin of the valley is the village of Boot. Perhaps I should have said “At the foot of the valley…”? We parked at Dalegarth railway station and walked to the junction where the Brook House Inn marks the starting point for many of the walks in the area. We were heading southwards towards the River Esk in search of St.Catherine’s Well – a recently re-discovered and restored well that was somewhere on the hillside nearby.

St Catherine’s Well

Taking a right turn at Brook House Inn we walked along the track past some houses until we reached a small church, To my eyes it had the distinct look of a Templar church design – a flat design with protrusions at either end but which were staggered rather than directly opposite each other.

St Catherine's Church, Boot - a Templar design?

From the church the path then follows the River Esk, and soon we were walking upwards onto the slopes of the hills that border the river. We stuck to the left-hand side and when we came to a fork in the path we chose the left-hand path. This led us to a gap in a wall where we found a beautiful path of moss-covered stones leading up the hillside. We were sorely tempted to follow it, but the spot on the map indicated that the site might be further along so we continued for a short while, but then Kal twisted his knee in a moment of over-exuberance. We stopped and re-assessed. Was this a sign not to continue on this lower path? We turned and walked back to the mossy path and picked our way through the rocks up the hill until it opened out into a thrashed bracken heathland, spotted with old gorse bushes. Now we felt we were close to the well. Moments later we felt we had found it.

A beautiful mossy carpeted entrance

There were two possible sites. One was ringed by a stone construction but didn’t appear to have much water in it, and the other was more watery, but had fewer stones around it. As they were next to each other we got the dowsing rods out. Which one was the correct well? They both were! They were connected and the spirit of whatever we might determine “Catherine” to be was at both of them. We settled down in the afternoon sun to rest a while and breathe in the Cumbrian ambience. It was delightful – Spring was making itself felt and I for one was letting it!

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