The Hedge Druid

Posts Tagged ‘megalithic’

Sunday 29th May – Dowth, Boyne Valley, County Meath.

Dowth (“The Place of Darkness”) is the lesser-visited site of the three famous megalithic structures in the Boyne Valley complex. It is less visited because there is no convenient bus taking tourists to the site, and instead intrepid visitors have to walk the mile or so from the bus terminus, or a mile and a half from the Knowth site, in order to reach it. Luckily for us this late May day was about as beautiful and sunny as May days get, and so we walked along the blooming hawthorn-lined lanes in utter delight. Some days it pays to be a (would-be) druid.

When we arrived at Dowth we had the place to ourselves with the exception of a solitary photographer who busied himself with setting up some arty shots. We read the information board (always amusing, sometimes useful) and then looked at each other. We felt there was something we should do before going in – but what was it? We decided to wait. We didn’t know what for – perhaps just to let our blood cool from the walk, or to become totally attuned to the ambiance of the site before we entered. We weren’t sure. But we waited for ten minutes, then entered.

Information created by archaeologists

The site exuded a sense of spirituality from the outset. As soon as I entered I got my dowsing rods out and asked them to lead me to the place that I was best attuned to, my power centre, taking me by a “ritual path”, as I called it. My intention, the thought I had in mind, was of the path around Glastonbury Tor – the labyrinthine path that I would soon take again at the Summer Solstice. Eventually, after much to-ing and fro-ing around the edges of the mound I was led into the centre to a spot where someone had had a fire, somewhere near the centre of the hollow that formed a giant hole in the middle of the mound. Kal calls this form of perambulation in trance a “walking meditation” and says that groups he works with do them quite frequently.I wouldn’t know anything about that – I did it because it felt right to do. At the burnt spot the energy spiralled indicating a power centre. It was here that I meditated on my throat chakra. I wanted to clear myself and energise at the same time, with special attention to my throat chakra.

Fire pit power centre at Dowth

Then, like at the entrance to this unusual site, I got the oddest feeling. I felt that I couldn’t progress until I had recited a poem that recounted all my efforts to this point – a kind of announcement as to why I was here. Was I not in a land of poets? Was this not the land where the Blarney Stone is kissed for its gift of eloquence? And so I began to recite some dodgy rhymes, somewhat self-consciously even though there was no-one else around except Kal and he was over the other side of the hill. I told the spirit of the hill all about the other places I had visited to work on various chakras, and what the result of each encounter had been. As soon as I completed my poem I felt a wave of relief (release) and I picked up my dowsing roads again to see where I should go to next in order to work on my throat chakra. I felt like I had opened a doorway into an opportunity, and now was the time to step across this Mercurial threshold.

Kal's vision quest on Dowth

I began to follow a single dowsing road as it led me around the curve of the hollow and back to a new power centre – a rocky scar in the hillside similar to one that I knew from my many visits to Gop Hill in North Wales. I went there and lay down to ‘doze’, to get myself into an attuned and trance-like state of mind, a receptive mind state, if you will. As I entered a light trance state and became comfortable with the hill I heard and fleetingly saw a familiar figure – it was The Lady. The same lady that I had encountered at Gop Hill (this was something I felt, rather than positively identified). In my half-sleep I was able to ask questions of the Lady of the Hill. My questions were answered by the reaction of the sunlight – if it went behind a cloud then the answer was negative in nature, and vice versa. The strength of the heat or cold indicated the strength of the answer.

Some of the information simply formed in my mind, or bubbled up from somewhere, and then I tested its validity using the clouds. This sounds stupidly un-scientific, I know, yet it was utterly consistent. I could ask test questions which had simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answers and the clouds would react accordingly and immediately, uncannily so. Those test questions provided the assurance that this was some form of divination allowing me to interact with this powerful yet elusive Lady figure. This was not the first time I had encountered this kind of divination opportunity, and I recognised it for what it was, and wasn’t about to squander it.

Read the rest of this entry »

As I reported in my previous Arbor Low post Kal and I were inside the stone circle taking dowsing readings. This post is the product of those readings, and, as I had hoped, the great stone circle did indeed give up some of its secrets that evening. The results I present here are only preliminary and cursory research into the amazing insights that we discovered, and I hope that over the course of the next year I can back up everything I am about to say with some solid on-the-ground fieldwork, dowsing, and more research. However, for now, I must content myself with my initial exciting findings, and must re-iterate that they are currently only theoretical and speculative.

Impossible Bearings

We dowsed inside the inner circle to find the point from which the radial alignment leys that Kal had found previously emanated. The spot was in between the two central large recumbent sets of stones. I stood in the centre whilst Kal walked around this point with his dowsing rods. Whenever he got a reading he stopped, and I lined up the compass with his dowsing rod and noted the bearing. After only two readings it became apparent that something quite exciting was going on here – the numbers were coming out incredibly familiar: Zero degrees – due North! Not 1 degree, 5 degrees, or 10, but spot on zero. Next – 45 degrees! Interesting. Well, it doesn’t take a mathematical genius to recognise these numbers as particularly significant when related to a circle!! Kal was oblivious to this, as he was simply walking around and stopping at particular points when the rods moved to a right-angle. I was the one whose eyebrows rose a little at each reading until I couldn’t contain myself any longer and blurted out something like, “This is impossible!”.

Here are the set of radial ley line bearings taken:-

1. 0 degrees
2. 45 degrees
3. 90 degrees
4. 135 degrees
5. 180 degrees
6. 240 degrees
7. 270 degrees
8. 335 degrees

I took the readings home, quite excited at the prospect of plotting them onto Google Maps and following the result – perhaps this would open up some new avenues of sites to explore along the lines, or new centres of spirituality to visit and dowse this year? Stupid question, as it turned out – of course it did.

The importance of place

If those radials are extended out until they reach significant points, such as the end of the land, or a sacred site, then you get some pretty amazing coincidences across a very large area. How could the circle builders have managed to position the circle with such precision over such a wide area? By using star, sun and moon alignments alone?

Here’s a link to the Google Maps diagram of the radials extended in all directions: Arbor Low radials. In this view you can click on each of the markers and see that each of them is a significantly named place, containing either the name of a Christian saint (popularly “Mary” or “Margaret“), or village names ending in “-ley”, “-lea” or “-leigh”. Some of the villages include the name “Cross“”, which I also think is significant, as it may indicate a location where the alignment leys I have discovered intersect with other ley lines. A rich source of further investigation in the years ahead, I feel. One final criterion for a significantly named place is the inclusion of the word “-stone“, which I believe indicates a standing marker stone may have existed there at one time, acting as a sighting stone indicating the direction and placement of the ley line.

Defining the Criteria for a Ley Line

This has always been a hot topic for leyhunters and critics of them. What constitutes a ley line? One could argue, “Well, you could draw a line anywhere in Britain and find that it goes through a place name like that.“. To a certain extent this is true. Random chance would be one factor, but it may also be that this country is riddled with ley lines, and eventually you are going to cross one or run alongside one if drawing a straight line across country. However, these are the elements I felt constituted a ley line without me having actually dowsed its presence yet:-

1. The town or village must end in “ley”, “lea”, “lee” or “leigh”
2. Such a village/town must not lie more than 1 mile from the central path of the neutral ley line.
3. The path of the line must pass through at least THREE significant ancient sacred sites.
4. There ought to be many references to saints names in the name of the villages, towns or the churches that the ley line passes through.

You’ll find one or two random proximities over any long line placed across the country. I tested this set of criteria, all classic ley line definitions, by starting a line map at a random point in the British countryside, and traced some lines to the cardinal points from there Here are the results for the Random Ley Line:-

1. NORTH: one close and one direct hit on a line extending 118 miles.
2. SOUTH: three close and five direct hits on a line extending 142 miles.
3. EAST:  no hits or near misses on a line extending 99 miles.
4. WEST: two close and two hits on a line extending 140 miles.

Eight hits on the random southern line, eh? But let’s look at the clustering of those hits – they almost ALL appear in the small space between the M40 motorway in Oxford (a hot spot for ancient sites and leys) and the M3 motorway in the space of about 20 miles. I venture to suggest we have actually hit an existing ley line in that area, or some very close to it. The total line extends some 140+ miles in total, mostly devoid of hits.

How many ancient sites were passed through in this test? NONE. How many saints names were in the names of villages or towns near to this random line? NONE. Did it align three or more sacred sites? NO. Okay – so the “ley” name criteria was occasionally met in clusters, but the other criteria were completely devoid.

The Arbor Low Lines

Let’s compare that now with the lines that I found emerging from the Arbor Low stone circle. I’ll do the details later, but for now, let’s just compare those cardinal hits and near misses.

Let’s examine each of those radials in turn, and see which significant places they touch. NOTE: all the lines have at least ONE sacred site because they all emerge from Arbor Low.

1. The Northern Ley

• Bearing: 0 Degrees
• Length: 173 miles.
• Places: 18
• Sacred sites: 2

The northern ley ends at Holy Island, and goes straight into the Lindisfarne Priory and ends at a place called Mary Gate.

One of the descendants of Llywelyn the Great (c. 1173-1240) was born in ‘Raby with Keverstone’, which is an interesting connection to Yr Elen mountain, a peak conjoined with one named Carnedd Llywelyn, meaning “Llywelyn’s cairn”.

Here are the places that are upon or close to this ley line:-

1. Farnley Tyas
2. Aspley
3. Bradley
4. Shipley
5. Burley
6. Ilkley
7. Thruscross
8. Bewerley
9. Pateley bridge
10. West Layton
11. Keverstone
12. Hedleyhope
13. Hamsterley
14. Throkley
15. Kirkley
16. Longhorsley
17. Adderstone
18. Mary Gate, Holy Island (Lindisfarne Priory)

2. The North–Eastern Ley

• Bearing: 45 Degrees
• Length: 71 miles.
• Places: 16
• Sacred sites: 4

Possibly travels through the Barbrook series of stone circles. Cannot find an end point, however, as many of the circles on the eastern seaboard would have been timber circles, and long since disintegrated.

Here are the places that are upon or close to this ley line:-

1. Bakewell (St.Peter’s Well)
2. Handley
3. Pilsley
4. Birchen Edge cairns (between Wellington’s and Nelson’s Monuments)
5. Ramsley (reservoir)
6. Whickersley
7. Bramley
8. Alverley
9. Cantley
10. Wheatley
11. Twin Rivers (at the mouth of the Humber where it divides into two rivers)
12. Crabley
13. Hunsley
14. Rowley
15. Westwood Common timber circle
16. Beverley

3. The Eastern Ley

• Bearing: 90 Degrees
• Length: 73 miles.
• Places: 6
• Sacred sites: 3

The line ends, I believe, at Bolinbroke Castle, made famous for being the seat of many of England’s kings, as recounted famously in several Shakespearean plays such as Henry IV, who was born there. Wikipedia link. The only other significant place I could find on this line is the Nine Ladies Stone Circle, also in Derbyshire. Perhaps the line ends there – this is something I will have to test out in the field by checking points along the line.

The funny thing about this line is that its bearing is not exactly 45 degrees. If a line is drawn at exactly 45 degrees then it slightly misses Nine Ladies, and misses Bolinbroke by a mile or so by the time it gets out east. Now, despite what I said earlier about the fact that the line as measured on the night was 45 degrees exactly, I actually think this might be a case for saying that I may have taken the measurement slightly wrong for this line. I say that because I am, indeed, fitting this line retrospectively based on the evidence of the sacred sites and villages named “ley” that I only discovered when I traced the line across the land. If you follow the line and see that the sites fit if the line is angled slightly further than 45 degrees I think you’ll agree it’s a more convincing case for the existence of a ley line.

Here are the places that are upon or close to this ley line:-

1. Nine Ladies Stone Circle
2. Clay Cross
3. Lower Pilsley
4. Pleasley
5. Clipstone
6. Bolinbroke Castle

However, by the criteria I laid out earlier, this line is not wholly convincing – only two ancient sites appear on it, and not three – unless Bolinbroke Castle could be considered to be an ancient site. We may never know. Where’s Time Team when you need them?

4. The South-Eastern Ley

• Bearing: 135 Degrees
• Length: 155 miles.
• Places: 12
• Sacred sites: 3

The least convincing of the radials, as I can’t find many ancient sites along this line for quite a long stretch. This is the problem with most of the lines that extend over the eastern side of the country – the geology of the area does not encourage the building of stone monuments. Instead, it would appear that their ancient monuments were rendered in timber, and then never upgraded to stone, as they had been elsewhere where suitable stone was abundant.

Here are the places that are upon or close to this ley line:-

1. Brightgate
2. Matlock Bath (petrifying well, Heights of Abraham, Rutland and Great Masson caverns)
3. Lea Bridge
4. Lea Brooks
5. New Brinsley
6. Felley (old priory – information contributed by reader ‘Pat’)
7. Mapperley
8. Lambley (The Lambley Spring)
9. Wiggenhall St Mary Magdalen
10. Tivertshall St.Margaret
11. Pulham St.Mary
12. St.James South Elmham

There is clustering of sites on this line, with a section in the middle (between Lambley near Nottingham and Wiggenshall SMM in Norfolk) where there are neither correspondences or ancient sites listed. I am quite unsure about whether the line continues beyond Nottingham at the moment. The only thing I have to make me want to keep the line the length it is would be the end point being the mouth of the River Blyth, which is such an exact geographical feature for a line to end at. A mile further north or south would have been less convincing. End points being the mouths of rivers seems to be a feature of the Arbor Low radials.

5. The Southern Ley

• Bearing: 180 Degrees
• Length: 167 miles.
• Places: 25
• Sacred sites: 5

The southern ley ends at St Catherine’s Hill on the northern edge of a town called Christ Church at the mouth of the River Avon and River Stour. Either that, or it ends at the Breamore (Bremmer) sites just a few miles further north, where there is a “Giant’s Grave” long barrow, a “Giant’s Chair” and an ancient turf maze called the Miz-Maze. Passes next to Stonehenge and other Wiltshire sites, and through Marlborough.

Of Catherine’s Hill:

“One “miracle” legend that local heritage does not play up is that Christchurch, like Vortigern’s citadel, was reportedly consumed by fire from heaven – no doubt because the reason given is that it was devastated by a fire-breathing dragon sent to punish the town for its wickedness. An account by a visiting French monk, Herman of Laon, has the town being burnt by a fire-breathing flying dragon in 1112/1113. Herman came here with a group touring SW England to raise funds to rebuild their home church, but got an unwelcome reception here. As Herman’s group left, they looked back and were pleased to see the town being burnt up by a dragon in revenge for the insult to their Lady of Laon.

Dragons are often associated with “fire from Heaven,” but despite new-age attempts to equate dragons with ‘serpent lines’ (rather than ley lines) of esoteric or geomantic force, no link with St Catherine’s Hill is apparent, Herman’s dragon rising from the sea. There is a local land-based serpent-dragon legend, but it is localised across the valley at Bisterne (which means beast’s or pest’s secret place). Or at least the family whose ancestor supposedly slew it resided at Bisterne, with the dragon carved on their stone gateposts in commemoration, the dragon itself alighting at Burley Beacon nearby to drink the milk the fearful locals left out for it. (For more on dragons and the theory they are linked to ley lines, see Here Be Dragons (2008), by Michael Hodges, author of the history of St Catherine’s Hill pictured right.)

The notion of the hill as a still actively pagan site in the Middle Ages is supported by some slight circumstantial evidence. At some point a chapel was built on the hilltop either in addition to, or else instead of, the planned hilltop priory church. This is despite the fact the downtown Priory site had up to nine chapels or altars there already. One theory is a hilltop church was erected to displace ongoing pagan use of the hill. It was the policy of St Augustine that the early Saxon church should take over ‘wood and stone’ pagan sites and give them a cosmetic makeover to convert them into Christian ones, beginning around 600.” (Source : http://www.south-coast-central.co.uk/n&q/stcatherineshill.htm)

Here are the places that are upon or close to this ley line:-

1. Fenny Bentley
2. Cubley
3. Fradley
4. Hilliard’s Cross
5. Lea Hall
6. Bentley Heath
7. Hockley Heath
8. Henley-in-Arden
9. Billesley
10. Blockley
11. Coln St.Aldwyns
12. Blunsdon St.Andrew
13. Westlea
14. Rockley
15. Lower Everleigh
16. Salisbury Cathedral
17. Clearbury Ring
18. The Giant’s Graves and Chair, and Miz-Maze
19. Gorley
20. Hangersley
21. Ashley Heath
22. St.Leonards and St.Ives
23. South Ripley
24. Sopley
25. St Catherine’s Hill

6. The South-Western Ley

• Bearing: 240 Degrees
• Length: 120 miles.
• Places: 14
• Sacred sites: 2

Passes through the legendary site of Caerleon, reputed site of King Arthur’s Camelot and long-time Roman Fort. link.

“When the feast of Whitsuntide began to draw near, Arthur, who was quite overjoyed by his great success, made up his mind to hold a plenary court at that season and place the crown of the kingdom on his head. He decided too, to summon to this feast the leaders who owed him homage, so that he could celebrate Whitsun with greater reverence and renew the closest pacts of peace with his chieftains. He explained to the members of his court what he was proposing to do and accepted their advice that he should carry out his plan in The City Of The Legions.

Situated as it is in Morgannwg (Glamorgan), on the River Usk, not far from the Severn Sea, in a most pleasant position, and being richer in material wealth than other townships, this city was eminently suitable for such a ceremony. The river which I have named flowed by it on one side, and up this the kings and princes who were to come from across the sea could be carried in a fleet of ships. On the other side, which was flanked by meadows and wooded groves, they had adorned the city with royal palaces, and by the gold-painted gables of its roofs it was a match for Rome.”

“After the death of Uther Pendragon, the leaders of the Britons assembled from their various provinces in the town of Silchester and there suggested to Dubricus, the archbishop of the City Of The Legions, that as their King he should crown Arthur, son of Uther. He called the other bishops to him and bestowed the crown of the kingdom upon Arthur. Arthur was a young man only fifteen years old …”

(from ‘History of the Kings of Britain’ by Geoffrey of Monmouth).

I suspect that the ley line may end at Butterdon Hill in the Dartmoor National Park. There is only circumstantial evidence for this based upon the frequency of nearby villages with the word “ley” or “leigh” in their names. Perhaps there is stronger evidence for the end point being Caerleon.

Here are the places that are upon or close to this ley line:-

1. Farley
2. Checkley
3. Church Leigh
4. Dodsleigh
5. Chartley
6. Shirleywich
7. Teddesley Park
8. Gailey
9. Wrottesley Park
10. Romsley
11. Upper Arley
12. Tedstone Wafer
13. St Weonards
14. Caerleon

7. The Western Ley

• Bearing: 270 Degrees
• Length: 92 miles.
• Places: 6
• Sacred sites: 2

The western ley goes to the imposing mountain of Yr Elen. No-one seems to know why it is dedicated to Elen, but I can hazard a guess – it is Elen of the Roads – the spirit who shows the seeker the way, who makes visible the invisible paths of energy, the ley lines, and here stands this summit: due West of Arbor Low, on a ley line, and dedicated to Elen. No other sacred sites along the way though, unless you include the town of Mold, which is steeped in history and pre-history, and whose castle may have been the site of a former, much more ancient, fort or protected sacred space. Or perhaps its church dedicated to St.Mary may have a much older history. But that’s speculation.

Here are the places that are upon or close to this ley line:-

1. Healthylee
2. Wimboldsley
3. Tarporley
4. Buckley
5. Mold (St Mary the Virgin church)
6. Yr Elen (mountain)

8. The North-Western Ley

• Bearing: 335 Degrees
• Length: 68 miles.
• Places: 6
• Sacred sites: 2

The north-west ley ends up at Blackpool’s South Shore. Not generally considered to be a sacred site (although it oculd be considered to be the spiritual home of Mecca Bingo) until you do a little  reserach on the subject. Here’s a quote about Blackpool’s megalithic history from the Megalithic Portal site concerning the one sacred site known about in Blackpool:

“Information from Pastscape:

“The Rev William Thornber states that a round cairn or cairns formerly stood on the site of the Lodge of Stonyhill, and he was told that Mr. Fisher, the proprietor of the field, had carted away upwards of twenty loads of soil, burnt red and black, from the site of a large circular cairn, which had made it difficult to identify. He also states that adjoining the cairns are two wells, one called the Fairy Well, or Wrangdomwell, and the other Bull Spring, which issues from a huge oblong mound of stones, in the Bull Meadows, which he supposes to be of artificial origin. He says that the Fairy Well was still resorted to with offerings of rags , nails and pins, and that he had found, himself, nails, leather thongs and-an old shaped knife, after the meadows had been ploughed.

This area is now completely covered with modern buildings.” Source: http://www.pastscape.org/hob.aspx?hob_id=39366“

Here are the places that are upon or close to this ley line:-

1. Fernlee Reservoir
2. Pott Shrigley
3. Gatley
4. Tyldesley
5. Crosstown
6. Blackpool

Again, I’m  not sure if this line really constitutes being called a ley line. There are very few sites above random chance, the sacred site at the end of the line may or may not have been of significant size and status, and there are no known extant or remnant sites in between Arbor Low and Blackpool.

—————————————————————–

As you can see, some of the radials are more convincing than others. Over the course of the next year I aim to see whether there is any dowsing evidence, or local custom that would back up these suppositions.

Gwas.

In the third part of my Brittany visit report I will be covering two sites: the legendary Mont St.Michel and the lesser known Temple of Mars.

Mont St.Michel

Mont St.Michel has a number of things about it that should pique the interest of any dowser, or anyone interested in ancient earth mysteries. Firstly, it is situated on a mound that has legendary association with St.Michael and The Dragon – a signifier of the ‘pinning’ or ‘taming’ of earth energies. Secondly, it is part of the alignment of sites that Hamish Miller discusses in one of his books. Thirdly, the abbey situated at the pinnacle of the mound is crammed with architecture that references The Green Man, dragons, Celtic motifs and pineal glands – not to mention its ‘divine proportions’. All in all, it’s a full day for anyone interested in the Western Mystery tradition!

Nothing radical happened in terms of dowsing, and no major energy work was done there. Instead I went with the intention of seeing whether the information I had been reading from different esoteric authors was accurate. Was there evidence in the form of symbols, Celtic patterns, sacred geometry, number and legend to believe that the concepts and properties of earth energies were known many years ago? Was there evidence of the veneration and preservation of a very ancient knowledge pre-dating the Christian and Roman civilisations that have dominated historical record and study? Was that knowledge built into the very heart and soul of Mont St.Michel?

In addition to keeping an eye out for historical, architectural and decorative symbolism I was also keen to verify Miller’s scant report from his “In Search of the Southern Serpent” book in which he mentions a ‘crossing point’ in Mont St Michel’s Abbey of the Apollo-Athena ley line, a line that runs between two energy lines – the so-called Becker-Hagens grid. There’s a Google Earth overlay displaying just such alignment points. Mont St Michel is situated between two major lines of the icosahedron, but I have my doubts as to the exact placement of the Becker-Hagens lines. Their major crossing points – the concentration of many lines – fall near to but not on some very important megalithic sites. This got me thinking.

Shifting the centre

If the whole grid were shifted such that the crossing point aligned with The Scilly Isles, then suddenly a lot of lines identified by dowsers begin to make sense – the Apollo-Athena line fits next to the Mary and Michael Line through Stonehenge and Dartmoor, on to the tip of Cornwall. The red line in the diagram below is the Apollo-Athena line, but Becker-Hagens have it fifty miles or so off-centre to where Hamish Miller and John Michell have placed it. That’s just how However, it is possible to align at least two well-documented major ley lines by shifting the centre 67 miles westward onto St.Mary’s or St. Martin’s Church on the Isles of Scilly off the tip of Cornwall. Doing that pulls these lines onto with known energetic centres. If you do that 67 mile shift due West you also connect London with Paris! An interesting correlation. Far from fact yet, but it makes me think about the larger picture and the possibility of mapping these ancient energy points in a mathematically cohesive geometry that works worldwide, and that’s an exciting prospect!

One approaches the abbey via a winding, nay spiralling, path up through the many tourist shops, restaurants, and ‘attractions’ designed to inform the casual tourist of the bloody and saintly history of this place. I ignored the lot and made my way as quickly as possible to the abbey up the steep paths and steps, paying a princely sum for the privilege on arrival at the box office. I have to say that I was not unimpressed by the size and majesty of the place, and the architecture was delightfully intricate and divinely proportioned, but more about that later.

The search for the Apollo-Athena Line

Once I stepped into the abbey I made way to the outside right edge and got rods out. I moved along the abbey’s aisle along a dark and narrow flagstoned floor, past a group of tourists being given a tour in the centre. I dowsed in and out of the small rooms along this southern edge for the crossing point that Miller vaguely described and found it two-thirds of the way down the right-hand side. It was at a point where a stone trapdoor sat in the floor, covered by a pew – a very unassuming and unexpected place!

Looking later at the plan of the abbey I could see that this southern edge had a small chapel beneath it – exactly at the point I had found or so very close to it that it made me sure I’d found the right place. a chapel built into the very rock of the mount itself. I refer you to the book by Marc Déceneux called “The Mont St Michel : stone by stone” for just such a diagram. The exact feature underneath the trapdoor I had found was the ancient Crypt of St.Martin.

On my return I consulted Miller’s book again to compare this point with the description given by Miller in ‘In Search Of The Southern Serpent’ book:

“After three days we somewhat disappointingly located  the crossing at a totally innocuous place in the side aisle of the great Abbey. It was only when the resident electrician pointed out a little used wooden trapdoor revealing wooden steps leading to a cellar below that we began to feel elated. There directly below the spot we had marked, we found the remains of the altar of the first chapel ever built on the island.”

Hamish Miller and Barry Brailsford – Penwith and StonePrint Press (2006)

I couldn’t be sure from that description whether Miller meant that the crossing point was exactly ON the wooden trapdoor, but I would suppose that he would mention that in his original description? Anyway, I found it two thirds of the way along the southern edge, whilst the wooden trapdoor was close to the northern edge, near to the entrance we had come in when first entering the abbey. I checked for the direction of flow for this powerful alignment – it crossed the abbey from the stone trapdoor towards…the wooden trapdoor! Well, that seemed like an interesting alignment.

I later checked the supposed direction of the Apollo-Athena line and found a sketch showing exactly such a NNW-SSE angle. All the correlating information came only when I had returned home to England a few weeks later, I hasten to point out, which made it all the more convincing for me.

Next, on to the other parts of the abbey, most notably the Cloister, although each part of the abbey held some interesting secret – even the seemingly dull parts. It’s all a case of what you’re looking for, I suppose!

Motifs in stone

One of the things that struck me as I walked from room to room in the abbey was the amount of subtle (and some less subtle) carvings of certain features that seemed to depict certain Celtic energy motifs such as:

• pineal glands sprouting from swirling greenery
• three and four leaf designs
• dragons laying at the feet of holy men, subdued by knightly saints, or couched within the greenery
• mythical creatures with human heads

This seemed to me to be remarkable decoration for a Christian church! It spoke to me of the Green Man legends, of the prominence of the dragon as a symbol of natural forces, and of the use of sacred number that was employed throughout the architecture of the whole abbey in terms of its sacred geometrical proportions for rooms, doors and other major features. This whole structure was shouting that mysterious forces were built into the very structure of the abbey, and at one time were not only understood by the inhabitants, but may have been encoded to retain their importance.

There layout of the abbey, its alignment, its architecture – everywhere this church employed and upheld the concept of sacred geometry – in its arches, its floor plans, its vaulted ceilings, its motifs carved in stone, even its gardening. According to the guidebooks the finest scholars came from Paris to lend their special knowledge to its design. Indeed. Such knowledge was encoded everywhere. Threes, fives, sevens, twelves – golden sections and ratios abounded in every ceiling and carving.

(Picture courtesy of ThinkQuest)

The stained glass Celtic designs and rainbow colour tints

In some of the rooms the stained glass windows had decidedly Celtic designs. Apart from the design aspects, another interesting element was the way that the stain of the glass was chromatically ‘spectrified’ – if that’s a phrase that conveys the sense that it ranged through rainbow colours along the length of the window. It was done in such a way that particular colours might predominate at different altitudes and angles of sunlight, I supposed. I wondered what effect this might have on a meditating priest at different elevations of the sun? Would the light falling on his eyes change, and therefore were specific times of the day likely to be accompanied by light of a particular part of the spectrum? I also found it interesting that rainbow colours had been selected for the staining, as we often dowse rainbow colours as part of the nemetons of energy fields around sacred sites.

Frozen dragons and pinning sword of St.Michael

The patron of this joint is St.Michel. Michael to us. Many things to many other cultures, but in the Western Mystery tradition he personifies the triumph of light over darkness. In a slightly deeper interpretation this concept also contains the symbolism of the human ability to ‘pin’ earth energy to a place so as to be able to utilise it’s energies, whether that be for healing, for assisting with spiritual transformation, or whatever other purposes this energy can be used for that may have been known about. Michael is the archangel, the archetype solar hero, the knight who slays the dragon – the dragon being the representative of the feminine or ‘darker’ forces – the subtle earth energy forces of the underground, pinned into place by the lance or sword of pure light, or intention. For me this myth contains an ancient knowledge and shows a dutiful respect for the ones who can tame the raw energies through enlightenment and spiritual ability. From this evolved the Christian concept of conquering evil through the light of truth obtained as a gift from God upon achieving spiritual pureness and holiness.

I followed a spiral path down and outwards until the causeway returning me back to normal consciousness amidst this tourist frenzy and I felt the urge to buy some local cider. Dry but flavoursome. You should try some! I felt that the mound was one of those places that you would just have to come back to. May is a good month to visit it too. I was lucky.

Temple of Mars

On the way back from Mont St.Michel there was just enough time to stop off at a site close to where we were staying – the invitingly entitled Temple of Mars near the lovely town of Corseul. Mars had been used by the Romans as a replacement for an earlier Celtic god called Teutates, or Toutatis. As a god of war, a very masculine pursuit, I was interested to see what this might mean in terms of the energies present at the site, if there were any.

As we approached the site, perched as it was overlooking a typically beautiful Cotes D’Armour valley. We could see the partially re-constructed ruins of a tower built to give an impression of the overall size, scale, height and impressive build quality of the Roman original. I say original, but perhaps the temple had been built upon the ruins of an even older Celtic temple at that place?

The rest of the site had a boundary wall whose size was only inches high, and two stairwells had been re-built to show extent of and entrances to the temple. The reconstructed portion of the temple showed seven levels were originally present in the design of the round tower. That number again. Given the quite large area this temple covered it must have been quite important. I resolved to look it up in the history books on my return, maybe

I got the copper L-rods out and asked for most energetic place of the site. I was shown a slightly raised area in one of the ‘rooms’, shown on the plan map to be of unknown purpose.

The room had a male power centre in it and a circle going around that power centre which extended as large as the room it was in. Coming out of that centre point were seven radial lines, each extending outwards beyond the confines of the room. When I stepped back I saw the pattern – it was a sun symbol, and a wheel of life. All male energy here, though. There was no female energy at all in this temple site.

I dowsed as to whether there was any other formation. YES. A spiral went from the nemeton perimeter into the centre point, slicing across the seven uneven radials in a Fibonnaci spiral of divine proportion – the golden section. It looked just like a Hamish Miller picture. So, although I couldn’t be sure whether or not my results differed from Hamish Miller’s at Mont St.Michel, I had definitely seen evidence of one of his regular energy formations at the Temple of Mars. “You lose some, you win some.” With that we returned to our base for cider and cheese.

Gwas

Following a radiant spiral.