Posts Tagged ‘michael and mary line’
Cornwall – The Misty Hurlers
August 25th, 2010 | 
Author: Sunday 22nd August, 2010 – The Hurlers, Minions, Cornwall.
Having driven through the village of Minions to get to Trethevy Quoit the night before we were fairly confident about finding the famous stone circles called “The Hurlers”. There was a big brown sign pointing to them and everything so how could we miss them? We missed them. The morning mist was so dense that visibility was down to twenty feet, and as we trudged along the damp granite path our attention was on avoiding the larger puddles. At one point I stopped, intuitively feeling something was nearby. As I looked up I could see a small marker stone making an unusually prominent shape in the white misty background. We decided to head in that direction across the moorland and soon other shapes were coming out of the mist confirming that we had made a wise choice. Luck was with us and we hadn’t gone too far past, and soon dark shapes were appearing in regular patterns like dull ghostly sentries. We remarked how ‘atmospheric’ it was, which translated meant, “Dammit – why couldn’t it be sunny – this is spooky!”
What the Hurlers can look like
The Coach and Four
Other people were knocking about too, somewhere. Occasionally we would hear the sound of feet on the path and calls to a dog, or a group of walkers crunching past. It seemed that everyone else was missing the stone circle too because we were not disturbed during our hour long visit by anyone else, despite hearing man other voices nearby. Talking of which, as Kal and I convened on our way back we discussed the sounds we had heard in the mist and realised that both of us had heard the same strange noise. It was the sound of a carriage being pulled by horses. Undoubtedly. I’ve heard that sound in so many films that I couldn’t mistake it. I heard the sound of at least two horses, more like four, and they were accompanied by the sound of wooden wheels crunching on the path. There was no engine noise accompanying it. Most odd. Maybe some people with horse and cart were going past at nine in the morning? Even odder, the sound didn’t fade into the distance as you would expect, but disappeared as it passed us. You heard it clearly for a moment, and then as it passed by it died off quickly, it didn’t fade away. Again, very odd. I shivered a little in the morning gloom, and put it down to the atmosphere, but then when I mentioned it to Kal he nodded – he’d heard the same, and he added his own impressions of the noise which confirmed mine. However, on to the circles….
The Hurlers – The Male Circle and the Cross
There are three circles marked on OS maps, but in the mist we only found two of them. The Secret Cornwall site tells us that we are even wrong about that:
“The remains of a smaller fourth circle have recently been found north-north-east of the obvious three circles and a further fifth circle has been suggested between it and the others” (source: Secret Cornwall)
The first circle we encountered was the larger of the two, then there was a small pathway which linked to a slightly smaller ring of stones a few feet further north. One of the first things we independently dowsed was that the larger circle had a female characteristic, whilst the smaller circle was male.
- Can you spot the stones?
Kal spent his first hour in the female circle, or rather, around its periphery, whilst I tried to get to grips with the male circle. I had come to the circles with an idea: I wanted to know whether it was possible to connect to the Sirius star energy, and what would happen if I did. I found a power centre and began to work with it, connecting to its core. I identified the location of Sirius, and then sat facing it. Almost immediately I got the impression that I should walk around the circle to stir up the energies. I dowsed for the start point, and then which direction – clockwise. No surprises there. I walked around twice, the second time the path began to weave as though the energies around the stones were becoming agitated. This was good – I had done a similar thing at Mitchell’s Fold stone circle once. At that Shropshire circle I had walked around five times, each time dowsing a more erratic path with higher peaks. This was similar, but only required two perambulations to get the energies flowing enough to work with.
- Male circle Power Centre marked by feather and staff
Posted in Modern Druidry | 
Tags: bodmin moor, carriage, coach and four, coach and horses, cornwall, ghost, hamish miller, hurlers, jamaica inn, john michell, ley line, michael and mary line, paul broadbent, sirius, south west, st mary, st.michael, star | 
4 Comments »
Glastonbury Solstice – Part 3: The Dragon Vision
This is the third part of the story of my recent pil;grimage to Glastonbury. “Pilgrimage” – that’s what I’m calling these visits because that’s how I feel about them – they are modern-day pilgrimages to a “site of special spiritual interest”, to adopt and mutate the SSSI designation. Glastonbury itself recognises this and has a Pilgrimage Centre where people can go to get information about places to visit and what’s on – sort of like a Tourist Information Centre for Seekers.
So, in the last parts I told you how I sloughed off the energetic attachment of a trickster spirit, got a surprise at a crop circle, then took two trips up the Tor trying to totally tune my tantra. That’s not strictly accurate, but it was the only synonym I could find that was alliterative! I was in the process of working on my heart chakra – the chakra os assimilation, integration, love, emotion and…well, here’s what one site says:
“According to contemporary buddhist teacher Tarthang Tulku, the heart chakra is very important for the feeling of existential fulfillment” (source: Sensagent Dictionary)
‘Existential fulfillment’, huh? Well, I’m pretty fulfilled in that respect, being a trainee druid. So, the day before I had watched the sun set on the horizon from The Tor and this morning I set out with Kal to see where I would end up. There were no plans except a starting point – them’s the rules. Our starting point this day would be the “entrance portals” that are the Gog and Magog trees (now sadly, only one remains).
Guardians of The Entrance: Gog and Magog
No time was wasted this morning – we knew, after last year’s visit, exactly how to get to the trees. It was early (i.e. before tour buses arrived) so all was quiet, even on the campsite next to the ancient oaks. Kal hovered around outside while I clambered into the nettle-strewn glade that forms a triangular cordon around the trees. I was taken aback at how much the first tree (Gog apparently) had paled and depreciated in the last year since she had been burned on the inside by some ardent “worshipper” and his zealous candle. I’m sure there were vestiges of life last year. This year he was totally barren and crumbling fast. It was quite dis-heartening to see.
The legendary and dead Gog Oak tree
Luckily, although I felt the waves of trauma and sadness coming from his partner Magog, she was in decent health. In her hollow I placed the two things I possessed that had a healing energy: a special slice of rose-coloured crystal that I had been given as a gift specifically to use for heart chakra work, and my ash staff. How the giver of this crystal had known I was going to do such work is beyond me, but that’s another story. Alongside the crystal I put my staff in the bole too. I placed my hands on the gnarled bark of the tree and, after the waves of anguish had ebbed away I put some loving energy into the tree. She was clearly pining (or is it “oaking”?), and it seemed like the only thing I could do that wasn’t a selfish act. I wasn’t here to take this time – I was here to give.
Three is a magic number
Oh yes it is. Good things come in trees {sic} so having passed between the trees as a starting point to my morning’s processional way I rejoined Kal and we headed up the slope towards the ever-present Tor in the distance. This would be the third time in two days we would climb the Tor, and each time the energies, the feelings and the results were different. Today was no exception.
The climb up the Tor was straightforward, although again, I felt the need to do it in bare feet. Again, we went up the quick way, up the steepest slope at the ‘back’ of the Tor. Once on top Kal went off doing his stuff, dowsing and meditating for his own ends. I dowsed to find the best place for me to work with my heart chakra energies, and to commune with the Spirit of the Tor to know what I should do for the next part of the year’s cycle. This was my intention this morning – no messing about! Straight to the ‘heart’ of the matter!
It was only a matter of a few minutes before things began to happen. I had stilled myself, then sent my attention deep into the Tor and outwards up into the skies above, creating a channel between the two. I felt a deep rumbling from within the depths of the Tor! It was only slight, but it was palpable. Something was stirring! Was it within me, or within the earth? What was it that was awakening? Through my deep connection I felt the urge to stand and move to the doorway of St.Michael’s Tower – the building on the Tor’s summit. I was standing now in the Michael and Mary Line, the Great Dragon Line, the strongest ley line int he country that runs across this land’s southern width from one end to the other. My eyes glazed, and suddenly I saw a vision…
The Dragon Hill Vision
…The archway of the building framed Wearyall Hill in the town below. As my attention was placed upon it I saw that it was the shape of a sleeping dragon. I could make out a head curled in, folded wings on its flanks, and a tail snaking out and around the back of the hill. As I watched, an overlay, a transparent copy of the dragon woke and looked up at me. With a snort it unfolded its wings, stretched and then looked at me again as if waiting for an instruction. I wondered what to do…then I realised. It wanted to fly but had forgotten how, after such a long sleep. I sent back the instruction to it in my mind – “Fly!” I said, “Fly!”. The dragon vision lifted its neck, looked upwards, and then beat its huge wings until it raised itself off the ground.
Cultural images abound - e.g. Smaug
Once airborne it circled quickly around Wearyall Hill, still visible in front of me, and spiralled upwards and towards me. As the great red dragon flew over my head it disappeared. So authentic was this vision that I knew to be a vision, that for a moment I blinked in case it flew into me….then it was gone. There was no dragon now. Wearyall Hill was just a hill.
View of Wearyall 'Dragon' Hill through the tower
I understood, in a way that only true gnosis can reveal, what it was I needed to do for the next eighth part of the year. I needed to “wake the dragon” – whatever that turned out to mean. I had to wake it, then teach it how to fly, because it had been sleeping for so long it had forgotten. Straight away I was getting linkages coming through from my reading and learning: red dragon -> serpent -> male earth energy -> serpent fire -> kundalini -> ‘raising the serpent fire’ -> a hill -> flying -> shamanic flying -> raising consciousness…. the connections kept coming. It would take me a few weeks to contemplate what this might mean exactly for me, but the direction was clear and more powerful than ever before.
I thought that was the most revelatory thing that could have happened to me that day and I was content to know my direction, but the best was yet to come. We descended the hill and headed for the quiet contemplation space that is the Chalice Well Gardens. That was where the pilgrimage was truly fulfilled!
Gwas.
Nursery Rhymes: how to hide a secret
There are many ways to hide a secret, but one old adage that keeps re-appearing in my research into life’s mysteries is this: If you want to hide a secret, put it where everyone can see it.
Such is the way with the knowledge passed down through nursery rhymes.
We all know about the bubonic plague symptoms hidden within the words of the “Ring-a-ring of roses”, but there’s a rhyme that is particular to earth energies, and that is “Mary, Mary, quite contrary“.
Mary, Mary, quite contrary.
The rhyme goes:-
“Mary, Mary, quite contrary.
How does your garden grow?
With silver bells and cockle shells,
and pretty maids all in a row.”
The traditional interpretation is that the references are to types of plants, but when you ask which plants these are then you simply get told that they are bluebells and…er….foxgloves maybe, or…..well, the pretty maids are pansies, right? Actually, we don’t know. But we can make it fit by just assigning random flowers whose shapes may suggest the silver bells or cockle shells. Well, I can make it fit another way too.
I think this is revealing some clues about the nature of earth energies.
‘Mary’ has long been associated with the female energy lines. The obvious example is Miller & Broadbent’s Michael and Mary Line from Norfolk to Land’s End. There are many elements of her meandering across the landscape that is contrary:
- she wanders back and forth in snake-like sinewy paths
- she is powered by the moon, rather than the sun (which powers the plants and male energies)
- she runs contrary to the male energy in a double helix of alternately opposing and attracting waves.
Mary is quite contrary in so many ways.
But what of the relationship with the garden? At a recent BSD conference I met a few people whose interest was in the cultivation and fertility of their land through the employment and understanding of the relationship between earth energies and the soils and seeds that it flows through, not to mention to morphogenetic fields of the plants themselves.
One book in particular was recommended to me: Burke & Halberg’s “Seed of Knowledge – Stone of Plenty”.
This book hypothesises that ancient sites were built to generate fertility energy for the land, to “harden” seeds to yield double the normal amount of crops. When tested in the labs they claim this resulted in reliable increases in the yield of seeds subjected to the kind of electromagnetic fields found at ancient sites.
The Asian continent has long maintained this idea in the practise and theory of Feng Shui. Feng Shui, or the layout and patterning, the direction of flow of chi within the garden, is a strong part of the Chinese and Japanese cultures, wherein these energies are encouraged, directed, deflected or nullified to appropriate effect on the prosperity of the landscape and the people, animals and plants within it.
The ancient information being passed on to us is contained in the final lines too, where a recipe list of contributing factors if revealed. How does your garden grow? With silver bells, cockle shells and pretty maids all in a row.
Silver bells or cockle shells?
Silver bells are associated with the calling of the devas, faerie spirits and tree spirits that inhabit the world between our world. These spirits are supposed to heed the call of silver bells, and can be called upon to bestow their energies upon the plants they tend to encourage them to grow stronger, quicker and healthier – to be more abundant in their flowering and fruiting.
Many fertility rituals were and still are enacted at appropriate times of the year involving some form of ringing musical tones to encourage the spirits of the land to grant their fertile energies to the plants for a good harvest.
We are being told that this is a method to gain their help – to call them with silver bells.
The reference to cockle shells is rather more difficult to interpret. Some books on sea magic propose cockle shells as ornaments to an altar, but another suggests they were used in bunches much like shakers. I prefer this interpretation. A bunch of cockle shells might be the poor man’s version of the silver bells! Can’t afford silver bells? Well, nature provides – use a bunch of cockle shells instead. Makes sense to me.
I suppose the modern equivalent is the fascination with Wind Chimes. My wife has put several of them up in our back garden, but ask her why and she can’t tell you. Is it an intuitive feeling that it will attract Nature Spirits into the garden to promote the growth and safeguard the health of the plants?
Sea shell wind chimes
The pretty maids all in a row sounds like a row of aligned stones to me, or a stone circle. In our dowsing experiences the energies are generated at stone circles, the dispersed out into the landscape, often through rows of stones aligned like paths or pointers along the ground. They are always “in a row”. The female energies necessary to fertilise the landscape bounce between the rows of stones, directed like pipelines sending the energies out across the land to other sites, or into a valley, or through a large country estate.
So, I believe this little innocent cute nursery rhyme which originated who knows when actually contains several key facts about earth energies and how they can be used to make your garden grow:-
- the female “Mary” energy runs in sinewy paths contrary to male energies
- attract beneficial nature spirits to your garden by tinkling silver bells or bunches of cockle shells
- aligned rows of stones can be used to direct the natural earth energies into your garden
All that in a little ditty that everyone learns!
Gwas
Following the garden path.
