The Hedge Druid

Posts Tagged ‘moon’

As I was travelling home from work last week I felt a strong connection with a star that wouldn’t leave my attention. It was Friday 13th, and although unlucky for some, it felt like a lucky occurence for me. I had that “Lucky Star” feeling – that this was a significant energy that I was feeling and that the star had a personal connection to me.

I decided that I shouldn’t ignore such a powerful emotion, and so I drove past my home exit and instead drove towards my nearest hill in order to get an unobstructed and unpolluted look at the star from height. Being January and cold there was no-one else around as I sat in 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. gazing at the captivating star. Using my phone’s StarWalk application I was able to identify the celestial object as Venus in conjunction with Neptune.

(source: Wikipedia)
As I went into a light dazed state of mind, directing my unfocused attention to the twinkling pair of objects above, I felt an energetic connection on two parts of my body. I first felt a tug on my heart chakra, which I opened. A flood of gentle, clear and pure loving energy seemed to fill my being. Then there was a tug on my head, but I couldn’t identify which chakra point that was connected with exactly so I opened them all to its influence.
I felt like there was a direct connection with me and the planets – the shining star’s radiance was filling me with a distant but powerful light. The Venus connection almost made me cry with its strong emotional content.

The Neptune connection had a less identifiable influence. However I felt an incredible emotion of a pure love. I sort of expected this in as much as I knew this was Venus’ influence. It was nice to have this echoed back to me later when I read an astrologer’s interpretation of this conjunction:

“Venus conjunct Neptune invokes the principle of ‘higher love’ — the kind that’s not beset by jealousy or possessiveness but which has an egalitarian, humanitarian spirit” (source: PlanetWaves.net)

That was exactly how it felt. A pure love not connected with sexuality or a single relationship, but a wider feeling of love and kinship with all things. Very unlike my usual traits!

Here’s something else that struck me. I have been getting all sentimental in the last few weeks – buying old movies of Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire. I love their dancing in particular, but I must confess that my wife and I have been enjoying their old-fashioned romantic plot lines too. This is VERY MUCH not like me. So not like me that my wife has commented on how I must be going soft in my “old age” and even saying “What’s happened to you?“.

Here’s another astrologer’s interpretation of the Venus-Neptune alliance:-

“Sentimental and compassionate, natives with Venus conjunct Neptune are easily touched by others’ kindness, music, poetry, dance, and most any art that evokes emotion.” (source: CafeAstrology.com)

Research since then has led me to conclude the following:-

a) I am being strongly affected by the movement and position of the planet Venus this year. More so than any year previously.
b) Whilst I am developing a certain ‘vulnerability’ and sensitivity to Venus’ influence, I am also being shown that this is a means of tapping into an “emotional content” that will become a part of my energy-working and hedge druidry later in the year.

I have a feeling that emotional content is going to be an energy signature that pervades my work this year.

Gwas.

I sometimes find myself doing some very strange things without knowing why. This night was one of those strange evenings, and yet the strangeness would continue beyond this night and lead to an even stranger conclusion by the time I had finished unravelling all of the clues.

I had decided that at some point in the week I would need to go somewhere. The weather was good, so I got out my dowsing rods and began to enquire about a suitable place for me to learn something that would progress me on my spiritual path – the usual request – general and open. The responses I got seemed to indicate that I could find such a place in the county of Shropshire, and that the place existed on the Megalithic Portal, so it was only a matter of bringing up a list of sites in Shropshire and working through a process of elimination to find the site that I was expected to go to. Soon I found it – The Berth – an ancient hillfort and associated pool near the village of Marton a short distance from the main A5 road. I did some reading on the Megalithic Portal about access to the site – not good. Permission from the local farmer is suggested. Well then, a covert visit may be in order given that I would be arriving late at night.

The Berth [Portal]

I put on my dancing trousers (well, the fleece-lined ones – it might be cold) and began to journey southwards from Cheshire. Soon I was past the eastern edges of Wales and skirting the western fringes of England. Within an hour I had arrived at Marton in the dark of the late evening and was searching around on a small-scale OS map for the perfect place to park and navigate through the fields to the hillfort. Luckily, without too much fuss, I found such a place down a road marked “Unsuitable for motor vehicles.” No kidding! Good job I was in a four-wheel drive machine.

A map showing The Berth hillfort in Shropshire

I parked at the only place down the narrow country lane that would fit a car. Using my print-out of a low-level OS map I headed off further down the lane. Five minutes later I realised I must have gone past the entry point I was looking for and doubled back. The entry point turned out to be where I had parked the car! When will I learn to trust my intuition? Such a hard thing to do!

Several times I had to stop myself from asking the obvious question, “What the hell are you doing in the middle of nowhere in the middle of the night?“. Luckily, I didn’t allow myself to even try to formulate an answer, but instead began to walk across the fields towards what I hoped was the right place, breathing in the still-warm evening air and wishing I hadn’t muffled myself up because I was beginning to overheat! This is October, right? Supposed to be cold and damp? Instead we are in the tail end of a heatwave and it was still 15 degrees late into the evening. Bizarre weather!

Fortune seemed to be on my side, guiding me towards something whose very impulse and importance I could sense like a scent on the night air.

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I was at a talk recently given by Marianne Williamson, in her talk she often described various aspects of the Feminine. She related this to Earth quite effectively and I wondered whether there was any connection between this and female aligned people.

Currently I have learned the female aligned people are aligned with the moon. But it is one of them obvious questions that has never been asked directly. E.g. “Am I aligned to the moon?” Or rather is Gwas, since I am Sun aligned.

What we have kind of assumed is that since Male aligned people are also Sun aligned. So Female energy aligned people would be Moon aligned.

I did some dowsing at Avebury this weekend and came across some interesting results.

Here are the results:

• Can people be Sun aligned? Yes
• Can people be Moon aligned? Yes
• Are people who are moon aligned also female aligned? Yes
• Are people who are Male aligned also Sun aligned? Yes
• Is it the same to say that Male 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. is the same as Sun 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.? Yes

That was a good and confirmatory start, right. Now take a look at this:

• Can people be Earth aligned? Yes. Interesting.
• So there are three 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. types of people? No.
• Is there more than 3 then? No. Curious!
• Are people that are male aligned also Earth aligned? No
• Are people that are female aligned also Earth aligned? Yes.

Ah…Can it be said that being Earth aligned and Moon aligned is the same thing? I got the old half Yes answer, as if there was more. I pondered this for a while wondering what it could mean. Plus it wasn’t too fair that female aligned people got two astronomical connections! Then a thought from a far flung theory came to mind…

Are female aligned people aligned with the moon because it was once a part of the Earth? Yes.

Ah, a picture was forming. Are people aligned with the Sun or the Earth, but also the moon because it was once a part of the Earth? Yes. So, if the Moon wasn’t was a part of the Earth would female aligned people still be aligned with it? No.

A fabulous set of dowsing I thought.

Kal Malik pushing the boundaries

Note from Gwas:

I found it was with the Moon. Who says otherwise? Will check again tonight. Just because the Earth has been given a female “character” doesn’t mean ‘she’ attracts all female-aligned energies and people – that’s my opinion.

Our Spring Equinox adventures began at the most beautiful stone circle in England – Castlerigg in Cumbria. As if that weren’t enough of a good start to the day we had a clear run to get there, and when we arrived the sun had cleared the sky to imbue the scene with such photographic potential that even a ham-fisted amateur photographer like myself could get a picture that was worthy of being a regular feature in any scenic calendar.

I didn’t know what Kal wanted to achieve this day, but my own personal agenda was the usual – to ask what my quest would be for the next eighth-part of the year. I wanted to know whether I had successfully completed the previous quest – to learn the sonic vocal qualities required to open my chakras – and then to know what my next quest would be. What would I need to learn next in order to progress on this spiritual path of druidry?

I remembered one or two things from our last year’s visit here – that the entrance for me was at the “back” or southern end of the circle, and that there was an in-built area which was specifically for cleansing myself of “ordinary world” energies. These two aspects were what I would concentrate on first.

Castlerigg at Spring Equinox

I walked around the edge of the stone circle’s aura, which I felt rather than dowsed. Today was an experiment in deviceless dowsing wherever possible – I wanted to feel rather than find the energies. At the unfashionable end of the circle I approached in reverent silence, head slightly bowed, and I felt for an answer to my question about whether I might be allowed to enter – I felt the familiar tug of acceptance. Off to a good start!

Inside the circle I walked straight to the Sanctuary enclosure – an array of stones laid out in a rectangle. There I positioned myself where it “felt best” and that happened to be on a small tuft of lush green circular grass - a 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., clearly. I felt for the direction to face and it was West. I lit two sticks of incense (suitable for me) and admired their flavours. I turned West and asked to be cleansed of the world’s detritus energies – energies I may have accumulated form elsewhere, bad energies I may be carrying with me, foul energies I may have generated myself. After a few minutes Kal came over to chat and absent-mindedly I wandered off with him. “Have you finished?” he asked. “Could you check for me?” I asked, seeing as he had his rods handy. NO – not finished! I went back into the Sanctuary with a wry smile – it was worth a try, but this was one aspect of the energies that I wasn’t feeling – I had no idea when I had finished with the cleansing process.

Castlerigg at Spring Equinox - view of The Sanctuary

Luckily we pretty much had the circle to ourselves early on, but by the time I had emerged from the Sanctuary there were people milling around and observing our antics. I now moved to a place that I felt was my empowering 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. (as opposed to a cleansing one – two types: filling or emptying, draining or empowering, cleansing or energising – any of those diametric concepts will suffice). Again I felt I should face West and I brought my incense sticks with me. I also laid out the one set of crystals that I had brought with me from the car – my protection set, but this set also doubled up as the set that I used to align to significant stars to attune to their energies. You’ll see how this comes into play in a moment.

I placed the five stones around me in my usual protection configuration, with the pillar quartz stone pointing West – the direction that felt right. I set an intention of being guided successfully on my quest today, and for enough energy to get through what was likely to be a long and arduous day of physical, mental and spiritual effort. In my mind two spiralling strands of thick energy (they used to be thin, now they’re fatter – aren’t we all?) coursed up through my body to reach to the sun, moon and then back down into the earth’s core. I remarked to myself how much thicker these energy lines were than the last time I had performed this meditation. Progress? This went on for about five minutes until I brought the energies “to heel” and created a sphere of protective energy centred on myself. I was sparkling with effervescent “aliveness” and jumped up refreshed and smiling. All psychosomatic, of course. I felt I had created a protective shell that would see me through my work this day, and also recharged my batteries, as it were.

Kal had been sitting directly opposite me in the circle, which we thought was notable given that this was Spring Equinox and the Sun and Moon were in exact opposition today. I also felt as though I had been facing West for a reason, so I asked the dowsing rods whether this stone circle was aligned to a particular constellation? YES. I then asked them to point to the constellation – they pointed West, in the direction I had been facing. Was the constellation visible now? YES. I used StarWalk to find some possibilities, but there was one obvious one staring me in the face – Serpens. Now, this opens up a whole facet of synchronicity. Let me explain.

The quartz pillar of my crystal layout had been focused on the constellation Serpens - the Serpent. As I did that my meditation has taken for the form of strong twin energies boosting my inner serpents – my twin coils of energy – my inner double helix. Not only that, but the constellation Hercules (Ophiuchus), the solar hero, is seen wrestling Antaeus (Serpens), the sea snake in the ancient depictions of the two neighbouring constellations. This is the old ritual of the Summer King battling with the Winter King (The Oak King and the Holly King) and on this Spring Equinox day they were in complete deadlock with the Oak King on the verge of achieving ascendancy. Interesting that this day my crystal layout was aligned to exactly that constellation, the very one which astrologically symbolised the Equinox point! Honestly, this stuff writes itself sometimes.

Castlerigg at Spring Equinox - layout

So there were three primary themes emerging from this work:-

1. Forces in opposition creating energy – the astrological Hercules and Typhos, the equinoctal Sun and Moon, the druidical Kal and Gwas
2. The double helix and the serpent energies, and their link to our human physiology – feeling empowered, cleansed, alive.
3. The stone circle being aligned to a constellation that was suited to the time of the year. Does this mean that all stone circles change their star alignments over the course of the year?

Gwas

On our Llangollen day out the furthest point away from home was close to one of our favourite circles, Moel-Ty-Uchaf, but this day we were not going to climb up the incredibly steep track to that circle. This day we were parking mere feet away from the entrance to the circle called Tyfos.

The Legend and Symbolism of Typhon/Tyfos

The stone circle is named after one of the many names for the god Typhon- the great snake of Greek mythology that Hercules is destined to wrestle into submission. We see here the replaying of the battle between the God of the Sun (Hercules – the ultimate solar hero) and the God of the Moon (Typhon – the ultimate lunar god).

On the subject of Typhon being associated with the lunar aspects – the professor of astronomy Gerald Hawkins recognised that the 56 holes that Aubrey had identified around Stonehenge represented a method of plotting the lunar cycles over long periods of time:

“Hawkins argued that the Aubrey Holes were used to keep track of this long time period and could accurately predict the recurrence of a lunar eclipse on the same azimuth, that which aligned with the Heel Stone, every 56 years.

On astronomical symbolism several analysts from Gerald Hawkins to Anthony Johnson (ref. 3 ; pages 259-260) have noted that Plutarch ( in the Moralia, V) reported that Typhon / Seth in Egyptian and Greek myth was identified as the shadow of the Earth which covers the Moon during lunar eclipses. Plutarch further records that the Pythagoreans symbolically associated Typhon with a polygon of 56 sides. The connection of 56 to lunar eclipses is explicit.” (source: Wikipedia and Stonehenge Decoded)

What could Tyfos be a symbol of? The snake image seemed to hint at the earth energies, always described as serpents, later to become demonised by western cultures such as the Romans or Greeks and then on through the advent of Christianity. Also, we find that Typhos is a giant too. Again, the connection between the supposed construction of some of these megalithic sites by giants, or by people of ‘great stature’, if we can put it that way.

How can we therefore reconcile this mythological information with the information that we gained when we were there? One of the first things I did when I got on site was to check the astrological 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. of the circle. It was not aligned to any star except our own – The Sun. The site was solar-aligned and filled with solar energy. The only power centres that we found were three joined male centres – sun-aligned energy forms. If Tyfos was a lunar god, why was the site now solar aligned? One theory could be that the site was transformed. or re-aligned, maybe even rebuilt to reflect the “new” god of the Sun – to wrestle the power from the older Moon god. Pure speculation – I don’t have any evidence for this. Only archaeology or archaeological dowsing would find good evidence for such an idea.

Our visit

Kal seemingly picked the site at random because it sounded nice, but now he feels there is more to it than that. I will leave him to explain that aspect, but for me the Tyfos visit was a purely practical encounter with the energies. Once we had obtained permission to visit the site (easily done – the guy was very nice) we set about tracing the energies. I found one problem line which permeated the circle and when I dowsed for the source I was led back towards the house. Not wanting to appear rude I didn’t go all the way up to the house, but my intuition was that this was the source of this unhelpful and unhappy energy leaking into or being attracted into the stone circle.

Tyfos circle and nearby house

I asked if I could do anything about blocking or healing this energy and found that I could. Well, that’s all well and good but SHOULD I re-balance these energies? Could it be done without having any detrimental effects anywhere else that this site was linked to? The answer was a strong YES. Then clearly I should do what I could. To re-balance the energies I would need to re-balance the energies. How does one re-balance a male-dominated site? By introducing some female energies of course! But where from? As I asked the question I looked up slightly to scan the surroundings and found that I was already starting at a tall evergreen yew tree that was growing healthy and proud in the corner of the house’s garden bordering the field containing the stone circle. This tree would be the source of the female energy.

I wasn’t happy just to begin linking up to it – firstly I had to approach the tree to ask for help. Kal and I wandered over to see if the tree would agree to this idea. Surprisingly almost immediately we both got a pleasant positive feel from the tree and agreed we had the go-ahead signs to continue our work.

A helpful tree at Tyfos circle

I lit some sandlewood incense in the increasingly strong and cold wind, and placed three sticks at specific places where the dowsing rods indicated I should. Almost the moment they were placed and the tree was invited to let its energies flow into the circle Kal was dowsing a zig-zag flow of energy back into the stones that formed the low-lying circle. I followed his dowsing up by doing the same – dowsing back from the yew tree to the circle and I got the same Z-form path from incense stick to stick until the line ended at the very stone that Kal had placed his water bottle on top of. More than a coincidence, I felt. Female energy <- > water. This was the stone that Kal had intuited would be the best place to charge up his water bottle when he first arrived.

View across Tyfos

With the job done and the sun creeping lower and giving off less warmth than we would have liked we dowsed if our job was complete – it was. Time to retreat to the car and get ourselves warmed up ready for the next few sites of that day. As we left we discussed the coincidences that had arisen, and the way in which Kal had felt he was called, nay directed, to do particular tasks that had all turned out to contribute to this re-balancing work here at this stone circle. Sometimes it is difficult to gauge just how much our own free will is involved in these processes, but that’s a philosophical conundrum – for now we had done good work and were proud of our invisible mending.

Gwas.

After our visit to the Church of St Mael and St Sulien (Sun God) our next stop was a sacred circle that we had looked for in the past without success, Tyfos. I picked it because I liked the name. It just jumped out at me. Fortunately with the techno-mage additions to our tools (namely iPhone) we managed to find it without a problem. In fact its access rating was a piece of cake, right next to a road. But in the garden/field of a house. Luckily the farmer was out in the car park and we were granted permission to enter and investigate.

I recall a long time agowe dowsed whether stone size mattered and found that it didn’t. Still the stature of these stones didn’t impress me and the feel of the energy there seemed very weak. After the usual preliminaries of power centres and energy paths we found that the site was in need of healing.

On a side note: The weather had got a bit frosty and just as I got out of the car I reached into the back seat to pick up the bottle of fresh water I bought, even as I lifted it my mind was saying “You’re not going to drink that, so why are you taking it?” but I still brought it with me.

Since I had the water with me I dowsed where to place it to be energised and it ended up on one of the stones. A randomly placed bottle of water we might say. Gwas and I determined that the site was in need of some Moon aligned energy. We also found that we could draw some energy from a tree in the adjacent field. Gwas will go into the details of how we did this but I would like to mention that the I dowsed to see where he energy out of the tree would go and found that after a bit of a wander it ended up at the place where I had put the water.

Curious? I wondered whether I had placed the water there for this very reason and the rods supplied a “Yes” answer. Really? But how did I know to place it there? This could only have been done in hindsight i.e. I (or something) must have know that we would be doing some healing and thus had made me place the water there. Very curious.

After we had completed the healing I asked whether I could take the water back and the answer was yes, so I did. I then wondered whether the new female energy lineThe direction energy takes when moving. It may be straight or curved, in several dimensions and be composed of one or more different types of energies, i.e. negative, positive or neutral. Energy lines can be found at standing stones and ancient sites but are a general feature in all energy fields. had moved. I checked and found that the line had moved to an adjacent stone which had a pool of water on it! In a one way it makes sense water after all is a Moon aligned element.

As we walked away from Tyfos, Gwas and I discussed the implications of the seemingly future prediction we had just witnessed. The bigger question arose…”Was I brought to the site because it needed healing?” I was loath to ask the question, having a good sense of self-determination. Eventually though the need to know overwhelmed the fear of the answer. So I asked:

• Did I place the water so that it could be used later to heal the site?Yes
• Did I choose the site at random? No
• Was I called to the site because it needed healing? Yes
• Was I directed? Yes

I have as yet to learn what to make of this,

Kal Malik – musing on being directed

Due to the “freak” weather in England (we had a slight bit of snow – the kind that Canadians laugh at) I was unable to get back from Canada as planned. My plan was to return before the Winter Solstice so that I could spend that day going out to a sacred site, communingAn interaction with an invisible and natural sentient force that is independently identifiable, even if it cannot be named or classified. The interaction takes place at the level of a subtle amalgamation of the mind of the perceiver such that a dialogue or transference of feelings may occur between the two sentient parties. The interaction that is ‘communing’ is purposefully initiated by the perceiver for the express purpose of learning or simply to transfer feelings in a sympathetic manner. with my favourite ancient yew tree, and getting some guidance on the activities for the next part of the Wheel of the Year. All that was scuppered by a few inches of snow at the major European airports and so I was delayed by several days. I could have been far worse, and apparently was for many people, so I accepted our lot and bunkered into the Calgary airport hotel at the expense of the Dutch airline KLM. Thanks KLM – you did a great job.

This opened an opportunity up for me that I hadn’t realised, though. It was widely reported in the Canadian media that there would be a lunar eclipse on the night of the 20th December, going into the 21st. This was an opportunity not the be missed, and despite the fact that I would be flying for 11 hours the next morning at 4:30am I decided I could sleep on the plane instead of miss this great celestial display.

Whilst my wife slept (sensibly) I stood alone outside the Delta Hotel at Calgary Airport at 11:30pm waiting for something to happen. As I stood there several things came to mind in that quiet (quiet? aircraft were taking off left, right and centre!) space as I waited…

1. It was the first total lunar eclipse on a Winter Solstice for over 450 years
2. It was the Winter Solstice when the eclipse would occur – a special day in my calendar and a day of special energies
3. The moon would be full when the eclipse occurred – a prefect time for a magickal encounter

I began to take pictures at ten minute intervals in order to capture the event in a sequence. Here are the pictures from that night:-

Sequence of solstice lunar eclipse

Click here for a time-lapse video of the event.

As the eclipse unfolded, one of the chefs from the hotel came out occasionally to join me. He introduced himself as Davide, a French ex-patriot who now lived in Canada and we chatted in the minus 20 degree night air. I explained the significance of the phenomenon to Davide, and he began to get increasingly excited as I explained the trinity of alignments: date, full moon, and eclipse.

When he couldn’t stand the coldness any longer (I was dressed for it – he was in his kitchen whites) I was once again alone to ponder the event as it reached its dark climax. I called upon my spirit guide to see whether anything could be revealed about what actions I should take in the next part of the year, fully expecting a message along the lines of “Take a rest now, consolidate the year’s work, and don’t do anything until Imbolc.” That wasn’t the message I got!

In my head I heard the phrase “Celebrate Death“. Perhaps this was in response to the “death” of Winter and the moon that night? On my return home this message would be hammered home in two significant ways.  Firstly there was a note form my father-in-law who had been minding our house during our absence: our dear old neighbour Dolly had passed away a few days before the solstice. I also noticed that the old beech tree that had been standing at the end of our neighbour’s drive and which gave us such resplendent view through the seasons had been cut down! Nothing now remained but a stump. I’ll tell you more about how that came about soon in another post, but needless to say, although we knew it might happen it was as shocking as any human death to me.

So I can see now how this Winter Solstice event was symbolic of Death – the death of The Moon and the death of the Year 2010. I was being asked not to mourn for the deaths that had occurred, but instead to celebrate them. This is what I did on my next visit to a sacred site, but I also found out that my quest was not what I thought it was, and that the celebration was to be a one-off, not part of the Wheel of the Year after all. More on that soon.

Gwas.