The Hedge Druid

Posts Tagged ‘natural magick’

I have held back from posting this particular account for a number of reasons. There are some visits that Kal and I do whose purpose is not to dowse for information – sometimes that is a secondary approach. Some visits are more personal than others too, and some more sensitive, or even unbelievable. We have begun this year, as you may have noticed, to study some of the more esoteric aspects of earth and cosmic energy, for want of better terms. I have labelled this approach: “druidry” or “energy work”. Kal, of course, has his own labels for it: “meditation” or “spirit work”. People from different backgrounds with different intentions would read this how they may. So be it. I return to my primary purpose for writing this blog: as a source for me to record and recall the amazing spiritual journey I have begun – a path that I call Druidry, and am proud to do so. The Yew Stage of my learning process is all about discovery of what matters, and its tramsformation into useful and purposeful work. If I can get something out of it, so can those who may also read this work.

So, this post is about a trip one evening in late summer (very late summer) to visit The Llangernw Yew. This amazing tree is said to be over 4000 years old, possibly as much as 5000. Think about that for a second – that means that this tree has seen pretty much all of what we would consider to be human recorded history! It is a truly amazing tree. Here’s a picture of the magnificent yew, straight from the Wikipedia page dedicate exclusively to it:-

The Llangernyw Yew

It goes without saying that this tree was growing into maturity well before the advent of our currently waning Piscean religion known as Christianity. The undoubted earlier spiritual history is nowhere mentioned or speculated upon in the text of the little plaques and signs around the churchyard. Well, this is not something that over the last few years brings me much surprise any more. Christians are obsessive about stamping their own impression upon a site to the exclusion of all else in my experience. That is the way of the “one true” religion. At least, in this case, the presence of the new place of worship has ensured the preservation of the much older tree. Here’s an example of the information you can expect:

You see – the ancient monoliths mark the grave site of an early Christian! Now you know.Matter settled.  Before Christ, you say? Pah!

Anyway – polemic aside – we started dowsing for the aura of this magnificent tree. It was some fifty feet from its trunk, and covered the little porch that was the main entrance to the small church. I think it must have been reaching out to touch the letter that David Bellamy had written about the yew and which was posted inside the porch. He’s an unusual character now sadly absent from our TV screens who has actually written a book about yews; or rather, more a conversation with one. How appropriate that turned out to be in retrospect!! He’s also got an interesting explanation of the work of Viktor Schauberger who studies nature’s energies.

Speaking to Yew

Whilst Kal milled around the site I knew what I was here for: I wanted to see what the famous yew had to say for itself. I hd been putting off trying to commune with yew trees because of their reputation. An earlier experience with in Rhosesmor had prepared me somewhat for the type of agenda that comes with yew trees: death, rebirth, transformation. Sometimes you’re in the mood to handle that kind of conversation, and at other times you aren’t. I knew for a fact that Kal was in a delicate state, as this was the first time he’d been on an outing for a while since his mother passed away. I understood he had his own healing work to do, and that the yew tree may not figure in that, so I went alone.

There was none of the usual foreboding as I approached the great tree. Of course I asked permission to enter its expansive canopy, and I showed the utmost respect for it. I asked the dowsing rods for the best location so sit, and they took me to a well-worn low u-shaped branch. I could see I wasn’t the first to spend time here! I dowsed for places to put the five crystals I had brought with me. Looking back I think that was unnecessary, but it helped me relax to be protected from external interference at this new site. I relaxed and blended my senses into the tree, its huge canopy, and the surrounding noises of the village of Llangernyw. I used the remaining sunlight as my focal point as it dappled through the low branches in just the way I liked for these occasions. Soon I was unaware of myself except as a space to think.

I slowly became aware of an urge to communicate, so I let a thought emerge, a thought to make contact with the tree. I have learned patience over the last few years, and let the response come slowly slowly, until an Other voice joined my own in my head. A conversation began, during which I asked to be shown a vision that would help me with my work. The result came slowly, but once it started it was quite powerful. In my vision I was lifted up, as though on the shoulders of the yew, and shown an ariel view of the churchyard. I could see all of the lines of energy flowing from the tree and through the church. The church itself disappeared as though it had never been there, and what remained was just the yew tree and some geometric collection of something on the other side of the church, which I hadn’t yet visited. There was more, but I don’t recall it clearly enough to reliably re-tell, so I won’t go on. It felt like an out of body experience, and the nicest flying experience I can remember, floating lazily and in the gentle cushion of the yew’s energy field.

Of course, the first thing I did, after thanking the yew of course, was to grab my rods and begin to dowse around the tree. I picked up a strong line connecting the yew to the church, but intersecting the church at an odd angle. Like I say, it was as if the line was there before the church, ans I raced around the other side to see what was there. What was there? Only a raised tombstone surrounded by a couple of old standing stones! This, I dowsed, was the terminus point of the 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. going through the church. Now THAT’S a vision, I thought! Where you see things in your mind that turn out to actually be there, although to be honest I didn’t see the stones, only a blurry end point where the energy congregated, but nevertheless, it bowled me over somewhat, and I went off to tell Kal all about it whilst it was fresh in my mind.

The Shaky Hand of Fear?

Kal seemed busy down in the lower graveyard – a long rectangular graveyard packed with headstones and with a rectangular path all around it. I decided to leave him for now, and to take some photographs for the blog. The strange thing is, when I pointed the camera anywhere near the yew tree and check the picture – they were blurred! I couldn’t seem to steady my hand at all. I took, re-took, took again – all blurred. I wondered if my eyes were going funny! I deleted the blurry ones, and became increasingly static and poised as I braced my arm, my hand, breathed out – every trick I knew to get a clear photo. I think I got ONE (the one above) and even that’s not very good. Here’s an example of the blurry photos that I thought were OK on the day:

This is, I have found this is not a one-off happenstance. When I take pictures of some trees, the stronger their aura the more blurred the photograph! I remember taking and deleting loads of pictures to try to get at least a few good ones, then when I got back to inspect the ones I thought were OK – they were almost all blurred. I’m sure this is more a reflection of what a rank amateur I am with a camera than anything else, but I must say it’s another of those odd coincidences, as it seems to happen a great deal with highly energetic places, and especially old trees. It happened to me in the Forest of Dean a few months ago too. Very odd. It’s such a shame too, because I thought I had taken some great shots of the full moon peeking out from beneath the canopy of the tree – all blurred beyond recognition! The ambiance of the churchyard would have been properly conveyed had they been publishable. Ah well, the memory will have to remain locked in my head.

The Moonlight Spotlight

The sun had dipped behind the trees. I went to catch up with Kal and hear his tales, and they were more interesting than mine, even! I was more amazed at his capacity to delve into himself when most people would simply want to be alone and undisturbed, superficial even. Not Kal!

I showed him the hidden side of the church as the moon began to dominate the sky with its light. I followed the dowsing rods around the church asking to be taken to the first 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 ‘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. they could find. They found several, all linked with each other, and at significant “features” in the ground, such as a small bump, a faerie ring of grass, around a standing stone, the raised grave, and between two pillar stones next to the church’s southern wall.

I placed my crystals around the small power centre that the rods had identified as being aligned with my own energies, and faced the moon. By one of those unbelievable coincidences the moonlight formed a spotlight through the trees as two clouds parted at just that moment, and the light shone directly into my face and formed a circle the exact same size as the power centre I had just dowsed. I know – even I could barely believe it. Everything felt right, so I stayed their a while feeling the energies bubble up from the earth and into my inner core, powering me, cleansing me, making me feel light-headed and “spacey”.

When I felt the time was right I moved to the two upright pillars next to the church. I dowsed quickly to determine what this feature was that had attracted my heightened attention. The answer that I eventually hit upon was some kind of energetic barrier, that, if triggered, could take me from one world into another. Sometimes the right questions just pop into your head and the rods respond. Tonight in particular, with the full moon, the rods were swinging strongly and clearly, and my intuition was highly tuned.

I placed crystals around me to enhance the energies and stepped up to the space between the two stone pillars. I could feel the energy pulling me, and I knew I could walk forward and something would happen, but I was afraid of what that was, so I didn’t enter. Sorry. I just felt slightly wary of it, wary enough not to go fully into it. Instead I leaned forwards to see what would happen if only my head passed the stones. As my head moved past them I could feel my thoughts being pulled into the church wall, my attention being thrust through the wall and out to the tree, but again I panicked and pulled back. I wasn’t ready for this yet. Soon, but not now.

 With that I removed the crystals, and went back to the power centre to discharge and cleanse myself. I was sure that something amazing would have happened, but this wasn’t the right time to do it. One day soon I will go back and be ready for it. I’m sure that one day Kal will also tell his side of the story, but again – when he’s ready. This stuff take time to assimilate sometimes before it’s ready to come out or be relived.

Them Skulls and Them Bones

A final note: there were masonic or Templar symbols similar to those I have found at Glamis churchyard (see the Gallery page) carved onto the raised tomb that is surrounded by the standing stones. This only goes to strengthen my feeling that this elite brotherhood knew a lot more about the concepts of nature’s energy, energy lines, position and empowerment than they are currently credited with. Of course, that is pure speculation, as so much is when there are few solid known facts about this shadowy organisation and its past. Certainly, I don’t think the use of that knowledge is much in evidence today:  the organisation seems to be more about money and political power now, than esoteric knowledge. The knowledge is being built back up though, by we erstwhile dowsers and energy workers. A picture, however fragmented and hazy, is beginning to emerge of the veneration of place, the importance of symbols and the alignment of sites that characterise the old Templar, and now masonic buildings. A quick search of the web sites dedicated to understanding the significance of the most obvious of the remainders of esoteric knowledge - the Rosslyn Chapel - will lead you down all sorts of interesting blind alleyways of research. Therein you will find reference to King Solomon and the Temple of Solomon, the Freemasons, the Green Man and paganism, and all sorts of modern mystery and myth. I prefer to go back to the source: these people were venerating Nature, and they worked with sacred number and geometry to fashion places that promote power. The rest is embroidery.

There are some great pictures available from The Modern Antiquarian site concerning this yew and the two standing stones that are hidden behind the church : http://www.themodernantiquarian.com/site/6996/llangernyw_yew_and_standing_stones.html. No-one seems to know anything about them, but for me the dowsing showed that the stones were in their original position, and that other nearby standing stones, placed there at a much later date, formed an energetic gateway – a portal through to the Otherworld. Certainly enough there to keep the curious person busy, that’s for sure.

Gwas.

Dancing in the moonlight.

I need to preface this post a little. Up until last year I didn’t believe in the whole invisible landscape of energies, ghosts, spirits, thought-forms, visualisation, magick, and especially astrology. I had no interest in physics, mathematics, history, astrology, any of the sciences really. Since I started on this journey through dowsing I have had to reluctantly grapple with almost all of these subjects in some depth since then, even though it has been a monumental struggle, and only rarely pleasurable. Nevertheless, an understanding of the nature of the energies at sacred sites, I felt, warranted a bit of effort on my part, so I have learned what I needed to, and been carried where my dowsing and questioning has taken me.

Someone who is very energetic told me recently that they had seen a presence, a white light, glinting near me. This was not the first time it had been seen (several times in late February 2009), but after having witnessed it several times they decided to mention it to me. It was at what can only be described as one of the most incongruous moments that everything stopped, the light was pointed out, and I was left to think about what had just been said in a somewhat bemused state!

“I have a white light that appears behind me?” I queried. “Where behind me?” I was shown a spot about six feet behind my left shoulder and a few feet out – in my blind spot that occurs just beyond my peripheral vision. It was the kind of place that you see shadows from when you’re out at night, so I am familiar with that position (and you can read about that in my post called ‘Alone in the Dark – Part 2‘). I remarked that the distance at which this light was supposed to appear was about the extent of my nemeton field. I made very few further enquiries, vowing to pursue it further once I got home.

At home I dowsed it to find out what was going on. Here are the results of my first round of questioning:-

1. Was this person right about there being a presence behind me? – YES
2. Is this presence attached to me? – YES
3. Is this presence benificent? – YES
4. Is the presence a living entity? – YES. Not sure if that nailed down whether it was a dead spirit, so…
5. Was it once a living human? – NO
6. Has it always been with me throughout my life? – NO
7. Is it with me now? – YES
8. Can I learn to communicate with it? – YES
9. Would communicating together benefit us both? – YES

Now I was curious. The line of questioning was beginning to go beyond its existence, or its presence, and to move towards finding out how I get in touch with it. I wanted to know a little more before I started anything off.

1. Has this presence manifested as part of the work I am doing? – YES
2. Is it here to help me with my work? – YES
3. Is it a spirit similar to that described by many authors as a spirit guide? – NO
4. Does it have a name? – Maybe (the rods slowly twitched together without much force, indicating a so-so answer, or an ambiguous question that could have many answers).
5. Do I need to know this presence by name in order to work with it? – NO
6. Is it ready to communicate with me? – YES

Right then. I was ready to speak to it too. I decided to write this up while I remembered the answers, and then began my meditation….but I fell asleep every time I tried to connect to it! It seemed to want to communicate tio me in a sleep state, but I had too many questions that needed answering first! Energy levels too low to connect any other way, I reverted to dowsing.

So, Round 3.  Another twenty questions:

1. Is this presence still around me? – YES
2. Is it in the same position on my nemeton? – NO, now due West of me, on left hand side.
3. Is its placement relevant to communicating with it? – YES, now more difficult to do in its current position.
4. Is the source of this white light from a specific celestial body? – YES
5. Is it a planet – a star – a sun – a moon? – PLANET, and STAR. More recognised as a planet. Aha!
6. Is it from a star that is only visible for me at particular times of the year? – YES
7. Is the star Venus? – YES
8. Is the purpose of it being around me so I can learn? love? live? – LOVE and LIVE
9. Is there a sacred site in the UK that is dedicated to the form of this energy? – YES, lots of them. All of them? NO.
10. Can it assist me in removing geopathic stresses? – NO
11. Do I need to do something specific to invoke its powers? – YES
12. Can I command this presence by voicing an intention? – NO
13. Can I call upon this presence to help me? – NO
14. Is this presence commanded using crystals/thoughts alone/intention/will power/harmony/co-operation/questioning/reasoning/pleading/prayer? – CRYSTALS, INTENTION, QUESTIONING, PRAYER
15. Is it empowered by particular times of the year/month/day? – YES to all three. 8th-9th March 2009 is strongest, also between MIDNIGHT-SUNRISE, and influence is from FEBRUARY-APRIL.
16. Is this presence protective / healing / empowering / informative / other? -  HEALING, EMPOWERING, INFORMATIVE.
17. Does this presence have a human form? Can it take one? – NO, and NO.
18. Can the presence be connected to by my manifestations, or by a natural source? – BOTH
19. Is this presence linked to anyone I know who works with energy? – NO
20. Is the position of the presence related to Venus’s position in the sky? – YES

You may notice that I quickly formulated questions relating to celestial bodies, and included stars and planets? For the last month I have been driving home from work in the early evening, looking at the shapes of the trees as they silhouetted against the deep blue evening sky. It’s only the last few weeks that I’ve noticed that all the way home, right in front of me in the sky, repeatedly drawing my attention, has been a bright star. I wonder which one that is?

Off I go to the internet to find out about Venus – who she is, where she is, when she’s in conjunction, or at her zenith….

MARCH 8th 2009: VENUS goes retrograde

From the pompously titled but nevertheless informative “The Psychic One” web site:

“The Venus Retrograde (March 6, 2009-April 16, 2009)

This retrograde deserves a page on it’s own because of the powerful effects this one planet can create. I know one of your main concerns when calling me is about love, romance, friendships, and money. Well this planet effects all these subjects. When we think of a Mercury retrograde we think , schedules, transportation, computers and how we think. When Venus retrogrades it can stir up more drama then what Mercury and all the other planets combined when they go retrograde.”

Question 21. Is this presence’s power at its peak when Venus goes retrograde in motion? – YES.

Venus as seen from Berlin Feb – Mar 09

MARCH 8th 2009:  SATURN is in opposition (opposite side of Sun)

From NASA JPL site:

“March 2009:
Saturn is at opposition on March 8th. It rises at sunset, transits at midnight (at its highest elevation, best time for telescopic views) and sets at sunrise. Saturn’s ring tilt opens to 2.3 degrees this month, and the planet is closest to Earth and therefore brighter.”

If there’s two things I hate it’s beetroot, coleslaw and astrology. OK, that’s three, but if you only count foodstuffs as one category I can get away with it. Seriously, I don’t do astrology, or even astronomy at that. I have one book about constellations, and it’s a small reference book for idiots like me who don’t understand these things, or refuse to look into them deeply enough. So – Venus goes retrograde on March 8th, and Saturn is in opposition. ??? Apparently, it’s a time for relationship strife, for not buying a new wardrobe or house, and Saturn is swinging by for a closer look at us. ???

Here’s another prediction from Alan Oken (cheque book open):

“March 8: Mars conjunct Neptune at 24.50 Aquarius.
This is not one of my favorite aspects as it brings out the influence of the Sixth Ray very strongly. This augments astral currents and is very much an influence of the urge to martyrdom, i.e. suicide bombings and other acts of violence in the name of religion and devotion to idealistic doctrines. If this aspect is in close contact with your natal chart, take care that you do not give up your sense of personal power for the sake of yielding to someone else’s needs or demands. Addictions flourish under this contact.

March 8: Mercury also enters Pisces on this day, further diminishing rational communications. In addition, the Sun opposes Saturn at 18.23 Virgo/Pisces, an aspect that opposes authority and challenges social order.”

Believe me when I say I’m not about to get sucked into this particular black hole that is astrology/astronomy. Yes, it would appear there is some celestial significance to sacred sites, and to times of particular energy fluctuations brought about directly by the conjunctions of astral bodies. However, it’s a long and winding path to understand the heavens, and I’m not sure I need to just yet. I’m going to sit back and watch what happens around those dates, maybe dowse a bit, and report back. It seems as though there’s something specific I need to be doing. Now I need to find out what that is before March 8th.

Gwas.

Following the Evening Star

Do you know your Odins from your Wodens? Do you know St.George from St.Michael? Does it really matter? The more research I do, and the more thought I give it, the more it all leads me further back along a reducing scale until I reach The One Other. The further you stretch towards the divine, the fewer in number the form of the concept becomes.

I have been trying to understand people’s fascinations with the concept of a pantheon of gods, a hierarchy of spirit. It makes sense to me as a network of ever-more powerful forces. I can deal with it as a range of energetic entities that have qualities of size, form, sense and intelligence. An intelligence that has a range of influence, and therefore engendered within it a sense of power, of strength. That is how I have come to picture the energies that I have dowsed and dealt with, in the sense that I have traded energy and thoughts with Nature’s own. When I work with Nature it has not been necessary for me to do anything other than make a connection. No need to specify to whom, or to what, or to implore the help or attentions of anyone of anything in particular. Simply to extend the wish to connect to something real and alive – some natural element such as fire, sun, moon, air, water, earth. Other sentient beings such as trees, or animals.

It is not necessary to invoke a huge and intricate pantheon of gods in order to work with energy and perform acts of Natural MagickThis is a system of belief that is often defined as being the appropriation and re-use of naturally occurring forces for the purposes of healing, transformation, communication, or a host of other subtle effects. The natural elements of the magick can also be seen by the under-pinning concept that the use of these forces should be co-operative rather than coercive.. The pantheon is only a guide to the various possibilities of working with energy. In a way they personify the aspects of life that can be affected by energy, and we relate to them more readily in the form of a character from an old story, a film or a book. The range of the divine goes all the way from one to as many as we can feasibly hold in our heads or in our culture.

Worship of The Gods

Whether you work with a single concept of natural power, or with a very specific aspect of Nature in the form of a small god, a faerie or a ghost – you are still working with the same intelligent entity. It simply conjures up images of itself in whatever form we imagine, however we are capable of understanding it at that time. Is there value in working with a specific aspect of Nature? In the same way that communicating with a single person can enlighten you, then the answer is ‘Yes’. The question, however, would need to be very specific, or your request to work with it would need to be sure that this one entity had the power to help you.

Simply tuning your request to find a sympathetic connection is a more efficient way of working, though. The response will be felt intuitively, and can be easily discerned. As the Internet does, scanning for connections from the totality of possibility with a well-formed query allows the entire pool of creative connectivity to be browsed.

Some people spend what must be a great deal of time gorging themselves on the myths of ancient and modern times. It is all too easy to get pulled into the stories of the Little People, Arthurian Legend, the Gods of Greece and Rome, and to have those myths offered to us in mesmerising media that require little thought to digest. A feast for the eyes and the mind, but your own stories need to be told. “Time waits for no man” to pull himself out of his stupour and cleanse his third eye of the grime that has accumulated.

I don’t dismiss the value of a story that interweaves a tradition that symbolises a living wisdom – rites of all types are our means of communicating between ourselves about the Mysteries. Of course they should be upheld, encouraged, re-discovered, enjoyed again and again for their worth. But there is another side to the myths. They have embedded within them tales of the possibilities that can be explored. And it is to this that we must draw our attentions.

A narrowing of focus. An opening up to the wealth of possibility. A keen eye and a goal. A Hedge Druid’s meditation.

If you remember, I had got to the end of a good day’s dowsing with Kal and was parked ready to walk to another site when I realised that I had forgotten my staff. I slightly panicked, but quickly quelled it. Oh la merde. Where had I left it? A quick flick through recent stopping points…at the caves above Dyserth Waterfall. I had put it into one of the adjoining cave mouths and I remembered thinking, “Don’t leave that here or someone will take it for definite.” I wouldn’t do that. I wanted fizzy pop and ginger beer, and the sun was shining. What could possibly go wrong? It doesn’t matter how many horror films you watch, the human mind has an incredible happiness-overrides-sense-of-impending-doom capability.

We could go back for it after we had finished looking for the Golden Grove. Right. What to do in the meantime so that I didn’t have it dominate my thoughts and block any dowsing potential? I would try to connect to the staff and protect it somehow. I had no idea how, but I went with whatever would come to mind. I relaxed and prepared my mind for a moment to have a think. As my brain waves altered I unfocused my eyes and imagined the staff. I could picture it clearly where I had left it. It was like looking at a cartoon of it, a photo-realistic cartoon, like the imagery in the film “A Scanner Darkly“, if you’ve seen that. I saw it bathed in a light blue glow from top to bottom, a Ready-Brek glow. The fact that I could see it so clearly, and that it was ‘alive’ with energy made me feel confident about the next bit.

Staff Leaving Place

I focused my attention on the staff, saying to it that if anyone picked it up they would find that it made their head spin, and that this feeling would make them feel a bit sick, like taking a corner too fast in a car. They wouldn’t be able to hold their attention and would feel compelled to drop the stick to stop the feeling. I could feel that feeling, and although it was a bit nauseating it wasn’t too unpleasant – just unpleasant enough. It felt alright to do this, if slightly awkward about the need to do it. I hoped no-one had found it since we had left a half-hour ago.

An hour later Kal dropped me off in a narrow steep and muddy lane as I attempted to find a quick route back to the top of the waterfall. I found a path across the fields on the top of the waterfall and made my way down its steep clay slope until I found the caves again from above. I rushed straight to the lunchtime spot …. no staff. It had gone. What now? I stopped to calm down. “It was just a stick. You can go get another one.” I wasn’t prepared to let it go that easily. I walked around by the river to the other cave entrance for a look. Around the corner, there it was, lying with other much smaller sticks, looking intact. I stopped before it and laughed.

Staff Finding Place

I didn’t know what to say so I didn’t say anything. After all, this is all nonsense and coincidence. You make of it what you will at the time. I picked up my staff and almost pole-vaulted myself back to Kal’s car in a proud and happy moment that rescued the day for me. Something had returned my staff to me. Our adventure continues.

Theory: Over the next few days I considered how this kind of thing came about. What I resolved was that an opportunity arose in the form of an event in time that revealed a potential for me to effect change. Once I had decided, or believed, that I could generate a protective thought-form around the staff, once I had that intention that grew out of concern, then the visualisation of that event emerged in my mind. Powered by a measured flow of loving vibes this protection seems to have been enacted upon the staff such that it did indeed have a shield around it, and this may have caused the person who took it to drop it rather shortly afterwards, leaving the staff in plain sight next to the river. Whether that did indeed happen is sort of irrelevant, because the outcome was the desired effect.

Apparently our brains are programmed to quickly establish cause and effect relationships, although whether they were always so is another matter. This is not the first time I have noticed that acts of natural magickThis is a system of belief that is often defined as being the appropriation and re-use of naturally occurring forces for the purposes of healing, transformation, communication, or a host of other subtle effects. The natural elements of the magick can also be seen by the under-pinning concept that the use of these forces should be co-operative rather than coercive. work most effectively providing the conditions are right. Such conditions as I have uncovered I will list:-

• Intention must be honest, if only to yourself
• The desired effect cannot be commanded, it must be negotiated, or asked for respectfully
• To contrive a circumstance in order to display an effect will guarantee failure, if not abject humiliation
• Your abilities are limited by your desire to learn, and the depth to which you can form a trusting relationship with Nature
• A degree of humility is required to execute natural magick, and smugness at a positive outcome will garner no respect.
• Conviction and sincerity make the relationship stronger, and the outcome more defined. Leave your intention fuzzy and a fuzzy event will occur which only partially fulfills the intended result.
• Results come when they should be delivered, not when you want them to be. Again, tied to the concept that the forces of Natural Magick will not be ordered around. They may co-operate under the right circumstances, but take offense at being expected to deliver.

These are part of The Rules as I have uncovered them so far. I’m sure there are many more, like in any complex system. Yet so far the outcomes I have seen and experienced from using these principles has more than enhanced my life – they have changed my worldview, and made me much more interested in the wonders of our world. Perhaps they may do the same for you.

Update: I went walking this week along the Sandstone Trail. A robin greeted me from a position two feet away as I began the walk and I stopped to listen attentively, although I didn’t understand what he wanted to communicate. Nevertheless I made it known that I was delighted by the encounter, and walked on after he flew off. An hour or so later ,as the circular walk wound back around Bickerton Hill, I turned a corner to find three pieces of a fallen beech tree branch. One piece was a useful 5′ tall, straight and in good condition. I took hold of it and it felt sturdy and supportive. As I walked it moved easily and swung truly. It would appear that I have found a spare staff! Even in Winter, Nature provides.

Gwas

Retracing my footsteps