The Hedge Druid

Posts Tagged ‘nemeton’

This is the final part of The Perthshire Trilogy, as I’m now calling it (don’t worry – it won’t stick). This post covers Lundin Farm, a site particularly mentioned by David Cowan as forming a component of an energy formation covering a large area around Loch Tay and Crieff. I then go on to reveal the questions that I posed at the sites, and the accompanying answers that were dowsed, for what they are worth.

Lundin Farm circle

Lundin Farm can be found on a small track just off the main A827 road, about a mile and a half north-east of Aberfeldy, Perthshire. A short walk up the steep track reveals a large King Stone with four stones in a circle some thirty feet further on. Truly a beautiful sight – four stones nestled beneath the protective arms of a spreading oak tree. The site is perched on a hill overlooking a valley that runs East-West following the River Tay. 

David Cowan uses the term “four poster” to describe the circle, and it is certainly a comfortable and restful place to spend a few hours in quietude, but I think there may have been possibly one more stone in there. I also think there were some around the outside of the tall inner circle, although it’s difficult to distinguish the detritus from the avenue of stones that leads down from the hill behind. Some of this is in place, but much of it has been either purloined and re-used or dumped in one corner of the site next to a wire fence.

I didn’t pay the dumped material much mind until I asked to find the transformer stone and was taken to a large flat rock that sat amidst the general smaller rubble. I was quite surprised that it was still linked into the main circle and was active, although being female/moon oriented the incoming energy felt like a low-level trickle whilst the sun was out. The link was to the two stones nearest the approach road (nearest in the picture above). These two circle stones dowsed for female qualities and were linked by the same kind of nemeton field as I found at Carnac in Brittany for the two mounds at the end of the Kermario field.

Apologies now to David for using an image from his books, but hopefully it will inspire you to go and take a look for yourself like it did me, and to determine for yourself what the purpose of these links between stone and sites may mean for the longevity, the power and the influence of these energies through the land. Here we see that David links Lundin Farm’s circle to others at the “Praying Hands of Mary” split stones near Loch Tay. My dowsing results indicate that the energy link is from the Praying Hands to the Lundin Farm circle. The energy comes in, but doesn’t go out again. Now I need to go back and test some of the others. What is the nature of their energy links to the central point? Does this bolster the idea that the ‘surrounding’ connected circles were drawing energy towards the local constructions – in other words, several places benefited from having a storehouse for earth and radiant energies, much like having your own generator in the back garden! According to my findings (see answers to questions below) there is only energy coming into this circle, and not going back out. If there is a connection with other sites (and I agree there is) then Lundin Farm circle has a parasitical relationship with the energy circuit.

The King Stone

This unassuming stone stands at the edge of an entrance to a field. There is such an entrance on the other side of the track too, so you could say it stands at a crossroads. In terms of its energy patterns I found that it was sites atop a geological fault. I also dowsed for the presence of water crossing that fault line, and I believe this effect is responsible for the energy that this King Stone is placed close to. The stone itself registers for the presence of male and female earth energies. So, next I dowsed for the energy coming up from the earth at this stone – it was female earth energy, as found at many other sites. So, where did the male energy come from?

Where the water crosses the fault ion the rock below an earth energy 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. is created that is a combination of male and female energy. his was difficult to distinguish at first, until I realised that the male energy was coming OUT from the power centre. The King Stone then seems to attract the male energy to itself, absorbing it into the side facing the stone circle. Back at the power centre there is a female energy there too – where does it come from? I dowsed it back along its spiral course until it wove into the King Stone close to the termination point of the male energy. So, the female energy was coming up from the earth, through the stone, out of the stone and into the power centre a few feet away. The male energy was coming out of the power centre (fault + water) and heading for the King Stone. All together the two energies and the two power points produced a neat little circuit of opposing energy polarities.

Dowsing the circle

I dowsed the four or five stones (the recumbent stone next to the tallest stone is not ‘counted’ by Cowan) and found out the gender characteristic of each stone. Three of the stones (the smaller, flatter ones) were FEMALE. The two taller, pointier stones were MALE. It’s almost getting to the stage now that I can tell what gender type stones will align to by their shape and position. Recumbent, flat, or rounded stones are usually female. Pointed, sharp-angled, tall stones are often male. When I say that they “are” male or female, I mean I can’t tell yet whether the stones ARE that gender, or contain earth energy of that polarity, or whether the earth energies of those types simply flow through the stones and they register this polarity. I’m not sure which, yet.

I’m also not sure yet whether the shape of the stones dictates the qualities of the earth energy.  Do the pointed stones have male energy in them because they are shaped like that? Do the female stones give off or attract female earth energies because they are flat or round or recumbent? I don’t know yet.

The Transformer Stone

Another often-overlooked aspect of these circles is the Transformer Stone. Such a stone serves the purpose of transforming radiant energies from bodies such as The Sun, The Moon and the ‘stars’ (in this I include other planets that predominate the sky at particular times of the year, as was the case earlier this year when I was transfixed by Venus). As the study of Astrology suggests there may be some very subtle energetic influences radiating from such stellar bodies, and their relative proximity and aspect seems to form part of the matrix of radiant energy that Transformer Stones can draw upon to perpetuate the energy flows within sacred sites.

In the picture above you can see the Transformer Stone, which is now nestled amongst some stones strewn around one corner of the small hill upon which the main stones stand. This transformer is still active and supplying female radiant energy (moon) to two of the circle’s stones that are closest to the road. These two circle stones have a female field around them that has the same shape as the two small mounds that I dowsed at the end of the Kermario field of standing stones at Carnac. The nemeton even forms the same kidney-bean shape! This energy field dowses as having female and neutral qualities.

A demolished avenue and a collection of boulders

The Lundin Farm site is surrounded by strewn rocks of various sizes. As you walk up the hill at the ‘back’ of the circle you will see slight raised earth ‘tramlines’ forming a rough avenue, and occasionally there are some small stones demarcating this narrow channel. I wonder if this once formed an approach avenue, much like the avenues close to Stonehenge or Avebury, but on a much more intimate scale?

In the field next to the stone circle is a collection of larger boulders. At first I thought this would be the site of the cup-marked stone that Cowan refers to in his books when he talks of this site, but I couldn’t actually find anything that looked cup-marked, and I had a ruddy good look! The boulder site looks similar to some destroyed “preparation” enclosures that I’ve seen (such as the one at Stanton Drew). I can only speculate, as there was nothing energetically significant about the stones here, so I left it to the sheep to continue to use as a wind-proof toilet facility!

Question Corner

During my visit I asked a series of prepared questions, some sensible, some far-out and superficially ludicrous, just to test what the responses would be, and perhaps to reveal some surprises. Just to remind you of the questions I was asking:-

Q1. Was this site created…

1. …before the time of the Druids?
2. …by The Shining Ones?
3. …according to principles established by The Shining Ones?

Q2. Was the purpose of the sites….

1. …to generate subtle energies?
2. …to collect and store such energies?
3. …to disperse such energies into the land?

Q3. Where does the energy at the site…

1. …come in?
2. …leave?
3. …get generated?

Q4. Were there any burials at the site, and if so, did such burials imprint the person’s energies into the site?

Q5. Is this site part of a larger energy system?

Q6. Was this larger system created to…

1. …generate energy?
2. …act as protection?
3. …harness the energy for some other use?

——————————————-

Here are the results for Lundin Farm:-

Q1. Who created it?

• Built on the principles established by The Shining Ones. Also responded to the idea of The Annunaki. A confirmation from the earlier Monzie Circle site.

Q2. What is its purpose?

• Healing and human fertility (as opposed to the fertility of the land). Given that the energies don’t seem to emerge from the site this fits with the dowsing results, as I guess that all activity (ceremony, ritual, magic) would have taken place within the energy field of the stone circle.

Q3. Where does energy come in and go out?

• Comes in through the Transformer Stone, and does not emerge again. The energy is contained in the circle.

Q4. Is there anyone buried in this circle?

• No.

Q5. Is this site part of a larger system?

• Yes.

Q6. What was the purpose of the larger system?

• Could not be identified, perhaps because the question was too vague or had multiple answers.

——————————————-

Conclusion

You know it’s funny. You can’t make out in these pictures the telegraph poles that run alongside and very close to the stone circle. I spent a couple of hours there and didn’t notice them either until I walked away up the hill from the circle and turned around to watch the darkening clouds looming over the high hills to the south. I jogged back to dowse for their influence on the circle – they were affecting the circle’s energies – perhaps this was why the circle wasn’t outputting anything? Maybe. There was also an irrigation channel dug alongside the site and I think that the unnaturally straight flow of water also had some energetically-draining qualities about it too. I’ll have to go back with more time. But then I had to head off in search of the cup-marked stone that was somewhere nearby. I didn’t find it and now I was really pressed for time and had to leave.

Still – things learned, some things verified, and a delightfully peaceful timewas had sitting under the oak tree, listening to the beck babbling, the birds singing, the lambs bleating. Not even the cloudburst that appeared next could dampen that moment. Just before I go – here’s a thing I’ve begun to take notice of. I know we have changeable weather on this island, but it seems like every time I do energy work at a site the weather changes. If it’s sunny it will cause wind and rain to arrive, and if it’s cloudy a small break appears and the sun shines through. Just like the effects of Wilhelm Reich’s Cloudbuster. Just noted, that’s all. I read that, according to New Scientist magazine, our brains are hard-wired to detect patterns in just about anything. Must be useful for something then, eh? I wonder if the Druids who are doing a ritual to keep the rains away from the Green Man Festival this year are doing something more than ‘praying’?

Gwas

Following the high road

Kermario, Carnac – 8th May 2009

In this sixth installment of the Brittany series, the second part of the Carnac visit, I found possibly the most interesting aspects of the whole Carnac visit (not to put you off the next post, but this is the ‘main feature’, if you like).

Entrance stones

As we walked across the road to the next section, called Kermario, we walked into a larger section of woodland than was around Ménec.On either side of the road winding through this woodland were two large boulders.

I stopped as I reached the point between them. I could feel a barrier of energy! There was a definite flow of energy between them that made my midriff feel a tug, just like when I walk the energy paths down a hill, or stand next to a large menhir. What was the purpose of putting these two stones here? I glanced around. I had missed two other similarly sized boulders that were fifty feet or so away. They were sites in an enclosed field nearby. Two pairs of boulders? The previous pair looked like they might designate the end of the Ménec field, whilst the pair I was standing between might demarcate the beginning of the Kermario field, I wondered? I dowsed between them – a strong male line going back and forth between them. I asked for permission to enter and the energy stopped tugging at my stomach, so I passed through. Hmmm….entrance stones for the energetically-aware?

Nemeton size: more guerrila dowsing

I was glad we were walking instead of driving now. I was seeing much more than if we had just whizzed by on a whirlwind tour from the car as most people seemed to be doing. This fast-paced tick-in-the-box tourism was beginning to become anathema to me. We stopped alongside the Kermario field of stones.

It was an even more impressive sight than Ménec, because you could see down the slope through several fields, and the alignments just kept going on and on into the middle distance. We had found a nice spot amongst some outlying rocks that were not fenced off, but were close to a point that looked convenient for hopping over the fence unseen to most eyes. Whilst I waited for the occasional couple of tourists to wander by I did some dowsing at the edge of the field of stones.

I wondered if all those stones were producing any kind of nemeton field collectively? I walked back into the woods some fifty feet, then asked if I was in the nemeton field and got a “NO” response. I walked towards the fence surrounding the stones until I got the familiar barrier response indicating the extent of the nemeton. It was about 20 feet from the nearest row. I tested for its qualities – FEMALE and NEUTRAL EARTH energies were found. I have begun to differentiate between male, female and neutral earth energies and the corresponding genders of human energies. Kal and I have found that when the earth produces a “white streamA flow of positive energised and healing subtle energy. The white streams usually emanate from a source of good energy such as a holy well, a sacred site, a power centre or a place of worship of good intent. We have found that white stream energy consists primarily of male and female energy combined in a balanced and harmonious blend, such that the two streams “play” with each other, warping and wefting in a dance that invigorates and enlivens everything that comes into contact with it. If a human stands in such a stream then they will feel positive, happy and energised, warm even.” of positive, beneficial energy it is a combination of male and female. Since discovering this I have begun to qualify the energy types by stating whether they are earth energies, radiant energies, or human energies. This nemeton field was earth energy.

The Energy Engine

As we progressed down the path alongside the fields of stones, admiring the amazing lines that flowed in parallel across the undulating landscape we spotted a tower in the distance that looked like a great vantage point from which to view the whole scene.

Before we got there I wanted to ask the rods some more questions about how the purpose of this place. A convenient stopping point was where the path crossed between two fields of stones near to a ‘creperie’, actually a farmhouse built right in the midst of the aligned rows of stones. At this point the rows seemed artificially disconnected by the path and farmhouse, so I took the chance to check my findings so far, and verified them all. Now that I knew the way the energies flowed I was less inclined to continue asking the same questions all over the site. How about finding something out about what this was all for?

I knew that archeo-astrologers and other researchers have picked up on solar, lunar, maybe even stellar alignments, and like most sites I knew that this was a comp0onent of their construction, but not their entire purpose, I felt. Only part of the story. I suspected that the astrological alignments simply told the druids and other people who understood these sites WHEN they would be at their maximum and minimum in terms of their energetic potential. The question now was what would they be doing with this energy, and why was this particular site built like this? I asked the following questions whilst standing in the energy flow between the disconnected rows of two fields of stones:-

• Was the purpose of this site to gather energy by transforming radiant energies and drawing up earth energy like some kind of massive energy generator? YES, came the response.
• Was the whole series of stones all one big engine? Er…NO, not really. OK, let’s be more specific.
• Is this Kermario section all one engine? YES. So, was each named area an engine unto itself? YES.

Wow, this must be some huge engine! Where was the energy going?

• Was the energy produced in each section of the Carnac site going to a specific place? YES.
• In the Kermario field, where I now stood, was there a single nexus point for the energy? YES. Would I be able to locate it? YES.
• Was it on a path accessible to most people (I asked hopefully)? NO.
• Was it within a mile of where I was? YES.

Armed with that much I set off intent on finding this single point where all the energies of this huge field of stones was focused. I asked to rods to take me to this focal point, and I followed them as they led me down the path alongside the field of stones towards the tower in the near distance. As I approached the tower, wondering to myself whether this was the place, the rods swivelled left and I turned with them to see where they were now pointing – at two small green mounds ten feet in at the end of this section of stone alignments! I hadn’t even seen them as I approached, but now they stood out like…well, like a pair of green breasts on a nun!!!

The Mounds and The Tower

Again I hopped the fence. Luckily the mounds were only a few feet away from the path that intersected the fields of stone rows. I asked the rods to take me to the exact place where the energy from the alignments went to. It was the mounds. The rows of stones petered out before the mounds. I couldn’t tell exactly where the energy from the rows came in, but the flow was certainly directed into the mounds. I checked for a nemeton around the mounds and found it circling the two small mounds in a sort of kidney shape, indented more on one side than the other, but flowing around the two of them. It registered for male and female energy combined – a white stream nemeton of earth energies, flowing anti-clockwise. Possibly the male energy went clockwise, I don’t know. I didn’t want to linger too long in this forbidden territory!

I now asked several miscellaneous questions in an attempt to get some idea of its strength. If this was the focal point for all these stones then it might be quite strong. Asked for its relative strength on a scale of 1-10 and got a response at 9. Was it ever a 10, I asked? YES. When? January? YES. February? Less so. March and April? A decreasing response until at April the rods parted. May? The rods began to cross again slightly. June? A more positive response. July? YES. Full cross. August? Less of a response. OK – January and July it was. Two months? I thought about other sites I knew of that were powerful, and asked how this site measured against Arbor Low, for example. Please tell me how many times stronger these energies were. Same strength? NO. 1.5x stronger? NO. I kept going up until I got to 8. Then the rods crossed. Eight times stronger than Arbor Low! Kal would love it here.

When I got back home I checked my “In Tune With The Moon” book which tells me exactly what phase of the moon occurs when in the year. In 2009 the full moon in July coincides exactly with the apogee – one of the two times in the year when the moon is exerting its strongest influence. In January the full moon was at its perigee – i.e. at its nearest, pulling most upon this side of the planet. In July it would be pulling the other side of the planet strongest. I asked the rods if the sun energies would be strongest at the Summer Soltice in June to which the answer was, YES. I was beginning to see how these calendar times meant the times of the greatest energetic potential of the sun and moon radiant energies in relation to the stones at Carnac.

I wondered if the energy came out of the mounds and went anywhere else, so I asked to follow any 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. coming out of the mounds. I was taken back over the fence and down the path back towards the road. It led me through the woods on the far side of the road, along a barely-visible trail, then back along the road, back up the path and around the tower. Beyond the tower it went into the woods on the other side of the field and emerged again to re-join the mounds (more fence-hopping). The shape was somewhat like a three-fingered hand, or a shamrock, an elongated trefoil shape.

As I was back at the mounds I asked if the field was male, female or neutral. I got a response for a mixture of male and female. So, the area defined was all white stream positive energy. I asked too whether there were any burials within the mounds, as they were suspiciously human sized – NO. Looking down the rows I thought about their placement. Were these rows placed because of the geology of the rock beneath them, I asked? YES. Well, I could investigate this at some future point when I had access to more information. As it turned out, I checked a geological map of the area and found that the alignments were all placed on a shelf of granite that began at Carnac. Interesting. We have found this at every ancient complex of sites – they all make use of solid crystalline volcanic rocks. The crystalline nature of the rock seems important to their function as energy generators or harnessers. This was something I was about to put to the test in my own small way.

A sense of purpose

Now I turned my attention to establishing the purpose of these incredible alignments of stones. What were they here for? I had a series of things I wanted to test for using the dowsing rods. I stood in the field emanating from the mounds and began to ask some serious questions:-

• Was this site an engine to generate energy? YES
• Could it be used for healing? YES.
• Could it be harnessed for transformation of human consciousness? YES.
• Could it be used to create a protective field? YES.
• Could it be used for any ‘magickal’ purpose? YES.

This was amazing. It seemed as though this energy could be utilised in any way that seemed appropriate to the requirements of those who built and used it. This amazing energy generator would create energies that could be employed for any kind of energy work that was needed. As Kal mentioned to me later - is this akin to the legendary Philosopher’s Stone?

Healing with crystals

People were starting to wander up to the tower from the road again, so I hopped back over the right side of the fence. M was sat atop the tower but now she joined me again, complaining about her joint pains, as she frequently does. I wondered if I could harness the positive energies that surrounded us at this moment? I asked if I could use some crystals to do some healing work and the rods happily crossed. I set up my five crystal Venus set according to where the rods said I should put them. It was almost in the usual formation, but two of the crystals were interchanged. I dowsed for where M should stand, and where I could stand to help direct the energies. I asked M to imagine drawing up the energy from the floor whilst I gave the intention to heal her joints. Several minutes later I cleared the crystals away and asked M how she felt. No pain now, she said, but that could have been a placebo effect, however she didn’t complain about her aching joints for the rest of the week, so I guess that tells you something. Believe me – she had been mentioning it several times a day before this incident!
It’s amazing stuff this crystal work. A year ago I would have laughed myself out of the country for doing such a thing (Kal: Don’t worry - I still laugh at you ).

The 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. Stones

Now I hadn’t completely dismissed the idea that there were parts of the complex at Carnac that were used calendrically. As we walked back to Ménec alongside the Kermario field we spotted two standing stones that were a hundred feet off to one side. It looked like a make-shift car park that very few people used, but at the end were two standing stones of an odd shape. We have seen shaped stones like this before at sites. I can think of Callenish in particular where the notched shapes of the stones were almost universally believed to provide sightings for alignments of the sun, moon and with particular stars like Aldebaran. These two stones looked just like those shaped stones. I decided they warranted some investigation.

The taller pointed stone only has one “disfigurement” – a slight chunk taken out of its western edge. The smaller stone which stood only six feet away from it had a profound notch hewn from it that meant that its top half was only half the width of its base. I dowsed for energy coming out of the stones and found that a male line emerged from the hewn edge of the smaller rock and led to the flat hewn edge of the pointer larger stone. Interesting. Again, this correlates with so many other stones that have been similarly worked.

Next, I concentrated on finding out which types of energies these stones might be pulling down from radiant sources or drawing up from the earth. The taller stone was drawing male sun energy and also pulling female energy from earth, as was the smaller stone too. Presumably they were also pulling down moon energy, but I forgot to ask! Silly me. It’s easy to be “completist” about these things after the fact. The two stones were involved with both drawing energy from the Kermario field of stones as well as sending it back to them in a sort of circuit.

I asked the rods whether the notches on the smaller stone aligned to specific celestial objects and got a positive response for sun, moon and star alignments. That confirmed their purpose for me. These stones were here to allow users of the energies to determine specific times of the year when the energies were best suited to their purpose, I theorised.

With that we walked back to the car in order to head out to the furthest field – Kerlescan. Here there was another field of stones, but I wanted to concentrate on the side shows – The Giant’s Stone and The Quadrangle, said to once have been a large tumulus.

Gwas Myrddyn

Following an intuition

Brittany, Thursday 7th May
This is the fourth post in my Brittany dowsing series, and for a brief moment I will be back-tracking. On the same day as we went to Mont St.Michel we had a small diversion to Dol De Bretagne, a town just off the main route along the Cotes D’Armour coast between St.Brieuc and St.Malo. In this town, reputed to be the source of the Stuart royal dynasty, we found the Dol De Bretagne menhir, or the Champ Dolent stone.

The Champ Dolent Stone

It would have been rude to pass up such an obvious invitation to dowse some stones before the main event. The fairly large-scale road map we had showed a menhir located in the town of Dol De Bretagne called ‘Le Champ Dolent’ meaning the Field of Sorrows, supposedly. Well, on arriving at the stone the clouds parted and the sun began to smile down on us. Whilst we were at the roadside site (with picnic tables) that surrounded the stone there was a constant stream of visitors. People are still fascinated by these menhirs and ancient sites. I wonder what it makes them think about? I think about the energies there.

Creation Myths made cartoon

As you approach the well-maintained path to the gigantic menhir there is some information on a sign. The cartoons depicted the various ‘creation myths’ that accounted for its presence of the stone, and a tale warning of disaster if it was allowed to wear down to nothing! We see that God dropped the stone to separate two warring armies, and also that Satan, in a jealous fit, threw the giant stone at an Abbey that had been built nearby, but missed. Always amusing how these stories are quite similar all around the megalithic zones along the west coasts of Europe.

The Dowsing Bit

What a stone, though! As I poised the rods I took a moment to take it all in. I didn’t even see the picnic tables dotted around the small avenue of trees and grass that cushioned the narrow path to the menhir. I was captivated by its size. This stone was at least thirty feet high and six feet thick. It was slightly squared and tapered to a beautifully crafted peak. Again, it seemed to be made of the local pink or light salmon-coloured granite. It had very few marks on it either. A few lines and battles scars, but mainly perfectly smooth and sculpted – ‘dressed’ as they say.

I started dowsing at the small ‘King Stone’ that was close to the site’s entrance. This stone was about a foot and a half wide by two or three feet long and just an inviting height to want to sit on. I asked if it had any energy of its own? NO. Was there any energy around it? YES, a female spiral. I dowsed that it came to a spiral on the stone. If this wasn’t the stone’s own energy then I wondered if this stone was just transforming some energy source? I asked if the energy was coming up from the earth into the stone? NO. From the sun (which was now shining merrily)? NO. Going well! From the moon? YES. Fitted with the female spiral. Was this a transformer stone? YES. Like Nine Ladies and many others. A stone that transforms the moon’s radiant reflected energies in some way.

I looked for a link to the big menhir some fifty feet away. Was there any energetic link between the two, I asked the rods? YES. I followed the female spiral out of the Queen Stone as it wound its way from tree to tree, side to side up the avenue of ten feet tall tree that lines the route between the two stones. It ended up going around and close to the menhir before pulling the rods into the left-hand side. Good. A connection made.

The connection between the two stones prompted me to think about the consequences of that link. Which stone was feeding which with this female energy? I checked the direction of flow. From the large menhir to the small stone. But then where? I dowsed to find where the energy went after it reached the Queen Stone and was taken in a circle, across the road on which we had parked, into the field opposite (luckily they don’t go for hedges much in France) and back to the smaller stone again. It was a twenty feet wide circle of a feminine energy field emitted from the Queen Stone. Interesting. I wondered what effect that had on anything, after all – it’s fine to find these fields but what are their effects? I didn’t yet know, either here or anywhere else yet. I turned my attention back to the menhir again.

After my recent experience with the St Uzec stone I was keen to see what the nemeton of this stone was like. I walked all the way back to the small road we had come in on, close to the outlying Queen Stone. I dowsed up the path to the menhir but only travelled some five feet before the rods gave a barrier sign! That was massive – the biggest nemeton field I have ever dowsed, for definite. HUGE! The picture above shows the extent of it. I dowsed all the way along the nemeton’s edge and found it to be not quite as large on the other side where it went through a ploughed field (only twenty-five feet or so). Nevertheless, it encompassed almost all of the path leading up to itself on the side where people would approach it, I checked for male lines – none. Neutral lines? None. This was an exclusively female + moon energy site.

I now felt like doing a little energy work. I asked to find the best place to stand to be in tune with the stone and to feel re-charged, Well, I was on holiday! The rods led me to the left-hand side of the stone again. I tried not to stand in the small dog turd at that spot. We find this kind of thing often at power centres. Animals like to defalcate there for some reason. Not always but too often to have gone unnoticed as a coincidence. I stood near to the stone at that side, touching its huge side and relaxed. Soon I felt a dual drawing-out motion at my feet and a filling-in from above, like being showered in very smooth and light water.

I picked up the rods again, Please show me the most energetic path to walk, I prompted. The rods moved around the back of the stone to pass over the small un-energetic stone that lay at the base of the menhir (another handy chair for tired tourists) and then down through three female spiral power centres until finally curling back around the Queen Stone, inviting you to sit on it and muse awhile, which I duly did. This site felt great. Not at all like the St Uzec stone. Both M and I felt completely at home here, happy to linger for ages. Many people came by, had their sandwiches gazing at the stone, then left only to be followed by yet another person “just stopping off”. It was nice to see that other people agreed with this feeling. It was nice to be around such a beautiful and energetic monument to an ancient people’s harmony with nature,

I asked M to follow me as I wound my way down this energetic trail of three power spirals, and she felt the stone’s intense buzz as she neared it. She had a low grade headache that morning (probably from squinting in the bright sunlight) but by the time she had walked the trail this had disappeared. Coincidence, I’m sure, but this is not the first time that has happened. Psychological and auto-suggestive it may be, but it works every time.

The powerful and impressive Dol De Bretagne menhir is certainly worth a visit if you’re in that area. But I guarantee you won’t be the only one there!

Gwas.

Following everyone else, it seems!

Sometimes it’s only when you finish writing a post that you realise what it was all about, and can summarise it. Well, as an introduction to this post I want to warn you that if you’re feeling anything but extremely up-beat at the moment then you might want to skip to another cheery post, like “The Hanging Tree“. Maybe not. We do have cheery posts, but this one is different. Different for an interesting reason. Even while M and I were having the experience I am about to relate, we knew we were being dampened by some force when we visited Callanish II stone circle. We had just come from Callanish III, which is only a minute’s drive away. I, in particular, was quite buoyant at my findings at Cal II, and was eager to find more stuff. Then we arrived.

Callanish II is also known as ‘Cnoc Ceann a’Gharraidh‘ in the original Gaelic, which translates as “Hillock at the end of the wall”. Sounds better in the Gaelic, I think. It is, however, this kind of uninspiring name that seems befitting to a site that on this day was immensely uninspiring. Maybe it needs a sunny day, or perhaps a flock of eagles to fly over, or something. Of all the sites we visited during our early Spring weekend to Lewis, this site had to be one that left us with a feeling of “we shouldn’t have bothered”. Which is quite remarkable, because the circle has some big impressive stones remaining. It should engender a feeling of wonder and the idea that at any moment something magical might happen. But it didn’t for me.

It is neatly sandwiched between the main Callanish I and Callanish III sites, but lacks their splendour or majesty. Saying that – here’s a link to a very moody shot of the whole circle: http://www.ancient-scotland.co.uk/picframe.php?a=284

As an example, we parked at the end of the small lane leading up to the circle. No-one else was there, except a family of spotted pigs that trotted past us, hurrying to reach their shelter in the abandoned house alongside the field next to the circle. The pigs had, as you would expect, lovingly churned up the ground so that it was lumpy and awkward to cross their field.

We entered the stone circle site to be confronted by the five remaining tall stones. I dowsed around the edge to find out how many there had originally been and counted … well, I don’t know how many. I knew at the time but now my GPS trail is impossible to follow for some reason, I remember I was having all sorts of fun trying to press the buttons through my gloves. That was the kind of lethargic, frustrating and debilitating feeling I was getting from the site.

We’ve come across this quality of an area that is imbued with negative energy. It causes arguments, saps your desire to do anything purposeful, thwarts your attempts to overcome it, and then makes you not able to even form the idea that there might be some unhelpful energy forms there. You just prefer to leave everything alone. You can’t rouse yourself to make any positive change. It’s only later, when you’re away from its grip, that you begin to wonder why you let that happen? Why didn’t you think to do something about it? Cunning stuff, this black energy! It has innate qualities that promote its own survival, and keeps it from being detected and eradicated on the spot. We find that dis-embodied sentient energies have similar qualities.

What I did manage to achieve there was to dowse for missing stones, I think I found at least three, possibly as many as five, places where stones had been removed. Again – why can’t I tell you exactly how many I found? Why didn’t I record it in my notebook that was in my pocket? Why is it the only circle whose GPS trace data is so unclear that I couldn’t discern anything useful from it? No reason, of course. Just coincidence, eh?

A couple of former stone placements were already marked by someone who had put a small stone on those places (the obvious ones). I found the less immediately obvious ones with my trusty copper L-rods and where possible I marked it with a stone that was from outside the circle. In the picture below I have just nudged a stone back into place that had been shifted. Maybe the pigs have been doing quietly marking them?

Whatever the purpose of this stone circle was it was now suffering from some form of malaise. Both M and I could feel it as we walked around. Neither of us were happy to be there and we both wanted me to get the dowsing 0ver and done with as soon as possible. I had one more thing I wanted to look at, which was the inner ring of stones that marked the cairn that had once been built within the circle. Within that – at the very centre of the circle (well, off-centre, but central) was a small ring of small stones and a central white stone. I dowsed for it having had human habitation within it, but then the rods fell to my side again and I aimlessly wandered about again.

I summoned up some half-hearted enthusiasm. What if I located a white streamA flow of positive energised and healing subtle energy. The white streams usually emanate from a source of good energy such as a holy well, a sacred site, a power centre or a place of worship of good intent. We have found that white stream energy consists primarily of male and female energy combined in a balanced and harmonious blend, such that the two streams “play” with each other, warping and wefting in a dance that invigorates and enlivens everything that comes into contact with it. If a human stands in such a stream then they will feel positive, happy and energised, warm even. 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.? I walked around asking to be taken to one, if one existed. I was taken to a flat female stone that was near to the parade of three tall standing stones that formed the remainder of what must have been a once-impressive circle. This female flat stone also dowsed for male energies, and for white stream energy. Would this be beneficial to me? I asked. “Of course”, came the dowsing response. I kept that in minf and put the rods down again. Look at that white stone in the centree, I said to myself. Hmmm. Hmmm, what?

You could get a good view of Callanish I on the next hill over the Loch. And if you crane your head between the stones you can make out Callanish III on the ridge a few hundred feet on the other side. How strange to build three circles so close to each other! What purpose did that serve, I wondered? I mused. Rain fell. Winds blew. Pigs grunted.

I shook my head again vigorously to recover. It bought me a few seconds of time to step onto the female transformer stone, where I drew some energy into myself – enough to protect myself from the seeping negative feeling. Immediately I felt warmer and more relaxed. Unfortunately M didn’t, so I picked the rods up and formulated more questions in my energy bubble.

This site was full of male pointed standing stones. There were one or two female stones – only one, if I remember rightly, was for a still standing stone. Again that female transformer stone was flat. I wanted to dowse for the energy patterns coming in and out of it, like usual, but didn’t.

One last thing to try. I picked up my staff and walked around the circle three times clockwise to try to invigorate the energies in the nemeton. This usually had a positive effect. By the third time around I could feel the energies flowing with and around me. Well, at least I had stirred things up a bit!

We went to sit back in the car as the rain struck up another orchestra of pings, splats and drips. The rain started heavily now, lashed sideways by the increasing winds coming in from all corners. Then to our surprise a cyclist arrived. He walked to stones, once around, got out and inspected a little paper bundle, and then ten seconds later rode off again.  Tick-in-the-Box, I said. But a bloody hardy one!

Having felt as though we had recovered our senses a little, and re-kindled our enthusiasm, we drove off towards the other interesting sites along the north-west coast of Lewis.

Gwas

Following the main road away from Cal II quickly.

Monday 2nd February – Dyserth, North Wales.

In this final part of my account of a visit to the sites around Dyserth village near Rhuddlan I describe what happened when I returned early the next morning after having dowsed various sites the day before. I was keen to find out whether there was any difference in the strength and character of the energies that we had found the day before. This is part of my plan to test each of the four solar and lunar festivals to discover what effect they have upon the energies.

Monday morning I was up and out for 7am. I needed to be at Dyserth for sunrise because my intention was to see how I felt when I tuned into the energy patterns at a known site. That site was going to be St.Bridget’s Church again. The previous night’s snowfall meant I didn’t get to the village until 7:50am – just when the sun should be appearing over the hills at the back of the church. I wondered of there would be a shaft of light slithering to cross the large stained-glass window?

St.Bridget’s Church

It was unsurprising that I was the first pair of footprints in the snow that layered the churchyard. It was an entirely different scene from the previous day. Today it looked like a proper Winter scene, and I hoped I was going to be able to do something useful in the still-freezing air as I took out the copper rods and drank in the atmosphere as I stood next to the tall and wide window at the back of the church building. There was no shaft of light, no St.George’s lance. No St.Michael’s flaming sword to pierce the gloom of dawn. Instead the greyness shifted rapidly through lightening tones until the dawn had almost slipped past unnoticed. A light grey day emerged, threatening snow. But had anything happened to the Male Sun energies? I prepared to test the wide stream of energy coming into the window.

I needed a way of measuring the relative strengths of that band of Male Sun energy, and quickly determined a way of doing it. I stated that the strength of the energy going into the church window the previous day was rated a ’5′ on a scale of ’1′ to ’10′ – one being the weakest the energy could be, and ten being its strongest. I then asked what strength the energies were today and the rods reacted to a rating of ’7′ (half reaction) and ’8′ (stronger reaction). Somewhere in between seven and eight, then. Therefore the energy strength had increased this Imbolc Monday morning since I last dowsed there, only the previous day.

With that established I switched to the yew tree whose nemeton I had traced the day before. I found that the yew tree’s nemeton was consistent with the canopy again, but if I asked to trace just “energy” around the tree I traced a square shaped cross (like a fat plus sign) around the tree that went towards and around particular graves situated next to the tree, but seemed to avoid others. Hence the plus-shape.

Skull and crossbones - a significant grave

So, this seemed to indicate that something’s aura or nemeton is a distinctly different energy formation and extent than that of it’s energy generally. I confirmed that what I had dowsed as just “energy” was in fact its rainbow colour patterns, and I got a positive agreement from the rods. Exactly what Kal and I had found recently at Delamere Forest. Two are at least two distinct ranges of energy fields – the nemeton and the aura of rainbow colours.

Here I was finding that I need to be careful when bandying around terms. An aura consists of rainbow colours that can be affected through the manipulation of coloured energy bands of differing frequencies. A nemeton is a different energy field. How are they different, though? They seem to overlap, so was there anything they had in common? I dowsed for the answer:-

• Are the two energy fields inter-related? – Yes.
• Can a person be healed by changing their rainbow colour field? – Yes.
• Is this healing via the rainbow colour field done by stimulating the chakra points? – Yes.
• Can a person be healed by changing their nemeton? – Yes.
• Is this healing via the nemeton field done by stimulating the chakra points? – No.
• Are a person’s nemeton and their rainbow energies the same energy frequencies? – No.

So, these two fields overlap, but they resonate at different frequencies. The rainbow colour field can be healed via the chakra points, but the nemeton is not healed in that way. I asked some more about the nemeton:-

• Is the nemeton a measure of a living thing’s extent of inter-connectedness? Yes.
• Was it also a measure of that living thing’s energetic influence? Yes.

I had enough to think about. I wanted to get back to some real-world measuring again. I dowsed the Male Sun energy across the window and found that the energy still came into the window at the same width as they day before. Time to move on to the next site now that it was daylight. The Imbolc sunrise had arrived by the back door and slipped in almost unnoticed. Confound our cloudy skies!

Return to Castle Dyserth

The first thing I wanted to test here was the “little castle”, the almost circular small ring cairn in the field before the site of the old castle. This had been a spot that I couldn’t stand on the previous day. Today I found that I could stand on that spot without any adverse effects! I questioned the rods – was I able to do this because it was Imbolc today? Yes. And did that change the nature of the energies through this cairn? Yes. Good stuff!

Next I wanted to dowse the two circles that Kal and I had built on the castle site: Kal’s was created from Male Sun energy, whilst the one I had built had attracted Female Moon energy. It turned out that things has got much more complex than had been in evidence the previous day. Here’s what I found:

• Confirmed female energy emitting from the crack high up, and that male energy was coming out of the massive rockfall stone at the bottom of that slope.
• A female attractor was identified between the rocks, just like Sunday. I found that the mound of stones was acting as a male attractor.
• The trail of Male Sun energy went from the large stone to a small pile of stones nearby (outside the circle). Then to another pile of stones at the back of the circles, on to the large man-made mound of stones, back to a small pile of stones and spiralling into 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 ‘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.. A little male energy circuit! One line then came out of this system to join to Kal’s Male Sun circle.
• Likewise for female energy – it went from the crack high up then went to the Female Moon circle, went around the perimeter three times, and then back through the gap between the fallen large stones.

There were many more spirals and interconnections between the two new circles that there were the day before – the whole patterning of paths of energy had linked to the existing source and had developed into a complex circuit of Male Sun spirals, out of which emerged Female Moon paths and spirals, out of which came another male path and spiral – and so on until returning to the source(s).

I spent the rest of the day seeking out and visiting caves, which was very exciting. I get scared by the sense of claustrophobia that such places engender, but they fascinate me. I found some great caves to visit and to meditate in when the weather gets a little warmer. For some reason I didn’t dowse the various caves. I can’t explain why, though, looking back. It seems rather odd. One of those things, I guess.

Gwas

Following Offa’s path

3rd November 2008

This is the last part in the account of our time at the Nine Ladies stone circle in Derbyshire. In this part I relate how we attempted some psionic experiments, I get to talk with the Wishing Tree, and we stumble upon the haunt of some exponents of sacred geometry. Oh yes, it’s all going on in this part of the tale! We really start pushing it now!

PART THREE

At the end of the last post we had been trying to figure out the unusual response (one rod straight ahead, one turning to point back at you, or swivelling round). We were thinking along the lines of Kal being attuned to male energies, whereas I was more attuned to female. On this full-moonlit night it seemed as though I was finding it easier to tune it to some of the features of the site in particular.

We decided to begin some experiments. We asked for the best place to do some energy work, and were each directed to a different 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.. Oddly, Kal was standing on the one where he had planted his umbrella, which I had taken to be the one I would go to. Oh no. I was directed to stand in the one that Kal had been sitting in, and had dowsed into a spiral earlier. So be it.

Nine Ladies stone circle

We decided beforehand that we would try to get into a state of mind where we might be able to connect to each other. The two power centres were linked by arcing neutral energies, connecting male to female, and travelling over and under in a vertically circular trajectory. We hypothesised that we may be able to send each other images. I tried to relax on the power centre, but I had a Kings of Leon tune running around in my head that wouldn’t shift. It kept repeating the same refrain. This was not funny! I was trying to work here! No good. I was mainly ‘awake’ and could tell my focus was wandering – what was Kal imagining, would it be a shape, or an animal? Oh, dear. This was hopeless! Despite the stillness of the dark night I kept dropping out of trance at the slightest sound – a distant rumble, a passing car on the hillside, a hooting owl, a gust of wind.

We tried. We failed. We weren’t even close. And it was because I couldn’t get into it. Was this another effect of the grounding stone? Had I not charged myself back up, or something? I pondered on that for quite a long time before heading off to the Wishing Tree for a drink. Time to get back to dowsing to reconnect with the stone circle. We headed to the grounding stone again, as it seemed to be the hub of the action this night. Hoping to get some answers I dowsed the stone again asking,

“Do I need to clear myself through this stone to regain my connection (with nature and the circle)?” I asked. The rods crossed for a ‘Yes’.

I put the rods down again and placed my hand on the stone instead of sitting on it I started to tune in. My mind started to gently swirl around like someone had taken the sink plug out and my brain was draining its water into the stone! Then it got faster. The vortex in my head reached such a pace that it sent me dizzy! I spun away from the stone, but kept turning around and around, staggering like a drunk whilst laughing elatedly at the madness of being spun around. My head was swimming in a really fun way, like having spun yourself around a broom handle and then tried to walk in a straight line.

Kal just stood looking on curiously as I waltzed around giggling and laughing. I asked something, anything, to give me a hand here! Couldn’t something help me to get out of this tailspin? A split second later I was prodded forcefully right in the back of the neck by one of the Wishing Tree’s branches! I jumped – woke up – and stopped spinning, thankfully. “Thank you!” I responded with genuine gratitude. I felt a warming under the tree’s canopy the air got lighter and more friendly. We had re-established a connection! That was just great. Now I was really happy, not giddy.

Back to the dowsing. Time must have been drawing on, but really I didn’t care what time it was. It wasn’t important. I had to know more before we left the site. Rods in hand I walked back to Kal in the circle to continue trying to locate some connections and flows. The first thing we found were the male and female spirals coming out each stone. Just like many other sites, but with the male spirals on the inside, and female spirals on the outside. Other sites have it the other way around.

Next we located the neutral lines that went between the stones. I went for the concept of opposing stones being connected and found a connection for each pair. Oddly, all of the lines were perfectly straight except for one, which bent back into the circle stone in a short curve. Was it going bending in order to avoid something? It seemed to coincide with the avoidance of the location of the two power centres we had been standing on. Noted anyway, if not understood. Kal, however, had found a few connections that were not a part of this perfect ‘spoked wheel’ pattern. Some stones connected with others that were not directly opposite. We vowed to return to map them all when it was lighter and we could draw them out.

Whereas our sketches of energy patterns at sites are representational (and not always to scale) you should compare them with those of StoneDowser on his site (listed also in our links section on the right hand side of this page). Mr. Ian Honeygood, now sadly passed away, was quite precise in some of his diagrams, although he only seemed to recognise two types of line: a radial spoke and a ‘ritual path’, which he surmises was the path taken by the worshippers at the sites. Well, that concept doesn’t convince me, I’m sorry to say, but that’s a discussion for another day. Either way, he has done some accurate and helpful diagrams to show those two types of energy formations.

StoneDowser’s ritual path is what I would call the unwinding of the nemeton of the site. Like Hamish Miller we often find three (he finds more, but then he’s like that) circles of male energy enclosing sites, and this energy trail then comes into the site to spiral to a point which we usually confirm as being a power centre for one of us (i.e. male or female oriented energies dwell in or emit from these points). Each time around the three outer spirals of the male nemeton energy the path gets closer to the stones. At Nine Ladies it started about three feet away from the stones, going to about one and a half feet, then six inches for the last time around. The path then turns into the ‘entrance’ of the site before looping into a spiralling energy centre.

On my last visit to Nine Ladies I had dowsed a link between the Wishing Tree oak and the main power centre, coming into the site via the ‘entrance’. I decided to verify if that was still present or not. It was. Exactly the same path, same entrance point, same power centre, same direction of spiral, everything. Good. Consistency was being achieved in some of this dowsing now.

As we were near the tree Kal decided to try his luck in doing a bit of 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 it. Now, I have already recounted my own difficulties with this species, and particularly this tree. It is amenable to contact, but it has to be handled very carefully and with great patience. Kal is, how can I put this, not one for such finesses! In all openness and in his usual hearty style I watched him outstretch a metaphorical hand of welcome. And then I watched him knock his head on a low branch and stumble over a tree root. I pretended I hadn’t noticed this blatant rebuttal. He tried again, complaining to it that he was trying to be nice. Nothing. What did he expect? He was not one for the patient building of relationships that such communications often insist upon. His talents lie elsewhere, I guess. I tried to wipe off my wide smile. “Give up, mate!” I implored. He was fighting a losing battle, it seemed.

One thing we both noticed about the site that night was how slow the energies were. As we dowsed them we walked slowly; as we circled the site the energy plodded along with us but didn’t overtake us as it has at other circles in sunlight, or my time at Moel-Ty-Uchaf. The Genius LociGenius Loci means 'spirit of the place' and refers to the geological/gaian spirit of place. It is transfixed to a place – being an embodiment of the collective intelligence of the place. was docile this evening. Nocturnal nature, however, was wide awake. Occasionally we would get a hint of agreement at just the right time whilst dowsing or communing – a sudden gust of wind, or a hooting owl would chime in at just the apropos moment.

Things had gone well. We had learned useful things about the way that energy was being transformed in the circles by specific stones. With this, and more, still buzzing in our heads we retreated one last time to the Wishing Oak to pack and leave. On my way there my eye was drawn for a fourth time to a twig of laurel lying by the north side of the circle – the moonlight made its dark leaves shine with an odd tint. I picked it up, and placed it inside one of the many crevices formed by the oak’s roots, and left it with thanks and good wishes to the tree. It gave enough out often enough – why not have some back?

As we wandered back to the car I asked if we could try to see what kind of place might be benefiting from the flow of energy that I knew went down the cliff edge via a steep gulley. Kal was game, so we drove down a side of the hill that I had never been down before. Kal said this was the way he often came up, so I was confident we could find our way back to the Bakewell area pretty easily soon enough. Ten minutes later Kal was saying, “Well, I’ve never been in this bit before!” as we trundled curiously through a small town that suddenly arose next to a river.

We passed a pub called “The Square and Compass” and that struck a chord – that was a masonic sigil. It would seem that Darley Dale, as the place turned out to be, was home to at least one group of people who were interested in ancient secrets! Societies are not for me, however. My path is mainly alone or with Kal, and my progress is swift because of that, I feel. It’s my path I’m treading, not following someone else’s agenda.

There was a lot to think about, and it kept us in conversation for several weeks afterwards. To recap, we learned:-

a) The rules of the collaboration with Nature must always be followed to get good results – a quiet mind is essential; good strong intent; a clean body (not caffeine-fuddled, tobacco doesn’t help the cause either); be prepared for fun, but do your work seriously and focused.
b) The double helix appears at several stone circles, possibly many more, linked to an outlier stone, which is identified as a main feature of the energy field system at a stone circle
c) Moon energy is slower, possibly weaker than sun energy. Certainly it is less vigorous.
d) A stone in or close to the circle, usually flat, acts like a solar, lunar and stellar panel that absorbs the radiant light.
e) In moonlight, on the correct power centre, we were both unable to experience any intuitive responses either between each other or towards any external location. The EMF was supposedly low, as it was night time. A lecture by Serena Roney-Dougal taught us that at times of low EMF are more favourable for telepathy and remote viewing. I blew that experiment by not being able to quieten my mind.
f) Although StoneDowser didn’t dowse this site (to our knowledge) his ‘ritual path’ was present – a spiraling line coming from outside to inside the circle. The radial links between the stones that he drew at other sites were also there. We thought that the lines bent between some stones sometimes, and that there were more links than simply those that were opposing stones.

It would seem that manifestation patterns can be willed into a particular shape, although my intention got transformed whilst I was forming it in my mind. Is this due to an interactive collaboration between human and nature, or was I simply unable to hold a shape using my willpower? The shape dowsed as increasingly complex when Kal came to verify it. I also verified Kal’s shape too. “Thaat be a pentangle, and no mistake, zurr.” What is it about wizards and their five-sided shapes?

Don’t phone in – it’s just for fun!

Gwas.

3rd November 2008

This is part two of a three part account of our time at the Nine Ladies stone circle in Derbyshire. We visited in the late winter evening and in this part we found out the importance of particular stones in the circle.

PART TWO

We continued our dowsing in the moonlit deep and misty darkness of Stanton Moor’s finest neolithic structure – The Nine Ladies stone circle.

Something important would be revealed to me soon – I could feel it. This is how it had worked so far. I was sure there could be a confidence in this notion if I played by the rules and didn’t blow it. So many ways to fail – you have to develop the desire to have a resolute intention, yet passively impartial enough to assess the information you receive with both sides of your brain. Achieving balance is the druidic way I was following. Balance ensures grace. Grace provides a connection between body and spirit, and my mind with these ancient site spirits, whatever their energetic make-up. So I needed balance. Kal pointed to the flat stone that looked like a perfect seat. “The grounding stone?” he suggested.

We had identified this particular flat-topped square stone in the northern side (due north), when we had dowsed the circle earlier, as being a stone that had a mixture of male and female energies. When we sat upon it there was the distinct impression that something was being drawn out of you slowly. If you sit on such stones in circles for more than a few minutes you feel sapped of energy, literally lethargic and your mind is drained of will power – you can’t think of anything worth doing! It’s very strange. You have to try to shake yourself out of it – almost re-invigorating yourself to make neurons fire again and generate some momentum. Kal called these stones “grounding stones”, which contains the implication of in some way discharging the body of electrical energy, of neutralising it.

A test of this phenomenon might be to identify people with different energy levels, and to see what effect the stones have on them. Is the draining effect stronger on those with more energy? Would this mean that we should see the greatest effect with such people, the greatest degree of change in mood and activity? We will check this in due course.

In addition to any grounding effect Kal identified that this stone would also be the stone to re-balance any imbalances in our own energy fields. I have little experience in such things, so I am open to simple experimentation, and I usually try these things out. This time I found that when I sat on it I got the same draining effect which I left until the very last moment when I felt I had enough will power to do what I needed to do next! Which was to head for the main 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. to “re-charge” myself – which it duly did, and very quickly. I noticed this at Cerrig Pryfaid recently too. A discharged body feels a much greater surge of energy when standing on a power centre in a stone circle than if you are already well balanced and full of energy. Feel free to disagree with that outrageous generalisation and irrational assumption as you see fit. I would go test it for myself, if I were you.

I remember walking for over and hour and a half, and finally up a very steep hill to get to Pentre Ifan in Pembrokeshire (see previous post). By the time we arrived at the stunning cromlech I was exhausted on what was a very warm day. I will never forget the feeling that both M and I got from standing with our backs to the central pillar stone. It was a surge of joyful energy so emboldening that I burst out laughing and had a moistness in the corners of my eyes. It was that incredible. Never forget it. I haven’t laughed so much since the last time I saw Bill Hicks. Except this was a rush of pure joy. An ecstatic moment.

Oh, I’m rambling again. Back to the story for a brief spell (there’s one of those puns again). Feeling re-invigorated we wondered at the purpose of these stones. Were they for discharging energies that were blocked, absorbed by people, or built up to harmful levels? How was this stone being powered? What was the nature of the energy exchange in and around this stone?

Kal identified that the stone was the most important stone in the circle, but not the most important at the whole site – that was the King Stone. Again we spent a moment considering the implications of this gnowledge we had been given by the dowsing rods. Even if we were merely expressing some of our own guesses at a subconscious level this was taking us in an interesting and very coherent direction. It was suggesting to us that the King Stone as the engine of the energies. With it being the source of the twin energy streams that formed the double helix which ultimately encircled the whole site the King Stone was vital, in every sense of that word, to the functioning, the correct and continued functioning of the circle’s energies. This was a very important working assumption that felt like confirmation of something we had guessed but never really thought about.

Recently, after this episode, I found a site where energies were again fed into the circle by an outlying stone, and which also split into two streams – a male line going anti-clockwise around to join a large circle stone, and the female line that went in a clockwise direction to also re-join in the same large stone. Clearly, to me, this was showing me that the circle was powered, and its energies contained, by the outlier, or King stone, and that the two streams formed a complete circuit of energy. Does this specific formation occur naturally anywhere else? Has anyone found such a formation anywhere else? I haven’t heard of anything like that elsewhere, or found anything similar at natural features such as Lud’s Church ravine, or in a cave. In places such as that the energies are much more organically distributed and connected, whereas at man-made sites the energies form geometric patterns, shapes and alignments.

So, what was the grounding stone’s part in the circle. Kal identified that it was important to the circle, and it’s functions. We determined to find out a bit more about its function. I suggested we start by determining how the stone was using energy. For every question we asked we told each other what we were going to ask so that we could do the same. Even though we were only feet away I couldn’t see what Kal was doing other than making out that his shape was getting larger as he moved forwards. Well, another validating test, I mused. We looked up at the bright full moon. Hmmm. We asked about the stone:-

• Was there moon energy going into this stone? – Yes. Strongly yes. Full across-the-chest crossing of the rods.
• Was there sun energy going into this stone? – A tiny bit. A tiny bit? Well, we considered, moonlight is actually reflected sunlight, so…. we suppose that’s technically correct!
• Was there star energy going into this stone? – Yes. A small amount. A bit more than the sun energy registered for.
• Was there male energy going into the stone? – Yes.
• Was there female energy going into the stone? – Yes. Oh – so both – that confirms our earlier dowsing findings.
• Was there neutral energy going into the stone? – No.
• Were male/female/neutral energies coming out of the stone? All three got a positive response.
• What about a combination of the types? Was the sun energy the same as the male energy? Yes. And the moon energy was the same as the female? Yes. Was the star energy the neutral energy? No. So there was some alignment there, but neutral was not the same as starlight energy.

On to questions about how the stone worked now. Still with us? Good. We asked:-

• Was the stone absorbing the moon and other energies? Yes. Tonight it was predominantly the moon, of course. You could almost feel it being stood over it – the top of the stone was perfectly reflecting the moon directly above it. It looked like a lunar and solar panel. not forgetting starlight.
• Was the stone literally transforming the moonlight and starlight into energy that fed into the circle? Yes. Strongly yes. Strongly is not the right word. More…encouraging: “Well done, you’ve got it!”. It’s funny, You feel a little pleased during the reaction of the rods that you asked the correct question.
• Were the male and female energies coming out of the stone powered by that transformation of energies? Yes. I’m giving you the highlights here.

There were some stupid questions that I’ve omitted for brevity (Ha ! Brevity !) and you’ll know which those are as soon as you dowse them. I try to ignore my stupid questions and hope they’ll go away in their own time.

Our next set of questions related to, well, how we related to the stone. How else can I say it? We didn’t intend it that way, but that was how it turned out. I asked whether the stone was inherently ‘male’ in itself. I got a positive response. Kal did the question and got the same response. I asked if it was also female. It was. Kal dowsed it and got his funny reaction again. He got one rod turning in at 90 degrees, the other didn’t move. Aha! A chance to see if we could work this out. I got Kal to ask exactly what I had asked. Same response. But I got a positive response – clear – typical. Kal’s was atypical, that’s for sure.

I asked a straight out direct question. Was the reaction Kal was getting due to our own differences as people? Yes. Kal confirmed this as he dowsed the same question. We already knew that Kal had more favourable responses, and was intuitively guided to, power centres of pre-dominantly male energy, whereas I had an affinity for the female power centres. Here was Kal being unable to dowse for the inherent female-ness of the stone, but he could for the male. Under the strong moonlight I could do both. Was the moon having that effect, or was there the possibility that the roles may be reversed elsewhere in bright sunlight? We wait for some bright sunlight to test this! It is winter in England.

Sunlight is at a premium!

Gwas

Follow a moonlit path.