The Hedge Druid

Posts Tagged ‘neptune’

Not another reality TV show, by pointing at the stars I am referring to “standing” stones that are deliberately angled to point to particular stars at certain times of the year. One such stone is the ’Careg Y Big’ stone [megalithic] that is high on the tree-lined southern hills above Llangollen. Getting up there is a test of your car’s engine, that’s for sure! As we parked in a small lay-by close to the top of the hill we could smell the heat from the engine and the brakes as the steep road and sharp corners had taken their toll.  The view, however, was worth all the (car’s) effort!

We had taken the small road from the centre of Llangollen out past the Plas Newydd Museum, and heading towards the village of Pontfadog. As the crest of the hill appeared and the road became a T-junction the stone could be seen in the field to the right-hand side of the hill road, nestled and almost hidden by a line of hardy and gnarled trees about two miles out of Llangollen itself.

Quickly! Careg Y Big is falling over!

Once you hop into the field (by gate or by low dry stone wall) it is a short skip to the stone itself. As you arrive you notice that the line of trees forms a sort of avenue along which some ancient trackway may once have been dug into the landscape. It’s almost a small cursus feature, and if it had been a corpse road or similar then it would have been quite wide, I feel. Enough for a thronging procession to carry several biers side by side!

The stone itself struck me immediately, not only for its unusual angle, but for its composition. I had seen this type of agglomerate before – like round pebbles in cement – at Harold’s Stones in Monmouthshire. How interesting that Harold’s Stones were of a similar composition and similar slant too! Coincidence or design carried across several counties distance?

I next turned my attention to trying to find out which astrological body this stone might have been erected to point to – Sun, Moon? Neither – the dowsing revealed that it was a particular star/constellation of stars. By dowsing the date on which the star that this stone is aligned to would be in 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. with the stone this year we got the date April 9th at 10:00am. I set the Starwalk app to this time and date and then placed it on the stone to show me which stars would be in view along the stone’s axis and angle. The result was: Neptune was passing through the Aquarius constellation.

Careg Y Big stone's astral alignment on April 9th 2012

Astral alignments explained

Now that I had determined the specific astrological connection - Neptune passing through the Aquarius constellation – what is the relevance of such a conjunction to this stone? Why was it set to align to this conjunction? I could find only some general information relating to the thirteen year cycle of Neptune, which is apparently moving into Pisces currently. However, the information may be relevant so let’s look at it. I show my ignorance of astrology here by deferring to other commentators! According to one astrologer:

“Neptune represents the broader economic currents. Therefore Neptune in Aquarius represents times of economic reform or revolution. Since the “spirit of the times”, the “zeitgeist”, is represented by Neptune as well, the economic changes spring out of a new spirit, a new vibration. There was a scientific and artistic revolution during the last Neptune in Aquarius period — and there was a corresponding economic revolution  ….

Based on past periods, Neptune in Aquarius will be a time of religious freedom and reform. Likely, the old faiths, whether faith in science or religious faith, will undergo dramatic change … The underlying spirit of Neptune in Aquarius is a need to break out of the ordinary, to breakthrough to new spiritual states, to change life, to go for something larger than yourself.”

(source: GuidingStar.com)

The economic bit seems rather accurate at the moment! There is also an 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. to the Pegasus constellation. What might this mean?

 ”Pegasus is the hippocampus of your brain. The place of memory.” (source: HiddenMeanings.com)

“Symbol of wisdom and especially of fame from the Middle Ages until the Renaissance…..Personification of the water, solar myth, or shaman mount, Carl Jung and his followers have seen in Pegasus a profound symbolic esoteric in relation to the spiritual energy that allows to access to the realm of the gods on Mount Olympus.” (source: Wikipedia)

“Pegasus is the white horse that caused the fountain of the Muses to activate on Mount Helicon. Consider meditation and the spiral energy called Kundalini or the coiled serpent which rises up from the base of the spine to the Pineal Gland of the brain. ” (source: CrystalLinks.com)

Also rather interesting! Like a reminder or a signpost the standing stone may be there as a reminder that stones are linked to the stars. Maybe the stone itself contains memories that a sympathetic intuitive mind could access? maybe it was planted and aligned as a means of connecting the Earth with the stars? Maybe it is an access point through meditation to connect to the constellation’s energies and move the mind into a higher dimension? Maybe it enervates the chakras when meditated upon in April 2012? Will I get the chance to re-visit the stone at that time? “All this coming up soon in the continuing adventures of…The Hedge Druid“.

I also find the interpretation of Pegasus being associated with fame as notable considering that my over-arching quest for the year is to claim the power of “renown”. I will discuss this term and this quest in more depth in subsequent specific posts.

Standing stone disguised as tree trunk - Careg Y Big, Llangollen

Finding this 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. and its significance to a specific conjunction of stone and star begs the question about why some standing stones point at particular stars? This is an area that I hope to investigate further when the weather warms up a bit. Standing in the raw Winter winds that whipped across the hilltop field that day I was less than inclined to dowse for an hour to try to make inroads into such a complex question. That will have to wait for another day.

Gwas.

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

I decided that I shouldn’t ignore such a powerful emotion, and so I drove past my home exit and instead drove towards my nearest hill in order to get an unobstructed and unpolluted look at the star from height. Being January and cold there was no-one else around as I sat in my power centreA place where a person of a particular alignmentAlignment relates to the concept that humans have their own energy fields that are oriented or formed in a specific way such that the person is either suited better to one energy source of another. Some people have their energy fields empowered by the direct subtle energy force of The Sun, whilst others are empowered by the indirect subtle energy of The Moon. Due to the historical associations and symbolisation of The Sun with masculinity and The Moon with femininity we designate these alignments as either being ‘male’ or ‘female’ alignments accordingly. We interchangeable refer to people as being ‘sun-aligned’ or ‘male-aligned’ and similarly with the female alignment. (see ‘AlignmentAlignment relates to the concept that humans have their own energy fields that are oriented or formed in a specific way such that the person is either suited better to one energy source of another. Some people have their energy fields empowered by the direct subtle energy force of The Sun, whilst others are empowered by the indirect subtle energy of The Moon. Due to the historical associations and symbolisation of The Sun with masculinity and The Moon with femininity we designate these alignments as either being ‘male’ or ‘female’ alignments accordingly. We interchangeable refer to people as being ‘sun-aligned’ or ‘male-aligned’ and similarly with the female alignment.’) feels particularly comfortable and empowered. The place is an energetic centre where a particularly beneficial combination and formation of energies is formed into a pattern that is harmonic with the person for whom it can be called a power centre. gazing at the captivating star. Using my phone’s StarWalk application I was able to identify the celestial object as Venus in conjunction with Neptune.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Gwas.

Sunday 30th May - Knowth, County Meath

This is the fourth of my posts about the journey through the seven chakras. In this post Kal and I returned to Knowth to exclusively dowse it for a purpose this time – for me to find out whether I could work on my heart chakra. This was a necessity, according to the previous day’s work at Kells. You may remember that my spirit guide had helped me to clear me solar plexus chakra and that I had gained insight that the next chakra would be the most important to unblock or empower.

The Neptune gateway and the Carlanstown stone

I’m really miffed now that I didn’t take a picture of the stone that I retrieved from the Carlanstown Spring. I’ve never seen anything like it before or since, and it’s green-flecked appearance is an image that is now only accessible in my memory banks. Sorry I can’t provide you with more than this vague description. As a former geology student I ought to be able to be more specific, but I have forgotten more than I will even learn again, and now even an educated guess would be far out. It was some form of igneous rock, if that helps? Obviously not.

The starting point at Knowth

We started at the timber circle, me with the green-flecked stone in one hand, and a quartz crystal in the other. Ask me not why this was so, for the answer shall be, I don’t know! It felt right. It also felt right for me to walk into the timber circle from the entrance closest to the main mound (the gap closest to the mound in the picture above). Despite having stones in my hand I needed to quickly check some things and got my iPhone out to use the Starwalk app to find out where stars and constellations were positioned at that moment. I was standing in the power centreA place where a person of a particular alignmentAlignment relates to the concept that humans have their own energy fields that are oriented or formed in a specific way such that the person is either suited better to one energy source of another. Some people have their energy fields empowered by the direct subtle energy force of The Sun, whilst others are empowered by the indirect subtle energy of The Moon. Due to the historical associations and symbolisation of The Sun with masculinity and The Moon with femininity we designate these alignments as either being ‘male’ or ‘female’ alignments accordingly. We interchangeable refer to people as being ‘sun-aligned’ or ‘male-aligned’ and similarly with the female alignment. (see ‘AlignmentAlignment relates to the concept that humans have their own energy fields that are oriented or formed in a specific way such that the person is either suited better to one energy source of another. Some people have their energy fields empowered by the direct subtle energy force of The Sun, whilst others are empowered by the indirect subtle energy of The Moon. Due to the historical associations and symbolisation of The Sun with masculinity and The Moon with femininity we designate these alignments as either being ‘male’ or ‘female’ alignments accordingly. We interchangeable refer to people as being ‘sun-aligned’ or ‘male-aligned’ and similarly with the female alignment.’) feels particularly comfortable and empowered. The place is an energetic centre where a particularly beneficial combination and formation of energies is formed into a pattern that is harmonic with the person for whom it can be called a power centre. (where Kal’s stood in the picture) facing the entrance to the timber circle. Which stars or planets aligned with this entrance….why, Neptune of course! The planet associated with the gods of water. Ever after the green stone became known as The Neptune Stone.

Standing in the timber circle I began a process of cleansing and clearing – removing the detritus of this world, the energetic rubbish that we all accumulate around us by passing through strong electromagnetic signals and other energetic influences that we pass through and by during our normal day. Luckily, if you live in the country or in Ireland there is much less ‘stuff’ to accumulate! The ritual is similar to the kind of purification rituals performed by druid types of my ilk who perform group rituals and the like. For me, it is a purely energetic cleansing. For some, they prefer to include a physical cleansing involving some form of washing in spring water or bathing. Whatever floats your candle, and lights your incense.

One of the things I found interesting was to find that, in each of the sensory-deprivation chambers the initiate would have to spend three days. The best three days for the process would be the three days of the Full Moon in each month.

Mapping the Transformation Sites

Having got myself attuned to the Knowth site again, cleansed and powered-up I wandered back over the Kal who had been off dowsing around while I was ‘dallying’. I had asked the dowsing rods to take me to a place that had an energy form that I had not encountered before. A big ask, possibly, but I remained hopeful. As we passed each other Kal said cryptically, “Interesting energies there.” and pointed to a small raised grass embankment shaped like a teardrop. I registered his words but was busy following my primary objective – to go to a place with a new energy quality or form. The rods continued on their wavy course and took me round to the very place that Kal had nodded to. Damn him! He’s always right! I’ll cover what I found in sequence with the rest of the parts of the Knowth site because it fits better in context.

At the place that Kal had pointed to I found some cool stuff to do with attuning the heart chakra. Following on from this I went around the site finding which other parts of the site could be used for which chakras. There was a centre of a particular place and type of space for each chakra, but the heart chakra seemed to be the strongest.

In this next section I will show you what I think each of the unusual parts of the site might have been used for in terms of The Initiate and their spiritual transformation process.

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Mists of time

As with many stories on this site, the origin is in the mists of time and experience (the mist being about two years in duration but a lot has happened since then).

A place to start is at Arbor Low. We were visiting this site one evening when we discovered a new phenomena, that of arcing energy. We were dowsing around and had found an energy trail to follow. This was nothing new as we were quite good with locating and following energy trails by this time in our development. As we followed these trails around the site, I think it was Gwas who asked does this energy go under the ground? The answer was no. It was the first time we had explored the idea of energies flowing underground. Until this time we had assumed that they flowed above or on the ground. Gwas then asked, does it flow through the air? The answer was a surprising yes. We had discovered our first energy arc.

It was a completely new discovery and you might ask, what prompted us to ask the question? It is a good question, and one we ask ourselves too!

We didn’t think much on the idea of arcing energies other than to trot them out when ruminating on theories and speculations over coffee (and now since Borders bookstore sans coffee house has closed, Apple pudding with custard).

Complex arcs

I digress. Arcing energies came across our radar again when we were at Kerry Hill the day was sunny but windy. We had trekked some distance to get to this small sacred site, but the trip proved well worth it.

Here I think it was my turn to re-energise our interest in arcing energies. At this site we found many arcing energies going both under and overground too. From stone to stone along the perimeter of the circle as well as arcing in to a center stone.

Gwas was busy mapping other energies of the site, so I was keeping myself busy puzzling over the complex interplay of these arcing energies. To be honest the complexity was overwhelming. It was like being given free reign in a massive toy shop filled with toys that were not only new to me but were magial too.

For a few days after this site visit I tried in vane to create a diagram of the energies we had found. At such times I think it would be worth while having an artist on board so that we can have an artist impression of some of these fantastic and beautiful findings. The above pic is the nearest I could find to it – interesting that it is quite close to being like a magnetic field.

Again though, arcing energies went of our radar as other less complex phenomena played with our time.

Neutral arc

It was only a couple of months ago that Gwas’s interest was directed at neutral energies. You will have to see his extensive posts on these to discover the how and why of this and the what of his findings. For here what is important is that in exploring neutral energies he came to understand that arcs were composed of neutral energy.

Note: I am not saying that all the arcs we found previously are neutral. What I am saying that he found and followed a small neutral energy flow and then discovered that it was an arc rather than a flow along the ground.

From his discovery, I took up the reins and followed it up to find out more about these arcs.

Now that we know what to look for, at several sites we have found arcs of neutral energy. The following are not rules, just a set of descriptions…

• When in stone circles the arcs or on the circumference of the circle.
• There seems to be some correlation between the distance between the arc and its height.
• Arcs are not continuous energy, rather they are intermittent, this frequency is quite fast, less than a second.
• In some sites, arcs are designated as “entrances” which have corresponding “exits” – we will look at what for in a later post.
• In some arcs, there is a flow of neutral energy outward from the sacred site. this is a “hot of the press” finding and we think that these might be paths of Ley Lines.

The above is not even close to definitive. I have only just begun to delve into arcing energies over the last month or so, doesn’t seem long does it? But Gwas and I are prolific explorers and in that time we have found arcs at the following sites:

1. Arbor Low
2. Dol tor
3. Mitchells Fold
4. 9 stones close
5. Nine ladies
6. Druids circle
7. Little druid
8. Dinas Bran

We definitely need to go back to Kerry Hill and take a fresh look at the energies there because that place seems to have different neutral arcs to the other places we have explored.

As mentioned above, more on “entrance” and “exit” arcs in the following post by me, titled – “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.” – interesting huh?

Kal

Anglesey, 1st February 2010   

In the concluding part of our journey around Anglesey’s south-western corner for Imbolc we visited some of the sites that we had passed many times in our travels, but had never actually visited. We re-visited one site though – one of the Ty Mawr stones – in order to rectify a problem. The conclusion to the journey was at a cromlech (or dolmen) called Bodowyr, which was beautifully located, but sadly hemmed in by iron fencing again.   

Castell Bryn-gwyn (White or Blessed Hill)   

Castell Bryngwyn turns out not to be a castle at all, but a sacred space (or “religious sanctuary” as the information sign calls it) that was apparently later fortified by the Romans. It is named Blessed Hill or White Hill, but given that is was a sacred space I would plump for the interpretation ‘blessed’. Especially given our findings as to the way it has been used before it became fortified by that war-like race The Romans.   

Sacred castle without ramparts

The earthwork that remains is a two-thirds circle that has three visible entry points. In order from the entry gate they dowsed as being the Moon Entrance (the widest and clearest), the Sun Entrance ( a hollow depression) and a Star Entrance. The Star entrance was the most intriguing. I spent a bit of time working this one out and come to the conclusion that the entrance was aligned with the planet Venus when it appeared in the western sky. The most energetic time, therefore, is when Venus is in the western skies and the Moon is full. Some star energy and a sun alignmentAlignment relates to the concept that humans have their own energy fields that are oriented or formed in a specific way such that the person is either suited better to one energy source of another. Some people have their energy fields empowered by the direct subtle energy force of The Sun, whilst others are empowered by the indirect subtle energy of The Moon. Due to the historical associations and symbolisation of The Sun with masculinity and The Moon with femininity we designate these alignments as either being ‘male’ or ‘female’ alignments accordingly. We interchangeable refer to people as being ‘sun-aligned’ or ‘male-aligned’ and similarly with the female alignment., possibly a solstice or equinox sunrise or sunset, are also part of the energy imprint of this place. However, its primary purpose seems oriented towards the lunar occasions – the full moons.   

A wide open space

We went looking for the most energetic place within this earth-worked arena. I say this ironically, because Kal was lounging on the ridge at the time throwing suggestions out whenever the mood took him. I dowsed to the most energetic place – it was a double-humped spot, like two grassy faerie rings together. I had seen something similar but much larger and more rounded at Carnac in Brittany. Kal shouted over: “Is it an altar?“. I used to dowsing rods to check this theory: yes, it was. A strong reaction to that idea. The altar was towards the rear of the site, slightly off-centre.   

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Anglesey – 1st February 2010   

Kal and I journeyed to Anglesey for Imbolc. I had dowsed a map of the entire country with the instruction to find a suitable place to celebrate this Celtic festival – the mid-point between Winter and Spring. The result was Anglesey. Anglesey? We had been there several times previously, and only a few months ago, but still, of all the places in the country the rods could have crossed over it was this small but sacred island – the last refuge of the Druid cults of mainland Britain.   

We had both set intentions as to what we wanted out of the journey – such was the nature of this year’s work: we would be visiting sites with a set idea of what we were hoping to achieve. This is what we had been told at the end of last year as we moved into the quiet time of Winter – Nature can only help us progress now if we state what our purpose is. Ask to be guided and we would only receive more questions. Ask to be led and we would be led back onto ourselves. It was up to us to make our own progress by stating our goal, then Nature would help us to achieve this.  

My intention for the year is to learn about the three elements of the “yew stage” of druidry that I believe are inherent to developing to the next stage. Those elements are: re-awakening (or rebirth) – death (or death energy) – transformation (or transcendence). My intention for this Imbolc day was to learn what I could about any of these processes, whichever was most appropriate. As it turned out the process that was associated with the day was re-awakening, specifically the re-awakening of the earth energies from their Winter slumber.  

 I planned a route that would take us to all of the sites that we hadn’t visited before that lay scattered around the shores of the River Braint – a river whose named was derived from the name Brigid. Brigid, as you will undoubtedly know, is the form of the Triple Goddess (the archetype of the feminine in Nature) that is associated with the festival of Imbolc.   

“On February 1 or February 2, Brigid is celebrated at the Gaelic festival of Imbolc, when she brings the first stirrings of spring to the land. Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox Christians, and some Anglicans mark the day as the Feast of Saint Brigid; the festival is also known as Candlemas and Purification of the Virgin.” (source: WikiPedia)   

As this was the only place on the island that I could find such an association it seemed the natural place to begin our day’s journey in praise of her properties. Only when I came to look at a map of the river did I realise that neolithic man had also decided that this area was special, and had built several sacred sites along its shores. These were all sites that somehow, despite our many previous visits over the years, we had managed to either bypass or skirt around. Now seemed like the appropriate time to actually visit them at last.   

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