It is not very often that Kal and I go on a wild goose chase. We are usually quite well prepared, and we have technology to back us up. More often than not we have hard copies of bits of Ordnance Survey maps accompanied by copious notes. For our journey into Devon, however, we had none of that and were utterly reliant upon a good internet connection, and the usually good advice of Aubrey Burl’s ‘Guide to Stone Circles’.

Let me please advise anyone planning a journey into Devon – neither of these sources is going to be good enough if the rains come down, the mist rolls in, and fog settles on the moors! We wasted a full day in persistent foggy drizzle and lashing rain traipsing back and forth trying to follow vague directions and a high level map that didn’t include most megalithic sites. Poor preparation, and we paid for it. By the end of the first day in Devon we had all but given up hope of finding a stone circle with relatively good access that was in good condition, despite having a list of at least four candidates! A dismal day.

All that was about to change, however, as we moved towards Cornwall. Bless lovely Cornwall! I picked a site that was at least marked as a tourist attraction on my high-level map, and we decided to attempt to make that our destination for a night-time visit. Yes, despite missing stone circles in the fog and mist in the day time, we were prepared to venture out into the fog and mist at night, expecting to find Trevethy Quoit! Were we mad? Luckily for us, fate lent us a hand and we were guided in using all the techno equipment we could muster!

Trevethy Quoit just as I sketched it yesterday

Scanning the site

Once we got some space to dowse when the local village dog-walkers had retired for the evening, we did so. I went about finding the energetic aura of the site, which was about thirty feet around the site, although I didn’t follow it all the way around to where the houses backed onto the site. It may have flattened there, I don’t know. I’m lax – slap me! (“Hi Lax, you’re a slacker” – *SLAP*).

Before things got interesting I dowsed to see if there was any form of energetic entity in the area. I have been practising putting up protection recently so I wanted to know if I needed to do that here too. Apparently I did need to, for a couple of reasons. Firstly, Kal had found a male 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. and I found out that I wasn’t compatible with that and that it was wise for me to protect my energies in such circumstances. This seems to be generally true – I am moon-aligned (i.e. compatible with female energy forms) and so if I encounter a site which has a male energy signature I have found out that it is sensible for me to protect my energy field from degradation, depletion or attack.

Death energy path to quoit entrance

Another good reason or me to put up protection was that there was an energetic shroudAs coined by Kal after reading the definitions of C.W.Leadbeater – the early 20th Century mystic. Leadbeater considered that man, when he died, could become stuck in a “ShadeA shade is the energy body of a human being that has become transfixed at a geographical location. The shade retains many of the qualities of the human that it was attached to (memories, character traits, a level of sentience, movement between places known in life).” – an energetic shell that would retain many of the characteristics of the human in his physical life. It is frequently taken to be what is termed a ‘ghost’ but although it has a certain amount of sentience, it would seem to be limited in terms of its ability to move from the space within which it has anchored itself. It must be stated – it is NOT the person who has died – it is a remainder copy that contains the memories and characteristics of the original energetic fields of the human, but now has no physical organism to work with. (or ShadeA shade is the energy body of a human being that has become transfixed at a geographical location. The shade retains many of the qualities of the human that it was attached to (memories, character traits, a level of sentience, movement between places known in life).) that was still registering an energetic imprint on the site. This death energy form was buried at a spot facing down the hill from the quoit, but it had a series of five linked male power centres which curved in a parabolic sweep right up to the entrance of the quoit’s inner space. This death energy was still active and could be utilising whatever went on inside the quoit to persist and replenish its own energy. I wasn’t going to be party to that! I had recently been reminded about protection and this was a good opportunity for me to re-visit an old mental routine for establishing that protection. I could have used a crystal layout but I prefer to be able to do things mentally if possible, using crystals as a last resort only if the mental space is too crowded (from noise or other distractions). The dowsing rods led me outside of the site’s aura as a safe space within which to set this protection up, and I did so gratefully.

The Sirius Meditation

TQ in sunlight - possibly the only photograph in existence

I will be publishing a post soon with lots more detail about the information I have discovered about the star Sirius, but for now let’s just say I had some questions that I still needed answers to because it was a difficult subject to take on board without boggling the brain. With the Moon almost full I squeezed into the quoit’s cramped inner dark space in order to connect with the site and get some answers. Four sticks of incense were required to help me. In such a small space that was quite pungent!

TQ's rabbit hole

Fifteen minutes later I emerged with some interesting information that would challenge many of the assumptions that I had read about and which many magicians take for granted, especially natural magicians. Such a series of assertions was going to have to be well researched and considered, but I want to give you the highlights so that you can be considering your own questions to bring to the Sirius post. Hopefully I will have managed to weave together enough information by then to make it all coherent and intelligible. For now, here is what I learned for you to think about, challenge and test for yourselves:-

• It is Sirius, not The Moon, which governs the forces of fertility and protection
• Sirius emits a powerful radiance which facilitates the process of enlightenment for humans – the frequency of its rays resonate with our ethericSomething tangible to the heightened senses, but invisible and beyond the normal range of everyday human senses. We use the term to describe the subtle energies that surround the human body. We also use the term “etheric” to describe the energy forms of Nature’s sentient spirit energies that can be detected through dowsing, or through deep meditation or states of heightened awareness. energy points known as chakras.
• Sirius is a strong force radiating blue light which resonates with our throat chakras, facilitating communication. More so than Mercury is supposed to.
• Above all, Sirius’ light is a motivational force – it is the impulse that drives humans to learn. The more aware and open a person is to the forces of Sirius then the more they are motivated to learn and grow mentally and spiritually.

That was the information gleaned from the first site visit in Cornwall. I have three more to post including The Hurlers, The Cheesewring and Tintagel Castle. Hope you enjoy them soon.

Gwas.

This is the last, final and ultimate post on this year’s Ireland trip. We only went for a weekend but it has generated so many posts because so much happened in the three days we were there! This is the last one, and probably the one that taught us the most valuable lesson, even though that lesson was once again a painful one. 

On the Sunday evening we had discussed what we should do the next day. Kal wanted to show me a bookshop he had discovered at Tara and said that I would be interested in talking to the proprietor. Sounded good, so that was our plan. Monday morning over breakfast I had forgotten all about that for some reason. Only later would the reason be known to me - by that time I had attracted the unwelcome attention of a leprechaun from Tara. I was no longer making sensible decisions, as the events of this day and Kal’s behaviour towards me would bear out completely. 

 

 
 We had trouble finding the village for starters. A seemingly easy route that would take us most of the way towards the Ferry Terminal at Dun Laoghaire, and yet we managed to make it very difficult to find. We parked miles away from the supposed location of the portal tomb, and decided to walk what seemed a simple route to access it. Again, nothing about this day would turn out to be easy. We walked up tiny tracks (barely roads) past houses that weren’t marked on my GPS map, and were always being diverted and lead away from our intended destination! How frustrating! We persevered, climbing over a gate to follow an overgrown track alongside a field lined by prickly hawthorn hedges. Now we could at least see the dolmen, perched on the opposite hillside to where we were, only a few tantalising fields widths away from where we were. Surely this track would lead us there? No. It ended, and we were presented with a small hole in the hawthorn through which we might be able to squeeze if we wanted to. Does this sound familiar? Kal sounded a warning shot across the bows! I urged us closer and we scrambled through into a field in the full heat of the midday sun. Sweat broke out, and we paused for breath. Then onwards in a curious silence across the field. 

Next we fought our way through two fields, crossing a stream on the way between them. Somehow Kalmanaged to fall into it and get his feet wet! At the end of the field we were a mere hedge’s width away from reaching a road that looked like it could only lead to the dolmen. However – it was a hedge that even a Hedge Druid balks at – Red Rum would have thought twice about leaping this one! However, something was driving me on without any thought of sense and I urged Kal to use the old martial artist’s trick ‘walking lightly’ – this is where one imagines one is light as a feather and walks accordingly. Honestly, once mastered you’d be astounded by what this can achieve. As with dowsing, the trick is not to think at all about what you’re doing - just believe that you can do it. Next thing you know I was walking on top of the hedge and leaping down to the side of the road. Kal went next and immediately plunged knee deep into the prickly hawthorn branches! Honestly, I almost stifled my laugh, but not completely. Kalwas beginning to get annoyed at this journey now. Like I wasn’t?!! We were both sweating cobs, and Kal was wet and lacerated into the bargain. Hmm….still we were almost there now….only a few hundred feet to go. 

The Kilternan Dolmen 

Sure enough, a few short minutes later we were alongside the open field where the dolmen say resplendent in the summer sunshine. I was drawn towards it, passing under the electric wire that was designed to keep the one or two small horses that grazed the field in check. Kal faltered. He wouldn’t pass the electric barrier and retreated giving me stern looks. I was away, however, taking his reticence for a bad mood after the hedge-scraping incident. I shouted back at him -’I'll do some quick dowsing and then we can get off’. But it wasn’t going to be as simple as that. 

Kal retired to a boulder next to the road and began to take an interest in the horses that were wandering down towards him. I, on the other hand, had my dowsing rods out and was eager to check this hard-won site out:- 

1. Was there energy here? YES. Good, because I was concerned about the use of concrete pillars to support the capstone and whether this had affected the energies.
2. Had the power of the site been adversely affected by the concrete pillars? YES. But some energy remained? YES.
3. Was it beneficial energy? YES, sort of. That half yes response again which meant – “re-formulate your question slightly“.
4. Was it beneficial to me? YES. Was it beneficial to Kal? NO. Oh! Perhaps he had intuitively recognised that?
5. Could I do some energy work here? YES.
6. Did the site need healing? NO. Was it balanced? YES. Hmmm…then what to do….?
7. Was there a spirit of place here? NO. Did there used to be one? YES.
8. Is the cave-like interior suitable for shaping my aura? YES. Could I do that today? YES.
9. Would that process be helped by incense? YES. How many sticks? 3. I lit three sticks and went to sit inside the dolmen’s small interior.

Minutes later I was imagining the seven colours of the chakras I had been working with all integrating into my aura as one white light. The shape of the interior seemed to facilitate this intuitive imagining, and I felt like it helped to compress the various frequencies of light and colour into the one blended layer. I felt…integrated with myself and satisfied. I emerged to re-join Kal to see if he was over his strange mood. 

Kal was his usual smiley self again, but tinged with an air of suspicion. Apparently he had been talking with the horses (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., more like) and they had confirmed to him that he should not approach this dolmen – the message he got was ‘Haven’t you learned?‘ implying that his suspicions about the actions of an impish spirit were correct. I told Kal that my dowsing rods confirmed that the site wasn’t suitable for him. He said we shouldn’t have come here, and I scoffed at him. ‘But Kal, I did some lovely work there’, I said. Even if I had felt a little uneasy about how we’d got here I was convinced it had been worthwhile. 

An uneasy silence broke out and we considered practical matters – the ferry was leaving in just over an hour and Kilternan was about twenty minutes away from the ferry terminal. If we wanted to ensure we got on that ferry we should leave now and forget about the second site I had planned to visit. That just wasn’t going to happen. All we had to do now was get to the car and drive to the ferry port in light weekend traffic. We didn’t fancy heading back the way we had come, so I got out my GPS unit and searched for the easiest, shortest route. We should simply follow the track we were on – down the hill – and it would lead to a path through a wood that would bring us close to the village. Sorted. Off we marched, glad to be heading home at last.

A Series of Unfortunate Events

We walked down the track heading down and round the hill upon which the dolmen stood. As we rounded the corner we caught a view of the village of Kilternan in the valley below, surely only a matter of fifteen minutes walk away if we could go directly. We passed a small side road down which a man with a pickup truck was loading what looked like plastic piping. He stopped and looked at us sternly but didn’t say a word. We hurried our walk a little and avoided his gaze. Clearly we may not be welcome on this path and the quicker we got off it and back to the village the better!

The path got very steep and seemed to head towards a house that was being built. Then the pickup truck was alongside us and it stopped. A window wound down and an interrogation ensued – ‘What are you lads doing here? How did you get in here? Where are you going?‘- we muddled through some vague polite answers and the lad in the truck decided it wasn’t worth arguing over and drove on with a warning ringing in our ears, ‘Well, you’d better get off this land as soon as you can. It’s private property.‘ and he sped off down the hill to the new house being built. That was exactly what we were trying to do! Get out of here! We hurried along until we reached the end of the track. It stopped at the new house. There was nowhere else to go!! Now what? We trudged begrudgingly back up the very steep hill. We’d have to go back the way we came in. Damn – time was ticking away now! We had about an hour until the ferry sailed and we were no nearer the car!

As we walked up the hill, for some unknown reason, Kal picked up a large heavy branch that lay at the side of the road. In high spirits he threw the branch high into the air. I stood open-mouthed and aghast – hadn’t he seen the car parked in the tiny lay by just above him, and which was now on an inevitable collision course with a huge heavy branch? BANG! The branch hit the car roof and we both flinched. Wha…how….didn’t he….? My pace doubled or trebled as I berated him. Was he trying to get us killed? We scuttled away up the hill in double time, calves tight with the steepness of the hill.

Moments later an estate car came towards us down the hill. Hey, perhaps he’d pass on by? No. Stopped. Window down. Same interrogation sequence. As we protested our innocence, ‘We’d only come to see the dolmen!’ the man stepped out of his car. ‘I’ll show you the way out.’ he said brusquely and marched off up the hill. We guessed we had to follow him and did so in silence. This was not a man who wanted to chat! He marched us up the hill like The Grand Old Duke of York and then pointed at a vague hole between hawthorn trees and lined with barbed wire. ‘Go through that hole, up to the path, and carry on to the right. You’ll come to the road soon enough.’ he said. We hurried along to the ‘gap’ and engineered a way though the barbed wire, happy to be given a way out.

We passed horses in the field who eyed us equally suspiciously. This was turning quite sour! The track at the top of that field only lead us in one direction – away from Kilternan! Still, if we could make the road we could get back quickly, and we’d have to be quick now. Less than an hour until the ferry sailed. We marched quickly int he heat of the midday sun, sweating and grumbling about narrow escapes and leprechaun holes and stupid ideas and the implications of missing the only ferry home.

One field turned into another, which then became a house with a set of stables attached. A girl on a horse was astounded to find us passing through a gate on her farm and we confirmed with her the direction of the nearest road. She pointed it out but didn’t smile. Nice. What fun we were having. As we walked along the long driveway of the house a dog raced out of the house towards us barking madly. We scuttled through the outer gate and closed it, rushing now to the road where we could hear cars passing. Civilisation at last! Fifty minutes until the ferry. We stopped for a route check. The GPS said there was a road nearby that would take us straight down the hill, past the gold course, and then a mile or so to the car. OK – if we ran we could make it. So we ran.

We ran down the hill to the road junction where we were met with a sign: “Road closed“. Yeah, but that only means to cars, right? We walked down the incredibly steep hill, joking that we hoped we wouldn’t have to go back up because that would really screw things up. We laughed…all the way until we saw the entire road blocked by diggers and trucks. There was no way through! We resigned ourselves to climbing back up the incredibly steep hill in the midday sun. Now we were tired AND dehydrated AND we needed a new route! There was one, but it would take us into the next town, which was two miles away from the car!! We had 45 minutes left. We ran down the hill to the other town.

Once in the town we didn’t stop running. We had to make two miles in less than fifteen minutes if we were to give ourselves a chance of making that ferry. We had 40 minutes until it sailed, we were two miles from the car, and the car was about 20 minutes from the ferry terminal. And we had run out of water. We ran along the now flat road, thankful for small mercies. We reached the car exhausted, sweating profusely, our clothes soaked with sweat, and with no time ot spare. Air conditioning went on and we zoomed off to the ferry. Ten miles – twenty minutes. It was a favourable equation. Until we tried to follow the ferry signs. Signs in Ireland don’t work the way they do in England. In England signs are everywhere. In Ireland they are only indicating a general direction. You are sort of expected to know where you’re going after a couple of hints. We didn’t and got lost. Then we hit a diversion! We were in Dun Laoghaire town, following a diversion we knew not where, with no ferry signs, no street map, and waiting for the GPS to find 76 satellites before it will tell us where the ferry is! We have ten minutes until it sails! Once again, we were sweating.

The GPS locked on and Kal asked one of the most stupid questions of the day. “Is this ferry terminal on this map the right one?” YES, YES, quickly!! Where is it!! Left, right, then right again, then left at the lights, etc etc. We zoomed off. We arrived at the back of the queue just as it was beginning to move forwards to embark. We had made it with only seconds to go thanks to some nifty under-pressure map-reading from Kal! Phew.

On the ferry we recounted the amazing number of obstructions thrown in our path that day and laughed a nervous laugh. Still, at least we were going home now, and there were no fiendish leprechauns where we lived…….little did I know then what I found out later! The mischief-making was far from over! On the ferry I kept repeating a new mantra developed from this experience, ‘No new sites that don’t have a path. No new sites that don’t have a path. I will not visit any new sites that don’t have a clear access path on public land. No new sites that don’t have a path.’ and I have stuck to that since. Lesson learned. Oh, and Julian Cope’s “Megalithic European” guide is now hopelessly out of date! There may ahve been access to some of these sites at one time, but now they have all been built upon by Ireland’s recentl housing boom. Access is trickier now!

The greater lesson from this is not to take visits to sacred sites in Ireland lightly when you are an energy worker. If you plan to interact with them in any meaningful way,t hen please, heed our advice: put up a huge amount of protection. Carry wards, amulets, whatever works for you. Smudge, burn incense, scribe glyphs, light candles. Arrange crystals. Do what you need to do to protect yourself! You do not want to fall foul of the kinds of unhelpful spirits that some site in Ireland contain. No doubt other places do too, I’m not singling Ireland out, but it does seem to be particularly prone to this. Take this as a cautionary tale!

Gwas

As we returned to the car from the Visitor’s Centre Kal reminded me about my ash staff. When should we go and see if it was still there? Well, as it was early afternoon I guess now would be a good time, less than 24 hours after I left it at the Castleruddery stone circle. Or at least, that’s where I hoped I had left it! Otherwise it was lost. I was utterly resigned to that idea. Remember, none of these material items is invaluable. None. All things come and go. Some things have their own path once inbued with sentience. Perhaps the staff and I had parted ways and someone else way now using it? It mattered little, yet I was willing to go back to the other side of Dublin, a good two hour drive, just in case it was still there. Hey – there were sites down the N81 that we hadn’t seen yet, so….nothing to lose, right?

When we arrived I vaulted the stile and raced to the Castleruddery circle – I could see the staff still propped up against the old ash tree that lined the circle’s embankment. Yeah, like I wasn’t bothered or anything? Right! I was relieved to have it back. We decided to see what else was in the area and for some reason we thought that a cluster of sites atop a hill in the nearby town of Baltinglass would be a good thing to go and see, even though there was no obvio9us way to access them. We entered the town of Baltinglass apprehensively and Kal was told off for using the toilets in a pub. Good start! There was an odd feel to this town, and no mistake. Both of us were on edge and flustered for some unknown reason.

We couldn’t find a good place to park or access the track or path that led up the hill to the ancient sites so we parked at the bottom of a lane that led to a farm. At every few turns of the track were signs warning us that we were on farm land, not a public highway or byway. Which we ignored. We checked the farmhouse for signs of life so that we could ask permission, but all was quiet, so we made our way quietly over a gate into a field populated with bulls, and then another with sheep. All the while we were climbing steadily up this steep slope, and the sun was getting hotter.

Conifer forest and steep slope above Baltinglass

We headed for a corner of the field away from the farmhouse – feeling guilty for not having obtained permission to cross the land. We reached a corner of a field where there was an unreasonably tall wall – some 8 feet high! We found what appeared to be a hole in the corner of the wall, and if we climbed and pushed ourselves through the gorse and bramble we could climb through and get into the safety of the forest where we wouldn’t be seen going up the hill.

The forest was made up of densely packed fir trees, old tall gorse bushes and old and thorny brambles. We tried to find and pick our way through a path through the plantation as best we could and about half way in we reached several dead ends and were forced to consider turning back. Despite sweating like crazy and being torn to shreds we pushed onwards – the GPS telling us how far we still had to go. It was the countdown to hell! After 30 minutes of fighting with the forest we broke free into the daylight again breathing sighs of relief and trying to cool down. We turned to each other saying things like “I never want to go through THAT again!”

At this point Kal realised he had lost his dowsing rods!!! The only pair he had brought with him on the trip. He was clearly gutted. We vowed to go find them if we could, but didn’t relish going back into the forest, and to retrace our steps was impossible. We oddly made the decision, in the heat of the middle of the day, to continue climbing UP the massively steep slope towards the top of the hill. After all, we were almost half way up!

What to see on Baltinglass Hill

Looking over Baltinglass, County Wicklow

We were on a really steep track like that up to Llandrillo, but made of mud not tarmac. As we finally reached the top, another half hour later – we found the hill fort ringed by a huge wide wall of boulder. After clambering somwewhat precariously inside we found the site littered, almost literally, with the remains of  some burial chambers – mostly damaged and strewn, and cluttered with water and pop bottles. Nice! We dowsed to see if there was anything useful up there – not a single thing. In fact, it was detrimental for us to remain there for any length of time so we were forced to leave rather quickly!

A curious altar within a chambered tomb atop Baltinglass

Solitary standing stone above Baltinglass

A Swift Return to Hell

On the way back down we found an abandoned small tent, like everything else around there it was randomly strewn around and in poor shape. Looked like someone had though that this hill might be good for camping, but had been disabused of that idea so quickly that they had to flee leaving the tent to its own fate! Another strange sign of destruction and a portent of doom that added to our growing unease. We headed down the back of the forest to see if we could connect with the point where we had entered it and see if Kal had dropped his rods right at the beginning;. A fruitless search began which yielded, as expected, nothing. As I sat ont he tal wall listening to Kal getting scratched and lashed a thought came to me – this was the work of a leprechaun. We had crossed into a leprechaun’s territory, and he had stolen Kal’s rods! Our story, as I played it back, was so filled with portent, so akin to the tales I had read in childhood of the activities of the Little People, so much a tale of woe and warning – what else could it be? I told Kal what I thought and he laughed, but not in a dismissive way, in a nervous way!

We moved through a field of bulls which woudl lead us back to the field through which we oculd reach the town again. Iwarned Kal not to stare at them or make a noise, but regardless of that the bulls began to charge us! We high-tailed it over the nearest low-point in the barbed-wire fence at a gap in the hawthorn trees, but were faced with the awful task of having to leap a six-foot a ditch which held three stinking rotting corpses of sheep and a cow – putrid with the sun’s activity, and making our nostrils reek of foul vapours! We almost retched but leapt over (just makign the five foot jump) and hurried down the hill for the corner and the gate to the trackway and freedom. We tried to climb quietly over the gate again past the farmhouse, but now the owner must have returned because three dogs set off barking and we had to run back to the car, sweating and panicky again.

This was the hell of our worst experience of dowsing ever. What lessons could we learn from this? Only one – when the warning signs are presented, and you have the option to heed them, be sensible and heed the advice! If Nature ways “turn back” then bloody well do it or face the awful consequences!!

Gwas.

On the morning of Saturday 29th May I roped Kal into one of my crazy ideas. We would spend the next two days on a modern pilgrimage, just like we had done at Glastonbury the year before. We would find a starting point and then let the dowsing rods direct us from site to site. For me, I would set my intention for this pilgrimage to be to work on each of the seven chakras and to see what came out of trying to do that. For Kal, he would just do what he does – see what happened at each place and go with it. So, with the help of the iMegalith iPhone application and my SatNav system we trekked off to the starting point, which I had determined would be a henge and mound close to Four Knocks.

We didn’t get very far trying to find the henge and mound. The mound was visible in a farmer’s field, but the supposed henge had been… well, let’s assume it was removed and ploughed out of existence! Not a good start. Was there anywhere else we could pick up the quest? Our dowsing showed that nearby Four Knocks would be suitable. As soon as we got the rods crossing we kind of knew that this had actually been the right place all along, but something had been preventing us from dowsing that from afar. We sort of had to be in the area to zoom in on it. Perhaps we had prevented ourselves from ‘finding’ Four Knocks prior to actually being there because we knew you had to obtain a key in order to get in? Who knows. We obtained the said key (by the way – the directions are not very clear – but we found the house eventually and got the key by leaving a small deposit with a nice lady) and went to discover this famous mound’s secrets and begin a quest.

Entrance to Four Knocks

We opened the iron door up (iron – aaargh!!) and began to settle in. I needed some stuff from the car that I had forgotten, and by the time I got back to the mound it was swarming with a minibus-load of tourists from various parts of the world – America, Japan, Australia….all over. Their guide had clearly gone off to get the key without realising that we already had it. Ten minutes later he was in the mound beginning his guided tour of the place, which I earwigged into, of course. Hey – it was free for me to listen!! And jolly interesting it was too, although I could see Kal twitch every now and again, and I was biting my tongue at some of the speculative leaps the guide was making to fill the gaps in the archaeology with fantasy and pure imagination. He was very careful to preface everything with “My guess would be...”, or “Perhaps they might have…”, and even in the dim light I occasionally caught Kal swinging his dowsing rods behind the guide, shaking his head as though to say, “Nope!” It’s funny how dowsing can sometimes make you feel quite confident about being able to find out hidden knowledge, and yet later in the day that confidence would be completely reversed, but we’ll come to that in a later tale.

I don’t know if this is the traditional position but at Four Knocks we have the female on top and the male underneath. Yes, on top of the rounded mound there was female energy all over it. All around the outside of the mound was a male 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., waving and running around in a sunwise direction. Kal was spending quite a time outside, pacing around and around, working something out, but I decided to get myself inside to take some pictures of the rock carvings and to try to work out what I might have to do to work on my Root Chakra – the first part of my modern pilgrimage. That was the intention, but instead Four Knocks had its own agenda for working my chakras!! I will explain in a moment.

Inside there was more than the usual amount of decoration. Many of the swirling circular shapes were familiar to us, but there was an abundance of zig-zag lines and lozenge shapes carved into the lintels of the recesses in the mound that seemed to be quite unique to this particular chamber, or at least rarely seen in such quantity elsewhere.

Zig-zag lintel decoration at Four Knocks

Three is the magic number

The inner chamber is slightly egg-shaped and has three recesses that are large enough to contain a seated person comfortably. I lit some candles around the chamber to brighten the natural light that comes in through three carefully oriented slots that highlight the three recesses. The United Nations of Tourism had gone off to be uninterested in the next site that was on their checklist, so we had the place to ourselves. In fact, I had the chamber to myself because Kal was still getting answers to life, the universe and everything outside.

Dowsing inside I had the feeling I should look for the symbol or formation of the spirit of the place. I began to trace this symbol and found that it was quite familiar. As I drew the path I had taken around the floor I recognised it as being a triple-headed spiral formation. It was intriguing. Was this an astrologically-aligned or in some way linked to some astrological body? It was! I asked “Take me to a spot that has an astrological alignmentAlignment relates to the concept that humans have their own energy fields that are oriented or formed in a specific way such that the person is either suited better to one energy source of another. Some people have their energy fields empowered by the direct subtle energy force of The Sun, whilst others are empowered by the indirect subtle energy of The Moon. Due to the historical associations and symbolisation of The Sun with masculinity and The Moon with femininity we designate these alignments as either being ‘male’ or ‘female’ alignments accordingly. We interchangeable refer to people as being ‘sun-aligned’ or ‘male-aligned’ and similarly with the female alignment.!” and I ended up spiralling on one of the three spiral heads. Which planet was it aligned to? The Moon. I repeated this questioning process for the other two spirals and they turned out to be aligned to The Sun and Uranus, which was a bit of a surprise. I don’t think I’ve ever dowsed anything as being aligned to Uranus before. Most unusual.

My next ploy was to find out whether any of these spirals was connected energetically to anything else. Each spiral head took me to one of the three alcoves.

The Fertility Ritual

The question now arose about how this chamber had been used by the people who had built it. It was obvious to me that it had a modern roof and that originally the mound may have been uncovered and open to the stars to which I had just found 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.. The dowsing rods were leading me into a train of thought that was beginning to get an inkling of what the conditions may have needed to be for this site to operate: a day in which the Sun, the Moon and Uranus were present in the sky at the same time? It was more specific than that, even. The only days during which this site was active, according to the dowsing rods, was the three day period when the Moon was at its fullest.

With the conditions established I decided to try the place out. After all, what was the worst that could happen? Nothing. So, I asked the rods to show me a chamber that was suitable for me to meditate in and it chose the Moon alcove for me. I wasn’t too surprised by that choice! I asked if I would be able to enact the original ritual – NO. I needed two people who understood how the place worked to be sitting int he Sun and Uranus positions in order to achieve that. OK. But could I find out more about the original workings of the place through meditating in the Moon alcove? The rods indicated that I could. So I did.

Some fool meditating at Four Knocks

After a long period of attunement and slowing my breathing pattern to match the heartbeat that I felt coming from the chamber itself – a long throbbing hum that Kal swears was not to be heard outside – then things began to happen. I firstly got some visions of two people sat alongside me in the Sun and Uranus alcoves and I knew that they were directing their intentions and collective energies towards me, I was The Initiate, in this Moon alcove.

I asked whether I was in the right place to work on my lower chakras. In response my mind dropped down inside my body to dwell in my abdomen and I felt like I was rooted to the chamber floor. As I raised my attention back up through my spine I felt a tingling – down below – in a place where I hadn’t expected to feel a tingling! What the…?  I wallowed in this most unusual and unexpected feeling. I felt like my testicles were throbbing and I knew that some kind of fertility energy was flowing through them. I felt like I was vibrating through my lower spine and the throbbing sound all around was getting louder and more inside my head….I returned back to consciousness. Suddenly I knew several things:-

1. This was a fertility site, designed to make the Initiate who sat in this chamber fertile, ready to breed.
2. The Initiate had to be Moon-aligned – the chamber would not work on a Sun-aligned person
3. This site was used by a particular tribe
4. The energy coming through my body was energy from the combination of Uranus and the Sun

I wonder whether there was a tribe in Ireland who were known to be related to Uranus? Here’s a site that mentions the possibility that this site was aligned to the stars (or one planet in particular):

“Because the passage of Fourknocks is oriented to approx. 20 degrees east of north, it does not point to a sunrise or indeed a moonrise, so an astronomical function would probably have involved the stars.” (source: Mythical Ireland)

I did find one interesting correlation between the elements involved in my meditation – my ash staff lay across me during the meditation, and this has a link with Uranus and with the deity Gwydion:

“For the Celts too, the ash functioned as an axis mundi tree. One of the five magic trees of Ireland, the Bile Uis-nech stood at the magical centre of Ireland in County Meath. In Celtic myth the ash connects the three circles of existence, Abred [the underworld or subconscious], Gwynedd [the earth plane or conscious] and Ceugant [the heavens or superconscious]”

“Robert Graves suggested that it describes the seizure of a shrine [possibly Avebury] by the ash cult of Gwydion from the alder cult of Bran. However, we have already seen that there is a mystical opposition or duality between the ash and the alder and not only in Celtic lore. In Norse myth ash is the father of mankind, while alder is the mother. In Greek myth the alder god Cronos overthrows the ash god Uranus, only to be overthrown in turn by another ash god, Poseidon.” (source: http://www.merciangathering.com/ash.htm)

Like other rituals we had encountered recently this one occurred during the three day Full Moon phase, involved multiple people focusing energy towards an Initiate who would be changed by the process. This particular ritual unified the energies of three chakra centres – the Third-Eye, The Solar Plexus and the Sacral chakras.

I was now looking forward to the next place we would visit to see what could happen there. Four Knocks had been an amazing experience.

Gwas.

On our second day on the Ireland megalithic tour we were going around the main Boyne Valley sights. It would be rude not to, seeing as we were in the vicinity. It would be interesting to contrast how the Irish valued their sites compared to the English, Welsh and Scottish. That said, I don’t think were were prepared for the…organisation levels that we were about to encounter.

To get to Newgrange from Knowth you have to…er…go past Newgrange, back to the bus terminal near the Visitor Centre and catch the bus back to Newgrange. Of course you do! On arrival we had to wait for the guide to, er…open the small two feet high unlocked gate and to tell us to walk up to the standing stones in front of Newgrange’s famous entrance. The arrangements are all a bit of a faff, but it began to dawn on us that this was necessary to control the number of people at the site and make the experience rewarding for everyone. In the end we capitulated, although Kal still went off and did his own thing whilst I endured the guided tour to get some background on the site first. Later we walked back rather than hurry for the scheduled bus. We wanted time to dowse, of course.

I’m going to recount things out of chronological order now, because I want to relate the interesting stuff together, so bear with me! We found that the constant influx of tourists into the mound was causing a build-up of negative energies. It was only slight, and took a while to accumulate, but was there.

The accretion effect I suspect may be due to the fact that tourists in no way “prepare” themselves for entering such sites. Why would they? Of course they wouldn’t, and yet in my experience this can often be a necessary part of approaching these sacred places – to cleanse oneself of the subtle energies from the places we have visited (or live in) that is like wearing a smelly coat!

We walked around it the ‘correct’ way – clockwise, sunwise. This ancient (and now partly modern) construction  was a chamber whose energies we left were in synchrony with the Sun’s movements primarily. We wondered as to why the main path invited tourists to walk around it in a contrary, widdershins, direction. This was something that we found to be the case at Stonehenge too, Tourists were ‘invited’ to walk around the structure in a way that would neutralise positive energy flows and keep the place feeling…drained. It would take quite a strength of will for a tourist to walk around in the opposite direction to the flow of everyone else. Of course, we did just that! Swim against the stream, young salmon!

One thing we did wonder about was this: if the flow of energies during Spring was clockwise, would it change direction at other times of the year? Perhaps someone who lives closer might be able to tell us that?

As we stood outside the entrance being given the known history of the site both Kal and I were separately thinking about the hidden history of the place. Kal had gone off exploring, and my mind was split between taking in the historical information and feeling for the energy coming from the nearby standing stones. As my eye wandered absently along the line of the stones I saw that there was 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. with nearby tumuli (or mounds) closer to the Boyne River down in the valley floor. Interesting that all these sites are aligned to the path of the Sun, and that they all were built within the bounds of this wide bow bend in the river.

Now it was time for the guided tour of the inside of the Newgrange chamber. We all filed into the chamber, careful not the scratch the artwork, and emerged in the central corbelled chamber. Then Kal appeared again and I could see that he was holding his dowsing rods. He wouldn’t, would he?

Inside Newgrange there are three chambers – one with a triple spiral inscription, another with a white bowl in it. We didn’t get to see the third too well due to the number of people in there, but if you want to have a look around yourself then you can do so on this wonderful site – go take a virtual tour!

The guide was very eloquent, speculating as to how it was used, what the bowls might have been for, what the inscriptions might have meant. The Irish have a long history as bards and story-tellers. Of course, it was all labelled as speculation, and no-one took it as anything else. Some asked questions, most realised there was no more sensible reaction to this place than to try to absorb its atmosphere and take some of that home.

We were given a demonstration of the way in which the passage had been designed to allow a slight shaft of sunlight through and the mound was plunged into sudden darkness as the guide talked us through the sequence. It was quite amazing to see the cleverness of the design which allowed the light of Midwinter sunrise to penetrate so deeply into the chamber for 17 minutes over the course of several days around the Midwinter Solstice of 21st December.

The lights came back on but the atmosphere did not alleviate – instead id deepened for me. I felt distinctly odd in there. At one point, as I stood directly underneath the “square” roof cap (it looked five-sided from where I was standing) my head began to swim. I had felt like this many times – this was the onset of the trance state that I enjoyed duirng magickal episodes. Was something about to happen here? My whole body shivered with the swelling magickal atmosphere developing as people began to file out, having seen all they wanted to see.

Just then Kal handed me some dowsing rods and whispered “Try dowsing the chamber as you go out. See what you get.” I realised we were the last to leave now and so I began to hang back and dowse the passage. I followed a weaving male line down the passage, and then found a neutral one next to it, in opposition to the male line (in terms of amplitude). Kal confided that the line was not very positive, and we began to speculate that this might be linked to the way the site was being treated, unwittingly of course.

Before we leave the main mound, let me just talk about the triple spiral that appears on the left-hand side of the entrance stone and again in the left-hand chamber of the mound itself. I feel this is a symbol of the coming together of the three frequencies of energy : male, female and neutral. We call this formation a White Power CentreA place where a person of a particular alignmentAlignment relates to the concept that humans have their own energy fields that are oriented or formed in a specific way such that the person is either suited better to one energy source of another. Some people have their energy fields empowered by the direct subtle energy force of The Sun, whilst others are empowered by the indirect subtle energy of The Moon. Due to the historical associations and symbolisation of The Sun with masculinity and The Moon with femininity we designate these alignments as either being ‘male’ or ‘female’ alignments accordingly. We interchangeable refer to people as being ‘sun-aligned’ or ‘male-aligned’ and similarly with the female alignment. (see ‘AlignmentAlignment relates to the concept that humans have their own energy fields that are oriented or formed in a specific way such that the person is either suited better to one energy source of another. Some people have their energy fields empowered by the direct subtle energy force of The Sun, whilst others are empowered by the indirect subtle energy of The Moon. Due to the historical associations and symbolisation of The Sun with masculinity and The Moon with femininity we designate these alignments as either being ‘male’ or ‘female’ alignments accordingly. We interchangeable refer to people as being ‘sun-aligned’ or ‘male-aligned’ and similarly with the female alignment.’) feels particularly comfortable and empowered. The place is an energetic centre where a particularly beneficial combination and formation of energies is formed into a pattern that is harmonic with the person for whom it can be called a power centre., as it tends to form as either a triple-headed spiral pattern or as three spirals overlaying each other on the same spot. Whenever we find it at sites it signifies the presence of an active and powerful  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.. The energy in this form is highly beneficial to humans, especially when seeking to transform one’s consciousness or perform other magickal acts, including healing processes.

Interesting then about the way I felt inside that central chamber…it made me wish we had more time inside to work it all out properly. In the next post about Newgrange we discover something that no-one else seems to have discussed about that site. That will be interesting reading!

Gwas.

What I thought was the last of my dowsing trips on this holiday was to a small structure situated in the middle of some agricultural land just outside the village of Créhen near the northern coast of Brittany. Luckily the site is signed by one of the small blue signs that show the interested observer (because they’re easy to miss) that a megalithic site is close by. A small area large enough to park two cars allowed us to pull off the D768 road in order to visit it.

The way to the site was along a lovely tree-lined path kept clear for visitors by some helpful agency. We travelled along three sides of a square field until we saw a group of tree-infested large stones that were the remains of the Créhen covered alley. The trees were poking out of every available crack between the capstones, of which there were five, two of them very large indeed – some ten feet square.

I inspected one end and found what looked like a collapsed entrance. Two rounded smoothed pillar stones seemed to mark an entrance and I peered under the leaning capstone to see that the alley extended the full length of the stones, although this was difficult to see with the varying angles of the leaning capstones.

I checked for a nemeton field around the site. Nothing. None existed. I asked the rods if the site was still energetically active and got a positive response. ok. Well, let’s see what that meant. I checked 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. of the passageway and found it was aligned East-West with the entrance facing eastwards.

Crehen - The FEMALE portal

I examined the two ends of the structure. Both had a small area large enough for a person to stand in. Interesting. I dowsed for a power centreA place where a person of a particular alignmentAlignment relates to the concept that humans have their own energy fields that are oriented or formed in a specific way such that the person is either suited better to one energy source of another. Some people have their energy fields empowered by the direct subtle energy force of The Sun, whilst others are empowered by the indirect subtle energy of The Moon. Due to the historical associations and symbolisation of The Sun with masculinity and The Moon with femininity we designate these alignments as either being ‘male’ or ‘female’ alignments accordingly. We interchangeable refer to people as being ‘sun-aligned’ or ‘male-aligned’ and similarly with the female alignment. (see ‘AlignmentAlignment relates to the concept that humans have their own energy fields that are oriented or formed in a specific way such that the person is either suited better to one energy source of another. Some people have their energy fields empowered by the direct subtle energy force of The Sun, whilst others are empowered by the indirect subtle energy of The Moon. Due to the historical associations and symbolisation of The Sun with masculinity and The Moon with femininity we designate these alignments as either being ‘male’ or ‘female’ alignments accordingly. We interchangeable refer to people as being ‘sun-aligned’ or ‘male-aligned’ and similarly with the female alignment.’) feels particularly comfortable and empowered. The place is an energetic centre where a particularly beneficial combination and formation of energies is formed into a pattern that is harmonic with the person for whom it can be called a power centre. and found a male centre at the western end in the space where a person could stand. I followed the line as it wandered along the top of the capstones to end in a spiral on the eastern end capstone. Then I asked of there was a female 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.. Indeed there was. It was centred in the small open space at the eastern end of the passage. I followed the path of this energy as it gently meandered along the capstones to terminate in a small spiral on the westernmost capstone. The two energy lines and power centres were mirror images of each other, travelling in opposing directions!

Crehen - the MALE portal

This struck me as full of potential, On the spur of the moment I asked M to stand in the female 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., whilst I stood in the male 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.. We were about fifteen feet apart. I shouted to her, “Close your eyes – relax – and think of a colour.” I did the same on my male power centreA place where a person of a particular alignmentAlignment relates to the concept that humans have their own energy fields that are oriented or formed in a specific way such that the person is either suited better to one energy source of another. Some people have their energy fields empowered by the direct subtle energy force of The Sun, whilst others are empowered by the indirect subtle energy of The Moon. Due to the historical associations and symbolisation of The Sun with masculinity and The Moon with femininity we designate these alignments as either being ‘male’ or ‘female’ alignments accordingly. We interchangeable refer to people as being ‘sun-aligned’ or ‘male-aligned’ and similarly with the female alignment. (see ‘AlignmentAlignment relates to the concept that humans have their own energy fields that are oriented or formed in a specific way such that the person is either suited better to one energy source of another. Some people have their energy fields empowered by the direct subtle energy force of The Sun, whilst others are empowered by the indirect subtle energy of The Moon. Due to the historical associations and symbolisation of The Sun with masculinity and The Moon with femininity we designate these alignments as either being ‘male’ or ‘female’ alignments accordingly. We interchangeable refer to people as being ‘sun-aligned’ or ‘male-aligned’ and similarly with the female alignment.’) feels particularly comfortable and empowered. The place is an energetic centre where a particularly beneficial combination and formation of energies is formed into a pattern that is harmonic with the person for whom it can be called a power centre.. As I closed my eyes I saw a blue circle appear with a pink centre that then instantly flipped into a dark orange colour. It stayed that colour, as though I had looked too long at a circle of light and was seeing the after-image of it. I looked at M and shouted to her, “Orange!” She opened her eyes in astonishment. “Yes! Burnt orange was the colour I was thinking of !”

She asked if we could repeat the experiment, as she was quite excited at what had just happened. I explained that, like when I pass the cars at particular dark energy spots on the road to work every day, if you think that you can make something happen, i.e. you consciously intend to do something or to make use of this ‘ability’ then it never works out. We should just leave it at that – an extraordinary event of ridiculous coincidence.

We walked back to the car and headed off to the beaches of northern Brittany where we spent a lovely day admiring the coastline, the beaches and the wonderful “galette” crepe pancakes that are a speciality of this area. Strange things can happen when you visit ancient sites. We were now accumulating quite a wealth of such experiences, and I for one was becoming increasingly convinced that magickal things can be brought about by tuning into them.

Gwas Myrddyn.

In search of the strange

On the agenda shortly is Mont St.Michel, but on this first day I headed to the highest point along the stunning Pink Granite coastline in my trusty french steed, with my redoubtable wife. The rewards were indeed worth the hunt. On this first day I got to find a huge menhir called St.Uzec (or St.Duzec) and an “alle couverte”,or “covered alley” – a long passage grave or dolmen, in effect. Details about that later. First – the St.Uzec menhir.

The menhir is to be found in the village of Penvern (which sounds more Cornish than Breton). It is almost signposted and a little faith will get you there. It seems very well visited, but no-one lingers for more than a minute or two. And I found out why! As M and I walked up to it from the little car parking bay, admiring its immense height and red granite composition, there was a moment when things went still and quiet. M decided she didn’t want to go near it and veered off up the small road going uphill to follow a trail leading to the chapel nearby. I walked into the fifteen feet long walled enclosure and dropped my bag off at the base of the menhir, next to what looked like a tiny font placed at its base.

There were some symbols carved into the stone’s upper area – a sun, a geometrical figure, other obscure images, Atop the stone was a cross made from a different stone, and a different time. It was a Christian addition, probably added when the stone was given the saint’s name that it bears now. From ealier drawings and pictures I have seen of this stone it was once adorned by a carving of Jesus hanging from a cross.

I stepped back out of the enclosure with my dowsing rods, walking to the far side of the approach road. I had had experience of the size of the nemeton field for stones of this size before so I was giving it a good run-up! I dowsed for the edge of the stone’s field of influence. I walked forward. And kept walking. When I got four inches away from the stone the rods parted in a barrier reading. Four inches away! What?! I was stunned. On Lewis I had dowsed the Truiseil Stone which had a nemeton of some thirty feet. Now four inches for a stone that was just as tall if not taller, and twice as wide.

I asked the rods some questions. Was the nemeton being restricted unnaturally in some way? YES. Was it a result of human intervention? YES. Were the symbols on the rock related to this in some way? YES. Was it the placement of the cross on top that was restricting the stone’s energy field? YES. Was there something I could do to repair this energy field? SORT OF. Could I do it permanently? NO. Would it be something temporary then? YES. Did I have the means to do this work? YES. But I didn’t have the strength. My rods hung loosely and I started to look around aimlessly. I took a few more photographs then wandered away and met M as she came towards the stone from her travels around the historic route she was taken earlier.

As we walked away from the stone, me explaining that there was something awry with the energy field, I realised that a strong tightness in my temples was lifting. I kept walking away from the stone and it went completely as I got more than fifty feet away from the monstrous megalith. There was something seriously wrong with the energies around that stone – no wonder no-one stayed close to it for very long! You may have noticed from the picture that a cross has been placed on top of the giant menhir. It caught my eye too. Back to the rods one last time: Was the reason that this menhir did not have a proper nemeton directly related to the placement of the cross on top of it? YES. This stone had been “capped” by the placement of this cross. Was it simply the cross shape, I wondered? NO, said the rods. Was it the intentions of the people who put the cross there that inhibited the energy? YES. Time to move on.

We decided to go to another nearby site on the Isle Grande which was only a few miles the other side of the village. Well, after a bit of to-ing and fro-ing we found it, no thanks to the signage! The allé couverte that I was searching for was on Isle Grande. This is also the name that Aubrey Burl gives to the site as well as its location. It was thanks to Burl’s description in his ‘Megalithic Brittany‘ guide that I was able to find it at all. The French, it seems, are only vaguely interested in denoting the presence of their megalithic treasures, much as we English have also mainly achieved. The site was marked by a small knee-level sign that was side-on to the road making it invisible to passing traffic!

The avenue of stones was constructed of flat but wide slabs, with the square entrance way being wide and tall enough to stoop within. There were seven large capstones supported on standing flat stones. There were two chambers, the first being the longer of the passageways utilising five of the capstones in length, whilst the remaining two capstones comprised a second smaller chamber large enough for maybe two men kneeling or tucked in tightly.

As I dowsed the site I found no female energies there at all, which was very surprising, as I can’t remember the last site that I dowsed that didn’t have at least some female earth or moon energies present. This site was simple inhabited by two energetic sources – a male line with two power centres at either end, and a neutral 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. that looped back upon itself. Finding a neutral 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. was another rarity. Already I was sensing that dowsing in France was going to be an interesting endeavour, and one where I would need to try to be as objective and comprehensive as possible. Unfortunately, on this occasion, time was pressing for us to organise some food for the self-catering aspect of our holiday, and so I didn’t ask all the things I could have.

I did find out that a neutral 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. located at the end of the first longer chamber encompassed the inside and outside left-hand (southern) edge. The right-hand edge of the passageway is fed by a male 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. on the right-hand end of the inner passage, directly opposite the neutral centre. There was another male spiral at the centre of the smaller passage. This came out of a hole between two capstones to join with the male energy travelling along the first chamber.

I did some dowsing as to the purpose of the site and eventually narrowed the concept down to it being a place of transformation and initiation. How that was done exactly I don’t know. Perhaps it’s something you have to try for yourself one moonlit summer’s night?

What a great start to the holiday. Two sites visited on the first day of landing. I honestly didn’t expect that, and was amazed at how many sites there were in the environs around St.Brieuc. Perhaps I would run into some others as we travelled around in the next ten days? Indeed we did.

Gwas

Following the pink coastline (this is not a euphamism)