The Hedge Druid

Posts Tagged ‘pembrokeshire’

This year, 2011, I spent Samhain at two places. Not at the same time, obviously. That would be impossible even for a hedge druid who is accustomed to the unusual. I first spent some time with a group of friends in Derbyshire (more about that soon) and then I went with my wife M to Pembrokeshire. In Pembrokeshire we first climbed the hills to visit Arthur’s Grave (see previous post this month) and then I made an unannounced stop off at Pentre Ifan, because I remembered that it was quite close to the route we would take to get back home. Never one to miss an opportunity, I saw this as a chance to discover what the remainder of the year might offer in terms of my healing quest.

As far as I was concerned the visit to Arthur’s Grave an hour earlier had been the culmination of a spiral that had begun at Spring Equinox and had completed this Halloween.  I wasn’t sure, therefore, what I would get out of visiting Pentre Ifan. All I knew was that I felt drawn to it, and that i wanted to see whether its incredible energies would spark any further revelations about my tasks for the year. Perhaps it might confirm that actually all was done and I could rest for the remainder of the year? No more site visits or blog posts, perhaps? All quiet now? Rest and recuperation? Not a chance!

View of Pentre Ifan at Samhain

We stopped at the site information board to take a look at how the archaeologists have reconstructed the mound. Their representation seemed remarkably familiar – it matched the reconstruction done at Tinkinswood in South Wales. Perhaps the neolithic people were all working from a similar template, or perhaps the geometry or the physics of the places simply suggested a natural configuration that was now generally agreed upon amongst The Intelligentsia of our times? I wonder what became of all the rubble that one surrounded the great stones? The site is so clean now. The information sign put the entrance portal at the south. I have previously dowsed the same, so that’s one aspect I agree with.

How Pentre Ifan may have once looked

I re-introduced myself to the site,. seeking the permission of the Spirit of Place before attempting to enter its energetic boundary. Being successful (politeness and respect seem to be viable currency with the spirits that inhabit such places) I began to dowse for the best starting point for me at the site. It was a flat round rock at the eastern edge of the main uprights, and I recognised this as the same stone upon which I had started and energised when I had previously visited the site in the late summer of 2008. That seemed like someone else’s life, and a whole lifespan away, and I found it hard to relate to the person who had stood there only three years ago. Yet it was me. How would the site react to me now, I wondered?

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On a day that only a mother could love I dragged my long-suffering spouse into the farthest reaches of our lands to the western shores of Pembrokeshire. Why would I do such a thing to a nice lady? Well, I had taken the day off to celebrate Samhain, and it was part of my year’s quest that I should resolve the link between Berth and Death. That’s The Berth – a Shropshire hillfort – and Arthur’s Grave, the final destination for a mythical character and a hedge druid. If you haven’t read the beginning of this story, then may I refer you to this post? I feel compelled to do so.

So, the story was that “The Death of Scorpio”, or the coincidence of the constellation appearing at the point of the western sunset along the south-western axis that joined The Berth to Arthur’s Grave was the reason I was making a four hour drive along slippery autumnal-bedecked roads to hike into the back of beyond. As I journeyed that day I was continuously recognising places that Kal and I had passed on our journey to the same location earlier in the year at Spring Equinox. On that occasion I had come to Beddarthur (Arthur’s Grave) as the final part of a quest to use the energies of three stars to unlock an inactive part of my DNA sequence, and potentially unlock some hidden healing powers. At the time I had no idea what I had done. During the year I discovered that I had acquired an ability to draw energy from plants to use to negate the dark and twisted energies left behind by some humans upon death, and I had also unleashed a guiding spirit of a knight who had been enlisted to assist me with such work.

All that seemed far away and certainly locked deep in the back of my mind as I wrestled with the increasingly powerful and playful winds that rose to meet us as we crested the hills from which Stonehenge’s powerful healing stones had been hewn. Today my mind was focused on the mundane matter of the rip in my hiking boots that were making one foot wet and squelchy.

View across Arthur's Grave to site of the Bluestones

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

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

The Berth [Portal]

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

A map showing The Berth hillfort in Shropshire

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

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

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

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In my endeavours to fulfil a difficult quest that I was given at the Spring Equinox I have been researching some star and site alignments with the help of dowsing rods. The quest I was given was to modify my energy field in such a way as to cause either a blossoming of my consciousness, or to literally cause the growth of plant forms using my own energy. I could even be both these things. The actual result I won’t know for sure until I complete the task by visiting three sacred sites that are aligned with three stars whose light energies affect my energy field (or aura) so as to produce this change.

The first task was to identify what these stars were that had these required energies, and which sacred sites were built to align to them.

SITES ORIGINALLY ALIGNED with the three fertility stars

1. Alnilam (Epsilon Orionis) in the constellation Orion (The Hunter)

- Merlin’s Stone at Drumelzier Haugh, Broughton near Peebles – down by the Tweed River. Most associated with The Hurlers stone circle on Bodmin Moor, especially the circle that I spent time in on my last visit!

2. Kraz (Beta Corvi) in the constellation Corvus (The Crow)

Associated with the site “Trethevy Quoit” in Cornwall.

3. Mirphak (Alpha Persei) in the constellation Perseus (The Hero)

Meaning “The Flank or side” and sometimes “the elbow”. Associated with Silbury Hill – the male fertility symbol! Also, the West-North-West stone at The Hurlers stone circles marks Perseus.

These associations are for the site’s ORIGINAL alignments. These sacred sites no longer align to these stars, and now I needed to find some new sites that did have alignments with these three stars and their constellations. The results for this were:-

SITES CURRENTLY ALIGNED with the three fertility stars

1. Orion’s Belt - Lud’s Church – Gradbach, Staffordshire – [map] / [SJ987656] / [Wiki]

2. Corvus - King Arthur’s Cave, Great Doward, Symond’s Yat, Ross On Wye, Monmouthshire. [SO 5450 1560] [map]

3. Perseus - Beddarthur stone circle – near Gors Fawr stone circle at Mynachlog-Ddu village, Pembrokeshire. [map] [megalithic]

I have to visit each one in turn, and then perform some tests using control seeds and ones that I have held to see whether this produces any difference in growth rates or the strength of the plants. I will describe that test when I get to that stage. For now I am trying to clear space to visit the last site, and then I will be able to describe each visit for you, and its effect.

Gwas.

An article posted recently by Gregory Katz describes the latest findings from the archaeological excavations near to the Stonehenge complex of sites. The latest finding is the site of a bluestone circle, which is believed to have been associated with funeral rituals. But then we’ve heard things like that before. I would prefer to wait until I can get to dowse the site before I go along with such explanations, unless the archaeology is overwhelming, which it usually isn’t. The only hint we get is the line “there were signs that many human beings were cremated there.”

None of this information takes us much further than the recent excellent TV program about Stonehenge based upon the team’s earlier findings. I guess we’ll have to wait a bit longer for more information to emerge.

Original article: http://pantagraph.com/news/local/article_ef4fb7fc-b297-11de-a1e7-001cc4c002e0.html

Gwas.

Kal has already written a lengthy and laudable account of the British Society of Dowsers conference recently, but he has urged me to add my own bits to it, and so I will add those elements that are in addition to his write-up, or which display my own perspective on those events.

As we journeyed down to deepest darkest Gloucestershire we were in good spirits. I was excited, and wondering about how we might fit into a group that I expected would be primarily of retirement age, or batty as Battenburg cakes. Probably both.

On arrival we were immediately made to feel welcome, and were given our name badges and starter packs. Hmmm. At least Kal had a pen and notebook in the pack – he always takes mental notes instead of writing stuff down. Kal ditched the name badge. I played the game to see what happened. As I’m not a very social person it seemed to help during the day.

Dr. Serena Roney-Dougal – Where Science And Magic Meet:

Although the first lecture of the four we would attend that day, this was the most interesting. Dr.Serena talked about what seemed to be quite diverse subjects, and in some depth, but she managed to pull them all together into a cohesive argument for the validity of shamanic practises, as they related to the earth’s energy grid and fields.

The important information I got from this lecture was:-

• The earth’s “GeoMagnetic Field”, or GMF, is perceived by Dr.Serena as synonymous with the Hartmann and Curry lines and grids.
• Earth energy at ancient sacred sites is probably linked to geological features such as fissures, weak points, stress points, fractures and fissures. Water is a factor in the production of earth energies too.
• When the GMF is strong (or active) due to earth changes (seasons, tide, sunspots, moon phase, geology, earth’s magnetic core) then poltergeist activity and healing work is stronger.
• When the GMF is weak (or less active) then remote viewing and telepathy is stronger.
• DMT (Di-Methyl Triptamine) is in the pineal gland of the brain and directs all other systems depending upon its chemical levels.
• Triptamines can be introduced from external sources such as the ayahuasca vine, or many other shamanic plant extracts, to induce a living dream (or lucid dream state).
• At 3AM (“The Witching Hour”) our brains naturally produce more triptamines and start releasing them to induce dreaming.
• Certain structures such as long barrows (which have a layer of organic, then inorganic substances) seem to act as shield against the effects of the GMF on “psychic” abilities.
• Our sense of direction and navigational abilities are linked to the GMF (studies of pigeons).

As you can see, she pulls together brain chemistry, dream states, psychic abilities, the effects of the electromagnetic energies of the earth, and the purpose or usage of ancient sites. Quite a lecture in an hour!

I found that so many of those topics chimed with me. In addition I have always had a good sense of direction (on most occasions) and can find paths through seemingly impossible terrain, but have never linked it to the GMF activity before. Something for me to think about. I particularly liked the link between GMF activity and “psychic” abilities. I will try to be much more aware of this when attempting druidic work.

I think that the conclusion we could reach is that remote viewing and telepathy would work better from within a long barrow or chamber, whilst a stone circle may be better suited to healing and spirit activity.

Dr Tim Darvill – Stonehenge and Healing:

Dr Darvill (‘Davros’ I kept thinking) was something of a coup for the convention. His TV programme about his excavation work at Stonehenge was getting its first showing on mainstream TV that night. Dr. Darvill therefore delivered his lecture with the smooth assurance and well-rehearsed aplomb of a man who has worked through his theories and re-visited them until he felt they were as convincing as he could muster.

I must say I found it all very fascinating and I felt it turned a listed contender for the purpose of this most famous stone circle, and elevated it to an ‘almost definite’. Healing was, I am convinced now, being done at Stonehenge at some stage in its development, and Tim can practically pin-point that time. But it’s not the whole time. It’s a fragment.

Whether healing was Stonehenge’s original purpose, capability or raison-d’etre I wouldn’t like to say, as I think other competing theories are just as likely seeing as the monument went through several re-workings, and passed through thousands of years of use. Ye gods, we can barely keep one of our modern miracles of architecture for the same purpose more than a year these days!! Now it’s a bank, now it’s a cinema, now it’s a shop, now they’re all flats….Imagine trying to trace an original purpose to any modern building after even 200 years of use. The one constant we can rely on is change. The line may become twisted and broken. The evidence may be cleared out. Purpose may have to be divined as much as reasoned. And we use written records. Most of modern archaeological theory is as much creative cultural anthropology based upon fragments as it is true history backed by permanent record.

That’s not to belittle the work of Darvill and others before him. Anything that adds to the certainty of a theory is welcomed by me, and he presented his arguments assuredly and provided physical and historical evidence to back his claims. Diseased bones that could be traced to a man who came from the Alps is n interesting development. Click here to read about his recent work and theories.

A convincing answer is what Kal and I are after – not an intractable debate. There is more to Stonehenge, though, than simply a healing site, however good it was in its prime. This quote about it comes from a Guardian newspaper article:

The latest finds imply a much more complex story: they include a Roman coin among stone fragments, suggesting the Romans also believed in and sought out the healing magic. The later charcoal deposits suggest to Darvill and Wainwright annual gatherings, perhaps for feasting and ceremony at the winter solstice, continuing as late as the 17th century.

The modern-day druids and pagans who assemble bearing green boughs for the winter and summer solstices may not be so far off the mark after all.

Guardian newspaper, 23rd September

I found it interesting that the healing Blue Stones were from the Preseli Hills in Pembrokeshire (not the Presley Hills, my American friends, he didn’t own them too – and they probably can’t revive him now). Recently I had been on holiday to Pembrokeshire but had had no idea as to how many sacred sites there would be in that area. I now wish I’d gone for a fortnight instead of three days! A strong place for energies and sites, a rather uninspiring holiday destination though.

Darvill continued to raise the stakes though by saying that Stonehenge might have been a copy or replacement for a more natural circle of stones atop one of the mountains in the Preseli Hills. His candidate is Carn Menyn. From his slide presentation photos it looked a good bet. A complete circle of jagged natural ‘blue’ stones formed a gigantic cathedral that is a natural wonder.

A lunchtime interval came as a welcome opportunity to try a bit ofdowsing in the warm afternoon sunshine, the results of which Kal amusingly recounted in his post. I must say I had to laugh when I guessed that he had played a trick on the rather-too-smug lady by shrinking the boundary of her energetic aura to a few feet. It had a positive side – every time we dowsed for auras now we were able to pick them up easily. Now Kal was demonstrating his skills at manipulating them too, which is something I want to study and practise too after learning about the concept of the nemeton (see previous post).

Hamish Miller – The Southern Serpent, New Zealand and Healing The World:

I had been looking forward to Hamish’s talk, as I have read a couple of his books and had a lot of respect for the work he has put into understanding the nature of the energies he has encountered. Luckily, he didn’t so much re-capping on his near-death experience, or much about the Michel and Mary line that he had dowsed with Paul Broadhurst. Instead he started off talking about the Apollo/Athena line, a line running from Skellig Michael in southern Ireland, and which continues through many sacred sites until it reaches Armageddon in Israel.

Hamish then told us about a phenomenon that he had experienced on both lines – that when he placed a stone on a power centre at the sites along those lines the manifestation pattern would complexify as he followed the alignment ley from one site to the next. Even going back would increase the complexity.

Whenever I have manifested patterns I have invested my energy into the stones before producing the manifestation, but Hamish doesn’t believe that is necessary, in fact stated to me directly that he thought it should not be done using one’s own energy. I will have to test this out – any stone vs. one I pick and invest energy into. I will see what differences emerge. I also plan to pick three sites on an alignment to check for the compelxification of energy patterns as I travel to each in turn. I have such an alignment locally, so it should be easy to check out.

The second half of Hamish’s lecture concerned his visit in search of what he called the “Southern Serpent” in New Zealand. He talked a little about the potential that there had been an indigenous people in NZ well before the Maori people colonised the islands, which he named as the Hawaiki. This group of people may well have come from China, the Pacific Islands, and possibly even Easter Island! I believe there is little at the moment to back this up except ancestral memory, folklore and strong supposition, yet it was an endearing thought, because many of the tales of energy paths, spirit and energy flows and netherworlds all seems to have originated from this Hawaiki people’s culture.

A mother and daughter that Hamish and his wife Ba met whilst there were Maori people who were well-versed in energy work. The daughter had been taught from a small girl to appreciate the energies, venerate them, work with them, and induce energy through the use of a “magical” stone that she kept in her possession, and which had been a gift to her, presumably as some form of rite of passage with the work. During her tuition she had been taught songs to draw out the “song lines” as the Maori’s call the energy. This girl then visibly demonstrated her powers to Hamish’s assembly of friends when she placed her stone onto a sacred site’s centre and sang energy into marvellous patterns of manifested earth energy.

After the talk I questioned Hamish about some of our suppositions: did he agree that energy lines were male, female and neutral? He did, but was not sure what I meant by neutral. I think other people call them ‘null’ lines, alignments, ley lines. They are the guiding force that keeps the male and female wave patterns moving along a particular alignment between sites. But we have also seen the lines have a vital role within the sacred sites themselves in terms of linking the major stone of a stone circle, for example. Hamish stated that the polarities, he found, flipped over between sites so that male became female and vice versa, at various points along a long line.

I found this food for thought and thanked him for his input, and the lecture before Kal and I moved off towards the enticing book store that had been housed int he next building to the lecture theatre. We had one more lecture to attend, but there was some debate. Kal wanted to go and see a workshop about earth acupuncture. So did I, but that workshop was officially full, and so we had to stay where we were.

Michael Bott – Standing With Stones:

Michael was not a dowser. He was, however, amiable and amusing, so despite the fact that he had very little to offer a group of dowsers he managed to make a reasonably entertaining hour pass with some beautiful photos taken from the DVD he has produced with his mate Rupert Soskin – who he said WAS a dowser, but didn’t dowse during their epic tour of hundreds of megalithic sites across the country! O…K…..well.

There’s not much to say about this really. The images were nice, the stories vaguely amusing (in a kind of Open All Hours sort of way) but when I asked whether they had had any mystical experiences then answer was…er…no. They had been too busy filming. O….K…..well. See you then!

However, Kal and I saw Callanish in all its glory and if nothing else we learned that we really needed to go there and do some energy work – preferably close to Winter Solstice, if possible. What a place!

All in all it was a hugely enlightening experience to spend time with some seasoned dowsers, but we did wonder how often they dowsed these days – no-one seemed to be doing it – were we falling foul of some rule of etiquette?

I’d like to thank the staff of BSD who organised the event for making us feel so welcome and remaining upbeat to everyone they encountered. It made the travelling worthwhile. A special thanks to Helen Lamb for making every effort to get us there and for her helpful recommendations all through the day. That’s the kind of dedication and effort that keeps societies going.

Gwas

Pembrokeshire is littered with ancient sacred sites, which is something I hadn’t appreciated until I got there and saw a tourist map showing the main ones. There’s a large National Park area in the centre of Pembrokeshire that has many of these sites scattered on and around the Preselli Hills (avoids jokes about cheeseburgers, hound dogs, suede shoes, et al).

M and I decided to visit the main cromlech in this area, which is called Pentre Ifan, near Newport. We parked at a youth hostel car park allowing us to walk the last two miles through forest land, up the hill to Pentre Ifan. We had an OS map, a sense of purpose, and I had my dowsing rods for backup should all common sense fail us.

We walked down the lane from the car park to find the Youth Hostel and a farmhouse. There was a small signpost indicating a possible path, but we were half expecting a distinct sign, and so carried on looking around. A bouncy sandy-coloured dog began to bounce around us, checking us out, and we greeted him with enthusiasm. Perhaps he could tell us which way to go, we laughed? Seeing no other obvious paths we went back to the signpost and headed off in the direction it suggested through a shaded covered muddy path. The dog bounced around us and then got in front, bounding into the field of new corn ahead.

We walked through the field looking for the a stile or a sign. To our right the labrador was trotting on through the field, checking to see if we were coming too every now and again. M then remarked as to whether he could be leading us. I don’t think so, I retorted, we’ve got ages to go yet!

We half followed the dog to the end of the field where there was indeed a stile. The dog went through of his own accord, and we followed. Now I actually did begin to think that the dog might be leading us! In front of me as I hopped over the stile was a white quartz rock about hand sized. Without thinking I picked it up and carried it with me. On we walked, through the woods until we encountered a family at another signpost. “Is this your dog?” we asked. “We thought he was yours!” they replied.

Bramble the guide dog

As the dog seemed to be with us now, M christened him “Bramble” for some reason, and so we started to call him that. On he led us, through invisible paths through cornfields, across stiles, over fields, past farms. Still no signs to Pentre Ifan, but we were now just following the dog. We became worried that he was now half an hour from his home, but he continued with us, being only momentarily distracted by an open field of sheep (which we dissuaded him from pursuing further).

We got out some water and poured some into M’s hands so that the dog could have a drink, as it was getting warm in the early afternoon sun.

As we climbed over a gate at the top of the field Bramble began to chase a car down the lane we had just stepped into. “Bye!” we shouted, “and thanks!”.

Now where were we? We consulted our map – no idea! We had no clue where we were now, so I got my rods out and asked them to point to Pentre Ifan. They pointed up the road and to the right, so we walked up the road. Fifty yards later we was a brown sign “Burial Chamber”. We were here! The dog had led us right to it! We decided to check he’d got back alright on our return journey, but for now we walked to the site past large rocks positioned alternately on either side of the path. I noted some twisted hawthorn trees – definitely energy running along the path, I mused.

Pentre Ifan chamber

It was very impressive. A large capstone positioned precariously on three pointed uprights – it looked unfeasibly delicate! I started dowsing at one of the three visible stones that defined the outer perimeter of the site. As these stones were so obviously forming a square (with a missing corner) I dowsed for a male line. One immediately appeared leading straight into one of the back two upright stones. At the other corner a line went diagonally to the other stone in a straight line. Two lines, both going straight into the rear stones. I did the stone at the front too and it did the same – straight into the front upright from one corner. But the other corner didn’t have a visible stone. I dowsed away from the front upright in the direction of the ‘missing’ line to find a male straight line heading to the empty corner, where it turned straight downhill. I noted the turning point and stuck my rod into the grass to see if anything was underneath. Clunk! Metal hitting stone. As I tugged the turf it came away to reveal the missing corner stone!

The missing corner stone

I noticed there were some small marks on the stone, like mini cup marks that I’d seen on larger circles and standing stones, and I wondered as to their significance – were they a map of the energy points here?

Another male line was going through the stones positioned on either side of the main chamber – one leading down the entry path, and the other ending in a large wide spiral on the western side.

Then I started dowsing the female frequencies. Six spirals connected in pairs at the back of the chamber. The three pairs only connected with each other and bent in towards the stones was they passed the main chamber. A beautiful symmetrical pattern.

At the front again I found two “treble clef” shaped female spirals on either side, just above the corner stones.

I decided to look inside the chamber now. Surely this was the “hot spot” the the site and probably had a strong spiral or many crossing points of lines which I could follow? No. There was only one line – a male line which went from the centre of the chamber around the back uprights (two holding the capstone, and one flat upright positioned between them). The line went into the back flat upright. I had to ask M to move a little, as she had been standing with her back against this flat stone since we got there!

There was a crossing point for the lines, but it wasn’t in the centre of the chamber, it was at the rear, slightly on the right hand side of the site, about six feet away from the back flat stone.

Having done as much as I felt sensible (not everyone enjoys sitting around waiting for me to finish dowsing!) I picked up the white quartz rock I had carried to the site from the woods below. M had just moved away from the back flat upright stone, and said to me “You should stand there – it’s very nice.”. I had an idea! I checked with the rods to make sure there was nothing else to find in front of the middle upright, and got a negative reading – nothing else to find. Good. I grabbed the quartz rock and thought about putting some energy into it.

The flat upright stone at the back

I placed the stone at the base of the middle upright stone, and stood with my back against it, not thinking of anything – zoning out from thought. After a minute I began to feel an electric tingle that made me feel like I was being tickled from the inside! It made me laugh, laugh hysterically, to the point where tears were forming in my eyes with the pleasure of it! When I couldn’t take any more I stepped away – exhilarated by the sensation and amazed beyond belief at the power of the feeling, and how it had affected me.

I left the quartz rock where it was, turned and gave thanks to the stones for the experience. Then grabbed my rods again. I had tried this once before on Birchen Edge – seeing if I could get a “manifestation” of spontaneous energy production, as Hamish Miller had once called it. I dowsed the back of the stone. Three new patterns had appeared! There were two spirals going out to the left and right of the back stone, and in the middle were…well…a pair of horns or ears is the only way I could describe the shape.

I drew the shape in my notebook, and showed it to M. She turned it upside down and exclaimed “It’s a goat!”. I looked again. Oh yes – looking from above, the capstone formed the face, the spirals on either side were the horns, and the horn/ear shapes were ears! Or vice versa, perhaps. How bizarre!

Goat figure produced at Pentre Ifan

With that, I took some measurements (which seemed similar to previous sites) and we headed back down the entrance path – me dowsing the male line that bounced between the large stones positioned on either side of the path.

We walked back to the car by road, both of us using the rods to make decisions at road junctions. We were eager to see whether “Bramble” had got back alright! After all – we’d led him astray! After half an hour’s walk M asked “How much further?”. We were hungry by now. I asked the rods – “How long until we get to the car? “10 minutes?”. No response. “15 minutes?” – rods crossed. “About fifteen minutes. ” I said. M didn’t ask why. I checked my watch: “2:45pm”. Easy enough to measure, I thought.

Soon we were at the car park. Before we opened the car M said “Let’s see if Bramble’s back!”. So we walked down the lane again to the hostel and farmhouse. M started calling him and he soon responded by barking. He was tied up at the side of the farmhouse, but no-one else was around. Looks like he might have been in the matephorical dog house for wandering off!

We walked back up to the car, and we opened the door. I check my watch – “3:00pm.” Exactly fifteen minutes since I asked the rods! Ha ha – coincidence I guess.

My next objective was Gors Fawr stone circle. But that adventure is another story in itself.

Gwas.

Follow your true path