The Hedge Druid

Posts Tagged ‘penmaenmawr’

Penmaenmawr – January 28th 2010

I hadn’t planned to go to Penmaenmawr and visit the Druid’s Circle. Instead I had printed out a map to a dolmen on the Llyn Peninsula in the North West of Wales, and thought that the sea air might do me some good as I was nursing the throb of having had a wisdom tooth extracted the previous day. Salt air – should do me good – so I had picked a site that was new to me, and was right on the coast. Instead, I turned off at Penmaenmawr – call it a ‘divine wind’ – a kamikaze moment.

It was certainly blowing cold and strong by the time I had gently picked my way to the top of the hill. It’s a good half hour walk from the parking place, marked by two ‘chess-piece’ towers up he steep single-track road above the village. As I pulled my scarf tighter against the wind and readies my new ash staff for its first sacred site outing, I saw patches of snow still lying around. Winter was still here, even though Imbolc is around the corner. Initiating my staff, i.e. filling it with positive and useful energies, empowering it, and giving this ash staff my own energetic signature had become the order of the day in preparation for our Imbolc outing to Anglesey. In sight of that very island from Pemaenmawr seemed so intuitively right this day.

My new white ash staff was wonderful to walk with: sturdy, a good height and weight. The only down side was that I had waxed it, and wearing gloves they slipped around along the shaft so that I had to keep re-adjusting my grip. Just wait until the Spring, I kept thinking. On the way up I tried to fall into the usual walking trance that allows me to begin to connect with Nature. The steady footfall rhythm, the clunk of the staff, the beating of the wind, the distant cries of sheep and gulls all made a lullaby that allowed me to sink into the warmth of my Winter clothing and soon I was feeling the weak energies of Winter flowing around me from animals, and along the tracks that people walked.

On the way up I found a small branch from a gorse bush lying in a patch of snow on the main path. It seemed totally incongruous to its surroundings, and I couldn’t see any gorse bushes within sight of where it lay. I knew I should pick it up and take it with me, so I hooked its twisted twin twig form atop my y-shaped fork in the ash staff. I then carried it like Dick Whittington carrying his wares to London Town.

I passed the large standing stone in a field next to a lonely cottage where on my previous visit with Kal we had found negative energies and the sheep had chased us away from the stone. I decided to ignore it until I came back down. This visit had a purpose: to initiate my new staff, not to surround it with potentially harmful energies! I wandered on. As I neared the top I saw the familiar small ring cairn that marks, for me, the beginning of the sacred area above Penmaenmawr. I stood within the ring cairn and felt like I should be doing something cleansing, so I opened up to the wind and allowed it to tear away from me all the energies of the un-sacred places I inhabited as a human “down there” in the valleys and towns. My stuffed-up nostrils cleared, and I felt energetically neutral after a few moments of this, so I said a little thanks and used the nearby ‘erratic’ stones as markers to guide me to the Druid’s Circle. I never seem to want to walk along the main path to the circle, for some reason, and I never have yet, whatever the weather.

Notice the line of the boulder which leads the eye to the circle on the hill

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Dowsing Results for 2009

At the start of the year I faithfully followed the proposed dates that aligned with the current Gregorian calendar. As the year progressed beyond Summer Solstice I came to feel that the dates that were marked as celebration dates bore little relation to the times when earth energies were specifically active. The Gregorian dates for the Pagan Festivals in particular felt wrong, and were egergetically unremarkable. I started to align my visits with other criteria. My reasoning was that, for Equinox and Solstice days - celebrations of the sun – then the exact day as stated originally was accurate. For the pagan festival dates I took the nearest full moon date to be the correct day to try to do some dowsing. Often, this didn’t quite work out because I had already booked the Gregorian dates off work and so was often only free to dowse at sacred sites on those dates.

Here were the dates that I had written down as being the days to test for subtle energetic potential:-  

• Imbolc – 1 Feb (First Quarter moon)
• Spring Equinox – Thu Mar 20 5:48 GMT
• Beltane – 1 May (almost First Quarter moon)
• Summer Solstice – Sun Jun 21 0:59 BST
• Lammas – 1 Aug (six days from Full Moon)
• Autumn Equinox – Mon Sep 22 16:44 BST
• Samhain – 1 Nov (Full Moon)
• Winter Solstice – Sun Dec 21 12:04 GMT

You will notice that I have used the original Gregorian dates rather than those that I shifted eleven days prior to these trying to account for the calendar shift in the Middle Ages. Here were my original propositions and thoughts as a reminder of what I was trying to do:

We’re going to have to dowse on those days as we go through the year and see what happens. When does it feel right, and when are the energies particularly active? … I would hope that the male energies would be more active on the days of solar worship such as Summer Solstice, or the Equinoxes. If we get sun in Britain on those dates then we have a chance to test this theory out by visiting some of the sites we went to over this Winter period, when the energies seemed distinctly quiet and weak, with no evidence of male energy activity at all. On active solar days we would expect to find the qualities associated with maleness – protection, transformation through initiation, and the manipulation of energy.

The festival dates when the moon is very present coincide with the lunar festivals of the cross-quarter days (Beltane and Samhain) this year. That’s lucky for us and we can report on the status of the female earth energies at sites on those dates. We expect that the traditionally female aspects will be in evidence on those dates, that is fertility powers, sanctuary and healing.

We hope to be able to answer whether the times of year of the festivals correlate to a particular quality of the powers of the moon or sun at that time. The White Virgin (the first stage of the goddess) is linked to Spring. Are fertility powers stronger at Beltane and Spring Equinox? May Day was always seen as a fertility festival. Imbolc is associated with Brigid and healing. Are the healing energy frequencies strongest at this time?

Not all dates were able to be tested due to circumstances or time restrictions, but where they could then I have recorded the results. My conclusions will be compared with my expectations as recorded at the beginning of the year.

I am very unhappy with the quality of the results for this experiment. There were notable times when we didn’t take any measurement of the relative strengths of the energies and this has made the results quite inconclusive. Therefore, I will endeavour to be more rigorous this year and to try to capture the information more reliably and objectively. Therefore, please consider these results as an “indication” of what might be the case.

I also believe that there are some factors that have come to light this year that affect the results, i.e. the position of various planets at that point in the year, the position of the sun and moon, how clear the skies were, and to take into account the strengths of male and female energies separately, as well as differentiating between earth and radiant energy strengths.

Therefore, all in all, I feel the results from 2009 are of purely subjective value. However, I am including what data I did gather so that I can compare this year’s information with it to see if anything at all does begin to form a pattern.

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IMBOLC – February 1st

Actual visit date(s): February 1st & 2nd

Moon Phase: Almost First Quarter

Location: Dyserth village

Sites visited: St.Bridget’s Church, Castle Dyserth (quarry where we made a stone circle), Graig Fawr hill, Dyserth Waterfall, Gop Hill

Dowsing results: A significant change in the strength of the male energies from 1st to 2nd February. As there was significant cloud cover I could not attribute this increase to the appearance of the sun.

Activities: Only dowsing. Nothing relating to energy specifically.

Post Link: Dyeserth 3

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SPRING EQUINOX - March 20th

Actual visit date: March 20th

Location: Bryn Celli Ddu, Anglesey

Sites visited: Bryn Celli Ddu, Penmaenmawr stone circle

Dowsing results: The energy “felt” balanced. We were not inclined to dowse much at all. What dowsing was done turned up a perfect balance between male and female energy strengths. Was this purely suggestive, or was it real?

Activities: Attuning ourselves on top of an ancient mound, healing a stone circle with positive balancing energies.

Post Link: A Balance of Light & Dark

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BELTANE – May 1st

Actual visit date: May 1st

Moon Phase: Almost First Quarter

Location: Helsby, Cheshire.

Sites visited: Helsby Hill, Woodhouses Hill and a modern man-made mound.

Dowsing results: Again, we failed to measure the relative strengths of the energies. Energy was successfully sent from one site to the next, however.

Activities: Lighting incense and manifesting energies from hilltop to hilltop.

Post Link: Firing Manifestations

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SUMMER SOLTICE – June 21st

Actual visit date: Jone 20th and 21st

Location: Glastonbury, Somerset,

Sites visited: Barrowbridge Mump, Wearyall Hill, White Spring, Glastonbury Tor, Gog and Magog trees

Dowsing results: Very strong male energies, overwhelming the female energy (which wasn’t weak either). Strongest male energy of the year.

Activities: Meditating at various sites, being intuitively led to them, and instinctively having our chakras opened at those places to receive an influx of positive inspirational energies.

Post Link: The Opening of the Chakras

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LAMMAS - August 1st

Rejuvenated forest clearing

Actual visit date: August 1st

Moon Phase: 5 days from Full Moon

Location: The Sandstone Trail, Cheshire.

Sites visited: Beeston Castle, Peckforton Castle, Utkinton, Delamere Forest, Frodsham.

Dowsing results: Finding healing white energy spirals (composed of female tree and earth energy).

Activities: Drawing energy from the land (energising), healing,

Post Link: Llamas and Lammas

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AUTUMN EQUINOX – August 22nd

Actual visit date: August 19th and 20th

Location: Wiltshire and Oxfordshire

Sites visited: Alton Barnes White Horse, Wayland’s Smithy, Uffington White Horse

Dowsing results: Unusually strong male and female energies that were well balanced. The sun was glorious for these two days, and I felt completely relaxed, to the point where I was “spaced out” by being at sites – this “good feeling” was due to the “white” energy of the balanced and combined male and female energies, I believe.

Activities: Using sigils, following intuition, a pilgrimage of ancient sites, balancing chakra energies, transformation process.

Post Link: Trail of the White Dragon

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SAMHAIN – November 1st

Actual visit date: November 2nd

Moon Phase: Full Moon

Location: Wiltshire.

Sites visited: Silbury Hill, West Kennet Long Barrow.

Dowsing results: Stronger response than first visit I made some months earlier. The energy was male energy atop this mound. It was so strong it made me dizzy! I felt highly charged with subtle energy, and I could draw upon both male and female forms. Dowsing response was incredibly strong under the full moon.

Activities: Meditating, shamanic flying, empowerment of energy fields.

Post Link: None.

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WINTER SOLSTICE – December 21st

Actual visit date: 21st December

Location: Anglesey

Sites visited: Bryn Celli Ddu, Bryngwyn Stones, The Soar Stone, Lligwy Chamber

Dowsing results: Stronger female energies surrounding Bryn Celli Ddu; minimal male energy coming only from the stones. Male energy at Soar Stone restricted to close to the stone. Weak in nature. Male energy at Lligwy was confined to power centres, whilst female energy was again enclosing the central stones, as though protecting them? Our normal alignments (m/f) were reversed for this day – Kal went for female energy whilst I sought out male energy.

Activities: transformation, shamanic flying, empowerment, balancing of chakras.

Post Link: Anglesey Winter Solstice

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CONCLUSIONS

There are hints within this set of information that various factors such as the time of year, and the position of the sun and moon, all affect the strengths of the subtle energies at sacred sites and elsewhere. However, the poor quality and consistency of the information I gathered does not allow me to make any clear statement to that effect. Therefore, this year I will try to take more accurate, consistent and objective records of this data, including the new factors that I believe may be relevant including the influence of planets, and whether the sun or moon are visible when the dowsing takes place.

Watch for this post next year to see if I can get anything that might be approaching a conclusion!

Gwas

I have added a gallery page in the links at the top of the site. The photographs were taken while out and about this year at various sacred sites. I hope you enjoy browsing them as much as I enjoyed being there and taking them.

Gwas.

Equinox on Anglesey

We had fun and games trying to get to Anglesey for the time of the Vernal Equinox. We were trundling along, yapping away and missed the junction just over the Menai Bridge. We doubled back, went over the older bridge, then got behind slow drivers – all good fun. But we made it. Just in time to deposit our bags and relax on top of the mound at 11:45am – the exact Vernal Equinox at Bryn Celli Ddu (pronounced ‘brin kethli thee’) by my best estimation. There were no other visitors that morning until we were about to leave for Penmaenmawr – which made our relaxation easier. [Kal ~ and the two visitors that did appear were named Deanah and Rob, Deanah was a "good witch" and felt she had some innate sensitivities (don't we all have them? Perhaps we dontall feel them?) And Rob was her enabler, his words.]

We tried sitting inside the mound but quickly found this wasn’t where we were supposed to be. We went to sit back on our respective power centres that we had found on top of the mound, and soaked in the experience of the exact balance point between light and darkness that day – the Vernal (Spring) Equinox. The equilibrium point of night and day.

[Kal ~ Both Gwas and I had a most unusual sensation whilst at BCD. Up until that day our usual modus operandi has been to set about dowsing around and generally getting a feel for the Genius of the place, which then innevitably leads to other more directed questions and interesting paths (figuratively and literally). However on this occasion we seemed unconcerned with dowsing and when we both speculated on this - via the rods - we were given a resounding message "you are here to just be" - which, for the most part, is what we did]

When we had relaxed enough we started dowsing. I noticed the WSW-ENE alignment of the chamber with the remaining sighting stone and vowed to check that once I got home. I found that if you follow that orientation across North Wales it runs through several significant places, not least of which is the intriguingly named Woodchurch on the Wirral Peninsular. I also picked up a seed whilst sat on my power centre on top of the mound for no apparent reason. I pocketed it as a souvenir.

Baaad vibes

An hour later we stopped off for supplies in Penmaenmawr village. The journey up the hill was slow and dramatic with stunning views thanks to the clear and sunny weather. We tramped up the hill towards our next dowsing objective – a lone boulder in a field next to a line of tall fir trees and a house at the end of a track. As we slowly readied our dowsing rods and gingerly approached the stone, the sheep that were in the nearby fields looked up. Quickly, they began to assemble, from all directions. With every step we took three more sheep joined the gathering flock – and they were bleating like crazy at us! What an unusual welcome! I talked soothingly to them, but they were having none of it and warned us off in no uncertain terms.

Kal took the lead and dowsed towards the stone regardless. His rods crossed strongly and he backed away quickly. “Very strong bad energy.” he warned. We looked at each other and at the sheep. They had now blocked our path to the stone, and we were beginning to take the hint. As we packed our rods away the sheep fell silent, just watching us. We walked away further up the track a little and the sheep began to disperse.

[Kal ~ this has to be one of the strangest occurences that we have come across and deserves some more attention. When Gwas says the sheep gathered, this is an understatement - they came in from surrounding fields too, through gates and gaps. Talk about eerie! Before I even got to dowsing I got a buzzing in my head that felt like a headache coming on, which prompted me to dowse for -ve energies. Perhaps we should have a note to self - ensure protective shields are set up prior to wandering around ancient sites - as on this occasion we came up against a monster of a bad one and, as you will see further down this post, another -ve energy encounter. And here is another question that we will be investigating in a lot more detail in the future - Why didnt we do anything about the -ve energies around that stone?]

As if to break the uneasy silence Kal pointed to a fallen branch – “Didn’t you need a staff?” I preferred to have one, and had ‘forgotten’ my own in the morning rush to get ready, so I picked it up. It felt light but strong, and was a perfect height and weight to walk with. So be it. We would continue to the circles.

‘Decorative stones’

It’s always nice to meet people who take an interest in what we do. As we arrived at the Druid’s Circle we saw and heard two gentlemen who were discussing the origins, history and purpose of this site and others. After we did some preliminary dowsing during which Kal managed to find all the same paths and main energy points as I had found on my previous visits, even down to the order of strength of particular stones and power centres. That was very validating, and I was pleased that not one single thing was different. I vowed to show Kal my pattern sketches of the site and really freak him out!

We were soon joined by the two strangers who quizzed us about our dowsing activities. After they got more familiar they ventured their own theories about significant stones and suggestions that the ring of small stones that surrounded most of the major standing stones at the site were “decorative”. Kal eager to find out using only the rods. He asked – “Were they merely supportive ?”. No support from our rods. We asked: “Do they enhance the energetic field of the stone around which they are placed?“. Yes. The onlookers sensed a conspiracy and pulled their faces. We weren’t speculating, though. Just trying to ask good questions backed by practical experience.

We found the main power centre for the Druid’s Circle to be the patch of earth slightly off-centre to the circle. This has become a regular feature of some sites, but not all by any means. However, it didn’t surprise me because I had found this on my last visit too. Our friendly dowsing newbies were struggling trying to get the rods to do anything other than stay straight (if only you knew the irony of THAT statement!). They gave up trying to find any energy emerging from “The Hooded Man”, as one fo the stones is apparently known. I dowsed it and found a four feet wide band of neutral straight aligned energy that crossed through the Hooded Man and the tall stone opposite – the infamous “phallic emblem” of the tall rock and two small round rocks. Were ancient people trying to tell us that this circle was mainly MALE energies? Well, they are right.

The Bryn Celli Ddu to Childwall Ley

It’s not every day you make a new discovery. Or at least a discovery that’s new to you, if not to anyone else. Today was such a day, although it took several hours of plotting and lining up in Google Maps to reveal just how interesting the discovery was. When a line is drawn from Bryn Celli Ddu through the two circles at Penmaenmawr it traces a route through Old Colwyn, Mynydd Marian, Woodchurch on the Wirral, Croxteth Cemetry, Cbildwall Manor, Mcgoldrick Park, and probably beyond that in either direction too. The alignment is on a WSW-ENE path.

The only other notable finding at Druid’s Circle (the day was ebbing away) was the entrance to the circle. This was located in the gap between two flat stones at the southern end of the circle. One of the entrance stone (again, as we are now often finding) registered for strong female energies, and Kal proceeded to place some quartz crystals on the rock and put his bottle of water in the middle of the crystals. I dowsed a link from that stone to the other female recumbent stone on the western edge, where I had lain my staff to ‘rest’.

As the two now-disappointed gentlemen packed and left with hearty goodbyes, Kal and I decided to see what links there might be with other sites nearby. I dowsed a male line starting at the tal stone with the two ‘balls’, which seems to be the key stone, as it has all three energy forms in and around it. The line led in a slow sinewy path out of the circle and over the small hill to a formation of stones a few hundred yards away. I returned to the Druid’s Circle to determine the nature of the linkage. Was there any other form of link? Yes, a neutral ‘bridge’ between the two sites that went through the air, following the path of the alignment ley. Well, well. We’ve seen that before too!

Monument 280: The Healed Circle

“Monument 280″ is such an impersonal moniker for an ancient sacred site. the Megalithic Portal categorises this site as a ring cairn. Fair enough. It’s sort of rounded in shape, and the stones aren’t very large – not large enough to call it a stone circle.

This circle seemed different. The stones were smaller and far more rounded by weathering than the jagged male phallic symbols of the Druid’s Circle. We dowsed for its age – older than Druid’s. We asked if it had fallen into disuse – yes. Well, still unsure as to what that meant, but I didn’t want to take it further right then. However, there was still a link.

We were about to leave – fairly disinterested by this circle’s lack of drama when I turned to Kal: “Should we ask if this circle’s alright?” He knew what I meant. Could we, should we, re-energise it? I hesitated, then asked him to go ahead and dowse for the answer. Despite his disinterest he got a positive response! Oh no! Then we had work to do here, and couldn’t call it a day just yet. The sun was now beginning to drop along with the temperature, and the sun seemed permanently masked by a thick veil of cloud.

Before we did anything we decided to work out which stones had which qualities. We located the Key Stone (the most energetically important), and that had male, female and neutral energies. Most other stones were male. Two of the longer stones opposite each other (pictured) dowsed as female.

We found male and neutral energies were creating black streams affecting the energy balance of the stone circle. Kal dowsed for the source of the black streams. Hmmm..maybe we shouldn’t have asked. Peculiar goings-on at this site! Some dark energy workers had been utilising this site for their own ends, it seemed. We recoiled and chatted for a moment about what to do next.

The Straw Deer

We decided to protect ourselves and try to re-balance the energies (i.e. remove the black streams). Kal dowsed that this was work for me to do, with his help from outside the circle. He went off to put some protection around me, and I did the same. Later, when we compared notes the sensations and visual metaphors employed were identical in every way. I certainly felt well protected. I quietened my mind (with some difficulty) but soon felt as though I was able to let thoughts form from outside my rational consciousness. I suddenly knew what I had to do – I had to create the symbol of Venus that I had been shown earlier that week at the base of the stone that Kal had identified as the key stone for transmitting the new energy form we were about to create.

I got up from my meditation and scoured the area. I had to form the symbol out of something real, I felt. I found some dry grass stems and suddenly remembered the little seed that I had picked up for no reason at Bryn Celli Ddu – that would form the eye-shape I needed. I had to make sure that the symbol wouldn’t be blown away as soon as I laid it down, so I cut back a layer of turf and placed the symbol on the earth directly, at the place where Kal had identified as most suitable for energy work.

As I patted the grass back down the sun came out from behind the veil of mist and I gasped in amazement at the synchronicity. But then, we have come to see this happen so many times that I really shouldn’t be surprised any more. I smiled deeply. Confirmation that we were on the right track. Now we felt as though we needed to disconnect and cleanse ourselves.

We went back to the Druid’s Circle to drink the water that Kal had placed in his circle of five quartz crystals. It tasted great. Then we both stood with our backs to the flat main stone on the eastern edge. We faced the remains of the day’s sun and drank in the last rays. After a few minutes we felt the stone pulling energy out of us – cleansing us of the traces of the other circle’s energies. A few minutes later we both stepped away from the stone simultaneously without prompting. Time to go. A quick dowse : had we done any good? Yes. Was the other circle being balanced by our work? Yes. Would it have any adverse effects? No. We made a note to check it regularly.

We watched the sun set as we headed back down the hill to the old faithful little blue car.

Gwas

Following some newbies with copper sticks.

Bryn Celli Ddu: Monday, March 16th 2009

I don’t know what possessed me to go the almost 75 miles to Anglesey straight after leaving work last night. It’s not something a sane person would contemplate, but I was on my motorcycle and felt an urgency to get there before the sun set. Sunset time was scheduled for :

Date: 16 Mar 2009 / Sunrise: 06:28 / Sunset: 18:22 / Length of day: 11h 54m 42s

I arrived at some time close to 6:30 pm and walked to the mound in the slowly-forming twilight. I spent about ten minutes inside the mound dowsing for places to sit, and what the strength of the energies were at that time of day (although I had no previous marker to base that on). I soon came to feel that I wasn’t in the right place and decided that I should leave my stuff inside whilst I went outside.

In the open air I felt colder but more relaxed. I dowsed for the best place to sit in order to meditate and was directed by the rods to the top of the mound. There I sat and began to switch off. For some reason I was facing West. For some reason I was staring at a bright star which seemed to be the only one in the sky – certainly the only one I was noticing.

As I stared at it I noticed something unusual : there appeared to be three points of light to this star, and they formed a shape. I stared more intently. Yes, definitely a shape. A white shape with crescent horns protruding from the upper left hand side, and the two smaller points of light forming a forked ‘tail’. It reminded of the white horse of Uffington in reverse, for some reason:

I blinked and blinked again. No, still there. I got my camera phone out and took a picture. Zoomed in I could see it through the lens, but after taking a picture the result showed nothing but flecks in a grainy dark sea. Still the image remained prominent in the sky. Was this a sign? I determined to memorise the shape and set about emblazoning it on my retina and into my memory. This was, I felt, why I was here. From the top of the mound I could feel undulations of energy pulsing upwards through me. This was special, I thought. I knew there was some connection I had with Venus at the moment, and so I dowsed whether this was Venus I was seeing. Yes. Then this was even more interesting. After ten minutes the cold really hit me and I decided to get along home like a sensible person. I left a gift of tobacco and my thanks, then rode home with freezing hands but high spirits.

Picturing Venus

When I got home I immediately knew I had to capture the image that was still so vivid in my memory, but also I had a desire to know more about this star. Which zodiac sign were we in at this point in the year? Pisces was giving way to Aries – we were on the cusp. I have no concept of the relevance of that, but it did seem to me that the image I saw had elements of a horns atop a fish-shape. Noteworthy, but nothing that made me have any greater understanding of a significance at this stage of my development. Here’s the shape I drew trying to capture the area of light that the star was spanning:

Why had I needed to ride out to Bryn Celli Ddu? What was the reason for needing to go there?At the time I had no clue. Now I understand why – it was so that I could use that shape later in the week when I was to visit a stone circle above Penmaenmawr at the Vernal Equinox, but that story will be posted soon enough.

Why was that star so visible from that place – because it’s so westerly? Venus was the last element of twilight this night. It felt magical dowsing my way to the top of the mound and I could feel energy being pulsed up through the top where I sat, perched over the western edge. All I could see was Venus. All I could look at was that bright star. And then I saw three points. Then a pair of horns bent upwards from the main bright point to form the symbol pictured above and below. It stayed in that formation and shape and intensity until I left. As I looked back it had returned to a single point and other stars were beginning to make themselves seen more clearly. I had been there at just the right time to see Venus at her most distinct, and she showed me something of herself. I asked if it was a symbol for me, a power glyph or something like that. I dowsed a strong yes when I asked whether I could use it for energy work. I nearly dropped the rods! Use it for what!!?

Venus: her names and symbols

Venus, the Morning and Evening Star, is forever associated with love and relationships. I was interested to find out how Venus had been named, represented and revered down the ages so I started a little research going. I drew the symbol I had seen many times, and in as many ways as I could muster. Here’s a close representation of what I saw. Venus is often seen as a diamond shape, or a crescent due to her relationship with the light, my symbol was not like that.

The Venus symbol seen in the Western twilight a week before the Vernal Equinox

So I began hunting around to see what other symbols Venus had been represented by – was my symbol something traditional, or something just for me to represent her by? I scoured the net for information. Venus was the planet that orbited the earth 8 times in the time it takes our planet to orbit the sun 5 times, I had heard:

“...if Venus orbits the sun 13 times while the earth does 8 times, then Venus must pass us 5 times during those 8 years.” (John Pratt’s Astronomy site)

Venus’ 5-time passing is also the reason why the pentagram is one of her symbols, as depicted below in a diagram from a masonic text. Chinese Traditional Medicine (TCM) often depicts if five element system by a pentagram in a circle.

The pentagram has a great deal of sinister and occult history associated with it, as does the Morning Star and Evening Star references. Lucifer, the fallen angel, is often considered to be The Morning and Evening Star, however, that designation is also held by many other pivotal characters such as the Greek Hesperus (or Phosphorus), the Babylonian goddess Ishtar, the goat-headed Baphomet beloved of the Masons, and also Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love. Venus has many names, and those are just her written historical names.

Venus and Astrology

Venus is the ruling planetary influence of the astrological signs of Taurus and Libra. From Wikipedia:

“Venus is the modern ruler of the 2nd and 7th houses, but traditionally ruled the 5th and 12th houses – the 5th house of play and the 12th house of self-undoing! Unsurprisingly, Venus is said to have ‘joy’ in the 5th.“

The astrological interpretation of her influence recently (i.e. going into retrograde motion) is that she brings the possibility of undoing your own comfort and pleasure within your relationships, and despite my wish to completely ignore this element of astrology I have to confess that under her influence in the past week I have alienated a friend and had a blazing row with my wife! Anyone who knows me well knows that this is not something I am particularly prone to, and it has certainly taken me by surprise! I am still stubbornly refusing to acknowledge this aspect of Venus, however, so let’s move on.

I have five stones in my Venus crystal layout. Coincidence, of course. I dowsed for clearer answers: the crystal layout is specifically for capturing the energies of Venus whilst she’s passing. When she moves away then I’ll need other crystals and other geometries for whichever other sympathetic energies are nearby. Don’t know what yet – some luminary. Could be any!

The Moon on that night was waning gibbous heading to the New Moon. Pretty much like in the picture of the Taurus symbol above.

Gwas.

Follow something you don’t believe in until you do.

Every once in a while I am stopped in my tracks when I read a passage from a book whose description of the subtle energies is so closely in accordance with my own experience. In Chapter 3 of Serge Kahili King’s book, simply entitled “Earth Energies”, I have found just such a correspondence. Describing Baron von Reichenbach’s experiments with magnets and so-called “sensitives” (people who are particularly sensitive to energy) King makes this statement:-

“A fascinating discovery in relation to the magnet was what Reichenbach called ‘the rainbow of od“. A great number of sensitives during thousands of experiments reported a spectrum of colours appearing within the blue or yellow-tinted flames of the poles of the magnets. When not disturbed by breath or motion, these colours arranged themselves in a orderly rainbow sequence, with red at the bottom and dark blue and violet-red at the top. The top colour ‘died gradually away into a smoke-like vapour.’ The whole spectrum of colour was intermingled with sparkling points of light.”

A rainbow of od, or Odic Force. Or perhaps the rainbow of Oz? The Baron used the term ‘od’ to denote the etheric field that seemed closely related to Mesmer’s concept of ‘animal magnetism‘, which was later termed ‘vril‘. Other names for it are ch’i, ki, and prana. It is the life force of Nature in druidic terms. It is the subtle energy field whose flow dowsers tune into. It may be the ‘dark matter‘ that scientists have recently ‘discovered’ and theorised about.

From my perspective I am just pleased this this is yet another source whose descriptions of the qualities of this force mirror my own, non-scientific, experiences.What struck home with me were two things: the sparkling points of light and the rainbow colours. In this blog series both Kal and I have mentioned finding and testing the rainbow colours many times. One of our most recent sessions working with them was at a small ring cairn near Castle Dyserth in North Wales, where I dowsed the rainbow pattern created by Kal standing on a pre-dominantly male power centre:

“I dowsed for the edge of Kal’s aura, his nemeton as I approached again. I found it about 12-15 feet away from the small ring cairn’s centre. I followed it around both sides and behind Kal. Behind him the nemeton was very thin, only several inches wide, but at each side and out in front it expanded into an large ellipse shape, like a pair of butterfly wings. The clouds were quickly disappearing now as the sun burned through.

I dowsed for Kal’s rainbow chakra colour field to see if it was any different from his aura. Indeed it was. His violet coloured boundary was a further ten feet beyond the edge of his aura. Again the bands decreased in width as I approached Kal. His red band was a mere inch from his body as he stood on that spot.”

The butterfly wing shaped aura was reminiscent of the field effects of a bar magnet, the very item Reichenbach was using in his experiments. As for the sparkling lights, remember my description of a visit to Cerrig Pryfaid stone circle, which is on the landward side of Tal-y-Fan, close to the Druid’s Circle formations of Penmaenmawr?

Here’s what I wrote about the energy around that site:

“As I stood there I slowed down my thought processes. I concentrated on the silence. I began to hum and softly speak a few “Awens” to relax myself – a form of druid meditation. I don’t usually make any sound, but the sound seemed to suit the silence of the hillside and the circle seemed to bounce the hum back at me even though the stones were only a few feet high. As my mind stopped being demanding for stimuli I quietened to let the silence engulf me totally. Nothing was making a sound. No sheep. No car. No bird. It was utterly silent. All I could hear was my own slow breathing. My eyes narrowed slightly and I stopped focusing them on anything in particular outside of the stone circle. In that state I was able to see sparks of white horizontal flecks that fizzled and flashed like a TV screen without a channel tuned in.”

This is all very intruiging. Kal and I have come to discover most of the information we have gathered through intuitive responses and off-the-cuff experimentation. Often the results have been above and beyond expectation, and often they have been contrary to any ideas we may have been harbouring. Yet here, in this book as with others I have read recently, I am finding a large degree of correlation in the descriptions of their work with the subtle energy fields.

I feel as though the theoretical side is finally catching up with the wealth of experiential evidence that we accumulated in 2008. This year is shaping up nicely for a mind-blowing collaboration between the two!

Gwas

Following in the footsteps

When I first read a book by David Cowan called “Ley Lines and Earth Energies” the title seemed to match my desire – to learn as much as possible about ley lines. I wasn’t quite so sure about whether I was really interested in earth energies at that stage, or even what they were, in truth. So, I made an attempt to read it, but fell short of completing it. I was too new to the subject to grasp what Cowan’s ideas were, or how they had been achieved. I parked the book until a later date.

As fate would have it I recently purchased a copy of another book he’d done, and this book was kinder. Or maybe I was more prepared for it. For the first half of “Ancient Energies of the Earth” I was simply nodding in agreement – “Yep – we’ve found that too.” Then Cowan began to come out with a stream of properties about the energies – how they worked, what they were powered by, what they linked to, how they circulated, what forces attracted and repelled them. I was overwhelmed with information so I started to make notes.

In the following section you can read some of those notes I took which I think encapsulate a number of pieces of information, some coherent, some random, and they are classified by us as either confirmatory (confirmed), or speculative if undesignated. That is, his ideas either correlate exactly to our own findings, or we have not yet shown them to be true enough for us to convince us yet. We aim to try the speculative ideas out this year.

Cowan makes reference to two terms that I will mention: cup-marked stones and telluric energies. Cup-marked stones are large stones ranging from small boulders up to huge megaliths that have man-made carved depressions, hollows and gouges. Cowan links these stones intrinsically to the functioning of ancient sites. Telluric energies are simply Cowan’s term for the male and female earth energies that we have discussed many times on this blog.

Animals, plants and energy lines

• There are many tales of cows and insect swarms being attracted to geomagnetic areas.
• Cows sit on tumuli, barrows, etc.
• Church stonemasons had a tradition of sleeping where cows had been stood or had lain, as this ensured a good night’s sleep.
• Evil water spirits in the form of a horse,bull or cow are often associated with tales about lochs, lakes and tarns.
• Hares make their burrows on hills that have blind springs running beneath them.
• Mole nests and badger sets are also associated with the location of blind springs.
• Some plants grow better in areas where earth energy columns arise.

We have found an abundance of faerie rings with unusually lush grass growth forming circles around hilltops and sacred sites. At Arbor Low stone circle we found a column of energy arcing out of one faerie ring and joining to another some thirty feet away.

Energy Formations

• Quoting Guy Underwood, Cowan says that blind springs (crossing points of underground water) send vertical spirals of energy arcing into the air.
• The book shows an illustration of The Staff of Aesculapius symbol of entwined light and dark serpents (similar to the Caduceus symbol). A similar double-helix energy formation is shown emerging from a standing stone. (Confirmed)
• There are at least two types of straight leys: containment leys and national leys. National leys follow geological fault lines, whereas containment leys can be constructed with a stone and a mound.
• Underground energies are shaped like an inverted tree with the trunk being a spiral at the surface.
• Cup marks carved in a stone produce an energy beam. One ray per mark (although it could be two as the line may come back into the stone ).
• To make an energised stone carve a cup mark in sunlight. Once carved the stone can be moved, and the beam of energy directed by turning the stone.

Energy Properties

• Cup marked stones are the SOURCE powering circuits of energy linking several ancient sites into a circuit of energy on both a local and national geographical scale.
• Straight alignment leys differ from the earthy telluric energies (male and female lines). Alignment leys are neither male nor female, he says. Neutral, we say. (Confirmed)
• Telluric energy follows the path of least obstruction, e.g. animal trails, tramlines in cornfields, or through forests. (Confirmed)
• He equates the telluric energies to the Yin/Yang properties discussed by Chinese geomancers. The male energies come from edges, whereas the female energies emerge from hollows. These energies are also attracted to features of a similar type: i.e. male energies seek edges, whereas female energies seek hollows. (Confirmed)
• This energy tunes into resonant cavities – holes or hollows, skulls and bones. These cavities are resonated by wind passing through them, causing vibrational resonance.
• Qualities of the energies:

1. takes the easiest path,
2. attracted to bodies of water,
3. attracted to recent death sites.

• The wavelengths of telluric energies are phased, and seems to be based on a two-minute cycle. Dowsing the same wave twice within that two minute cycle ought to yield variations on the position of the wave.
• Straight leys do not cycle their phase and are STATIC. (Confirmed)
• SOLAR ENERGY produces the shape wave around objects on the earth (trees, stones, tumuli). This means that the size of the “aura” of that feature is linked to the extent of its shadow in the sun. The extent is mirrored not only on the shadow side, but on its opposite side too, like an anti-shadow.
• In derelict houses the energy will enter the door and leave by another “hole” such as a chimney, or window.
• The energy will often pass across bridges.
• Male lines spiral clockwise, female lines spiral anti-clockwise. (Confirmed)
• Streams, rivers, roads, paths, railway lines and electricity pylons all act as carriers for telluric energies. Straight leys are not re-directed by the presence of obstacles, but travel in straight lines naturally. (Confirmed)
• The width of the holes in standing stones or cup marks in stones denotes the breadth of the telluric line that emerges from it (or travels through it). Narrow holes or slits concentrate energies into thin lines, whereas wide or gaping holes emit a broad encircling line of energy.

Winter Hill cup-marked stone

Ancient Site Construction

• Two standing stones side by side form a portal that focuses energy lines along a particular direction. (Confirmed)
• Standing stones are situated on the crossing points of two or more underground streams.
• Some piles of stones (cairns) attract the paths of energies, and may even be sources of energies themselves. If one stone is moved away from the pile then an energy path will come with it. (Confirmed)
• The gaps in piles of boulders attracts telluric energies, as do man-made gaps between hills and split stones (like The Praying Hands of Mary in Perthshire).
• Telluric energies avoid Forestry Commission Plantations. The trees being so close together form an impenetrable barrier.
• Four-stone circles work differently from other types of stone circle. They are called “four posters”. These circles transmit energy out to circular burial grounds.
• Dolmens or cromlechs seem designed as parabolas for the purpose of concentrating energy. (Confirmed)
• Suggests that Arbor Low is a hub for many radial alignment leys. Kal found 12. (Confirmed)
• Confirms that energies come out of the FLAT side of a stone in a circle (like at Druid’s Circle, Penmaenmawr), circles around, then comes back into the stone. (Confirmed)
• Sites tend to be built upon geological fault lines, and lines cross at nodes where activity is strongest.
• Lakes, tarns, lochs and just about any standing water body acts as an attractor pulling energy currents towards them, even uphill.
• Sacred sites usually have some element of PARABOLA involved in their design. These concentrate the energies coming in to a single point.

Consider the position of power centres in stone circles, which are always off-centre and closer to the edge of a site. There is also an interesting story (upcoming blog post) about some Tibetan monks being observed and photographed by a German scientist demonstrating their powers of levitating a megalith by using sound energy. This was achieved whilst stood in a semi-circle a precise distance away from the stone and chanting whilst drumming.

Death Energies

• A ram’s head skull found int he path of a ley line had a set of concentric rings around it in the shape of the skull. These got narrower apart at the outer edge. The spread of these concentric waves supposedly can vary according to how recent the death of the animal was.
• The burial sites of ancient warriors is a likely place to find telluric energy flowing through (cf. Hawarden – the Gladstone tomb). (Confirmed)
• Healthy lines turn to unhealthy lines when they pass through a graveyard.
• The more recent the death, the stronger the attraction for energy lines.
• The paths of the dead were always straight, and many straight leys run through ancient burial sites. It seems as though the dead were transported along these straight trackways (or “doodwegen” - ’dead ways’  in Dutch). Many cultures believe that the recent dead travel in straight lines.

Scientific and Paranormal properties of energy

• The dowsing brain is sensitive to electromagnetic fields. Passing through these fields with increasing speed increases the voltage in the brain from around 4microvolts @ 1m/sec to 400microvolts @8m/sec.
• Rotating the head also causes a similar increase in voltages. Are increases in voltages associated with altered states of consciousness?
• Welsh folklore has it that cup marks and petroglyphs hold the key to all knowledge of the arts and sciences of the ancient world. See also the book “Lost Arts and Sciences of the Stone Age”
• Apollonius Rhodius (Greek poet) said: “Stones placed at the apex of a tumulus are so sensitive as to be movable by the mind.”
• Telluric energy may be capable of splitting stones, or causing weaknesses in stone to be exposed to weathering, thus creating unusual gaps along the paths of straight leys.
• Up until the 1950s it was common for Glasgow women to draw “step charms” in chalk on their doorsteps. These were intricate patterns of sacred gemoetrical shapes. The idea was to give whoever stopped over them the benefits of their benevolent energies. In India they are called “kolams“.
• Kiva, or magnetic chambers, used by the Native Americans for the purpose of transformation of consciousness. Souterrains like Bryn Celli Ddu, or Lligwy chamber, serve this purpose too. (Confirmed)
• Chladni patterns produced by sound vibrations shaping sand on a smooth surface – are these designs the format of crop circle designs? Does that mean that crop circles are produced by energy at differing frequencies?
• Crop circles could form ever more complex patterns through the input of ever stronger electromagnetic forces, producing a pattern much like when sand on a flat plate is vibrated at higher and higher frequencies.
• Margaret Watts-Hughes used her voice to create patterns (lycopodium grains, sand, powder and a ‘singing tube’) – they are called Eidophone Voice Figures. This was simply done using a pipe with some rubber stretched across the ‘trumpet’ or bowl section. The power and sand are mixed with some water and spread across the membrane. Gentle tonal singing through the tube then produces patterns.

Healing with Energy

• There is an ancient tradition of burying silver bells to ward off malignant energies. As the bell shape is concave it deflects bad earth energies.
• Lines from a stone can pick up healthy negative IONS by following a stream or river (especially a lively one).
• Energy lines that follow a stream or river can be attracted and directed around houses to form a shield against unhealthy energies in the area.
• Drilling a hole in a stone (The Cheesewring, Cornwall, for example) causes it to emit a form of energy that is traditionally associated with healing.
• Healthy energy waves can pass through glass, but unhealthy waves cannot, and avoid or go around the glass obstacle.
• Confirms that electricity pylons attract and act as a conduit or carrier for both healthy and unhealthy energies.
• Putting a mirror or glass (glass is the key) beneath a bed will deflect harmful energy lines (‘black lines’) and aid a restful sleep.
• T.C.Lethbridge believed that waterfalls, spring and streams were places where humans could interact best with the natural force field, as they generate negative (good) ions. They certainly have the power to enervate the human spirit.

The Geology and Geography of Ley Lines

• There is a long straight ley running from Glastonbury Tor to Edinburgh Castle
• Cowan speculates that highest telluric currents originate from volcanic activity (volcanies, volcanic plugs). These volcanic plugs often have large castles situated on them that housed rulers and kings.
• Magnetic anomalies of Croy Brae, Ranmore Common (Surrey), Isle of Mull, Mt Cavo in Italy, and Long Mynd in Shropshire all have unusual effects. Fountains Abbey in Yorkshire has an extremely high geomagnetic field.
• The Isle of Staffa (near Mull, site of Fingal’s Cave) and the Giant’s Causeway – both originators of straight energy leys, and made from volcanic basalt rock. The cave is huge, and combined with the volcanic source material, projects a powerful ley across to Iona.

Tiamat: The Chromatic Dragon

Miscellaneous

• Names for the energy dragon around the world:

1. KUEI (China) – travels in straight lines, dislikes iron & steel.
2. ECHIDNA (Greece) – lives in caves, moves at night, shuns the daylight.
3. ORME (Gaelic) – worm that suns the daylight.
4. TIAMAT  – lives below water, is evil.
5. OMNIONT (N.America) – giant snake, when angry makes thunder, lightening, hail and rain.
6. WHOWIES (Australia) – lives in caves, travels only at night.
7. BUNYIP (Australia) – lives in damp sand.
8. UROO (Australia) – water serpent that twists and turns below the earth’s surface.

Conclusion

Many assertions that need testing, wonderful description of layering up over energy systems over a wide area. Describes how to build a ley system. Second half of book is by Anne Silk and is attempt to scientifically (specif. geologically) explain paranormal phenomena via earth energy qualities. Similar to work done by Paul Devereux.

It is clear there is a link made by Cowan (as by many other researchers, archaeologists and dowsers) between the siting of ancient burial sites and their energetic potential. It seems as though death, or the extinction of life in particular, attracts telluric energies. A connection we were not keen to explore after our Norton Priory experience last year (see blog post), but may have to revisit.

I heartily recommend the “Ancient Energies..” book as a useful insight into how David Cowan deconstructed then reconstructed the makings and working of a large-scale energy ley system and its associated local telluric energy systems. When you see the scale of the work done by ancient cultures it only further impresses you with its ingenuity and sensitivity. We know little of its actual power potential, however.

References

1. David Cowan & Anne Silk : “Ancient Energies of the Earth“  (buy)
2. David Cowan & Chris Arnold : “Ley Lines and Earth Energies“  (buy)
3. If you want to see what kind of subjects David is drawn to research then you should visit his website: http://www.leyman.demon.co.uk

Gwas,

Following in the footsteps.