The Hedge Druid

Posts Tagged ‘pool’

Sit down, get yourself a cup of tea! This is a long one. Yet, for all that, it is probably the most interesting experience I have ever had, as it taught me that my new-found abilities have evidence to back them up, and that has been a priceless reminder that following this druidic path is at the heart of my being, despite the moments of doubt along the way.

In the last few months I had my first visit to Knypersley Reservoir. During that visit I confirmed that there was something unwholesome, something that felt ‘bad’ about Gawton’s Well. Of course, such things are subjective, but it felt bad for me, for my friend, and for the person who reported the issue in the first place. Knowing we were all “nice” people, I felt this was sufficient grounds for me to try to reverse the situation, and to make the place feel more inviting to people of a similar disposition to me.

A group of friends had gathered together one late July afternoon for lunch and a chat. I was fidgety. In the back of my mind I knew that we were not far away from the Knypersley site, and it was on my mind to bring the matter to a conclusion soon. I put the matter to the circle of friends and they agreed to come out with me providing that the weather was in our favour. At that time it was sunny one minute and heavy rain the next. We agreed to see how the weather was on arrival. And so I had managed to rally some powerful psychics, mediums and energy workers to help me in my earth healing.

I knew that I was going to need some help from the group. Usually I work alone but after my last encounter with the strength of the force that pervaded the well area I wasn’t going to tackle this alone. In preparation I had done some remote viewing of the site to see if I could find out some information psychically. It was a sort of test of my new-found skills – the skills of the hawk – Gwalchmai’s Gift, if you like. The ability to remotely view a place from an aerial viewpoint.

Here is what I learned when I did that:-

• The well has been used for dark ritualistic purposes (the group narrowed this down, but I won’t say more here).
• There are many traps set up in the place – things buried, energetic trip-wires to alert the practitioners to the presence of those who work against them
• The buried items are at a tree next to the well head, and another about fifteen feet to the left of the well head.
• The worst element is the polluted well itself, which spreads its black energies out into the surrounding woodland and more importantly the nearby pool

This was the information I had to work with. There were two things that we knew from the previous visit that we would need in order to successfully re-balance the well’s energies – sunlight and joy. The sunlight was looking doubtful, and although there was good-hearted chatter, it was tinged with a wary doubt about what was to come.

As we approached alongside the reservoir two of us stopped – we felt an energetic barrier – like a checkpoint. Over the years I have become accustomed to the feel of such changes in energetic pressure. I liken it to walking outside into a hot day when having been in an air-conditioned room. You can feel a swell of change, like a wave or waft of air signifying a change in pressure between two places, but it is on an energetic level – nothing to do with the actual air temperature. You notice it in your navel region and it makes your diaphragm jerk in response, as though some invisible force was pushing at your abdomen.

I said to the assembly, “Someone knows we’re here.” The most experience of the psychics was calm and reassuring, “Indeed they do, but they can’t do anything about it.” A wry smile cheered everyone up a little.

Knypersley Pool – a place of faery dancing

We arrived at a bridge over a pond and some of the people who hadn’t visited before became entranced by the view of the pond on one side of the bridge wall. Well they might, for this had been the spot where previously Mike had seen nature spirits dancing on the pretty little island that stood in the water at the far end of the pond. Today others too saw the faeries excited at the presence of the group. The rest of us just took the opportunity to gather ourselves whilst there was talk of mini-rainbows exploding over the pond. Those with deeper sight were blessed with a spectacle that the rest of us could only imagine.

As we reconvened to go on there was a moment of silence that spoke volumes about the anticipation levels. I think everyone felt they were readying themselves for a tough energetic battle. A slight dreary rain began to fall as the clouds drew closer together to enhance the gloom.

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In this second part of the story of my visit to Knypersley Pool (or Knypersley Reservoir) I will be telling you about the female equivalent of the Gawton Stone that was discovered in the first part. If we consider the stone to be the male aspect then the following feature could be said to be the female equivalent.

As Mike and I walked back along the path on which we had arrived at the stone my gaze was drawn to the rocky hillside above. There, through the trees, I saw a diamond-shaped hole that was almost the same size as the diamond-shaped stone that we had just been standing next to. I joked that perhaps the stone had been born from the hillside and this hole was the evidence of that. Whatever the real circumstances, the hole was an incredible sight nonetheless. Straight away we both wanted to go through it – it was such a strong impulse.

We approached the base of the climb and then reason began to suggest a number of difficulties that might prevent us going through:-

1. It was steep
2. It was obviously slippery in the damp conditions
3. We were running out of time to find the well
4. Mike had the wrong kind of shoes for climbing
5. I would have to climb up there with my staff in hand too
6. It was steep and slippery

The Alignment Portal

As we climbed we took our minds off the tricky ascent. Was this some kind of portal? Would anything interesting happen if we went through it? What was on the other side? Was there actually a path up here? We both felt that something would happen. We used the word portal repeatedly.

Gawton alignment portal – gate between energies

As we climbed the sense of anticipation grew stronger. I could feel the mounting energy levels as we approached the passageway into some other place. It was like the energy was being concentrated to fit into the hole, and that male energy on one side was battling to balance itself with an opposing force on the other side. The word ‘alignment’ came into my head. This was an alignment portal – a portal between two energy fields – one male and the other female. I hadn’t even properly formed the concept when I found myself at the very centre of the hole after pulling Mike up with my staff as he slipped and slid his way up the last few feet to join me.

We halted at the top to get our breath back and go through together.

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In England one has to get used to working in the rain – especially in Summer, it would seem. June 2012 has been one of the wettest months I can remember. However, despite this, I have somehow managed to be out and about quite a lot.  I think it’s down to sheer bloody-mindedness, which could be seen as both a positive or negative trait.

One June evening I was chatting with my friend Mike and he mentioned that a friend of a mutual friend had mentioned that a recent visit to a sacred well had been unexpectedly unpleasant. The report that came back was that the well felt disturbed and oppressive.  We discussed whether there might be something that we could do about it. The name of the place was “Gawton’s Well“. The name rang a bell with me – then I remembered that I had seen it on the Megalithic Portal, but its location looked difficult to identify, and I remember thinking, “I will mention this to Mike ad see if he knows where it is”. A year later, here was Mike mentioning it to me. Maybe I was being a bit too eager, but I asked if we might go and try to find it. Apparently Mike didn’t know the location of the well either, but he knew the area. Good enough. Surely we should be able to locate it? Despite the dark clouds and drizzle I managed to persuade Mike to leave the house and we set off for the reservoirs beyond Biddulph.

Locating with Dowsing Rods

When I heard that the well was situated near to a place called “Knypers-ley” the name drew some raised eyebrows and knowing looks. Could there indeed be a ley line running through the area? If I had had more time and the weather had been nicer I might have added it to the list of things to look for, but this evening I only had time for one objective – to find the location of this mysterious well, mentioned as one of the most spiritual places in Staffordshire, and now possibly energetically damaged.

We had only three points of reference to find the well. We knew that it was “north” of the reservoir, and that it was on a path that wasn’t the main path. From a photo we had seen there was a wall with a gap in it too. That was it. How difficult could it be? Well, we drastically underestimated the size of the reservoir for one thing! After twenty minutes of walking approximately northwards on the path round the reservoir we hadn’t seen a wall, and we hadn’t seen any sign pointing to a well (not that we were expecting one).

We stopped to ask the dowsing rods for some help. Could they direct us to where we could find the well, I asked?

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For some time now I have been trying to get closer to the spirit of Merlin. In the fabulously detailed and helpful book “Walkers Between the Worlds” there is a section dealing with such encounters. One of the recommendations is to immerse yourself in the history of that figure. Done that. Next, the Matthews’ recommendation is to visit some of the sites associated with that figure. Well, I’ve done that too. But one of the places that regularly comes up in the literature about Merlin is Dinas Emrys.

In his book “Merlin And Wales” Michael Dames says this of Dinas Emrys:-

“Three miles due south of Wales’s highest mountain, Snowdon, stands a steep-sided, flat-topped hillock. Rising a mere 76 metres *250 feet) above the river Glaslyn’s valley floor, it is known as Dinas Emrys. Din Emreis, as it was termed in a charter of AD 1199, plays an outstanding role in the welsh Dark Age and mediaeval tradition. Here Vortigern, king of Britain, tried to build a refuge. Here the boy Merlin almost lost his life while red and white dragons intertwines in a magic pool beneath his feet.“

A good summary of the story to be found here: http://www.celtnet.org.uk/legends/dinas_emrys.html and a study of Vortigern in history can be found here: http://www.vortigernstudies.org.uk/artwho/dinas2.htm.

For me the place had an almost magnetic attraction. I have experienced such a “pull” before from other sites. It starts as a recurring thought, then becomes an insistent thought, then a growing physical feeling in your heart and stomach that you have to visit, and finally you can’t think of anything else but getting there! It really is a strange compulsion. It feels like waiting for Christmas as a child.

I set my hopes and expectations quite low for this visit. I was going to have to go after work, and I knew the travelling time would be at least two and a half hours from there. Even in Summer I would have little time to appreciate the site, and that’s if I found it straight away. I decided that this visit would be a simple recce: find out where it is, how to get up there, what’s there, how it feels, quick dowse, go home.

As I approached Snowdonia I realised I had come ill-prepared. No head torch. No OS map. No compass. All I had was a zoomed in MultiMap print off of the area around Beddgelert. Well, perhaps luck would take over and guide me there? Maybe.

I parked at the National Trust car park at Craflwyn Hall. It only took me half an hour of walking up the hill to realise that I was walking up the wrong one. I had parked too far away! I got my GPS out to check my hunch: the batteries ran out immediately. Oh this was too much! I saw below me the outline of a hill that I felt was familiar – that must be Dinas Emrys. I raced back down the hill, realising that I was now even shorter on time, and that the light would only be with me for another hour!

Parking in a lay-by next to the hill I found a gate and a path that headed off gently along the hillside. The path reminded me of the labyrinthine path around Glastonbury Tor. Was I going to be walking myself into a trance state?  As I walked up I soon arrived at a caravan park. Oh dear. Should I be going through there? I didn’t know. I decided that the best policy was not to disturb anyone, so to avoid the caravans I went straight up the hill, following some incredibly steep animal paths through the ferns, and in between the boulders.

Drenched in sweat I reached the summit, and connected with the proper path that I should have taken from the caravan park. I make that sound easy but at one point I thought I might slip and die it was so steep! On top I walked around to find the castle remains – there seemed to be about three small peaks on top of the summit area. I headed towards the one with the tree.

This area turned out to be the main ‘castle’ remains – a rectangular set of walls enclosing a lower grassy area with some marsh reeds. Marsh reeds? To me that signified flies, midges and other biting insects. Hmmm. And here I was covered in sweat – an attractive meal, no doubt. Immediately I dowsed for the entrance to this enclosure: it was due east, and the exit was south next to a large ash tree.

The ash tree dominated the site. It was unlike any ash tree I had seen before – having a splayed out canopy, and a trunk whose bark was battered and old, yet still maintained an integrity against the moss, lichen and weathering. I was quite taken by it.

I tried to meditate for a short a while, but the midges were too much and I had to flee my seat within the enclosure and stand atop the summit’s edge, craving the light breeze which kept the midges away. I stood admiring the view…

Well, if I couldn’t sit still for any time, perhaps I could move and dowse? I dowsed for power centres – a male one showed up under a pile of three small rocks, and a female one was located where I had sat around a camp fire, on some strewn rocks. Well, how fortunate was that? I seemed to have instinctively chosen the right place to sit!

Continuing with the dowsing I found that ‘my’ power centre was connected to the ash tree by a female energy line. Not at all unusual, I thought. At that moment I was considering whether to continue dowsing, and how long I might have before the light went. Suddenly, the sound of a bird of prey screeching made me look up to see one swirling around in a hunting pattern on the opposite side of the valley. Each circle brought him closer to me. I had seen the same behaviour only the day before over the fields at the back of my house, which I’ve never seen before despite having lived there for 15 years. The screeches from the bird of prey felt to me like a warning sign: was he warning other birds of my presence, or warning me of something? I looked around,  inspecting the hillside above and behind me for any potential danger. It was then that I saw a rolling cloud of mist was descending rapidly down the hillside towards me. Good warning! Suddenly I noticed that the light airy summer breeze had a cold tinge to it now. I began to pack hurriedly, thanking the bird for its warning.

As I descended the main path that I should have come up, I found an enchanting glade. It had rings of old oak trees regularly spaced. There were beautiful mosses growing at the feet of the trees, and the glade seemed protected from the elements above and the winds around the hill. Hmmm…must remember this spot for next time. I continued down the path, passing sentinel oak trees and stopping to briefly acknowledge their presence and purpose, apologising for shortcutting them on the way up! It still feels daft to do this, but the reciprocal energy you get from them gives you a sense that you were right to do that, yet you could feel their annoyance. I hoped for a better reception next time when I ascend in a more respectful manner  rather than bypassing them.

At the bottom of Dinas Emrys I met a sheep roaming the roadside greenery. I told her to stay off the road. We seemed to connect somewhat! I felt she was trying to understand my warning. For one brief moment there was a very strong connection, and that was very strange. As I drove past minutes later I saw her carefully nestled in lush grass on a knoll away from the road.

All the way back home I had in front of me a harvest last quarter moon. I had to drive in silence as the radio wouldn’t pick up any pre-programmed station! In a way it left me free to think about what had happened with the bird of prey. When I got home I got the rods out and asked if the bird of prey was associated with an energy form – YES. Was it a nature spirit? NO. Was it Merlin? YES. Well, this quick recce of a visit had revealed something special after all!

Gwas.

In search of Merlin.