The Hedge Druid » power centre

Sickness, Shadows and Swords

Gwas — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 22:27:45 +0000

As the nights draw in here for the Northern Hemisphere countries our lives begin to change in subtle ways. We lose the lightning power of The Sun in the mornings and evenings. As this power is depleted the changes may even be mirrored in our body chemistry, and consequently in our thought processes. For many people “Seasonal Affective Disorder” (SAD) is a fact of life – they get more depressed in the Winter months. Luckily, I don’t suffer from this, however that doesn’t mean that I am not prone to dark influences. Here is my very personal story about how my psychic shield got breached, and I became a victim of my own dark shadow. If ever there was a horror story to accompany a Winter evening, this is one that will chill your bones!

I can’t tell you how difficult this is to write. I am a strong independent person with what I often believe is a will of iron. Once my mind is set I generally achieve what I set out to do. In addition, I am very healthy. Physically I am in peak condition, my immune system is very strong, and I pride myself in keeping myself in good condition mentally, physically and spiritually. That is, after all, my whole reason for being – to keep my soul’s cage in the best of working conditions. So, it is with some level of embarrassment that I found myself getting ill in a number of ways recently, most particularly not being in total control of myself. I was being influenced by a shadow self.

Jung and The Shadow

In Jungian terms I was encountering what the great psychologist termed The Shadow. This concept is so prevalent in film, television, fairytale and mythology that it hardly needs an explanation. We know it as the often sublimated and suppressed urges arising from our usually latent desires and instincts. Almost every horror film is a depiction of the struggle with The Shadow. When it is let loose it has the capability to put the ‘light’ self in a tricky situation, because it does not obey the rules and the established norms of society. In my quest to be a “good person” I may have pushed these instincts too far under the surface, and now they had chosen to re-emerge at a time when I was physically and energetically weak.

I have an inkling now about what triggered it to become dominant, but only because I have managed to dowse it after the fact. The Shadow creeps up on you from behind. What I did know at the time was that I was acting out of character with how I perceived myself, and out of step with my spiritual goals. I first noticed The Shadow emerge in the dream world, where my dreams began to include unusually violent or sexual situations. I put it down to any one of a hundred reasons, and carried on. It would go away.

Next it began to make itself mentally present during the day. My thoughts began to turn to matters that I didn’t usually allow. Forbidden subjects. Deviant topics. If you’ve had these thoughts yourself you know what I’m talking about. I began to wonder what was going on now. How could I be having these thoughts? I hadn’t had thoughts like this since my early teens, the years when my mind was struggling to define itself in its emergence into the world of adulthood, when laws and ethics were being created and challenged with equal rapidity, when I was defining the boundaries of my self.

The final straw came after a few days of The Shadow manifesting itself within me physically. I was now doing things, making things happen in the physical world that my poor helpless moral self was appalled at! Finally, it rebelled with sufficient force as to cause me to stand up and summon the forces of my will power to re-assert control, if only for long enough to decide to do something about it. This had to stop, or my world was going to come crashing down around me and I would be left in the middle of it, alone, wondering what the hell had happened! Hell indeed. Time for action!

The Dark Sword

The reclamation began with dowsing. I began with the unusual step of asking for the involvement of my primary spirit guide. I asked her to ensure that the results I would dowse were not going to be tainted by any other force except the force with which I usually interacted, whatever that might be. Whatever that force is we have established a certain level of trust and rapport, and I needed clear and sure answers for this session! With a feeling of my guide around me I felt more confident, and so began to dowse out what had been happening.

There was a dark shadow in my energy field – around my head
The dark energy had come in via my weakened crown chakra
My chakra has been weakened when I visited Edinburgh Castle
Within the castle there is an artefact – a ceremonial sword – that has been used in black magic rituals
The ‘dark sword’ had drained my spiritual ‘goodness’ even by me being in its proximity and had drawn me to it

From that moment on I was in a weakened and vulnerable state. All the way around the castle my thoughts were on this sword. Only briefly, when I dowsed the Stone of Destiny, did my thoughts move away from it. I hadn’t seen the sword, but I knew it was in the barracks somewhere, and I knew it was the most powerful thing in the castle. Even more so than the Stone of Destiny! Such power! I could feel it. I wanted to touch it! It wanted me to touch it. It attracted my thoughts and with that bizarre moment of lusting for power I let something in via my weakened crown chakra. Something dark and demonic focused itself on me, and from then on I began to develop these dark thoughts. I had formed some kind of link between the darkness and my spiritual centre.

Dispelling the darkness

I called upon my spiritual guide and teacher to assist with finding a resolution to this problem. I asked what I could do and was shown a vision of a hill with an oak tree, and the oak tree was throwing its branches from side to side violently. I knew exactly where that was, but the movement was unusual. I didn’t know what that was about yet. I set a date to go, and then made sure I had the opportunity. I went to get my hair cut in town in order to give myself a “clear head”. It also meant that I had an excuse to wash my head before I left the house too – cleansing is an important preparation for change, I feel.

The sun was shining as I walked up a local hill, and as I walked through the trees that cloak the lower levels and screen the path to the top of the hill I noticed that the wind was blowing a chorus of approval through their branches, making them bow and tilt as though they were excited about the ritual that was to come. I know I was. The walk up was serene and sun-filled, despite the voices of the wind and trees – I seemed to take the path that offered the most shelter and was the quietest route up.

As I came to a break in the tree-lined path I took a moment to look at the sun as it shone through the gap. There, in front of me, was the perfect pedestal for the spiral-cut rock that I had brought with me – a rock that I had bought in Edinburgh. It seemed fitting to charge the rock with positive energy to assist my work. After a few minutes in the sunlight the rock was humming with positive energy as I picked it back up.

I emerged from the shelter of the trees onto the shorn and bleak crest of the hill. The wind howled in strong gusts, shaking the familiar oak tree that was my old friend. I could see that the tree matched the vision I had and that the wind was fulfilling the vision to a tee by stretching the oak limbs and making them wave frantically. Despite the gusty wind I was easily able to light three sticks of incense. With their smell occasionally reaching my nostrils I began to engage with the tree in order to dispel the darkness of The Scottish Sword.

A helpful trusted oak friend on my local sacred hill

After grounding and centering, I took energy from the spiral-cut rock, and then gathered my spirit guides. I felt a slow shower of white light slowly descending, twinkling and tingling all the way down my body. At the end of the first pass a cow in a nearby field bellowed in a short sharp outburst startling me! A sign? I did the procedure again, but this time the pass of showering white tingling sparks was wider, cleansing my whole energy aura. Again, at the end there was a quieter but still lone and distinct lowing from one cow. Definitely a sign! With these signs indicating the end of the cleansing, I filled my aura with the energies of the tree, the elements, the hill and the spirits around me. I felt fantastic again – freed of all this ridiculous dark shadow that had been hanging around me for weeks.

I thanked the tree and unwound all my processes – dissipating the energies, picking the incense up, and taking back the wonderful spiral rock that had been so useful in achieving balance again. It was then that I noticed that the rock’s spiral carving showed not one male or female spiral but a continuous line that became a spiral first one way then the other – both male and female intertwined. The ultimate symbol of a balanced energy form! Afterwards I was so energised that I did a hundred and one things that I had been putting off for a long time. It felt great to be back! Free of the sickness, the shadow and the sword.

Gwas.

St Sarah the Patron Saint of Laughter

kal — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 08:38:20 +0000

Path to the Well

The final destination for our visit around Llangollen was the well of St Sarah. Having had a lot of success with St Helen’s well at Imbolc I wanted to visit another one to see if we could replicate that success.

Interlude in a Church

Before I go into that I just wanted to mention that on the way to St Sarah we stopped of at a church dedicated to St Mary in Derwen and found (after a push) that the door was indeed open. God had a open house in this instance. Lovely. Gwas and I dowsed the rather un-inspiring energies in the church and found the same thing that I have in several places. A power centre to the left of the altar (as you look down the pews) with a energy line that takes a wavy path down the left of the church pews.

St Sarah

The well was very easy to get to which I am liking a lot about wells. As you can see from the above picture the path down to the well was splendid even at this time of the year. As you turn the corner however you reach the well. Unlike a traditional well that one might imagine as a circular affair raised from the ground a few feet. This was a flat square dip in the ground some 6 foot in width and length and maybe a few feet in depth. It had a lip that let water flow in to the stream (see pic below).

As soon as both Gwas and I saw this we knew that this didn’t have any energy, if anything it was pushing us away. To where though? I followed the feeling until it led me some twenty foot away from the well along the edge of the stream until I came to a bend (again see pic below).

I dowsed to ask whether there was any of St Sarah’s energy in the well? No. Incidentally Gwas had already found this too. As in previous occasions I have found that energy of water related places has often been in the movement of water rather than its containment. So I asked here, is the energy of Sarah in the stream? Yes. Clearly and distinctly.

: Energy in the Water

I spent some time enjoying the sound of running water, the sun and the pleasant energy of that place. After about ten minutes I returned to where Gwas was doing some work of his own. As we conversed about our experiences I recalled the night before I had a dream from which I had awoken with gales of laughter. It had had Gwas in it too so I spent a moment trying to explain the dream and how funny it was. It’s memory still had me in stitches and I was double over with laughter (to the surprise of Gwas) before managing to recover.

As we gave our thanks and left that place, I was certain that the defining moment of our visit to St Sarah was the laughter I had re-experienced.

Laughter Princess

As I write this post I am doing some research on the good St Sarah and consider my surprise and delight when I find that she is the Patron Saint of Laughter.

Kal Malik - surprised

New – How To Create a Power Centre in Your Home

Gwas — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 12:31:02 +0000

I have just added a new “How To” article from Kal that talks about how to create a power centre in your own home. We frequently mention the concept of a power centre (see our Glossary page for a definition) but now Kal takes you through the steps he has used recently himself to create such an energy point, and gives advice on the mindset and techniques for achieving this.

We’re still working on the “How to Dowse” article. It’s proving trickier than we imagined to get it general enough to be useful to everyone, but with enough content to be worthwhile. It’s a tricky balance. Bear with us!

Gwas.

Alderley Edge – consternation and confirmation

Gwas — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 09:54:45 +0000

This year begins much as last year began, except that the world has turned throughout hundreds of spins and travelled once around our major light source to measure out a year in its dizzy cycle. Our wavering Moon has ebbed and flowed with the tides over those long months and has lit our path on many occasions. One eveningin Alderley Edge forest we began the new year with a need to be amid the imposing ancient trees and to be bathed in moonlight. Luckily, sister moon is out and doing her best to cast a companion cool light on our foolhardy journey.

Consternation

As we struggled to remember what clothing or paraphernalia we might need or indeed had actually brought, Kal mentioned that he hadn’t brought a light because he knew I would. I retorted that I hadn’t brought a light either, but I couldn’t remember why. It seemed like I wouldn’t need one when I packed. Kal became anxious and reminded me that his night vision capabilities were the least of his talents and that he didn’t want a repeat experience of the midnight prowl he took in the forest last year. I feared that would be exactly what we were in store for, but insisted that we go in anyway. I could feel his hesitancy.

Once inside the bounds of the woodland, with the white and orange familiar street lighting fading far behind us, I remained buoyant – there seemed to be enough light for us to make safe progress if we stuck to the main paths. Did we ever stick to the main path? Not often, but tonight we might have to! Amid Kal’s consternation and our idle chat I stopped. What had stopped me, I wondered? Years of experience with these things now made me realise I had stopped for a reason. I scanned around in the dim light and recognised the pale white reflections of five or six dog-sized stones, too smooth and regular to be a stone circle made by ancient hands. Indeed, we were stood by the folly stone circle created at the turn of the last century. Older than most parts of America, but young enough for the dog-stones to seem like mere pups compared to the hoary old stones of the bigger and more hidden monuments.

Confirmation

The folly stone circle was a good indicator. It is raised slightly above the main path and catches your eye as you walk along, if you have the right attention because it was very dark in there that evening. We were only seconds away from the elderly beech tree that held the very spirit of the forest in the confines of its branches and roots. Perhaps I had even been stopped in my tracks by sensing the edge of its giant aura? Kal abandoned his cursory dowse of the circle (because there’s little to dowse) and we made our way to stand underneath the gigantic boughs of this majestic patriarch.

The Spirit of Alderley Edge

Kal gave the tree an affectionate welcome and then wandered off into the lower extremities on a mission of his own devising. For me, I needed to confirm some things that I had learned during the Winter Solstice, but which I found difficult to accept could have been the result of a mystical experience simply because Calgary Airport didn’t feel much like the sort of place that one would expect a mystical moment to occur. I wanted to confirm my findings with a more reliable interlocutor.

Having spent many moments with this tree it was a relatively simple affair to make contact again. Despite his being energetically handicapped by the Winter months I could feel his hidden and dormant depths almost immediately and I approached a connection with humility and respect for his power. He does, after all, hold sway over a very large and ancient forest. It like being able to see the beauty of a woman beneath her winter clothing layers. Some things just shine through despite being buried.

I introduced myself to him again, asking him whether he remembered me and if he could see how far I had come since my last visit there. But I was being hasty and needed to calm down and connect properly before I got a recognisable response. I went quiet and tuned into the forest, letting my attention spread out even as I sent a cycle of energy around me to protect myself from anything in the forest that might be attracted by my expending energy field. You see – I had learned something! Once again I thought back to that small man who had once followed M and me through the forest asking me about magic and warning me that I needed protection in this line of work. At the time I had dismissed his ideas as unnecessary – now I was more experienced.

Once in a quiet state of grace with the tree I asked whether I could confirm something that was on my mind. The tree gave a gentle tug at my energy field as though to invite my question. I projected the thoughts outwards to the tree:-

Please confirm that it was my current quest to write a book – correct
I had until February to get a draft written – correct
The subject of the book should be “service” – correct

Hmmm….better get writing!

I finally asked the tree whether I could be directed to a place in the forest where I could commune with my Spirit Guide to ask her the same questions. The tree seemed to shake oh-so-gently with laughter. I knew he had not taken this as an insult, but rather had seen how unnecessary it was and how insecure I was being. nevertheless he made my head turn to face one part of the forest – it was the direction in which my power centre lay. I asked if that was correct and got a louder rumbling of deep laughter. Always I needed confirmation, he seemed to be saying. ‘Poor child. Come so far, but still so young.’

Keeping dry at Alderley Edge

When Kal returned we set off through the forest going via the main paths towards my power centre. I knew the way in the daylight by the hidden paths, but I only had an inner compass and the guidance of the things of the forest as we ventured off the main paths finally and on towards somewhere I vaguely recognised. Even in the depths of the forest, off the paths, there was a welcome dark blue background that seemed to shed enough light not to get a poke in the eye from a branch, or trip on a tree root or stone. Before we knew it I found us a sensible entrance to the place that had become both a power centre for both of us over the last year (even though we came to it entirely independently at first!).

At the power centre I lit some incense, as did Kal. We stood side by side, together in our own worlds. I connected with the forest and with my spirit guide and went in search of validation. Was i correct in everything I had been told about writing a book? I felt the presence of my spirit guide as i called her. She is my teacher and mentor now, and when she answers my call I do her the courtesy of listening. No questions were needed – she knew what I was asking. Instead she plainly and simply re-iterated all that I had heard before from the tree….but there was something else. She also showed me that the subject matter of the book – service – would become the defining framework within which I would do my best work this year.

Now I understood. I thanked the trees and the forest generally, and disconnected, but kept my protection up. As we walked back towards the car along paths we knew well we chatted about our experiences, and about how comfortable we both felt inside a deep dark forest. How times had changed over the course of a few years and how much we were looking forward to the surprises, the challenges and the rewards that this year might bring. Every year the world gets more interesting!

Gwas. Longing for leaves.

Delamere Forest – Meeting the Spirit of Place

Gwas — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 16:26:13 +0000

For what felt like a very long time (although, if I look back it is probably only a year or two) I have tried to locate the position of the Spirit of Place within Delamere Forest. The forest is one of the largest in Cheshire, and it used all year round by mountain bikers, dog walkers and anyone else within a fifty mile radius.

When I initially tried to locate the Spirit of Place (hereafter – SOP) I was led around in circles until, exhausted, scratched and dripping in sweat I admitted defeat. Since then I have tried several more times, each time being led on a wild good chase over hill and down dale to various end points that were clearly neither energetic nor particularly convincing as old and powerful trees.

This year, within the last month, I was diverted away from my usual homeward route and forced to go through Delamere. As Idrove through the forest I began to think about finding the SOP again and so I switched off my normal “guidance systems” and simply stated that I wished to be guided to the Spirit of Delamere if it was appropriate for me to meet it.

I drove part way along one of the forest roads and soon felt the urge to pull over in a place I wouldn’t normally stop because it is too close to the cluster of houses near to the village, and it is often very busy with cars. Today, however, it was clear and I stopped. I got out my dowsing rods and began some preliminary questioning – Which side of the forest road should I start on – the left or the right? RIGHT. I walked across the road and began to follow the rods, taking them with locating the spirit of place.

Delamere's beautiful paths

Within seconds I was being taken down a straight wide track that I had never walked on (because it is straight and wide, and not the kind of path I like). Luckily there were no people around at this time of the evening, but the path that the dowsing rods were describing was snaking side to side along the straight path, which filled me with confidence.

Some hundred yards down the track the trees began to encroach and darkened the path a little. Here the rods swung off to the right again, pointing into the cluster of young beech trees and wanting me to follow. I picked my way through their undergrowth only to find a small little-used path leading to another trail, again very small and winding. The rods wanted me to follow it along a ridge and then the trail began to dip into a hollow. As the trail turned towards the hollow I began to get snagged on brambles, ferns, to trip over roots, slide in mud…everything seemed out to stop me! How strange! Was something trying to protect itself? Birds began to make noises in the canopy above me, shuffling around, cawing nervously. Was I nearing something important?

I moved forwards more cautiously. As I did so I felt something and stopped. I felt a boundary, and energetic boundary. I stepped back and moved slowly forwards again. Yes, the air was different – back a step and the air was cool, move forward a touch and it was slightly warmer, and…thicker? More resistant?I recognised this as the boundary of an aura, and I asked permission to enter, asking that the “guards” be called off, and introducing myself as my druid name. I also stated my purpose – I was here to meet with the Spirit of Delamere should it allow me to do so. I waited for a sign. A little bird in a nearby tree chirped lovingly – a very different sound than I had been hearing all the way into the forest so far – and I knew this was a “go ahead” sign.

Now, as if my magick, I no longer got snagged on anything, or slipped, or tripped, despite heading down an incline at an angle along this narrow path. The undergrowth still spilled over the path but now it fell back easily as I passed. I walked down into the hollow and then stood at the bottom, as the path opened out, and stared at the sight before me…

The Spirit of Delamere Forest

There was a feeling emanating from this area. It crawled and pulsed with a life force that wreathed and writhed around you like so much invisible mist. I got my dowsing rods ready to ask some questions:

Was this the strongest energy spot in the forest? YES.
Was there a particular tree here that was the Father of the Forest tree? NO.
Was there once a tree here which was the dominant tree of the forest? YES.
Does the energy of that tree remain at this site? YES.

I felt privileged that I had finally been allowed to find and to recognise this place. I knew it for what it was now – the very beating heart of the forest, full of life, growing, pulsing, emitting life force. I sat and watched the wildlife for a few minutes to see how they reacted to it. Small birds landed alone onto the higher branches and sang songs. Flocks seemed to direct their course over the top of the clearing, as if drawn to it. No creatures seemed to go within it, though. It was as if they swarmed around it, but wouldn’t venture inside. Interesting. I wouldn”t venture in either – the land looked as though it wouldn’t support my weight. I wasn’t fooled by the green mosses and grasses. This was a place that demanded respect in many ways.

I said my farewells and made my way back to ‘civilisation’ and the gravelled paths. I felt so pleased and in a way a little better about how much I had progressed since my last efforts.

Gwas

Gop Hill: Waking the sleeping lady

Gwas — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 16:57:50 +0000

March 11th, 2010: waning crescent moon.

There I was, firmly ensconced at home and beginning to plan for the Spring Equinox outing that is coming up next week. Rather foolishly I asked the dowsing rods whether there were still any sites that I needed to awaken in the intervening week. The answer came back: TWO. Two? Where was I going to find the time to visit two sites in a week, and especially considering that I knew it was going to be a busy week with little free time anyway? Two!

I decided to take them one at a time. I dowsed as to whether they were new or known sites. KNOWN. Which countries were these sites in? Both in Wales. So, I opened up my list of sacred sites and began working my way down the list asking the dowsing rods to identify the two I needed to visit. The first answer that came back was Gop Hill. Gop Hill? I couldn’t imagine why this site would be on a list of places that I was particularly linked to, I mean, nothing particularly interesting had ever happened there before. Still, when I double and triple-checked – yep, Gop Hill. Well, at least it was fairly close. I got myself ready to go in the middle of the night. No rest for a working druid!

What follows is a very detailed description of the process of awakening this site. I hope you will find some value in the method, although I have found that each site is subtly different, even if the general principles are consistent.

"..the largest man-made cairn in Britain, Gop Hill, reputed to be the burial place of Queen Boudicca."

A Gentle Surprise

How wrong could I have been about Gop Hill? Answer: none more wrong. I knew as soon as I was within ten feet of the base of the hill that there were some strong energies here on this hill this evening. It was like walking into a wall of subtle jelly! The bonus of being out here in the middle of the night in such an infrequently visited site is that I had to place to myself and I felt at home straight away. Tonight, the hill was mine alone, which meant I had the freedom to dowse and do druidry as I saw fit. I walked around the front edge of the hill and stood in the hollow of the centre, watching the cars pass on the road below for a few minutes. listening to the other sounds around – distant voices in the village below, traffic on the A55, noises from the woods surrounding the hill. I breathed in the place through all my senses and relaxed into being there.

I looked for a place to sit down. There was a shallow pit of flint chips near to the centre and despite this looking like the most uncomfortable place to sit I deposited my staff and bag there. Out of the bag I got my dowsing rods. Right – where was the best place for me to sit? The rods turned back on themselves to lead me back to the place where my staff and bag were – the shallow flint pit! Looks like, yet again, I had picked out the right place to be without the aid of the rods.

Whilst I had the rods to hand there were some things I wanted to check. Where was the most magical place to be on this hill? It was a shallow round depression at the back and top of the hill. OK. A question that often arose relating to sacred sites was to do with “primal” water, so I did my duty and checked it out. Was there a blind spring at this “magical” spot? No. Was there a blind spring anywhere on, in or under the hill? No. Was there any water affecting the energies in this mound? No. OK – bored of all that now. These questions always seemed to be a resounding “no” for most of the sites we visit. Only a few have every registered any water affecting the energies. I remember Lundin Farm Circle in Perthshire had some water affecting the King Stone, but that was all I could recall.

Assessing the Gender

The only other dowsing I wanted to do that night was to find a the strongest male and female power centres.

If you’re a regular reader you’ll be beginning to see a pattern form here about how I am assessing these sites, obtaining only the information I need to perform my druidical activities these days. I haven’t updated the sacred sites page for a while now, and I’m aware of that. I’ll do the work on the mapping of the energies of more sites this year when the days get longer and warmer, I promise.

I asked to find the strongest male power centre and was led back to the steep side of the hill close to the path through the forest – the usual side to approach from. The power centre itself was a scar on the edge near the top of the hill. I stood looking at it for several minutes. Something didn’t feel right about it, so I asked if this was the strongest male power centre by design – no. It was only the strongest by dint of the fact that material had come loose by people walking there! (Imagine how many questions that took to dowse that answer!). Where was the male power centre that was originally designed to be the outlet for male energies – just a few feet behind the small flint scar, in a small depression. Again, a small circular depression, like the last one over the other side of the hill that I had found minutes before. I entered the male power centre in a long winding clockwise spiral. I felt I was following the course of the energy within it.

I asked the rods to take me to a female power centre and was led back to where my staff and bag were – I had sat there automatically. We’re doing this more and more now.

View from Gop Hill

I began the process of discovering how I might awaken the energies of the site. As I had done this many times during the “season” from Imbolc until now, I was familiar with the line of questioning I should employ:

Was it possible to awaken the energies of this site? – YES.
Could I use incense to assist me in this process? – YES.
How many sticks of incense should I use? – I counted until the rods crossed at FOUR.

I checked my bag – the packet of incense had four sticks remaining. A beautiful coincidence that made me smile. Although I was used to using my dowsing rods to discover the pattern of behaviour required to awaken the energies, tonight I felt like I should begin to feel my way through the process somewhat as well. I decided to only use the rods for finding the spot to place things. Any other work I would do without them.

Walking in circles

So, to recap, I had identified three power centres so far. The first was a female centre that was a cut-out area that was roughly body-shaped that was in the middle of the top section of the hill. The second was a male power centre that looked very similar – a hollowed-out area at the tip and edge of the hill that registered as the most powerful male centre. Then there was the original male centre – the one “designed” or created by the makers of the hill, and which was a few feet further back from the edge, at the highest point of the hill and in a slight hollow circular depression.

I sat in the female centre first. It felt more “homely” and natural to do so, despite a carpet of sharp flint that dug into my softer portions. I simply moved them around a bit until I could lie back comfortably. As I did so I noticed that I was enclosed in a head-shaped area. I felt the earth right next to me head – I smelt it. It was in my hair. It was up my nostrils. I felt the hill, it’s essence very close to me. As I lay there I cleansed myself (dissipated any external energies I may have brought with me) and then drew this female energy from the hill.

When I felt sufficiently “powered up” I picked up my ash staff and walked to the ‘designed’ male power centre. It felt right to do so. I tuned into the flow of energy there and soon I was walking around in a sun-wise fashion working my way inwards. At the centre point I walked back out, on a “female” path, if you like. Suddenly I had the feeling that doing this right on top of the male energy spiral was mixing the two forms of energy. So I went back in on the male spiral and back out on the female spiral again and again – mixing the two frequencies of energy as I went (if that’s possible). The more I walked the stronger the wind blew around me, and I noticed this. When the wind died away I moved out of the male power centre and walked back to the female centre again.

In the female, where only minutes ago I had been lying down, now I circled around in an anti-clockwise direction, feeling ym way along the natural path that the female energy formed there. Reaching the centre I reverse the path and walked outwards on the male clockwise line. Despite being in a dip, out of the reach of the full force of the wind, I could hear it increasing again as I walked back and forth around these paths. I felt this was a good sign that ‘power’ was increasing in those centres as the energy was being mixed.

The Candles On The Cake

So, I had mixed the energies between the two opposing power centres and now I felt they were flowing back and forth between each other. What next? I had four incense sticks left, and so I wondered about getting the rods out again to check where I should place these sticks. I was unsure…did I need the rods? I decided to do the first one and see if I could intuit the rest. I dowsed for the location of the first stick of incense and was led up to the ridge that runs along the back of the hill. The first location was a circular depression that looked just like the male power centre I had just come back from.

It's your birthday!

Having established the type of place that I should put the incense I walked along the ridge at the back in the dark feeling for where the next stick should go. I came across another circular depression close to the gap in the ridge that led to the central gully. I placed an incense stick there, the moved on. Another such circular depression existed at the same distance on the other side, so I place one in that too. When I came near to the end of the ridge, close to where the “new” male power centre was I felt ‘tugged’ towards the old male power centre. I placed an incense stick in the gap in the rocks that formed the back of the circular depression there. That was four sticks in four circular depressions – another interesting coincidence, because that was all the sticks I had, and this was all the circular depressions that there were along this back ridge! I realised that when I had placed and lit each one there had been a gust of chilly North wind which blew past me and rustled the grass on top of the hill. All more stupid coincidence, of course.

I went back to ‘my’ power centre. I felt it was the best place for me to call upon the spirit of the place. I quickly dowsed some questions – was there such a spirit here? YES. Was it male or female? FEMALE. Then definitely this was the right place. Rods away, back to working without them. I picked up my staff and lay with it along the length of my body. I connected with the site in a deep and energetic way, then called upon the spirit of the place to awaken – to work with me, to enliven this site, to make it special again, for us to be able to work with Nature to improve the environment…all these things I implored this spirit to respond to.

After a few exciting minutes I had an urge to get up and to dowse for a sigil – the form of the spirit of the place, the genius loci. I picked the rods up again eagerly and asked to be taken to a place suitable for dowsing this sigil. I was led to a clear space at the front and top of the hill – here the grass was flat and clear of obstruction. Useful! I asked to be shown the sigil shape and began to dowse a sort of ‘U’ shape. I expected it to turn back upon itself, but to my surprise it continued back towards the very centre of the hill in an unusually direct straight line – very unlike most flowing sigil shapes. Then I recognised what it was - it was the shape of my staff!!!

Well, that blow my mind. I was totally stunned. I had to leave at that point because my mind was in bits. I packed and left. As I stood at the top of the edge of the hill in the (new) male power centre the wind blew quite strongly making the trees whisper and rustle before me. It was quite a sight, even in the dark, yet strangely easing and I felt ‘cleaned out’ by the wind. As I descended the hill I made a sweeping movement with my staff and felt as though I had annulled the energies and connections I had made that night. I returned to the car and drove home in absolute silence. It would be a few hours before I could pick up the loose ends and try to make sense of it all.

Tying up the loose ends

The lady's curves

When I got home later that night I dowsed more about what had happened:-

Have I awoken the spirit of place of Gop Hill? – YES.
Is that spirit now associated with my staff? – YES.
Is there some energy from that spirit in my staff? – YES.
Is the whole of the spirit in my staff? – NO.
Is it some spirit energy that wishes to work with me? – NO.
Is it some energy that I can utilise? – YES.
Is it a similar concept to the Crogen Oak energy (when healing energy from the broken tree transferred to my staff) – YES.
Is this like a gift for waking the energies at Gop Hill? – a strong YES.
Is the Gop Hill energy different in the way it can be used to Crogen Oak healing energy? YES.
What type of energy is it? Is it death energy? NO. Life energy? YES. Is it male/female/neutral – NONE. Elemental? – NO. Spirit/aether energy – YES.
Was the spirit energy at this site related to Queen Boudicca? …..NO.

Whoever Boudicca was there was no evidence via the dowsing rods that she was associated with the hill, or that her energies still influenced the place. Whoever the guardian spirit of Gop Hill is, it isn’t the energy form that we recognise as Boudicca.

I tried to pull all this together. This energy I had received into my staff was a kind of gift from the female spirit of Gop Hill. It is a magickal energy that can be turned to a specific magickal purpose, which I have yet to discover. I guess my quest now is to find out when I can use it, and to use it wisely.

Gwas.

Review of the Year – 2009 : Part 2 – Dowsing and Earth Energies

Gwas — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 18:56:26 +0000

Section 2. Dowsing and Earth Energies

A lot of work was done by Kal in particular this year relating to the modification of energy centres within houses. Some people call this “house dowsing” or “healing sick houses”. It relates to a concept called “geopathic stress”, but we have found that this “stress” has more causes than simply a water course running under the house. There was a fantastic checklist produced by a British Society of Dowsers member in the December issue of the group’s quarterly magazine ‘Dowsing Today’, which lists these causes, and I will post more on that soon, because I think the information bears repeating and distributing.

I was lucky enough to spend a day at Carnac in France this summer. It was a most glorious day and highly productive, but I absolutely must go back to spend longer there. I feel there is more to be learned still from this massive and impressive site. Other interesting sites this year include: Druid’s Circle above Penmaenmawr; also Nine Stones Close and Nine Ladies stone circles in Derbyshire. I will publish a full list of sites as one of the summary posts in this series.

Here are some of things we learned about dowsing and earth energies this year:-

2-1. House dowsing:

We can dowse houses accurately, either locally or remotely
We can either send and receive energy to specific points in the house, providing the house has not been “sealed off” and permission is given
We can modify the energy formations on site
Crystals can be used to repair this energetic state, and to change unhelpful or misaligned energies into helpful and aligned ones
Plants can be asked to contribute to this
The beneficial effects take some time – depending on how far the energy has to convert from harmful to beneficial, this can take from hours to weeks to achieve. Also dependent upon the amount of new positive input into the formation(s).
The Moon or Sun can also contribute to the energetic change, acting as a catalyst for the change, and also providing either male or female energetic input.

2-2. Flat recumbent stones attract female energy (moon), whilst pointed stones attract male energy (sun). We don’t yet know which elements of a site attract star or planetary energies, but we know they are present at sites, especially stone circles.

2-3. Kal found that certain geologically faulted locations with water running through them can pin energy to a place.

2-4. Ironwork and iconography (in the case of stones in Brittany I found that it was Christian crosses) can restrain the energy of a standing stone, reducing its aura (field of effect).

2-5. Earth energy spirals are created from sacred geometrical principles and number. Even manifestations created by us have the same properties. Of particular significance has been the discovery that stone circles are based upon sacred geometry in their design. For exmaple, Moel-Ty-Uchaf stone circle in North Wales is based upon a pentacle,or five-sided shape. I have found that this is linked to specific “deities”, but more importantly, that these deities are actually one of the planets. The pentacle therefore is associated with Venus, which itself describes a five-sided geometrical figure around the earth in its annual travel.

2-6. Power centres are the central point of two cones of energy- one going up into the air, the other going down into the ground. Also confirmed by Viktor Schauberger’s research.

2-7. Avenues or rows of standing stones have male and female energies intertwining, and travelling the length of the line of a stone rows of standing stones.

2-8. Tumuli can provide a terminus pointfor energy to sink back into the earth. As an example, I found this double mound pictured below was a terminus point for the energy running through the Kermario avenues of standing stones at Carnac in France.

2-9. Cup-marked stones often provide a rising point, a focal point or source of earth energies entering into sacred sites. Some standing stones that are cup-marked are a map of the energy power centres nearby.

2-10. “Hand spread” patterns of energy fields can be dowsed on the side of circles where energy is being dispersed out of the area. They indicate areas of high fertility energy.

2-11. Many neutral alignment leys travel the length and breadth of lands, and have accumulated sacred sites and churches along them. I suggest this is similar to the geometirc patterns that many dowsers and researchers have discovered overlaying the British Isles, and some say, the whole of Earth (cf. John Michell)

2-12. “Martin”, “Margaret” and “Anne” are other synonyms for the male and female energy lines surrounding national leylines, as well as the better-known “Michael” and “Mary” energies. This year I traced what I call The St.Martin Line running from South-West England through France and into Italy.

These findings should be viewed in the context of the complementary section coming soon on our findings at Ancient Sites. I hope next year to concentrate on water dowsing, or rather, dowsing the energetic properties of water, sap and blood. Next in the series – Part 3 – I will be summarising our findings relating to tree energies, elemental spirits and death energy.

Gwas.

Cumbrian circles – Part 2: A very Long Meg and Her Musical Daughters

Gwas — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 23:46:36 +0000

Long Meg and Her Daughters – September 25th, 2009

The first thing that strikes you as you approach this site is the sheer size of it. Avebury could be considered to be massive, as it hosts a village at its centre, but Long Meg is also in the category of huge sites. Unlike Avebury very few of the stones are huge in themselves, but their spread is very wide. Wide enough for a narrow road to pass through its focal centre.

Kal in particular was disinclined to dowse here. Although he made some intial attempts, these were merely investigative dowses to determine whether there was any energy work to be done. He soon found that he was going to be kept busy in dull grey late morning by some healing work that he needed to do upon himself – some psychological healing. His recent personal circumstances warranted such work, so i left him to quietly get on with it, whilst I went around the site finding out some interesting things about it.

First of all, it was clear that I was not going to be able to map out the energies. The site was too large for that. Had it been a sunny day in summer, and this had been the first and only site we would be visiting, then such work may have been completed, but we had a big agenda this day and our visits would have to be targeted and investigatory. So be it. I started with Long Meg, the tall pointed upright stone that dominated the near corner of the site.

The Long Meg stone and her spirals

The Long Meg stone was fascinating in itself, never mind in its relationship to the rest of the site. The first thing that caught my eye was the notched cut-out on the top of the stone. This reminded me of a similar stone just to one side of the Carnac fields of stones. It had a similar notch on top, and when I dowsed the Carnac stone I learned that the notch was aligned to predict the position of either sun, moon or star constellations at certain times of the year. I wish I had known more and been more specific at the time, but that was the outcome then.

Long Meg’s notch is aligned to the moon, so the rods informed me. A touch more specific, although I didn’t go through a process of working out exactly when the alignments might occur. It probably changed every year anyway. That information wasn’t too important right then, as I didn’t intend to make use of the alignment anyway. But now you know, you moon ritual people could always go and check it out for yourselves if you needed it, right? I presume you’d need to observe it from a specific place such as your own power centre.

The stone had inscribed upon it some spirals that intruiged me – I would have to find out what they meant. I placed me hand over each of them in turn, feeling for rather than dowsing for energy. When I placed my hand over the top-most spiral I felt a shiver, despite the fact that the spiral felt warm as my hand moved through the air above it. Strange! I tried the lower spiral – nothing. No reaction at all – no felt energy.

Where did the spirals connect to, I wondered? I found the link for the top-most spiral and later Kal found the link for the bottom-most spiral. We both confirmed each others dowsing too in order to satisfy ourselves that this was consistent irrespective of who dowsed for it. The top-most spiral linked to a spiral power centre right between the two entrance stones (these are the pair of round-topped stones shown in the middle of the picture below). The lower spiral was found to link through the entrance but then terminate in a spiral between the pair of stones in the foreground of the picture. Interestingly, the entrance spiral was pleasant to stand in, but Kal found the other power centre to be quite detrimental and quickly moved away from it once he had confirmed his results.

Kal had discovered that one of the site’s major benefits is to promote healing work, as I mentioned. He went off to involve the two trees in the centre of the circle in some healing work on himself. After visiting the two trees he then went to the Dream Seat stone which you can see in the picture below – there’s Kal in the far distance next to a tall wide stone just to the left of the left-most tree.

As with Castlerigg there was a Dream Seat stone, but this one was a little less comfortable. It was more of a large hollow that you could lean against or sit with your back against, but it served much the same purpose, according to my dowsing results. There was certainly a strong flow of energy coming from that “scar” on the rock, and the angles and points of the rock’s general shape seemed to focus the energies to that point where the concave had been created. I sat there for a few minutes and could feel the strong waves and pulses of subtle energy coming out of it. More deviceless dowsing, huh?

Getting more purposeful

This was all well and good, but what was the site for? I ran through a list of usual suspects. The idea of the list of not to pinpoint a single possibility, because I think most sites have several ways in which participants can work with the energy depending upon need, ability and timing. Rather it is to hone down the list from every possibility to those that react the strongest and thus demonstrate to use the best possibilities for achieving something useful with the site’s powers.

Long Meg dowsed for having capabilities including regeneration (healing, empowerment), education (they almost all seem to respond to this element) and for revelation (i.e. transformation of consciousness). It also registered as being primarily a lunar energy driven site.

Given the lunar notch on top of Long Meg I was hopeful that it would dowse as a calendrical site too – it did. So, there were stone positions at the site that were paced in specific positions to mark certainn times of the year such as solar risings and settings, and lunar positions such as the Lunar Major Standstill and Minor Standstill points. I left the exact positioning of these stones until I come back to do a full dowse and mapping of the energies and stones. Maybe next summer.

In Earth Memory there is a summary of some astronomical findings related to Long Meg that adds weight to this:

“At midwinter sunset, John Glover observed that the shadow of Long Meg is thrown across the vast circle, so that the tip of the shadow touches the opposite side of the stone ring. R.D.Y Perret later showed that at the equinoxes Long Meg’s shadow provided true tangents to the circle.” (pp.116)

I obtained one final bit of information before Kal returned from his meditation adventures/healing session. I found that there were many more grounding and energising stones int his circle than I had found elsewhere. Maybe I had stopped at finding one at other circles, but here I walked around identifying THREE grounding stones (i.e. stones that would draw your energy from you) and FIVE charging stones (i.e. they robbed you of small change as you sat on them – no, I’m joking, I mean they would imbue you with subtle energy like charging a battery).

Off-the-scale dowsing

Our final bit of dowsing was to try out an experiment in dowsing the aura around Long Meg. We wanted to see if there was any association between specific musical notes and the chakra or rainbow colours of the aura. We firstly identified the red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet bands of the aura. We placed a peg to show us where these bands started, and as at other places where we had done this the bands were wider at the outer edge (the red, orange and yellow bands) getting progressively narrower as the colour frequencies increased towards violet, which was only a few inches away from the stone.

Then I got out my MP3 player and plugged in some battery-powered speakers. I had pre-recorded the C2 range of notes, and the idea was to see if we got a dowsing response from any of the notes in this octave. We did indeed. The red band responded to the third note, the orange band to the fifth note, and the yellow band to the seventh note. The we ran out of notes! Damn!

I played a longer recording that went through more scales but it was impossible to keep track of where the notes were when the rods crossed. I would have to try this again somewhere else and this time include a spoken element stating which note was being played all through octaves C2 to around C4, I reckoned. Still, interesting correlations between the chakra bands and musical notes. Perhaps Pythagoras’ musical theory of harmonics had a resonance with colour frequencies and subtle energy fields? More testing required, I think.

On our way out of the site we came across a tree with lots of rags tied to it. Aha – another ‘wishing tree’ in active use, just like at Nine Ladies in Derbyshire and West Kennet, and many other sites. It seems this custom is being kept very much alive. Notice that, despite several photos being taken of this tree none of them came out sharp – they were all blurred. None of the other photographs of the site were blurred. I find this interesting. It’s happened before when taking photos of trees. I wonder if its something to do with their energy field? I had a similar experience at the Forest of Dean when I had to take five photos and really concentrate on holding the camera particularly steady before I got anything like a reasonably clear photograph. Very strange!

Time to move on to the associated ‘sister’ site of Little Meg, which was somewhere nearby.

Gwas.

Tying a yellow ribbon round an old thorn tree.

Guerrilla dowsing on Silbury Hill

Gwas — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 16:13:17 +0000

Silbury Hill, Wiltshire – September 2009

It’s time to introduce you all to the concept of Guerrilla Dowsing. It was invented by my colleague Kal on your first visit to Stonehenge. He was a bit miffed by the fact that we had travelled a long way to visit the site and it was all cordoned off. You couldn’t get within two hundred feet of the actual stones, unless you had made a prior arrangement to visit after normal visiting hours. Well, we were only down for the day and hadn’t made such arrangements. Consequently, Kal was all for jumping over the low cable strung around the edge of the site and dowsing until he was forcibly ejected. It was only my protestation that made him reconsider. On reflection I wish I had not said anything. We should have just done it, but I am a bit less gung-ho than Kal when it comes to breaking the rules. That’s a lifetime of English culture bearing down on me, I suppose.

But tonight I was heading across country with two purposes in mind: firstly I wanted to confirm my findings at West Kennet, and secondly, I was just going to climb Silbury Hill and dowse on top of it – to hell with the consequences. And so I did just that, and I’m glad I did. Barbed wire or no barbed wire I wasn’t going to be denied “my heritage”, especially not now that I have found the Way of the Druid. Silbury Hill was made for people like me, by people like me, and is NOT the preserve of some archaeological unit. For some reason English Heritage have not seen fit to re-open the site despite stabilisation work started in 2007 that was due to be completed in Spring 2008. It’s late Summer 2009 and the site remains closed off to the public. For our own safety and the preservation of the site, of course.

It was a very steep slimp up the 51 degree slope. Apparently this angle is the same angle that the Great Pyramid of Giza shares with Silbury. Perhaps the designers conferred before construction, or maybe they got the same guys in to design it? I followed a well-trodden path up the ‘back’ slope away from the lights from passing traffic on the A4. After a few minutes of excited but exhausting climb the slope levelled out briefly before descending into the circular depression that had presumably been repaired. I trod carefully watching out for potholes or sinking chalk, but the ground was stable. Perhaps it would be less stable if we had rains like those of 2002 when the site was closed off?

Moon over Silbury

It was a beautiful night atop the hill and despite the darkness the view was stunning – twinkles of lights in the distance all around and the occasional sweep of car headlights rearing over The Sanctuary and then passing behind me. Above me was the celestial majesty of a curtain of stars laid out all around. Directly above me was The Milky Way, and I haven’t seen it so clearly since I went up onto Moel-Ty-Uchaf stone circle above Llandrillo in North Wales last year. It seemed to me that the centre of the Milky Way was directly above me and craning my head back made me want to sit down to get an easier view. I vouched to do that in a minute or two.

Firstly I soaked up the atmosphere a bit more. A slight breeze was blowing, just enough so that you would know you were on top of a hill, exposed, but ducking down into the hollow immediately engendered an almost complete silence – not a breath of wind was felt. I marvelled at how I could see so clearly and looked up to the east to see a quarter moon bathing the hill in moonlight. I was quite incredible how the hilltop caught the light like I was on stage or something.

Time to dowse, I felt, before I did a bit of meditating. I picked up my dowsing rods and walked to the edge of the hollow area, edging towards the steep slope from which I had come up. From there I asked to find my power centre, and was led back to the hollow, but instead of going into it I began to circle around it, widdershins (i.e. anti-clockwise). I traced a path around the edge of the hollow, and then began to spiral inside the hollow ridge. I must have circled around some six or seven times before eventually reaching the spot near to the centre of the hollow – right where I had first sat! I looked around – yes, I had managed to put my bag right on the power centre in the absolute middle of the hollow without realising it (because initially I had no idea how far the hollow extended when I put it down). Another startling coincidence in a long catalogue of such things.

I dowsed to find out which energies were present at this power centre and got reactions for male, female AND neutral. So, it would seem that I was situated on a ley line linking with other nearby sites (not surprising considering where I was, close to Avebury, The Sanctuary and West Kennet). The combination of male and female energies also meant (to me) that I was on what we call a “white stream” – a very positive energy centre. It certainly felt strong – streams of energy could be felt rising out of it if one quitened down and tuned in keenly to the body’s sensations.

I wanted to dowse one more thing before I stopped – what could the purpose of this hill be? This is a altogether trickier thing to dowse for, and usually involved a combination of educated guessing and listing things that have previously given a response at other sites, as well as some creative questioning. “Proper” dowsers would be abhorred by this, I’m sure. Scientists would wet themselves laughing, but I have found that some sense can be gained if one tries hard enough. The technique I use is to quiten down the mind and allow the genius loci of the site to speak for itself. Sometimes a response can be heard, or a thought pops into your mind that you wonder where it came from. That’s often a good starting point for investigation and confirmation with the rods. I did this, and the thought arose that the combination of energies at a single point was significant, as was the structure of the mound itself – the shape rising to a pyramidal point suggested the concept of “focus”. I heard myself repeating this word, so began to ask questions about the concept of Silbury being a focal point. Soon enough I hit upon positive responses, and finally I concluded that the best guess I could make with the rods was that it was a central point in the surrounding complex of sites, and the hill shape was constructed to be the focal point for all the energies travelling through it from connected sites. The question of why this should be so is much more difficult to get at and will require further visits, I feel.

A few weeks later I was reading Paul Devereux’s book “Earth Memory”, which talked about Silbury Hill in terms of it being the centre of the Marlborough Downs complex too, AND he displayed a diagram showing a ley line connecting Beckhampton, Silbury and West Kennet Long Barrow. Here’s a quote from Chapter 3 -”Being and Seeing” :

“Many people have commented how strange it is that Silbury Hill, a tremendous achievement of Neolithic engineering, should be located in such a low position, tucked away alongside Waden Hill. A superficial, imposing display had clearly not been the intention of its builders. As I looked at the great mound, it suddenly dawned on me that the focus of the Avebury complex was not the henge…but Silbury Hill instead….I suddenly felt as if the genius loci had whispered in my ear.” (p.75)

I felt completely validated by this! It was a wonderful moment. Until I visited the hill I hadn’t really considered how it fitted into the overall scheme of things because I couldn’t get to it to dowse it and verify things for myself. Now I knew that my idea wasn’t an isolated crazy notion. Someone else shared my madness, even if Devereux would be horrified by the flakiness of the energy dowsing that he seems to despise so. We had got to the same point by similar means – allowing the hill to speak for itself.

Back to the action. After my connection with the spirit of Silbury (however fleeting or superficial that was) I decided to sit back and admire the Milky Way and Moon combination that was hovering in the sky around me. I propped myself up on my backpack and sat looking directly up into the heart of the Milky Way.

After a few minutes I began to drift into the core of the galaxy, my mind travelling further and further into the dark heart of the universe. Then the Milky Way began to slowly churn around, lazily drifting clockwise around me as I ascended into it. This effect got stronger and faster the longer I held my gaze and suddenly I became cautious and awareness of what was happening dawned on me. As it did so I managed to pull myself free by seeing the periphery of my vision again, unfocusing from the centre. I had known I needed to re-engage with the earth because I was beginning to get physical sensations of nausea accompanying the ‘journey’ and it momentarily made me aware of my body again. I knew this sensation – it was dizziness! My eyes tried to hold onto something nearby, but I was spinning as though I had spun around twenty times! I stood up and fell over again immediately. Wow! What the hell…?

I had to roll myself away from the power centre quickly, I knew that. I crawled on my hands and knees to the rim of the sunken area and grabbed onto a clump of vegetation to steady myself. The feeling passed after a few moments anchored to the rim of the hill. I stared at the power centre where I could make out the shape of my bag in the moonlight, trying to take this in. Sitting and letting my mind wander on that power centre had been a trip and a half! Such an upsurge of energy! Now I was in no doubt at all – this place certainly was a focal point for energy and I had been foolish enough to let myself swim in its effects for a few moments, and was nearly swept away!

David Inshaw's 'Silbury Hill on a Starry Night'

This left me in no doubt – Silbury Hill forms a powerful link with other sites, and is a focal point for all three forms of energy (male, female and neutral) to combine with immense force. I felt that I had to reclaim the use of this site for energetic experimentation. It’s incredibly and indescribably strong and full of potential for shamanic uses. I for one will return again another day or night to work with these energies again.

Gwas.

Positioned on a point of power.

West Kennet: undergoing the transformation process

Gwas — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 21:58:46 +0000

It was late in the day when I pulled up at the small lay-by within plain sight of the huge mound that is Silbury Hill. To my left was my intended destination – to revisit West Kennet Long Barrow. I didn’t expect to have this opportunity again, and I didn’t know if I was ready to go further than I had before, but here I was, so I wasn’t about to waste this opportunity. Besides – as England were playing Croatia in a World Cup qualifying game there was every likelihood that the traffic and the site itself may be less busy than usual, and I would prefer to be alone to do what I wanted to do, which was to complete the experience of meditating in each of the five chambers within the long barrow structure and then see what happened.

As expected there were several other people visiting the barrow. It still amazes me that so many people want to visit these sites, even so late in the evening, because I arrived at around half past seven, as the sun was dropping low om the western sky, filling the area with a pleasing orange hue, contrasted clearly by the bright blue cloudless sky above it. The perfect time for the purpose I was beginning to form in my mind: I was going to see if I could finish the job I half started on my last visit – to go through the barrow’s chambers, meditating in each for the requisite time, to see what the result might be.

Before that there was some dowsing to do. I walked up the long shallow hill to arrive at the front of the barrow, out of sight of the remaining group of fellow ‘crusties’ who were perched on top in the barrow’s saddle, and began some preliminary questioning using the trusted copper rods:-

Was it a good time to do meditation here? YES.
Was I in the right physical, mental and spiritual frame of mind to do this work? YES.
Was I correct in my previous interpretation of the purpose and timings of the chambers within the barrow? YES.

Going well, so far! Very encouraging.

Would my work be enhanced by the use of crystals? YES – the stones I got from Callenish that I had been using recently were the best ones to use.

I asked whether the procedure was the same as I had worked out previously, involving a specific route up to a power centre on top of the barrow first? YES, and I should wait there until I felt a ‘calling’ to go into the chamber. Then the procedure would be:-

Cleansing myself of ‘external’ energies
Stating my intention
Getting permission from the guardian of the site
Re-energising myself
Undergoing a transformation process

Was I ready for this? Not really! I had no idea what I wanted to achieve yet, so I followed the rods up the right-hand side of the barrow to find my power centre on top, where I laid out my five Callenish pink granite stones around me in an unusual pattern, roughly circular. The route and location of the centre were exactly them same as on my last visit – every single step was the same. That gave me a level of confidence that my previous findings were accurate. Curiously, I would find when I got back that a kind gentleman from the British Society of Dowsers had posted in the forum saying that he had dowsed my initial findings and confirmed them as accurate in every respect, which was pleasing. Little did he know that I was about to confirm them in a very practical way myself!

I’m not going to reveal what my intention was that I finally formed. Everyone has their own path, and it’s not important to others what one wishes for. In the past I have had great difficulty thinking of anything to want to achieve. Perhaps this is a malaise of the modern world, but for me it was a tricky thing to find a balance between personal gain and the benefit of others – I wanted to achieve something in the world and not simply personal empowerment. Here was a potentially powerful tool that our ancestors had constructed and it must be respected, I felt. Whatever I asked for it would have to be something that would bring wider benefits. I thought of something, and formulated a clear sentence in my mind. Armed with that I felt ready. Well, not quite. I was nervous, and as the last visitors moved away I felt the need to relieve myself in the scrubland alongside the barrow. Hey, it’s a “call of Nature”, right? Maybe that was the signal to begin because then, alone on top of the barrow, I felt ready to go into the barrow and meditate….

About twenty minutes later I emerged. It hadn’t been the vision quest I had been expecting, but something had happened in there. I didn’t feel any different, but I knew something subtle had occurred. I asked the rods to confirm whether I had been successful – YES. Would I notice the difference immediately? NO – it would take several weeks for the change to take effect. OK. I was happy with that, and will look out for that. I may even report back when the change happens, because it will be the culmination of several years worth of effort if it works. I think I should document that if and when such an event occurs, don’t you?

I returned to my power centre to have a think. I sat quietly waiting to see what would happen if I could become as still in my mind as the air was outside now. A picture began to form after a few minutes peace. I saw Nine Ladies stone circle in my mind. A bearded man in a long white robe approached the circle from the moor side and stopped to touch the King Stone quite deliberately. In my mind I heard the term “Heel stone”, though, which is not a term I use, but I understood what was meant by it. Then the man went through all of the stages that I had just been through, but with slight variances. Those stages were

Touching the Heel Stone to activate the energy
Grounding or cleansing himself on the draining stone in the circle;
Walking around the circle clockwise three times stating his purpose
Standing in the centre of the circle, giving praise to the sun, moon, stars and the earth, facing north, south, east and west in turn
Sitting on a power centre in the circle to charge himself up and then receiving a revelation or inspiration

After this he stood and faced me and I knew that he was now in command of the energies of the stone circle. Now I knew what all this process was about – it was a generic process with slight variances to take account of the type of power place that the work was being performed at. I understood. And I knew that soon I would get a chance to try this out too.

Before I could, something was nagging at me – what was I giving in return for this knowledge? The nag got louder. I got the rods out again to help me, and after a short while I hit upon a positive response: I needed to give something of great value in return for my “gift” that I had meditated for. Well, that was something that I knew earlier cultures did – there are several lakes in North Wales and elsewhere that have been the site for votive gifts. Now I was beginning to understand why. Upon realising this I was restless to go, so I picked up my Callenish stones and packed to leave. All the while the sight of Silbury Hill was drawing me. The light was almost gone now, but there was a hint of lighter sky in the west which silhouetted the hill in a wonderfully dramatic way. Time for more dowsing, I reckoned, but that’s another story.

Gwas.

Putting theory into practice.