The Hedge Druid

Posts Tagged ‘reiki’

My Glastonbury pilgrimage is always a major event in my life. Each year it signals a major change in motivation towards achieving something amazing and progression along my spiritual path is always much faster and furious after the pilgrimage. Sometimes the visions that I receive are life-changing. Sometimes they take me in a direction that I didn’t expect. This year they took me in a direction that I did expect – but one which I had been putting off for years. Now I was given a clear sign that I have to become a healer if I wanted to fulfil the role of a druid in modern society. There was simply no getting away from it this time!

In a meditation with the female forces that are commonly identified as simply “The Goddess” she showed me that my healing ability would come firstly through my palms, and that I could use this to heal myself first. Once I had learned that then I would use the power to heal others as repayment for this self-healing. I felt this was a fair exchange, and though I have nothing medically wrong with me I do a lot of physical training that often leads to strains and tired muscles. I am hoping that I will be able to repair the muscles and get back to full fitness quickly if I develop these healing techniques that I am being guided towards.

Thereafter I hope to be able to heal others, but I have a long way to go to get to that point. I seem to have a natural affinity for identifying people’s aches and pains, but I’m less skilled in resolving them. However, I do a form of acupressure that seems to have spontaneously emerged several years ago and which I suspect will be my starting point for what I am about to learn.

The History of the Palms

Let’s stay away from the obvious Christian associations with the palms – the crucification of the great bearded one, for example – and focus on how the palms are represented in traditional healing folklore. Healing hands have long been the province of the witch or cunning person of the village before the establishment of certified medicinal practises. In eastern philosophies the palms form an obscurer but no less important part of the chakra system of power points on the human energy field that interact with the divine energies of the surrounding world, and the palms have been seen as a means to be attract and transmit healing energies.

Learning to develop and channel healing energies

I am finding my own way – as usual – with the help of the wilderness voices. I am going into meditation in Nature and listening to the advice of trees and other guiding entities who wish to reveal to me the methods and powers with which I can begin to develop this healing practice for myself, and for the benefit of others. Of course, being an avid book collector I am also seeking out sources of written information to suggest techniques or areas into which I could develop, providing that these techniques that I read about are endorsed or confirm the techniques that I am discovering through communing and meditation. Nature is my teacher – the rest of confirmation or expansion.

I am trying out some of the meditation techniques from The Well of Light by R.J.Stewart. Actually, they are incredibly similar to ones that I already worked out for myself, or went through by accident. Funny how this all works the same way, no matter how you come to the information! If I find them successful I will write about them soon so that you can see how they are constructed, and consider how they might be similar of different from your own visionary work.

To get some more information about this topic I went to a favourite grove of mine that I haven’t visited at all this year. I was welcomed back and it was nice to be “home” in this ring of trees only a few miles from my house. Whilst there I was free to commune fully with the teacher beech tree that is the master of the grove and he led me to some thoughts about healing through the palms. The beech tree guided me to work on my five chakras to develop a circulating energy flow that went clockwise – in through my left palm, round my body, and back out again from my right palm. To enable this I had to hold my palms opposite each other in front of me, and to hold them at the height that corresponded to one of the five chakra points on my body. Bu doing this I was able to circulate my own body’s energy flows through my palms.

However, this was not all. I knew I couldn’t just use my own energy to heal - what if I needed more energy than I could muster to do the healing, or my own energy was not the right kind for the healing work? How could I channel energy from elsewhere? More meditation, and the tree suggested two sources for me. In the daylight hours I could draw light energy from the sun’s rays through my left palm and give them out through my right palm. At night I could use the energy of the moon. At any time I could use the energy of living things, particularly trees, to assist me in channelling energy into a healing form through this chakra meditation technique. Brilliant!

The Season of the Sources

These techniques for drawing energy from other sources are similar but different to those taught by the Reiki attunement levels, it seems. From my limited understanding of the Reiki system I believe that practitioners are taught to draw from a generalised universal life force. In my case I have been given specific sources to draw from to suit particular times of the day or night, and of course for particular times of the month and year too. For me, the sources and strengths of the life force to be drawn from will wax and wane with the day, with the phase of the moon, and with the seasons.

I expect the most abundant sun energy to be available at noon on a sunny day at the summer solstice, whereas the most abundant moon energy will be on a clear night at a full Winter moon when the moon is closest to the planet (the apogee). The other factor involved will be the strength of the trees that are nearby, and their levels of power and co-operation. Quite different from the simpler Reiki approach, I feel.

Some associated resources:-

1. Woodland Wellness
2. Reiki
3. Tonohira Ryoji – Reiki palm healing
4. Pranic healing
5. Using your palms for healing
6. Palm qigong
7. Hand Chakra awakening meditation video

Gwas.

Although I am a very spontaneous person. I also know the value of setting up expectations. So here are some expectations for 2011:

• Abbeys and Cathedrals

As you know new religions replace old ones often by taking over the old ones places of worship and ceremony. So it wouldn’t be surprising to find sacred energies at such places. Couple to this the notion that energy and thought are closely tied then such places would have any energies there enhanced. Well lets find out. So in 2011, I (we) hope to visit some newer (from the perspective of Megalithic sites) locations and divine there energetic states and value.

• House Dowsing and Energy Transformations

Ok, I have experimented with this over the last couple of years and have had a lot of success. Specifically I will be hoping to explore energies in homes and how to transform them to make the places energies more in line with the wishes of those who live there. Whether this be for healing, creativity, prosperity, etc. Gwas, I believe maybe looking at a similar type of thing but from the perspective of spirit/shade/death (we have to get our naming conventions sorted) energies. My area of investigation/work will be more in line with what is called Feng Shui (using intuition and dowsing rather than the – various – laws of Feng Shui).

• Signs and Synchronicities

This is a difficult one really, because it is not so much doing anything but reading them. Although (at the moment) I don’t believe that there are any hard and fast rules to this, I do want to see if I can get really good at reading omens and determining what they are and why they exist? For example, are they here to show us our destined path? Or to help us avoid certain dangers? I have been interested in Synchronicity for many years through my Paranormal investigation/studies so I know there are any number of reasons (which I will explore later in the year) as to why of these.

• Energy therapies

Having had my own complementary therapies practice for a few years I know the value of such. Over the past year or two I have done the odd experiment with dowsing and therapies. However I would like to do a lot more with them. The healing modalities I am speaking of are of course, Reiki, Bach Flowers, Homeopathy, Blessing Water, Water Crystals. No promises with this one, but it should be fun to explore.

• Wand making

This has been left, sadly, by the wayside. However I really want to see if I can make some progress with this this year. It is a task that really caught my imagination when I was presented with it at Alderley Edge (The Wizards Forest) at the beginning of 2010. Being given the name of Wand Maker was also a good indicator (and sign?)

• Tarot

In the background of the last four years or so I have been studying Tarot and it’s uses. Although on several occasions I have been shown that future prediction is a non-sense-ical endeavour. Using the Tarot for getting a perspective on situations is brilliant and since it is a bit of an arm chair activity you can play with it anytime. So expect more of this to be cropping up. And that is just on the Edge Wizardry front. The other fronts of my life are going to be spectacular this coming year too!

Kal Malik – Co-Creating the Future

After last weeks weirdness at Glastonbury I was worried. Having gained a monumental answer that there was something wrong with the world. I was flummoxed at the enormity of it all. An Internet “chat” with Gwas had got him dowsing to confirm that I was getting the correct results.

Still, I wasn’t really afraid that much because we have mis-diagnosed dowsing a couple of times, enough to be wary of such enormous statements.

So, in an effort to explore this question more fully I hopped into the car and headed of to the coast and that famed residence of Merlin and Arthur, Tintagel.

But before I got there, it seems that the world had other things on its mind…

Slaughter Bridge

Tintagel has a couple of mainish routes to it and since I was coming from the North of Devon the route that I had got me about 5 miles to famed land before the road-work gods had decided to close a complete road off! Seriously people! So I re-progammed the Sat-Nav and it took me another 25 miles around to get at Tintagel. However in this diversion there was a bonus.

As I meandered down country lanes (the A roads of Cornwall) I took in the scenery and the quiet little hamlets. Since Gwas wasn’t with me, I had to be the one on the look out for curios along the way and today fortune had blessed me with one.

I saw a gaudy flag and a sign with “Arthur” written on it flash by me so I hit the brakes and did a double take. At first glance it looked like some kind of touristy thing and it was closed so I nearly got back in the car when I had a intuitive nudge and so put my guerrilla dowsing head and clambered over the fence.

So here I was again in no man’s land, quite literally as this was the supposed place where Arthur was mortally wounded by his nemesis Mordred (who also got the chop here too). Anyway I dowsed to ask whether this place had any connection to Arthur, the answer was a resounding YES. I asked if he had died here? No…Now that was a bit disappointing, but I wasn’t going to give up so easily so I asked whether this was the place he was mortally wounded? Yes! Ah…

Before I could even wonder about it let alone ask I felt the drain of a Energetic Shroud. Well, it had been a battlefield after all and (as my dowsing confirmed) the energy being used in keeping its memory alive was also feeding the shades too.

Well, I wondered if there was any chance of gaining some wisdom from the Arthur’s legendary pal, Merlin. In regards to the world not being right. No, or rather I should continue on my journey to Tintagel where I would gain more answers. Now that’s a promise I like to hear. So after lighting a few respectful incense sticks and generally giving some gratitude energy I was off again.

Tintagel

Only a short hop later I was parking up in the rather windy and a bit drizzly town of Tintagel. Of course it is only a town in the Cornish sense of the word, a little villagette might be a more accurate for more city dwelling folk. Nevertheless I digress.

As per usual (why stop a good thing) I was dressed in my normal all weather atire, i.e. jeans, t-shirt, fleece, jacket and non water-proof highy liquid soaking trainers. Fantastic! Due to Gwas’s absence I also had incense sticks and crystals, should the need arise.

I would say that Tintagel is probably a gorgeous place in the summer, but having been there this summer and the weather was no different from today i’m guessing we just caught it at a bad time. Anyway, enough…I was off onto the hillock were Gwas had done his little bit of Arthurian communion. I, however was looking for a kindred wizard, Merlin.

Having already got an answer at Slaughter-bridge (what a name!) that I would be able to gain some answers here. I dowsed for the best place to seek these answers. And as usual the rods took me on a winding path right to the edge of the cliffs. Hmmm a sense of humour? Not

So there I was, with the wind blowing in my face, rain threatening to downpour and trying to commune with that shyster Merlin.As per usual, to get my bearings I did some dowsing? Was this the best place, Yes. Did I need any crystals? No, Any incense (like I could light it??) No, phew!

I stood looking down into the crashing waves, wondering about the world and its not rightness. What a strange thing to find, and what an egotistical thing to believe that I could do something about the world, I mean come-on “The World” we’re talking about here.

This was the province of sooth-sayers and doom mongers, 2012, cataclysms and Ragnarok came amusingly to mind. And I had tried to stay away from such nonsense. I laughed, was this going to be one of those things…

Gwas and I have often found that when we are truly averse to some belief or notion and try to avoid it, it keeps coming around demanding acknowledgment.

Was this going to be “one of those things?” I wondered. Then I swear, I heard a laugh, I turned around thinking that some other mad person must be touring this site in this weather, but no, there was no one there. I put it down to the waves and the wind and returned to my musing.

Whether it was the wind pushing me or just getting tired of looking at the same view, I ambled off without thinking about it and wandered around the ruins until I found a nice little nook to keep me warded from the wind. As I hunkered down I began to visualise…

“You are a funny one you are”

Now, i’ve had my fare share of chats with Ancient Yew but this was something else. It was like…trying to catch a soft feather in the wind, the mere movement of my hand would push it away further. That is how I would describe trying to hear this voice.

Like being in the dark trying to listen for sounds coming from downstairs I was straining to find a word, a whisper…an imagined voice? Then I caught another sentence…

“You’re trying to hard”

Ah, a bit of useful advice I thought, so I stopped trying and just, hmmm, casually listened. Nothing, not a peep. For a fair few minutes and so I started listening harder again and I heard the voice.

“I’m not talking about listening, i’m talking about your problem”

Ah, ok, duh…say on…Hang on, what do you mean my problem? I got the sinking feeling…Was I going to have to heal the world, pardon the pun!

“There isn’t a problem with my world”

Okay, I felt a distinct inflection on the word “my” in that sentence, it was obviously loaded with meaning. But I thought, obviously there isn’t with “your” world, your a shade or a entity or any number of other type of thing. Your world could quite distinctly be different from mine. Sadly the dis-jointed one line sentence conversation/commune continued…

“The problem is with your world”

Now, you have to appreciate, if intent had power my ears would have been the size of a radio telescope I was trying that hard to hear, o and understand of course.

“The problem is with ‘your’ world”

This time I caught something, call it intuition but I got hold of the edge of understanding and pulled hard…you mean “my” world, don’t you? Not “The World” but “my” world.

I listened hard for an answer, nothing. I waited, nothing…then on a cloudy, windy and rainy ragged coast-line, the sun came out. In honesty, I sat back in awe.

A few moments later I shot up realising that my jeans were now soaked through.

It seemed as if I had been given enough of an answer to build something on. I quickly got my rods out and asked the obligatory question…Was that experience real? Yes. Had I been speaking with Merlin? Hmmm a tentative yes. Merlins shade or spirit? Again a tentative yes, almost as I had to force a yes out of the rods.

Was the answers given sound? Oh Yes! It wasnt something wrong with “The World” it was something wrong with “my” world? Yes.

By implication this meant that there was something wrong with me, so I asked. Is there something wrong with me? Yes.

Sigh…

Why me? Is the lament of the lost (hey that’s a good quote) so I didn’t bother with it and after just the briefest pause I started on the trail of this “personal” wrongness.

I asked about all the “usual suspects” was I infected with Leprechaun energy? No, any other energetic blob, entity, shade, awareness??? No, no and no!

Was I infected with anything at all? No, Was my dowsing working properly? Yes, Hmmmm (dont ask)

I did some quick energy dowsing and found a few male and female power centers, all seemed well with the dowsing. Then an idea came to me but to explain, I have to go back in time a few months…

Self Healing

For many years I have practiced energy healing on others often and on myself daily. If you’re aware of Reiki then that is the school that I have been taught in, though it doesn’t really matter…energy is energy, right? Anyway almost on a daily basis I practice energy healing on myself. It only takes a few minutes and the results are well worth it.

However for a few months (I cant tell exactly when) I havent been able to do it. I can still practice healing on others and send it to others from a distance, but when it comes to myself. Zip, zero, Nada! There is some kind of blockage that is preventing me from practicing healing on myself.

How can you tell, you ask? Good question. Well it’s in the visualisation, or lack thereof. When I do healing I visualise the channeling or creation of energy and then it being sent to whomever or myself. Now, I can still create this energy and send it to anyone or place. But when I try to send it to myself…it just fizzles away…Almost as if there is a barrier between me and it.

If you’re a healer you are probably coming up with many and varied suggestions, yes yes and yes, ive tried them all but to no avail. Also I haven’t been able to get a intuitive hook onto it so that I could dowse questions. It seemed that this…phenomena…had a bit of a SEP (sombody elses problem) field around it too which hampered investigation.

Before I continue with the narrative there is just one other peculiarity that I want to mention. If I say so myself, I am a good Dreamer.  Always have been, by this I mean that I can create visualisations before I sleep and then in my sleep wander (almost consciously) through them. It has helped alot with intuitive problem solving. I find the answers in my dreams, by asking the questions before I go to sleep.

This self-healing issue has continuously evaded any “dream” exploration. I cant dream about it.

Back to Tintagel

So, as I was saying, I had an idea…Was this “something wrong with my world” to do with my self-healing issue? O yes, the rods fairly swung and hit me in the chest. I felt I was on a role and that perhaps here at this energetic site I would get further answers to my dilemma. Alas it was not to be, I lifted the rods but intuition was not forth coming. Could I “fix” this problem, yes? Could I do it here and now? No. Was it something to do with me only (i.e. not my environment) Yes. Only me.

I asked a few questions as to the why of it all, but none of them were revealing and so I left it for the time being. If you are asking, how could I? Then you dont practice dowsing often. There is a kind of energy that it takes out of you and after you’ve been doing it intensely for a bit, you just, hmmm, dont want to for a while.

Still, I was leaving Tintagel on a positive note. The world was safe again and I had done more to learn about my self-healing issue than I had done for about two or three months!

The game was indeed afoot!

Kal Malik 0f 22b Baker Street London

Kal has fairly comprehensively listed the possible types of energy that we could be dealing with at stone circles and other sites. I wanted to just go through each point and see how I felt about each of the possibilities. Perhaps something will come out as a strong contender, whereas other may be rejected. Let’s see how this pans out!

1. Dragon Lines

Having seen some pictures from Japan of the alignments of buildings and gardens that follow the principles of being placed upon Dragon Lines I can relate those formations to the energies we are calling ‘neutral alignment leys’.

Such lines are straight. They form geometrical shapes of a relatively large size. They cross terrain to form alignments with other sites. They are affected by the large scale geography of the areas they travel through, but ignore the smaller elements.

The lines extend in a criss-crossing network of straight lines that form energy grids with no discernible pattern, other than that they run through areas of geological upheaval and fault lines. In the most geologically active regions the lines form many crossing points, seeming to particularly prevalent in rock types with large crystalline structures like granite.

VERDICT: I think that Dragon Lines are neutral alignment leys and we dowse these all the time.
I don’t think these energies are the same as the Hartmann or Curry grids, which have a very regular rectangular or square formation.

2. Chakra Energies

I’m not altogether sure that the energy generated by the human body is the same energy as flows through the earth. If it is it means we’d all assuredly feel more connected to the earth than we do most of the time! A compatible energy, for sure. When we visit a sacred site we have the opportunity to set the frequency of our body energy to that of the site, and thereby form a connection with it.

We are also connecting with something else too, I feel, not just the energy formations of a stone circle. I always feel I am connecting with Nature too. Nature herself (i use gender here to denote her primary directive of being a nurturing force) is involved to make the connection.

The state of mind required to make such a connection is very similar to the state of mind I experience when I was meditating with a Chinese lady who was trying to guide M and I through a relaxing session. By the end of her ‘emptying the mind’ and visualisation routine I was flooded with purple. She recognised this as the third eye chakra colour. At that moment I also felt extremely balanced.

I feel that dowsing is the same frame of mind – a balancing of the left and right hemispheres with external direction, or inspiration I would rather say. It’s more of a suggestion than a directive. An idea that you can disguise as your own but which you know did not come from you.

The rainbow colours we dowse at sites, and which are distanced and arranged according to how we are at the time, may correspond to the various chakra points on the human body, and be the interface points for connecting to a site’s energies. We should watch for which points in our bodies respond when we walk over the various bands of coloured energy. Is there a correlation and therefore a response of any kind?

VERDICT: I therefore see that chakra energy is a mapping of the crossing points of the body’s energy paths, and in a state of balance the practitioner is able to generate and mobilise their own internal energies. Additionally various parts of the body that correspond to chakra points may connect with various wavelengths in the spectrum of coloured energies that form the site’s nemeton.

3. Auric Energies

I think what Kal is describing here is the outer edge of a band of energy that forms a kind of protective sphere around a site (including rocks, trees or any other energy source). I refer to this as the nemeton of the object (more can be found about nemetons in other posts. (See ‘Glossolalia: The nemeton described‘).

I think that the auric edge is the edge of the ‘influence’ or boundary of the energetic extent of the object, whether it be a site, a tree or a rock. The aura flows in a particular direction. The bands of coloured energy within it also flow in particular directions, some contrary to each other. We have worked with re-directing the outer edge of the nemeton, but have never been directed to look at the inner coloured bands yet.

VERDICT: I feel that the nemeton is an enclosing spherical force that is composed of bands of coloured energy (light?) that denote the energy’s frequency of vibration. The size, strength and direction of the bands seem related to the relative health of the energies at the site, but we haven’t got any way to assess this yet.

4. Prana, Ki and other variants

This is the same as Chi and Chakra energy described earlier.

5. Reiki

When I went through a Reiki session I was a complete skeptic. Nevertheless the session relaxed me, and again I experienced the purple flush of light in my mind during the session. I therefore connect Reiki with the same state of consciousness as the deep meditation states. Instead of visualising the energies for yourself, however, you are allowing someone else to obtain, channel, and direct the energies from either within themselves, or some external source.

I find this practise to be very similar to the natural magick that I have been trying to get to grips with. The too is a connection then a drawing of energies from other sources as well as yourself in order to direct them elsewhere through intention and/or visualisation.

VERDICT: Reiki offers a form of altered consciousness for the practitioner that puts them in connection with the same forces a druids connect to, i.e. Nature itself. From that state they can direct, energise or dissipate energies according to the requirement of the treatment. This energy is therefore Natural energy being transmuted into body energy via chakra points. By transmuted I mean slowed down or speeded up to the right frequency to connect with the correct chakra point. Again, a form of attunement of mind and body in order to work with the energies.

6. Reflexology

When I knew nothing at all about healing , energy work or druidry, I had an innate knowledge from I know not where of how to do reflexology. I could just tune into my subject (usually a girlfriend, you’d be amazed how far this can get you!) and sense in their feet where a hot spot or tender area was. I could then “see” up that pathway, through the body, to find where the destination of that pain or tension was. It was then a simple matter to massage that pain away.

I used to play a little game with myself. I’d see if I could guess where the subject would describe the pain and then see how close I was with my guess. I soon gave this game up as I got it every time. I can’t tell you the number of freaky responses I got from people I did this on, usually phrases like, “But how did you know that my left shoulder was aching?”, or “I can feel the tension flooding out of my neck when you rub my toe there.”. I would have taken it further as a study but frankly it made my hands ache rubbing feet for half an hour or so. They just didn’t want it to stop!

I never asked how it worked. I never wanted to know how I knew. Now I do.

VERDICT: I think Reflexologists are simply tuning into the energy paths of the bodies they are working on. These are the same energies described in the section about Chakras above, even if the paths through which the energies travel may map differently between such skills as reflexology, reiki, massage, yoga, acupressure or acupuncture. Differences between mapping energies in such disciplines is cultural and conventional.

7. Homeopathy

The question homeopathy raises about energy is: does water have the capability to store and transmit energy? From the experiments done by Professor Emoto in Japan on the ability of water to react to language and intent it would seem that it does have a storage capacity, or at least transforms its structure to reflect the energy transmitted to it.

We also hear from seasoned dowsers that water is the energy carrier for sacred sites, although we can find no evidence that water courses follow earth energy paths. The shapes of paths are too regular and geometric for them to be simply a reflection of or emission from water courses.

VERDICT: Essenses may incorporate a form of holographic imprint of energy directed at it (whether intentionally or not). As a holographic imprint the amount of “source” material need only be a minute amount in order to transmit the energy pattern of the “host” of the essence.

8. Crystal energies

Like Kal I think there’s a lot to be said for crystals. I placed some quartz crystals on top of the major electrical devices in my house and dowsed a before and after picture of the energy at those places. Before the crystals were placed on them the televisions and a microwave oven dowsed very strongly for an unhealthy energy form. After the crystals were placed on the equipment the reaction to the question of unhealthy energies either diminished drastically or completely.

When Kal placed some crystals atop the stones at Nine Ladies in Derbyshire we got a very strong dowsing reaction around Kal as he sat in the circle. With their help he felt energised to perform some visualisation and healing work – his own flavour of natural magick.

VERDICT: Crystals can focus energies to a point. I also feel that they somehow coalesce the energies of a site to be harnessed for use by the practitioner. It also seems important what kind of stones are used to form stone circles and other sacred sites. The more crystalline, and the larger the crystals, the more powerful is the focusing and empowering effect.

I therefore feel that crystals act as a form of lens through which energies can be harnessed and focused.

9. Earth Electromagnetic Field (EMF)

The EMF, or GMF (Geomagnetic Field) fluctuates in strength. The nemetons (or auric extent) of stone circles fluctuates in synchrony with it. I don’t know enough science to continue with any further comparison of these two energies. I also have no way of measuring the EMF – I simply accept what I’m told about it with an air of dissociated interest. I may never know much about it. So here’s a link to a study of them and if anyone understands it – good for you. Perhaps you could tell me how it fits in. The study at least recognises that variations occur depending upon the time of day.

VERDICT:Fluctuation according to time of day is as close as I get to correlating these two forces.

10. Emotional energies

When working with energies at sacred sites one of the ‘keys’ to allowing this energy to operate has been demonstrated to myself and Kal on many occasions to be the emotions of love and gratitude. Love is the force that, through its generation in the human body and mind, can be unleashed in order to provide the impetus for action or change to occur.

This is, of course, impossible to prove. So, I invite you to try it for yourself. You will find that emotional energies of a specific type have particular effects. Without that emotional involvement you are merely sitting in an arrangement of stones.

Once the work is complete, and before you awaken, we have found it profitable (i.e. no negative side effects occur, like you start being clumsy, or unfortunate things befall you) if you break the connection with an emotion of gratitude for the experience. Call it politeness. Call it irrelevant. I call it the fostering of good relations. This is, after all, a relationship with Nature itself, and the most worthy attainments deserve a nod of appreciation.

I am unsure as to the purpose, but like a child I don’t need to understand the warning to heed the advice. Love and gratitude seem to be the entry requirements and the exit strategy for energy work in stone circles or anywhere else.

VERDICT: The energies of the emotions of love and gratitude are allowing some form of transition to an attuned mental state wherein it becomes possible to visualise and direct energies.

11. Esotoric energies

I think the phrase “esoteric” doesn’t capture the undoubted intelligence innate in these presences. Tribal shamans consider these ‘spirits’ to be ancestors – a term that perhaps does not translate well. Yet the word ‘ancestor’ certainly hints at something beyond our capacity to ordinarily interact with it, possibly because it’s in a different frequency outside our normal range, and something once human, but now possibly only retaining soul or mind without a physical body.

Terence McKenna’s tales of encounters with mushroom intelligence, Carlos Casteneda’s many books about his contact with magical ‘allies’ that are often the genius loci contained within entheogenic plants, Gordon Wasson’s reportage of shamanic encounters, Mercia Eliade’s work with tribal shamans the world over who, though isolated from each other, report similar experiences in the other dimensions. To coin McKenna these are true hallucinations involving man and nature spirit.

VERDICT: Esoteric techniques to alter states of consciousness demonstrate that other worlds can be glimpsed for short periods of time. In those other worlds or dimensions there are intelligent entities. Some travellers manage to return back through the gateway with immense creative hordes, and tantalising theories and knowledge that they were simply not able to conjure otherwise.

12. Dark matter

Not a topic I would choose to end on. I don’t understand dark matter, and I don’t think it is understandable. In the same way as quantum mechanical theory keeps uncovering ever smaller levels of sub-atomic energy, I think that space is also fractally extensive.

Whilst we spend trillions attempting to extend our vision ever smaller and larger through the sub-atomic to cosmic realms we are taking our collective eye of the ball – the ball of earth upon which we are stood. The dark matter that is said to inhabit “space” also inhabits inner space. It inhabits all spaces. It must. It cannot be a property of one level of a fractal but not the other. Only the shape of a fractal changes – not it’s composition or properties.

VERDICT: Dark matter is all pervasive. It is inevitable that it is a constituent part of the energies we seek to work with, but I don’t see that it is dark matter alone that is being evoked, transmuted or dissipated. I also think that it is not energy itself that is changed, only its form.

So there you have it. Some random musings covering my current thoughts on energy in many of its classified forms. Given that most human classification systems are temporary at best, I suspect there is room for re-classification and revolution in the field of matter (no pun intended).

Gwas

Follow a true path.

I used to describe myself as an Energy worker but then the realisation came that we are all workers of energy, whether we know it or not – and so the term went into retirement.

This blog is all about the energies that are found at stone circles – although we have digressed slightly into energies at graves and in woods and tree energies. I do come to wonder though if these energies are related to or are the same as other forms of energy.

So, here are some of the known forms of energy we could be dealing with:-

Dragon lines – these are the energies that surround the world of Feng Shui and are not only present on a geographical perspective but also on a local – in your home – perspective too. I would argue that the energy lines we dowse herein are the same as Dragon Lines. One particular instance comes to mind when Gwas dowsed the energies coming from the Nine Ladies circle down the side of a cliff/ravine. This is in line with what a Feng Shui geomancer would discover.

Chakra energies – closely related to – if not the same as Dragon Line energies – this energy or Chi in Chinese is the energy that flows through the body. Well more accurately chakras are vortices caused by the flow of Chi – but hey – same difference! Is this energy what we are dowsing too?

Auric energy - we have dowsed each others auras in terms of finding the boundaries – but whether the aura is formed by Chi or some other energy? Questions questions!

Prana, Ki and other variants – these I would lump in with Chi – Ki is the Japanese form and Prana indian.

Reiki - Are practitioners channelling the same energy we dowse? This is definitely an area that we could explore. Some stome circles respond to questions and practises related to healing.

Reflexology - contrary to some opinions is based on an energy form rather than some bio-chemical/nervous system type theory. Is this the same as the energy we dowse? By the way – reflex points don’t correspond to acupuncture pressure points and so Reflexology and Chi don’t map onto each other.

Homeopathy - is based on the energetic residue of stuff that is enhanced and captured by the energies of water? Scientifically loopy but…what’s the relationship with our energy?

Bach Flowers – again using the energetic properties of water to capture the energetic essence of plants and sunlight. Is this the energy that we are dowsing? Perhaps we can dowse some Bach flowers? An interesting area to experiment with. Tree essenses also fall into this category.

Crystal energies – We have played with the energies of crystals a little and my feeling is that here we have some really interesting and related work to the stuff we do at stone circles – stones are crystals are stones? Many stone circles employ specific types of geological rock that may have properties associated with their crystalline structure.

EMF - going into the scientific realm – a lot of dowsers suggest that what is being detected is some kind of electro-magnetic force or such a force created by faults or running water? Baloney? Or something in it? Hugh Newman’s “Little Wooden Book Of Earth Energy Lines” (and many others) explores this concept with some good illustrations of a geopmagnetic survey of Stonehenge.

Emotional energies – T.C.Lethbridge said that emotional energies can be left in places to be picked up later by dowsers – is the energy we are detecting left by ancient (wo)mans work?

Esotoric energies – here I include angels, entities and any other kind of self aware energy. Is this what we are playing with. Is it directing us? Or are we just detecting its presence.

Dark matter/energy – are we tapping into what scientist say most of the universe is made of i.e. dark matter/energy? Why not?

Others may come to mind and will be added as soon as I invent them

Kal