The Hedge Druid

Posts Tagged ‘silbury hill’

Finally I get around to the Summer Solstice post! This year I spent Summer Solstice on June 22nd, and I spent it in the heart of Wiltshire on a tour round my favourite megalithic sites with Kal in tow. As we arrived we found that the remnants of the solstice celebrants were camped all around the sacred hills and places. In many ways my heart yearned to be with them – to live their nomadic life, to live so close to the places I loved and to move with the seasons and the celebrations. Yet, I have walk a different path and I have come to accept this. I live a balance between ordinary and extra-ordinary events, between the so-called mundane and the esoteric. “Balance in all things” – the hedge druid motto.

The day was being reported by the weather-predictors as being a downpour and a washout. We had driven through almost continual rain to get here, but when we arrived the weather seemed to be better than further north, and so we counted ourselves lucky. As we passed through the market town of Marlborough Kal finally asked where we were going. My reply was simple – “I don’t know. We’ll have to see what happens.” And so the tightly-packed mystery and potential of the solstice day began to unfold.

1) The Sanctuary

Our first stop was the remains of the stone circle known as The Sanctuary. Even though I have been to this part of the land many many times, and so has Kal, we have rarely been here together. However, it came as a surprise to me that Kal had never been to The Sanctuary yet, so when the impulse overcame me I stopped and we got out to have a look. Kal was hugely underwhelmed by the spectacle of some concrete markers on a vague circle. I knew what to expect, though, having been here a couple of times before.

Of course there’s nothing to see, but we still took the opportunity to FEEL for what was there. I felt that I should walk into the set of concentric circles via a particular path, and I decided to try and feel that path rather than dowse it. I would use the dowsing rods to confirm the final position when I got there. Minutes later of wandering in and out of the concentric circles, each time getting deeper towards the centre, I found a spot that appealed to me. When I dowsed to see whether this was where I should be – it was. I didn’t ask about the energies – male/female, strength, or anything else. This was just the place I needed to sit in. And it was raining. So whatever was about to happen should just get on with it. I put my hood up on my waterproof coat, and Kal did the same. Lucky I brought a spare, eh? Every time.

It was now really raining very hard. Even the hardcore crusties who had popped in to admire the remains of a once-powerful place didn’t stay around long in the wet. Luckily we were equipped for all seasons and weathers. We hunkered down against the summer storm. In many ways these kinds of weather conditions favour getting into a quick trance, and sure enough I quickly found myself emptying my head of the day-to-day junk thoughts.

As my energies re-balanced themselves to their new surroundings everything went calm inside. I knew this was the time to ask a purposeful question. “Please show me something that will further my spiritual quest.” I pleaded. There was a moment’s deliberation, and then a vision emerged in the dark stillness….

…It was me, sitting where I was, but I was seeing myself from above. Then a trackway, a path of electric green lines thrust across the landscape like two bolts of lightning and made their way over the hill nearby towards Avebury. In my mind I followed the lines as they arrived in the Avebury stone circle. They stopped at a stone that was shaped like a lion’s head. Here the vision zoomed into the stone and showed me a hole. I couldn’t gauge where the hole was on the stone because the image was just too fast, and I was barely picking up the plot line, never mind the intricate dialogue and the nuances of the word-play, so to speak! Then I knew something gnostically – in the hole I would find something that would guide me on my quest.

Read the rest of this entry »

A short post this time to tell you about an amazing thing that happened at West Kennett Long Barrow.A few weeks ago I visited Wiltshire for the OneFest festival. It was OK – some surprises and some people who should have done better, but the real fun was actually our visits to the sacred sites in the area. For the first time I got to take my wife around the places that have almost become a second home to me I’ve visited them so often! On our lists were Avebury and my favourite West Kennett Long Barrow, in the shadow of Silbury Hill.

We got out of the car facing Silbury Hill. I pointed it out to her and waited for her opinion…. “It looks like a big heap of soil.” she stated prosaically. I looked at her dumbfounded, then regaled her with facts about its construction and its energetic powers. She looked at me unimpressed. “It looks boring.” I gave up. Let’s see if West Kennett vould do more to break through. As we walked up the long slope to the barrow there was only a slight warm breeze – good conditions considering it was usually windswept and cold, even on a summer day.

The Pyramid of Power

As we approached I stopped some twenty feet from the entrance. I knew we stood at the outskirts of the aura, the energy field that the barrow emits. To transgress the boundary without acknowledgement or respectful entry is to arrive as a tourist. The rewards of entering as a shamanic visitor are much greater. I asked for entry for us both, and waited for a response. M knows my ways now and waited with me, remarking on the huge length of the construction, which is rivalled only by Wayland’s Smithy for size.

As we entered I said to M – “Why don’t we find which is the right way for you to enter?”. “Okay, ” she said, “but I think I already know.” I got the rods out and began to request a path for her to enter the site by the most energetic path. Doing this means that you arrive at your power centre retaining as much personal subtle energy as possible. If you don’t follow such a path you risk losing energy by interacting with incompatible energy fields that interfere without personal energies. That’s how I understand it, anyway, and it’s something I’ve developed as a means of ensuring I arrive at the most energetic spot with the maximum energy of my own before doing any work.

I walked through the ‘entrance’ – a spot near to the side of the stone portal, and then the rods took me along the side of the earth mound for about fifteen feet before taking me up a thin path to the top of the mound. From there I was led back to the front of the mound where the rods circled some ten feet back from the skylight in the top of the barrow. Something wasn’t right, though. This wasn’t the “final destination”. It felt like there was somewhere else to go. M walked up to me and confirmed that the path I had taken was the one she was thinking of following herself! OK – but what about this “end point” that didn’t feel like then end? She said that she felt herself that her power centre was actually more to one side of the mound, some six feet away from where I was standing. I dowsed to see whether there was any connection between my finding and the one that M believed was her proper power centre. They were indeed linked. I asked if this energy path linked with anything else? It did – a third and final power centre. So, M had three power centres all linked in a triangular formation on top of the barrow. As a strange coincidence my power centre was in the middle of her triangle of power centres. Mmmm…something to be investigated at some further time.

Tears From Heaven

Then a really strange thing happened. One of those moments where you don’t really believe it’s happening.

We had both been standing in our respective power centres until we felt ready to enter the barrow. We stood in the countyard or parch area as I took some photographs, as I usually do. At that moment M exclaimed surprise and I turned around to see what she was shouting about. She held her hand towards me and said, “There is water running down the side of my nose!”. I went to stand next to her and see if this was true. Her hand was wet and there was a streak of water that ran from her forehead down the side of her nose. While I was looking at her the flow of water continued to drip from her nose, and she looked like she needed a tissue to wipe her nose, but it was definitely water.

M finds water trickling down her face

We both looked up to check if there was a cloud above us. No – clear skies and the occasional white and grey cloud high up, but passing quickly. She looked really shocked and puzzled.

This continued for another thirty seconds of so and then stopped. All the time I was next to her and could see that her hair was dry, blowing in the strong wind, and that there weren’t any rain clouds near by. Yes, there were some clouds with dark patches in them scudding by in the general vicinity, but if they were dropping water on her for half a minute then they would have had to stand still in the sky for that time, and why didn’t I get splattered too, when I was stood right next to her? She didn’t get any drops of water anywhere else on her – her coat was dry. But these “tears” just ran down her nose as though from her eyes, but actually from her forehead. It was very very odd to witness it. You wouldn’t have believed this if you hadn’t been there!

I reckon it was the tears of the site guardian. Perhaps there was some message in this act, but it has yet to be realised, and now seems like the association would be too stretched if we attached it to any event. It therefore remains one of those mysterious signs to which we cannot ascribe any meaning, but which we will tell as a strange tale of an unusual happening at a sacred site.

Gwas.

It was a bright and lovely Spring day that I found myself able to return from a training course via one of my favourite areas – the Vale of Pewsey, or the land of the White Chalk Horse. This is a wide valley (or vale) in Wiltshire that is renowned for having horse figures craved into its chalk hillsides, and is also the home to many of the most famous megalithic sites in England.

On this day I had dowsed for which of these wonderful sites I should visit – Avebury? West Kennet Long Barrow? Silbury Hill? None of these! In fact, the site that the dowsing rods said I should visit was East Kennet – a long barrow that I had tried to find twice previously, and now I was being asked to risk a glorious day on trying to find it again. I was wary, but if the rods said I could find it then I would try.

I parked next to the church in East Kennet village and then found the path leading through the farm and stables signposted for the White Horse Trail. I followed the bridleway up the hill and then walked along the adjoining fields, always making sure to keep to the unploughed or un-planted sides of the fields. This time, unlike previous efforts, I had a print-out of an OS map to guide me. I could see from the firm soil that many others had done the same over the years. Thankfully the barrow is still possible to recognise by its huge size. I guess that the clump of woods on the side of the roundest hill was a likely candidate for the barrow’s location. It had been especially helpful that I had seen the photographs of it in Peter Knight’s book about the nearby cousin site of West Kennet Long Barrow. This was my third attempts t spot it and this time I had a more keen sense of where it should be in the landscape, and I was more in tune the rods, which could act as quick guides.

As I paced along the field boundaries I positioned the rods in front of me – “Please point to the barrow known now as East Kennet Long Barrow!” and soon the two rods were pointing in the same direction – up the hill and to the left of the next. After using the rods I put them away. Now I asked Nature herself if she would confirm the position of the barrow for me. A few seconds silence was pierced by a ptarmigan twenty feet to my right jumping into the air next to me and climbing low and slow over my head towards the clump of trees in the middle distance. I had my confirmation – the bird’s flight had confirmed what the rods said.

A startled Partidge

Now, as the clump of light green tree dominated by view ahead I could begin to establish the size of the mound – some 105m (348ft) long and 6m (19ft) high approximately. As it hove in to fill my view I began to feel for the path that I should take to approach the site. I felt that I needed to walk round to the “front”, which for some reason I felt was at the end that I hadn’t got to yet, so I walked slowly and reverently round to the front. As I neared the end of the copse of trees something reddish brown and larger than I expected was emerging and fleeing from the long grasses ahead and hopping and hiding in the cornfield next to me. I, and the rest of the animals in the vicinity, momentarily held our breath then exclaimed our surprise at the sudden movement that was rippling the air around us in a sonic boom of movement. Crows squawked, smaller birds jabbered, bunnies fled, and I said “Oh!”, or some words which intended to give a surprised sound. That was less reverential. More ‘residential’, language from the housing estates.

Read the rest of this entry »

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

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

SITES ORIGINALLY ALIGNED with the three fertility stars

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

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

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

Associated with the site “Trethevy Quoit” in Cornwall.

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

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

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

SITES CURRENTLY ALIGNED with the three fertility stars

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

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

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

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

Gwas.

I was at the Mysterious Earth Conference this year. The conference was held at the Village Hall in the village of Grimsargh near Preston in Lancashire, England. Kal had come up so that we could go to this event together, which was very nice of him to make the effort. There were four speakers lined up, but we only found three of them to be relevant to our studies and research, so I will concentrate on the positives and tell you about these three.

This year's Mysterious Earth lectures

The three speakers of interest to me were:-

• Kevin Rowan-Drewitt – Neolithic Observatories
• Pete Knight – West Kennet Long Barrow: Ancestors, Landscape and the Cosmos
• Gary Biltcliffe – The Belinus Line & The Spine of Albion

Here is a run-down of their primary themes and some notes that I took about each of their lectures.

Neolithic observatories by Kevin Rowan-Drewitt

Kevin Rowan-Drewitt

Kevin’s talk was informative and a feast of facts. Having read many books on the subject of Alexander Thom, his Megalithic Yard, and of his convincing argument that most if not all stone circles are designed as neolithic calendars to track the movements of the sun and moon, I didn’t find too many points that were new to me. However, Kevin’s lecture was clearly delivered, well structured and well-argued, even if he was simply relating other people’s theories. For those who may have been new to the concept of neolithic astrological observatories it would have been truly enlightening.

Some notes that I made that were particularly significant for me were:-

• Bryn Celli Ddu on Anglesey has in-built alignments for tracking Venus and the Summer Solstice. You may remember that I was called there in 2009 to observe Venus, even though at the time I had no idea what I was seeing.
• Mayburgh Henge in Cumbria is aligned to the eastern sunrise
• The book ‘Uriel’s Machine‘ by Christopher Knight & Robert Lomas contains the practical workings out of the theories of ancient astrological circle structure, and they based much of their work on the ‘Book Of Enoch‘, particularly the section ‘The Book of Courses of the Heavenly Luminaries’
• In the Book of Enoch the circle-makers are mentioned as The Watchers. Rowan-Dewitt interprets this as being the Beaker People.

Personally, I feel this Bronze Age Beaker culture only created some of the last generation of megalithic structures, not the first ones, even if their structures were the most sophisticated, impressive and enduring. The astrological know-how was already in existence and evidenced by timber and rudimentary stone circles before the arrival of the so-called Beaker culture, so this doesn’t hang together for me.

• Also in that ancient text, The Nephilim are mentioned as being from the Orion Constellation.
• Newgrange, in the Boyne Valley in Ireland is aligned with the Winter Solstice sunrise but also with Venus too, on an eight-year cycle.
• The line of ‘lozenge’ shapes or crosses on the lintel at Newgrange may denote the Venus cycle, as there are eight such symbols in a row.
• Thornborough Henge in Yorkshire is aligned to Orion.
• The Sun has a 32-year cycle until it rises at exactly the same spot on the horizon. This fact is used by Rowan-Dewitt to support the idea that astrological observances and star lore must have been passed down through the generations or preserved in some fashion because neolithic people had a relatively short life span.
• Most measurements of megalithic structures are in 0.5 Megalithic Yards, or 16.32 inches. The Megalithic Yard of 2.72 feet was used for convenience by Alexander Thom.

West Kennet Long Barrow by Peter Knight

Peter Knight

Peter Knight is a well-practised and engaging speaker. His presentation was slick, precise and moved you from one concept to another easily and with a sense of passion. I am a fan of the West Kennet Long Barrow myself and have had many visits to the site mostly unaccompanied and without anyone else around, so I have been able to practise many of the things that Peter talked about in the shamanic parts of his talk. However, in the first part he went through the various alignments with the surrounding megalithic sites such as Avebury, Silbury Hill, East Kennet, and many of the lesser-known circles, tumuli and hills that form the rich Wiltshire megalithic landscape.

Some notes that I made on this talk were:-

• There are sun and moon rising or setting sight alignments from West Kennet to many of the surrounding features.
• Some of the lesser-known sites include Belas Knap chamber, Silbaby (or Woden Mound), Morgan’s Hill and Harestone stone circle.
• The long barrow itself is constructed with layers of large rubble, then fine rubble, turf, then a sarsen stone core. The layering is reminiscent of Wilhelm Reich’s Orgone Accumulator principle.
• There is an acoustic “hot spot” close to the stone called “The Skull Stone” which is considered to be a portal to the Underworld.
• Long barrows and chambers in the area are mainly aligned to the South-East (the Midwinter Solstice).
• East Kennet is aligned to the Orion constellation, West Kennet to the Gemini constellation.
• A cave was usually associated with a process of initiation or transformation.

PETER’S WEB SITE: Stoneseeker

The Spine of Albion by Gary Biltcliffe

I have been eagerly awaiting Gary’s book about this subject for over a year now. Hopefully it is due to be published soon. Gary has spent a lot of time, effort and money on travelling up and down the country in pursuit of a ley line that he is calling the Belinus Line, after the ancient Celtic god Baal or Bel. The name thereafter got associated with a king of England called King Belinus, who was supposedly one of the great road-building kings, although many believe that the lack of historical evidence suggests he may be a mythical figure rather than an actual king. Certainly, it is not uncommon for people in power to associate themselves with great engineering from lost generations, for example the Romans simply paved many of the existing spirit roads that were created as embankments by the druid culture and those before them too. We all now know these roads as ‘Roman Roads’ which is testament to the power of a written historical record, rather than to the feats of engineering.

For the talk in Preston Gary concentrated on those sites which were more local to us, rather than describe all the sites along the line. Given that it had taken him 20 years to follow them, he was unlikely to get through them all in an hour!

• Seven Barrows Down is the crossing point for the Belinus Line with the Michael/Mary Line.
• The village of Dunsop Bridge is the geographical centre of the Belinus Line
• North/South ley lines are associated with physical and East/West lines with the spiritual, thus the Belinus Line is mainly a physical line with very few spiritual centres on it.
• The line goes through various centres including Lichfield, Birmingham, Manchester and Carlisle.
• Dragon stories hint at the location of sacred sites such as caves, wells and mounds.
• The Belinus Line has twelve bands of energy – balanced with 6 male and 6 female.
• Guy Raglan Philips was the first to identify the line.
• The female lines are violet in colour and the male lines are gold/yellow
• The line goes through The Bridestones – formerly one of England’s largest long barrows.
• Marton church gives a unique view of the sunrise over The Cloud in Cheshire
• Shap has an avenue of stones similar to Avebury
• The Kemp Howe stone circle is on the line
• Other sites on the line are Merlindale, Knowlmere, Alderley Edge, Caverswall, The Rollright Stones, and Uffington Dragon Hill and White Horse
• In Carlisle Catherdral is a stone carving of kissing dragons
• Arthuret Church in Cumbria holds a familiar title of King Arthur’s burial place, and has a well called St.Michael’s running through it.

GARY’S WEB SITE: The Belinus Line

I hope those comments make some sense to you! They are slightly out of context, but they may be more relevant if you get to see them speak for yourselves.

Gwas.

Silbury Hill

I had just spent a fruitful sunny afternoon at Avebury and was ready to head back to my rooms in Devon. As I pulled out of the car park I noted that my sat nav had gone a bit awry. That not withstanding I set off down the road I had arrived on and immediately hit traffic. At the first available round-about I flipped around and headed back, looking for a less congested route.

By this time my sat nav had kicked in and was telling me to join the traffic again so I ignored it. As I drove off I thought that I would take a route that would have me passing Woodhenge and Stonehenge. Fabulous!

However, as I came onto a roundabout that would have me on the road towards that direction a ‘mad’ driver nearly ran me off the road and I was forced onto a side road. As I looked for a place to turn around I spotted Silbury Hill in the distance. Although I was in a hurry to get home I had to stop off and admire the highest man-made mound in the country and of course a powerful energy site to boot!

I have been to Silbury hill a couple of times in the past, but only in passing. It seems that this was going to be a similar occasion. I parked up in the car park right next to the site and walked up the little path that led to a notice board proclaiming the ‘official’ history of the site. There was a note saying that the site was closed off to stop erosion. Which surprised me because it is a monument that is thousands of years old and presumably survived all that time.

- It is a topic that often surprises me. Erosion and loss of site Vs Non use of site. Which option would you opt for?

I clambered through the bared wire fence (not the one around the site) and made my way towards the site. I  wasn’t intending to Guerilla Dowse it today. I just wanted to get close enough to get a ‘feel’ for the place. To touch the Genius Loci.

I dowsed my way up to the hill, asking for a place suitable for a quick meditation. I ended up at the side facing the sun (no surprise) and a few feet away from the fence.

As I sat down and got comfortable, I jumped right up. Something wasn’t right. A quick dowse comfirmed that today wasn’t a good time for me to be here. O, was there any other time I should be here? Yes.

Rather disappointed I walked back towards the barbed fence and my car. I stopped to look back wistfully at the hill.

It was then that I saw something fluttering at the top of the hill. I peered up at it for several moments. Then I realised that it was a shopping bag that had tagged on something and was fluttering in a light breeze.

I turned back to clamber through the fence and stopped again and looked back. What the fluttering bag had reminded me of was a flag and I had just recalled that my Knights Quest had me looking out for a ‘castle’ to fly my penant from. Was this an indicator of such? A quick and indecetly fast flick of the rods told me, YES!

Fabulous, once again by ‘chance’ it seems I had come across a result.

Kal Malik continuing his quest for knighthood

The time of year has come around again when the seasons are changing from Summer to Autumn. I have to admit, like a father with his children I try not to have favourites when it comes to the times of the year because I strive for a balanced approach, but I do like the winds, the colours, the power and the beauty of the Autumn season. I think I have had some of my most profound experiences and fondest memories in the Autumn months.

In this post I want to report some of the ways in which other druids mark this time of the year, the associations they make, the rituals they do, but most importantly I want to report on how I have found that I can mark this passing from one season to the next. It was something that I learned very recently, the smallest merest thing, but it was so profound that I think it will probably become my way of noting this change every year from now on. Before I come to that, though, here are some ideas on what Autumn Equinox means.

Autumn in Cheshire

What is Autumn Equinox?

These lovely people from all sorts of different areas of the druid craft have got their own ideas about what makes Autumn special. Here are some of the ideas I collected from a quick search on the subject:

“The turning point in this Lughnasadh season of the harvest, the autumn equinox is again a time when the day and night are of equal length. Occurring at some point between 20 – 23 September, it is known commonly by the Welsh/Brythonic Alban Elfed, pronounced elved, meaning ‘light of autumn’. Celebrating the end of the grain harvest, it is the festival of Harvest Home.” (Excerpt from Ritual by Emma Restall Orr)

“There is a distinct relationship between the Autumn Equinox and Michaelmas, the feast of the Archangel Michael. This Archangel is the sword or spear wielding dragon slayer and his day is held on the 29th of September each year, this is one week after the Sidereal Equinox actually occurs. The new religion of the Catholic Church absorbed the existing traditions and their symbols. Archangel Michael replaced the Pagan God of Wotan in upper Europe, the temples of Wotan were on hilltops and there are churches on many of these hilltops today. There is a major earth energy line across northern France, southern England and the southwest of Ireland that is known today as the Michael and Mary Line and in Ireland off the coast of Kerry is the island hilltop temple called Skellig Michael or the Rock of Michael. The dragon being pinned by the spear / sword is the Earth Energy currents. “ (source: Celtic Druid’s School)

“To honour the dead, it was also traditional at Mabon to place apples on burial cairns, as symbolism of rebirth and thanks. This also symbolizes the wish for the living to one day be reunited with their loved ones. Mabon is also known as the Feast of Avalon, deriving from the meaning of Avalon being, ‘the land of the apples’. (source: New Age)

(all my epmhasis)

Welcome in the Autumn

A single brown oak leaf

I have some suggestions as to what hedge druids might do in relation to the Autumn Equinox. The idea was given to me, quite literally dropped in my lap, so to speak, when I was meditating in Alderley Edge forest recently. I had in mind the question about what I should do to mark the changeover of seasons at Autumn. As I sat there a brown oak leaf fell onto the back of my hand and balanced there. No other leaf fell during the whole of my visit, but this one did. It was a sign. I interpreted the sign like this: to celebrate autumn, enact autumnal processes. I took the leaf with me and later stood on a cliff and dropped the leaf off it, expecting it to float serenely down to the floor. Actually, it floated some ten feet or more then landed on another oak leaf, just as it had done on my own hand an hour earlier. Again, I felt this was significant.

So, you want to celebrate autumn? Do something autumnal- drop leaves like a tree would, make cider from fallen apples, pick brambles and other fruits that only come to fruition at this time of year – I’m sure there are many things in your area that can only be done at this time of year. Find one. Do something with it in the name of welcoming in the new season. From my example you can see how simple that can be – I dropped a leaf. That’s it! Whilst doing it, though, I welcomed in the new season.

Looking back in anger

I am certainly better prepared for Autumn Equinox this year than I was last year. Last year I was angry to have been called away by work to have to be away from home and down in the south of England. However, it turned out alright. I drove for a couple of hours to reach Silbury Hill and, again angry at having to sneak around the hill because it is officially sealed off from the public, I did a little meditation on the top and was blown away by its powerful effects. No wonder it’s sealed off! Looking back at my summary of the year on the blog I noticed that I had reported being at Uffington for the 19th/20th August. True, but clearly that wasn’t the Autumn Equinox! How odd. Little mistakes. I do aim to rectify anything I find that’s reported incorrectly, and it’s why I like to write things up as quickly as possible to avoid such problems.

The lovely mix of brown and green shades relfect on water

Looking forward in hope

For me, this year, the Autumn Equinox also means a change of “task”. You may remember that every eighth part of the year so far I have been assigned some directive or tasks to perform which will guide me further along my spiritual path. Some have been onerous, some physically challenging, some embarrassing, some were things I never anticipated ever doing. All have been hugely beneficial to me, and I thank whoever is directing this course of study, because I have come on faster this year than all previous years combined having this structure to work within.

In the next few weeks I will be able to reveal my next task or direction, and I am looking forward to that. Bring on the Autumn!

Gwas.