The Hedge Druid

Posts Tagged ‘soul’

Does a car have a soul? How can a piece of metal and plastic have anything as ephemeral and mystical as a ‘soul’? What do I mean by this? Let me address some of these definitions before I start my story.

What I am talking about here is the thought-form that is created by a human when they have spent time with an object. The thoughts, the fears, the highs and the lows – the emotional content and its resultant energy – can become imbued into an object, I believe. I believe we leave energetic traces of ourselves all over the place. We leave energy in the objects we interact with (through touch or through proximity or even through applying our attention to something). This energy imprint is renewed and re-energised every time we release emotion inside the car. In this way we build an energetic imprint.

If we choose to give that energetic imprint “form”, say for example by giving the car a name, or even just by considering that the car has a “soul” then we often talk about a car’s “personality”. This is what I am talking about when I mention a car’s soul – its collection of residual human energy frequencies, and these frequencies can coalesced into a single subtle energy form through an act of will.

Right, so now you know what I am talking about hopefully when I tell you the tale of how my old car said goodbye to me recently. Here’s the story.

Full Spiral With A Car

I have been from one end of the country to the other with my last car. It was a Subaru Legacy estate which was great for all the off-road driving that I did down bumpy dirt tracks in all weathers. When the car began to politely inform me that it was approaching the end of its useful life and wanted to be retired from such arduous work (via warning lights on the dashboard, not by any psychic means) then I knew it was time for us to part.

Subaru Legacy – a reliable 4-wheel drive car

As I drove out to Sherwood Forest the GPS took me down the roads through Buxton and Chesterfield to get to the destination. It seemed the most direct route, and in terms of time it was estimated at 1h 40 from my starting point. On the way back from the forest I again set the SatNav to take me home, as I have only been to this area once before and wasn’t convinced I would be able to navigate my way out. Straight away I noticed that the directions were not the reverse of the way I had come in. The route was different, but still timed at 1h 40 so I assumed it would be the same route back, but perhaps via a slightly different road initially.

As we got further into the journey I realised we were going a totally different way. I was being taken back via Sheffield and down the Snake Pass past Ladybower Reservoir. As we made our winding way down the pass I noticed a solitary white sign on a post pointing up to the hills - “Holmfirth“. My mind jolted. Where did I know that town name from? Then it struck me – that was a town close to the dealership in Honley where I had bought the car, and I had driven through Holmfirth when I first took the car home. This very road was the route I had taken to drive it back! What an amazing coincidence!

I mentioned the coincidence to Kal, and he said, “It’s the car saying goodbye.” M said the same thing later when I relayed the tale. This made me sit and think about the car. Had something at a subliminal level or via some other means brought me back to the starting point with this car? After all – there are only two times that I have driven that route in this car – once when I picked it up, and this last outing to a sacred site in it. Literally the next day I was due to drive the car down to the dealership where I would trade it in for a newer one.

I needed to find out more about this, so I began to think about what the incident might be telling me about energy and ‘inanimate’ materials.

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In some cultures, particularly those classified by ethnographers as being “primitive”, there is a wide-ranging and long-lasting reported idea (often interpreted as being a belief) that a photograph captures the soul of a person (related article). I do not believe that this is an accurate reflection (pardon the pun) of the situation regarding human energy fields and photographs. I think it has been mis-interpreted or changed through the ages in popular mythology.

In my investigations into the concept of energy being in any way related to photographs I have come to the following conclusions:-

• No part of the soul is removed with the taking of a photograph?
• Any realistic depiction can be used to direct energy towards
• Unless the recipient has taken precautions then the energy will find its target, and the intention of the energy will be unleashed.

Suddenly this makes the reluctance to be photographed seem a little less “primitive” and a lot more sensible. In the wrong hands you just don’t know what intentions are going to be directed toward you and from whom!

How photographs act as connection points

Photographs can only act as a focus for intent for directing the psychic energy of living humans. In other words, no ghost, spirit, deceased human, or any other form of intelligent entity can use a photograph for the direction of intent. People, living people, can use photographs to act as the destination for their intended energy. The result of this is that this visualisation creates a psychic bridge – a sort of tunnel – through which the projector can transfer energy to the intended recipient who is depicted in the picture.

We can see how this works by choosing a picture that contains several people. The intended energy will only be received by the people to whom the energy has been directed. Within any group the whole or any single member may be selected and the result will be that the recipient of the intended energy was the target selected by the sender when the photograph was used. Thus, we should perhaps think more carefully when we allow photographs of ourselves to circulate. Amongst friends this is good, but amongst the wider community this may invite unwanted attention.

The degree to which the energy sent will affect the target depends on the status of the energy field of the targeted person. Someone with a strong energy field or who is protected by forces that connect to their field may be completely unaffected by any attempt to connect to them. Other people’s energy fields may actually attract this type of connection whether intentionally or otherwise. Some people’s energy field is so weak that attachments of all sorts can occur quite readily. I recommend Sue Allen’s book “Spirit Rescue” which discusses these forms of attachment and how to prepare and repair your energy field.

I have found that it is only possible to direct energy to your your target in its current state. In other words, it is not possible to attempt to heal a past trauma by directing healing energy to a photograph of someone when they were younger (in the past). Only the present can be used as a focal point for this kind of energy work. This technique has no value for trying to do things like soul retrieval, or anything like that. It is very much a technique of the moment, even if it makes distance no object.

I’m sure you can think of some ways in which this is a positive thing, and others in which this quality of photographs could be used negatively. As with any knowledge, it is the intent and activity surrounding the knowledge that determines its value. It is possible to use a photograph of yourself to direct positive intentions and healing that will reflect back on yourself! Here is one other suggestion for making a positive use of photographs to direct energy.

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Since I learned that my task for this part of the year would be to “free spirits” I have been trying to absorb as much information as possible about this subject. I have been listening to related podcasts from the British Society of Dowsers, from books on the subject of spirit rescue, and from discussions with friends who have experience of these subjects from a lifetime spent studying the paranormal. At this point I feel confident about providing some background theory that will make the remaining posts of the year make much more sense!

Let me start by elucidating a paradigm that might help to frame the definitions that I will provide below. If we consider that in this earthly plane of existence a person is composed of three elements:

• physical body,
• energy body (aura)
• animating force (animus)

I believe that in the next level of existence, when the body dies, what remains are the animating force and its energy body together. There is then a further disintegration of the energy body, leaving the animating force to move freely, unconstrained, and with its original animating energy only remaining.

I must point out that I am not using the Jungian context for the word ‘animus’. In that context the animating force is split into two forms – anima and animus. Anima is the female force within the male, and animus is the male force within the female. I am using the term in a gender-neutral context, and when I say ‘animus’ I am referring to its more original meaning of being an animating force.

Each of these forms – body, aura and animus – will now be explained more fully.

THE BODY

The body is the strongest of the forms – integrated to such an extent that it is present, physical, and perceivable by other humans.

Example of proprioception

Far from simply being a wrapper to consciousness, the body has an intelligence of its own which is an automatic form of intelligence. When our body works without conscious direction it is employing this bodily sentience. Psychologists attribute this to the ‘subsoncscious’ which they believe to be an aspect of mind that is hidden from our waking consciousness, however they have not demonstrated yet how this intelligence works, or how it can be contacted.

One form of body intelligence is “proprioception” – your sense of where your body is. Here’s a link to an article explaining its importance in the world of dance. Body intelligence, awareness and memory may be linked to the phenomenon of “phantom limb” cases, where limbs that have been removed may still trigger psychological responses in the brain, and may also record spacial placement despite having nothing physical to sense with.

THE AURA

The aura is less integral than the body – it must be, because if it were more coherent then it would be integral to the body and would die with it. This is not what happens, as reported by a great many mystics, seers, yogis, mediums, clairvoyants and people who have had near-death experiences. Such a weight of evidence demands a better concept to validate such experiences.

How the aura can appear

Let’s consider that the aura is a diffused subtle energy form that is invisible to normal perception, although visible to some as a coloured form extending beyond the confines of the body. I have been trying to see this for several weeks and have recently done so – with practise this mysterious force can be seen in the peripheral vision. The aura can be detected by most people at a subtle level, and we all react to it daily when interacting with other humans when we recognise someone’s “personal space”, which is a measurement of the edge of someone’s aura and its strength. If someone is generating a lot of energy their aura becomes more easily detected by those whom it touches or encompasses. Some say that it can be photographed using the Kirlian Photography method.

The intelligence and memory of the energy body is held within the human aura, perhaps in a holographic format. This is the space within which we store memories and in which we form our intelligence, out sentience, our perceptions. We create this store of knowledge, wisdom and attention via our bodily sensory organs. When those organs no longer exist, we are still able to see – such as when we perceive during our dreams. The sensory perception available in the dream state is not as acute as in our waking state because we are perceiving without the extra input of the physical sense organs, which add to the ability of our innate senses, clarifying, dividing, specialising, and extending their capabilities.

The energy body seems to have some degree of synaesthesia in that some perceptions are muddled, and sense perceptions are apt to moving between the normal senses. In some ways this allows a better perception, but when our mind attempts to understand the perception then the sense that is requested to report the effect may report ‘muddled’ or incomplete information. Thus, our dream body appears not to be able to distinguish things clearly in dreams, and sometimes we feel things rather than see, hear, smell or taste them.

Some say that the aura also reflects the health conditions of the host, and previous traumas (not necessarily from this current existence) can be perceived in this aura. Certainly it is possible for someone conscious of their subtle energy field to be able to manipulate their aura to extend or contract it, or to express a state of mind (in the form of colour) within the aura.

THE ANIMUS

Finally there is the animus intelligence – the creative force and its “soul memory”, which is the memory of its former incarnations. The animus is impossible to perceive using human senses. Some psychics and mediums can make contact with an animus, but only if the animus is making an effort to be detected, otherwise the force is too diffuse to be recognised as an integral or independent entity.

The animus is a similar concept to that employed by the Spiritist and Spiritualist organisations in their description of Spirit. Here’s a definition from Allan Kardec’s book “The Spirits’ Book”:

Spirit – In the restricted sense of Spiritism, “spirits are intelligent beings of creation, populating the Universe outside the material world and constituing the invisible world“. They do not belong to a special creation, but they are the souls of those who lived on Earth or in other planets (spheres) and who leave their material envelope. (source: Spiritist Vocabulary)

In some cultures the animus is synonymous with the concept of the soul. That term has been so widely used and abused that I prefer to re-term the concept as Animus, because that establishes the idea that the thing that is being discussed is the animating force, the life essence that gives motivation, creativity and purpose to the being whose body it inhabits.

Properties of the Animus

Lifting off from ground zero

Some of the properties associated with the Animus are the ability to travel outside of the body linked by a silver cord. There is also the ability to move, as though in a dream, beyond the normal boundaries of the earth-bound body’s perceptions of space and time. This is akin to the tribal shaman’s ability to travel in the spirit body, to step out into another world in order to save souls, retrieve knowledge and heal psychic wounds.

When I travel out of my body (the classic OOBE) I feel the contact with my physical body. It feels like bi-location – being in two places at the same time. I have a faint awareness of my physical self (much as one is aware of one’s own heartbeat) yet my awareness, my thinking self is elsewhere, travelling through impossible space and time contortions, being wherever and whenever I imagine that I could be. Here’s a link about how to make this happen for yourself.

In both astral travel and lucid dreaming there is an auric body with the Animus present. The physical body is left behind (or usually below) whilst an energy body goes ‘beyond ‘, empowered by the Animus. The link between the two world is maintained by the silver cord that links between planes of existence (I wonder if this is similar to the Near Death Experience “tunnel of light” if you are travelling inside the cord, rather than outside of it?)

The Animus is the sentience within all these forms – physical body, energy body and spirit. It is therefore the continuing force, the link between worlds, between existences too, some say. Despite its continuity it is highly flexible under the right conditions – able to move between forms with sufficient energetic will to make the shift. People have literally willed themselves to remain living, or to die – to make the switch between physical and energetic forms. It is the shaman, the druid, the magician who seeks to make this shift when required, rather than when circumstances insist upon it.

Let’s see now how these terms bring us neatly to a definition of the different forms of being that inhabit this world and the human Underworld. In my next post on this subject I will be explaining my understanding of human ghosts, shades and spirits.

Gwas

You may have noticed, if you’ve been following such posts, that I have changed the title of this series to remove “seven” and replace it with “six”. By the end of the post I hope this makes complete sense. However, I had collected some information about the number seven and so I will still present it, even though it is now only background information to the eventual explanation of the number six. You will see what I mean as you read on!

The Seven

I have written several times about the seven orders - the septenary – the seven parts of the soul as it is diffracted into our solar-oriented and organised society. Much of this is common knowledge to most students of the esoteric arts and mystery traditions.

The seven we all know and love

For the Solar-aligned cultures we have inherited such recognisable scales as:-

1. The rainbow colours
2. The chakras
3. The planets
4. The days of the week
5. The number of heavens

These systems are a reflection of the seven-fold division of the soul – the rays of the original light diffracted.  By tradition, five of the aspects of the soul are tangible and knowable, whilst two are hidden or esoteric and intangible. They are referred to as the five known and the two hidden, and this is a recurring theme. The upper two chakras are associated with spirituality – the Third Eye and the Crown chakras; in the days of the week two of the days are specially designated for not working.

Of the planets the ancients only wrote about the five major bodies (the ‘classical’ planets – Mars, Mercury, Venus, Saturn and Jupiter), plus the Sun and the Moon. They left out the farther planets, even though some researchers have suggested that ancient people knew of these outer planets in some detail – namely Neptune and Uranus [cf. Sitchin]. Although such knowledge is mainly based upon interpretation of ancient pictures, our dowsing in stone circles shows that some circles have quite deliberate alignments and influences from those two planets – in fact, they feature quite regularly.

In terms of the senses it was considered that there were five senses, but two additional ones that were hidden: our awareness of ourselves in space (vestibular), and our inner awareness (proprioceptive). Five known, two hidden, making a system of seven.

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Caitlin Matthews has the kind of voice that imparts a majestic aura. Her lecture on the ways of druidic learning and wisdom that appears on the latest OBOD (Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids) Druidcast MP3 (Number 24) is a clear and carefully researched lecture.

We have a link to it in the right-hand links panel, and I can highly recommend it for those who wish to obtain a ‘sound’ background in the concepts of the use of sonics and linguistics as methods of passing oral traditions down the ages. Also, Caitlin delivers and interprets some catechistic poetry – question and answer done as only the old bards could do. The rap music of its day!

Check out the sneeze at 23:23! Ha ha. I’m sure I heard a zippo lighter too.

Gwas

Following delightful diction.

I realise that I have used the term ‘nemeton’ without giving it much of a definition. For me the nemeton of something is the energy that it projects. I have found that projection can take many shapes: a complete sphere is common, but also with trails of energy bursting out of that sphere, or perhaps it’s an ellipse shape, or some other organically smooth and bulbous shape.

It is more than shape though. It is an energetic field, a boundary of force or subtle energy that can be tuned into by adjusting and un-focusing the mind, like twisting the eye’s kaleidoscope. In this state of mind the energy can be felt, sensed, or for some, seen in the mind’s eye – that evanescent show-reel that projects misty-lensed images in your own private theatre. When overlaid on normal sight this can appear like a waking daydream, but carries an immense sense of being real.

I first encountered the word in one of Emma Restall-Orr’s books. She described it like this:-

“…it is often possible to sense the edge with fingertips or hands, feeling a slight pressure, a change in temperature or light in the air. Simply by using our mind, pure intention and openness, a blend of imagination and sensitive vision we can trace the edge, not forgetting the area to either side and behind us.” (‘Living Druidry‘, Emma Restall-Orr, Piatkus, 2004)

Emma goes on to reveal more qualities of this field’s edge, and makes it sound like the classic description I used to read as a curious boy about people’s auras. They have colour, display weaknesses, and can be interacted with opening an emotional connection, or sympathetic vibration.

I now use this term to describe these fields as I have found them around trees, and standing stones. They have different extents depending upon their purpose. Trees seem to develop a nemeton roughly spherical and in line with their size and shape, perhaps only extending a few feet beyond that. Larger trees have nemetons that can be sensed some fifty feet or more away. This is the majestic feeling we have when we walk down a long avenue of large trees – we feel their nemetons if we adopt an appreciative air. It is uplifting, certainly. Rejuvenating to our flagging soul.

Standing stones and stone circles have such a field too. Stone circles are again spherical and usually tied in size to the size of the circle of stones. Standing stones have nemetons that are usually proportionate to the power of the energies at the site, and to the size of the stones. The Bryn Gwyn stones of Anglesey, for example, emit a strong and easily detected nemeton from each of the huge stones. The edges of these elliptical nemetons can be felt without using dowsing rods. You can feel their character just by standing near to the stone for a minute in silence.

When you stop feeling the object’s presence, or attraction, then that’s the edge of it’s nemeton. Emma R-O asks that we treat this edge with respect, as we are invading something’s ‘space’, and we know how upset we get when someone comes too close, and ‘invades our space’! I guess she’s right, but often we can’t help being in something’s space – that’s the way parks and roads are made! It becomes especially important to adopt a good attitude, however, when we switch to attempting to interact with these energetic fields. Then I feel it is right to ask permission to do so.

Recent dowsing has shown me that the nemeton of a stone circle is composed of three concentric circles, and that those circles flow in two directions: the male energy flows anti-clockwise and the female flows clockwise. When the male energies are in the ascendancy (e.g. the sun is shining) then the nemeton flows anti-clockwise, but if the moon’s influence is stronger (the sun has gone down, the moon is full or close) then the flow will go clockwise.

Whichever way it is flowing in a stone circle the energy always enters the circle to spiral around inside into a single point, which is usually what we term a “power centre”, but which mainstream dowsing likes to call a “blind spring” – a point where two underground streams of water cross.

The Nemeton vs. The Aura

There is a lot of cross-over between the concepts of the nemeton and the aura of a living thing, not least that they literally overlay each other. Recently we spent some time dowsing these two fields and determined that they were categorically distinct energy fields. They may have many points in common – for example, they occupy most of the same space, and they can both be controlled in terms of their extent and their properties, yet they have differences too, some of which we are only just understanding.

One of the major differences is in the nature of the energy. In the nemeton field the energy dowsed as a different frequency to that of the aura. The aura is composed of rainbow colours that map onto the human chakra points, but the nemeton is not split into bands of different frequencies, but is instead a whole field of a single energy type.

The purpose of the nemeton is something we are only beginning to get to grips with. What we have found so far is that it seems to be related to inter-connectedness. It seems to be the field that defines the region or sphere of influence that a living entity generates. This field of inter-connectedness can be opened or closed (softened or firmed up) to permit or block a connection with other nemeton fields (of which there are many inter-lacing fields from all living entities). When a connection is made then emotion, meaning and intent can be shared between co-operative entities, such as between a human and a tree. The overlapping of the respective nemeton fields provides the connection between the two, and permits the transport of “vibes”, intuitive thought patterns and imagery.

So, I hope that’s piqued your interest in the idea of a nemeton. I am learning that becoming sensitive to these fields is immensely rewarding and fulfilling, and I hope to learn more so that I can work with them more efficiently. I would dearly like it to become second nature! Oh dear, “pun hell”!

Gwas

Find your nemeton