The Hedge Druid

Posts Tagged ‘spiral’

Friday 28th May - Knowth, Country Meath, Ireland.

The series of large megalithic structures concentrated in the Boyne Valley was the target of our first full day in Ireland. We were stationed nearby at Duleek, so getting to the Newgrange complex was a breeze, and we were properly fuelled by a hearty breakfast including locally-reared produce and home-made soda bread and jams.

We followed signs for Newgrange, knowing that this was the popular site and that it probably would lead us to the rest too. Sure enough as we aprked in the jazzy new car park at the Visitor Centre and walked down to the main door, we knew we were in for the full tourist treatment. Even knowing that didn’t prepare us for the officialdom that was to follow:-

• visitors are directed to state which combination of the sites they want to visit: Newgrange only, Knowth only, or both. Clearly, most went for both or just Newgrange
• a sticker was placed upon you in a visible location indicating your bus time, and then you were directed to the cash point to pay 5 Euros per site (actually, 6 for Knowth becuase it’s a tad further)
• you paid and then were informed about how to reach your first bus, which was a 200 yard walk through the centre, out the doors, across the Boyne, along a winding path, and then up to the circular bus pick-up point.

To say these guys had this regulated was an understatement! Although initially appalled by this we were actually quite grateful that this system, which only permitted a group of around thirty people at a time in a site, actually allowed everyone to enjoy the site’s features without bumping into people all the time. It made sense, even if it was far from what we were used to. It reminded us of visiting Stonehenge.

Rock Art as Energy Symbols

One of my objectives for visiting these popular megalithic sites was to get a comparison of the famous rock art shapes with those that we had discovered through our dowsing adventures over the last few years. Did any of them match? Would we be able to make a sensible guess at the forms and shapes, the symbols and swirls that our neolithich ancestors had taken so much time and trouble to inscribe into rock?

As we waited for our bus I took pictures of the rock art displyed in photographs and pictographs in the free exhibition in the Visitor Centre. On arriving at Knowth half an hour later (after listening to a few minutes of the guide’s useful commentary then making our excuses) I went around with my camera taking snapshots of all of the rock art on the base supports of the large mound. I wanted to compare our energy findings with the shapes represented in the stone. Here are some examples of the interesting symbols. In a subsequent post more of these symbols are explained, but for now, here are the ones we could identify immediately:-

Spiral of seven rings between two standing stones acting as portals

If one looks at the image above as a two-dimensional depiction of a three-dimensional energy field then things become a little easier to understand. The spiral is, of course, what we would call a “power centreA place where a person of a particular alignmentAlignment relates to the concept that humans have their own energy fields that are oriented or formed in a specific way such that the person is either suited better to one energy source of another. Some people have their energy fields empowered by the direct subtle energy force of The Sun, whilst others are empowered by the indirect subtle energy of The Moon. Due to the historical associations and symbolisation of The Sun with masculinity and The Moon with femininity we designate these alignments as either being ‘male’ or ‘female’ alignments accordingly. We interchangeable refer to people as being ‘sun-aligned’ or ‘male-aligned’ and similarly with the female alignment. (see ‘Alignment’) feels particularly comfortable and empowered. The place is an energetic centre where a particularly beneficial combination and formation of energies is formed into a pattern that is harmonic with the person for whom it can be called a power centre.” – a point on the earth where the energies of the earth emerge and merge with the radiant solar and lunar energies. The most ‘sacred’ of these types is the power centre that merges the three ‘alignments’ or types of energy – male, female and neutral.

The two arcs on either side of the spiral are the neutral entrance and exit arcs that we have begun to discover at numerous sacred places, usually stone circles. These arcs form ‘spaces’ in the energy field through which poeple and spirit energies can pass without ‘interfering with’ or being affected by the overall energy field, because to pass through the energy field around a site is to interact with it. These neutral entrances and exits seems to be a bypass to that trip-wire effect, possibly to allow for the ‘safe passage’ of spirit energy through the site, unhindered by the site’s design and potential.

Seven levels of radial energy

It is entirely possible to read too much into the decorative swirls and shapes that adorn the rocks surrounding Knowth’s major mound, and yet one gets the sense that they are not purely decorative. After all – someone has gone to a lot of time and trouble to do this work, and even today we rarely decorate in stone just for the sake of it. Stonework usually has some kind of symbolic significance at least, even if only to express a wider design concept in keeping with our culture. So, it is with some hesitance that I point out the desing of seven concentric circles in the stone above, and mention that this might have a link to the seven chakras. Then, in the stone below, we see five circles. Five pathways for the incoming energies into the human body, according to C.W.Leadbeater in his book “The Chakras”. Again, perhaps the information is for me only to interpret in this way, but 7 and 5 are cropping up again at a site that is associated with human consciousness transformation processes.

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I have had only a passing interest in the La Tene culture, having seen it mentioned infrequently in historical texts related to the druid culture and early Celtic tribes. However, when I did a Google Image search and found some pictures showing the shapes of the La Tene art I was also struck by the similarity. I have no doubt that Celtic and pre-Celtic civilisations had several influences that were more ‘energy-oriented’ than ours:-

1. They probably still had an oral history of the megalithic cultures who built the ancient stone monuments
2. They were closer to the land, the cycles of the seasons and Nature generally and this would have influenced their art, if only in an inspirational sense
3. There was undoubtedly more rock art in existence at the time to copy
4. Shamanic practises were still being used at that time, and so ‘getting in touch’ with Nature and her energies was a more regular practise than it is nowadays. Purely from a psychedelic standpoint this would bring forth such patterns through the visualisation of energy flows. cf. The Gundestrup Cauldron

It is not the spread or influence of the La Tene culture that interests me. As you can see from the diagram below it is considered that the influence of their culture was quite limited. What interests me is that such a culture, a culture with obvious similarities to other tribal cultures that are more native to this soil, was able to create artwork that seems to be based upon geodetic designs. Now, I introduce the term “geodetic” because I have been reading Guy Underwood. What I mean by the term is that the shapes and designs employed by the La Tene crasftsmen and artists mirror the underlying subtle energyA form of energy that has so far eluded scientific definition. It is neither electric, magenetic, nor electro-magnetic, so far as our current technical equipment can measure. It does, however, exhibit many of the characteristics of magnetism and electricity in terms of its effects and properties. It may be a form of either or both of those energies that we have not yet identified. forms that Kal and I have found, as have may others of course, when we have been dowsing around these islands.

In the first set of shapes I see the circle used as a central point, with branches swirling outward from that point. If you look at some of my diagrams from stone circles where I have sketched the shapes that emanate from the stones themselves you will recognise the similarity immediately. Good examples I can think of are Nine Ladies, Moel-Ty-Uchaf or Gors Fawr.

In this second set of diagrams of La Tene art I see another familiar shape – that of the double-headed spiral form that represents the travel of the sun across the sky in a year. This is actually found in subtle energy form as a sigil at several sites that I have dowsed recently, including Dinas Bran near Llangollen and at Birkrigg Moor stone circle in Cumbria. I am sure there are many more. The shape is defined as akin to that of a treble clef symbol, with one end more tightly wound that the other. The tightly wound end runs anti-clockwise and represents the female end (I’m sure there are parallels in life there, with the female being more tightly wound!) and the male end being fewer turns and clockwise.

It appears to me, and to Riverwolf – the kind reader who spotted this connection – that there is some inherent familiarity with these forms that is seeking expression in these symbols and the art that is produced using them. We are fortunate enough to still have them represented in our own time to be able to refer back to them, and to make such a connection. Whether or not that connection makes any difference to us on a practical level is not the significance. The significance comes from the acknowledgement – tacit or otherwise – that previous “tuned in” cultures were closer to the Megalith Builders that we are, and knew Nature’s flows more intimately than we allow ourselves to now. We hope this may soon be knowledge whose practicality is soon re-discovered.

In this sphere of recovering ancient knowledge the recognition of interesting coincidences can often put us back in touch with a clue to that way our ancestors thought, and how they viewed the world. Perhaps this expression of energy forms in art may be one of those clues?

Gwas.

Revolution

A new phase of the spiral began Friday 20th Feb 2009. To be even more accurate, I have been able to pin down the time to 6pm on this particular Friday. Why can I pin it down to this time? Well, it was on this day that I returned home from work and for the first time brought my dowsing rods into my home.

Until this time both Gwas and I had thought to dowse inside our houses but for some reason where reluctant to do so. It was as if some force just flipped our minds in another direction when we thought about doing home dowsing. In Jedi terms… “this is not the place you should dowse”

These are not the droids you are looking for

As to why I was able to bring the rods in and dowse my home on this day? I have no idea. There was no particular circumstances that I can describe other than the will to do was stronger than the resistance to forget.

That eventful Friday evening I dowsed my house completely and thoroughly. So much so that for the first time since I had moved into it, I felt that I knew it well. In my mind and indeed on paper I was intimately familiar with its energetic flows, ebbs and powers.

I was able to discern what and how things were imbalanced and, indeed how to correct them. For this post it doesn’t matter what and how it was done. It suffices to say that the spiral began then.

When I named this chapter Revolution my thoughts where of the energy revolution that had been re-birthed at that time.

Evolution

Since that fateful Spring day my work in the domain of energies has taken quantum leaps. I would be remiss if I said it had only taken a quantum leap for I believe and sense that it has shifted (or evolved) several times over the Spring ~ Summer ~ Autumn of this year.

It seems to me that the more one works with energy the more sensitive one gets. That makes sense really since such a phenomenon is applicable to any field. However my point here is that dowsing energies and following the questioning path that is laid out by intuition on an almost daily basis starts to bleed (and has bled) into all facets of life. Now for example, energies are more detectable and traceable without the use of dowsing rods (still, though it is useful to confirm with the rods) also intuitive hints are more discernible to.

To some extent, last year was a time of measurement and exploration of the energies. This year is (has been) about deriving meaning, purpose and usage of those energies. For instance manipulating the energies that flow through home environments is a skill that I have explored on several occasions this year. To create an environment suitable to the purposes of use has been the objective of these exercises.

Healing trees and other external areas is another path that I have travelled this year. The mentioning of this is relevant to the topic of evolution because last year you wouldn’t have seen me being so interested in trees.

Crow Totem

An interesting development and completely un-anticipated at the beginning of the year was a commune evolution. It began with the auspicious signs of Crows. Which according to shamanism is the totem that guides one along magical paths. In hind sight this seems to have been an apt totem for me.

Although I still feel drawn to Crows, I quickly became enamoured by the Tree totem (was this an evolutionary step?) And so since late Spring I have been very much involved in communingAn interaction with an invisible and natural sentient force that is independently identifiable, even if it cannot be named or classified. The interaction takes place at the level of a subtle amalgamation of the mind of the perceiver such that a dialogue or transference of feelings may occur between the two sentient parties. The interaction that is ‘communing’ is purposefully initiated by the perceiver for the express purpose of learning or simply to transfer feelings in a sympathetic manner. with Tree.

Knowledge, wisdom, sustenance, beauty, fruitfulness, solidity, unity, faith, interconnectedness, understanding, protection, good health, wonder, happiness, endurance, creativity, nurturing instincts, and the power of giving.

According to this site, the above are a selection of characteristics associated with the Tree totem. The bold ones are ones that I have personally experienced this year from my Tree communes.

Tree Totem

It was a visitation to a 4000 year old Yew tree that led me to my next and current phase in evolution. That of spirit commune. As yet I have not embraced this idea fully however it keeps drawing my attention. What form it will take and how it will manifest itself is going to be interesting, since both Crow and Tree have garnered behavioural changes, particularly Tree.

spirit

This evolution has manifested emotional, mental and energetic changes. These have been personal to the extreme, for instance the mental understandings that I have drawn from this year are personal truths that are only applicable to me and only at this time.

I have a feeling that next year will see the inclusion of the physical domain. Where lies the spiritual domain? I’m going to leave that one un-answered (for the moment).

Revelation

The keenest revelation that I will report here is that of coming to the understanding that, far from going into the wilds (of knowledge) and seeking a path. That lesson was there simply because I wanted it to be there.

Going forth looking for a path to follow in and of itself created that path. Does that sound esoteric and weird? Be that as it may. Intuitive Dowsing (this is a new term which I will define later) has led me to conclude that we are co-creators of the world that surrounds us.

This understanding (or revelation) has culminated in the need now to discern a path that I wish to create and follow. Once I have knowledge of this then dowsing and energy work will take on a new facility…that of showing me how I can co-create the path that I wish to follow.

See how subtly the balance has shifted? Whereas before I was looking for a path from without i.e. shouting to the heavens to “show me a way”. The heavens has shouted back the very same question “show me a way”. So now I am going to show “it” a way.

2009 passed silently away under the auspicious eye of a blue full moon, for those who saw the sign was there. The next turn on the spiral has begun. New pastures await…

“Like a scholar on his first day at class. I open a new page for the day to write upon”

The Silent Flute film.

May 1st, or May Day, is the ancient Celtic fire festival of Beltane. It traditionally marks the appearance of the Pleiades star cluster in the constellation of Taurus, an event linked to the start of the farming calendar (which ends at Samhain, or All Hallow’s Eve). It is a fire festival in recognition of the rise of the fire element (i.e. the power of the sun) at this time of year in the Northern Hemisphere, and so solar deities and mythical royal figures are linked to this time in the year. They are said to flourish in their youthful phase, starting at Beltane when they begin to rise to prominence. I planned to mark this by lighting a small fire or a stick of incense at each site to ceremoniously mark this event. I hoped the spirit of the year would travel with me as I journeyed from one site to another, linking them through energy work and fire.

The beautiful Pleiades

We decided to keep our work local today. I wanted to visit a familiar haunt that meant something to me, as well as discovering a new one, so I planned three sites: Helsby Hill, Woodhouses Hill and the site of a structure that looked like a hill fort close to Frodsham. The two hills had hill forts marked on the Ordnance Survey map of the area. They are the sites of ancient hill forts. I say ancient, because the hill forts, I suspect, are a much later addition to sites that had some spiritual and energetic significance long before they were fortified or stocked with invading Roman soldiers. A tourist sign in Helsby village reminds us that the archaeology has dated the sites to having habitation since the Iron Age – approximately 800 B.C.E – 42 C.E.

I walked up Helsby Hill in the mid-morning sunshine hoping for a clear day to do some energy work. My intention was to try something that Hamish Miller had suggested: that manifested (i.e. visualised) patterns can be imprinted onto a place, then they will appear in a more complex form at a connected site. By connected I assumed he meant a sacred site that had some kind of energetic connection to a nearby site. I wasn’t going to rely on that though: I had some ideas in mind to make that connection myself by forming an energetic bridge from one site to another.

Atop Helsby Hill I dowsed to find the location of ‘The Spirit of Helsby Hill’. I didn’t know what that actually might mean, but it seemed a good thing to ask for, as it would involve the co-operation of Nature in my work. I found a circle of lush grass just back from the cliff edge. There I asked to dowse to formation that was the symbol of the hill’s spirit. I traced the following shape: a serpent-like curved zig-zag shape that ended in a sphere. It reminded me of a caduceus symbol without the wings, or at least one half of that shape. I meditated until I felt that I had a connection to this spirit, then added a circle around the symbol as my own identifying mark.

Then I projected that image to the next site, even though I had never visited Woodhouses Hill. I simply looked at the map and sent the image to that place. I formed an energetic link by visualising a bridge of energy arcing from one place to the other, and then imprinted the symbol at the other side, and hoped for the best. Woodhouses Hill was a couple of miles’ walk so off I trudged, with Kal in tow acting merely as an animated observer to this energy-play. Most unusual that he didn’t want to participate today, but that he was having too much fun prancing around pretending he was 30 years younger!

We climbed the very steep sides of Woodhouses, taking the most direct route up to the hill fort site at the top. All along the route crows had been flying around Kal, seemingly accompanying him on his journey. Often I pointed them out, sitting in tall trees that marked our route, or hovering on the wind just in front of us as we walked. Kal just laughed at this. He has come to accept their presence quite naturally, and is beginning to try to tune into any significance they might have as signs or omens. Certainly they have become his totem bird.

Kal’s not one for heights, but he danced up and down the hills that day as though he were unafraid and on springs! Since a recent episode with a tree (post coming soon about that) he had gained a little voice that informs him that he will be just fine when he finds himself on the high edges of paths. A year ago he would never have even come up Helsby Hill, never mind the run up the dizzying sloped of Woodhouses Hill! How we have progressed since starting this journey. We have both overcome things that would make our former selves squirm in fear! ‘Fortune favours the brave’, I believe the saying goes.

We stood now in a beautifully varied and pleasingly-spaced wood at the top of the path, looking around for signs that we were actually in a hill fort – only the slope of the ground would indicate that we were. I dowsed to find the location of where my Helsby Hill circled half-caduceus symbol might have ‘landed’. A minute dowsing through the trees and I found it in a circular clearing between some birch trees. Kal was busy touching trees and occasionally muttering things to them. ‘Edge Wizard’ indeed! He was turning distinctly ‘druidy’ so I ribbed him about it. Of course he protested!

I dowsed for the symbol as Kal watched, It was looser than the original, but it was the same shape, circled strongly by my additional energy. It’s at times like this that you begin to doubt your sanity. Had I just found that because I wanted to find it? Who knows? There it was, responding to the rods whilst I tried to maintain a clear trance-state to be as objective as possible about it. I checked it several times. It was as ‘there’ as anything I had ever dowsed. I was convinced. Kal was surprised and childishly delighted too. I spent a few minutes sending the same pattern on to the next site, just like last time. Again, the destination was not somewhere I had visited before, although I had passed it many times. I could visualise it generally, but not a specific ‘landing site’ for the energy. I wondered what would happen?

We headed off down the slope heading for the back of Frodsham Hill. As we descended the back of Woodhouses Hill we met a man surveying the earthworks that ran along the hill. ‘What are you surveying?‘ we asked after introducing ourselves. The earthworks apparently, to construct a 3D map of the site. Great! All good information that might reveal something interesting, and may add to our understanding of its age and the ways of the people who spent time here.

We arrived at the final site. It turns out it is a man-made long construction, with locked trapdoors in its roof. Was it one of the many World War II bunkers that peppered the hillsides around here? It certainly felt like one, but it was huge – a hundred metres in length and about fifteen metres wide, by about five metres tall. Who knows how deep it went into the hillside? This was no hill fort site! Nevertheless, I wanted to see whether I had sent the symbol onwards as I had done at the two previous sites.

Somebody else thinking of patterns around here?

I dowsed in the strong winds that buffeted the now rain-sodden grassy bunker roof and found a pattern some ten metres away from where we had sheltered behind one of the many turrets. It was a circle again. Inside the circle was the snaking three energy curves, and the sphere at the bottom, but the rods continued on a different path! They rods wove back and forth in ever-longer sweeps to form a snake pattern that was exactly the opposite of the original form. Now I had a whole caduceus symbol of opposing energy paths coming together at the circular base (or head) of the formation. Wow! Like Hamish Miller had experienced – the manifestation had complexified from one site to another. What did that mean?

I felt that the experiment had been a resounding success. Perhaps I even missed at trick when dowsing the formation at Woodhouses? I couldn’t be sure. However, the main objectives had been achieved. It is possible to send energy from place to place, both a symbol from the land itself, and my own energy formation too in the shape of the enclosing circle. Perhaps next I should see if I can draw a formation from another site that has a manifested energy pattern?

Gwas Myrddyn
Following a local path, for local people.