The Hedge Druid

Posts Tagged ‘spirit of place’

Introduction

I had been looking forward to Beltane for a while. The promise of warmer, longer days to work in plus the chance to get back to some of the best ancient sites in Derbyshire had been whetting my appetite for a few weeks, making all else seem like filling in time until the Big Day. For us, we had worked out that Beltane was happening at the full moon on the 27th and 28th April. This is, of course, different from the ‘new traditional’ concept that Beltane is the 3rd May. Some say the 1sy May – May Day. Others maintain that due to the calendar shift caused by Pope Gregory XIII that the actual date is 23rd April.  You see how confusing this all is?

Our reasoning was simple – we timed the change from the third eighth of the year to the fourth as being when the full moon’s energies signalled a phase change, not on an arbitrary and disputed calendar date. After all, for us the interesting change was a change in subtle energies, so why not connect it to a major factor in the strength of those energies, namely The Moon?

Off we ventured with the intention of visiting as many sites as we could within one day. On our list were Arbor Low, Nine Stones Close, Doll Tor, and possibly Nine Ladies if we had time. Oh, we had time! Arbor Low, Nine Stones, The Andle Stone and Doll Tor will all be covered in this first post.

In part two of this set of posts I will describe our experiences at Nine Ladies, but also The Bullstones and The Bridestones which were also added to the list. We worked efficiently and effectively on this auspicious day and here’s the beginning of my account of our work and our findings.

1. Arbor Low and Ringham Low

The purpose we had set out with for this first site was to check our recent information about the movement of the ‘spirit of place’, the Genius Loci (henceforth – ‘GL’). Kal had found at Penmaenmawr and subsequent places that the GL enters an energised sacred site like a stone circle through an arc of neutral energy – like a fashioned gap or portal into the dome of energy covering the site. The same was true of the exit too – there was an arcing neutral energy that formed a kind of doorway.

Our intention was to verify whether the neutral arc I had found on my recent visit to Arbor Low was in fact an entrance or exit point for the GL. Here is what we found:-

• The Genius Loci travels along a neutral North-South ley line that connects to other distant sacred sites
• It enters the site at the place I identified last visit
• The exit is directly opposite, at the northern-most point of the stone circle
• The path of the GL oscillated more strongly as it approached the embankment of the site
• The path circles around the position where a standing stone would once had been placed on the earthwork (now all missing)

Satisfied with these findings we headed off to a site I had spotted marked on an OS map as being near to Arbor Low. This site as called Ringham Low, but when we got to the place where it was marked on the map, there was no sign of it. We walked the field for a while then got dowsing rods out. We found a circle thirty feet wide on the slightly sloping ground, and wondered what might once have been here. Then we moved on. More interesting work was due next at Nine Stones Close.

2. Nine Stones Close

Our second site was up on Harthill Moor, and was a site we were both very familiar with – our old friend Nine Stones Close. My intended purpose for visiting this site was to try to establish my wider purpose for the fourth eight-part of the year – the time between Beltane and Summer Solstice. We always have a little chuckle about what people might think when they encounter “Nine Stones”, with its four standing stones. Do they think it might once have had nine? It didn’t. Possibly five, but never nine.

Dull weather at Nine Stones Close

Despite the passing human traffic, ramblers and school outings everywhere, I was able to meditate quite deeply at Nine Stones, and to get a lot of dowsing done too. As a precaution, remembering the warning that I had been given by the Llangernyw Yew tree, I put up some energetic protection around myself. According to Kal that did its job, because a passing inquisitive person thought twice about approaching and came nowhere near whilst I has meditating. Just lucky, I guess.

Here’s what I found out:-

• I identified the purpose of the time between Beltane and the Summer Solstice
• The purpose of this time of the year is to learn how to diffract, dissociate and extract the different frequencies that my energy field can generate. Then to learn how to bring those frequencies together again to form a pure white energy form.
• I found that my meditation visualisations have changed from streams of fire to those of water – streams, fountains and geysers.

That purpose seemed like a natural extension of the research I had done for the previous eighth part of the year, which had been to learn how to work with neutral energy. I have yet to discover whether there is something about the energies of this time of the year that promotes or encourages that kind of work – this I will try to discover in the next few weeks.

From Nine Stones we headed towards the imposing gritstone structure that is named Robin Hood’s Stride.

3. Robin Hood’s Stride

There was not much to do at Robin Hood’s Stride. The huge outcrop of gritstone is impressive against the surrounding skyline of rolling hills and tree-studded fields, and something made us both want to go and pay it a visit. The one time we had felt like that previously we had found respective power centres, but that had been such a long time ago (in our minds) that we had forgotten where those were. We decided to re-dowse them to see if we could verify the original findings and to see whether that would jog our memories.

Minutes later Kal had found his centre in a small sheltered cave-like formation on the side of the Stride, whereas I was being directed into a crevice. I looked up the crevice to see that there was some kind of hit-like formation of rock slabs above me. Seems like I would have to climb up. I remembered from the last time that I had had to do that to find my power centre, so I hoped I could find it again, now that the rods had led me to this spot directly underneath this unusual slab formation fifteen feet above my head.

Once on top I followed the rods until they crossed and circled around inside a square box of a rock shelter. Inside I felt cushioned from the cold winds of early Spring and my voice resonated within the stone chamber as I called forlornly to my now absent friend below. As usual Kal had gone a-wandering. There was a beaten and chewed stick that some dog must have deposited within the chamber which kept attracting my attention. I picked it up and started to bounce it off the walls and floor of the chamber like a drumstick. For several minutes I beat out strange rhythms that seemed inspired by the sound of the wind on the walls of the chamber, but which were immensely pleasing. This was the place I had found the last time too.

Here’s a link to a YouTube video showing you Robin Hood’s Stride.

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There are two places we go to when we need some information – two sites that have never let us down when it comes to getting answers to tricky questions – The Druid’s Circle stone circle up atop Penmaenmawr near Conwy, and the Llangeryw Yew tree that is about half an hour away from there nestled in the north-west tip of Wales. Kal was going for answers to some life and death questions – i.e. questions about his life, and related to the death energies that he was interested in, but certainly wasn’t going to study, oh no. I was going for a host of things: mainly to get some answers about neutral energy and then some miscellaneous bits that had been unresolved for a while.

Maen Crwn

The long trek up the hills behind Penmaenmawr takes you past Red Farm (whose stone circle  we have yet to visit) and a standing stone known as “Maen Crwn” or “Round Stone”. Blimey – you can’t leave some people to do the naming, can you? They’re a right ‘un-poetic’ bunch! Anyhow, Round Stone is the noticeable hunk of rock that protrudes through the middle of a field of sheep as you pass by the lone house on the way to the top. Previously we have had negative energies coming off that stone and have avoided doing much with it. The last time I was up that way I felt the urge to “sort it out” and managed to do so merely with some good vibes and a cleverly-placed stone that helped to re-shape the energies.

We checked its’ current status as we passed, and for me it felt fine. For Kal, it was OK, but not somewhere he should remain fro long. That’s fine, at least it wasn’t detrimental this time. I asked Kal to check whether it had been changed due to my previous intervention – he dowsed a “yes” which pleased me. Nice to see your work bearing fruit. There was certainly a less ominous air surrounding the stone, and the area as a whole felt more inviting. The sheep were happy to browse around the stone too, whereas on one memorable previous visit the sheep had actually chased us away as we approached!

Cylch Glanhau

Before we reached the Druid’s Circle there was preparatory business to attend to. There is a small cairn circle known inventively as “Circle 275” in megalithic “circles”, but which I am going to name “Cylch Glanhau” (a perhaps too literal translation of “The Cleaning Circle”). There you go – it has a purpose and has been so named. Kal wandered off to admire the view and check his flies or something, but I remembered that the last time I was here I had been directed to stand within this small circle before going to the Druid’s Circle, and I wanted to see whether that was a necessary step for this particular journey. There was nothing energetically awry with my own field, but the dowsing rods indicated that Kal would need to be cleansed before he visited if he wanted the most favourable “reception” from the circle’s energies.

Kal being cleansed - dirty boy!

So, I called him over and made him stand in the circle for a few minutes before we carried on. He gave me looks which said “Is this strictly necessary?“. I wasn’t being argued with.

Druid’s Circle

Also known as “Y Meini Hirion“, which translates rather prosaically as, “The Standing Stones”. There they go again with their poetic naming – sheesh the romance is killing me! The site is a fair hike to get to and a strain on the car’s engine to even get to “base camp” as it were. Still, the trek is always worth it – Druid’s Circle always rewards effort, and today was no different. The first reward was the view – for the first time ever I could see as far as The Orme at Llandudno.

The long view

I entered the circle by the entrance I had been shown on my previous visit, in the eastern side. That was also how I approached the site, from across the dark heathland and through the marsh at the head of the small brook that runs silently beside the circle. I don’t know why – it just felt right to approach from that way, following animal tracks and instinct.

Once I had entered appropriately, stating name and purpose, I waited for the customary ‘tug’ at my energetic centre – the navel chakra. I got one and so went in, pleased to be back and welcomed. I deposited myself on the usual female recumbent stone in the western edge of the circle, as was my custom. I felt very comfortable now, and wanted to get on with some work. I picked my rods out of my bag and began to dowse almost straight away.

I started by asking is there was any Neutral energy here at the stone circle. I got a “yes“. Good, because otherwise it would be a wholly different experience than I would have hoped for.

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Anglesey, 1st February 2010   

In the concluding part of our journey around Anglesey’s south-western corner for Imbolc we visited some of the sites that we had passed many times in our travels, but had never actually visited. We re-visited one site though – one of the Ty Mawr stones – in order to rectify a problem. The conclusion to the journey was at a cromlech (or dolmen) called Bodowyr, which was beautifully located, but sadly hemmed in by iron fencing again.   

Castell Bryn-gwyn (White or Blessed Hill)   

Castell Bryngwyn turns out not to be a castle at all, but a sacred space (or “religious sanctuary” as the information sign calls it) that was apparently later fortified by the Romans. It is named Blessed Hill or White Hill, but given that is was a sacred space I would plump for the interpretation ‘blessed’. Especially given our findings as to the way it has been used before it became fortified by that war-like race The Romans.   

Sacred castle without ramparts

The earthwork that remains is a two-thirds circle that has three visible entry points. In order from the entry gate they dowsed as being the Moon Entrance (the widest and clearest), the Sun Entrance ( a hollow depression) and a Star Entrance. The Star entrance was the most intriguing. I spent a bit of time working this one out and come to the conclusion that the entrance was aligned with the planet Venus when it appeared in the western sky. The most energetic time, therefore, is when Venus is in the western skies and the Moon is full. Some star energy and a sun alignment, possibly a solstice or equinox sunrise or sunset, are also part of the energy imprint of this place. However, its primary purpose seems oriented towards the lunar occasions – the full moons.   

A wide open space

We went looking for the most energetic place within this earth-worked arena. I say this ironically, because Kal was lounging on the ridge at the time throwing suggestions out whenever the mood took him. I dowsed to the most energetic place – it was a double-humped spot, like two grassy faerie rings together. I had seen something similar but much larger and more rounded at Carnac in Brittany. Kal shouted over: “Is it an altar?“. I used to dowsing rods to check this theory: yes, it was. A strong reaction to that idea. The altar was towards the rear of the site, slightly off-centre.   

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