The Hedge Druid

Posts Tagged ‘standing stone’

Brittany, Thursday 7th May
This is the fourth post in my Brittany dowsing series, and for a brief moment I will be back-tracking. On the same day as we went to Mont St.Michel we had a small diversion to Dol De Bretagne, a town just off the main route along the Cotes D’Armour coast between St.Brieuc and St.Malo. In this town, reputed to be the source of the Stuart royal dynasty, we found the Dol De Bretagne menhir, or the Champ Dolent stone.

The Champ Dolent Stone

It would have been rude to pass up such an obvious invitation to dowse some stones before the main event. The fairly large-scale road map we had showed a menhir located in the town of Dol De Bretagne called ‘Le Champ Dolent’ meaning the Field of Sorrows, supposedly. Well, on arriving at the stone the clouds parted and the sun began to smile down on us. Whilst we were at the roadside site (with picnic tables) that surrounded the stone there was a constant stream of visitors. People are still fascinated by these menhirs and ancient sites. I wonder what it makes them think about? I think about the energies there.

Creation Myths made cartoon

As you approach the well-maintained path to the gigantic menhir there is some information on a sign. The cartoons depicted the various ‘creation myths’ that accounted for its presence of the stone, and a tale warning of disaster if it was allowed to wear down to nothing! We see that God dropped the stone to separate two warring armies, and also that Satan, in a jealous fit, threw the giant stone at an Abbey that had been built nearby, but missed. Always amusing how these stories are quite similar all around the megalithic zones along the west coasts of Europe.

The Dowsing Bit

What a stone, though! As I poised the rods I took a moment to take it all in. I didn’t even see the picnic tables dotted around the small avenue of trees and grass that cushioned the narrow path to the menhir. I was captivated by its size. This stone was at least thirty feet high and six feet thick. It was slightly squared and tapered to a beautifully crafted peak. Again, it seemed to be made of the local pink or light salmon-coloured granite. It had very few marks on it either. A few lines and battles scars, but mainly perfectly smooth and sculpted – ‘dressed’ as they say.

I started dowsing at the small ‘King Stone’ that was close to the site’s entrance. This stone was about a foot and a half wide by two or three feet long and just an inviting height to want to sit on. I asked if it had any energy of its own? NO. Was there any energy around it? YES, a female spiral. I dowsed that it came to a spiral on the stone. If this wasn’t the stone’s own energy then I wondered if this stone was just transforming some energy source? I asked if the energy was coming up from the earth into the stone? NO. From the sun (which was now shining merrily)? NO. Going well! From the moon? YES. Fitted with the female spiral. Was this a transformer stone? YES. Like Nine Ladies and many others. A stone that transforms the moon’s radiant reflected energies in some way.

I looked for a link to the big menhir some fifty feet away. Was there any energetic link between the two, I asked the rods? YES. I followed the female spiral out of the Queen Stone as it wound its way from tree to tree, side to side up the avenue of ten feet tall tree that lines the route between the two stones. It ended up going around and close to the menhir before pulling the rods into the left-hand side. Good. A connection made.

The connection between the two stones prompted me to think about the consequences of that link. Which stone was feeding which with this female energy? I checked the direction of flow. From the large menhir to the small stone. But then where? I dowsed to find where the energy went after it reached the Queen Stone and was taken in a circle, across the road on which we had parked, into the field opposite (luckily they don’t go for hedges much in France) and back to the smaller stone again. It was a twenty feet wide circle of a feminine energy field emitted from the Queen Stone. Interesting. I wondered what effect that had on anything, after all – it’s fine to find these fields but what are their effects? I didn’t yet know, either here or anywhere else yet. I turned my attention back to the menhir again.

After my recent experience with the St Uzec stone I was keen to see what the nemeton of this stone was like. I walked all the way back to the small road we had come in on, close to the outlying Queen Stone. I dowsed up the path to the menhir but only travelled some five feet before the rods gave a barrier sign! That was massive – the biggest nemeton field I have ever dowsed, for definite. HUGE! The picture above shows the extent of it. I dowsed all the way along the nemeton’s edge and found it to be not quite as large on the other side where it went through a ploughed field (only twenty-five feet or so). Nevertheless, it encompassed almost all of the path leading up to itself on the side where people would approach it, I checked for male lines – none. Neutral lines? None. This was an exclusively female + moon energy site.

I now felt like doing a little energy work. I asked to find the best place to stand to be in tune with the stone and to feel re-charged, Well, I was on holiday! The rods led me to the left-hand side of the stone again. I tried not to stand in the small dog turd at that spot. We find this kind of thing often at power centres. Animals like to defalcate there for some reason. Not always but too often to have gone unnoticed as a coincidence. I stood near to the stone at that side, touching its huge side and relaxed. Soon I felt a dual drawing-out motion at my feet and a filling-in from above, like being showered in very smooth and light water.

I picked up the rods again, Please show me the most energetic path to walk, I prompted. The rods moved around the back of the stone to pass over the small un-energetic stone that lay at the base of the menhir (another handy chair for tired tourists) and then down through three female spiral power centres until finally curling back around the Queen Stone, inviting you to sit on it and muse awhile, which I duly did. This site felt great. Not at all like the St Uzec stone. Both M and I felt completely at home here, happy to linger for ages. Many people came by, had their sandwiches gazing at the stone, then left only to be followed by yet another person “just stopping off”. It was nice to see that other people agreed with this feeling. It was nice to be around such a beautiful and energetic monument to an ancient people’s harmony with nature,

I asked M to follow me as I wound my way down this energetic trail of three power spirals, and she felt the stone’s intense buzz as she neared it. She had a low grade headache that morning (probably from squinting in the bright sunlight) but by the time she had walked the trail this had disappeared. Coincidence, I’m sure, but this is not the first time that has happened. Psychological and auto-suggestive it may be, but it works every time.

The powerful and impressive Dol De Bretagne menhir is certainly worth a visit if you’re in that area. But I guarantee you won’t be the only one there!

Gwas.

Following everyone else, it seems!

We had left Callanish II in a slightly confused state of mind. Callanish III had been lovely, Callanish II the complete opposite. We picked ourselves up and headed for the recommended Carloway Broch – a partially reconstructed shelter that we expected would be like a small stone shelter big enough to possibly fit us both in. Our sense of scale was about to be flabbergasted.

Dun Carloway Broch looked like a small pillar-box hat on a bald man’s head as we approached it from the landward side. The winds had decided to have a contest to see which of the Four Winds could rip our faces off, but still we approached the round stone tower.  As we neared the small entrance portal we were literally stopped in our tracks by the screams of the winds. I crouched and entered. Complete silence! I was startled, my mind thinking that perhaps I had made the wind up or something. I bobbed my head back out for a second only to get an ear-lashing blast that made my hat shift nervously and made my eyes squint. Back in again – pure silence. Amazing!

Both inside now we marvelled at the architecture – half exposed circular staircases that spiralled upwards between two layers of stone. Cavity walls! Around the base were three small square openings. This looked like dowsing territory, so I whipped them out (sounds like a Frankie Howard gag).

I started with one of the square openings. A female line came out and spiralled four or five times into the very centre of the broch. Good start.  Female lines came out of and went into each of the holes, one of them leading out of the entrance door. I dowsed for a male line in the doorway. Yes, there was one which spiralled loosely into the broch and then joined to a mound of irregular stone on the floor inside the broch. This stone had not been cleared or chipped away to make the floor even like the other parts – and it had two parallel lines etched into it. The male line came into the stone and then followed the line and width of these scores in the rock.

Lines on stone in broch show male energy lineThe direction energy takes when moving. It may be straight or curved, in several dimensions and be composed of one or more different types of energies, i.e. negative, positive or neutral. Energy lines can be found at standing stones and ancient sites but are a general feature in all energy fields. location and direction.

I went back to the entrance again. A male and a female line here on either side of the entry. Wat about the middle? I dowsed across to find a neutral line there and followed in straight to the back wall – completely straight. I turned around to see where this line through the doorway pointed…

At a nipple, by the look of it! I got out my compass and checked the 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.. I was facing due North. It struck me that this all fitted into some kind of design principle and aligned with something that I couldn’t determine at this scale. I would check to see if it was connected directly with something further south or north one day soon. I went to sit on the unusual rock, which had a white streamA flow of positive energised and healing subtle energy. The white streams usually emanate from a source of good energy such as a holy well, a sacred site, a power centre or a place of worship of good intent. We have found that white stream energy consists primarily of male and female energy combined in a balanced and harmonious blend, such that the two streams “play” with each other, warping and wefting in a dance that invigorates and enlivens everything that comes into contact with it. If a human stands in such a stream then they will feel positive, happy and energised, warm even. power centreA place where a person of a particular 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. on it. We both did. We smiled.

As we sat there, me stratching my head at the fact that the energies seemed to map themselves along the lines scored in the rock, who should make an appearance? The lone mad cyclist. He looked wild-eyed and inquisitive and we chatted briefly about the splendour of the construction, and his foolhardy choice of a day to be cycling. We retreated to the car to let him absorb the same atmosphere of stillness that we had just enjoyed, sheltering from the elements.

Having heard, however, that Sunday was not a day to be without provisions on an island this far from a corner shop we had sandwiches, and were now seeking out a good place to eat them before continuing our site visits. Dalmore beach (Dail mor) looked promising, so we determined to head for that. We parked up to watch the white horses on the waves tumbling backwards in the high winds then crashing in orchestral union across the expanse of the bay. The birds had grounded themselves and hung around on the beach looking pensive and shifty, out of their element.

M and I spent some time drawing spirals, shapes and names into the pristine expanse of sand, then headed back to the car with a buzzing feeling in our heads and hearts.

We stopped briefly at Na Gearrannan Village – a vision of how people once lived. It was a restored and rebuilt village of thatched longhouses called blackhouses. We spent far too long in the toilets examining the way these buildings were constructed, but luckily we were the only visitors for the duration. Not a tourist day today!

Our last stop that day was the Truiseil Stone – a huge menhir, twenty or so feet high. I dowsed it eagerly finding that the stone was strongly male (not a great surprise). I wondered if it had a wide-ranging energy field, as it was so high. I retreated down the small aimless path to a good distance and began dowsing for its edge. About thirty feet away I got a barrier response and looked down to spot a stone embedded in the path at that point. It extended to the same length on both sides.

There were male lines sinewing fairly directly into the stone along the centre line of the path. Female lines wavering around to touch each edge of the path (skirting along edge of a dip in the path on one side). There was a feeling of immense power when walking into the nemeton field. I asked the rods to find the strongest and most beneficial place for me to stand. I walked around the stone’s base until I stopped at the flat side (facing camera in picture below). Here I felt warm, bubbling with subtle gentle rising energy which felt like an internal bubble bath. I hung around for a while enjoying the experience. Where was the wind? I could see its effects in the grass of the fields around me but couldn’t really hear much of it, and could barely feel it blowing, yet I knew it was still very strong all around me. Strange.

Showing extent of nemeton, from pillar to outlier – 30+ feet.

We had enjoyed a full weekend of interesting, amazing sites and sights. The highland lochs, the pass of Glen Coe, the Argyll & Bute forests, the mountains of Skye and Harris, the Coullins in perfect white shroud, Callanish stone circles aplenty, lone standing stones, ancient stone towers of superb construction, a huge menhir, eagles and deer, bays and beaches. It really had been a treat for the senses and the soul.

Gwas.

Following the northern lights and sights.