The Hedge Druid

Posts Tagged ‘star’

I am writing this post because I lost a bet. When I last went out with Kal to Derbyshire a few weeks ago the clouds were thick and black. All the way there we had persistent rain threatening to make our day out a rather damp one. We didn’t have much time and I only had tow things on the agenda – to take more accurate bearings at Arbor Low in preparation for my book research, and then to visit a cave near to Buxton to practise my chakra awakening using sound. As we approached Buxton it seemed like my second choice was looking like the best one – being in a cave seemed like the most sensible choice.

It was at that point that Kal made his bet – he bet me that he would be able to make the sun appear as he usually did, and that we would therefore NOT get wet at Arbor Low. Not get wet at Arbor Low? Today? With these dark clouds all around? And with Arbor Low’s reputation for wind, cold and rain? I took the bet. I said that if he managed to make good on his promise of sun I would write a post as penance, explaining how I should believe him, not doubt his faith, etc etc. Yeah, yeah. I took the bet.

As we got out of the car I was chuckling to myself – it was still raining and I advised Kal to take one of my spare waterproof coats. “No need” he explained, “I’ll be fine – the sun will come out soon and I won’t need it.” Unbelievable! The sky was dark slate grey with not a hint of the sun making an appearance for the whole day in any direction. We walked up to the large embanked circle and I began to take readings in the rain and freezing cold wind. It was not a nice experience and I may have hurried the measurements a little in order to get the exercise over with, and this may necessitate me going back again when the weather’s a little warmer. Hey – I’m human!

Johann Bode's depiction of the Phoenix constellation

I took some other measurements too – like finding out that the stone circle was built aligned to the star that Andis Kaulins had said it was – Altair in the Aquila constellation. I also got agreement from the dowsing rods that each stone was in itself a star map. This was very interesting, but it wasn’t making the experience any warmer of less wet. I dowsed for the current star alignment to see if it had changed. Using StarWalk on my iPhone I identified that the current star that Arbor Low is aligned to is … Ankaa, in the Phoenix constellation. Ankaa means Boat in Arabic. That was it – my hands were freezing – I had to stop now.

Kal was doing his own research with the stone circle, but when I called him over to mention this interesting information he reminded me that his book cover (see Active Enlightenment) is also a phoenix. Then, just as we were discussing that coincidence another one happened. Through the thick grey clouds the sun somehow managed to cut a hole and shine down upon us. It was like something out of a dream.. I couldn’t believe it was happening. Kal just smirked and said, “The sun, at a sun site, with a sun person…like a phoenix!”

The impossible sun

Just look at that picture! How…? Kal had won his bet. I knew that I would have to write this post, and that I would have to tell the whole Hedge Druid-reading public that yet again Kal’s faith in the miraculous powers of the sun are undeniable, and I should never doubt them. That is my penance done now.

Gwas.

Sunday 22nd August, 2010 – The Hurlers, Minions, Cornwall.

Having driven through the village of Minions to get to Trethevy Quoit the night before we were fairly confident about finding the famous stone circles called “The Hurlers”. There was a big brown sign pointing to them and everything so how could we miss them? We missed them. The morning mist was so dense that visibility was down to twenty feet, and as we trudged along the damp granite path our attention was on avoiding the larger puddles. At one point I stopped, intuitively feeling something was nearby. As I looked up I could see a small marker stone making an unusually prominent shape in the white misty background. We decided to head in that direction across the moorland and soon other shapes were coming out of the mist confirming that we had made a wise choice. Luck was with us and we hadn’t gone too far past, and soon dark shapes were appearing in regular patterns like dull ghostly sentries. We remarked how ‘atmospheric’ it was, which translated meant, “Dammit – why couldn’t it be sunny – this is spooky!”

What the Hurlers can look like

The Coach and Four

Other people were knocking about too, somewhere. Occasionally we would hear the sound of feet on the path and calls to a dog, or a group of walkers crunching past. It seemed that everyone else was missing the stone circle too because we were not disturbed during our hour long visit by anyone else, despite hearing man other voices nearby. Talking of which, as Kal and I convened on our way back we discussed the sounds we had heard in the mist and realised that both of us had heard the same strange noise. It was the sound of a carriage being pulled by horses. Undoubtedly. I’ve heard that sound in so many films that I couldn’t mistake it. I heard the sound of at least two horses, more like four, and they were accompanied by the sound of wooden wheels crunching on the path. There was no engine noise accompanying it. Most odd. Maybe some people with horse and cart were going past at nine in the morning? Even odder, the sound didn’t fade into the distance as you would expect, but disappeared as it passed us. You heard it clearly for a moment, and then as it passed by it died off quickly, it didn’t fade away. Again, very odd. I shivered a little in the morning gloom, and put it down to the atmosphere, but then when I mentioned it to Kal he nodded – he’d heard the same, and he added his own impressions of the noise which confirmed mine. However, on to the circles….

The Hurlers – The Male Circle and the Cross

There are three circles marked on OS maps, but in the mist we only found two of them. The Secret Cornwall site tells us that we are even wrong about that:

“The remains of a smaller fourth circle have recently been found north-north-east of the obvious three circles and a further fifth circle has been suggested between it and the others” (source: Secret Cornwall)

The first circle we encountered was the larger of the two, then there was a small pathway which linked to a slightly smaller ring of stones a few feet further north. One of the first things we independently dowsed was that the larger circle had a female characteristic, whilst the smaller circle was male.

Can you spot the stones?

Kal spent his first hour in the female circle, or rather, around its periphery, whilst I tried to get to grips with the male circle. I had come to the circles with an idea: I wanted to know whether it was possible to connect to the Sirius star energy, and what would happen if I did. I found a power centre and began to work with it, connecting to its core. I identified the location of Sirius, and then sat facing it. Almost immediately I got the impression that I should walk around the circle to stir up the energies. I dowsed for the start point, and then which direction – clockwise. No surprises there. I walked around twice, the second time the path began to weave as though the energies around the stones were becoming agitated. This was good – I had done a similar thing at Mitchell’s Fold stone circle once. At that Shropshire circle I had walked around five times, each time dowsing a more erratic path with higher peaks. This was similar, but only required two perambulations to get the energies flowing enough to work with.

Male circle Power Centre marked by feather and staff

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