The Hedge Druid

Posts Tagged ‘stone circle’

When I dowsed to find which sites I should visit for the Winter Solstice this year I was surprised that only two types were signified: a circle and a cave. Well, it didn’t take me long to work out which stone circle I should visit. Top of my list was Nine Ladies, and it remained the favourite because all the others failed the suitability test when dowsed. Next I had to find a suitable cave. This task was much harder. With my first site being in Derbyshire I reckoned that finding a cave in the area would be simple .Far from it! It took me several days to find and dowse the suitability of a natural cave that was not a tourist attraction closed for the Winter. The result was Thor’s Cave, which was just inside the Staffordshire border, but close to Leek and south Derbyshire. Perfect! I deliberately didn’t read up anything about it so that the experience would be fresh and exciting. I will blog about the cave visit soon, but first, here’s my account of my Winter Solstice visit to Nine Ladies stone circle.

Solstice morning arrived and I began to tedious journey across to mid-Cheshire to meet my friend Mike. At each step of the journey I was delayed – firstly by a huge lorry trundling along the back roads, then by a tractor pulling a huge payload of hay bales, and then, just as I had cleared that obstacle and was wondering whether I could possibly get behind anything that would be slower – out pulled a funeral cortege and I was down to 20mph for the next few miles of reverent driving. I had to laugh! When I arrived at Mike’s I fold him that I had arrived at exactly the right time – 15 minutes late, but just as I had completely chilled out due to the slow pace. Perfect timing!

Nine Ladies Dancing

As we approach the stone circle from below, following a track that is probably only visible in the Winter months, I stop to register the edge of the stone circle’s nemeton – I can feel an energy change and I turn to look at Mike, but Mike has a puzzled look on his face. Is he sensing something, I wonder? He says that he can see lots of “little people” all around us, gathering to usher us on towards the stone circle, and dancing around our feet. He wonders if I can see them. I can’t, but I can feel their presence, like being brushed past by lots of invisible mice. He searched his mind for the correct word, and returns with “Pixies”. I haven’t heard that word in years – how quaint!

We continue to the small gathering of sandstone rocks that are heavily carved. Now that the undergrowth is completely gone they are all exposed, and I can see one facing me with a very clear message…

Pot-Head Pixie immortalised at Nine Ladies Stone Circle

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Although we set off in the early afternoon Kal and I intended to pack as much as we possibly could into our day out in Shropshire. Our intention was to visit one of the few remaining megalithic circles in the county – Kerry Hill, close to the small village of Kerry (or ‘Ceri’, in Welsh). The site is also called Kerry Pole, which is good to know because that is the name of the hill on which it lies.

A signpost for Ceri Wood on Kerry Pole hill

Sadly, most of Shropshire’s megalithic history has been lost to the farmers of many centuries. When you drive through the rolling hills and lush pasture land you can perhaps understand why, yet many of the stone circles now listed as destroyed were in existence within the last hundred years, and we have hardly been on the brink of starvation as a nation at any time during those hundred year. Such a shame we have destroyed our heritage for the sake of a few measly ploughable acres. It can only be greed, ignorance or dis-respect that drove such destruction, none of which is an estimable human quality.

Back to the action. We followed the satellite navigation that brought us to the ‘back’ of the site – in other words we would approach the circle from the top of the hill instead of climbing up to reach it. Having visited before we knew approximately where the circle could be found, which is just as well because there are no signs to guide you, no indicators of any sort, and the stones that constitute the circle are very small making it difficult to spot. As with our first visit we were almost on top of the circle before we spotted it, hidden amid a herd of Herefordshire cattle. From the look on Kal’s face I could tell he was looking at the stocky black cattle and thinking “Bullocks!“.

Being watched at Kerry Hill stone circle

When we had dispersed the cattle we settled into the circle. Kal dowsed as to who was due to do any work here and found that it was for me, this trip. Before I would launch into my work I did some videos of my dowsing the unusual arcing neutral energies that flow from each of the stones into the central stone. The few other circles that remain in Shropshire have similar central stones, however this is the only one that we have found has these arcing energies into the centre.

Next I would prepare myself for interacting with the circle and seeing whether I could learn anything from it.

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This is a brief and largely unexciting account of a recent visit to Arbor Low. Unless you’re specifically interested in this site I’d skip it because it doesn’t reveal much of interest outside of those who would visit the site. I’m posting it for completeness’ sake, and for those who have an unhealthy interest in Arbor Low.

It was a damp and windy September day when I arrived at my friend Michael’s house. The usual crew of our psychic friends were there, plus a new addition whom Michael had been wanting to introduce me to for ages. I was introduced to Janet and immediately I liked her. She was robust, earthy, plain-speaking and no-nonsense. Being a Yorkshire lad I felt right at home with that. We chatted for a while and Janet offered to let me read a copy of “The Eye of Fire” by Graham Philips – the sequel to the astonishing book “The Green Stone“. I had read The Green Stone recently and had been fascinated by it. I was going to buy the book and its sequel second-hand but prices were starting at £20 each and rising quickly to ridiculous figures! Luckily, Janet had a copy and was willing to lend it to me. I devoured its contents the next weekend! Now I am busy working my way through Andrew Collins‘ account of the same events in his book ”The Seventh Sword“.

The Eye of Fire

We didn’t hold out much hope for a break in the rain as we wended our way past some of the places mentioned in the Green Stone book, particularly Biddulph Grange. The discussions about the books passed the time on the way to Arbor Low. I was liking Janet even more, her ready smile, her chuckle, and her immediate warmth.

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At the end of August 2011 I found myself with an evening free and an urge to visit a sacred site where I could learn more about the five healing rays that I have been studying. As a reference for those of you who haven’t been following this particular series from the beginning, here are the related posts:-

• My five healing rays - in which I identified the rays, and their basic principle

In this visit I was hoping to have some information revealed to me that would show me how these healing rays could actually be used, in other words – how does one invoke them, and how are they utilised once invoked? The beautiful circle of Moel Ty Uchaf was to be my teacher this evening.

A stunning rain and sun backdrop above Llandrillo

On my journey up the steep trackway to Moel-Ty-Uchaf stone circle I was welcomed by a rainbow, which was somehow fitting considering I was here to try to get some more answers about the nature of the healing energy rays that I can work with. Apparently I have until Samhain this year to get my theory and practise all sorted out, because then I will face a challenge, a task, a test of skill, perhaps an opportunity to progress. I knew what failure meant – another turn on the Wheel of the Year to go around in a circle rather than a corkscrew movement upwards. I was taking every opportunity I could to do my homework.

As I passed the trees that line the lower part of the route up the hill I asked them about their energies. Are they male if the tree is male, and so on? The answer was that trees have no gender, they are both male, female and neutral, and so they can create living energy lines that are of any of these “flavours” depending on what the tree wishes to harmonise with, draw from, or support. Its own intent creates the required 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..

With all my physical training I found that I didn’t need to stop once going up the hill. At the top I was breathing deeply, but not out of breath for once, nor tired or leg-weary. My calf muscles were also intact for once. Amazing result! But nowhere near as amazing as the view that I was about to be presented with as the clouds that had dogged my ascent began to part letting through the rays of the setting sun over the Conwy Mountains. In the picture below, look for the unusual photographic artefact of the sun converging to a turquoise point! Or is it something from the ground opening a hole in the clouds?

The sun appears over Llandrillo - view from Moel Ty Uchaf

I ate my Co-Op convenience catered tea at the King Stone and began to introduce myself once more to the Genius LociGenius Loci means 'spirit of the place' and refers to the geological/gaian spirit of place. It is transfixed to a place – being an embodiment of the collective intelligence of the place., asking for permission to work with her to ask questions about healing. Using my rods I determined that she would co-operate with that, but I felt that I would have to offer her something in return. Intuitively I was given the sense that there was some earth energy healing that I would have to put into practise here. This wasn’t going to just be a one-way theoretical lesson!

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After going to East Kennet it would have been rude of me not to visit another of my favourite sites in that area, so I went to Avebury. Even though the “official” car park was closing, I was able to park for free in the car park right next to the Red Lion pub in the centre of the village. I’m glad I didn’t park at the pub itself because soon hundreds of motorcycles appeared and began to congregate which would have made an escape quite tricky! Not that I dislike motorcycles – I ride one myself – so I got the chance to eyeball a few tasty specimens of chrominess before I departed later.

But I’m getting side-tracked! Back to the action, because I have a strange tale to recount. I began to walk around Avebury’s massive ring of stones. As you know by now, I have to have an intention – a motivation – for such trips so in the car I had been determining one. My intention would be to charge myself up and consolidate the energies I had gained from the work done at the East Kennet Barrow. A bit flimsy, I know, but it was all I could come up with in the ten-minute drive.

I put up some good amounts of protection (Avebury is visited by all types of people – some have good energies, some not) and then sat down by one of the stones that the dowsing rods said would be beneficial. Note: back to using rods here, not intuition. Hmmm..tiredness? Right, so I needed an intake of energy to re-invigorate me, and where better than the grandest stone circle of them all? I calmed down and tuned in. Nothing! Right. Change of tack – I would hand back over to intuition and see what happened. I picked up my three lit incense sticks and began to walk around the circle clockwise (the energy-making direction).

View along the ditch surrounding Avebury

Don’t walk there – walk here!

I stopped to gawp at all the big stones as I passed them. It’s not really “the done thing” to insist on walking all around the edge of the circle these days. There are paths and fences which lead the casual visitor through the stones in a quite definite way so that you can’t actually walk around the edge of the circle any more and are instead guided into the heart of the circle once you have crossed the road which cuts through the heart of the complex. Which is both a good and a bad thing. At nearby Stonehenge, for example, Kal and I were nearly sick with the bad energy of everyone being funneled around the stones in one direction only. But in this case I wanted to generate some energy so where possible I stuck to the outside edge and thought about 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. generation.

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Blakeley Raise stone circle - [Megalithic] [Map] [Megalithic Walks]

This is the third part of our Spring Equinox posts for 2011. In this post I recount the tale of how we re-aligned the stone circle at Blakeley Raise. In keeping with our day so far we were having navigation problems – Kal had his iPhone 4, I had mu 3GS version, and neither of them were helping us much! I realised how reliant I had become on technology in that I hadn’t printed a general OS map of the area, just of the detail within a mile of the site, but first we had to find the site!

We drove up what we guessed might be the right road south from Ennerdale Bridge, and soon it became a strip of thin tarmac in the middle of nowhere. I had a funny feeling we had missed it so we stopped. Kal’s phone reckoned it was half a mile backt he way we had come, and my cdetailed map agreed – providing we were actually in the right road in the first place! We parked at the bottom of the slope that we imagined it might be on and walked over the rise, or should I say, “The Raise”, for as we crested the hill there was the circle – only twenty feet from the road! We had driven right past it without noticing! D’oh!

We stopped to admire the view – the circle was positioned in a prime location with wide views iof the north and west – going down to the coast. It was also framed beautifully by the eastern hills, and in the glorious sunshine of the day the circle provided us with some excellent photographs.

For some reason we both hung back a moment when we saw the circle. It looked alright, but something wasn’t quite…right about it. We stood a moment longer, not saying anything, then broke the silence and wandered up to the circle. We hadn’t been able to say what it was that was wrong and so our reason had decided to override our intuition and move our bodies onwards. Things to do – places to go!

One of the first things that Kal did here was to check the veracity, the authenticity of the stones. He found that most were re-positioned. Only four of the eleven remaining stones were actually in the correct position (those over on the right-hand side of the photograph above – the eastern side). Many of the stones had been “helpfully” concreted into position! Good grief! Thousands of years ago we were clever enough to be able to make these stones stand firmly for millennia, but today we have to concrete them in? Shockingly poor demonstration of how far (backwards) we have come.

This time there was work for Kal to do (why is he always so begrudging about this – it’s exciting?). He quickly determined that he needed to do some work to re-align the stone circle back to its original star 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. by modifying the way that the energies were concentrated within the circle. He did this by moving a nearby sandstone block and placing it slightly off-centre on 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 ‘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.’) 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.. We then did some work to “pin” this energy in place so that the circle was aligned with the frequency of the star that best suited the circle’s energy structure. It so happened that the circle needed to be pulled back towards the sun, as this was the strongest source of energy for it, and it kept the circle’s energies flowing the strongest.

The final aspect of this work was for us to “stir up” the energy flow around the circle – thus re-energising it and waking it up, so to speak. For this we both walked around the outside of the stones in a widdershins direction, following a dowsable energy trail wherever it led us. Normally, such a direction would actually quell or calm down energies, but in this instance the circle was in need of re-balancing through the injection of some female energy, and our perambulations were getting the energies to go wider and farther out as we walked and walked around. Each time we circled the stones, sometimes going in and out between them, the peaks of the wave forms got larger.

We both noticed how the energies of the circle followed a very ragged pattern. Around the area where the original stones were they hugged the stones, weaving playfully in and out of the edge of the perimeter. As we made our way to where the stones had been re-positioned the energy form was highly disturbed! The peaks were wild and unconfined, jagged, un-subtle, sharp and ragged. They were anything but “natural” feeling. They had little symmetry or subtlety. We felt increasingly aggrieved again about the poor quality of the re-building of this circle, and were not surprised that it needed a little bit of work doing to it. We felt we had at least contributed to it in a sympathetic manner, even if we couldn’t physically re-locate the stones to resolve the issue fully.

Later in the day, on the way home, just talking about this circle would provoke us into a very dangerous comment – that we would attempt to build o9ur own stone circle this year, and to employ within it all the things we had learned about how stones should be positioned, and how energies should be treated. Let’s see if we live up to that boast!

Gwas.

Our Spring Equinox adventures began at the most beautiful stone circle in England – Castlerigg in Cumbria. As if that weren’t enough of a good start to the day we had a clear run to get there, and when we arrived the sun had cleared the sky to imbue the scene with such photographic potential that even a ham-fisted amateur photographer like myself could get a picture that was worthy of being a regular feature in any scenic calendar.

I didn’t know what Kal wanted to achieve this day, but my own personal agenda was the usual – to ask what my quest would be for the next eighth-part of the year. I wanted to know whether I had successfully completed the previous quest – to learn the sonic vocal qualities required to open my chakras – and then to know what my next quest would be. What would I need to learn next in order to progress on this spiritual path of druidry?

I remembered one or two things from our last year’s visit here – that the entrance for me was at the “back” or southern end of the circle, and that there was an in-built area which was specifically for cleansing myself of “ordinary world” energies. These two aspects were what I would concentrate on first.

Castlerigg at Spring Equinox

I walked around the edge of the stone circle’s aura, which I felt rather than dowsed. Today was an experiment in deviceless dowsing wherever possible – I wanted to feel rather than find the energies. At the unfashionable end of the circle I approached in reverent silence, head slightly bowed, and I felt for an answer to my question about whether I might be allowed to enter – I felt the familiar tug of acceptance. Off to a good start!

Inside the circle I walked straight to the Sanctuary enclosure – an array of stones laid out in a rectangle. There I positioned myself where it “felt best” and that happened to be on a small tuft of lush green circular grass - 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 ‘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.’) 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., clearly. I felt for the direction to face and it was West. I lit two sticks of incense (suitable for me) and admired their flavours. I turned West and asked to be cleansed of the world’s detritus energies – energies I may have accumulated form elsewhere, bad energies I may be carrying with me, foul energies I may have generated myself. After a few minutes Kal came over to chat and absent-mindedly I wandered off with him. “Have you finished?” he asked. “Could you check for me?” I asked, seeing as he had his rods handy. NO – not finished! I went back into the Sanctuary with a wry smile – it was worth a try, but this was one aspect of the energies that I wasn’t feeling – I had no idea when I had finished with the cleansing process.

Castlerigg at Spring Equinox - view of The Sanctuary

Luckily we pretty much had the circle to ourselves early on, but by the time I had emerged from the Sanctuary there were people milling around and observing our antics. I now moved to a place that I felt was my empowering 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 ‘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.’) 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. (as opposed to a cleansing one – two types: filling or emptying, draining or empowering, cleansing or energising – any of those diametric concepts will suffice). Again I felt I should face West and I brought my incense sticks with me. I also laid out the one set of crystals that I had brought with me from the car – my protection set, but this set also doubled up as the set that I used to align to significant stars to attune to their energies. You’ll see how this comes into play in a moment.

I placed the five stones around me in my usual protection configuration, with the pillar quartz stone pointing West – the direction that felt right. I set an intention of being guided successfully on my quest today, and for enough energy to get through what was likely to be a long and arduous day of physical, mental and spiritual effort. In my mind two spiralling strands of thick energy (they used to be thin, now they’re fatter – aren’t we all?) coursed up through my body to reach to the sun, moon and then back down into the earth’s core. I remarked to myself how much thicker these energy lines were than the last time I had performed this meditation. Progress? This went on for about five minutes until I brought the energies “to heel” and created a sphere of protective energy centred on myself. I was sparkling with effervescent “aliveness” and jumped up refreshed and smiling. All psychosomatic, of course. I felt I had created a protective shell that would see me through my work this day, and also recharged my batteries, as it were.

Kal had been sitting directly opposite me in the circle, which we thought was notable given that this was Spring Equinox and the Sun and Moon were in exact opposition today. I also felt as though I had been facing West for a reason, so I asked the dowsing rods whether this stone circle was aligned to a particular constellation? YES. I then asked them to point to the constellation – they pointed West, in the direction I had been facing. Was the constellation visible now? YES. I used StarWalk to find some possibilities, but there was one obvious one staring me in the face – Serpens. Now, this opens up a whole facet of synchronicity. Let me explain.

The quartz pillar of my crystal layout had been focused on the constellation Serpens - the Serpent. As I did that my meditation has taken for the form of strong twin energies boosting my inner serpents – my twin coils of energy – my inner double helix. Not only that, but the constellation Hercules (Ophiuchus), the solar hero, is seen wrestling Antaeus (Serpens), the sea snake in the ancient depictions of the two neighbouring constellations. This is the old ritual of the Summer King battling with the Winter King (The Oak King and the Holly King) and on this Spring Equinox day they were in complete deadlock with the Oak King on the verge of achieving ascendancy. Interesting that this day my crystal layout was aligned to exactly that constellation, the very one which astrologically symbolised the Equinox point! Honestly, this stuff writes itself sometimes.

Castlerigg at Spring Equinox - layout

So there were three primary themes emerging from this work:-

1. Forces in opposition creating energy – the astrological Hercules and Typhos, the equinoctal Sun and Moon, the druidical Kal and Gwas
2. The double helix and the serpent energies, and their link to our human physiology – feeling empowered, cleansed, alive.
3. The stone circle being aligned to a constellation that was suited to the time of the year. Does this mean that all stone circles change their star alignments over the course of the year?

Gwas