The Hedge Druid » taurus

Genius Loci – the story so far

kal — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 16:29:27 +0000

Scattered throughout the last year or so of this blog is the term Genius Loci. As I did some research (on our own blog) I found that the term has escaped its original use and is getting bandied about a bit – by me no less, the guy who coined it in the first place. So before proceeding let me clarify the term.

Genius Loci then translates from the Latin, “Spirit of the Place”. I first came across the phrase in an episode of that short-lived (sadly) TV series, Crusade…

I procured the term to represent the energy (sentient it seems) that resides within sacred stone circles. Although as I mentioned the term is getting a wider usage herein, I want to bring it back to its original usage for this post.

Over the last year Gwas and I have occasionally explored the Genius Loci of stone circles and determined the following information.

Not all circles have a Genius Loci although most of them do.
They have been dowsed to be in a specific position in the circle when we have visited but do move around within it.
In previous explorations we have found “Entrances” and “Exits” to stone circles, we have/had assumed that these were where people entered but we have also determined an entrance and exit that the Genius Loci uses. It is still to be determined whether these are one and the same.
The entrance and exits that the Genius Loci uses are neutral energy arcs. Again we have found other arcs too – notably at Arbor Low – which we will be exploring in detail
The entrance and exits are almost but not quite opposite to each other and don’t seem to have a astrological/astronomical relevance.
Using dowsing you can track the route a Genius Loci took after it entered into a stone circle to the place where it is currently at rest.

Genius Loci’s seem to be aligned to astrological phenomena. For example the one at Arbor Low is aligned to Taurus, whereas the one at Nine Stones Close is aligned to Pan and the one at Nine Ladies is aligned to Mercury.

Note: This isn’t a direct alignment it is more that they share the same hmmm properties/characteristics.

The Genius Loci do not reside in the circles all the time and this is odd but as far as we have dowsed Genius Loci’s we have found that they left the circles about 1100 years ago and returned about 700 years ago.

Note: I have dowsed about 8 Genius Loci’s so far and have found this date to be consistent. Further more, they were “summoned” by a human in the Middle-East around the Iraq area. Why and How we don’t know. I know – wow – but here is the thing – consistently those dates and information is accurate.

When the Genius Loci’s returned from this enforced sojourn their “alignment” had changed. We have determine that this was to do with changes in peoples beliefs. But not how or why.

So far so good, fascinating and curious information which came from the sacred sites in the UK. Now we go to a stone circle in Ireland.

We were visiting the Piper stones circle in Ireland this year, our first circle abroad.

Here is a link to how that encounter went, Freeing the Dragon. But to pull some relevant data from that encounter to this post.

The Irish Genius Loci is the only one we have encountered that was trapped. It had been summoned and had gone when they were “called” 1100 years ago. This result surprised me. I was expecting different answers for some reason.

This Genius Loci is the only one we have had a seriously long encounter with. Again see the above post link.

As you can see, there is a whole world of exploration that can be done with this topic alone. Just as there is with so many others on this fascinating field.

What Gwas and I are finding is that should a topic need further investigation, it will crop up on our radar again and again and again. For now we keep moving forward, quite literally on the Edge!

Kal Malik

Dowth: Place of Integration

Gwas — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 17:50:34 +0000

Sunday 29th May – Dowth, Boyne Valley, County Meath.

Dowth (“The Place of Darkness”) is the lesser-visited site of the three famous megalithic structures in the Boyne Valley complex. It is less visited because there is no convenient bus taking tourists to the site, and instead intrepid visitors have to walk the mile or so from the bus terminus, or a mile and a half from the Knowth site, in order to reach it. Luckily for us this late May day was about as beautiful and sunny as May days get, and so we walked along the blooming hawthorn-lined lanes in utter delight. Some days it pays to be a (would-be) druid.

When we arrived at Dowth we had the place to ourselves with the exception of a solitary photographer who busied himself with setting up some arty shots. We read the information board (always amusing, sometimes useful) and then looked at each other. We felt there was something we should do before going in – but what was it? We decided to wait. We didn’t know what for – perhaps just to let our blood cool from the walk, or to become totally attuned to the ambiance of the site before we entered. We weren’t sure. But we waited for ten minutes, then entered.

Information created by archaeologists

The site exuded a sense of spirituality from the outset. As soon as I entered I got my dowsing rods out and asked them to lead me to the place that I was best attuned to, my power centre, taking me by a “ritual path”, as I called it. My intention, the thought I had in mind, was of the path around Glastonbury Tor – the labyrinthine path that I would soon take again at the Summer Solstice. Eventually, after much to-ing and fro-ing around the edges of the mound I was led into the centre to a spot where someone had had a fire, somewhere near the centre of the hollow that formed a giant hole in the middle of the mound. Kal calls this form of perambulation in trance a “walking meditation” and says that groups he works with do them quite frequently.I wouldn’t know anything about that – I did it because it felt right to do. At the burnt spot the energy spiralled indicating a power centre. It was here that I meditated on my throat chakra. I wanted to clear myself and energise at the same time, with special attention to my throat chakra.

Fire pit power centre at Dowth

Then, like at the entrance to this unusual site, I got the oddest feeling. I felt that I couldn’t progress until I had recited a poem that recounted all my efforts to this point – a kind of announcement as to why I was here. Was I not in a land of poets? Was this not the land where the Blarney Stone is kissed for its gift of eloquence? And so I began to recite some dodgy rhymes, somewhat self-consciously even though there was no-one else around except Kal and he was over the other side of the hill. I told the spirit of the hill all about the other places I had visited to work on various chakras, and what the result of each encounter had been. As soon as I completed my poem I felt a wave of relief (release) and I picked up my dowsing roads again to see where I should go to next in order to work on my throat chakra. I felt like I had opened a doorway into an opportunity, and now was the time to step across this Mercurial threshold.

Kal's vision quest on Dowth

I began to follow a single dowsing road as it led me around the curve of the hollow and back to a new power centre – a rocky scar in the hillside similar to one that I knew from my many visits to Gop Hill in North Wales. I went there and lay down to ‘doze’, to get myself into an attuned and trance-like state of mind, a receptive mind state, if you will. As I entered a light trance state and became comfortable with the hill I heard and fleetingly saw a familiar figure – it was The Lady. The same lady that I had encountered at Gop Hill (this was something I felt, rather than positively identified). In my half-sleep I was able to ask questions of the Lady of the Hill. My questions were answered by the reaction of the sunlight – if it went behind a cloud then the answer was negative in nature, and vice versa. The strength of the heat or cold indicated the strength of the answer.

Some of the information simply formed in my mind, or bubbled up from somewhere, and then I tested its validity using the clouds. This sounds stupidly un-scientific, I know, yet it was utterly consistent. I could ask test questions which had simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answers and the clouds would react accordingly and immediately, uncannily so. Those test questions provided the assurance that this was some form of divination allowing me to interact with this powerful yet elusive Lady figure. This was not the first time I had encountered this kind of divination opportunity, and I recognised it for what it was, and wasn’t about to squander it.

A stony bed upon which to dream

So, what questions did I ask? What information did I learn? They were not pre-meditated questions. The questions arose at the very moment that I wanted to make enquiries – like they had been suggested to me. They almost took me by surprise! I found myself asking two questions:

What was my next career move? The answer came to me that I was going to teach people about the megalithic sites and how to dowse them.
Would I become a fully-fledged Druid? The answer was that I would never qualify as a Druid, but that if I followed the path and activities of the druid calling then I would become a master of the mysteries that druidry involved.

I spent a while thinking about those things. Neither of those topics were things I spent much time thinking about. I am perfectly happy with the situation as it is now, I said to myself. However, clearly something had bubbled its way to the surface here, prompted by the vision of The Lady. Was my subconscious trying to tell me something? Since finding druidry I had always thought that the teaching stage would entail me having to reach the level of ‘Druid’, having passed through ‘ Bard’ and ‘Ovate’ beforehand. (Actually, these days I see more relevance in the stages of ‘Birch’, ‘Yew’ and ‘Oak’ rather than these role titles recognised by organised druidical orders). I didn’t imagine I could be close to the last stage yet, given that it was reputed to have taken twenty gruelling years of study to reach such a position. I believe I am only in the Yew phase and that I have much to learn before progressing beyond that. Perhaps it was more of a signpost as to a far-distant future scenario….yes, that was more likely. Sometime in the future I could teach people about dowsing and the spiritual dimension of it. Well, that’s something to look forward to, when I get all of these damned tricky remaining questions about it out of the way!

As a Hedge Druid, perhaps I could award myself the honorary title of Druid when the time was right? And give myself a new druid name? The idea amused me and I walked down the hill smiling at the notion of me attending my own ceremony to award myself a badge saying “Honorary Hedge Druid”. The answers to both those questions seemed to round things off for me, to tie up some deep “loose ends” that I didn’t realise I had dangling in my head. It was quite therapeutic.

A peek inside the Hill of Dowth

I saw that Kal was STILL sitting where he had been for the last half hour at least, not having moved from his lofty perch atop the hill and in the shade of a lovely oak tree that grew on the slope of the hill. I decided not to disturb him because I could see crows whirling back and forth and I knew something was going on that he wouldn’t thank me for interrupting. I contented myself with a jaunt around the base of the hill to see what I could find. As I walked around I came across some beautiful kerbstones – long oblong carved stones – that fitted together in some remaining sections to form a rim around the hill. You can see what they might have looked like in the diagram above. Now only a scattered few remained. Nevertheless, the remaining stones were mainly inscribed with whorling patterns and shapes, hidden away beneath long grass or worn to a hint by the passing years.

Dowth's majestic inscribed kerbstones

The picture above shows Kerbstone 51, a ball-achingly prosaic moniker for a piece of delightful and informative rock art. This stone in particular seems to have a reputation for its carvings, but there were a few others too that had marks. Kerbstone 51….I can’t go on calling it that! Let’s call it “The Seven Star Stone” instead – alliterative and palatable. The Seven Star Stone has been described as a possible star map of the Pleiades, that lovable formation that is so linked with the emerging agrarian mind because it is an indicator of the bounds of the Equinox periods int he year, and thus informative of when to sow and to reap crops. Here’s what one site says about this stone’s markings:-

‘Given that there are seven “suns” on kerb 51, and that the mythology about Dowth speaks of a bull and seven cows, it seems likely that the site has some connection with the constellation of Taurus, the Bull, which contains the open cluster the Pleiades, otherwise known as “The Seven Sisters”. This constellation was very important around the year 3000BC, when the Boyne Valley mounds were being constructed, as it contained the Sun on the Spring Equinox, that very important moment of the year when the Sun’s path along the ecliptic crossed the celestial equator heading northwards. It is the Sun’s position among the zodiac stars at this time which determines the current ‘age’ – i.e. the “Age of Taurus”.’ (source: Mythical Ireland)

Yeah, maybe, but I count at least eight circled ‘stars’ marked on a diagram of this famous inscribed stone:

The Seven Star Stone of Dowth

I met with Kal and he told me his tale of a meeting with a healer who was the Oracle of the Hill. He said that people came here to be psychologically healed, and that the oracle answered questions that people didn’t even know they wanted to ask. The similarities between the tale he recounted and my own meeting with The Lady were enough to make me think that something interesting, meaningful and important had occurred at this place, and it was living up to the deep sense of spirituality that we had endowed it with before we had even stepped foot within its bounds.

Before I left I wanted to check few questions that had arisen from this experience. I dowsed some more information about the relationship between the mound and the areas of the human energy body that it affects. Dowth affects the upper level chakras (the throat, third eye and crown). Knowth affects with solar plexus, heart and throat, but could affect all chakras to a lesser extent. Newgrange was for the lower chakras of root and sacral. Between them, these three sacred sites have it all covered!

Gwas.

Gop Hill: A lesson from The Lady

Gwas — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 20:21:27 +0000

This is the final part of my series on the nature of neutral energy. This part has built on the first two posts I did (and any ones prior to that in the distant past, I suppose – but who can remember that far back?). In this post I want to share with you a quite esoteric lesson that I learned, so if you’re squeamish about such ‘nonsense’ then I’d consider some of the more, how can I put it, ‘prosaic’ posts instead. If you’ve been journeying with me on these matters then this will be no great shock to you, but here goes with the weirdness/nonsense/madness (delete as appropriate).

I had been shown recently in a vision whilst working at a site that I should learn how to connect to the earth’s neutral energy source, and to learn how to work with that energy,. because that was the theme of this part of the year – this eighth part of the year between Spring Equinox and Beltane. It was nearing the end of that time period now, and I had only a rare few opportunities left to fulfil that requirement – and I did feel as though it was something of a requirement for me to do this.

I saw an opportunity one evening to make my way to a site, providing it was not too far away. The weather was very good for April in England – it was dry and sunny. I dowsed as to which place nearby had most suitable neutral energies for me to learn such things – Gop Hill near to Trelawynd village came out as the only contender. So be it.

Luckily, Kal was free too, so we went together to North Wales in the late evening sun – he had some wonderful stories about his recent life that just blew me away and so we were both in a good mood when we arrived. You may remember he had received some interesting information about sitting out his personal issues, and lo and behold – a minor miracle had occurred!

Greeting The Lady and dropping a clanger

Unlike Kal I entered the site appropriately, as usual introducing myself and asking for permission to partake of an intended learning experience. I found Kal sitting on a male power centre at the back ridge of the hill - a place that I had identified on my last visit as being the most magical place on the hill – no surprise to find Kal there then!

On the way to the hill we had seen some people ahead of us, heading for the hill as well. These three people were already there when we arrived and the older gentleman commented on the beauty of my staff. How very nice to have it complimented. It was becoming quite special to me now.

I gave Kal a tour of the places I had identified last time I was here. He dowsed them and agreed with everything that he checked of my previous efforts. Nice to have this independently verified. When the three other people left I found an old iron pan that someone had left on the top of the hill and dowsed as to whether it was adversely affecting energies – yes, so I launched it down the back of the hill almost as far as the edge of the forest. It clattered its way down and the birds in the trees were startled, for which I apologised profusely, attempting to spread a vibe of calm all around to help pacify the atmosphere. It took them five minutes to recover! Oops!

Neutral arcs – entrances and exits

We did some work dowsing for the neutral energy places, and found an entry and exit arc. The entry arc was 15′ high and about 10-12 feet wide. The exit arc was about 9′ high and 9′ wide. The entry arc was over what I had previously discovered as being “the entrance” at the back of the mound, whilst the exit arc was located over the male energy scar that I found last time I was there. If I remember, that was the point where male energy was leaking out and flowing down the hill, close to a strong male power centre a few feet behind it, possibly feeding it.

When Kal went off doing his own dowsing I sat on the same ‘magickal’ spot and felt like I was being cleansed and “charged up” with the energy of the place. Kal followed the path that the Genius Loci of the hill has recently taken. It went from the entrance to a flinty scar just aside from the central dip in the top of the hill. I mentioned to Kal that this was EXACTLY the place where I intended to do my energy work, because that was the place I had lain the last time when I connected to the Genius Loci – the Lady of the Hill.

Willing to do the work

Then I set to work. I lay down in the flinty body-sized hole in the dip of the hill’s top, and I made myself comfortable whilst Kal sat himself down on the male power centre on the male side of the hill. As I lay there I could see the half moon in the late evening sky, bright, clear, against a backdrop of azure blue. I began to do my usual connection routine which involved connecting to the sun, moon and earth’s core. Instead of visualising a strand or ribbon of energy this time, it turned out to be a pair of fire streams, like something that would come out of a flamethrower. I didn’t argue, but carried on connecting until I was centred and still and calm and in tune with the Hill.

I asked what I should do to learn about how to work with neutral energy, and then stilled my mind waiting for a response. The voice of The Lady, which I now knew, came into my mind after a few minutes. She was telling me to examine the four elements. I did so immediately – I smelt the earth next to me as I lay on the ground; I felt the small movement of air as what little wind there was moved past my cheek; I felt the fire of the sun’s evening rays touching my face; but where was the water?

A voice behind my own said, “Look to the Moon“. I realised that I had learned recently that the Moon was drawing up the water from the earth, and now I felt this happening below me. That’s what the Moon did – its power as it increased would draw the water upwards through the soil more and more until the full moon at its peak. I felt the breath 0f water vapour against my back and knew that this was happening right now. The Moon was pulling water out. And it was also pulling earth energy out too – neutral earth energy.

As I felt the neutral energy being drawn out of the earth by the Moon’s pull, and as I tuned into its subtle but familiar flow, I tried to pull that flow into my body rather than let it leech through me. I pooled the energy into my two power centres in my body – the navel chakra point and the third-eye chakra, sometimes referred to as the upper and lower ‘dan-tian‘. When I had finished I could feel the energy pools inside me, but I could also “see” that the energy was beginning to dissipate out of me, to evaporate from me even as I watched. What could I do? That subtle background voice of The Lady said to me “Look to the Sun“. Of course, this evening we were blessed with both the sun and the moon visible at the same time. Now I stood up and went to sit on top of the hill, rather than in the hollow so that I was facing the Sun with its full glare. I was now able to let the sun “bake” my aura – to form a hardened outer edge to it that sealed in the neutral energy pools that I had collected.

Making use of neutral energy

With that done I was walking about glowing like a kid from a Ready Brek advert! Now what? I went back to the flint pit to lie down form more guidance about what I could do with this energy now that I had collected and stored it. Again, The Lady of Gop Hill came to guide me. She began to show me pictures in very quick succession, pictures of people working with power objects like swords, or precious objects that they cherished. These people were investing their love, their energy, their blood, sweat and tears, their life, their hopes and desires into the objects. Now they needed some way to preserve that energetic input, some way to fix it in the object.

I saw myself drawing a thread of energy out of my storage pool points in my body, and coating these objects in neutral energy. Like lacquering some cherished piece of wood this would seal in the goodness, and keep out the undesirable influences.

I had picked up a small rock earlier that I had been holding. Now was the time to test it out. I invested some love energy into the rock. When we have tried this on many previous occasions this has dissipated in a matter of minutes! Today I drew out some energy from my navel, and then breathed on the stone with some energy fed from my forehead store. I imagined I could see a fuzzy coating of neutral energy over the stone and I rolled it in my hands, coating it all over.

I placed the stone in the sun and let it bake for a few minutes with an intention that the field should be sealed. When I dowsed for how long the neutral energy would remain in place the answer was “a very long duration”. I called Kal over and asked him to dowse the stone. He knew nothing yet of what I had done. He commented that the stone was charged with neutral energy, and no male or female energy at all. Correct!

I asked him to verify how long that charge would last. He said “Days”!! Oh! I got him to dowse again using the question that I had posed, “How long would the neutral energy of this stone remain in place?” Then I asked him to use a sliding scale to answer that question – Days? Yes. Weeks? Yes. Months? Yes. Years? Yes. A very very long time? YES. Ah, it was a question of asking the right question!

With that I was very happy and we packed and left, munching on some out of date chocolate. Well, I had been taught a wonderful lesson here – how to capture and make use of neutral energy. Now I had some idea of what it would take to make a proper stone circle and to keep it charged with subtle energies.

Kal did an extra bit of dowsing. He found that the site was astrologically aligned to Taurus. I checked this with my new gadget (3G phone app) – ‘the sun is in the sign of Taurus.’ it said. Well, confirmation indeed. As we wandered back to the car later that evening Kal said to me, ‘Have you got that star identifying app handy?’ and pointed to a bright star visible plainly and lonely. I identified it as Venus, passing through the constellation of Taurus. There was no escaping the bull tonight!

Gwas.

The Sign of Venus

Gwas — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 21:44:13 +0000

Bryn Celli Ddu: Monday, March 16th 2009

I don’t know what possessed me to go the almost 75 miles to Anglesey straight after leaving work last night. It’s not something a sane person would contemplate, but I was on my motorcycle and felt an urgency to get there before the sun set. Sunset time was scheduled for :

Date: 16 Mar 2009 / Sunrise: 06:28 / Sunset: 18:22 / Length of day: 11h 54m 42s

I arrived at some time close to 6:30 pm and walked to the mound in the slowly-forming twilight. I spent about ten minutes inside the mound dowsing for places to sit, and what the strength of the energies were at that time of day (although I had no previous marker to base that on). I soon came to feel that I wasn’t in the right place and decided that I should leave my stuff inside whilst I went outside.

In the open air I felt colder but more relaxed. I dowsed for the best place to sit in order to meditate and was directed by the rods to the top of the mound. There I sat and began to switch off. For some reason I was facing West. For some reason I was staring at a bright star which seemed to be the only one in the sky – certainly the only one I was noticing.

As I stared at it I noticed something unusual : there appeared to be three points of light to this star, and they formed a shape. I stared more intently. Yes, definitely a shape. A white shape with crescent horns protruding from the upper left hand side, and the two smaller points of light forming a forked ‘tail’. It reminded of the white horse of Uffington in reverse, for some reason:

I blinked and blinked again. No, still there. I got my camera phone out and took a picture. Zoomed in I could see it through the lens, but after taking a picture the result showed nothing but flecks in a grainy dark sea. Still the image remained prominent in the sky. Was this a sign? I determined to memorise the shape and set about emblazoning it on my retina and into my memory. This was, I felt, why I was here. From the top of the mound I could feel undulations of energy pulsing upwards through me. This was special, I thought. I knew there was some connection I had with Venus at the moment, and so I dowsed whether this was Venus I was seeing. Yes. Then this was even more interesting. After ten minutes the cold really hit me and I decided to get along home like a sensible person. I left a gift of tobacco and my thanks, then rode home with freezing hands but high spirits.

Picturing Venus

When I got home I immediately knew I had to capture the image that was still so vivid in my memory, but also I had a desire to know more about this star. Which zodiac sign were we in at this point in the year? Pisces was giving way to Aries – we were on the cusp. I have no concept of the relevance of that, but it did seem to me that the image I saw had elements of a horns atop a fish-shape. Noteworthy, but nothing that made me have any greater understanding of a significance at this stage of my development. Here’s the shape I drew trying to capture the area of light that the star was spanning:

Why had I needed to ride out to Bryn Celli Ddu? What was the reason for needing to go there?At the time I had no clue. Now I understand why – it was so that I could use that shape later in the week when I was to visit a stone circle above Penmaenmawr at the Vernal Equinox, but that story will be posted soon enough.

Why was that star so visible from that place – because it’s so westerly? Venus was the last element of twilight this night. It felt magical dowsing my way to the top of the mound and I could feel energy being pulsed up through the top where I sat, perched over the western edge. All I could see was Venus. All I could look at was that bright star. And then I saw three points. Then a pair of horns bent upwards from the main bright point to form the symbol pictured above and below. It stayed in that formation and shape and intensity until I left. As I looked back it had returned to a single point and other stars were beginning to make themselves seen more clearly. I had been there at just the right time to see Venus at her most distinct, and she showed me something of herself. I asked if it was a symbol for me, a power glyph or something like that. I dowsed a strong yes when I asked whether I could use it for energy work. I nearly dropped the rods! Use it for what!!?

Venus: her names and symbols

Venus, the Morning and Evening Star, is forever associated with love and relationships. I was interested to find out how Venus had been named, represented and revered down the ages so I started a little research going. I drew the symbol I had seen many times, and in as many ways as I could muster. Here’s a close representation of what I saw. Venus is often seen as a diamond shape, or a crescent due to her relationship with the light, my symbol was not like that.

The Venus symbol seen in the Western twilight a week before the Vernal Equinox

So I began hunting around to see what other symbols Venus had been represented by – was my symbol something traditional, or something just for me to represent her by? I scoured the net for information. Venus was the planet that orbited the earth 8 times in the time it takes our planet to orbit the sun 5 times, I had heard:

“...if Venus orbits the sun 13 times while the earth does 8 times, then Venus must pass us 5 times during those 8 years.” (John Pratt’s Astronomy site)

Venus’ 5-time passing is also the reason why the pentagram is one of her symbols, as depicted below in a diagram from a masonic text. Chinese Traditional Medicine (TCM) often depicts if five element system by a pentagram in a circle.

The pentagram has a great deal of sinister and occult history associated with it, as does the Morning Star and Evening Star references. Lucifer, the fallen angel, is often considered to be The Morning and Evening Star, however, that designation is also held by many other pivotal characters such as the Greek Hesperus (or Phosphorus), the Babylonian goddess Ishtar, the goat-headed Baphomet beloved of the Masons, and also Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love. Venus has many names, and those are just her written historical names.

Venus and Astrology

Venus is the ruling planetary influence of the astrological signs of Taurus and Libra. From Wikipedia:

“Venus is the modern ruler of the 2nd and 7th houses, but traditionally ruled the 5th and 12th houses – the 5th house of play and the 12th house of self-undoing! Unsurprisingly, Venus is said to have ‘joy’ in the 5th.“

The astrological interpretation of her influence recently (i.e. going into retrograde motion) is that she brings the possibility of undoing your own comfort and pleasure within your relationships, and despite my wish to completely ignore this element of astrology I have to confess that under her influence in the past week I have alienated a friend and had a blazing row with my wife! Anyone who knows me well knows that this is not something I am particularly prone to, and it has certainly taken me by surprise! I am still stubbornly refusing to acknowledge this aspect of Venus, however, so let’s move on.

I have five stones in my Venus crystal layout. Coincidence, of course. I dowsed for clearer answers: the crystal layout is specifically for capturing the energies of Venus whilst she’s passing. When she moves away then I’ll need other crystals and other geometries for whichever other sympathetic energies are nearby. Don’t know what yet – some luminary. Could be any!

The Moon on that night was waning gibbous heading to the New Moon. Pretty much like in the picture of the Taurus symbol above.

Gwas.

Follow something you don’t believe in until you do.