The Hedge Druid

Posts Tagged ‘yew tree’

The year has only just started and already I am way out of line with my posts and the dates upon which the action took place. I fear this year is going to be SO busy that we are going to have to start posting smaller and faster just to keep up. In this post I revisit the Llangernyw Yew tree that is the starting point for many of my previous years’ quests and adventures. This year was no exception. This episode occurred in late January, before Imbolc. Yes, we have all the Imbolc posts still to come! So much to tell you about already this year. On to this story.

It is a philosophical point as to whether the tree really communicates with the druid. Perhaps its still nature and deep-rootedness simply allow you to go deep within yourself and find a small reflection of your own wishes that are then brought out to serve as an inspiration for the elaboration that is to come? Certainly, that is often how it appears, yet there is always something that you never actually know yourself, something that you couldn’t have known, something that surprises you and this element is the unquestioning influence of the yew tree itself. It is for this reason that I visit the tree so often, and always at the start of the year. The yew tree starts the year, offering me its guidance on the theme of my work for the coming turn of The Wheel.

The massive Llangernyw Yew tree

Kal and I split up as usual, he going off to tour the graveyard briefly before settling into his own meditations around the tree, whilst I got straight to work beneath the mighty ancient yew. The weather was cold, but crisp and the sun was shining which made the day feel warmer than it should have been at that time of year. The yew tree would normally have been subdued by a biting frost and a layer of snow in January, but instead it felt ready to burst back into life as though Spring were upon us, even though Spring was still two full months away.

I settled into a meditation after dowsing for the best place to work from, and a direction to face – into the Sun, unusually. Little did I know that this would become a recurring theme for this year, as I will show in later posts. Within minutes I was deep inside the yew tree after setting up protection and doing my grounding and centring visualisations. They came easily, and the yew responded with a warm and deep hum like the clearing of an ancient throat at length. In humility I directed a question, a thought-idea at the yew and hoped for a response: “What is my direction for this year?” I asked. Deep quiet. Long silence. Then a stirring, and a word moving up from the depths of the roots into my consciousness: “Renown”. Just that one word!

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On the odd occasion we have mentioned and discussed Leprechaun energyAn intelligent and aware energy with a penchant for causing mishaps, stealing treasured items, and being territorial.. Our first ever mentioning of this rather disturbing energy was on our trip to Ireland. Although we have given it a name particular to the Emerald Isle that should not be taken an as anything other than a name.

Essentially Leprechaun energyAn intelligent and aware energy with a penchant for causing mishaps, stealing treasured items, and being territorial. is a ‘negative’ energy that attaches to people. It might have been picked up from an environment or from other people.

Attaches might be the wrong word to use here as I am increasingly of the opinion that energies don’t attach but rather balance or alter our energy to another frequency. So it might be more appropriate to say that a person has been in an environment that has altered their energy frequency to one that is not benign.

My reason for bringing this topic back to the fore is that for the last 5 days I have been feeling very under the weather both emotionally and physically. As well as suffering from a lack of energy and a serious amount of things not going my way.

Dark trickster energy personified

After a meditation in a Yew energised power center in my room I was given the insight to do some dowsing. As a side note, one of the peculiar things I have found of late is that I am able to dowse in my room. Up until now Gwas and I have had difficulty dowsing in our homes. Particularly for non-energy related questions. However my current residence is flooded with Yew tree energy from a couple of magnificent specimens just outside of my window. This has/is allowing me to dowse more fruitfully in my room. On with the tale…

I dowsed some initial questions thus…

• Am I infected with Leprechaun energyAn intelligent and aware energy with a penchant for causing mishaps, stealing treasured items, and being territorial.? Yes
• How long for? 5 days.

As this point I gained a flash of intuition. I had wanted to go to Glastonbury at the weekend but at every turn I was deflected. Traffic jams, getting lost, and just plain weirdness prevented me. At the time I didn’t think to wonder why my plans where being thwarted. Now I knew! Leprechaun energyAn intelligent and aware energy with a penchant for causing mishaps, stealing treasured items, and being territorial.!

I wondered as to where I had picked up this energy…

• Was it from someplace I had been? No
• Was it from someone I knew? Yes
• Someone at work? No
• Someone in town? No

Hmmm…I puzzled on this for a few moments. Who did I think was a carrier of Leprechaun energyAn intelligent and aware energy with a penchant for causing mishaps, stealing treasured items, and being territorial.? Well, my brother and sisters where definitely in a depressed state. So I asked whether it was any of them? The answer was fast swing to YES.

Apparently the source was my younger sister with whom I had speaking alot over the phone (ostensibly family counselling). I thought that she had infected my other sister and brother, but the rods said otherwise. They, in their own right, were carriers too. Holy Zarquon Singing Fish!

Still it was surprising because I had not had any physical contact with them. I asked the rods if Leprechaun energyAn intelligent and aware energy with a penchant for causing mishaps, stealing treasured items, and being territorial. could latch onto a person via the phone? Yes. Via any kind of communication link?

Here the rods wobbled and so another question formed. Any kind of link that you are actually communicating across emotionally? Yes.

Wow! What an interesting finding. A further question revealed an interesting answer. Does Leprechaun energyAn intelligent and aware energy with a penchant for causing mishaps, stealing treasured items, and being territorial. (and by inference good energy) travel a comm link just as good as if you were in physical proximity? No. Some more ‘levels’ dowsing revealed that being in physical proximity was 3 times as bad as over a distance.

Of course this is one of those areas that can have a lifetime of exploration. But the above is enough for me at the moment. Now it was time to get rid of this darned energy! Being at home, I had all the tools to hand, crystals, incense, singing bowl, Yew tree energy. What was I going to need?

Apparently our ‘usual’ exploding energy ball would suffice, which led me to determine what energy level was this Leprechaun energyAn intelligent and aware energy with a penchant for causing mishaps, stealing treasured items, and being territorial.? A level 8! Wow and it wouldn’t take much to get rid of it. Was this a sign of some ‘power’ growth in me? Some, yes. But it was more to do with the fact that although the ‘level’ of energy was high. The ‘stickiness’ of it wasn’t (3).

Here are the simple steps for doing an energy explosion…

1. Get into a mind quiet, meditative state
2. Go deep inside yourself until you reach a core that is you, only you.
3. Rapidly drawing energy into this core until it builds and explodes outwards taking any ‘foriegn’ energy with it.

Dowsing confirmed that the Leprechaun energyAn intelligent and aware energy with a penchant for causing mishaps, stealing treasured items, and being territorial. had been totally obliterated. A fantastic feeling and I was feeling better immediately (obviously the placebo – haha).

I made a note to self, when communicating with my family…lots of protection.

Kal Malik

Our second stop on our Beltane journey after performing a cleansing and energising routine at Dinas Bran was to head for our venerable and reliable teacher – the Llangernyw Yew tree – Wales’ oldest tree. This tree is tucked away in a small village just behind the Conwy hills and was easy to reach from the A5 road that runs the length of North Wales.

Whilst Kal busied himself with the graveyard (his favourite part) I went straight to the tree – no messing. As I walked up from the graveyard towards the tree something unusual happened. I began to sprout ethereal wings! I felt them spread and rise to either side 9f my shoulders and my head began to form into a sharp-pointed beak. This was a highly unusual feeling, but I recognised the figure that was forming around me like an energetic head-dress – it was the form of a hawk.

I had the tree to myself briefly and made swift work of setting my place. I put incense sticks where I felt they needed to be – three of them – and I lit them before looking for a position to sit.

The Oldest Tree in Wales

I found a hollowed bole that seemed to be a perfect platform upon which to sit. I wondered why, in all the visits I had made here previously, I had never noticed this place before? Well, it seems we find the things we need when we are ready for them when on a spiritual path. I sat and began to enter into a blank state of mind. Soon I was deep in meditation and my mind seemed to have split into two parts. My ‘ordinary’ mind was keenly aware of the noises around, even though they were all just a mosaic of sounds rather than anything distinguishable. My meditative mind was travelling deeper into the rabbit hole provided by the Yew Tree and its conducive environment.

I heard people milling around but I had no idea what they were doing or saying. My meditative mind had the upper hand and was interested in focusing on the questions I had come here to answer. I began.

1. Was I right in thinking that I had a bit more time to complete my previous quest? – YES, until Solstice, but beyond that the advantages would be rendered useless.
2. What is the nature of my Beltane quest? – To find this answer you must go deeper.
3. Is the quest related to a hawk, the Hawk of May – YES, but to find out how you must go deeper. Give more of yourself.

I decided to go deeper. I re-doubled my efforts to sink deeper into trance, blocking out all the real-world noise that was still lingering in the other half of my mind. The noise went quieter and quieter until it was a distant whisper compared to the infinite blackness of the Yew Tree’s enshrouding presence. I began to open my chakras up to the influence of the old tree – I trusted it implicitly now. I poured out my spiritual experience through the chakra points in turn. As I got to the third-eye chakra there was an intensifying violet colour in the front of my mind. I decided that I should stick with this as it was the only chakra point that had shown a colour during the opening process.

As I filled my inner vision with this violet pigment suddenly I heard the message loud and clear – “See with the hawk’s vision!”

The magical yew tree's insides

Here was the hawk as a symbol of this day again – The Hawk of May. I pushed further. What kind of vision, I asked? I was suddenly elevated to a view over the land where I could see for miles in each direction, yet I could also bring my vision to a fine point in order to focus on one small aspect of the landscape below with an uncanny precision. Was this literal, or a metaphor?

When I came back to consciousness I was surrounded by four tree tourists – two couples who had come to see this famous tree but, as is often the way with people who are energetically unaware, they didn’t know what to do with themselves when they got to the tree and they quickly began to look around the church itself, and then even more quickly they moved on. One of the girls was interested enough to ask if it was a nice spot that I was sitting in. I replied that indeed it was, and that she should try it herself. I shouldn’t tease like that, but sometimes you do encounter energetically-aware people and it’s nice to pass on your experiences if you can. She lasted three seconds. Oh well!

Kal re-joined me and we discussed our stories about our recent experiences. Kal suggested that “the vision of the hawk” might be the next turn on the spiral of remote viewing. In other words – was I supposed to have another session of remote viewing but this time with all that I had learned since last time? Something I would have to consider and try for myself over the next few weeks, I thought.

Little did I know that soon the information would be revealed about what exactly the phrase “See with a hawk’s vision” meant. But that is for the final Beltane post coming soon.
Gwas

It was late Thursday evening and I had questions on my mind. The foremost being where to find the answers to the questions posed in this post.

Since I was currently located in the South-West of the UK, my personal preference was for something local-ish. Glastonbury? Avebury, Cornwall site? So I began my dowsing quest by asking whether a suitable site was South, East or North of here (West is the ocean).

I got a good indication for North. I then asked whether the site was one I had visited before? Yes. This was followed by me dowsing all the sites that where North of my position (which is most of the visited sites!) Finally and almost literally, finally. I got to Llangernyw Yew tree and the rods flew inwards. I sighed! I hadn’t planned to go North this coming weekend. But in anticipation of finding some answers, I managed to get out of work slightly early to make the five hour trip to the 4,500 thousand year old Ancient Yew tree.

I arrived at the church around 10.30 and was glad to just sit by the river that runs along the side and take a stretch and a rest. The view of the clear night sky with half moon glowing was, as always a wonder to behold. After some minutes of rest I climbed back up the stairway to go and be with the Yew tree. It is an amazing experience to be in the company of such a peaceful and knowledgable tree.

Dowsing suggested that lighting some incense would be auspicious and so I lit five sticks and placed them as directed by the rods. Standing amongst them, I asked the questions that had had my mind wandering:

Rosicrucians and Templar:

• Do I need to research these? No, not yet but I would after I had done some more work
• Rosicrucians or/and Templars? Neither, at the moment see above
• Do I need to visit some of their sites in Cornwall? Yes, and the first of these should be Temple

Green Knight myth:

• Was it just a pointer to Luds church? Yes, but there is more
• Do I need to create and go on a pilgrimage following his path? Yes
• When and through what sites? You will be given a sign

Holy Grail:

• Is there a relationship between this and the phoenix? Yes – transformation 
• And my book? Yes it represents your personal quest
• How can I believe this answer? How can you believe you’re talking to a tree?

Wand:

• Do I have to make this? Yes you should have done so already
• By when? Learn now!
• What to use? Start the journey and you will know

As always the Yew didn’t disappoint with its answers. I quite liked the chide in that “you are talking to a tree” quite amusing.

I also got a curious piece of knowledge…”Someone is coming to challenge you?” Me? No. Gwas!…interesting…and also this… “Destiny is not how the world sees you, but is how you see the world”

On our Llangollen day out the furthest point away from home was close to one of our favourite circles, Moel-Ty-Uchaf, but this day we were not going to climb up the incredibly steep track to that circle. This day we were parking mere feet away from the entrance to the circle called Tyfos.

The Legend and Symbolism of Typhon/Tyfos

The stone circle is named after one of the many names for the god Typhon- the great snake of Greek mythology that Hercules is destined to wrestle into submission. We see here the replaying of the battle between the God of the Sun (Hercules – the ultimate solar hero) and the God of the Moon (Typhon – the ultimate lunar god).

On the subject of Typhon being associated with the lunar aspects – the professor of astronomy Gerald Hawkins recognised that the 56 holes that Aubrey had identified around Stonehenge represented a method of plotting the lunar cycles over long periods of time:

“Hawkins argued that the Aubrey Holes were used to keep track of this long time period and could accurately predict the recurrence of a lunar eclipse on the same azimuth, that which aligned with the Heel Stone, every 56 years.

On astronomical symbolism several analysts from Gerald Hawkins to Anthony Johnson (ref. 3 ; pages 259-260) have noted that Plutarch ( in the Moralia, V) reported that Typhon / Seth in Egyptian and Greek myth was identified as the shadow of the Earth which covers the Moon during lunar eclipses. Plutarch further records that the Pythagoreans symbolically associated Typhon with a polygon of 56 sides. The connection of 56 to lunar eclipses is explicit.” (source: Wikipedia and Stonehenge Decoded)

What could Tyfos be a symbol of? The snake image seemed to hint at the earth energies, always described as serpents, later to become demonised by western cultures such as the Romans or Greeks and then on through the advent of Christianity. Also, we find that Typhos is a giant too. Again, the connection between the supposed construction of some of these megalithic sites by giants, or by people of ‘great stature’, if we can put it that way.

How can we therefore reconcile this mythological information with the information that we gained when we were there? One of the first things I did when I got on site was to check the astrological 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. of the circle. It was not aligned to any star except our own – The Sun. The site was solar-aligned and filled with solar energy. The only power centres that we found were three joined male centres – sun-aligned energy forms. If Tyfos was a lunar god, why was the site now solar aligned? One theory could be that the site was transformed. or re-aligned, maybe even rebuilt to reflect the “new” god of the Sun – to wrestle the power from the older Moon god. Pure speculation – I don’t have any evidence for this. Only archaeology or archaeological dowsing would find good evidence for such an idea.

Our visit

Kal seemingly picked the site at random because it sounded nice, but now he feels there is more to it than that. I will leave him to explain that aspect, but for me the Tyfos visit was a purely practical encounter with the energies. Once we had obtained permission to visit the site (easily done – the guy was very nice) we set about tracing the energies. I found one problem line which permeated the circle and when I dowsed for the source I was led back towards the house. Not wanting to appear rude I didn’t go all the way up to the house, but my intuition was that this was the source of this unhelpful and unhappy energy leaking into or being attracted into the stone circle.

Tyfos circle and nearby house

I asked if I could do anything about blocking or healing this energy and found that I could. Well, that’s all well and good but SHOULD I re-balance these energies? Could it be done without having any detrimental effects anywhere else that this site was linked to? The answer was a strong YES. Then clearly I should do what I could. To re-balance the energies I would need to re-balance the energies. How does one re-balance a male-dominated site? By introducing some female energies of course! But where from? As I asked the question I looked up slightly to scan the surroundings and found that I was already starting at a tall evergreen yew tree that was growing healthy and proud in the corner of the house’s garden bordering the field containing the stone circle. This tree would be the source of the female energy.

I wasn’t happy just to begin linking up to it – firstly I had to approach the tree to ask for help. Kal and I wandered over to see if the tree would agree to this idea. Surprisingly almost immediately we both got a pleasant positive feel from the tree and agreed we had the go-ahead signs to continue our work.

A helpful tree at Tyfos circle

I lit some sandlewood incense in the increasingly strong and cold wind, and placed three sticks at specific places where the dowsing rods indicated I should. Almost the moment they were placed and the tree was invited to let its energies flow into the circle Kal was dowsing a zig-zag flow of energy back into the stones that formed the low-lying circle. I followed his dowsing up by doing the same – dowsing back from the yew tree to the circle and I got the same Z-form path from incense stick to stick until the line ended at the very stone that Kal had placed his water bottle on top of. More than a coincidence, I felt. Female energy <- > water. This was the stone that Kal had intuited would be the best place to charge up his water bottle when he first arrived.

View across Tyfos

With the job done and the sun creeping lower and giving off less warmth than we would have liked we dowsed if our job was complete – it was. Time to retreat to the car and get ourselves warmed up ready for the next few sites of that day. As we left we discussed the coincidences that had arisen, and the way in which Kal had felt he was called, nay directed, to do particular tasks that had all turned out to contribute to this re-balancing work here at this stone circle. Sometimes it is difficult to gauge just how much our own free will is involved in these processes, but that’s a philosophical conundrum – for now we had done good work and were proud of our invisible mending.

Gwas.

This post is the second half of a post I did after the Summer Solstice. My purpose was to record the eight points in the year because at each of these artificial stages which were roughly aligned to the Celtic or Neo-Pagan calendar I would be seeking a task by communingAn interaction with an invisible and natural sentient force that is independently identifiable, even if it cannot be named or classified. The interaction takes place at the level of a subtle amalgamation of the mind of the perceiver such that a dialogue or transference of feelings may occur between the two sentient parties. The interaction that is ‘communing’ is purposefully initiated by the perceiver for the express purpose of learning or simply to transfer feelings in a sympathetic manner. with Nature. The task would be a guiding principle that I could use in order to develop spiritually along my chosen path of being a hedge druid. 

You can read about the first four “folds” of the year in my previous post, here. However, I will briefly recap the first four, before going on to describe the final four:- 

1. Yule to Imbolc – to be still, and to cleanse myself in preparation for the unfolding year. Accordingly I did nothing at all!
2. Imbolc to Spring Equinox – to awaken the energies of sacred sites; to contact spirits of place and prepare myself and sacred sites for the work ahead. I spent time communingAn interaction with an invisible and natural sentient force that is independently identifiable, even if it cannot be named or classified. The interaction takes place at the level of a subtle amalgamation of the mind of the perceiver such that a dialogue or transference of feelings may occur between the two sentient parties. The interaction that is ‘communing’ is purposefully initiated by the perceiver for the express purpose of learning or simply to transfer feelings in a sympathetic manner. with Spirits of Place and walking circles to awaken them.
3. Spring Equinox to Beltane – to connect to the earth’s energy grid; understand the nature of Neutral earth energy forms and to extract and utilise Neutral energy. I began to link to various sites, and connected myself to the earth grid. I investigated neutral energy and found something that I later called Primal Energy.
4. Beltane to Summer Solstice- 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 learned how to extract a single energy colour from my whole field, and how to combine them all into a white light energy.

All of this work seemed like a preparation for something. Little did I know! Now I present the final four folds of the year, and their increasingly complex task assignments:- 

SUMMER SOLSTICE to LAMMAS 

Summer Solstice

 The Summer Solstice is the easiest point in the year for us to define. Being sun-based this day is fixed upon the rise of the sun on the longest day of the year. As has become our custom this year would see Kal and I in Glastonbury for the Solstice, working on our heart chakra and finding out what the next part of the year was about. 

PURPOSE:  

• To wake The DragonDragons are spirit or energetic beings that reside in sacred sites and have a particular location in them and also move throughout the day (and or season). They also leave the sacred site on occasion, which again differentiates them from Genius Loci which don’t. and let it fly.

I firstly had to ensure that my heart chakra was well balanced and filled with the energies of the sun and the solstice. With the sun at its peak the perfect place to be for the Solstice always seems to be Glastonbury with its reputation for being the heart chakra of these islands, and Glastonbury Tor has a reputation within that reputation for being the heart of the Glastonbury. Well, yet again, we were not disappointed, either with the copious amounts of heart energy available in this town, or with the wonderful energies of this time of the year. 

My task to waking the dragonDragons are spirit or energetic beings that reside in sacred sites and have a particular location in them and also move throughout the day (and or season). They also leave the sacred site on occasion, which again differentiates them from Genius Loci which don’t. would take me eventually to Cadair Idris where I would walk along the back of the dragonDragons are spirit or energetic beings that reside in sacred sites and have a particular location in them and also move throughout the day (and or season). They also leave the sacred site on occasion, which again differentiates them from Genius Loci which don’t. to its head. There I did a walking meditation, collecting dragonDragons are spirit or energetic beings that reside in sacred sites and have a particular location in them and also move throughout the day (and or season). They also leave the sacred site on occasion, which again differentiates them from Genius Loci which don’t.’s teeth and using them to act as acupuncture points to release the spirit of the dragonDragons are spirit or energetic beings that reside in sacred sites and have a particular location in them and also move throughout the day (and or season). They also leave the sacred site on occasion, which again differentiates them from Genius Loci which don’t.. All this was done surrounded by the dragonDragons are spirit or energetic beings that reside in sacred sites and have a particular location in them and also move throughout the day (and or season). They also leave the sacred site on occasion, which again differentiates them from Genius Loci which don’t.’s breath – the mist. 

Since doing that act I have been able to feel energy much better than before. My dowsing response is also much stronger, and I often don’t need the rods to feel auras or to follow energy lines. I have also taken on a new appreciation for the power of the mountains. 

LAMMAS to AUTUMN EQUINOX 

Lammas - time of harvest

 As the summer ripens the crops so the year’s quest began to get more juicy. Rather than receiving some kind of prophetic vision instead I was given three little words, and from that phrase I had to extrapolate my own tasks. This was beginning to make me more independent. 

PURPOSE:  

• To make magic manifest
• To bring magic into daily use

I began to find meditation spaces in nature that I could retire to in order to do more work regularly. This worked while the weather stayed good and I got out often and did an almost daily meditation in nature. I began to work with my navel chakra and learned how to draw out invisible threads of energy that could be used to perform magic with. I incorporated several methods of connecting and drawing energy from nature to form energetic shapes around me for different purposes. 

At the end of this phase of the year I was much more familiar with, and happy to use, natural magickThis is a system of belief that is often defined as being the appropriation and re-use of naturally occurring forces for the purposes of healing, transformation, communication, or a host of other subtle effects. The natural elements of the magick can also be seen by the under-pinning concept that the use of these forces should be co-operative rather than coercive. on a daily basis. It had become a part of my routine and was now woven into the fabric of what I was trying to do to progress. Incense and crystals were valuable tools in this work, and I was using them often. 

AUTUMN EQUINOX to SAMHAIN  

The rise and fall of autumn

  As the leaves turned brown and fell I found myself enveloped in a long-term quest to re-energise particular sacred sites. The first one was local to me, but the second was in the town of Llangollen in North Wales. I found myself going to the hill of Dinas Bran a few times at all hours of the day and night after I received a curious riddle concerning Merlin. 

PURPOSE:  

• To journey into the Underworld and wake the Spirit of Merlin from his sleep

The instruction was accompanied by a riddle that gave me directions to follow in order to fulfil the quest to meet the spirit of Merlin. This quest involved the preparation of a wand of rowan, the location of a special stone church surrounded by ancient yew trees, and a deep meditation into the Underworld. This journey required me to learn new skills such as how to protect my energy body and make myself invisible to shades. 

When the quest was completed I had new stronger keener abilities, and I had performed a sort of alchemical wedding by combining within myself the forces of male and female energy. 

 SAMHAIN to WINTER SOLSTICE 

A time of the year associated with the veil between worlds, with death and the Underworld, with spirits and ghosts. It came as little surprise then that my new quest would be revealed at the tree most symbolic of this threshold – the yew. 

So many of this year’s quests have involved the ancient yew tree at Llangernyw that I have lost count. It seems to be our natural starting point because of its incredible energies, and its association with the concept of shamanic journeying. It is truly a gateway between worlds. The Samhain quest began with the tree too. As with many of the quests it sounded simple, but was actually the most complex and dangerous yet.   

The frost returns

 PURPOSE:  

• To free spirits.

Such a simple statement, but when unpacked, so complex to deliver. For this task I have had to do a lot of background reading about the concept of spirit rescue or release. 

I have also had to confront a great deal of my own inner philosophical prejudices concerning the way that the world is constructed, and what it means to venture beyond the veil of death. This feels like a natural extension of my journey into the Underworld, which at the time I took to be a metaphorical journey until the seriousness was impressed upon me. It was a real journey, and failure to prepare could result in actual physical repercussions. 

This quest also has a serious side. Whilst I am tasked with learning new skills, and understand that performing spirit rescue is a question of choice, nevertheless there could and no doubt will be some hairy and scary moments along this path, for which I have to prepare properly. 

Summary 

The first half of the year was concerned with me locking myself into the rhythm of the seasons. It involved tasks that were mainly preparatory – at the start of the year I was idle, resting, recuperating my energy levels and winding myself up to race headlong at the year. Then I was gently re-introduced to the energies of the land as they returned, and was given the task to co-operate in the re-introduction of energy back into the sacred sites that I love. 

The turning point was the Summer Solstice. From then on the quests became very personal and very challenging. They began to involve me having to learn new skills. The quests sometimes included riddles for me to solve, clues to information that would help me to achieve the results. I worked hard to embrace each new quest, and tried my utmost to meet the requirements in the timescales laid out by the passing of the year. I was rewarded at each stage with new powers, new skills and new insights into the world of Natural MagickThis is a system of belief that is often defined as being the appropriation and re-use of naturally occurring forces for the purposes of healing, transformation, communication, or a host of other subtle effects. The natural elements of the magick can also be seen by the under-pinning concept that the use of these forces should be co-operative rather than coercive., subtle energies, and the world beyond the senses. 

I know that each of the quests that I undertook was but an introduction to the breadth and depth of the skills that a hedge druid could be required to master. I now look forward to repeating this process next year, and once I have a second year to compare this year to, I will look to see whether there are any obvious correspondences and patterns which will allow me to be even better prepared in the following years. 

The Wheel of the Year has rolled forward and I have moved with it. Now I feel the wind rushing through my hair and it is exhilarating! 

Gwas.

Related post: My Eight Fold Year – the first four folds

Llangernyw, Conwy, Wales – 23rd October, 2010

For the first half of the year our visits to Llangernyw were characterised by Kal having experiences or encounters with death energies, earthbound spirits or shades, however you want to term the spirits of the dead. As befits a graveyard they are around and about and thanks to the pacifying influence of the yew tree in the churchyard they are docile. My visits to this churchyard were characterised by me taking the mickey out of Kal for being named “Spirit Walker” by the yew tree, and for having the kinds of encounters that he continually rejected. Then came Samhain 2010 and the tables turned.

The church entrance way at Llangernyw

We arrived at the end of our interesting Samhain journey at Llangernyw churchyard. The now familiar posters and small hand-made signs greeted us telling us all about how the Christian profession was going to celebrate this turning point in the year. This always makes me consider how long the yew tree has been there on that ground – long before the Christian religion was even invented, yet along when this particular church was built.

I immediately went to speak with the tree. Kal had wandered off somewhere else, but I was dead set on finding out what the next part of the year held in store for me. Little did I know what I was about to let myself in for! I meditated a while and connected to the tree, introducing myself as usual, and asking the tree for guidance as to what my quest might be. In my mind I got a picture of the portal stones at the rear of the church and heard the words “Go to the portal stones” in my mind. As usual this was in my own voice, but a deep version of it, and I felt it was some otherness that was producing that phrase. I thanked the tree and swiftly moved around to the other side of the church to find the stones.

The portal stones at Llangernyw

I stood between the portal stones and felt the energy flowing immediately. This was not my energy, but energy that is flowing between the stones by itself. I stood between them and felt myself go into a meditative trace, a receptive state of mind to hear whatever would arise in my mind. Very quickly the words came to me “Free Spirits“. Just that. That was my simply-stated yet clearly complex task – to learn how to free the energies of the dead. Niiiiice. Not something I had anticipated doing, and something that I knew Kal had already rejected. Still, I reasoned, if unquiet energies were disrupting a sacred site then they might need to be cleared so that I could revitalise the earth grid? We will see.

That was our amazing and enlightening Samhain day as we moved into the final stage of the year up to Yule. It seemed that I had taken over the mantle of Spirit Walker and would be the one who would be learning how to deal with spirits and to free them from whatever was binding them. All this was to be learned and practised until absorbed into everyday use. These are the tasks of a practising hedge druid.

Gwas.