Paimpont – Wednesday 13th May
This is the very last of the Brittany visit posts. I promise. If you haven’t been persuaded yet that there are multitudinous opportunities for discovery in this beautiful part of the world then you may never be. Notwithstanding, this last post was perhaps the most serene and magical of them all, and all that was down to the surroundings of the Paimpont Forest.
A random outing into the woods surrounding the picturesque town of Paimpont brought to light a quite wonderful surprise.
A tourist map showed a number of megalithic sites in the area, most notably Merlin’s Tomb! Well, what a nice surprise! We ventured off after looking at the old abbey and having a nice lunch with the locals in a nearby bistro.
The sunlight dappled the road as we drove along the beautiful avenues between the trees to emerge at a small car park near St.Melon village.
A 4Km walk had been designed around the two sites that supposedly housed the sites of Arthurian legend – Merlin’s Tomb and Vivien’s Well.
The first to appear was Merlin’s Tomb. The site was a small circle of some remaining stones about two or three feet high, and two central stones about five feet high with a small tree in between them.
I dowsed around the area and found no energy at all from the surrounding stones, which was quite surprising. The central stones looked more promising, having small clumps of beautiful wild flowers at their base. The rods registered a male line coming out of the surface of one stone, going around the small inner circle marked by some embedded modern stones, and going back into the flat surface of the other stone. Neat! However, there was no other energy present at the site. The energy here was simply the nemeton and male plant energy from the small tree at the centre of the monument. No human energy, or death energy?
If this was the supposed tomb of Merlin, presumably a site of some devotion if authentic, then why was there so little energy here? Merlin is an archetype, in my considered opinion, rather than a real person from history, so I asked a question of the dowsing rods – the kind of question that makes Kal wince: “Was this site considered to be Merlin’s tomb?” YES. “Had this site ever seen the presence of Merlin as a human being?” NO. Satisfactory enough for me.
We continued walking to Vivien’s Well, which turned out to be a disgracefully neglected circle of stagnant water that no human being nor animal would ever consider drinking from.
A short way away from that was something a bit more interesting – it was a small quarried circular area within which people had constructed lots of small cairns of stones. Amused, M and I added our own cairns, or added stones to existing ones. It was all very peculiar but fun.
The rest of the walk was simply stunning, If this is the forest that people considered Merlin to have wished to be his final resting place, myth or man, then he had chosen well.
It was possibly the most beautiful forest walk I had ever been on, and that’s saying something coming from a man who seeks out forest walks at every available opportunity.
I heartily recommend it if you are in the area and wish to re-energise your soul.
Gwas.
Making a small pile of stones balance.
Dear David,
I stumbled on your site by chance ( no such thing …as the french say il y a pas d’hazard!)
Interesting to read a site coming from more than just a tourists view of Brocéliande. Beautifully written and some good photographs to boot.
I moved here in 2005 and left Bristol where I was an art and photography teacher……. haven’t looked back, each day I live in Brocéliande is a gift. I now teach art here and exhibit and sell my work, that happens to be just the thing here. Have met some very interesting people..some authentic and some just plain weird.
Anyway the reason of my reply. I spent the night of Samhain at Merlin’s tomb, and the monday 1st november in the area. It is a very beautiful site and the region is as you say magically charged, despite the tourists and the people who come and go it still holds it’s force.
When arriving at the site the first thing to do is be aware of the portals that lead up to the site. Not the stones put there to direct visitors.. but the trees. There are a number of trees that act as doorways leading you up to the site proper. At each doorway it is necessary to stop and give thanks, or you are just a “tourist”.
When you are lined up with the way in, then you get what you were looking for.
Arriving at the circle it is necessary to open the energy ..cosmic or telluric by walking around the tomb three times sunwise or widdershins.
Needless to say the time I spent at Merlin’s tomb last week was wonderful. If you want to know more please email me!
You are right about the tree though…….a powerful guardian of the space.
Merlin? archetype of the third age of man ( like the triple goddess) when men become sage, teacher by experience not teacher by knowledge. ( The period I have just entered )
Trugarez
Nik
Well put sir. I see that we are on similar paths and at similar stages. My esoteric aim is also to reach this level of teacher by experience, and I like the term a lot for it expresses the gnostic element of the work involved. Not to say I don’t do a whole heap of book-learning too, but… your point stands. Merlin as the archetype of the sage of experience.
Gwas.
Well what a very interesting article. I have recently returned from north wales on holiday, my dear wife Sue and I visited Taliesins tomb..very strange place, some folk believe this tomb to be Merlins, what do you think ? I hope to return next year with scientific instruments plus photography to spend the night at the tomb, if you can reply I will send piks of our recent visit. Many thanks for your very interesting web site…Very good reading.
David Bradbury…UK
Hello David,
Why on earth have I never thought to go visit this place? It’s relatively close to me and it’s a subject dear to my heart! Thank you for putting it right there into the front of my mind, and top of the list to go to for my forthcoming visits. In the meantime, please do forward on any pictures you have to gwasmyrrdyn@hotmail.co.uk (that’s right – I spelt it wrongly when I created the account!). If you also want I could load them up into the gallery, tagged with a credit to you? Up to you. I’m sure they’re wonderful and people would like to see them.
As for whether it’s Merlin’s tomb – a spot of on-the-spot dowsing is required for something as complex as that. I wouldn’t trust hearsay or remote dowsing. I’ll have to get right there and see what happens. The whole Merlin story is such a tricky subject – was he English, Welsh or Scottish? Is he real, mythological, or symbolic, or all three?
Thanks,
Gwas.