Kells: The Cross of Mysteries

This is the third place visited on my chakra trail in Ireland. In this part I was looking to unblock, balance or boost my solar plexus chakra. Kells is a town steeped in history, and one whose reputation precedes it. However, if you’re not aware of its reputation, let me list some of the things that Kells is famous for:-

• The Book of Kells – an early illustrated manuscript depicting and relating the four Christian Gospels of the New Testament.
• The Abbey of Kells, with its round tower, associated with St Columba
• The five large celtic crosses in the churchyard at the Abbey.
• Pierce Brosnan lived in Kells from a young age until he was about 18.

…and that’s all you need to know about Kells. Basically, there’s a strong Christian connection, with a subtle undercurrent of Celtic paganism.

A Helpful Warning

This is probably one of the most controversial posts I have made so far, and I do realise it may alienate some people. If you have followed me on this journey so far then you might be in a better position to read this post and see what I am saying. If you are reading this post in isolation from the journey I have made so far then this might be a bit too much to take, and I would ask you to skip back a bit to catch up! Let me give you fair warning. Some of the subjects covered in this post are:

• reclaiming the Christian cross symbol
• ascended masters / spirit guides
• chakras

The terms “ascended master” and “spirit guide” are interchangeable in this context, so read whichever you are more comfortable with. I kind of “broke the seal” on this kind of thing when I posted recently about the ‘leprechaun’ entity that I had encountered. I have held off telling you anything else because….well, frankly, I wouldn’t know how to take this if I were reading it! I only know that, deluded as I am, I’m reporting what I find. I know what you’re thinking – what happened to the good old “do a bit of dowsing, report the findings…” blog that you used to know and love? Well, it was the dowsing that has taken me to these areas in the first place, so blame that! There’s a point you reach where you begin to test some of these esoteric ideas, and then a path opens up….well, if you’ve been following me for a while you know how I got here. There’s no turning back now! What can I say?

“The world is not only stranger than we suppose – it’s stranger than we CAN suppose!” (to mis-quote JBS Heldane).

Luckily, to support my soon-to-be-revealed point of view I quote Haldane’s other memorable conception:-

“I suppose the process of acceptance will pass through the usual four stages:
(i) this is worthless nonsense;
(ii) this is an interesting, but perverse, point of view;
(iii) this is true, but quite unimportant;
(iv) I always said so.”

I think it is pertinent for me to list some general information about that chakra to start with, because it will help to make sense of what happened to me at Kells. General properties associated with the Solar Plexus chakra are :-

• Physical Location – solar plexus
• Purposes – mental understanding of emotional life
• Spiritual Lesson – acceptance of your place in the life stream. (self-love)
• Physical Dysfunctions– stomach ulcers, intestinal tumors, diabetes, pancreatitis, indigestion, anorexia/bulimia, hepatitis, cirrhosis, adrenal imbalances, arthritis, colon diseases
• Mental and Emotional Issues – self esteem, fear of rejection, oversensitivity to criticism, self-image fears, fears of our secrets being found out, indecisiveness
• Information Stored Inside Sacral Chakra – personal power, personality, consciousness of self within the universe (sense of belonging), knowing
• Area of Body Governed – upper abdomen, umbilicus to rib cage, liver, gallbladder, middle spine, spleen, kidney, adrenals, small intestines, stomach

(source: About.com)

Click below for the interesting bit of this story.

Reclaiming The Cross

In Reiki treatment, which is the healing form of using the energies that we play with, the sacral chakra is also called “the cross centre” (e.g. see here). This correlation only became known to me as I began to piece together the parts of this post, and it’s another example of the way in which these events unfold in perfect innocence (or subconsciously, if you prefer), only to reveal strong and meaningful connections when researched and resolved.

With his breakthrough album “Jehovahkill” [buy] Julian Cope revealed his desire to reclaim the symbol of the cross – to re-establish its meaning to modern pagans by removing the fear instilled by this symbol; a fear which has been generated when people instinctively turn away from the prevailing orthodox religions for whom the cross has become their banner and emblem.

“The lovely ‘Akhenaten’ was a raw and surprisingly melodic personal reflection that summed up one of the primary themes of the album, that of Julian’s former “fear of the cross” and his ultimate realization that the image of the cross was important in ancient religions long before it was subsumed by Christianity. He invokes the ancient practice of standing in the shape of a cross, arms outstretched, accepting creation (the cover of ‘Jehovahkill’ depicts the outline of the Standing Stones of Callanish, in the outer Hebrides, which were built in the shape of a Celtic cross 3000 years before the Christian Era).” (source: Jeff Fitzgerald)

This album has always held a particular fascination for me as it articulated, and possibly re-kindled, a deep desire to connect with the land in which I have always lived. So many of the themes such as megalithic sites, ancient belief systems, symbols and a love for the landscape all seemed to converge to make me appreciate the world around me in a new and exciting way. It would be another fifteen years, though, before I began to bring all of this together into a coherent. motivating, and life-directing way.

The Role of Theodora

When Kal and I arrived at our hotel for the week the landlady had asked if we were here “for the crosses”. We had no idea what she was talking about, but then found out from her that the area around Meath and the Boyne Valley in particular was home to some ancient “christian” crosses that were inscribed with some beautiful celtic designs. We thought no more about it. Until we went to Tara on the first evening.

At Tara I had been attracted to a lone Celtic Cross and had sat beside it. I called upon a spiritual friend of mine, and Theodora, my helpful lad guide, appeared nearby. Who appeared? Who is this Theodora lady? OK. I’ve been holding out on you all. A while back I was reading the Matthews’ “Walkers Between The Worlds” and i tried one of their experiments – to call upon a spirit guide. And….one appeared to me. She was very elusive. I never saw anything but the briefest glimpse of her, hiding behind nearby objects, a fleeting overlay of a shadow in the corner of my (mind’s) eye. Of course, I dowsed the hell out of her, to coin a phrase!! Who was she? Why was she here? What help could she be? Why me? Where had she come from? The dowsing revealed little except that our paths were intertwined and that to help me she would be helping herself. As to who she was…well, the only positive response I got from a list of possible energetic entities was when I said the dreaded words “ascended master”.  You have to realise, Kal and I have certain boundaries beyond which we start to panic. Those trigger words are:-

• angels
• channeling
• spirit guides
• God
• ascended masters

I checked the dowsing close to fifty times or more. Every time she was registering as an Ascended Master. Oh dear. What now? Let’s just say that I have kept my distance since then, interacting with her only when I couldn’t think of any other source of assistance to guide me. To be fair, it’s my hang-up. She’s never done me any wrong (as far as I know) and I’m probably being over-cautious, but…”ascended masters”….. really? Have you SEEN the list of “known” masters? It reads like all the folks that the loonies call up when they want to blame someone else! And you think I’m crazy…man, this just smacks of another level, another league of crazy that I honestly haven’t got the time for!

So, if you’re still reading, I’ll carry on. Theodora appeared to me at Tara. I have called upon Theodora in the past and felt her to be there. I have visualised her presence before and been able to picture her black form in my mind. Now she was peeping around the Mound of the Hostages in the near distance in the kind of “overlay” that I have mentioned previously when talking about “seeing” energy lines. I could see her black form looking at me as she has done so before, as always hiding her face from me in the deep cowl she wears.

This spiritual entity, Theodora, is a guide to me in my progress along “The Path”. She ensures that I don’t get myself into too much trouble, energetically and with entities that I can’t handle. She usually appears as an older lady dressed in a black gown, cowled and with her face hidden. She has the ability to guide and teach me. At Tara she appeared and showed me pictures in my mind that guided me towards this chakra quest, helping me subsequently (I believe) to choose the correct places local to me for me to do this spiritual work. Now, here we were at Kells – a place famous for its Celtic Crosses, and I felt she might be a part of this particular chakra work.

The Crux of the Matter

So, you see now how I got to this point? Here I am, stood in the churchyard at the Abbey of Kells, and finding that it has five of the oldest and largest Celtic Crosses. I’m at the stage where I have asked to be taken to a place where I can work on my sacral (solar plexus) chakra and this is where the dowsing has brought us. As I’m looking at the first large cross I get a flashback to Tara – “Remember Theodora?”, it said to me. I dismissed it – I’m here to dowse what to do, not to go down THAT route!

The dowsing proves tricky. We were posed lots of riddles and head-scratching questions here, finding stuff that just puzzled us, stuff that didn’t seem to be related to anything or which didn’t make sense. I’d like to report some of it, but I now feel that it was all a ruse to make us give up and do something else. Which I did. But before I did I found a ley line going from a blocked up door in the old church through the main church and emerging out the other side to pass through the largest celtic cross. That brought me neatly round to sit at the base of the cross and have a think….

Sitting on the Celtic Cross step my mind went blank even though tens of questions were floating round – they vanished in the kind of puff of logic that Douglas Adams reserved for the proof of God’s non-existence (see ‘Chapter 6’). I called upon Theodora’s help and immediately I saw my ascended master sitting beside me – much closer than she has ever been before. I sensed she was there to help, and I felt that she was comfortable being around celtic crosses – they were some form of portal for her, or symbol she could use to contact me. I was taken aback at how close she was to me, but recognised that this encounter was more meaningful than any other so far, and so ventured to ask a question without looking at her directly. I asked if she would help me balance and boost my sacral chakra. She appeared to nod and then disappeared. I was left….wondering and musing.

Somehow, in a way that I didn’t recognise, Theodora cleared my solar plexus chakra when I opened up a channel to her. I know not how. All I know is that my mind went mystical and I felt…centred, appeased, in tune with life, un-fazed by all that had happened to date in Ireland. Being so centred I went to see if Kal needed any help with his work. We chatted about his progress (he was still mulling over the mysteries that Kells had thrown up) and so I wandered off to a different part of the churchyard, realising that that was not why I was at this site.

I went back to where I had seen Theodora at the base of the broken cross and called upon her again. Would I be able to make use of her guidance a second time or was I asking too much? I lulled myself into no-mind at the base of the cross again and a dark form appeared again near to me. She seemed to project some thoughts or images into my mind, for they began to appear unbidden. The dark-cowelled lady showed me the energy rising within me, through my spine, but it stopped at my heart and wouldn’t move further. The pressure built until it burst out and now I could no longer contain the energy within me, for it was leaking everywhere! I understood that I had to have my heart chakra cleared out, un-blocked, or I would not be able to proceed any further.

This whole episode was very odd, and not something that I felt I was in control of. It was a lesson in working with other spirit entities to achieve chakra levelling, and perhaps there is a lesson in there for me about trusting some of these Otherworld contacts, but it always leaves me nervous. Slowly, and especially after this helpful incident and the closeness exhibited, I am beginning to trust in the guidance of this spirit guide.

Summary

Do you see now why this was a difficult but necessary post for me to put out there? Let me refer you back to some of those qualities associated with the Solar Plexus or Sacral Chakras:-

• acceptance of your place in the life stream
• self esteem, fear of rejection, oversensitivity to criticism, self-image fears, fears of our secrets being found out, indecisiveness
•  personal power, personality, consciousness of self within the universe (sense of belonging), knowing

From this incident I learned a lot about growth through truth and revealing. I am now much happier with myself and who I am after this episode. It may sound ridiculous to those who have not undergone such a process, but that is the story of my clearing the sacral chakra and the benefits that it brought me. Now I have no shame in saying so openly and publicly.

I hope you’re still with me? See you next time when I talk about our return to Knowth, one of the great Boyne Valley megalithic structures, and how we learned some of its secrets in relation to energy work.

Gwas.