A night in the forest

In my previous post “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” I was given 5 unshakable tasks. As I mentioned there I was told not to reveal the nature of the tasks until I had completed each of them.

Last night I completed one of the five tasks. by going into the forest alone and spending a wakeful night listening to forest, branch, creatures and earth.

It was about 8pm in the evening and I had figured that tonight would be the night to do this. I had my instructions…go as you would normally go, which meant to me that I shouldn’t take any extra gear.

I dowsed to see whether Alderley Edge forest or Delemere forest was suitable. They both were and so I picked Alderley Edge as it is one that I feel warm to.

I arrived at the “wizards” forest around 9pm and took:

• my dowsing rods
• some candles
• crystals
• lighter (and matches)
• incense

Noticeably I didn’t take my mobile phone!

Dark and Silent

I guess that the sun was on the horizon if not below it when I ventured into the forest. The Edge being quite high relatively speaking there was still light penetrating enough to give it a magical feel and though it has been raining a lot over the last few days it was reasonably dry in the forest.

Honestly I wasn’t too happy going in but the promise (of the next level of the spiral) kept me from turning around and heading back out.

It was quite funny as I walked into the depths of the forest. I wasn’t scared of getting lost in the dark since my intention was to stay until the morning. That made me laugh as I walked deeper into the darkening gloom.

In no time at all the forest I had reached a point where I couldn’t hear the cars on the road and also couldn’t see anything either. It was pitch (quite literally) black. As I moved about waiting for my really poor night vision to kick in a line from the Hobbit played in my mind…

When Gandalf left the hobbits at the edge of Mirkwood, he calls after them in an echoing voice…”Don’t leave the path” Ironic really since I am in the forest of the Wizards.

After being in the forest about an hour or so (I guess since I didn’t have any meanings of determining the time) I realised that other than a draft post on this site, no one knew where I was. Quite comforting, Not!

Night vision, such as it was had kicked in and I could actually see a little bit which surprised me as there wasn’t any source of light. Definitely not enough to walk around with, but a thought came to me as the Nth branch slapped my face…”I wonder if I could use my dowsing rods to navigate me to a good place?” To do what though? Might as well start with a meditation of some kind. So I pulled out a rod and gave it a “stern” command. “Take me by the safest, with no stumbling and branch hitting route, to a place that it would be good for me to meditate.”

And I was off, putting my faith in the rods I ambled off in the direction that I felt them turning as I could barely see them. I wouldn’t have called it “no stumbling” but I was walking off the forest paths which would have been smoother.

After a good long walk, with surprisingly no serious tripping or face slapping I could see signs of artificial lights ahead and the rods had brought me to a dark place by a tree.

Meditation

I hunkered down, in the relatively dry and warm open aired place and stared down at the lights of civilisation.

Although the day had been quite warm and it was warm in the forest. Here on the “Edge” it was getting quite cold and since I had no extra protective gear I decided to get the meditation over with and return to the dark, but warm interior.

A quick set of dowsing advised no crystals, incense or candles. So it was just me and the view. I sat back against a tree and contemplated the night before me.

There is an odd kind of serenity when you are out in the dark, particularly when you have taken an extra step and gone “beyond” the confines of the civilised world. Looking down upon “the world” I felt both connected and apart from it.

The essence of my meditation captured this mood, the duality of being, individual and yet connected. I considered Gwas’s position of Hedge Druidry and realised how it became non-sequitur. No matter how far you travelled into the “Edge” your behind was still firmly in other world. The art then it seemed to me was to balance this duality and to realise that we are always in both – it is just that some people have more of their “behind” in the, as Gwas calls it, mundane world.

Fear

I was amazed! There is nothing like darkness in a forest. You can flap your hands in front of your face and nothing, nada, zip! It was not long before the dark enclosed me and I was wondering, not for the last time, what the heck am I doing here?

With your sight gone, hearing takes on a enhanced mode and it wasn’t long before I was hearing things. In the distance I could hear the occasional car go by and that brought some comfort with it. Life still existed “out there”. Funny how the mind plays tricks on you.

An interesting memory returned to me regarding a time many years ago when I was lost in a forest in Switzerland. At that time I thought I was going to die and we (there were three of us) nearly did, but we got lucky. I wondered how that trip would have been if I had been an experienced dowser?

My meditation or more like a reverie concluded with me needing to get up and move about a bit. I asked the rods if I was done, and by the distant light of streets I managed to see a “yes” – where next? the rods pushed me off into the darkness!

Blind Faith

Madness, a definition would be, “walking around in complete darkness following dowsing rods that you can’t really see, only feel vaguely the direction they are pulling in”.

As I write this my mind goes back to all the dowsing experience and I can never recall the rods plowing into a tree when asked to show a place (they do when we’re following energy lines however).

With this hindsight note, I look back at a period of walking in the forest for about 30 minutes, having not tripped over any branches or run into any trees (as I said it was pitch black) and indeed I had my eyes closed (might as well) so as to not get hit in the eyes with a stray branch (I had taken my glasses off, pointless).

So, with eyes closed I literally put blind faith in my rods and intuition and never once did I falter. Which is amazing because I wasn’t on any of the paths. This was off the path stuff.

After a few minutes of walking a lesson from Carlos Castaneda came back to me and I began walking in “giant steps”. This is where you lift your foot up at the knee’s so that with each step your knee comes up to waist height. With this odd motion I failed to trip on any straggling plants.

Eventually though the rods led me to some massive bushes. I stopped and examined them with my hands, it was quite a large mass some twenty foot in circumference. The rods informed me that I needed to go into the center of them. So feeling for the weakest point I waded in.

In the center of the bushes was a tree by which I was to spend some time. So sat uncomfortably on some bushes I sat with my hands on the tree behind me.

Depth of Communing

I think that only at the ancient yew have I had such a fantastic communing experience. Perhaps it was the darkness or maybe the absurdity of my situation (perched on bushes). Whatever it was I was “connected” to that tree for about twenty minutes!

Revelations or Realisations

I gained many insights whilst sitting under that tree. The one that hit me the most was the reflection that my current situation, in the dark, alone and scared was very similar to the current life situation I was going through.

My thoughts came in the form of questions and answers.

• You are in the dark, yet you know where you are
• You are alone and yet you are not alone
• You are scared and yet you don’t run
• You don’t know what will happen yet you came here of your own choice

I reflected on these responses with remarkable clarity. So much so that for a few minutes I forgot the uncomfortableness of my plight and the creepie crawlies that were probably wandering about me.

Creepy Crawlies

Ok, I am really uncomfortable with small things. I am getting better, all this hiking about in nature, I either have to get used to it or stop the hiking. Still…Eugh! So although I was in revelation city, I just had to get out o there and do a quick mad dance to ensure that the fleas, spiders and any other such critter was removed – yes I realise that this was only a psychological exercise!

Comforting Trees

By now I reckoned I had been in there for about 4 hours and it was probably another 4 before the sun was up. I wasn’t going to try and sleep somewhere – more madness – so I decided to follow the rods. They took me off on a tree tour. I travelled from tree to tree, each being some 5 minutes walk from each other and spent some time in connection with each one and still marvelling at how I wasn’t falling or crashing into things.

• You don’t know anything and yet you trust your intuition

At one point I “felt” the rods make a left motion and I ignored it for a couple of steps and slipped down the side of a slope for a few feet. Unfortunately to stop my fall I had to drop my rod and though I had a go at finding it, no chance.

So now I had only one rod and was well and truly muddy. I got the message too! Keep an eye on your intuition! I continued my perambulation for another twenty minutes until the rods took me back on a main path and started a long journey.

Dawn

I had been walking along the paths now for about twenty minutes when I saw where I was heading, yes I could see. It was back to the opening that looked out over the Edge. My rod twirled on a nearby spot, which I think was quite close to Gwas’s power center.

And I sat there with my thoughts wondering, shaded from the cold somewhat with the comfort of a large tree and the occasional twinkle of lights in the distance.

An hour or so later I was in expectation of the dawn sun rising when I realised that I wouldn’t get a good view here. I asked the rods (er rod) whether I should stay or go? Stay, ok…

I sat again for another twenty or so minutes, but really wanted to be in a sunrise view place, so I asked the rods again…they said stay. Ok…

Finally, I thought…what the heck! So I asked the rod to take me to the place where I would get the best out of sunrise. I expected them to twirl right back where I was already but no, off they (it) went…

I was walking through the forest again, but it was getting light enough to see, and oddly, I started to trip over the occasional root???

Some time later I broke through some trees and came out of the forest and was facing a field and I swear, just as I came out of the trees, the sun edged over the horizon! Wow – Coincidence!

Four to go

I enjoyed the sun until it was completely visible and then drove home completely exhausted but moved by my experience.

Kal.