Thursday 23rd September – Dinas Bran, Llangollen, Clwyd, Wales.
In the final of our site visits on this Autumn Equinox day we chose the destination that had been our first and only firm choice the whole while – the hill of Dinas Bran, the castle fortress of the legendary Bran the Blessed. The hill stand out as a prominent feature of the Llangollen valley scenery, and is visible to travellers along the major route nearby called the A5 road, the road which eventually take you almost to Snowdon.
The weather was turning sour, squally and with an intermittent cold rain which threatened to make our most important visit our most challenging. First, however, was the challenge of getting up the steep slope. Luckily, we dared to try a new route up and this cut at least a quarter of the walking out. We were slightly spared, yet still my calf muscles threatened to tighten and lock up in the face of another ‘killer’ ascent, so we took it very slowly.
No-one else was around on such a day as this, but they missed out on several rewards. My first reward was a beautiful yet faint rainbow that arced from the amazing cliff faces across the valley and climbed high over Dinas Bran, then to fall touching the other hills on the far side of the valley. It was glorious and fragile, like a fleeting reminder that sun could triumph this day against the glowering forces of thick grey rain-laden clouds that ringed the valley. Then, as my mind was entering into a form of walking meditation mode, a hawk appeared showering we weary travellers in its identifiable shrieks and circling around us only some tantalising hundred feet higher than us, skimming the ruins of the castle and surfing the updraught of the slopes.
The rain began to wet our weary faces as we reached the summit, ignoring our usual energetic paths and simply keeping to the more ready-made walkways. It made sense as the wind was picking up and the surfaces were slick and shiny with rainwater that we didn’t go seeking subtle entry ways along craggy and hairy side paths of our own making.
It began to rain hard as we entered the castle ruins, and our first task was to find a suitable shelter. Initially one of the skeletal walls was enough to fend off the driving rain, but as it got wetter we sought out the one corner of the castle walls where a dry spot remained. As I sat in this corner, moulding my body to the stone and waiting for the rain to abate Kal strode out into the squall and stood there proudly holding his dowsing rods. He began to dowse. I watched in admiration of his bravery, and with a slight giggle at his stupidity, given that he was the least well equipped for the weather. Kal, in fact, is always the least well equipped for the weather of anyone who could possibly be found wandering around the wilds of Britain. Still, he has this unshakable faith that the weather will do right by him. Sometimes he is right. Today, he was more than right. By the time he had turned around to walk along to dowse his third question the rain had disappeared completely to be replaced by a kind of grey silence – a sort of begrudging pause in the weather. As I came out too and began to dowse, so the act of the two of us working at this site brought about a sliver of weak sunlight that bathed the hilltop in a surreal back-light, but for which we were very grateful. He had done it again – he’d made the rain stop.
Bran offers a verse to wake Merlin
I had created a crystal layout using my dowsing rods and some intuitively acquired crystals about a month ago. Since then I have never had occasion to use it. For some reason I had brought it with me up to Dinas Bran, so when I dowsed that I would need some protection I deferred the responsibility to the crystal layout and began to place the crystals around me in the pattern I had worked out previously.
I was astonished how quick and easy it was to connect to the spirit of Bran. Having already visited the site to work out the best place for such a connection, and having protection already catered for by the crystals, I was free to properly immerse myself in setting up an energetic connection with this monumental mythical spirit of place. Bran kindly responded clearly and distinctively with his authoritative yet comforting voice. Perhaps having his sigil etched into my staff was allowing me a clearer channel of communion?
I asked Bran how I would wake the spirit of Merlin, what words could I use? I understood that the answers may come in many forms, but I had expected something visual, either inside my head or around me. Instead the answer was alarming and required me to quickly grasp what was going on so as not to miss anything. I began to talk in Welsh! I heard the word “Merddin” and I recognised that much. This was something about Merlin, my druidic namesake. What were the other words though? I quickly memorised them and then spoke them into my phone’s in-built recorder so that I could replay them later when I needed to work out what the words were.
When I got home I found the following closest matches to the sounds I had made:
Cryf coch
is lau Merddin
ail eglwys carreg.
My understanding of Welsh extends no further than saying “Hello“, “I am from Barry“, and “Do you work?“. This Welsh phrase came from somewhere deep inside me. They just seemed to emerge slowly and deliberately, like an elder teaching speech to a child, and I had to remember to listen to myself and repeat them. Of course, I had no idea whether they were real words, whether they made sense when put together, or what they would say. In the next post, I will tell you how I have interpreted these three lines. Those of you who speak Welsh are one step ahead of everyone else!
Kal had been meditating in one of the arches that lined the inner structure of the castle walls. He had his own tale to tell about his quest and its progress. He had been given instructions on how to meet his own “energetic double” but I won’t spoil the surprise here, and will leave him to explain his own quest. We were all for leaving when I felt the need to not only thank Bran but to mark that praise somehow. I had been remarking upon the number of names that were laid out in the small stones available all over the site. Many people seemed to want to record their presence in this way. I decided this was how I would thank Bran too. I gathered up and laid out some dark stones and wrote his name on my power centre. It seemed kind of appropriate, and in keeping.
Again we were about to leave when I thought I should take some helpful photos for the blog. I asked Kal to hold my staff as I took some shots and inevitably he ended up being on one of them. I thought nothing of it until I got the photo back home and began to look them over. The picture I had taken of Kal holding my staff looked a little different from all the others! See for yourself…
It’s an amusing quirk of the light conditions and the movement of the staff, of course. There’s a rational explanation for everything and if only I had a degree in physics with a specialisation in the polarisation of light coupled with years of experience of the science of flash photography then I could furnish you with that explanation. For now, you will have to accept that I simply don’t know how this picture came out like this. It’s never happened with this camera before, or any other camera I’ve ever owned. I will just enjoy it for what I think it shows – Kal’s tremendous glowing personality made visible (ahem!).
So, that was our Autumn Equinox venture. Full of magic, delight, puzzlement, unusual information, riddles, old speech, energetic doubles, a glowing staff and stone graffiti. Once again, a venture out with Kal on a powerful day turns into an adventure in life and magic that takes us both further along our spiritual paths.
Gwas
