Bakewell, Derbyshire – Saturday, 20th November 2010
The air was charged with a sense of the impending arrival of Winter and the festive season. I could smell ice – a talent I have developed since I broke into the world of druidry. Bakewell town was alive with well-wrapped people jostling to see potential presents in the rows of unique shops that the town’s inner sanctum exhibits. Kal and I had just finished our lunch at one of the local cafés, and stopped to admire a tree in the town centre that we had somehow never noticed before – it was a bare ash tree adorned with coloured lights, and making many people stop to admire it.
I wanted to do some work with spirits and decided that Bakewell Church, with its ancient Celtic cross, seemed like an appropriate place. We walked away from the throng and up towards the hill upon which the church was perched like a gothic gargoyle overseeing the business of the town below.
Overlooked by several tall townhouses we nevertheless had the place almost to ourselves. By now we were used to working in the glare of the public spotlight, so we were unfazed by curious onlookers as they passed through the churchyard starting at us and our obvious tourism. How times have changed! Only a year ago this would have been very uncomfortable, and we would have had to do this work in the late evening or even at night. Now, we were unabashed.
We investigated the cross with our trusty copper L-rods, but it had been enclosed in iron and now had no energy left at all. It had once been strongly energetic, we reckoned, but this had been completely banished by the imprisoning iron cage. All that was left was inert decorated stone, but pleasingly decorated with swirls and animal carvings that we knew to be symbolic in many instances of the subtle earth energy flows. In this instance, however, it felt out of time and place, and I longed to have seen it in its original position, uncaged, possibly acting as an acupuncture point to mark and manipulate the earth energy beneath it.
Releasing the Old Lady
We turned our attentions to other work. Kal identified a shade which he found to be at one end of a bench near to the stone cross. He then wandered off to find other work to do (kicking his feet out at the spot where he had found the shade in mock repugnance to ward off its clinging draining tendencies). Ah, the simple life of a sidekick – in every sense!
When I asked which shade I should work with the rods led me to that same shade. (For a definition of a shade, please see our Glossary page). I prepared to do some work along the lines of what I had been reading by various spirit rescue workers. Firstly I put up a lot of protection and lit some incense surreptitiously underneath the bench. The gentle aroma of Nag Champa drifted lazily up into the cool afternoon air making some passers-by sniff curiously as they wandered past.
Despite the cold chill in the air I found it relatively easy to slip into a light trance after a few minutes of quiet meditation. I have mentioned my meditation technique in previous posts (also available in audio format as the first podcast ‘Natural Magick Ritual‘ – see Podcast page). It has varied slightly since I first developed it, but whichever element feels most important I try that, and then see what works 0n any given day. Today I connected to The Sun and The Moon, and with The Earth. A stalwart visualisation that usually works in all situations. Once grounded in the earth and centred in a bubble around myself I set up some hardened protection for my ‘shell of light’. I brought in some light blue energy because I felt that was most protective in this instance. My energetic sphere reacted accordingly, solidifying against unwanted energies permeating my space.
I turned my attention to the shade beside me on the bench. I tried to let the image of whoever it was appear in my mind and soon I was seeing an old lady with short white hair, kind of trendy looking, in a long knitted dress with grey and black hoops stretching all the way down to her black boots. She looked thoroughly modern, and a little vacant, distant, unattentive – world-weary, almost.
I reached out my energy to mentally tap her on the shoulder. I asked her if she knew she was dead and she said she did, but that she was staying because she thought her family still needed her. I understand that asking such a question is bad form, now, so I won’t do that again. Lessons learned every day, and I’m new to this work.
I asked her if she was really needed here, and whether she ought not to move on now. She agreed that things had changed since she first decided to stay, and now she would be happy to go. I offered to help and she shrugged, which I took to be a non-committal sign that she would be prepared to leave if I assisted. I intended to, if only because I needed the practise with a mild-mannered shade such as this before I would even contemplate anything more intense. I realise this was a semi-selfish act, in that I was primarily practising my art, with her release as a secondary effect of this. Such is life and death – I will attempt to rectify this in future, because I am essentially good at heart.
I tried to imagine a light for her, and to generate some love and compassion but it wasn’t my day – neither felt like they were being generated. Something wasn’t right – I was doing something wrong. I snapped out of trance and picked up my dowsing rods – I needed some help here! (Serves me right for being selfish, huh?) I dowsed if some crystals would help me, and the rods swung quickly to say ‘yes’. The dowsing rods indicated my single rose coral crystal would be the most useful. Of course! This was the crystal that the lady in the folly tower crystal shop in Ryde on the Isle of Wight had said would be the most useful for my work when I needed my heart. And here was just such a need.
I placed the coral crystal against my heart, filled it with love, and then placed the crystal on the seat where the shade was hovering. This time when I imagined light there was a huge phosphorescence in one corner of my eyes towards which I could feel the shade moving. I implored my spirit guide to assist with the release. In a blinding flash and dissolution of the light I knew that the sending had been completed. The dowsing rods confirmed this.
I was pleased to have possibly been of some help, but I was more pleased that I had found a good method for doing this work involving the coral crystal – this seemed to fulfill the prophecy that the crystal shop lady had made, and that closed off at least one long loop of coincidence. Now I felt ready for more of this work, and more confident about having a method to do it.
Gwas.
