Lake of the Spirits – Canada 2010

I have spent the last two weeks or more in Canada on holiday. You may have noticed that Kal has kindly taken the reins for the last few weeks and has been busily posting regularly and with some of the most interesting stuff he has ever posted on this blog. There has been so much stuff from him that even I have had trouble keeping up with it! However, I’m back now, so I have a few tales to tell of my Canadian experiences.

I honestly intended not for anything to occur for two reasons. Firstly, I was hoping for a true holiday, a real break so that I could rest and recuperate, and not have to think about anything. The plan was to drive across Canada, go skiing with my father who had flown in from Australia, and then drive back just in time for me to have a day off for the Winter Solstice, and then back into work just before Christmas. Secondly, I thought that my druidic feelings were in some way linked to Albion, the lands of the so-called United Kingdom and Brittany, and that perhaps they only “worked” in that environment. Of course, that is ridiculous, but that was the mindset that I went away with, determined not to get drawn into doing any energetic work until I returned home.

Interestingly, despite my intentions, my clairvoyant friend Michael had told me that I would not get away with a complete break, and that my talents would be called upon to do some work whilst I was away. I had visions of having to heal painful and sore bits of bodies after skiing accidents, but tried to put that idea out of my mind. In a magickal mind what is wished for comes to pass! On this holiday I would simply be myself, and Gwas the Hedge Druid would have to take a rest for a few weeks, is what I told myself. It was not to be.

The amusingly-named Lake Minnewanka

People go to Lake Minnewanka just to have their photo taken with the information board, or at least that’s what one of the English ski instructors at Big White ski resort told me afterwards. I could believe that – I tittered a little as we drove in our hire car down the scarily snow-bound tracks towards the lake that hotel staff had insisted was a special place to visit. We were in no rush, having three whole days to traverse the Canadian Rockies before arriving at the ski resort. The lake seemed like a nice idea. My wife gripped the sides of the passenger seat the whole way and jumped out of her skin at every corner. I was doing 20 mph but it felt like 90! No-one else was daring to venture down these roads at this time of year so we had the lake to ourselves when we arrived at the car park.

Lake Minnewanka is known as the Lake of the Spirits. Reading that made me feel a bit funny in my tummy. Something stirred, something that I had been trying to keep a lid on for the last few days. I got out my dowsing rods and gave in to the inevitable:-

1. Is there anything for me to do here at this lake? – YES.
2. Are there any spirits around today at this lake? – big YES.
3. Am I at the correct energetic level to work with these spirits? – YES.

All very positive, so I asked the rods to lead me to a place where I could best communicate with these lake spirits. The rods began to turn back towards a small and heavily snow-laden path that seemed to lead away from the lake., nevertheless I convinced M that I knew what I was doing. She looked doubtful, but trudged along behind me as I blazed a trail through virgin snow. Five minutes later we realised that this obscure path was actually the only path the really did lead us to the lake’s edge, and if we had gone the more obvious route then we would have been unable to go far at all. Now we were standing in the most beautiful cove at the side of the lake (can lake’s have coves?) and the sun was hiding behind the clouds over the dramatic peaks before us.

Meeting the Lake Spirits

As M amused herself with the views and paying in the snow I felt like this was a moment to make a connection. I stood still, and let my mind go as still as the lake. I tried to open out into the lake, feeling for a connection. Before anything happened I put up a little bit of protection against anything unpleasant, and then was able to freely expand my aura out into the lake’s near-freezing waters as I stood calf-deep in snow.

A strong wave of emotion overtook me – a swell of nice, warm and inspirational emotion which almost made my eyes water with its sweetness. Wow – what a welcome! I reciprocated immediately and felt a two-way flow of energy from the lake, through me and back again. This was wonderful! After a few moments wallowing in the feeling I decided to put the energy to some use. Now that we had a bond I wanted my own familiar water spirit to join in too, so I called her to come and play. I had promised her (rashly, I suppose) that I would take her to some incredible places if she worked with me, and now I was able to again fulfill this promise. I called her to join our energy flow and felt her inclusion almost immediately. Again I took a moment to enjoy the mixture of energies, the emotional flow and the immensely beautiful feeling that made every chakra point along my spine tingle with excitement. At that moment I brought all four elements and elementals together in my mind, and everything unified.

I asked the spirits if I might make a deal. Could they offer me their wisdom and protection during my stay in Canada, and in return I would offer them my life’s experience to download into the lake for them to experience for themselves? I had no idea where the idea for this came from, but it seemed like the only thing I had to offer that was personal and profound and worthy. I felt a positive agreement so I began to exchange information with the lake spirits, almost like downloading a copy of a file onto a computer hard drive. The exchange happened within a minute and then I felt the flow subside. I said my fond farewells and came back to consciousness.

I felt like I had been asleep for years. As my eyes tried to adjust to the whiteness of the snow landscape the sun moved out from behind a cloud and appeared perfectly framed over the edge of the mountains opposite. I reached for my camera quickly to capture the moment (pictured above). This was the salute of the sun that accompanied all our successful magickal encounters, and it was no surprise to me that the dowsing rods confirmed what had happened.

A deer encounter

I tried to explain to M what had happened, but I left out most of the details, simply reducing it to a beautiful encounter with the lake spirits. She smiled in a kind of “that’s nice dear” way. She had been busy looking out for mountain goats, bears, elk, caribou and moose whilst I was busy communing with the lake. She hadn’t seen a thing – not a human soul nor any animal. She was a bit disappointed at the loneliness of the place, but I wasn’t – I knew it was filled with beneficent spirit energies and I was beaming from ear to ear.

We trundled slowly and carefully back to the main road along the snowy forest tracks. As we reached the summit of a hill I slowed the car down…something had caught my eye at the side of the road, and suddenly M identified what it was: “Look! It’s deer! Stop the car!” she shouted. I pulled over as gently as I could, expecting the deer to start and bounce away into the depths of the forest. Instead, as we wound the window down to take a picture they actually began to approach us! Domesticated deer? Unlikely!! But here they were…looking at us in the eye. M was enraptured – it totally made her day.

From that moment onwards the holiday only got more delightful, as we found amazing views, got accommodation upgrades, had perfect skiing and driving weather, and generally had a fantastic time. We both felt that this was something to do with our encounter at the lake.

Gwas.