Hob’s Thirst Cave 2011 – Vowels and Chakras

As I mentioned in the sister post to this one when we left Arbor Low the sun was finally pushing its way through the dark clouds that overwhelmed the Derbyshire countryside that day. Since the moment that Kal had done whatever it was he did at Arbor Low to bring the sun out that great ball of fire had been rapidly burning back the brooding and bruised clouds to leave us with a still cold, but now thankfully drier and brighter day. Weather report over, that was just to set the scene for the scramble that would take place soon in the narrative.

As we approached the gorge called Deep Dale I knew we were in for fun times. Kal had overcome his fear of heights but there was still something in his brain, a natural sense of self-preservation, that prevented him from hurling himself headlong down steep slopes. Shame, because on my map of the Deep Dale I could see form the tightly-packed contour lines that we were in for an exhilarating descent into the throat of the dragon very soon. As we reached the edge Kal baulked a little and began to ask if this was all strictly necessary. It was, I insisted. For me, suicidal descents hold no fear when in pursuit of Nature’s path – I trust her implicitly – in a way that would look foolhardy to the non-believer. If you like, this was my test of faith just as the previous appearance of the sun had been a test of Kal’s faith. And I have good life insurance.

To top it all, the path was covered in a layer of precipitation courtesy of the recent downpour. Just adding to the precariousness of it all.

My trust was well-placed and well-founded. I made my way down the steep slippery slope at speed and went with ‘the flow’. As I got within touching distance of the base of the slope I was stopped in my tracks – two trees were covered in moss that was so bright it appeared luminous! Stunning – really beautiful sight. I turned round to mention it to Kal but he was so far away up the slope that I had time to take my camera out, switch it on, and get a shot of him tippy-toe-ing down the path like a junior ballerina.

Slaking Hob’s Thirst

We crossed a fast-running stream that was a few feet wide with the help of some widely spaced and mossy wet stepping stones. A few feet above us was the entrance to the cave – slightly hidden from ground-level view. As we stepped into the slanted oval entrance I immediately liked the place. It felt small and intimate, yet had a good twelve or so feet of height so that I could stand comfortably, yet its acoustic resonance properties seemed good too. To one side of the cave was a hollowed-out seating place complete with handy shelf seat. Wow, very hospitable! As I explored further down the cave I could see that the hole went deeper into the earth but the roof decreased to only two feet or so tall by that point. I was no potholer, and I wasn’t going to investigate that way any further.

I placed my bag in the recess and undid the zipper. From the side of the bag an apple dropped to the floor and rolled down the incline to land at the bottom of the cave, close to where it disappeared into the deep dark bowels of the rock. Hmm..I mused, perhaps this was a sign? I placed my staff at the back of the cave, just above where the apple had rolled to. It felt like it was protecting the small gap there.

I got the dowsing rods out to ask a series of questions:-

• “Was there a spirit entity present in this cave?” – YES.
• “Was it an elemental type of spirit?” YES.
• “Was it air (no), water (no), fire (no) or earth (YES)?”.
• ‘Was the spirit alright with us being here?’ NO. Hmm..
• “Is it going to disrupt our work if we stay here?” YES.
• ‘Is it harmful for us to stay here for long?’ YES. ‘Harmful to Kal?‘ YES.  ‘Harmful to me?’ Much less so, but still YES.

Something needed to be done! Two more questions, firstly,

• “Was the spirit a hobgoblin type of earth spirit?” YES. Well, that was the name of the cave cleared up!
• Final question, “If I fed this spirit with the offering of an apple would it be placated?” YES.

I have been practising feeling for answers to questions without the need for dowsing rods. Some of the answers to the questions above I knew before the rods began to respond. This is still something that I then double-check, but the absolute need for doing that is diminishing. I think that in the foreseeable future I will have honed my psychic senses enough to put the rods away and see what happens without them – but that’s still a slightly scary prospect, no matter what other people around me say. That said, I seemed to have intuitively placed my staff in the right place to block the hobgoblin from emerging, and I felt that would be sufficient for now to keep the spirit at bay, despite the fact that it was not endeared to our presence.

I quickly dowsed to find my power centre – behold I had placed my bag right on it! The power centre was at the front of the small seat recess. I smiled. Perhaps I was a bit more in tune with things than I gave myself credit for? It was time for me to begin to start the work I had come here to do. Meanwhile Kal found his own power centre and began appreciating the shafts of sunlight that were beginning to invade the mouth of this cave on such a cold day. He’s such a Sun Boy! In contrast, I went into the darkness of the recess and sat there to meditate. It was wonderful. I felt cosy and calm. Perfect!

Kal lit some incense (to ward off the earth spirit I reckon) and the scent began to pervade the dank atmosphere of the cave lightening the tone a little. Talking of tones, it was my turn to lighten the tone as I began to go into a meditative state in order to begin my work to find the tones and vocal sounds that would awaken my chakras.

I’ve got a handful of songs to sing you…

Not like that old 70’s children’s programme, instead my songs are five tones arranged chromatically, and intoned in such as way that one’s body begins to resonate in harmony with one’s surroundings. Let me explain.

I had already done some work at Frodsham Caves to work out that a deep rumbling ‘Ooo‘ sound that was practically the lowest tone I could muster and sustain would resonate with my root chakra. I knew this already. This was my starting point. What came after ‘ooo’? I repeated this tone to see whether I had the correct tone for this cave too. I began to chant ‘Oooooo‘ very low and deep in my throat. Soon the cave seemed to resonate and I began to as well, welling up from the base of my spine to rumble into my coccyx and flood my pelvis with resonant vibrations. Yes, this worked here too. One down, who knew how many more to go.

In my trance state (deeper now after my chanting) an idea came to me. There weren’t seven chakras to be awakened like this, there were only five. Five chakras, five sounds. How could I find the sound shapes for those five sounds? Through the five vowels, came the answer. Where had that information come from, I wondered? As I thought this I came out of my trance (shouldn’t try rational thought in meditation – it’s counter-productive – and Kal began to mock my chanting, ‘You’re not going to be singing that badly all day are you?‘, he jeered. Helpful! Not. I went back into trance to try some other vowel sounds….

If the first one had been ‘ooo’ which vowel was that? ‘U’ I reckoned. OK, let’s find out which vowel felt right for the next chakra up from the root! I began to make an ‘oh’ sound. Slightly higher pitched than the deep ‘ooo’ the ‘oh’ was still low, but not as deep. I felt a sensation in my navel as I chanted the ‘oh’ long and loud, trying to keep it as steady as possible. Yes, my navel was definitely responding! It felt very strange.

I went on. ‘Eeeee’. Now my throat vibrated as I got just the right pitch for the ‘eee’ sound. I felt I had missed one. What about the heart? I tried ‘ahhh’. Oh yes! The ‘ah’ sound worked perfectly for that. I could feel something moving out from my heart and pushing out into the air several feet in front of me when I did that. Amazing! One left to find, but by a process of elimination I knew what that was going to be. ‘Eye’ for the Third Eye, of course! ‘Iiiiiiiii’ – and my head buzzed behind my eyes with the pressure of that sound. Wow – I had all five!

I tried them all in turn, moving up through the range from the root to the third eye – blissful! The subtle energy around my body began to flow upwards and each sound seemed to both generated and stimulate the flow of the particular chakra that I had associated it with. I was tingling all over now and I came back to full wakefulness – job done. I explained my findings to Kal and then found myself saying, ”…because if you sit on something that vibrates you go ‘ooo’. If you get a shock you feel it in your stomach and you exclaim ‘Oh!’. If you find something sweet and lovely you say, ‘Ahhhh‘.” I didn’t have any ‘gut reaction’ noises for the higher chakras, but the ‘eye’ for the Third Eye seemed like a significant correspondence too. It all fitted together nicely.

We decided to leave and I went to pick up my protective staff that had been blocking the rear of the cave from the hobgoblin. I said my thanks to the earth spirit and threw it my apple. I’m sure I heard a greedy much as it disappeared into the deep hole – only kidding! As we emerged from the cave again we were once more faced with the fast-flowing stream and the mossy stepping stones. I pranced across, used to such obstacles, but City Boy Kal was a little more cautious been, of course, inappropriately attired as usual.

I waited for him to cross and he said, “Watch this – I’m going to tie my energy to the surrounding trees so that I won’t slip and fall in!” I got my camera out and switched it to record mode. This was too good a boast to miss the chance to see Kal come a cropper and get his feet wet. He paused a second, and I could feel him moving his energy around. The camera kept rolling. Then suddenly he took three giant strides, placed his feet swiftly onto the mossy rocks and he was over. He looked up at my astonished face and said, “Ta da!” with a huge grin. Well, I suppose either way, wet or dry, it was something fun to watch! He does have redoubtable faith.

Gwas.