Spring Equinox 2011: Part 1 – The Serpent at Castlerigg

Our Spring Equinox adventures began at the most beautiful stone circle in England – Castlerigg in Cumbria. As if that weren’t enough of a good start to the day we had a clear run to get there, and when we arrived the sun had cleared the sky to imbue the scene with such photographic potential that even a ham-fisted amateur photographer like myself could get a picture that was worthy of being a regular feature in any scenic calendar.

I didn’t know what Kal wanted to achieve this day, but my own personal agenda was the usual – to ask what my quest would be for the next eighth-part of the year. I wanted to know whether I had successfully completed the previous quest – to learn the sonic vocal qualities required to open my chakras – and then to know what my next quest would be. What would I need to learn next in order to progress on this spiritual path of druidry?

I remembered one or two things from our last year’s visit here – that the entrance for me was at the “back” or southern end of the circle, and that there was an in-built area which was specifically for cleansing myself of “ordinary world” energies. These two aspects were what I would concentrate on first.

I walked around the edge of the stone circle’s aura, which I felt rather than dowsed. Today was an experiment in deviceless dowsing wherever possible – I wanted to feel rather than find the energies. At the unfashionable end of the circle I approached in reverent silence, head slightly bowed, and I felt for an answer to my question about whether I might be allowed to enter – I felt the familiar tug of acceptance. Off to a good start!

Inside the circle I walked straight to the Sanctuary enclosure – an array of stones laid out in a rectangle. There I positioned myself where it “felt best” and that happened to be on a small tuft of lush green circular grass – a power centre, clearly. I felt for the direction to face and it was West. I lit two sticks of incense (suitable for me) and admired their flavours. I turned West and asked to be cleansed of the world’s detritus energies – energies I may have accumulated form elsewhere, bad energies I may be carrying with me, foul energies I may have generated myself. After a few minutes Kal came over to chat and absent-mindedly I wandered off with him. “Have you finished?” he asked. “Could you check for me?” I asked, seeing as he had his rods handy. NO – not finished! I went back into the Sanctuary with a wry smile – it was worth a try, but this was one aspect of the energies that I wasn’t feeling – I had no idea when I had finished with the cleansing process.

Luckily we pretty much had the circle to ourselves early on, but by the time I had emerged from the Sanctuary there were people milling around and observing our antics. I now moved to a place that I felt was my empowering power centre (as opposed to a cleansing one – two types: filling or emptying, draining or empowering, cleansing or energising – any of those diametric concepts will suffice). Again I felt I should face West and I brought my incense sticks with me. I also laid out the one set of crystals that I had brought with me from the car – my protection set, but this set also doubled up as the set that I used to align to significant stars to attune to their energies. You’ll see how this comes into play in a moment.

I placed the five stones around me in my usual protection configuration, with the pillar quartz stone pointing West – the direction that felt right. I set an intention of being guided successfully on my quest today, and for enough energy to get through what was likely to be a long and arduous day of physical, mental and spiritual effort. In my mind two spiralling strands of thick energy (they used to be thin, now they’re fatter – aren’t we all?) coursed up through my body to reach to the sun, moon and then back down into the earth’s core. I remarked to myself how much thicker these energy lines were than the last time I had performed this meditation. Progress? This went on for about five minutes until I brought the energies “to heel” and created a sphere of protective energy centred on myself. I was sparkling with effervescent “aliveness” and jumped up refreshed and smiling. All psychosomatic, of course. I felt I had created a protective shell that would see me through my work this day, and also recharged my batteries, as it were.

Kal had been sitting directly opposite me in the circle, which we thought was notable given that this was Spring Equinox and the Sun and Moon were in exact opposition today. I also felt as though I had been facing West for a reason, so I asked the dowsing rods whether this stone circle was aligned to a particular constellation? YES. I then asked them to point to the constellation – they pointed West, in the direction I had been facing. Was the constellation visible now? YES. I used StarWalk to find some possibilities, but there was one obvious one staring me in the face – Serpens. Now, this opens up a whole facet of synchronicity. Let me explain.

The quartz pillar of my crystal layout had been focused on the constellation Serpens – the Serpent. As I did that my meditation has taken for the form of strong twin energies boosting my inner serpents – my twin coils of energy – my inner double helix. Not only that, but the constellation Hercules (Ophiuchus), the solar hero, is seen wrestling Antaeus (Serpens), the sea snake in the ancient depictions of the two neighbouring constellations. This is the old ritual of the Summer King battling with the Winter King (The Oak King and the Holly King) and on this Spring Equinox day they were in complete deadlock with the Oak King on the verge of achieving ascendancy. Interesting that this day my crystal layout was aligned to exactly that constellation, the very one which astrologically symbolised the Equinox point! Honestly, this stuff writes itself sometimes.

So there were three primary themes emerging from this work:-

1. Forces in opposition creating energy – the astrological Hercules and Typhos, the equinoctial Sun and Moon, the druidical Kal and Gwas
2. The double helix and the serpent energies, and their link to our human physiology – feeling empowered, cleansed, alive.
3. The stone circle being aligned to a constellation that was suited to the time of the year. Does this mean that all stone circles change their star alignments over the course of the year?

Gwas