This is the first of a three-part tale which was introduced in The Three Stars of Fertility. My Spring Equinox 2011 task has been to place myself at sacred sites that are currently reflecting the energies of three stars whose emanations will transform my energetic structure, change my aura, in such a way as to enable me to have the ability to promote the growth of plants. This is the first site visit, and as you might expect it was filled with wonderful coincidences and magickal happenings that convinced me that I was on the right path. This first episode takes place one early morning at Lud’s Church just on the edge of the Shropshire and Derbyshire border.
For some reason I had to get there early. I awoke unexpectedly early for me and had everything already packed and ready, so I began the drive into the Derbyshire hills above Macclesfield which were at least an hour away from home. I arrived and parked in the car park just outside of Gradbach village, on the way to the Scout Camp that is along the small road that follows the River Dane.
As I walked alone, enjoying the fresh sunlight and the sound of birds still making themselves heard in a variety of songs, I breathed in the air and drank in the beautiful countryside. Soon I had to ford the narrow Black Brook that crosses the path up to the rock formation that is Lud’s Church. At the foot of the long path up the hillside is a great beech tree to whom I have learned to pay my respects. I visited the tree and told him of my purpose, and asked if I might continue with his blessing. I felt that he was both intrigued as to what I might do, and delighted that I had bothered to ask permission. Maybe trees only reflect back what we wish to feel – who knows – but those were my feelings and they made the climb up the hill easier and I walked taller.
The Cleansing
As has become my preference recently I next needed to find a space within which I could cleanse myself of my worldly energies – the kind of detritus that builds up around you as you shield yourself from wi-fi, radio, electrical waves of all frequencies and colours that stick to your energetic body like stains to a shirt. It is my experience that the ‘cleaner’ you enter a sacred site the more intense is your experience and the easier the communion or communication.
For this cleansing I went to sit atop the rocky outcrop that forms two small ravines at the top of the Dane Valley, and which gives an uninterrupted view over the whole valley towards Turn Edge. With the sun low and in my eyes it was easy to begin to enter a trance. I set up some magick-working crystals around me, lit some incense to scent the air and give thanks to the fire element, and then began to open my five principal chakras using my special vowel-based vocal technique.
Soon I felt the sun empowering me, filling me with its divine light as it streamed in through my energy body, and then I mentally cleansed myself and put up a light protective shield around me, which is now my regular practise whenever I enter any sacred site. The shield prevents unwanted or unhelpful energies from entering, but allows anything which is deemed to be of use to me. I am not the one who decides that, by the way. I leave such decisions to Nature herself. With the cleansing done I made my way slightly further up to Lud’s Church itself to see what awaited me.
Aligning to the Stars
The bright white light of morning became dappled by the overhanging oak branches whose small young leaves gave enough shade from the blossoming sun to keep me cool and to acclimatise me to what I knew was coming next, which would be the deep coolness of the even deeper ravine that formed the impressive rock channel called Lud’s Church. A little shiver ran down my spine and made me thrill with excitement. Something wonderful was going to happen, but I took care to maintain my meditative state and not to let me rational thoughts begin to make up stories about what might happen. It was important to keep focused and aware, to drink in the happenings, but to leave space in my mind for the creation to happen of its own accord without me forcing it one way or another. The regular step of my slow walking pace and the thump of my ash staff combined with the twinkle of sunlight through the branches kept me in a light trance as I paused outside Lud’s Church to commune with the genius loci of the site, again to ask permission to enter.
Once I felt that I was allowed entry I thanked the spirit and moved quietly and reverently inside the dark and sheer slopes, heading for whichever way felt right. The left fork to the main chamber felt correct. I walked down into the deepest part and felt the damp chill despite the brilliant April sunlight above. Such a contrast! I walked along for a few feet then felt the urge to stop. I looked around – what had stopped me? Was it the handy ledge to place my heavy pack onto? I did so, and looked for anything else. I saw the mossy edge where the ravine turned – I was stood at the very corner of the ravine, able to look both ways. Was I supposed to go on to the sunlight at the end of the ravine? Was I supposed to go back into the small enclave I had just passed? What was drawing me, holding me, demanding my attention?
I reached into my pack and got out my dowsing rods. I asked them to confirm what exactly was the best place for me to be. They moved around in a circle to take me back to where I had been standing! I was in the right spot already? But why was I staring at the edge of the corner? Rods – please show me which direction I should be facing – up or down the ravine? The rods pointed at the very edge of the corner itself! Odd. There was simply nothing to see there at all – no rock features…no enclosure…nothing on the ground….it was time for more help.
I got out my phone and called up the Starwalk application to tell me the current position of the stars around me. I had come in search of Orion – one of the stars in the middle of Orion’s Belt was the star whose energies I was seeking. Where in the sky was this star right now? I searched for it all around and finally found it – it was EXACTLY positioned on the rock at the edge of the corner where I had been staring and had become transfixed. Seriously. Not one millimetre different from where my gaze had become so entranced. I was surprised, but not so surprised. This is intuition in action.
I looked at the constellation of Orion through the lens of the Starwalk application. The figure of Orion is a man holding a weapon and a shield. His upright weapon hand was empty in the representation in this application, as through balancing something in the palm of his hand. What was he balancing? At this exact moment that I was looking his hand was intersecting the path of the Sun! An hour earlier at dawn he would have been holding the Sun in the palm of his hand. Another incredible coincidence, I felt – like it was a metaphor for what I was doing myself – seeking to use Orion’s energies to capture the fertile power of the Sun.
This was surely the right moment to be doing some work with Orion. I lit some incense and positioned some crystals around me as before. I then went into trance and attempted to connect to the energies of Orion’s Belt. I concentrated on the central star first. My breathing stopped. I couldn’t take a breath in, but I wasn’t panicked yet, just surprised. I noticed that the wind that had been blowing all the time across the top of the ravine suddenly died to nothing. All was still. No birdsong. No wind. Silence.
Suddenly, from out of the stone that I was staring at, from the star I was concentrating on, I got a THUMP of energy hitting me right in the solar plexus! I reeled backwards and my breath returned in a gasp of shock and amazement. What the…? I staggered for a moment then regained my composure. I felt like I had swallowed a star! Something was pulsing inside of me making me tingle with its energetic power. Wow! I had to see if that would happen again.
I tried this process twice more. The second time I got a slightly smaller absorption of a ball of energy. This time it wasn’t a thump so much as a pop as the smaller energy ball entered into me. Again, the winds dropped to nothing during this breathless process, and started up again the second the energy entered into me. Spooky! On the third go the energy was exponentially smaller again, and this time the process was much quicker and felt like a marble hitting my stomach instead of the initial shield-sized force.
I stood in the swirling incense for several minutes trying to make sense of what had just happened. High above, swirling on the winds outside of the ravine a hawk made its distinctive cry and I knew this was time to go. I had got what I had come for – the first of the three fertility star energies. Next, I would go to Arthur’s Cave near Symond’s Yat in Monmouthshire later that afternoon. Before I did that I stopped off at my psychic friend Michael’s house. I walked about the incident and he went into one of his sideways distant stares – he was reading my aura. He said I had taken on a new level of energy. Interesting, I thought. I wondered what the next encounter would bring in Monmouthshire?
Gwas.
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