Near to the village of Dorstone in the Golden Valley of Herefordshire is a wonderfully preserved ancient monument called “Arthur’s Stone“. The monument is on the borderlands of England and Wales, and as the map below shows there is a congregation of settlements and an alignment of sites along the ridges between the rivers Wye and Dore (“of gold”). Before I go on to explain my findings at Arthur’s Stone I want to discuss a little bit about my current concepts of what Arthur is, or who he was.
My current concept of Arthur
This Arthur fellow – he got about a bit, eh? These days I prefer the interpretation I read recently that “Arthur” is a title adopted or given to many kings, several of whom may have contributed to the myth and legend, the story and history surrounding the King Arthur that we have been remnanted. I like Paul Broadhurst’s idea that the Arthur figure was associated with the fixed constellation of the Great Bear, the guardian of the Pole Star. In my own additional interpretation, Arthur is aligned with and gets energy from the Great Bear’s stars. In particular I think this is the asterism of The Plough, or The Big Dipper as it is also known.
My wife, M, entered the site straight away and went to sit on a small man-sized mound next to the monument. There she settled in for what she expected would be a long dowse. I wasn’t about to go against expectations. I got my dowsing rods out and began to explore, but first I had to find an entrance suitable for me and my energy at that time. I entered the site after asking silently for permission from the spirit of the site. I would be allowed in today – no pushing away or dive-bombing birds, or claps of thunder or anything like that.
As I entered the gate in the fence surrounding the monument I saw two other couples reading the information board provided by English Heritage. I turned my attention away from them, not wanting to overhear anything they might say about the site. I would stay out of earshot until they got bored and wandered away, as most people do at these places after ten minutes. I began by asking to be shown a ritual path that I could follow that would lead me to a power centre that was most suitable for me. I was taken from where I stood in a path that snaked in front of the “false entrance” stone, and then wound its way into the monument from the right-hand side of the covering front stone (seen slanting in the picture below). My path ended in the shadows at the back of the chamber on the left-hand side. I repeated the exercise from three other locations chosen at random and soon I was walking the same snaking path to the front of the dolmen, and then into the right-hand side of the chamber and to the back left corner again and again. By the fourth time I was realising this was a pretty certain dowsing result.
Having found my meditation spot what better thing to do than go for a bit of meditation? I had some questions about healing energies and about Arthur that I thought might be best answered at this place. Within minutes I was whisked away into a deep trance and was lost to my surroundings. As I had tuned into the energies arising from the earth and bouncing around within the dolmen’s chamber I was swept along like a feather on a breeze, drifting down into a deep dark and warm world of a dream-like space. I relaxed and asked my questions:-
- How should I call my healing ally? – Picture her and she will come.
- How can I generate healing energy? – By knowing its source and timing.
- Did anyone called King Arthur ever visit this stone? – Several. Several King Arthurs? That prompted me to think about the name and the title of Arthur.
- Was this chamber used for initiation, healing, education, honouring the gods, of something else? Initiation, honouring.
The sounds of summer’s lively parade began to invade this dream space and I knew I was coming out of the trance whether I had finished or not. Teaching time was over! I had no idea how long I had “been away”, but it felt like seconds. From the look on M’s face it must have been several minutes or more. So, back to the dowsing for a few more answers to the mysteries of this site.
I began to look at the skeletal remains of the dolmen from the perimeter of the site. There was a raised ridge alongside the dolmen on one side, a vague reminder that earth may have been banked up over the top of the structure at one time. I decided to dowse the extent of the original mound, but first I was curious to know whether any ley lines or energy leys were passing through this site. I asked whether any lines existed within 50 feet of this site and get a positive response for one line, so I asked to be taken to the nearest point on that line.
I walked out of the gate in the fence and over to the road that passed close by to the monument. The rods crossed at the road. The road? The road was an energy ley? It certainly was! I didn’t want to go too far along the road tracing it, but as I passed the two couples at the information board (still there, nattering and making social connections) I could see they were intrigued by the dowsing. They wanted to draw my attention to the information board – there was something on there I should see, but I refused to look yet. What was it, I asked? “It shows the perimeter of the original site.” one man responded, “Is that what you’re looking for?” No, I said, but I can do! I set off with a new directive – please show me the outline of the original structure constructed here!
I began near the gate, on the opposite side to the couples so that I could get going without being stared at. The rods began to cross the road, follow the ditch next to it, and then almost go into the fields beyond. Then they turned back over the road and came around near to the fence. Just past the information board (which I couldn’t see because the people were in front of it) the rods pulled me back inside the fence. As I walked close to the “false entrance” the rods dipped inwards, making a U-bend, and then back out to follow the perimeter of the remains of the earthen mound before joining back up where I had started. Well, at least I was consistent in that, I thought.
The couples mouths were agape and their eyes were wide. “What?” I asked. “Come and look at this board!” they said. I wandered over and looked at it. It had an aerial plan of the site and marked on the plan was a white line showing where the archaeologists thought the original perimeter was. One of the men said, “I was watching where you walked. It was almost exactly the same as this plan!” I wasn’t surprised. I said, “And where it differed I suspect the rods were correct and the plan is wrong.” Somewhat of a bold statement, but based on many years of similar experiences. Sadly, not really able to confirm any of it!
I inspected the board and followed in my head the route I had just taken. He was right. I had been moving into the field on the other side of the road exactly where the board said the boundary went (the dotted lines). I had come back into the fence slightly further down than the diagram indicated (a matter of ten feet or so), the U-shape at the entrance was the same, and then the line following the earthwork was also exactly the same. Very minor differences indeed. Otherwise – exactly the same!
How Arthur’s Stone chamber could have been used
On the official plan board is an entrance marked as a “false entrance”. It proved to be anything but false for me! It was my entrance via a winding energetic ritual path that led me to a place within the structure that was the most energetic and aligned point where I should do some meditation. This is an entrance for the Masters – the druids who would prepare themselves and the site for the initiate. My dowsing reveals to me that they would raise their energy levels and commune with the spirit of the place, informing them and entreating them to co-operate with the process of initiation that may follow if an initiate was ready and the time of year was right.
What time of year is this site most active? It rises in strength from Spring Equinox, through Beltane until its peak at Summer Solstice. The energy quickly ebbs away thereafter and by Lammas the energy is greatly diminished. By Samhain the site goes dormant energetically.
There is a stone-lined path at the ‘rear’ of the site. This path is for initiates who are being initiated into the world of subtle energy and natural magick, or to meet with ancestral or Otherworld spirits. The living and non-corporeal guardians of the site have worked together to create this route, its chambers and their effects for the purpose of raising the consciousness or fertility of the person who is invited to sit within it. Of course now it is all exposed and cannot perform the same function, but when it was covered in alternating layers of organic and inorganic materials, then it would have been a powerful block to the electro-magnetic fields causing a quite elucidating effect upon the brain. In addition, the crystalline rocks that lined the chamber would enhance the subtle energies, in combination with the natural earth energies of the site, the energy ley running through the structure, and the geometry of the chamber itself.
Sight lines over stones
Having replayed in my mind the purpose of the site I felt there was one last aspect that needed to be examined – the sight lines between this site and the surrounding hills and valleys. From the information board I could see that there were other megalithic sites nearby, and that this valley and ridge were an important place at one time. I began to move around the site looking for tell-tale notches in the remaining stones at the edge of the structure.
As I stood behind the entrance stone I saw that its notched top looked like the notch formed between two hills in the distance which were completely in alignment with the site’s orientation. I checked the capstone and found that this too was in alignment with a distant hill. Later research on the Megalithic Portal revealed that others thought so too. Here’s what one person said:
“I found that the forecourt of the dolmen was orientated towards this prominent peak to the south. Apparently it is Skirrid Fawr – ‘the sacred mountain’.” – Angie Lake on the Megalithic Portal.
I hope my brief visit and dowsing efforts that day serve to add a little bit more food for thought as we try to recover the lost knowledge of the ways and means of our exceptional ancestors whose legacy we are free to explore thanks to their forward-thinking and ingenious engineering skills, most of which we have yet to re-discover the purpose and meaning behind it.
Gwas.
