Month: October 2011

Understanding Megalithic Sites Presentation

Posted on By Gwas 5 Comments on Understanding Megalithic Sites Presentation
Recommended

I have prepared a presentation on the subject of “Understanding Megalithic Sites” and I am inviting anyone who wishes me to come and do a talk on this subject to let me know.

These ancient structures are of continued and growing fascination for us, and yet many of these mysterious places are still under threat of extinction even before we have a clear understanding of their purposes and uses for us today.

In this presentation I theorise about some of the uses and purposes that I have discovered through research, by dowsing and by spending time in deep meditation at these sacred places. I explain some of the way in which we can utilise the special energies of these places for our own spiritual growth, and to appreciate the uniqueness of the sites, recovering valuable information about their structure, and the way they interact with the world around them.

New presentation - Understanding Megalithic Sites

See the next page for more details…

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Missing a beat

Posted on By Gwas 3 Comments on Missing a beat
Celestial, Magick, Modern Druidry, Theory, Wheel of the Year

You may have noticed the lack of podcasts this year on Hedge Druid? There’s a reason for that. In the first half of the year the reason could be put down to a mounting pressure of “work”. Mostly this was spiritual work, and with all the good weather we have had in England this year then the Great Outdoors claimed a large part of my time, and this was reflected in the amount of time-consuming podcast work that I could do. Right, that’s my pathetic excuse out of the way. Now, what about the recent months? I did intend to re-establish the podcast once the weather got worse. It has worsened, but still I don’t feel inclined to get back into the studio to record and edit an hour’s worth of audio. Why not? I think there’s a deeper and wider reason.

I have been noticing that other pagan blogs have also begun to falter in their regularity and their commitment. Could it be that we all expanded too quickly, and pushed ourselves too hard to produce content? Possibly, but I think the real reason is due to a difficulty in maintaining momentum when this year has been out of synchronisation with itself. Let me explain.

The Moon, The Sun and The Earth sources

Last year our blogs flourished. Mostly these are blogs that are talking about magickal work, mystical happenings and spiritual progress. What general effect has happened that could account for the difference between last year’s ease and this year’s difficulty? Simple. It is the synchronisation of the phase of the Moon with the Celtic Festival dates. Last year the high points in the solar cycle were matched by high points in the lunar cycle. In other words, at the major lunar festival dates the Moon was also usually in its Full Moon phase.

Celtic Wheel of the Year

The Celtic Wheel of the Year is a cycle that records the high points of the year’s energies. It tells the pagan watcher when the Earth itself is producing the most energy in its co-operative cycle with The Sun. In my experience, and I speak only for myself here, I do not use The Sun as my primary magickal power source. For me it is The Moon. Last year was therefore a “bumper year” in terms of the number of coincidences between the Solar and Lunar high points. Magick was abundant and easy. Motivation was plentiful, and so a great deal of work flowed, and many posts got produced. Blogs flourished that dealt with these subjects.

This year the story has been completely reversed, and how dispiriting must that have been to many of our pagan friends whose magickal sources are Moon-dependent? This year the Full Moon phases NEVER coincide with any of the Solar Festival dates in the Celtic Year. Only Spring Equinox came close. The result of this, goes my tenuous hypothesis, is that motivation has taken a battering. Magickal people must have found themselves either doing Sun OR Moon work, but never being able to being the two together.

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The Apporting Ring

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Dowsing, Paranormal, Spirits

I have talked before about how, when you are on The Path, the path that you are meant to be following, Life comes along and gives you a few signs and opportunities to speed you along and help you. Now, these don’t always feel like opportunities and signs, sometimes they feel like a nudge in the ribs, or a poke in the eye (Kal knows all about that from his narrow escape at Nine Ladies once, when an oak tree nearly had his eye out). Nevertheless, I have found that it pays to re-align yourself with your True Path and get back to work if you are being nudged in this way. You’ll know what I mean when it happens to you, and each nudge is individual and only has significance for you. Even so, I will try to explain a rather obvious and special poke in the eye that happened to me recently and see if its significance translates through the page.

The Original Book on Mediums

Sometimes a book that I should read suggests itself to me, other times I go in search of one using my dowsing rods. I had a couple of books in mind to read, but I wanted the dowsing rods to back me up on my choice, so I asked them to choose a book for me from my collection. They chose a book that I didn’t want to read at that time! I was directed to Allan Kardec‘s “The Book on Mediums“. I had flicked through the book when I had bought it and always meant to begin reading it but the language is so out-of-date that I found it difficult to devote enough attention to it to get around the style, so it went on the “rainy day” list. Well, that was until the dowsing rods insisted that it was the book I should read. So I began to immerse myself in it.

I started the book again but really found its introductory chapters hard going. I have read a lot of “hard going” texts over the years, having studied Philosophy and English Literature, but I have become far less tolerant of difficult writing since my university days. I was struggling. I went back to the dowsing rods. Was this really the book I should be reading, I enquired? YES. Damn. Do I have to start at the beginning? NO. Oh! So, which chapter could I start at, I asked? The Second Part, Chapter 1, entitled “Actions of Spirits on Matter“. Ok, well that helped me somewhat. I could dive right into the action without all the pre-amble. So I began to read.

Soon I was reading about apports. I have heard my Spiritist friend Mike talk about events where apports happened whilst he was present, and he has told me the tale of an apport that happened to him. In fact, one of the first things that he wanted me to try to ‘read’ psychometrically was a flower that had been brought to him by a spirit to prove its existence to him. He keeps it in a special box as a reminder of the wonders of this world and others that overlay it.

Losing My Wedding Ring

I think one of the most unsettling things that can happen to a married person is to lose their wedding ring. When measured against the weight of the world’s woes it is such a small thing to lose a piece of jewellery, yet when you mis-place or downright lose your wedding ring then it leaves a gap in so many small but unnerving ways that it really starts to get to you. You feel as though you are suddenly quite vulnerable, that you have let your spouse down by being so careless with something of such significance to each other, and you feel stupid for losing something of value but mainly of symbolism and imbued with such affection. To lose your wedding ring is a big deal. I lost mine.

At first I thought to myself, well, it will make an appearance when it’s ready. I’ve just put it down somewhere and once I check all the usual places that I leave it then I will find it. So you check all the usual places, and it’s not there. So, you begin to check the unusual places, the places you wouldn’t normally leave it, but which you might have left it this time. It’s not there. So, you begin to systematically go around your haunts turning them over and checking them twice. It’s not there. Now panic sets in. You re-check all the usual places, all the unusual places, some completely ludicrous places, and everywhere else that it might have been possible that you spent time at. It’s not there, and no-one else has seen it. Now you wonder what and when you should tell your spouse. How will they take it? How should you tell them?

When I told my wife she was remarkably calm. She looked me in the eye and could see that I was genuinely upset about it, and she was calm and cool. She did the list of expected places to check, and we re-checked them. All the pockets of my trousers and jeans. All the coats I may have possibly worn. All the bags I use. All the drawers and nooks and crannies that I usually leave the ring. Then she helped me do another systematic search. It went on and on. We didn’t find it. Now what?

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Clun Castle and The Shade of the Warlock

Posted on By Gwas 3 Comments on Clun Castle and The Shade of the Warlock
Ancient Sites, Dowsing, Energy work, Ghosts and shades, Hedge Druidry, Magick, Paranormal

On our Shropshire outing I had planned to visit several hill forts. Having completely failed to be able to park anywhere near one of them, and having had our potential parking space stolen by someone else (seriously – we were in the middle of nowhere – where did that person come from?) we moved on. No hill forts for us today – too little time and too much to do! We scooted off and headed for the next scheduled destination.

For most of the afternoon we had been seeing signs for the three or four main towns and villages in the area. There were literally only three or four places within a twenty square mile area, so we kept seeing the same names. Every time we pass a sign saying “Clun” Kal would parrot it back, as though it was some kind of fanciful legendary location that could be willed to appear. Minutes later we turned a corner to travel along the floor of a valley with a wide U-shaped basin and in the distance we spied a looming sunlit tower and half a wall. A castle? Cool! We continued towards it with our eyes on the prize, as it were. A few minutes later we saw a sign denoting the name of the village we were entering… “Welcome to Clun”. Destiny is our SatNav.

The sun was beckoning us out of the car as we parked in the convenient and free parking lot. The public toilets appeared to be musical, and the whole village seemed bright and welcoming. We both loved it immediately. We crossed the sturdy wooden bridge over the slow-moving glassy river. We each picked our own dowsed path beyond that as we began our trek over and around the imposing majesty of the grassy mound before us, wondering where we would be led to.

The delightful village of Clun in Shropshire

I stopped to dowse for some indication of what I would find at this place, after all, there is no point hurtling headlong into nothing. The answer that came back after several questions was something that I could learn from. OK, well that was pretty general, but I knew it was not related to my current quest, only that it would enhance my progress generally. Well and good. Onwards to whatever!

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Kerry Hill – Small circle and big revelation

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Ancient Sites, Dowsing, Natural Magick

Although we set off in the early afternoon Kal and I intended to pack as much as we possibly could into our day out in Shropshire. Our intention was to visit one of the few remaining megalithic circles in the county – Kerry Hill, close to the small village of Kerry (or ‘Ceri’, in Welsh). The site is also called Kerry Pole, which is good to know because that is the name of the hill on which it lies.

A signpost for Ceri Wood on Kerry Pole hill

Sadly, most of Shropshire’s megalithic history has been lost to the farmers of many centuries. When you drive through the rolling hills and lush pasture land you can perhaps understand why, yet many of the stone circles now listed as destroyed were in existence within the last hundred years, and we have hardly been on the brink of starvation as a nation at any time during those hundred year. Such a shame we have destroyed our heritage for the sake of a few measly ploughable acres. It can only be greed, ignorance or dis-respect that drove such destruction, none of which is an estimable human quality.

Back to the action. We followed the satellite navigation that brought us to the ‘back’ of the site – in other words we would approach the circle from the top of the hill instead of climbing up to reach it. Having visited before we knew approximately where the circle could be found, which is just as well because there are no signs to guide you, no indicators of any sort, and the stones that constitute the circle are very small making it difficult to spot. As with our first visit we were almost on top of the circle before we spotted it, hidden amid a herd of Herefordshire cattle. From the look on Kal’s face I could tell he was looking at the stocky black cattle and thinking “Bullocks!“.

Being watched at Kerry Hill stone circle

When we had dispersed the cattle we settled into the circle. Kal dowsed as to who was due to do any work here and found that it was for me, this trip. Before I would launch into my work I did some videos of my dowsing the unusual arcing neutral energies that flow from each of the stones into the central stone. The few other circles that remain in Shropshire have similar central stones, however this is the only one that we have found has these arcing energies into the centre.

httpv://youtu.be/0rGTB2lXUDs

Next I would prepare myself for interacting with the circle and seeing whether I could learn anything from it.

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The Berth and Death of Scorpius

Posted on By Gwas 8 Comments on The Berth and Death of Scorpius
Ancient Sites

I sometimes find myself doing some very strange things without knowing why. This night was one of those strange evenings, and yet the strangeness would continue beyond this night and lead to an even stranger conclusion by the time I had finished unravelling all of the clues.

I had decided that at some point in the week I would need to go somewhere. The weather was good, so I got out my dowsing rods and began to enquire about a suitable place for me to learn something that would progress me on my spiritual path – the usual request – general and open. The responses I got seemed to indicate that I could find such a place in the county of Shropshire, and that the place existed on the Megalithic Portal, so it was only a matter of bringing up a list of sites in Shropshire and working through a process of elimination to find the site that I was expected to go to. Soon I found it – The Berth – an ancient hillfort and associated pool near the village of Marton a short distance from the main A5 road. I did some reading on the Megalithic Portal about access to the site – not good. Permission from the local farmer is suggested. Well then, a covert visit may be in order given that I would be arriving late at night.

The Berth [Portal]

I put on my dancing trousers (well, the fleece-lined ones – it might be cold) and began to journey southwards from Cheshire. Soon I was past the eastern edges of Wales and skirting the western fringes of England. Within an hour I had arrived at Marton in the dark of the late evening and was searching around on a small-scale OS map for the perfect place to park and navigate through the fields to the hillfort. Luckily, without too much fuss, I found such a place down a road marked “Unsuitable for motor vehicles.” No kidding! Good job I was in a four-wheel drive machine.

A map showing The Berth hillfort in Shropshire

I parked at the only place down the narrow country lane that would fit a car. Using my print-out of a low-level OS map I headed off further down the lane. Five minutes later I realised I must have gone past the entry point I was looking for and doubled back. The entry point turned out to be where I had parked the car! When will I learn to trust my intuition? Such a hard thing to do!

Several times I had to stop myself from asking the obvious question, “What the hell are you doing in the middle of nowhere in the middle of the night?“. Luckily, I didn’t allow myself to even try to formulate an answer, but instead began to walk across the fields towards what I hoped was the right place, breathing in the still-warm evening air and wishing I hadn’t muffled myself up because I was beginning to overheat! This is October, right? Supposed to be cold and damp? Instead we are in the tail end of a heatwave and it was still 15 degrees late into the evening. Bizarre weather!

Fortune seemed to be on my side, guiding me towards something whose very impulse and importance I could sense like a scent on the night air.

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Hedge Druid hits 100,000 visitors mark for 2011

Posted on By Gwas 3 Comments on Hedge Druid hits 100,000 visitors mark for 2011
Quickie

We here at the Hedge Druid Blog do not often take the time to thank our readership for their contribution. There are many reasons for this – we are busy living, working, writing, and exploring so much of the time that interaction with our readers is a luxury of time that we are rarely afforded. However, … Read More “Hedge Druid hits 100,000 visitors mark for 2011” »