The year has only just started and already I am way out of line with my posts and the dates upon which the action took place. I fear this year is going to be SO busy that we are going to have to start posting smaller and faster just to keep up. In this post I revisit the Llangernyw Yew tree that is the starting point for many of my previous years’ quests and adventures. This year was no exception. This episode occurred in late January, before Imbolc. Yes, we have all the Imbolc posts still to come! So much to tell you about already this year. On to this story.
It is a philosophical point as to whether the tree really communicates with the druid. Perhaps its still nature and deep-rootedness simply allow you to go deep within yourself and find a small reflection of your own wishes that are then brought out to serve as an inspiration for the elaboration that is to come? Certainly, that is often how it appears, yet there is always something that you never actually know yourself, something that you couldn’t have known, something that surprises you and this element is the unquestioning influence of the yew tree itself. It is for this reason that I visit the tree so often, and always at the start of the year. The yew tree starts the year, offering me its guidance on the theme of my work for the coming turn of The Wheel.
Kal and I split up as usual, he going off to tour the graveyard briefly before settling into his own meditations around the tree, whilst I got straight to work beneath the mighty ancient yew. The weather was cold, but crisp and the sun was shining which made the day feel warmer than it should have been at that time of year. The yew tree would normally have been subdued by a biting frost and a layer of snow in January, but instead it felt ready to burst back into life as though Spring were upon us, even though Spring was still two full months away.
I settled into a meditation after dowsing for the best place to work from, and a direction to face – into the Sun, unusually. Little did I know that this would become a recurring theme for this year, as I will show in later posts. Within minutes I was deep inside the yew tree after setting up protection and doing my grounding and centring visualisations. They came easily, and the yew responded with a warm and deep hum like the clearing of an ancient throat at length. In humility I directed a question, a thought-idea at the yew and hoped for a response: “What is my direction for this year?” I asked. Deep quiet. Long silence. Then a stirring, and a word moving up from the depths of the roots into my consciousness: “Renown”. Just that one word!
What is renown?
A dictionary definition doesn’t really get to the core of the concept of renown as I have come to understand the word. Generally renown is the idea of accumulating fame through the repetition of one’s name.
widespread reputation, especially of a good kind; fame
[from Anglo-Norman renoun, from Old French renom, from renomer to celebrate, from re- + nomer to name, from Latin nominare](source: FreeDictionary)
In other words, the more people talk about you the greater your renown develops. This is the standard definition currently circulating, but it doesn’t deal with the idea that I am talking about because too many people interpret it simply as synonymous with “fame”. I wish to reclaim the word renown for something that I am coming to the opinion of that it may have been more originally used. I am talking about it being more synonymous with “power” or “charisma”, and the building up of personal power via the repetition of a person’s good deeds, such as selfless acts, courageous adventures, or perilous undertakings. I think that renown involves subtle energy accumulation.
For me, renown describes the level of subtle energy that a person has accrued in their lifetime (and beyond).
At the time that the word was delivered to me I only had a vague notion that renown was something that might have been a reason why certain people were entombed in tumuli – those ancient mounds of alternating layers of organic and inorganic materials whose properties seemed to involve the preservation of subtle energy around the grave of a person. It was incumbent upon me to ask more about this, seeing as the concept had been raised as being the most important topic of the coming year! I ventured to ask the yew tree to show me an example of what it meant by the idea of renown, so that I could see if it matched my own fledgling theory.
I used to dowsing rods to determine where my attention should be directed, which direction I should face. Soon my attention was firmly focused upon a sparkling mass of air hovering over one particular gravestone nearby. This was what I needed to go take a closer look at, so I did. Any gravestone with an aura, a halo of light surrounding it and a glittering ball of light dancing on its surface – well, wouldn’t you want to know what that was about?
The gravestone was someone who had “renown” – a notable figure in the community whom people respected, I guessed. I tried to do some research to see whether this proved to be true, as far as I could find out…
I took a photograph of the grave and tried to do some research on the person buried there, but I couldn’t discern the name clearly enough to be able to pin them down. All I could discern is that they were a “Williams” and dies in the 1800s. Therefore, at the moment, my concept of renown remains a theory with little evidence to back it up. Shame. I may go back and do a rubbing of the gravestone and then see what comes of that.
As I say, I have come across “renown” before when dowsing for people buried in tumuli – they are often people of “renown” whose energies are perpetuated by glorification of the society nearby – adoration, remembrance and worship, even simple maintenance, being held in memory and thought about positively. I soon recognised that this is a starting point for my journey to reclaim ancestor energies – I am seeking their renown, and to gather it to myself to increase my own personal power by finding their resonant frequency of energy and mixing with it, bringing their energy into my subtle energy body so that my own subtle energy can then be raised and put to good use.
Gwas.
I love it – a tree personality scale!! I know what you mean about oaks, I always find them quite enigmatic and for some bizarre reason, by chance, I just rarely end up communing with them. I think, I always consider them to be trees tried to male mysteries, they just don’t really offer up that much to me as a rule. Trees are such incredible beings, ever since I was little I have loved them and been fascinated by them – but not spent the time on really getting to know the personalities in detail like you have, the curse of an urban existence no doubt!
As regards this energy body – I’m really not sure exactly what I have to do this year, aside from that it’s a huge undertaking, which I feel unable to meet, its a sort of ‘why me?’ situation as I can’t get to sacred sites all that easily on my own. But whatever is happening to me on a personal level is profound and challenging. I seem to be going through a lot of deep healing processes connected to the essence of my soul and its journeys outside of this time and place. I’m having to face my ‘shadow’ which isn’t necessarily something bad, its something we flee from because usually its a powerful part of us, that needs to be integrated. All I can gather so far about my own mission, such as it is, is that I’m required to use very specific pitch and sound frequencies to try and harmonize the energy on various sites, sometimes they need not be ancient sites, but anywhere on a ley line where this negative energy has got stuck. It seems to be about raising the dragon in some way, and yes seems to involve re-awakening the Arthur energy – which is far more ancient than those fairy stories of knights and damsels! By the way, do you go to Alderley Edge very often? That place is incredible, I’ve only been a couple of times, but it resonates at some other time and space! It’s extraordinary! I know this is one of those legendary ‘resting places’ of King Arthur, so wonder if such places are actually massive zero-points for ley energy, the sources of the river as it were.
Liz
There really are times when I read your posts Gwas and have to shiver at the synchronicity. My totem tree is the Yew, it has been since 2005. I have my own ‘personal’ Yew in the woods near to where I live, she’s very young and slender, a mere baby, probably no more than a couple of centuries old. But there are many times I’ve come to her for comfort or advice, and young as she is in Yew terms, she’s been around a heck of a lot longer than me! One of the most remarkable things that ever happened regarding ‘my ‘ Yew, was when a professional Shamanic healer friend of mine, came to do a soul retrieval ceremony for me a couple of years ago. He said that he was ‘told’ by his spirits to take me to where my ‘totem energy’ was and of course I was somewhat spooked by that, as I’d not mentioned the tree to him, prior to our session. So we walked down to the woods and of course hoped no dog walkers would come and disturb us, wondering what in the world we were up to (I’m sure you know that one Gwas!) My friend is an incredibly energetically powerful person, and was able to make me literally slip from inside my head, I actually stood just outside my body and as this was happening, out of nowhere a gust of slight wind came. As I looked up among the swirling branches of the yew, a buzzard flew right towards us and past our shoulders – well, what more of a sign do you need than that! So you see, I equate the Yew with very powerful magic, it is after all, the tree of death and forgetfulness in folklore, but from my own experience of yews, if you’re patient with them and unafraid, they really can become great friends and spirit allies, but they do demand respect – yes I suppose, some of that ‘renown’ you’ve also discussed;-)
Your definition of renown is curious. Of course one equates it with empty fame and perhaps an imbalance of power, but that’s probably more down to the power structure of our society, that is so heavily stratified and judgmental. In the past people earned status through virtue and wisdom, unlike today’s hollow celebrity culture, and sadly those who really do deserve renown are so often the good people who work away behind the scenes in life without recognition, like medical staff and those who go to war-torn countries to help. I like to think our ancestor’s chose well, when it came to their leaders:-) I’ve also had a similar message, but mine came simply as being told that at present, I’m building up an ‘energy body’ so that I too can put my healing skills to work properly. I did a powerful meditation last night (it being a full moon and all!) and I actually saw how a group of spirit women were weaving this structure of light threads into my aura and at the same time, they were pulling out energy insertions like weeds! Maybe something similar is happening to you? It might be worth taking a look at how your auric field is shifting, I’d be curious to hear what you get:-)
A lovely post Gwas, as ever thanks for sharing your wisdom and experience with us. I hope you do find that ‘renown’ this year, it is after all year of the Dragon;-)
Liz
You are uncannily accurate when you talk of my changing auric field. It is indeed changing and has been since Imbolc. I haven’t wanted to pre-empt the posts that are coming up but when they get posted you will see that I was made aware of some changes – two in particular. One change relates to the archetypal Arthurian energy that I will be working with this year (different from last year) and the other is more profound, and relates to the colour/quality of the energy in my auric field this year.
The fact that you envisioned this happening to yourself is an interesting correlation. I wonder if more of us energy workers are feeling this change, and whether it is happening to us in the same “direction” as it were, or if it’s very personal to each of us? When I share my recent experiences soon maybe others will recognise the changes as similar to their own experiences?
And I have to agree with you about the temperament of yew trees. They demand a certain respect (as befits their age), and this is quite difficult to balance with a lack of fear which can sometimes come across as an air of arrogance or ‘taking the tree for granted’, which is an attitude that doesn’t seem to get you far with yew trees! Oaks I find to be downright grumpy and difficult, even stand-off-ish until you approach them with humility yet a sense of your own power. They don’t suffer fools kindly, or co-operate with superficial people. They like deep, meaningful and earnest people who desire to learn. Birch trees will work with anyone! They’re energetic gigolos, and beech trees make great teachers, being patient and helpful, and easy to contact.
That’s as far as I’ve got with my tree personality scale. This year I hope to expand it to fir trees and some of the other native deciduous trees like sycamore, apple, hazel and lime. I used to read other people’s books about the “qualities” and “uses” of these trees, but often found them to be wrong for me, or not that useful. Instead I am trying to make my own communications and derive the qualities of the trees in this way.
May I ask – you say you’re building up your energy body to do some healing. Who or what will be the object of your healing focus this year?
Gwas.