Last year I had a bleak and pointless journey to Arbor Low. At that time I said that there were only two things that would make me ever go back there. One: a guarantee of warm weather. Two: if the site had awoken with the Spring, as this was the time when the dowsing rods suggested that the site would come alive with energy. It was Spring Equinox and the weather was warm. Damn! Still, what other reason did I have to return? I hadn’t counted on the one other thing that might entice me – a confirmed direct hit with some map dowsing!
When Kal and I had been discussing some places in the country where we might like to spend the Spring Equinox there were any number of suggestions, yet they all seemed to require at least most of the day to be spent travelling to get there. We wheeled and cycled through all the possible suggestions and then resorted to some old favourites. None of them sounded ‘right’ and none of them caused any excitement or offered any sort of potential for revealing something new and fresh for our 2012 quests. We wondered how to decide. Then a suggestion emerged – why don’t we each map dowse the result using the same directive, and then report back. Perhaps we could accommodate both results in the same day, or pick the most interesting one? With this task in hand we went off to do just that and report back.
A few days later we both had our results. I had used Bing Maps to narrow down my selection. The final result was a hill in Derbyshire next to a village I had never heard of before – Parwich. I wondered what else was close by that might occupy our day and discovered that there were two very close sites of interest – Dove Dale and Arbor Low! Both these places were within ten miles of the site that the rods had chosen for me.
I discussed my findings with Kal at the pub. I told him my results and asked him where he had dowsed as his location. He pulled out a bit of paper showing a cross and a spiral path that ended at a point slightly south-east of the centre of the cross. He explained that the cross was his ‘current location’ when he had dowsed, and that he had used his room as a map of the country. He then dowsed for a position in the room that represented the nest location for both he and I on Spring Equinox. The place was south-east of his room. When he translated that onto a map guided by a measurement of the distance he ended up at….Arbor Low! It was written on his paper. With all the possible sites in these islands we had both independently map-dowsed for the same location. Well – that was settled then. We would go to Arbor Low, Dove Dale and finally Parwich Hill.
We arrived on a sunny day. Everywhere else in the country was quite warm. Arbor Low was, as expected, windy and rather cool. I should have brought gloves! However, things soon warmed up once we arrived as the following tale about an elemental circle reveals.
The Elemental Circle
Kal mentioned that he felt he should go to the nearby mound called Gib Hill, and he walked off in that direction. I got my dowsing rods out and standing at the edge of the energy aura from the site I began to dowse for where I should go on this Spring Equinox day. I had no set intention about what I would do, I was open to whatever happened. The rods began to move and take me on a sinewy path around the other embankment of the site. Oh!
My first stop was only a few feet away. It was the kind of faerie ring that one only notices when one is looking for it, and stood right on top of it. The dowsing rods kindly found this one for me. I stood in the rough circle of different grass and attempted to tune into the feel of the spot. It wasn’t long before something began to happen. This was the first of four stops that I would do, and by the time I reached the third spot I knew what was going on. I was being led to various power centres that were aligned to elemental forces. At each place my question was the same – “Why I am being asked to stand here?“. I was answered each time with a sensation, and sometimes an image.
Here is the full list of elemental centres and their effects:-
1) Earth
The first ‘station’ was Earth. When tuning in I felt a connection with the ground and a sinking feeling, as though I was being pulled slightly into the earth, ankle deep. I did a meditation for grounding and centring that felt in tune with this power centre and the results was…. I felt earthed and grounded – stable.
At this stage I had no idea that there would be more, or what else would happen. I asked to be taken to the next place and the rods swung away to the far corner of the site close to one of the dry-stone walls. I followed.
2) Fire
I arrived at a shallow depression about fifteen feet in length and three feet deep in parts. I stood in the pit at the place indicated by the rods and tuned in again, asking the question about why I was here. I felt a warmth emerge that rose around me like a blanket being pulled over me. Perhaps it was because I was now shielded from the westerly wind by the earthen embankment of the henge, but I was definitely warming up quickly?
Internally I called up energy from the surroundings and despite the absence of a visible sun I was able to draw male energy into myself and felt powered up and motivated. “Fire” I thought. “Earth first, now fire.” A pattern was emerging.
I asked the rods for the next station and they wended their way along the length of the drystone wall, still refusing to take me into the henge!
3) Air
I was now at the southern raised end of the henge and snaking path of the dowsing rods extended from a narrow band to a wide zig-zag that brought me close to one of the smaller entrances close to the southern mound. Here the rods circled around another faerie ring similar to the one at the northern end I had come from recently.
I stood on the spot and tuned in. I noticed that I was standing in a cold draught of air at one of the highest points of the site. The air rushed over me and carried with it the sounds of birds twittering on the ether waves around me. I knew what this centre might be – air. As I meditated I felt the edge of my aura loosen, and I was able to expand my aura to reach out into the surroundings.
At its fullest extent I could feel all the living organisms in its expanse, including Kal. ‘Noticing’ him in my aura I pushed out a communication cord – a tendril of energy from my sacral chakra area – to ‘tickle’ his attention. That done I concentrated on how I felt. I felt light and airy, my aura feeling dissipated and mutable, movable and wide-ranging.
I cam back to waking attention and pulled my aura back a little from its full expanse. It re-integrated on command, but I was left with the “spaced out” feeling that accompanies remote work.
4) Water
Was there to be a fourth power centre to complete the set, I wondered? The dowsing rods took me off again towards the southern entrance. As they approached it they veered off again, away from the henge’s entrance and led me to a small circular depression with a muddy centre. It looked like it would hold rainwater if the weather had been its usual wet conditions.
I stood in the small circle and tuned in, again asking whatever was guiding me to reveal the purpose of why I was standing here. Moments later I saw and felt my aura again, but this time I saw it as a clearly-defined bubble around me. Then it began to rain – a cleansing mental rain of energy dripping down through my aura cleansing it like a shower. I felt released, purified and enlivened all at the same time!
Stones laid in a pattern
Finally I was ‘allowed’ into the main site. I asked permission to enter by the Sun entrance (North) and found Kal wandering around inside looking deep in contemplation – so I disturbed him. He frowned at my impertinence and waved me away. I located the Spirit of Place while I was waiting and stood on that spot – a shiver went down my spine. Right place then! I wondered if there was any work left for me to do.
Kal called me over having finished his own work, and he pointed out an arrangement of stones lying close to the centre of the henge. Five stones had been definitely placed in a seemingly random formation, but we knew better. It may look random but there was some correspondence somewhere. We approached the formation carefully – feeling for the intention that had gone into the placement. They felt “good”, positive, like they were done with a good intention. We chose not to disturb them. Instead, Kal dowsed the energy path that they had between them. It roughly followed the line of the formation close to the stones.
I felt that the formation of the stones might be a correspondence with some constellation and dowsed to confirm this. I was correct, so I tried to identify the constellation. I can’t be completely sure but I think it was The Great Bear constellation. I then felt like I should add my five elemental crystals to the formation, which I did, feeling for the placement of each one. Afterwards Kal re-dowsed the energy path. What a difference! Now the path was very wide between the stones, and Kal zig-zagged wildly oscillating from side to side between each stone.
Then I removed my crystals and Kal dowsed to see what effect that had on the pattern. The path returned to exactly the same state as it was in before I had put my crystals down. Interesting effect!
The Artist at Arbor Low
To complete a lovely visit (despite cold hands) Kal and I were approached by a gentleman who introduced himself as a photographer/artist who was visiting from Canterbury in Kent. It’s not often you get to have such a lovely intellectual, philosophical discussion in which poetry is quoted to you. What a nice guy! He was doing some interesting techniques with photographing sequences inwards to the centre of the circle and outwards around the embankment, putting them all together into an animated sequence and playing them simultaneously. I’d love to see the result! It would be a very interesting perspective on these ancient stones.
Finally a visit to Arbor Low yields some interesting results. You see how Natural Magick is so much a matter of place allied to time?
Gwas.
