In the second tale of my Nottingham adventures I had travelled the short distance from Clumber Park to Creswell Crags. A friend had once recommended Creswell Crags to me several years ago, and had mentioned that it contained some of the earliest cave pictures in the country. This was something that I thought I should go and see – not because I’m interested in ancient people per se, but because I often wonder if they have left us clues of their connection with the subtle energies around them. So it was with this in mind that I went into the quiet visitor’s centre and asked if I could do the big tour.
Snags at the Crags
The cave tours aren’t available in the week, so I could only do the exhibition. A major disappointment! Not only was I hoping to do some dowsing in the caves to see what I could find there, but I was also hoping to do a little meditation in order to re-shape my aura now that I had been balanced by the beech tree at Clumber Park. Seems like I would be resigned to peering in through the iron grilles that were across each cave entrance.
I paid for the exhibition in any case and it turned out to be very interesting. There was an interactive screen which challenged you to find and trace the various rock art shapes that are etched into the roofs of the Church Hole cave. This was great fun and quite a test for the eye. I didn’t always agree with the suggestions for what the figures represented, but then this is always going to be a discussion point as we can’t really know the ancient cultures and their environments except for the archaeological evidence, which is only a fraction of the full picture.
In addition to the descriptions of the rock art there was some information on the previous inhabitants of the cave area. Some sharp teeth on display from the hyenas. Yes, hyenas on the Derbyshire/Nottinghamshire border! Mind you, if you’ve spent a night out in Nottingham…. 😉
Walking out into the fresh air, through the contrived park paths, I was directed by the dowsing rods to walk around in anti-clockwise direction. I could feel the pull of Church Hole opposite. but I did my best to ignore it. I knew I would have to go towards that point eventually, but first I wanted to examine the other caves. I peered through the iron grilles of each cave. Only Robin Hood’s Cave felt interesting. I would have to come back on a weekend some time when it was warmer.
I visited the final cave on the right-hand side but then my attention was pulled strongly up onto the top of the crags opposite. It wasn’t the Church Hole Cave pulling me, then, it was somewhere on top of the crag! I decided to investigate….
There was a stile and path up to the back and top of the crags. I climbed somewhat hesitantly into the ‘restricted’ fenced off bit on top of crags and made my way towards the increasingly strong pull of some point deep within the undergrowth. Eventually, suing the dowsing rods to confirm it, I found a power centre of inter-twining male and female energies in the centre of a natural amphitheatre. As I stood onto the power centre and assessed the situation I asked for a sign that this was the place to be. Seconds later a hawk circled me overhead. I smiled and even laughed out loud to Nature’s ears only. Who would believe this when I came to tell the tale? Nothing further was required to convince me!
A Hob’s Cry For Help
I began to go into a meditative state – a light trance in which I could project my attention outwards in all directions like a beacon, testing the airwaves for some kind of a response. What or who had called me to this place, and what did they need me for? The beacon went out and within a matter of a few minutes there was a tingle of a response from somewhere deep beneath me. Inside the cave that I was stood on top of but could not access? Something within Church Hole Cave? Or was it even deeper than that? A voice rose to me attention.
Impressions, visions , images and snatches of words and phrases began to simultaneously form in my mind in a jumble of communication forms like a multimedia collage. I saw a wrinkled and grey-faced form and I knew it was an earth spirit. It was pleading to me for release. I asked why it needed release, and in my mind a dark tale formed. The tale was of a young lady whom the hobgoblin had enticed deep into the caves until she had somehow died as a result – starvation, fear or a fall – I didn’t know the details, just felt the guilt and the weight of the penance of this deep-dwelling earth entity. Yes, the hobgoblin had somehow managed to lure a lady to her death in the caves, and now was paying for this with hundreds of years of having to live away from his natural dwelling place deep in the earth. Would I help him return from his exile? He offered his name to me – “Haslac” (this is my approximation of the sound that I heard). I felt this was a gesture to induce trust, but I needed to think about this.
Many questions filled my mind. Was it right to do so? Why should I be chosen for this? Was I being tricked? Who had imposed the sentence that kept the hobgoblin on the surface? How could I release such a spirit even if it was right to do so? I needed some time to think and work things out, so I told the spirit I would return to his attention soon and I broke the connection to return to normal consciousness. I picked up the dowsing rods, and asking for my spirit guide to assist me I began to question the rods about how I should tackle this situation.
Minutes later I had my answers.
- This was part of my learning process.
- It was a good thing to free the hobgoblin.
- His exile was self-imposed, but he didn’t know this.
- He had paid his dues, and now it was time to return him to Nature so that he could continue to serve his purpose.
- The spirit release would simultaneously release the hobgoblin and the spirit of the lady who had died because of him.
With my recent encounters with earth spirits this was a natural progression of my dealings with them, and was a necessary first stage of the year’s work with elementals. Winter-Spring is Earth Time for me this year (more about this soon). Soon I would move on to other elemental forms to work with.
I offered him forgiveness via my spirit guide, calling upon her ability to open a portal of light through which he could pass into a released state. I called upon my friendly elemental spirits to ease the passage too. I felt the earth spirit be released, which is an indescribable feeling. It feels like the whole of the atmosphere around you is suddenly lightened a little – in brightness and weight.As a memorial to the moment I made an offering of chocolate and gin liqueur. Hey – it was what I had with me, oddly! Then I lit some incense to complete the process by clearing the air of all traces of my work.
Any Hole Is A Goal
As I took a few steps away from the power centre my eye was caught by something I had not seen on the way into the amphitheatre – there was a small cave entrance just a few feet away from where I had been standing! How could I have missed seeing that? I had only seconds before been thinking that it was a shame I could not visit the cave below to dowse inside it. Now, seconds later, I was being presented with a cave. I knew it had been there all the time, but for a split-second it felt like it had just appeared to please me!
Inside the perfectly-sized and shaped cave I hummed my five chakra tones and found complete harmony energetically. It was one of the most spiritually pleasing activities I have ever done. The vibration and resonance were absolutely perfect! I couldn’t have been happier at that moment, and it felt like a kind of reward for my recent work.
On my way out of the little cave I picked up a stone and pocketed it. Always nice to have a souvenir, I thought. At the bottom of the crags I continue my peripatetic perambulation around the Creswell circuit of caves. I came to the Church Hole entrance and suddenly was overwhelmed by the same sense of guilt that I had felt the hobgoblin had been communicating to me!! What was this?! The feeling came from the stone in my pocket, so I took it out and offered it back to the cave by throwing it far into a small but deep hole at the side of the cave entrance. The feeling quelled and everything was back to a balanced state again. How odd! The stone had only wanted to be transported from above to below. I felt this was quite symbolic of the whole recent episode with the earth spirit, so I left it at that.
As I neared the point that I had come into the circuit of crags I came to the last cave. This cave was called The Boat House Cave. The second most obvious feature of the cave was that it was the one nearest the level of the water that was a central feature of the vale. The first most obvious feature was that there was a fresh bunch of flowers tied to the grille across the cave mouth! A memory of a death, perhaps?!! That certainly was incredibly poignant to me at that moment, and it made my heart rend a little thinking about the hobgoblin and the death of the lady – however long ago that had been.
What a fitting end to a strange encounter!
Gwas.
Hee-hee Gwas!! 🙂 There are lots of places I haven’t been to I promise you, its just most of the sacred sites in my locale I’ve tried to get to over the years. I’ve lived up here for 25 years now, so I’ve had enough time I guess! Thank you so much, it means the world to me to be able to express my knowledge (for what its worth) in such a lovely environ as this blog – bless you both 🙂 Its interesting you didn’t pick up much at the caves either – it does feel bare doesn’t it? I wonder what happened there? I’ve been discussing with friends recently, whether its caves that are the source of ley energy, it makes me wonder if the power at Cresswell has been tampered with, perhaps accidentally, maybe through quarrying? But as you say – so many sites, so little time eh 😉 psychometry is interesting, I get it very strongly with objects that have just been handled by someone (the skull seemed to be an exception) but my best friend can read lots of things no matter how old, she sees auras too. I look forward to that post Gwas 🙂
I hope my little anecdote about my Christmas tree lights tickled your funny bone – it was one of those ‘you had to be there’ scenarios! 😉
Liz
Hi Gwas 🙂
Yes – believe it or not, I have been to Cresswell crags, I know it a little! It was while I was doing my ‘Access’ course to get to university, I was researching stuff for the project I was doing on local archaeology. The custodian at that time – a very nice chap, offered me office space for a week and a tour of the caves, I can’t recall that I picked up much on a spiritual level while I was there, I almost felt an absence of something, but my brain was in logical mode as I was taking notes on what the man was telling me, so I daresay I missed something. I did get to handle a Neolithic skull though, taken from a recent excavation at a nearby long barrow. I felt like I made a connection with the dead woman, it was a powerful ancestral experience, but not about the caves themselves. I think I’ve been to Cresswell in more recent years, back when my kids were young, Rick (my partner) took us up there and I recall we walked a fair way. I got a real sense of the Stone Age, a place of the hunters and their magic. But looking back, I do recall that something about those caves felt ‘off limits’ maybe you’ve explained why that is here!
Actually this post does have an eery synchronicity with me another level, but I might save that for a mail, its kind of funny too!
Liz
My word! Is there one place in these damned islands that you haven’t been to, lady? 😉 Everywhere I go….! Right – I’m going to find some really obscure place, a tiny village in the middle of Lincolnshire that has an erratic stone in a field somewhere and I’m going to visit that! Only kidding – I am completely astonsihed by your incredible depth and breadth of experience.
So, you felt nothing much at Creswell? Interesting, because neither did I. There was an inkling of something at the Robin Hood cave, but that was all. And again something at Church Hole, but that could have gone now. I wasn’t able to check, of course. I think I might go back one day, but it’s not high on my agenda right now. I’m now thinking about Spring Equinox, and Kal and I have already sorted out a site for that (would you believe we came up with the same place?).
I’m very interested in psychometry – getting information from holding objects – and there’s a post coming up soon about this subject (or similar), so I hope you can add your experiences to that when it appears.
I totally agree that the work they’ve done re-imagining or re-creating the past of the site brings the place to life as you walk around. It’s a strange overlay though, and although I appreciated the link I also found that I needed to vanquish it in order to connect to the present feel of the site too. An odd dilemma!
Gwas.