In the second part of the day spent visiting the megalithic sites of Antequera in Spain we travelled the mile or so down the main road out of town heading towards the dominant feature in the landscape – the mountain of La Pena. We drove into what can only be described as an industrial estate, down a road whose tarmac suddenly ran out, and then down a dirt track, all the while following vague brown signs pointing towards ‘El Romeral‘. As we turned yet again into an area that seemed all ‘wrong’ for an ancient site, we could begin to see some grass and trees at the end of the track. Was this it?
As we pulled into the car park with its dedicated ticket booth (oops – should we have paid at the previous site?) El Romeral loomed with it circular crown of cypress trees. It looked like a crown jewel among the slovenly industrial units and their dumping grounds that surrounded the site. We noticed that yet again there was a bus full of school children visiting the place, so we sat and had lunch while we waited for them to finish their noisy procession in and out of the central chamber.
At the time of visiting I didn’t have my bearings of the place and its surroundings. Only later did I do some research and find that there is a cardinal alignment between El Romeral’s chamber and the El Torcal sleeping dragon that faces it due South of the site. It’s like the dragon is watching the chamber from far above. The only noticeable alignment on the ground is with the La Pena mountain – the lady in the landscape. A gap in the line of trees shows the mountain’s profile perfectly.
After lunch we scouted around. I walked an energetic path around the side of the mound and up onto the top. There was a shallow hollow just large enough for a person to sit in right on the top of the mound. I couldn’t resist, and had to go sit in it. As I faced in the obvious direction I realised that the hollow was shaped to encourage the sitter to contemplate the La Pena mountain in perfect stillness and comfort. Ahhh….if only the clank and clang from the trains and the industrial estate weren’t present, then it would have been idyllic.
Nevertheless, sitting in that hollow made me feel energised and prepared for entry into the mound itself. We all agreed it was time to go inside, as the school bus began to load up with babbling kids.
The entrance had been beautifully constructed. Unlike many British monuments which are deliberately crude, rough-hewn and naturalistic, there was something altogether more polished and symmetrical about these Spanish monuments. As we entered the relatively smooth-lined passageway the regularity of the shapes and the quality of the construction, the layered carved rock and the corbelled chamber – it only amplified the degree to which it was impressive.
Once inside the space felt rather welcoming for such a tall persona s myself. I could stand upright, which is quite a novelty in such places. Nevertheless, after a few moments I didn’t feel like I was “welcome”. No, that’s not quite right…as I passed Mike we looked at each other. He was feeling it too – this place wasn’t suited to our energies. It was yet another site in Spain where M’s energies were more welcome than our male energies were.
For some reason both Mike and I continued our circling movement around the edges of the interior. Once I realised what I was doing I began to deliberately “drag” the energies I was creating, intending that they come along with me, like the train of a wedding dress. M was standing in the centre and had closed her eyes. She could certainly hear what we were doing, but she seemed “away with the fairies” at that point. Mike saw what I was doing, perhaps he felt it too, and he began to do the same i the opposite direction. I was going anti-clockwise, and Mike was going clockwise. Soon the energies were actually going faster than I was and were no longer training behind me, but were now overtaking me!
At the exact point where I noticed that the energies had their own momentum M began to sway forward and backward. At first gently, but very quickly as we circled her she lurched backwards, and then plunged forwards as though fainting! Luckily Mike was passing by her at the point where she fell, and he steadied her as she lurched. She opened her eyes in amazement, not able to process why and how she had been oscillated in that manner. We were all a little shocked, but soon we were laughing. How funny that these subtle energies that people are so convinced don’t exist, yet they can have very physical and psychological effects!
We left soon after to the sound of birdsong mixed with the distant hum of busy traffic in a large Andalusian town. These two megalithic sites, only a mile apart from each other and in the shadow of such an imposing mountain, they were much more interesting than I could possibly have expected. What lucky finds!
Gwas.
