Genesis
It is hard to determine where an adventure begins. Just when you think, “Ah…this is it” you find that the genesis pre-dates your assumption. It is so with this one. Let me have a stab at it though. Following the thread back I think that this adventure began back when we were visiting Ireland for the first time. Out of the adventures of that trip, two stand out as being related to this current outing. The first was the rescue of a dragon spirit from a sacred site called the Piper Stones. The second was, in my view, one of those magic affirming experiences. It occurred at the one of the three main sites in Ireland’s Boyne valley, namely Dowth. At this site I was given a vision of the past of a time when an Oracle was in place at that site. Both these experiences occurred on my first visit to Ireland. A second visit to Ireland last year (2012) it emerged that the rescued dragon had a gift to give in return for its rescue. This Soul Book gift is the main jumping off point for the visit to Delphi in Greece for it was revealed that I would have to go there to obtain the key to open this amazing nine separations of a Dragons life book and gain access to the knowledge within.
Imbolc
A couple of weeks ago it was Imbolc 2013 and I had gone out to Cumbria to see what knowledge could be divined about my up coming visit to the Ancient site of Delphi. There I was given the instruction that I needed to take with me the knights mantle. Which turned out to be that I needed to fast for two complete days. No food AND no drink. Difficult though this was, I was able to do so and was looking forward to the journey which had promised so much.
Trials and Tribulations
Gwas and I had arrived at Athens airport around 7pm on Friday. The trip had been uneventful and we were expecting a 3 hour car journey to Delphi and our hotel. We had rented a car when booking our flight and when we went to pick it up, the hire-guy informed us of their policy of having no petrol in the car. Fortunately there was a garage just up the road he said from whence we could fill it up. Unfortunately upon our arrival at the garage we found it temporarily closed as the fuel truck refilled its supply. A frustrated hour later had us moving with haste towards Delphi. I wondered whether this initial setback would be a precursor for our visit to Delphi. Ha ha! No chance. It isn’t a matter of faith any more, it is a certainty. Sacred journeys provide auspicious conditions.
We arrived at the hotel, incidentally called “Pan”, at around 11pm and settled in for a very deserved sleep, making plans for a 7am start.
Death Defying Skid
A fresh sleep and a quick breakfast and we were out of the hotel by 7:30. Our first stop was to be the Corycian cave up in the mountains, reported to be some 15 miles from Delphi. About half way up the winding road we passed the local ski resort and watched as the levels of snow got higher and the road icier. Now we were driving down a clear road but the sides had about three feet of snow. It wasn’t looking hopeful for our cave visit! I had the feeling that we had passed the turn off, a dirt track that was probably invisible under the snow. However Gwas assured me we were on track (pun intended).
We passed through some chalets and were wary that the road was dangerously iced. Then, even though we were going really slow and mindful of the ice, upon taking a sharp turn our car went into an uncontrolled skid. It was only a few feet to the snow embankment and the car effortlessly slid into and up it. It was a frightening experience to be sure. We managed to reverse the car back onto the road and stopped at a safer place further along the road to assess damage and our plan. Fortunately no damage had been done to the car and it seems none had been done to our desire to get to the cave.
Technomancy came to the fore again. I keep saying to people that today’s mystic has to include a fair set of technology into their practices and here is another example. A couple of days before our journey I had looked through the available iPhone apps for Greece and managed to find a mapping program. It didn’t look too good at the time, but anything might be better than nothing so I downloaded Copilot GPS and with it the one free country map…Greece. Credit where it is due, Gwas had saved some information on the cave on his tablet. So we had a coordinates AND a app to get us there. Putting these two together we realised that we were 8 miles out! We had passed it.
Choices
We had a choice, go on and look for the cave or return to Delphi? We decided to continue the search for the cave for a while longer. So, navigating the icy roads, we returned along the road. GPS in hand and eyes peeled. With this tool we were able to find the dirt track. Unfortunately it wasn’t passable and there was no place for miles to park and walk. We had tried. Had this been enough to satisfy the gods of questing? Yes. With a slightly disappointed heart but with the knowledge that we had tried our best, we journeyed back to Delphi and the Oracle.
Kal Malik
