In the fourth part of this Spring Equinox 2013 story I visit a new stone circle (or two), working with the energies and completing the sigil shape that I had been tracing in the Llangollen landscape.
Bryn Beddau cairn circle
Hidden in the murky depths of the Clocaenog Forest are two small cairn circles. One or maybe both of them are named Bryn Beddau. It’s difficult to tell from the Megalithic Portal article, because it shows both of them in the same description. They are very close to each other, though. One is accessible from one of the many compacted gravel forest roads, whereas the other is further inside the forest, accessible from a path linked to the first circle.
I was grateful that I had Ordnance Survey GPS and maps on my phone. Without that it would have been hard going. As it was I found the sites pretty easily, but first I had to traverse along the “new straight tracks” that Alfred Watkins would surely not have approved of. These long straight roads were not good for retaining energy! It was an effort not to lose all the energy I had gained so far while walking these uninspiring grey roads that vanished into the distance, then turned 90 degrees to get anywhere. A kind of Roman efficiency. I walked with a rapid stride and a musical rhythm.
Occasionally a scene of beauty emerged by the roadside as snow dripped from coniferous branches, water languished in near static pools and tall trees braced against the cold air. The only sounds were the occasional movement of birds in the treetops, signalling my presence to each other.
The first circle I discovered by treading carefully down a deeply rutted track that veered off at an angle from a junction of two forest roads. I was glad to get into the trees and off the grey gravel road. After only thirty feet of careful walking a clearing opened up and I got my first sight of a new circle in ages.
It could barely have been less inspiring. The ground was snow-covered but the flat circle of stones protruded just enough to reveal themselves. I looked around. On one side the forest was beautiful. On the other three sides it was a ring of close conifers. Sheesh! Had I really walked for half an hour to find this? The dowsing rods saved me – NO, this was not the circle I was looking for. Phew! I had hoped not, because I didn’t feel anything energetically either. Flat stones, flat energy. Maybe it was the wrong time of year?
Rapidly I moved on into the forest down a beautiful path. Snow covered branches like a seasonal greeting card, and the air was charged suddenly with bird chatter and a different energetic feel. Aha – I was heading in the right direction! All the natural signs were telling me so. Sure enough, seconds later, I emerged into another clearing to find the stone circle I that formed the final point on my landscape diamond-shaped sigil.
Bryn Beddau was a strange formation. The circle was half broken, with some stones seeming to have been moved out of the central circle to form a kind of figure 6 shape. As I contemplated its shape I felt it might be “broken” physically, but energetically it was still strong! I really felt I could work here, so I set my things down and began to attune myself, to acclimatise to the energy of the place.
My modus operandi so far on these visits had been to try to contact the Spirit of Place to ask permission to work. Standing alongside this circle I knew it didn’t have one. Part of my work was going to be to try to make the circle energetically attractive enough to entice a spirit to come and look after it.
I had a couple of ideas about why there wasn’t one here already. I think there has been one, but it was driven away by the forest traffic and the visitations by casual walkers. Spirits at sites like to be acknowledged and interacted with. People in “tourist mode” cut themselves off from such experiences, or if they do happen to feel something they quickly shut down and move away. It’s a defence mechanism, exacerbated by our modern interactions in towns and cities. Proximity means we quickly learn how to shut the outside out.
The other reason was that this ‘fire’ site had no fire! It was energetic, but there was no warmth to it – no spark – no fire! It needed to be re-energised, re-lit. Who wouldn’t want to come home to a roaring fire? These were the impressions I was forming. I leaned on my staff. Time to make some natural magick happen!
Fire and Spiral Stone
I considered this might be a “fire” site. The others three sites had demonstrated themselves to be related to air, water and earth, and that left one more option. I used the powers of the staff (without using the staff itself) to rekindle energy coupled with drawing an elemental sigil shape for fire in the air. Then I lit an incense cone placed within the flooded water of the power centre. Strangely, it took light in full flame (never done that before) and stayed lit for the duration of my work! Again, never done that before.
As the scent rose I called on a spirit to come and be the guardian of the site, if one so wished. I stood in the encroaching cold and gloom for about twenty minutes, looking for a sign of arrival – nothing. It had worked before, had I done something wrong this time? Something said patience, so I waited a while longer….
Then the light changed….can you see something “misty” in the photograph above too? It was taken at about the moment I thought something had arrived. Of course, it could be a snowflake hitting the lens. A perfectly round snowflake, right over the power centre at the middle of the circle. With no flash on the camera. There’s that coincidence thing again.
The dowsing rods confirmed the recent arrival of a new spirit that was prepared to become the guardian of the site. Having done such calls before I knew they could be successful, so I had been rather hopeful – it was just the waiting that nearly killed me! I asked the dowsing rods to show me where the spirit was now, and they swung away leading me to the outermost stone of the circle – the tip of the figure ‘6’ shape that they formed. As I stood there I could feel something, something ‘sparkly’, ‘effervescent’, ‘lively’ – ‘excited’ perhaps?
At that moment a crow cawed four times in a tree just out of sight. I noticed this conjunction – the whole site had been silent for the last twenty minutes while we waited for a spirit to respond to the call, and now that I had met this new spirit, here was a sign. Yet again, it was a crow. This time, the number was four – and this was the fourth site, coincidentally.
After a few minutes of making notes I dowsed again for the location of the spirit of the site and was surprised to find that it had moved already. The spirit was now a few stones further into the circle, and seemed to be moving towards the centre. I left it to continue its journey. My journey took me in another direction.
I wanted to imprint the site with my spiral stone, as I had done with the other three sites that day. I asked the dowsing rods to take me to the best place, expecting to be taken into the centre of the circle, perhaps. Instead I was directed to go to a nearby “old” tree. At the base of the tree I imprinted the spiral form into the russet-coloured moss and leaf mould. Was this symbolic of Fire, I wondered?
Just as I thought that I raised my head. In a branch a few feet from my head I saw a ‘cloutie’ – a piece of red tape that had been attached to a thin branch, almost invisible when side-on. The colour significance was not lost on me, and I wondered who else had felt the “redness” of the site recently. With that I made my way back to the car. There was one last place to go, and it would give me some answers, I hoped.
