On our last visit to Bodmin Moor years ago we had encountered all sort of strangeness in the mists surrounding The Hurlers stone circles near the village of Minions. We were therefore quite expectant of more interesting times, but hopefully with a clearer view of the landscape this time, and a slightly higher temperature might be more inviting too. So, we were a touch crest-fallen when we arrived and visibility was down to a hundred feet or so. Would we see The Hurlers in clear daylight at all? We got kitted out for a damp situation.
Eerie. Bleak. Confusing. Damp. Bodmin Moor the day before the Summer Solstice. It could have been the depths of Winter except that there were occasional signs of greenery which might not have been there in the Winter months. Dark shapes loomed at us as we made our way down the main track then veered off towards the faint impression of a standing stone. The second we left the track we were nervous. This is the kind of place where people disappear for days, yet we knew that the village and the car park at the end of it were only a few hundred feet away. Yet they were invisible.
The mist shifted as the strong wind pulled veils across the moorland, sometimes shielding, sometimes revealing. I went to stand on a small mound to take photos, and to try to spot the elusive third circle. I couldn’t see it, even when the mist rolled back and I got an aerial view. I had become fixated on this third circle – the others seemed irrelevant today. I walked back through the now visible two rings of standing stones which formed the circles that I already knew about. I went to stand by one of the outlying standing stones, and I rested my staff against it while I pondered the situation. Where could it be?
Then I turned around and looked in the opposite direction. Suddenly the third circle became clear! I was standing in it! The standing stone that I was leaning u against was actually one of the last few remaining stones from the third circle. The others were lying almost hidden in the moor itself. My eye scanned in a circular manner and now the position of the circle seemed more obvious, even where stones were missing or recumbent.
Being in that third circle is the strongest place for energies. An excellent opportunity to do some work, then.
How to see into The Otherworld
I stand in the lee of one of the few remaining tall stones in the third circle. Next to me is a small pool of water. Hidden as it is from the passing wind, the surface is glass-like except for one anomaly – a floating piece of plastic, some wrapper from sandwich perhaps. I fish it out and make a note to dispose of it later.
For now I am struck by the merest glimpse of sunlight appearing reflected on the surface of the small pool. Almost entranced by it. I go in to meditation with my eyes closed and my back cool against the stone’s implacable presence. Meditation reveals that I should use still water to move between worlds. I am shown a technique for using the reflection of the nearby pool to make the Otherworld the inhabited space in the mind.
It is a tricky visualisation that involves the following:-
- staring at the reflection of the physical world on the surface of the water
- projecting the mind into the reflection
- reversing the image to see from the reflected side of the water!
- seeing out of the water at the physical world as though it was a reflection itself
I will keep this technique as the means by which I can meet with Faery. It is an excellent way to cross the threshold between worlds.
Kal and I reconvened. Just as we are about to leave we are approached by two visitors who identify themselves as member of The Modern Antiquarian forum (TMA members “Paul” and “Moss”). They were waiting for author Roy Goutté who was an expert on the local monuments and had just written a book about nearby Trethevy Quoit.
We didn’t have time to hang around with these lovely people – we had to get to Penzance! Onwards!
