Samhain is a point of extreme contrast. It is in opposition to the bright awakening of Imbolc, and is the point of darkening – the clocks go back, the days shorten noticeably, the sun weakens, and the separation between the souls of the living and those of the dead is momentarily dissolved. This last aspect is almost completely forgotten by mainstream society now in favour of the costumery of Halloween. For many in the pagan community it marks the end of the year and the beginning of the new year.
We had decided to go back to South Wales, and then to work our way back up north through The Golden Valley near Hay-On-Wye. Our first site visit was a re-visit to Tinkinswood burial chamber. It had had such a positive effect on my ash staff (which I lost this year) that when I replaced the Ash Staff with a new Yew Staff, my first thought was that I ought to go back to Tinkinswood. This was my first clear opportunity to ask the spirits that inhabit this sacred site whether they would consider charging up my new staff.
As we arrived, parked up at the convenient small lay-by, and made our way through the dip towards the stone, the antitcipation level;s were rising for me. We stopped, me with staff in hand, at a recumbant set of stones near to a signposted old quarry. For some reason we were both drawn to stop here, and we knew from experience that this was our cleansing point. A place to re-attune our energies to those of the site nearby. A place to shed our modern world taint.
As we stood at the flat stones I felt like I should sheathe the overhanging power cables with some protective energy to prevent them affecting our work at the site. A moment of concentration later and the effect was realised. I didn’t mention it to Kal, but later he remarked how quiet the cables had been during our visit. When I revealed my preparation work he had to laugh: “That will be why, then!” he giggled.
Now we come to the work that was done at this powerful site on this special day…
The Third Ancestor Artefact
Over the last year I have been involved in a seemingly quite incidental series of quests. Of course, they only seem incidental when you can’t see the full picture. As the tasks have been adding up and becoming fulfilled, so their relevance and their depth has become more apparent. I’m talking about the recovery of the energy from artefacts associated with my ancestors. What I took to be an odd side quest turned out to be something so personal and profound that I am still trying to assimilate it. See the posts tagged “ancestor energies” to catch up on the story so far.
I had found and recovered the energies of two artefacts so far – The Eel Sword and The Torc of the Hawk. In any good pagan mythology such things come in threes. Was there a third item which I needed to find. Or rather, how many more items were there to recover? A quick dowse of this subject revealed that there was ONE MORE to find. And for some reason I believed that Tinkinswood would provide me with the right atmosphere to ask that question about the third artefact.
I asked the dowsing rods if the conditions were right today – YES. Then please direct me to a place where I could find out about my third ancestor artefact. Ha – not so simple! I was taken to one corner of the site, away from any meaningful structure. At a seemingly bare patch of lush green grass I stood unwittingly – giving myself over to whatever energies needed to re-attune me to the right frequency for the answer to this quest to emerge in their own way. After a few minutes I felt slightly different, energetically. I dowsed if I was ready for the next place to be. I was. Onwards.
I was taken to another energy spot in which I felt I was being re-filled with a different energy frequency. The first spot was removing something. This spot was re-filling me with a different energy. OK – so be it. Finally I was taken round the back of the huge capstone and invited to climb on to the top of it. Kal looked over suspiciously – was I aware that this looked dangerous? I was, but this was where I was being directed to go. And to the most dangerous point, for the rods didn’t spin around until I was teetering right on the front ridge of the huge capstone. There I stood and knew that I could ask my questions now.
I close my eyes and let myself move in three directions. I sent my energy upwards and downwards to connect to the Earth and Sky (Sun & Moon). Then I sent my aura outwards horizontally to connect to the aura and energies of the site itself. Finally, I brought my energy into myself, filling my physical body with the subtle energy of the site itself. I was ready.
“What is the third ancestor artefact that I need to reclaim?” I asked. I left a blank canvas in the centre of my mind for the result to be painted upon. Slowly an image began to form… it was a thick crude golden ring with prongs which held a stunningly pure bright red ruby. Wow!
“What is the name of this artefact?” I asked…. the name filled my mind quickly – “The Blood Ring“.
I came back to normal waking consciousness and nearly tipped forwards off the end of the capstone! What a beautiful ring – I knew I would hold that picture in my head until the time that I found this artefact whether it be a real object or purely a symbolic one. Some movement caught my eye above – a hawk was circling over the capstone above my head. Then this was indeed the artefact that I was seeking. Now I was sure.
One more thing to do here before we moved on to the next site – I needed to re-charge my staff. Would I be allowed to do this? Find out next time.
