Before the Winter Solstice I spent a week down in Cornwall. My wife was working down there and I had a week’s holiday to take, so I decided that the trip would server two purposes – I’d be there to support her with the driving and taking her out for a proper meal together in the evening, but also I would have the day free to visit many of the great places that Kal and I had visited in the summer – perhaps some new ones too.
I would be able to test how the energies felt at this time of the year, and it would also be a more leisurely visit, as I would have as much time as I needed to spend at any place. As it turned out, in winter, it’s not ideal to be hanging around in some of these exposed places getting wet and cold! And so, as each day arrived, I would pick a part of the county and head to that area, looking for new and familiar sites to visit. I got through many more sites than I imagined! Many of them I couldn’t find, or didn’t exist any more, and I haven’t documented that wasted time, but in the next seven or so posts I will take you through my experiences at the many places I did get to see. The experiences vary from simple tourist visits, photographic opportunities and walk to encounters with spirits and progress on my quests.
Come with me into Cornwall in Winter! First stop – the village of St Cleer on Bodmin Moor.
1. Doniert’s Stone
I was heading towards Bodmin Moor from the south. Normally I would approach from the east or the north, so I was driving on roads I didn’t know. By chance, one of these roads passed by a site called “Doniert’s Stone” – a tall pillar which once had a cross on it. Now it is broken into two remaining parts. Interestingly, the inscription can still be read, and talks about the person buried at the site – Donyarth, the last recorded King of Cornwall (then part of the tribal state of Dumnonia).
I found the location of the spirit of place for the site. It was very close to the broken cross, so I sat down on one of the stones to see what I could find out by communing. I firstly asked to connect to “Donyarth”. Here was the information that I got back from my conversation:-
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He wanted it known that his name was pronounced “Den-EYE-art” with the emphasis on the EYE part. Quite insistent on that!
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He loved the land he was buried in, and this location particularly
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He thought it was “Eden“. I was fascinated that he would describe it in that way. Clearly Celtic Christianity had landed here by the 5th Century.
I asked if there was anything I could do, but there wasn’t. He was staying, and didn’t need or want anything from anyone. I began to realise that although I was in contact with him, we were not compatible. The longer I tuned in to him the less I liked him. These days that’s a rarity for me, and such sentiments are usually reserved for those who are arrogant, self-centred or haughty. Doniert had all three of these qualities. I said my goodbyes, and left.
There was so much more to see today, I didn’t want to hang around. I still had Trethevy Quoit, The Hurlers and The Cheesewring to see.
2. Trethevy quoit
The village of St Cleer has two sacred sites, but I only wanted to see one. There is a well somewhere, but the most interesting site is the huge dolmen at the edge of the village. This was my third visit to the site, and I was interested to know if there would be any subtle energies at all given the time of year.
It was nice to be back. I could feel an energy emitting from the quoit, so I knew that my visit, indeed my entire week, was not going to be a waste. There WAS something to investigate and to interact with over the quiet winter months. The site dowsed as having strong female energies, but as expected there was no male earth energy to be found at the site.
Now for the second part of my investigation – was there any spirit of place here, or had they all “gone to earth” over the winter. I asked the dowsing rods the question and they crossed, showing me that there was a spirit here. I asked the rods to take me to the best location to interact with the spirit and I was led around the dolmen, then into the heart of it where I was invited to perch on the sloping central stone. As the weather wasn’t great (wind, drizzle and coldness) I was grateful for the shelter.
I took my opportunity to ask the spirit whether I could inquire about something that I felt to be an important aspect of my visit this week: the search for the final ancestral artefact which I believed might be somewhere in the South West of England – the so-called Blood Ring.
The spirit was quite friendly, possibly because I had visited respectfully in the past. Possibly because I was a druid of more experience than last time I was here. Possibly because he was bored. Either way, he delved into some part of the universe’s complex network of inter-penetrating knowledge threads and pulled one out for me: The Blood Ring is in Truro.
Holy mackerel! Then I was right, and I had some chance to perhaps locate it during my visit in this area this week. That would be astonishing if I could do that. The hunt was on now. I thanked the spirit and left the site with a donation of loving and thankful energy from me. An early Yuletide gift, if you will in return for some vital information.
Next, a short drive up the road from St.Cleer, there were a whole host of sacred sites that I was hoping to reach. Firstly The Hurlers stone circle, then The Cheesewring, but there were others marked on the map beyond that too. I had my eye fixed on one called “Arthur’s Bed“. That seemed like a place that I might want to visit. I drove off in a good mood. Seems like my week was just beginning to get interesting!
