3 Beltane 2014 – Carnac and the Taliesin Quest Pt1

The sky was finally cracking. The deep cloud cover was thinning and the glimpse of a possibility of sunshine for the afternoon at Carnac – France’s most amazing megalithic complex – was enticing. We paused briefly at the local creperie at Menec village – feeling like proper tourists, sipping our “boules de cidre” before heading off to the fields of stones.

As Kal has already mentioned several times, the theme of the day was “interdit” – access forbidden. However, as I have said many times on this blog, and I make no apologies for it, I believe that those who wish to work at sacred sites have special privileges when it comes to sacred sites. Of course, we care more than anyone else about preserving our heritage – that’s exactly what we are about! Yet, we are also respectful people by nature, and so when someone puts up a fence with the instructions not to pass, and they say it’s for the good of the flora and fauna, then we tend to acquiesce. But this is Carnac – surely, at some point in the many fields of megaliths, there will be a way we can work in some small space without feeling like intruders or trespassers? Don’t they know I have a quest to fulfil?

Menec

The first set of fields – the Menec side of Carnac – I am less interested in. Tourism – the eternal tramp of the curious and the vituperous – exacts a toll on the energetic welfare of even such a subtle engine as the mighty Carnac. Menec is the lamb offered up to the tourists as the sacrificial and the picturesque. We walk alongside the low green fence like the bus-loads of others here today and every other day, and we take our mementos too – snapping, wise-cracking and side-glancing at the stately rows as they curl off into the distance towards the bisecting road which brought us here. A white open-top double-decker bus passes us by, laden with scarf-wearing long-lensed visitors from Planet Normal.

Yet, as one half of my brain acts as tourist, the other half is already shifting into a different frame, another operational state. I feel, unbidden, tendrils of energy emerging from my energetic centre – a place I am going to call The Confluence Point. This is the point on your energy body where all of your energy fibres (or tendrils) bundle together, and from which they can be extended outwards into the world. The tendrils move away towards the stones, writhing like an involuntary Dr Octopus, joining the subtle energy paths which slink through the nearby stone rows. I close my eyes to see how it feels without vision, and I see The Wheel of the Year spinning slowly, turning my inner mind’s eye with it. The energy engine has begun to turn!!

Kermario

We pass through two gateway stones on either side of the road and this marks the change of space from Menec to Kermario. A short walk through the varied woodland and the sun begins to make its presence felt more strongly, as though supporting our progress towards the conclusion point.

At this point I take a detour as Kal runs towards the majesty of the Kermario fields, drinking in the new light and the size of the stone constructions before him. I feel that I need to ask the rods whether I can work in this field of stones – NO, they say. Is there anywhere I need to be around here, I ask? A seemingly general question, but I have in mind what I’m asking for, and the rods begin to direct me back along the woodland path, into the trees, then through some new long grass and brambles. Despite tugging, pricking and cutting feelings I follow them obligingly, willingly, and they spiral around eventually to bring me “by the back door” to the side of a long stone which I could have reached easily from where I started. But that is so not the point! I needed to reach the stone by an energetic path, by the ‘correct’ path for me. That was important. Any fool can walk up to a rock! It takes a particular kind of Fool to be led there.

I see the parents in nearby families at picnic benches stifle their offspring’s curiosity at “the strange foreign man with the funny metal things”, and I stand by the long tall stone oblivious to their observations. I connect, protect and inspect. What is the purpose of me being here? The stone reveals itself as female, connected to the earth. There is a more complex relationship of energy, however. The stone is an anchor, weighing down the lightness of the air energy. The two have combined – a female subtle energy made up of earth and air elements. The earth is keeping the air from “escaping”, from running freely. Together, they balance each other out, making a subtle energy form which is amenable, malleable, workable and accessible. Does that make sense? Do you understand how those adjectives can apply to the energy that one can work with?

I was gifted this energy to help balance me before my “big task”. It was a gift given in return for me having given my energy input into the Menec alignment. I was on track, and the forces around me seemed to be sympathetic to my cause. Another grey cloud departed the scene leaving even more brightness and blueness.

As I moved away from the stone I noticed an antler-shaped twig, then a large closed pine cone. A minute later I saw a buttercup cluster on the floor, freshly plucked and discarded. Finally I saw an oak sprig. Each of these items I picked up because they were lying in my path and making me aware of them. An oak sprig had been noticed but left lying earlier. I had passed it by. Then one flew down to land at my feet a minute later. I picked that one up. That is how one should react to Nature’s opportunities. I was a Fool to pass up on the first one, but I was given a second chance to get it right. I now had a collection of “beautiful things”, and I wondered when it would be appropriate to use them. The answer was, “Very soon!”

The Giants Stone

It’s easy to miss. Another side track between the fields of Kermario and Kerlescan. Who would know that along that muddy track there were two amazing megalithic sites? Luckily for Kal, I know, having been there before. As the road reaches a dip at a horse-riding farm there is a muddy make-shift car park full of cars. This is the entry point to The Giant’s Stone and The Quadrangle.

The Quadrangle is a tourist site. It is of no energetic significance at all. Instead, we turn our attention to the tall menhir which is a few feet away – The Giant’s Stone.  A line of people are sitting alongside the stone on the low wall which forms a kind of enclosure for the site. Occasionally one or two of them will get up and do something – touch the stone, take a photo, eat something, move around it, meditate near it. Then they return to the family unit again. I choose to ignore them. I have work to do. Sorry, no time for pleasantries today! One of them approaches Kal, and I see that he is soon engrossed in conversation with them. Sometimes it’s me, sometimes it’s him. Today I’m glad it’s him.

An old lady gets up to join the conversation with Kal. She is holding a pendulum. She looks at me briefly with a faint smile, and I return the smile. It’s the twinkly in her eyes which I notice particularly. I hear someone in the throng around Kal ask “How do the rods work?” I can’t get drawn in to such a conversation right now. I turn away, but find myself saying, “Ask her!” (the old lady), “She knows.” She does know. That, and much more. I re-double my protection for some reason, then set to work.

I dowse for the first place I need to be. It is a power centre which identifies itself as a spiral via the dowsing rods. It is male energy, and is aligned to the element of fire. After a while I move to the next place – it is a spiral on the other side of the walled area near the stone. This power centre is also male energy, and is aligned to the element of water. I realise that they are both power centres powered from the standing stone itself – hence why they are male energy, I presume. There is one final spiral at which I need to stand. This one is closer to the gigantic menhir, and is another male energy spiral. It is also associated with a combination of fire and water elements.

NOTE: I don’t yet know what it means for subtle energy to be “aligned to” or “associated with” an element. It is just something that emerged form the work this day, and I haven’t explored it fully yet.

I stand at the most energetic point of the menhir, touching the worn-smooth stone of ages. I consider the elemental work – all four elements are brought together in me using different shapes and forms appropriate to their element. For example, earth is a toroid shape which emerges out of  the ground. Air is a spear-like shaft of energy which emerges from my crown chakra. The operation is too fast for me to record, and occurs naturally. I know that I have been infused with all the elemental energy in a balanced shape, my aura is now that shape. I hold these elemental energies in balance in my aura.

I weave the buttercup through the oak leaf cluster. I place the gift by the base of the Giant’s Stone, at the most energetic point, and intone that this was in honour of the forces of Beltane. I plant the antler twig in front of the offering, as though marking my territory. I give the gift free of energy so that the objects would not be “turned back on me”. Once given, the energy is released to the giant stone, and is no longer mine.  It is done, and so I step away smiling.

Now I can come back to “reality” and I see that the colourful family are still milling around. The old lady has been playing a mouth harp and humming while I was working, and Kal has been busy too. As I step away from the tall stone, for the first time I see the giant’s face which gives the stone its name! I see, too, that someone has been feeding it bread in its “mouth”. I create a ball of energy as a token of thanks, and I feed it to the giant, laughing at the silliness of how this must look.

I take a moment to think about what has just happened.  Aren’t fire and water , air and earth incompatible when used in those combinations? My spirit guide gives me a helpful piece of information. He whispers in my inner ear: “Earth tethers air, water tempers fire.” Ah, I see. Without the contrasting elements at work the male and female energies that I picked up would have overwhelmed or destroyed the Taliesin Awen energy that I was holding. This precious cargo needed to have a balanced container – my energy body – but it needed to be carefully balanced, not pulled apart by the extremeness of one element or another in isolation. I see now.

I am fully balanced now with air, earth, fire and water energies in perfect harmony. I am ready for “the big task” – to release the captured Awen energy of Taliesin into the Carnac engine. All I have to do now is find the right place. I know it will be at Kerlescan – the next field of stones in the Carnac complex. We say our farewells and retreat out of the forest back to the road, and ready ourselves for the next adventure.

As we leave Kal tells me that the old lady is a shaman from Russia. She is called “Titania”. Really, magical Titania at Beltane? Seems too weird to be true!