In Michael Dames‘ book “Taliesin’s Travels” the famous bard moves from the dolmen of Maen-Y-Bardd to Llyn Geirionydd (“Lake Language”). Completely unbeknownst to me, I followed in exactly the same path! I had used the book merely as a quick reference to discover some of the sites, and they had been lucked out at random. Then I had used the dowsing rods to determine which sites I should visit, and in which order. Behold, the order mimicked the text when I went back to read the text properly. Quite a surprise, and another beautiful coincidence.
On the way up through the forest from Llanrwst to the lake we missed a very small turn off to the right and continued up the hill. The road became more of a single-lane rally track through Gwydyr Forest, and I rather enjoyed putting my car through its paces. Kal probably wished the car had an on-board bucket, or at least ‘bucket’ seating! After a few miles of fun/terror we arrived at a small car park at the end of Llyn Geirionydd – the supposed birthplace of the legendary bard Taliesin. We would take the ‘proper’ road back down later.
I quickly realised that the monument that was my intended destination was on the other side of the lake, so Kal dutifully opened the gates along the road – out, open, in, out, open, in again – until we were able to park at the far end in a lay-by at the bottom of a pine-laden hill. The monument was a minute’s walk along the edge of the lake to the small mound upon which it stood. Now the fun could begin.
I took some pictures and quickly scanned the plaque on the monument. “Lord Willougby d’Eresby” erected the pillar. Good grief! Clearly not a native welsh name! Still, he must have been someone who appreciated poetry a lot to have gone to the trouble. And it was such a perfect spot to site it – idyllic. To work! The shadows were deepening.
Dealings With The Dark
I used my dowsing rods to ask for the best place for me to locate myself. They moved me towards the monument, but kept me at a discreet distance. I found myself standing on the tip of a rocky outcrop just below the pillar, and I was facing where the car was parked, some few hundred yards away back at the road. I protected, connected and inspected – why was I standing here, I asked? I felt a rush of dark energy down the hill and noticed that a narrow swathe of trees had been cleared through the old pines. I knew that dark energy was flowing towards the monument, and in a moment of insight I also knew that I needed to re-direct it.
When beginning any such work it is wise to ask a few questions, such as: is it safe for me to do this work; is it for the general good if I do this; is there any harmful effect of relocating dark energy? I got reassuring answers to all fo those questions, and was satisfied that I could continue. I had an idea. I would cleave the stream in two at the point where it reached my car.
One half – the female element – of the stream was directed into the weir and be taken away by the flowing water. The flowing water would re-invigorate the energy and transform it along the journey downstream. The second half ot the stream – the male aspect – was channeled along a ridge of rock to a point at a nearby summit where it could escape into the air. This would gradually be dissipated and re-distributed such that its harmful effects would be diluted and transformed in time.
I moved on to the next power point. At a clump of daffodil I was invited to feel the spring energies and fill up on energy. Once full I extended my aura outwards to cover an area some hundred yards wide, but as soon as it touched the lake it spread across the water to extend into the whole of the valley. Wow! I felt … connected to everything around me.
I moved from that power centre. No dowsing rods this time, simply sensing the way to reach the figure of Taliesin, whom I felt was nearby. In a wavy pattern I wandered closer to the dedicatory monument until I was standing next to the pillar looking out over the lake. I heard a cool, calm, clear man’s voice inside. Taliesin said to me slowly: “Tell me what you see!”.At first I froze. I scanned the environment hurriedly looking for the answer. Ha – stupid rational brain! I switched this mode off. this was not the answer that I was being asked to provide. I relaxed and felt for my energy out there in the landscape. I sent tendrils of energy out, scouting, seeking, looking to attach to things in my view. The energy latched on to various objects, and one by one I observed them in a “poetic” frame of mind. I heard myself say such phrases as:-
“I see a smear of clouds, tattered by the heat” to describe the remaining clouds in the late evening sky.
“I see the bristles of the beast” to describe a pine woodland on a hill.
“I see the invader and the native standing side by side” to describe a beech tree next to a monkey puzzle tree.
I described how this all filled me with joy and love. And I felt it too. I felt the feedback from the landscape.
In response I began to see threads of energy emerging from the objects that I had touched upon with my “poetry”. Each object streamed Awen into me from all angles, and I stood in the centre of this tangle of threads, holding out my hands, bundling and collecting the streams into a kind of “woven bag” of energy as it twisted and threaded in organic flows around my hands. It was a joyous, remarkable and uplifting process. The “thread bag” of energy I placed into my energy body and sealed it in place. Now I had my second dose of Taliesin’s poetic gift. this time, however, it was not just simply an energy transference.
Understanding The Muse
Now came the gift. With the take up of Taliesin’s energy came a deeper, a more profound change. A revelation. I felt the stirrings of my own poetic creativity. I suddenly saw where true poetic inspiration comes from. It was like my eyes opened for a moment to what was happening. I understood what “muse” actually meant. I had seen the relationship in spiritual and energetic form. The way my eyes and energy body touched the objects in the landscape, and the way they responded to that energetic connection through an energetic interchange which transformed, shape-shifted into language. I had been a part of the poetic process of inspiration, and had felt the words concrete into sound form from my energetic connection with the objects that I observed.
Truly, I was inspired by Nature to create poetry, and whilst I may have claimed this to be so in the past (when I was doing a degree in poetry in my twenties) this day I truly understood what a muse was, and how inspiration worked. That will be a lasting change in me, and something that will resonate inside me for years to come.
This post was really fascinating! Thanks Gwas!