When the grey clouds of summer come rolling in what is a hedge druid to do with himself? Why, go out of course! Somehow Kal had decided that he wanted to go to The Druid’s Circle at Pemnaenmawr. I was unable to get free until after 7pm, so a long journey across the width of Wales was out of the question. Instead, I persuaded Kal that a quick visit to Dinas Bran would be more appropriate He conceded, but as we approached Llangollen things went a bit strange. For some reason I didn’t turn up the road to Dinas Bran. Instead, I carried on towards Vale Crucis Abbey, and that’s where we ended up. It was like something had decided for me where we would go this evening.
I had no agenda to work to – again. I would simply connect at the right place for me to be, and see what revealed itself tonight. The dowsing rods guided me initially to a power centre by one of the ruined walls of the Abbey’s main hall near the entrance. The cleansing process took a long while – much longer than usual. Perhaps this was because it had been a few weeks since I had done any work at a sacred site?
I issued a new directive to the dowsing rods – “Please take me to the best place for me to work on my spiritual path!”. A general question, but usually one which resulted in something interesting happening. I was taken on a path which skirted alongside the ruined abbey’s walls until I reached an area which I recognised as being the former alter space. In that space there were the remains of pillars supporting two walls opposite each other. The pillars were “exploded”, only half of their construction remained. I was taken to a handy ‘seat’ – a flat rock sticking out enough to perch upon.
I sat on the seat looking at the pillar opposite, which was similarly opened up. Why was I here, I wondered? I let myself drift into a reverie… why was I here… why was I here… I found myself staring at a face in the stone pillar. It was a face that I felt I recognised… who was it? Give me a clue!
The face seemed to speak but no words emerged. Instead pictures began to form like a slideshow in my mind, showing me sites in Roscommon that I had visited a few years earlier. They were four Irish sacred sites all associated with my ancestors. One site in particular was focused upon – Kilronan Abbey. This is the place where the bard Carolan is buried.
I was surprised to see this image as I hadn’t thought about the place in years. Now a conversation began with the face in the stone. I was asked if there was anything that I wanted to know about my ancestors. I thought about it, and then asked “What is it about Kilronan that is important to me?“. The answer came back immeditely: Kilronan is the bardic link to my heritage.
I wondered if I could continue the conversation, so I asked another question: “How should I come to know that link better?“. By honouring the bardic ancestry in music and song. Whenever I do that, I felt that I would strengthen the link between the past and the my present self.
I thanked this “face”, this ancestral link that had been created, whatever it was, whatever I was imagining it to be. I paid my respects to my ancestors. I felt that I should create a piece of music myself – this would be the bardic thing to do. It seems that by creating a musical piece in honour of your ancestors, if heartfelt, this will open up the bridge to the past and allow you to access that knowledge and wisdom.
Sonic flows
Finally, we played around with some sound. Kal had located a real “sweet spot” where we could play with the reverberation of our voices. I had an idea, and began working my way up through the vowel sounds, letting the resonance fill one of the acoustically-endowed rooms. Kal dowsed the pattern of the sounds, which was very interesting to see how it manifested itself.
We did this several times, and discovered that the sound waves were consistent in their pattern, each having its own unique nature. I noticed that some ended in a spiral (of differing sizes) whilst others formed an infinity symbol around some pillars. Fascinating! We should do more of this.
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