I was at Alderley Edge in the Wizard’s Wood. Kal was with me – it had been his idea (I think). The heat of the evening air was regulated by a smooth cooling breeze that was sufficient to lift your hair and cool the brow. The trees were playing a melody of different rustling noises in tempo with the wind’s movement. It was a perfect evening for me to try to discover The Song of the Plains Wind.
This would be the first of my three wind songs that I was being asked to learn. When I looked back through my quests for the year i realised that this has been one of the first instructions I had received this year, but of course, as this was now the height of summer I had forgotten about such distant memories. Yet the advice had returned to me, and I recognised that the air spirit that was my guide this year would be the perfect companion to learn such songs with.
Between Light and Shade
I often sit at the balance point between light and shade, I notice. This has only come to my foregrounded attention in recent weeks, but I noticed it this evening as I was directed to go an sit in one of the many caves which can be found in this amazing forest. This would be my preparation point – far enough into the cave to be at the point between light and dark. Such is my nature and my predilection. I recognise it and I flow with it.
As my mind settles into a state of balance too, and thoughts flatten and siphon away I feel the movement of the celestial objects around me. The Sun, The Moon and The Earth are all orbiting around my centre. They feel very strong and large. I feel their attraction, the pull of their movement, and yet my centre is sufficiently rooted and centred to be able to hold its integrity. I feel ready for whatever is to come, and so I say my thanks to the spirits of the dark depths of earth, and I take my leave to re-join Kal, who is loitering with a dancing readiness to depart, to be drawn deeper into the woodland along energetic pathways.
Our first stop wasn’t far from the cave. The dowsing rods swung around a bent tree and soon we were putting our hands on the tree trying to figure out why we were stopping here. For me, the tree indicated that I should use these bent over trees as connection points to other trees. The advice it gave me for today was that I needed to go and speak with the huge beech tree that I knew as “The Father of the Forest”.
We headed deeper into the woods, each following our own dowsed path and yet for the majority of the time completely in alignment in terms of the direction we were travelling (if not the exact path to get there).
As we walked along we stopped at various points. One of these was a small oak tree where I had previously done some work to strengthen and protect it against the harsh Autumn storms. In meditation by the tree I received the following information, as though brought to me on the wind itself:-
- The Sea Breeze is a pushing, initiating force
- The Mountain Wind is a pulling, dragging force
- The Plains (or Valley) Wind is a flowing, rippling force
The Plains Wind
This was interesting, but I wanted much more information to work with. We continued our walk through the forest until we found a suitable meditation place.
For me the meditation spot was in the “usual” quarried out space, but this time on the opposite side of the hollow. It was here that I felt I could ask about how to learn the language of the winds – here where I could find the Plains Wind’s Song.
I began by expanding my consciousness to reach out into my surroundings, and soon I was being brushed and moved by a gentle wind which seemed to respond to me every thought. The information came in a series of adjectives describing the Plains Wind’s qualities:-
- Ruffling
- Disturbing
- Urging
- Encouraging
- Directing attention
- Passing on the song of collective greater knowledge
Getting In Tune With The Wind
The walls of the hollow gave me an idea. What is I made a noise? I began to hum and soon I felt like the wind was reacting, or I was getting more in tune with the wind. My humming noise sails out on the plains wind sending a vibration to everything that it touches on its travels. I direct the hum towards the green wand planted in the ground in front of me. The response came back to me in two forms: the lowing of a cow and a plane passing overhead. When the plane had passed I heard the gentle introduction of birdsong – the first I had heard this afternoon.
Then came the vital information:
‘If you want to learn the song of the wind then know that if you speed the sound of the wind up until it matches the vibration of the wind, then it would sound like birdsong.’
I thought I had learned enough. In fact there was more to come. Kal and I wandered through the forest following the rods. Now we were veering apart from each others’ trails and I was on my own. Something made me stop – a twitch reaction in the dowsing rod, or an intuitive moment – I don’t know which, but I stopped by a young beech tree whose lower branches were almost at eye level.
I got myself into a meditative state ready to connect to whatever had nudged me to notice the tree. The wind moved around my senses, gently stirring them. I opened my eyes to see the beech tree’s branch waving at me. I began to match my breathing pattern to the speed of the branch’s movements in the wind. Suddenly I was deeply in tune with the wind and the tree together.
The beech has lots to teach. In my meditative state of matching the tree and wind I discovered that the Wind was a bringer; a courier; a messenger.
Father Beech – There To Teach
I emerged out of the midst of a tangle of tree to find that I was walking through the middle of the fake stone circle which is near to one of the main paths. I knew what was just across the way – The Father of the Forest – a huge beech tree which is the sentinel and centre point of the forest. I was there “Just to Be”. In this centre of the forest, close to the centre (trunk) of the big tree I felt that this was the point of perfect balance, and a place of stillness in the midst of all my wind research.
Soon I would have to turn my attention to learning the “song” of the other two forms of wind, but for now I was content to be, and to sit with the information I had learned this evening.
