After a hearty breakfast at the Loch Melfort Hotel – a hotel with stunning lake views and roaming highland cattle – we checked out and made our way back to Kilmartin. We had passed signs on the edge of Kilmartin for a castle called Carnasserie, and this would be our first stop today. Later we would head to the museum, but first we wanted to take a look at the castle.
Kal and I split up to work separately, as usual. I asked for a place of preparation, and the dowsing rods took me over to the remains of what appeared to be an old outer wall or tower, which now afforded a stunning view of the valley below. This was located to the north side of the Renaissance castle.
As I began to allow myself to attune to the vibrations and energy frequencies of the surroundings a feeling emerged that this was the last of the summer’s energies that I was feeling. I sighed. Even though we had been spared any rain or storms for the duration of our visit, I felt that the strength of the summer energy was at last on the wane.
My attention was directed to my new water Spirit Guide. She said to me “Water is coming.”. I looked up, my attention moving to face the current wind direction where I saw from the cloud cover that there was every possibility that it was going to rain soon. In fact, later that day as we headed home it was incredibly wet! Pouring down for the whole journey! She was right.
I’m the King of the Castle, and you’re the Dirty Rascal
When I asked the dowsing rods to take me to the location of the Spirit of Place for the castle I was taken right back to where I was standing! I had been in the right spot anyway. I decided to tune into a different frequency – that of the Spirit of Place- and so I held that notion in my head and then settled into a mindless state of meditation, waiting until I got to the right level and wondering if the spirit would want to communicate with me. It did.
The Spirit Of Place made itself known to me. I was getting a feeling of a Troll, a large earth spirit that lived beneath this mound. It considered itself to be the rightful “owner” or inhabitant of this hill, and that the castle built upon it was a mere intrusion. Not unwelcomed, but unjustified if anyone in the castle thought that the hill was theirs. This troll was quite possessive, and had been here for a very long time. I asked its name. “Muudstab” – as I played with the word it wrote it into my mind for me so that I could see how our language might represent that sound.
After we had exchanged thoughts, stories and had established a rapport, then the troll made me an offer that I thought was rather generous considering we had only just met. Muudstab asked me whether I would like to be taken to a “place of treasures”. The baser parts of my brain began to fulminate with notions of buried gold coins, but my higher senses recovered quickly and squashed those unwelcome thought patterns. “I would like that“, I empathetically responded.
The “treasure” was a rock which is positioned at the base of a tree in the marshier areas of the hilltop. As I stood in that location and touched the rock I new this was no ordinary stone. The stone contained all of the history about all the beings who have lived at this place, including one who last met Muudstab. I was told that I this person was particularly interesting to me, and that I could get the next part of the story by following this person’s energy trail.
Merlin and McClintock
I followed the trail and was taken to several locations around the castle: to a power centre by the southern wall, to the highest rampart on the castle walls, and finally into a space beneath one of the stone staircases. At each point the story of this person was revealed to me, the story of Rabbie McClintock.
Rabbie had grown up in the castle. He had been afraid of war, and had particularly disliked the military training that he was forced to undergo. I was given glimpses of his life – flashes of imagery and accompanying emotions. As he reached maturity he began to get interested in Merlin. He had heard the story of Myrddyn Wyllt and had become obsessed with the tale. He began to study the “ways of the wilds” and called himself a “Follower of Merlin” He was afraid of being driven mad like Merlin, and so to avoid being conscripted into a looming battle he tried to sneak off into the wilds to learn as Merlin did.
In me he recognised a fellow follower of Merlin. We were somehow bound together in a sympathetic bond of kinship. As I moved from place to place Rabbie revealed different pieces of his “philosophy”. One of his ideas was “The way to truly understand an animal is to devour its essence after you have caught it.”
Hidden in the arrow slot beneath the stairs Rabbie used to hide from active war service. He contemplated the futility of war if the participants do not fully believe in the cause. He felt he understood Merlin’s madness at the Battle of Arfderydd, fought between rival chieftains in 573 A.D. Living again through his remaining thoughts and following his energetic trail I replayed these emotions, even if I did not necessarily agree with his ideas. I felt that we actually were not as close as Rabbie believed we were. Still, for me it was an interesting experience if nothing else.
I said my thanks to all concerned, Rabbie, Muudstab and the other spirits of the castle. I re-connected with Kal, and we agreed that it was an interesting place, but that it was time to move on to the Kilmartin Museum. My water spirit guide had been right – the rain was coming toward us now, and being inside seemed like a sensible option.
Chris
