Beacon Hill, or Caer Digoll, is accessible either from a short walk up a path used to access the nearby radio masts, or it can be reached by following Offa’s Dyke Path. We approached from the nearby road because it’s Winter and the shortest day of light in the year. It would be nice to see it in Summer though, approaching by the ancient track.
Before we even arrived M had felt the pull of the place, and the sense that we were expected. “Something“, she said, “is excited about our visit.” I tuned in and felt that it was the community of elemental spirits which inhabited the hill who were excited about our imminent arrival. Nice to feel wanted, right?
I felt the hill needed a spiritual fire re-lighting even before we got there. It needed a beacon lighting. Because it was broken, not working any more, and hadn’t been lit for many many years. Reading the history of the site now I think that might have been the 17th Century when it was still in use for beacon fires. It wasn’t recently anyway.
M was on form this Winter Solstice. Not only had she predicted our reception, but she also saw a “basin” or a “bowl” associated with the site. When we saw the information sign and walked around the site, we then knew this to be the oval raised embankment which rings the central space. The central area was indeed in a circular bowl!
It was very cold and windy on the outside of the site. We were wrapped up tightly, and the thought of a real fire was all too inviting. We found “the correct” entrance point and asked permission to come in. It goes without saying that it was granted – they were expecting us, remember? There was the delightful feeling of tinkling water spirits guiding us past their marshy, boggy, water-laden interior so that we could reach the relative sanctuary of the bare birch trees inside the ring. As we stepped only a few feet into the sacred space the wind dropped away and the air felt still and warm in comparison to the outside. It really was a sharp contrast.
As we walked around inside looking for somewhere suitable for lunch we couldn’t find one. There was nowhere to sit in here. All the logs were slimy with mould, and there were no rocks. Anywhere near the embankment was just too windy and cold.
We had walked all around the site, found the trigonometry point, and walked most of the embankment. The point at which we had entered the site – closest to the tallest mast – felt lovely and bright. Alive with spirit – water spirits and earth spirits, or gnomes. As we moved to the opposite end of the site there was a feeling of something “dark”. I didn’t want to tune into it, but it had a feeling of premature death, battle and hurt about it.
We ended up just standing in the middle eating sandwiches, which was weird. I created a pentacle out of a set of crystals which I had with me. Each crystal told me where it would be best positioned to have the greatest effect and to take on its particular role in the ward I was creating. Once complete I felt much better, and could eat my lunch in peace. M had wandered off to eat hers. She had gone towards the nicer feeling end of the site. Instinctive, you see?
After lunch I dismantled the pentacle. I felt that this spot was still suitable for my next work which was to create a spiritual beacon, and so I created another circle of crystals, this time with the intention of lighting a beacon fire. Drawing on the power of the energy which I had focused on myself from the hills at Myllin’s Well, I was able to offer this former fort some energy. A pool of energy leaked out of me into the “bowl” of the ring fort. When the ring was full I set light to the energy and it roared into the air in a burst of tall flame, rising higher than the trees. Anything energetically aware within miles of the site must have seen it!
With the work done, we departed. On our way out we left our crystal “ice” shards from St Illog’s Well which we had collected earlier in the day. There was a tree stump which seemed to be the right place to position those. Let the site have the cold ice – we were done with it! Time to get back to the warmth of the car and off to our final site for the Solstice.
