I wanted to investigate an animal image which had been been appearing to people close to me for the past week. Lots of people close to me had been reporting seeing images of a bee in dreams or visions and this made me curious. The common factor was that they were telling me about it, so I decided to visit a place of power to find out what was going on. That place would be Moel Ty Uchaf stone circle above Llandrillo.
On the walk up I stopped at guardian trees to re-introduce myself. The air was warm and the evening felt like I was in no hurry – I should pay proper respect tonight. One particular tangle of roots caught my eye – such natural beauty, clinging tenaciously to the track-side soil:
The Bouquet Rebuke
On previous visits I might have stopped to pick flowers for the queen of the Faery kind. The May Queen. It crossed my mind as I walked up seeing beautiful summer flowers appearing along the route. Yet it also occurred to me that I was a little late in thinking this – where had I been at the beginning of May? I delved into the roadside foliage and rummaged around for selected flowers. The moment I did so I was stung by a nettle! Somewhat rebuked I withdrew my hand and dropped the flower. What? Did she not want such homage, I considered? I went into a more sensitive frame of mind and I got the distinct impression that I was being told that I was too late for such a gesture. I should have done it earlier.
Mmmm… I thought. A sting. Like a bee…..
A minute later as I approached and stopped to admire some lovely pink flowers I saw a huge bee right in front of my nose as I leaned in. Aha – so here was the bee. This was indeed the right line of thinking this evening.
Getting back in balance
All of my progress to the top of the steep slope involved the middle. I walked up to the circle via the middle of the track, using the grass for traction. When I approached the circle itself I climbed up the last slope between the end of the ridge and the circle. The perfect middle in druidry is all about the pursuit of balance – the centre point where a state of grace and equilibrium can be found. The still point. The heart. The core. The essence. The point of total connection and singularity. The Hedge Druid’s home.
After a moment of connection, reflection and re calibration I approached the stone circle itself. Entering from a familiar location I walked to its centre in a mild trance. I felt the for the Spirit of Place, but this evening it was not there, or I had lost touch with it such that I could not feel it any more. What I felt instead was an ancestral connection to Ireland, which surprised me, and I look ed towards the West to follow the feeling.
Sitting in the centre I get into a meditative state. The first thing that happens as I try to follow the ancestral feeling and connect to the realm of Faery is that I am told off by The May Queen for not paying respects when asked to do so earlier in the year. Where had I been, was the feeling? Who so distant? Well, it has been a disconnected and distant year for me, I responded. That is a very complicated question. Things are not as they were. Change has occurred, and I have not kept up.
At this point the cry of some animal which I could not identify circles me slowly. It feels like it is moving around the stone circle at a distance of several hundred yards, but it is doing so very quickly. There is no bird, and I can see no animal moving. Just a sound, a piercing shrill and startlingly haunting sound.
I turn my head to the skies for guidance and I see The May Queen as a wide cloud defining the panorama of the remaining light. To me, at that time, with my three-dimensional vision, the image was clear. Now, in a flat picture, the features are less distinguishable. To me then, it was as clear as someone standing before me.
The Sting of the Queen Bee
At first the face of the faery queen is threatening, angry and scolding. As she feels my repentance her face quickly softens, and she goes from scary to pretty. I am genuinely sorry that I did not get to work with her this early summer, but as this emotional equation works itself out then we begin to talk as equals.
I ask about the bee, asking why it is such a feature at the moment, and why it is being made prominent to me. She says that the bee is about creating a buzz. You create a buzz by pollinating an idea. You spread it around from place to place leaving the germ of the idea such that it can be taken in and grown by those who realise its potential.
I ask where the energy comes from to make such an idea come to fruition? She points at The Moon. As I continue to watch her form change her shape becomes that of Kal’s phoenix – the image which he had as the cover of the book he wanted to publish. I know that I should read Kal’s book – within that is a wisdom that I need to spread, to pollinate.
Moon is in first quarter at this time, and The May Queen’s shape is pointing to the moon.
“See“, she says, “how the moon marks your progress. The first quarter is the start of the endeavor! Use the magic of the moon to bring the idea out into the light.”
As I walk back down I feel there is something walking with me. I ask my guide if I am correct. At that moment there are three stone splashes in the stream just alongside me, but nothing is visible there. Something is with me this evening. Three is the magic number. The information is right.
A few weeks after this evening I happened to search for Kal’s book title and found a lady asking if anyone has a copy of his manuscript for the book. I got in touch with Kal’s family and asked them and they’re happy for me to search his laptop to see if he left a copy on that. I’ll keep you posted in developments related to that. The bee, as a symbol of endeavor and work, may yet produce some honey!
