Divination – Page 9 – The Hedge Druid

New Moon, Wizards and Goddesses

March 8, 2015March 6, 2015 kal No Comments

Experiment, God or Goddess, How To, Pilgrimage, Signs and Synchronicity, Visions

Lunacy is a word that I agree with in that a full moon drives it crazy. So a new moon has quite the opposite effect on me. Yesterday was one such evening and I was in a mind to travel to the Wizards wood, namely Alderley Edge. I arrived whilst it was still light and … Read More “New Moon, Wizards and Goddesses” »

The Resonance of Caileach

March 6, 2015June 12, 2015 kal 1 Comment

Churches and Temples, Crystals, God or Goddess, Incense, Visions

Honestly, our adventures surprise us on a daily basis. From one synchronicity and strange occurrence do we wander. Seemingly aimless and yet specifically guided. We had spent considerable time looking for the Church of St Michael prior to our time at Arthur’s Well without success and then literally a few minutes after leaving that place … Read More “The Resonance of Caileach” »

The Maiden Enforces Rest – Solstice 5

January 19, 2015January 8, 2015 Chris No Comments

Ancient Sites, Dowsing, Elemental, Hedge Druidry, Modern Druidry, Quests, Spirit Guides, Spirit of Place, Wheel of the Year

We weren’t sure how to approach Maiden’s Bower – a turf maze in Yorkshire. Coming from Ripon, down the A1(M) once more, ending up in the village of Topcliffe. In the village we took Winn Lane, which goes back over the A1 road. On the other side there was just enough space to park the car, and then we followed the straight track until a stile took us across the farmland.

The first feature you encounter is Cock Lodge – a raised earthwork of substantial proportions. At first we thought this might be the thing we were looking for, but luckily I had seen a picture on Megalithic Portal of the place we were searching for – this wasn’t it.

I asked the dowsing rods to lead me to the correct place, and they took me alongside Cock Lodge earthwork and over a fence on the other side. Suddenly Maiden’s Bower turf maze was visible between some small hawthorn trees. Even in the fading evening light it was impressive and unusual.

Kal wasn’t far behind but I got started straight away – time was pressing. I felt like I needed to walk up the mound barefoot. In the depths of Winter? Was that sensible? No – but at least there wasn’t any snow on the ground! However, within a few steps my feet were almost numb with the cold dew. I ventured on, following the dowsing rods after asking for the correct path for me to climb the mound in order to meet with the Spirit of Place.

Oak Healing and Ley Lines – Solstice 4

January 17, 2015January 10, 2015 Chris 2 Comments

Dowsing, Energy grid, Healing, Hedge Druidry, Trees, Wheel of the Year

In the fourth part of my Winter Solstice outing I provide an example of what can happen if you let yourself be intuitively guided when you are out and about. Fixed agendas are all very well, but when following an energetic spiritual path then fixing events can be counter-productive (to say the least).

We were hungry. We had been up since early morning, travelling to Yorkshire, and then moving around the Ripon area for several hours seeking adventure. I wondered whether the National Trust property of Fountains Abbey might have not only a cool holy well to visit, but also a good cafeteria where we could get some warming food. Turns out they have both, but we only got to sample the food. When I thought about the size of the estate and the amount of daylight we had left – it wasn’t feasible to traipse around Fountains Abbey estate in search of its treasures. That will have to wait until the summer.

We were about to leave, heading back to the car park after a hearty lunch, when we saw a wooden sign pointing to something called “St Mary’s Church“. Hmmm… we had visited a Michael church that morning – maybe we should balance it out by visiting a Mary church? Game on! We walked through the puddles and mud to get to the site – a good ten minute walk.

St Marys Church, Fountains Abbey - Solstice 2014 (3) — St Marys Church, Fountains Abbey

The first thing that strikes you about the church is that is near to a sandstone obelisk which is aligned with its front entrance. For energy workers and seekers such as ourselves this was too much to be ignored – was it a ley line alignment that was being signified here? Was the energy of the ley being concentrated and directed through the church?

I took a bearing in order to check the alignment on a map later….

Arrows point to Arthur – Solstice 3

January 7, 2015January 2, 2015 Chris No Comments

Ancient Sites, Arthurian, Celestial, Dowsing, Meditation, Quests, Spirit of Place, Wheel of the Year

If I had researched the geographical locations of the sites we were intending to visit I would have placed this one last.As it happens it was positioned in the middle of the day, but as you may have come to expect – it turns out we visited the site at exactly the right time. Here’s why.

The Devil Points North

There are three remaining tall standing stones close to the A1(M) road that passes by the town of Boroughbridge in North Yorkshire. Collectively they are known as The Devil’s Arrows. There is the usual story about their placement – the devil threw down the ‘arrows’:

“The name stems from a legend traced back to 1721, where the Devil was supposed to have thrown the stones, aiming at the next town of Aldborough. He stood on Howe Hill and shouted,

Borobrigg keep out o’ way,

For Aldborough town

I will ding down!

But obviously his aim was not that good, and so they landed short of their mark.”

(source: Brigantes Nation)

Devils Arrows - Solstice 2014 (1) — The southern most Devil’s Arrow stone

Ooh – that angry old Devil! When will he learn that his aim is never that good when he’s hewing these menhirs around? Silly billy. Anyway – there they stand, up to 30 feet tall and in a not-so-straight alignment, said by Paul Devereux to link the southern-most moon setting with an ancient fording point across the nearby River Ure. There is an assumption that they formed a part of a larger complex that includes the three Thornborough Henges.

The Healing Power of Wells

December 24, 2014December 23, 2014 Chris No Comments

Ancient Sites, Crossing The Hedge, Healing, Hedge Druidry, Spirit of Place, Sylphs, Visions

Before we come to the Winter Solstice posts there are a few things to get out of the way. Firstly, there was my visit to two healing wells in December, and I will be relating that tale here. Then, following this post, we will finish Kal’s Egyptian tales in quick succession. Then we’ve got our Winter Solstice posts, and finally – some time in January – we’ll have our summaries of the year. Phew! Enough to keep you (and us) busy until Imbolc!

On a dull and damp day I dragged my friend Psychic Mike out on a mission related to my healing quest. the current quest from Samain to Solstice is to practise energy healing, and to gather the necessary energies to do this. So it was that I decided to visit two healing wells in the locality – Ffynnon Ddyfnog and Ffynnon Sarah. One new one and one I’ve visited before. I got my inspiration for the new one from Phil Cope‘s book “Holy Wells: Wales – a photographic journey”

Lovely Llanrhaeadr

The first well that we visited was associated with the nearby church and by extension also associated with Saint Ddyfnog. The church stands like a glorious gateway for the well and a stunning centrepiece to the small village of Llanrhaeadr, a village a few miles south-east of the town of Denbigh in Flintshire.

The church was beautiful, surprisingly large for the size of the village, and had a lovely communal feel. As we entered the church we passed a gentleman who was working in the porch. He soon followed us inside offering many insightful and amusing stories about the church’s history. The most stunning feature was the impressive stained glass window…

We enquired casually about the sacred well, and were directed through the graveyard, past a lovely row of almshouses and found a muddy path which ran alongside a clear stream. The path covered in leaves which made the going slippy, but it was worth it. The journey was lined with stunning yew trees and ferns alongside the stream.

Soon we were crossing a little bridge over the stream, in search of something magical. Everything changed from that moment onwards!

The Whetstones and The Hoarstones

December 17, 2014December 17, 2014 Chris 1 Comment

Ancient Sites, Dowsing, Healing, Hedge Druidry, Staff

In this second part of our Winter expedition to Shropshire we re-visit two circles that we have only been to once before – the so-called Whetstones and Hoarstones circles. Having had such a wonderful experience at Mitchell’s Fold there was little or no expectations attached to our visits to these much smaller circles. As this tale of healing shows, you can’t always judge the power of a circle by its size!

The first of the circles was The Whetstones, a semi-destroyed circle in the lee of Corndon Hill, less than a mile away from Mitchell’s Fold.

Sharpness at The Whetstones

We parked on the small road which passes the base of Corndon Hill, and looked for an entry point into the field. We could see that there was a cluster of stones in the second field away, but we couldn’t remember how we had got there previously. Over a rotting wooden stile, slippery with moss, and then into an empty field. We walked along the barbed wire fence until we found bunches and branches of prickly holly, ripe with berries, but slashed from the bushes, and now lying forlorn in the field. We both carefully gathered a small sample – only taking the fallen bounty.

We found a slack part of the barbed wire where others had obviously gained entry to the stones as well, and we hopped over into another field empty except for some distant sheep and a cluster of recumbent stones only feet away on a low rise. The circle was energetically defunct – that much we could tell from its feel and when we dowsed this only confirmed what we already ‘knew’. We’re getting good at identifying subtle energy forces now, and the rods only act as confirmation most of the time.

We checked whether it was suitable and proper to try to re-energise the circle. There was no spirit of place to connect to – one did not exist for this site, and so we only had our intuition and the dowsing response to work with. This informed us that it was okay to try, and we both got the same reply. Independently, and in our own ways, we both laid down offerings at different parts of the circle. I had with me the recently acquired holly, a stone that I had picked up when walking to the circle, and some old bones that I had obtained from Five Wells Barrow in Derbyshire. Now was the time to use these objects to set a new intention – to re-energise this site.

Whetstones - Dec 14 (5) (Medium) — Bones used to energise a sacred site

After setting our intention we did a bit of dowsing to see whether our work had attracted a new spirit of place or not. We both learned that the new spirit would be an animal spirit, and that it will come to the circle some time in the near future, although we couldn’t tell when. Kal dowsed that it would be a rabbit!

With that done, we felt ready to move on to our next objective – another small stone circle in the marshlands about a mile or two further on close to the village of Hemford.

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