Natural Magick – Page 5 – The Hedge Druid

Spring Equinox 2013 – Day of the Crow Part 5

April 5, 2013 Gwas 2 Comments

Ancient Sites, Healing, Natural Magick, Quests, Spirits, Wheel of the Year

In this final part of my Spring Equinox story I reveal the reasons why I had been linking the four elemental sites around Llangollen. I am also shown why this link was important, and how it relates to my work with the energy form of Galahad this year.

Ffynon Sara

Only a few miles from the edges of Clocaenog Forest is the beautiful secluded site of Sara’s Spring. The Sara in question may well be the Patron Saint of Laughter that Kal talked about after he visited the site. This day I wasn’t interested in discovering more about the energy form at the site, only to come with questions that needed urgent answers.

I began by offering an energetic gift. I placed incense all around the spring’s rectangular wall and then offered all of the story of my day and my quest for this part of the year. This was offered through my heart chakra, freely and with love. I hoped that this energy would be sufficient as an exchange for what I was about to ask.

I used the dowsing rods to confirm whether I could, should and may ask these questions here. Luckily the answers were all a positive and the feeling generally was that I should finally get some answers to my puzzling quest after such hard work this day.

Q. What was the purpose of linking the four sacred sites around Corwen?

In answer I was shown the white shield in the stone that I had energised in Valle Crucis Abbey. With that image came the following explanation:

The White Shield of Galahad is emblazoned by a red cross. The shield shape is formed by the four sites. The cross shape is formed by drawing links between them. I needed to have that symbol in my head as an elemental cross so that I could emblazon it on the shield that I had acquired from Valle Crucis. Without that emblem the shield would not be at full strength.

Ffynnon Sara - Spring Equinox 2013 2013-03-20 063 (1) (Medium) — Sara’s sacred spring – a place of inspiration

“…at full strength”. That was an unusual phrase that I would try to deconstruct later. For now, I wanted to know more about the rituals at the four sites.

Spring Equinox 2013 – Day of the Crow Part 4

April 3, 2013April 3, 2013 Gwas No Comments

Ancient Sites, Dowsing, Hedge Druidry, Incense, Natural Magick, Other Entities, Ritual, Staff, Wheel of the Year

In the fourth part of this Spring Equinox story I visit a new stone circle (or two), working with the energies and completing the sigil shape that I had been tracing in the Llangollen landscape.

Bryn Beddau cairn circle

Hidden in the murky depths of the Clocaenog Forest are two small cairn circles. One or maybe both of them are named Bryn Beddau. It’s difficult to tell from the Megalithic Portal article, because it shows both of them in the same description. They are very close to each other, though. One is accessible from one of the many compacted gravel forest roads, whereas the other is further inside the forest, accessible from a path linked to the first circle.

I was grateful that I had Ordnance Survey GPS and maps on my phone. Without that it would have been hard going. As it was I found the sites pretty easily, but first I had to traverse along the “new straight tracks” that Alfred Watkins would surely not have approved of. These long straight roads were not good for retaining energy! It was an effort not to lose all the energy I had gained so far while walking these uninspiring grey roads that vanished into the distance, then turned 90 degrees to get anywhere. A kind of Roman efficiency. I walked with a rapid stride and a musical rhythm.

Occasionally a scene of beauty emerged by the roadside as snow dripped from coniferous branches, water languished in near static pools and tall trees braced against the cold air. The only sounds were the occasional movement of birds in the treetops, signalling my presence to each other.

Bryn Beddau - Spring Equinox 2013 (6) (Medium)

The first circle I discovered by treading carefully down a deeply rutted track that veered off at an angle from a junction of two forest roads. I was glad to get into the trees and off the grey gravel road. After only thirty feet of careful walking a clearing opened up and I got my first sight of a new circle in ages.

El Torcal – The Dragon’s Lair

December 1, 2012December 1, 2012 Gwas No Comments

Ancient Sites, Natural Magick, Telluric

You may have noticed a slight slowness in posting in November? I was on holiday for a while this month in Spain. My psychic friend (I’ll have to stop calling him that) Mike has a caravan just north of Malaga and he invited M and I out to see him. The opportunity for some Spanish sunshine could not be squandered. We got a cheap flight out and Mike picked us up at the airport, driving us far up into the hills and beyond. Soon we were on the plains that Spain is famous for, and shortly after that we were trying to adjust our eyes to the new light frequencies. It wasn’t hot but it was bright. Apparently we had just missed a month of torrential rains – unseasonable and unusual in the area. We’re lucky like that.

Our first outing with Mike was up into the local hills. He hadn’t been himself but some of the other residents of the caravan park had mentioned El Torcal as being a local beauty spot. Apparently it had unusual rock formations. It sounded interesting, so we drove a few miles up into the hills and began to marvel at the views.

El Torcal - Spain November 2012 2012-11-14 006 (Medium) — View from El Torcal down over the Sierra del Torcal valleys

As you can imagine we lingered quite a while at that viewing point, letting the sun and the view sink in like a healing balm on itchy skin. Then I turned my attentions to a rather unusual rock formation that was up on the skyline ahead of us. The rock looked like a tail had flicked upwards. The rock was precariously positioned, and drew the eye. From there it took only moments for me to realise that the shape that the “tail” was attached to was like one I had seen before at Cadair Idris mountain in Wales. It was the shape of a sleeping dragon…

El Torcal - Spain November 2012 2012-11-14 003 (Medium) — The Sleeping Dragon of El Torcal

Now, let’s just hold it there for a moment. A “sleeping dragon”? You may have noticed, eagle-eyed that you are, that a recent post by Kal was also entitled “sleeping dragon” and related to his encounter in Iona. Yes, this year has been replete with smoking nostrils and the sulphurous odour of dragons. Everywhere we’ve been we’ve encountered them, like they were coming out of the landscape and penetrating our thick skulls – making us acutely aware of their presence. You might remember, if you’re a long-term follower – that at the start of the year we were talking about 2012 being the Year of the Dragon. Actually, it’s specifically the Year of the Water Dragon. And hasn’t it been exactly such a year? Intriguing! Well, there is a strong element of co-creation going on here and it’s a process that I’m only just beginning to appreciate for what it is. Druid work is magickal and mysterious, but always rewarding. Back to El Torcal now.

Samhain 2012 – The Hawk and The Dove

November 25, 2012December 16, 2012 Gwas No Comments

Ancient Sites, Hedge Druidry, Natural Magick, Quests, Ritual, Trees, Wheel of the Year

Finally I have got around to writing up my Samhain experiences. It’s only the back end of November, and this occurred at the beginning of October! One aspect of this year’s work has been the incredible amount of material we have had to deal with. Only a fraction of it appears on this blog. This year we will end up with 200 draft posts that didn’t get finished. But now – back to the tale at hand.

Yew Know What To Do

We start, as usual, at the Llangernyw Yew tree. 4000 years of dendrochronology pulsing through its dark boughs. On the way to the village of Llangernyw (yew) I was heading towards a rainbow which coincidentally seemed to land on the village as I approached. Coincidence, of course, because this light phenomenon is linked to one’s position relative to the light refraction.

The churchyard was quiet. This gave me the space to follow my intuition. I walked down to the graveyard and sat on the wooden bench where I had once met a shade. There was nothing there now, but I felt I needed to be here first before moving back up to the tree. Perhaps I needed to be grounded before approaching the tree, or energetically harmonised? Soon I was back at the top of the churchyard standing on the edges of the yew tree’s canopy. I asked for entry…waited…and it was granted.

Llangernyw Yew Tree - Samhain 2012 (3) (Small) — Llangernyw Church with its magnificent yew tree

For some reason I had brought some new crystals with me. I felt I should place them along one of the yew’s branches. In the early morning sunlight they glowed with their respective colours and I left them to do whatever it was they were doing. Sometimes such acts have no intention on my part. This is where trust comes into the equation. I felt around for the best place to sit and found that it was not in my usual place. As I settled in I noticed that I was sitting in the place where I got a particularly sparkly view of the sunlight through the branches. That was lucky, eh? I began to drift off…therefore before I went completely I asked the yew tree to help me discover my quest for the next part of the year… and then my mind went blank as the sunlight danced in my eyes and the spark of wonder that drives my spiritual path began to surface.

Arthurian Archetypes of the Cross

November 5, 2012 Gwas No Comments

Hedge Druidry, Magick, Natural Magick

As a druid I work with mental imagery to facilitate connections to sources of intelligence and wisdom beyond the confines of my own psyche. The format of those mental images, the focal points if you like, are fairly arbitrary for the most part. Although we have created some cultural thought-forms (many of which have energy and sentience all of their own due to that energetic input) I believe that the best use of these mental focal points is for them to be a visual gateway into The Otherworld. The cultural images we use are a sort of universal pass to get you into a frame of mind that allows a connection to one source or another of Otherworld information. This Otherworld is a realm of ideas and knowing that is beyond the ordinary five-sense reality that we spend most of our time in.

Druid Archetypes

I want to define a specific phrase to contain the ideas I am trying to express here. Let me call them “druidic archetypes”. You may call them Gods or The Goddess. You may call them any host of ‘mythical’ names such as from the Arthurian tales, or The Mabinogion. Whatever source you choose to derive your druidic archetypes from (you may even have created or found your own) let me define them here as “druidic archetypes” as a shorthand. I may refer to them as “sources” too, if generalising.

Archdruid at Stonehenge dawn — Archetypical druid (c) Chris Young/PA

I found some of these druidic archetypes useful at the time when I opened up my DNA to changes related to healing. During that process I employed Arthurian archetypes in order to work with energies that I discovered were available at particular sacred sites. During that process I was able to adopt their energies, utilise them, and gain a great deal of insight as part of that assimilation process. However, time moves on, and after that process had completed I pretty much forgot about all but the main archetypes I was using such as Merlin, for example. To be honest, I didn’t really know their extent, or how to use them as part of any kind of ritualistic or seasonal basis.

The Cross

As druids we tend to shy away from The Cross, given its associations, yet as Julian Cope always says we need to reclaim this icon. It’s far more useful for us than it is for ‘them’. It had a far older history than the current religious paradigm of the western world. For me, I have found that The Cross is a framework upon which to place the four main division points of the year. In this context The Cross also provides me with a means to place the druidic archetypes against these four annual divisions, and to link the two concepts together. Of course, it also allows for elemental associations, and for cardinal positions too. Such a useful framework!

Rediscovering the archetypes

Something prompted me to re-discover these sources. A task this year involving Merlin startled me into a recognition that these archetypes weren’t a one-off symbol that I was using – they were becoming part of the way I worked with the land and the elements. So I began to explore what benefits they could bring me. Certainly I will never be worshipping any of them as gods, but as psychological archetypes could it be possible to externalize their energy forms such that I could learn something about my own spiritual development by aligning myself with one of the Arthurian figures at a specific time of the year or for specific purposes?

Ionian Equinox 6 – Dun Bhuirg and the Dark Ring

October 14, 2012 Gwas 8 Comments

Ancient Sites, Energy cleansing, Hedge Druidry, Natural Magick, Other Entities, Staff, Wheel of the Year

We walked away from Angel Hill. We probably had a discussion for the next ten minutes or more about the definitions of “alien”, “angel” and any energy that could be associated with the two. Although my quest had been to find the alien energy spot that corresponded to the one at Karnak Temple, this had not yet been located. Yes, I had felt the presence of something that may have been an “angel” form of energy, but the particular energy resident somewhere on the island had not yet been located.

Soon we turned our attentions away from arguing (sorry, debating) and our hearts and minds were captured by the rise and fall of the tide as it washed the western shores of Iona’s granite coastline. There were innumerable rocks that were “calling out to us” to pick them up as we walked along. I relented finally and picked on up. It was white speckled granite and I wondered how far it would make me carry it. We are, after all, merely transporters for rocks, you know? Didn’t you know that was our purpose here on Earth? 😉

Soon we were at a parting of the ways. I wanted to climb the incredibly steep slopes, but I realised that this would be impractical for Kal. He instead opted for the serene shores of the beautiful white beach that revealed itself to us as we stood on the promontary overlooking the scenery, assessing our next steps. On the skyline the imposing slope of Dun Bhuirg stood tall and proud against an increasingly blue canvas.

: Dun Bhuirg hillfort overlooks Iona’s best beach

Dun Bhuirg

Notice how the shape of Dun Bhuirg, seen from the west, looks the exact same shape as Angel Hill which is within sight of it, less than a mile away? Yet another coincidence. It’s the same shape as Oran’s Mound in the grounds of the Abbey too. Three sacred sites on a small island – three identical topographies.

I stopped staring at the beautiful beach and left Kal to his meditations. I made my way to the bottom of the “hillfort” and began the steep climb up the slippery slope, with its crossing streams, wet grass, and perpendicular rock face. It was such a treacherous climb with my staff in hand, and I was deeply concerned about how to get back down again – I was thinking I might need air-sea rescue or something!

The Meaning of Life

October 12, 2012 kal No Comments

Dowsing, Natural Magick, Quests, Spirits

Have I done a post with that title before? Well, it deserves a few more and considering my recent heart challenge I think now is a good time to shoot of another arrow at the above question. If you missed my posts on my HC then here is a link to them. It’s been two … Read More “The Meaning of Life” »

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