air – The Hedge Druid

Element of air

May 30, 2015June 2, 2015 kal No Comments

Churches and Temples, Crystals, Elemental, Incense, Quests, Ritual, Visions

Air, the final element

I am sure for the right person Florence is a beautiful place to visit. Galleries, museums, cafes, water-fronts and much more is at the tips of tourist fingers. However as a choice of places to visit, it wouldn’t be on my list, or at least not very high. As a side note, I would love to visit the place with someone who is an art fan (sic).

Yet, here I was on the train to Florence. The answer to the question that is begging to be asked, namely, “Why?” The answer is always complicated isn’t it. In this instance because of a vision that I had some months back. Now, as readers will know, I am on a quest to obtain four elements. Each had to be obtained in a different country. Other posts detail the acquisition of Earth, Water and Fire. So, I was guided to visit Florence so as to obtain the final element, Air.

What do I know about this art capital? Not a lot, my knowledge comes from a book I read a couple of years ago, Inferno, by Dan (Da Vinci Code) Brown. The book is set mostly in Florence and though consciously I don’t recall anything from it, sub-consciously I might have.

Anyway, I was heading out of the train station and generally following the tourists until I hit the first piazza. Of course the first stop of the day had to be the gelato parlour. Melon and Apricot flavour was the breakfast ice-cream. I looked around at the architecture of the piazza as well as acquainting myself with the Genius Loci of Firenze and decided after a short time that this was going to have to be a job for dowsing rods.

Alderley and the Elemental Cleansing

March 17, 2014March 14, 2014 Gwas No Comments

Elemental, Energy cleansing, Energy work, Hedge Druidry

With the Spring Equinox looming Kal and I were chomping at the bit to get out and do some work. Spring had already seemed to have sprung, and we were like two young rabbits eager to play in the springtime sunshine.

I had recently been asking my dowsing rods about which activities I could get up to before the Equinox, and the answers I got back were that I could interact with my Spirit Guide. That was incentive enough. When Kal suggested an outing at Alderley Edge it was time to get to work this year. As I happened, there are three parts to this story, and my work with my guide is the last of them. The next post describes some information about Rowan trees, and this post concentrates on a “bonus” bit of energy work which we never expected, but which we were delighted to learn was the same for both of us. I’m calling it “Elemental Cleansing“.

Alderley Edge in early Spring after a stormy Winter. The trees are still denuded, but it was a nice sunny atmosphere in the forest. Sadly, there was also lots of evidence of damaged trees from the winter storms. Such a shame, but a natural part of the winter regeneration process, yet to see such an extent to the damage was quite shocking.

Storm-damaged trees in Alderley Edge 2014

Kal and I asked the same question which was to be shown a place at which we could work. Kal’s agenda was that he wanted to ask some questions about his Energy Double. My intention was to have a meditation with my spirit guide. Yet we both got taken on the same path through the forest, often following exactly the same energy trail down the exact amplitude of the wave. Once in a while Kal would disappear to be taken around a tree. That was quite amusing, as every now and again I’d hear him say “Here I go again!” as he wandered out, round and back to join with my path again.

Soon we arrived at a familiar location – one of the many quarried pits in the forest. It was a deep ravine and we were taken along its edge (literally the very edge) until a suitable path was found and we were taken to our first location.

Elemental Sigils

March 18, 2013March 18, 2013 Gwas 1 Comment

Dowsing, Glyphs and Wards, Hedge Druidry

It was Lenten Moon – the February full moon – on February 25th. Kal and I discussed where we might go to do some work: I wanted to stay local but he wanted something more exotic. Sometimes we agree to differ, so I was left to work at home. As it turned out the moon … Read More “Elemental Sigils” »

Considering The Stations

June 20, 2012June 20, 2012 Gwas 4 Comments

Magick, Modern Druidry, Theory

I was reading the beginning of a book called “A Grimoire For Modern Cunningfolk” by Peter Paddon. I hadn’t got through too many chapters before I stopped getting useful information out of it, but I had got to the point where he was suggesting some associations between cardinal positions and elemental imagery. Paddon suggests more … Read More “Considering The Stations” »

Spring Equinox 2012 – The Elements of Arbor Low

March 27, 2012March 27, 2012 Gwas No Comments

Ancient Sites, Dowsing, Natural Magick, Telluric, Wheel of the Year

Last year I had a bleak and pointless journey to Arbor Low. At that time I said that there were only two things that would make me ever go back there. One: a guarantee of warm weather. Two: if the site had awoken with the Spring, as this was the time when the dowsing rods suggested that the site would come alive with energy. It was Spring Equinox and the weather was warm. Damn! Still, what other reason did I have to return? I hadn’t counted on the one other thing that might entice me – a confirmed direct hit with some map dowsing!

When Kal and I had been discussing some places in the country where we might like to spend the Spring Equinox there were any number of suggestions, yet they all seemed to require at least most of the day to be spent travelling to get there. We wheeled and cycled through all the possible suggestions and then resorted to some old favourites. None of them sounded ‘right’ and none of them caused any excitement or offered any sort of potential for revealing something new and fresh for our 2012 quests. We wondered how to decide. Then a suggestion emerged – why don’t we each map dowse the result using the same directive, and then report back. Perhaps we could accommodate both results in the same day, or pick the most interesting one? With this task in hand we went off to do just that and report back.

A few days later we both had our results. I had used Bing Maps to narrow down my selection. The final result was a hill in Derbyshire next to a village I had never heard of before – Parwich. I wondered what else was close by that might occupy our day and discovered that there were two very close sites of interest – Dove Dale and Arbor Low! Both these places were within ten miles of the site that the rods had chosen for me.

Arbor Low - April 2010 (5) — Arbor Low's central 'sacrifice' stone

I discussed my findings with Kal at the pub. I told him my results and asked him where he had dowsed as his location. He pulled out a bit of paper showing a cross and a spiral path that ended at a point slightly south-east of the centre of the cross. He explained that the cross was his ‘current location’ when he had dowsed, and that he had used his room as a map of the country. He then dowsed for a position in the room that represented the nest location for both he and I on Spring Equinox. The place was south-east of his room. When he translated that onto a map guided by a measurement of the distance he ended up at….Arbor Low! It was written on his paper. With all the possible sites in these islands we had both independently map-dowsed for the same location. Well – that was settled then. We would go to Arbor Low, Dove Dale and finally Parwich Hill.

We arrived on a sunny day. Everywhere else in the country was quite warm. Arbor Low was, as expected, windy and rather cool. I should have brought gloves! However, things soon warmed up once we arrived as the following tale about an elemental circle reveals.

My elemental year cycle

March 13, 2012March 13, 2012 Gwas 12 Comments

Quickie, Wheel of the Year

I have recently found out something that I had begun to suspect but that I had never actually confirmed until now. My year is based upon an affinity with each of the four elements as the year cycles around, and some times of the year I am more in tune with certain elements than others. … Read More “My elemental year cycle” »

The Elemental Cross

September 7, 2010September 10, 2026 Gwas No Comments

Modern Druidry

I have recently been working with the cross shape. It is such a loaded symbol that I have felt the need to mentally cleanse it of prior meaning. I had been trying to work with the elements for some time now, and frankly had been primarily failing. Finally I worked out why this was – … Read More “The Elemental Cross” »

Air, the final element

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