black dragon – The Hedge Druid

Meadowsweet, Larks and Loughcrew – Summer 2015 – P1

July 22, 2015July 27, 2015 Chris No Comments

Ancestors, Circles and Stones, Dolmens and Chambers, Ghosts and shades, Hills and Mounds, Wheel of the Year

In the first of my seven Summer Solstice stories I will tell you about how I encountered an ancestral spirit who would work with my Spirit Self to bring about a culmination of my ancestral work on this weekend’s journeying. This was only realised through the two days work, so the stories piece into each other like fragments of a mirror revealing a full picture towards the end.

In order to pull all the stories together I have used the tag Ireland solstice 2015.

Sunset to Sunrise

I was asleep at sunset and then awake again at sunrise. Seems like a long time, but actually it was only a few hours. On arrival, tired by excited, we zoomed off in the hire car heading for the first destination. It was a place I had heard of by reputation, but we hadn’t visited it yet – Loughcrew. We know nothing about it.

Solstice P1 - Loughcrew - June 15 (12) — Loughcrew’s information sign

The car park has space for a few coaches and about 20 cars. This was clearly an important site, and we weren’t used to such “hospitality”. I noticed a memorial to a guy called “Mick Tobin“. The dowsing rods said that paying our respects was a useful starting point for the day’s work, so we acknowledged the gentleman – this “Child of the Solstice” as he was poetically named. It seemed fitting to our Solstice outing!

Solstice P1 - Loughcrew - June 15 (1) — Mick Tobin’s memorial at Loughcrew

I walked up the steps a few minutes after Kal. At the top of the steps, before the path went into the foot of the hill, there was an interesting triangle of green grass and young trees that caught my eye and made me stop. It was a place of preparation. I dowsed to the correct spot, and got energetically cleansed and prepared. Cailleach appeared offering me the protection of her Black Dragon once again (see previous Ireland visit). I gratefully accepted this, and as the dragon’s wings enfolded me I felt a surge of power, and felt that wave burst out like a blast across the countryside around, sending a warning message to all the potentially mischievous spirits. “Be warned” – it signalled – “this one’s with The Dark Lady!”

I drew in the powers of the four elements from their respective cardinal points, and with that felt that I had offered something in return to Cailleach for my protection – the energy formed by the union of the elements that is the singularity of my self.

Kal was waiting by the gate with a grin on his face as he watched me. What, I asked? “A place of preparation?” he inquired? I nodded. “That was the same spot as I was used.” We laughed. Such synchronicities already! What next?

The Cauldron of Cailleach – Summer 14 P10

August 27, 2014August 29, 2014 Gwas 2 Comments

Ancient Sites, Dowsing, Visions

Ardgroom stone circle, Kerry, Ireland

Somehow, in our travels up and down the coast road of the Breara Peninsula, we had missed the sign. The sign was small and so was the lane along which we had to travel. The day was coming close to an end, and the sun was beginning to drag the shadows into longer shapes. Heading now towards Ardgroom circle we found that the land ended in a car park suitable for three or four cars. There was one parked there already, and we slotted in next to it. The signs to the circle pointed towards some marsh reeds, showing us that at any other time of the year we would be walking through a marshland, but luckily at the height of summer the ground was rutted but hard.

Ardgroom Outward stone circle - June 14 (1) — A stone circle in the lee of the Black Dragon Hills.

As we approached the circle we could see that it was dominated by a group of people, most of whom were standing with their backs to a tall stone. One woman was sitting at the edge of the circle in the middle of the company. She seemed to be directing a ritual, so Kal and I moved off to one side of the site so as not to disturb them while they worked.

Kal wandered down to the circle, dowsing as he went, prowling around the outer edges. I kept my distance, taking photographs of the circle from various angles to pass the time while we waited to see if the group would finish their work any time soon. They looked bedded in for the day, and so I dowsed for a suitable place to work outside the circle instead. I was taken to a small hillock where there were several fairy rings in the grass. This seemed a good vantage point to do my own work from while I wanted to see what would happen inside the circle. I did a connection and soon I was feeling the flow of energy from the hills behind me, and the sweeping power of a ‘dark’ lady whom I was becoming familiar with on this trip.

The Hare and The Black Dragon – Summer 14 P2

July 19, 2014July 18, 2014 Gwas No Comments

Dragons, Glyphs and Wards, God or Goddess, Protection, Spirit of Place, Wheel of the Year

A funny thing happened on the way to the Ring of Kerry…. so begins a new twist on an old joke. In this case the Universe was playing with us a little bit. We are on the plane over to Ireland and it suddenly occurs to me that Kal should consider finding out which spirits are around him this weekend. I’ve never said that to him before, but on this occasion the impetus to say it causes me to interrupt him listening to music on his iPod. He nods with a kind of “if you say so” look on his face, then tells me that he is currently listening to”There may be an angel” by The Eurythmics at that precise moment . This will be the first sign that something synchronous is happening between us on this day – Friday 20th June – the eve of the solstice.

Eightercua stone row

Once we have found our lodging – the delightful and highly recommended Two Mile Lodge situated two miles out of the town of Kenmare – then we’re straight out to visit a bunch of sites. We don’t hang about when there’s work to be done! I had decided to do the sites situated around the Ring of Kerry first, as they were fewer in number and clustered relatively close together. Therefore, our first destination was Eightercua stone row near to the village of Waterville.

The road to get there was ‘interesting’. The hire car strained under the up, then down, left then right, round hairpin bends, over blind dips, huge holes in the road, and our occasional screeches to a halt as we realised we were going the wrong way. As the sun began to descend we suddenly caught sight of the Atlantic Ocean as we descended towards Waterville and saw the stone row on a small hill near to a house, just off the N70 “main road” (known as the Ring of Kerry road). [TIP: If you reach the golf club on your left then you’ve just passed it!]

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