Tag: brittany beltane

12 Beltane 2014 – Tarot Reflected

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Tarot

You may remember that before we went to Brittany I had done a tarot reading to divine to which aspects of the journey I might need to be pay special attention. Having reflected on those cards and the events that happened, I feel I can now reveal the three “missing” interpretations that I deliberately left … Read More “12 Beltane 2014 – Tarot Reflected” »

11 Beltane 2014 – Faeries and Dragons Finale

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Hedge Druidry
In the final post from Brittany I reveal how working with Faery can seem like a double-edged sword. Kal has already spoken about his double-dealings, and has set the scene. I too have once been in this forest and was tracked by a mischievous sprite who attached himself to me making me disorientated and leading me away from where I wanted to be. Let’s say, The Forest of Broceliande has a track record. Nevertheless, I don’t hold any previous behaviour as a template, only as an advisory.

So it is that as I begin to walk down the hill from the Earth Giant’s Lair and into the heart of The Valley of No Return. On my way down I spot a Faery Glade. Its special qualities impinged themselves upon my awareness, that’s the only way I can describe it. I knew I had to visit. It was like a calling, or rather, an invitation to a friend’s house – a friend who was cooking apple pie. So I once more split from Kal, and I head off up to the summit where the energy is strongest.

Footloose in a Faery Glen

Once in the midst of the glade I need to take my shoes off and feel the cooling and grounding qualities of the moss floor. Being seated I am close to the intricate and foreign biodiversity of the plant life around me, and soon I have protection up and can relax into the moment. I can then begin to sense the aliveness, the sheer activity around me, the curiosity, the testing of the protection, the recognition of my energy, and the interactive flows as subtle energy passes between the world of human and faery kind.

That interaction would have sufficed for me, but it seems that faery folk have other ideas, and they begin to form a suggestion to me. As an “honoured guest” (their term) I could open a portal to Faery knowledge, if I choose to do what is required. Hmmm… I’m slightly suspicious, having had interactions with Faery folk before, not all of it beneficial. Cagily, warily, with a good connection to my spirit guide for assistance, I ask, “What would be required to establish such a mutually beneficial link?”

The soothing moss of a faery Glade
The soothing moss of a faery Glade

I have to kiss a rock at a special place deeper in the forest. I have to kiss a rock? OK, doesn’t sound too onerous! I accept the offer. I hang around for a while with full protection up, just feeling the reaction to my response, and seeing if I can sense anything else. The only feeling is an excitement amongst the faery folk – an excitement that I am going to do as they have challenged me to do. It all feels “right”. I thank them for their interest, and put my shoes back on. Let’s get going! There are rocks to kiss!!

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10 Beltane 2014 – Lair of the Land Giant

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Ancient Sites, Dowsing, Elemental, Faery, Modern Druidry, Wheel of the Year

Walking through the Broceliande Forest the next site that I had in mind is called L’Hotié de Viviane, or Viviane’s house (it is also called The Tomb of the Druids). The clouds are still a dull grey colour, but by now sunlight is beginning to pierce through the cloud cover, sending light scurrying through the lime green branches. It is Kal who points out the direction we need to go in, which is odd because he’s never been here before and I have! We reach the top of the hill above the main part of the forest, and I sit on the summit. The energy is male, and strong, yet not harsh, but energising. Kal is “away with the faeries”, off on a ramble, so I begin to descend the hill towards the sacred site. But I don’t get there!

The Oak at Viviane’s Tomb

On one side of the path is a beautiful symmetrical oak which positively invites druids to enter beneath its canopy. Never one to refuse an hospitable invitation from a tree I make my way under the leafy shade and sit on a dry clump of shrivelled leaves in perfect comfort. I settle in, do my introductions, and begin a process of matching my bresthing rate to the rate at which I feel the tree is breathing. Each breath takes just short of a minute to go from full in-breath to full out-breath. In this way, soon a dialogue with the tree begins. I am hoping that it will be able to help furthe my current quest relating to my vision of a giant destroying and creating a sacred site.

I ask why giants take stones from the earth and re-plant them. The youthful oak takes a cross-wind tack on that question and says something very revealing. It says that trees desire the destruction of a site which no longer has energy that can be used to sustain them. Also that the trees in the new location must be asked permission before a new site is created. The trees will maintain any energies associated with working sites if they are close enough. Presumably as long as the energies of the site are useful to them, and they can feed from them?

Vivien's Tomb - Broceliande Forest - Brittany 2014 (16) (Large)

In the past Kal and I have worked at many sites where we have discovered links between nearby trees and the sites themselves. We haven’t really investigated the nature of this link, believing it to be one of the trees sustaining and feeding into the sacred site’s subtle energy network. Here I was finding that there was actually a mutually-beneficial two-way link going on. The trees are sustaining a sacred site’s energy fields, and are also linking to these sites in order to “feed” off them.

This was a very slow and laborious conversation! What you are reading in a minute took me fifteen minutes of slow rhythmic breathing to extort from the oak.

I notice that a young lady is passing me by, and she notices that I am sitting with the oak. She has a faraway look in her eyes. She goes to sit on the top of the hill – the exact same spot I sat at. Later Kal would tell me that she was “one of us”, but that’s his part of the story. Here’s the rest of mine….

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9 Beltane 2014 – Return to the Giants Tomb

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Ancient Sites, Dowsing, Natural Magick, Spirit of Place, Wheel of the Year

After a couple of unremarkable sites on the Locmaraquier peninsula, we were heading towards our final destination for this Brittany outing – Broceliande Forest. Broceliande has a reputation for being an ancient forest with strong claims to an Arthurian tradition. Certainly this is how the French Tourist Agency are marketing the space. For me, when I visited the forest in 2011 I found it enchanting. At the time I had an encounter with a leprechaun-type spirit which left me sure that there was a playful set of spirits in the woods there, but also that convinced me that the forest was truly a magickal place, regardless of its Arthurian connections.

Le Tombeau Des Geants

Somehow, through a miracle of unintended navigation, we find the car park at the southerly side of the forest – the perfect point to begin to explore because all the sacred sites were close by. For once, it was me who didn’t have the right clothing – I hadn’t taken my walking boots on this trip, but the ground was boggy and water-logged due to the torrential downpours overnight. How times have changed and the tables turned!

Tombeau des Geants - Broceliande Forest - Brittany 2014 (2) (Large)
Water-logged paths and ditches at Broceliande Forest

I had been to the Tombeau Des Geants (The Tomb of the Giants) before so I knew the way. We were able to quickly locate it again and after a few muddy paths the site appears complete with information sign, also steeped in fresh rainwater puddles.

Tombeau des Geants - Broceliande Forest - Brittany 2014 (4) (Large)
Can you read the sign? No, neither could we!

On my first visit I had encouraged a Spirit of Place to come back to the site. Of course, now I am here again, would such a spirit be here by now, several years later?

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8 Beltane 2014 – Grounding pain at Le Grand Brisé

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Energy work, Healing, Visions

The tour guide of the Locmaraquier Megalithic Complex took her group away from the broken standing stone, and guided them towards the Table of the Merchants, which I had just had a remote viewing experience inside a few minutes earlier. Now I had the segmented stone called Le Grand Brisé to myself. Kal was close by, but he was engaged in a frenzied period of dowsing activity, so I left him alone and didn’t interrupt. We only chat briefly before he wanders off again.

I am standing in front of the three huge stone blocks which had once been joined together to form what must have been the tallest monolith in the world – well, certainly in the Celtic world. It would have been an impressive sight to anyone coming ashore in the nearby bay. Even though it has been dis-jointed it still exudes a certain power, a pride, a majesty. I decide to tune into the stone to try to discover something ‘hidden’ about it, and I use the dowsing rods to determine the correct approach to do this.

Locmariaquer megaliths - Brittany 2014 (22) (Large)

I have to follow a zig-zag path to the great stone. Do I touch this part? NO, say the rods. Where next, then, I ask? I am taken to the second fallen part, and here I can touch the stone itself. I touch it and shift my awareness into another form of consciousness….

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7 Beltane 2014 – Astral Travel at The Merchant’s Table

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Ancient Sites, Crystals, Remote Viewing, Wheel of the Year

It was our final day touring the sites of Brittany. We had made a doleful and dismal attempt to visit the Locmaraquier centre the day before. Open on a Bank Holiday? Non. Allez rentree, s’il vous plait! Now we are back! This time it’s open. If you want to check the opening times yourself before you try visiting, then you can check this site.

Of course, we skip the visitor centre and the video presentations, and even decline the guide maps and leaflets (much to the surprise of the staff). Our purpose is much more interesting than archaeological or historic. Actually, what is my purpose today? I don’t actually know, but we wander around waiting for something to spark our interest. We walk straight around the reconstructed long cairn. Although it must have been impressive in its day, now it is merely a low scree of stones with no power at all. Onwards!

Table Des Marchands

We passed quickly to the re-constructed so-called Table of Merchants. It would have been a funny business that they transacted in this reconstructed burial chamber, and yet the energies were favourable to some work. Kal did his dowsing outside of the structure, leaving me to head inside once I had done some preliminary preparation by a handy yew tree which flanks the structure.

Locmariaquer megaliths - Brittany 2014 (4) (Large)

I steps inside the reconstructed chamber. A carefully positioned light changes to reveal the relief patterns carved on the tall stone at the back of the chamber. For a moment I’m a tourist again, spellbound by the cryptic messages that we now wonder about. Then I’m back as a druid again, a modern inheritor of traditions as reconstructed as the chamber itself. We like to guess that we’re rediscovering the spirit of our ancestors, but really we have no clue, and can only follow our own paths with heart, with clear intent, and with sincerity. That much we share with these ancients.

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6 Beltane 2014 – Bel and Titania at Kerzerho

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Ancient Sites, Faery, Hedge Druidry, Magick, Wheel of the Year

Kal walked into the wooded grove at Kerzerho first. He seemed to stand in awe, and went silent. As soon as I entered the space I understood why. I looked at him and he looked at me: “Faery glen!” he said. I agreed. The space was magickal, and bustling with subtle energy life of a kind which we rarely encounter. The space was beautiful – lit perfectly by the sun, dappled, with beautiful trees, mossy seats on the ground, and stones which seemed to be alive.

Kal did some dowsing, some meditation, and then left me to it. He knew I wanted to work here. All I could do was sit down and marvel at the space, but before I became “entranced” at this entrance into another world I regained my senses. I put up protection, lit several sticks of incense and placed them around the area. Then I sat back down and asked for my spirit guide to accompany on whatever journey I might be in for.

Faery appearances - Kerzeho alignments - Erdeven - Brittany 2014 (2) (Large)

I set about trying to contact the spirits of  the glade. I came across two – the word “Beltane” split into two names: “Bel ” and “Titania“. Although etymologically the name “Bel ” means “Lord”, in the context in which I found myself it was clearly assigned to the self-proclaimed “Lordly” spirit of the faeries which inhabited this grove. I was being addressed by the Faery King and Queen.

In William Bloom‘s hierarchy of spirits the Faery race are found between the Gnomes and the Fauns. They are a stage further developed than the elemental forces, and as a faery responsible for the form of plants. The next stage, Faun, is responsible for trees. The King and Queen of Faery are therefore the spirits responsible for the development of all plants, according to Bloom.

In this context I was immensely respectful for this opportunity, and yet a delightful playfulness accompanied the whole encounter. I decided to honour them with a joyful impromptu ditty, and so I began to recite a limerick.

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