east – The Hedge Druid

Flickering Venus and Forgiveness

March 7, 2016March 5, 2016 Chris No Comments

Ancient Sites, Arthur The Great Bear, Circles and Stones, Corvus The Crow, Healing, Orion The Hunter, Stars

Why wouldn’t you want to go out on a wet and windy night to climb up a steep hill in the dark to visit a stone circle on an exposed ridge? Such rhetoric did play momentarily in my mind, but I ignored its facetiousness, and went anyway. The Corvus Correspondence As I arrived at the … Read More “Flickering Venus and Forgiveness” »

Spring 2015-P4 – Dark Shadows at Dale

April 19, 2015April 12, 2015 Chris No Comments

Angels, Dolmens and Chambers, Spirit of Place

The next stop on our Easterly journey was to another place that we had visited only once before – Dale Hermitage. The hermitage is a rock-cut chamber scoured from the sandstone above the village of Dale Abbey. The abbey of the village name if a scant ruin now, and the hermitage is much more energetically interesting.

As we walked through the wood the chill wind reminded us that last time we had visited it was Beltane and much warmer than today. We walked swiftly seeking out the sanctuary of the hermit’s shelter, yet I had time to stop at some new rabbit holes in order to pick up three small white quartz pebbles that caught my attention. We are just rock-shifters, after all.

6 - Dale Hermitage (1) — Descend steeply to Dale Hermitage

The Hermitage feels too nice to have Underworld qualities, despite being down some steep steps. Inside it relatively light and airy. We had lunch, took photos and milled around. It was like we were waiting for something to happen, or afraid to start something! I casually asked Kal why the place was considered sacred. Kal looked at me as though to say “Read The Flaming Manual!” and pointed me to the nearby information sign. Didn’t I have legs? I was just being lazy, so I went to read the sign.

6 - Dale Hermitage (8) — It’s a sign, I tell you! A miraculous sign!

The information sign told me that the Hermit of the Hermitage was guided by the appearance of Virgin Mary. Given what I had been reading recently this could just as easily have been Bride/Brigit. That’s a long discussion for another time.

Two Male Streams – Summer 14 P7

August 6, 2014 Gwas 2 Comments

Hedge Druidry

Cashelkeelty stone row, Kerry, Ireland

As we drive down the R571 (Ring of Beara road) towards Lauragh village I make a sudden and impulsive decision. There is a brown sign with a megalith on it, and I am sure I saw the words “circle” on it. I pull over at the next available parking space which is some half a mile down the road. Little did I know that if I have gone back I would have found a car park next to the sign. Hey ho! Only the first of a series of decisions that would make this journey more difficult than it needed to be!

The sign reads “Caiseal Coillte” or Cashelkeelty when rendered from the Gaelic into English. Sure enough, it’s a stone circle indicated on the sign, so we hop over the metal stile and head off into the dark and closely-knit fir trees. The day is humid which adds to the intensity of the climb up the hill, but after half an hour we are clear of the tree line and heading over the couple of rounded slopes that separate us from the ‘good stuff’ on the top. All told we climb for the best part of an hour before reaching the remains of a stone circle.

There is nothing of interest to us at the stone circle. Kal has moved on within seconds of arriving there, whereas I stay a while to ensure that it is of no interest. Yep – there’s hardly any energy here and certainly nothing worth wasting time over. A bit of a disappointment, but suddenly Kal is waving at me from the near distance. Is there something else to see further up the slope?

Arthurian Overview of 2013

January 29, 2013December 2, 2013 Gwas 1 Comment

Arthurian, Hedge Druidry, Tarot, Visions

Even though I was supposed to wait until Imbolc I did my first Camelot Oracle tarot draw. It was only supposed to be a test so that I could become familiar with the cards and the unusual layout of the pack on the “Lands Adventurous” (the eight sacred sites in the Arthurian panoply), but you know how things go… I got carried away and did a real reading. I chose to do “the big question” – after all, if you’re going to test something – test big! My question was:

“How will I fare on my spiritual path for this coming year?“

Thanks to the open-ended questioning style that John Matthews’ accompanying guide suggested this was how the request emerged. It was a powerful question.

The Champion

Firstly I chose my champion – an archetype that would represent a unified approach to the answers I was seeking. I felt that Galahad would be obvious choice for this year although I have not confirmed that in my spiritual work yet. Not until Imbolc will I know whether this year is really a Galahad/Gwalchaved year or not. Nevertheless, he was the card I manually chose to represent my work this year. He was placed at Camelot.

My champion for 2013 - Galahad — My champion for 2013 – Galahad

The Path Card

The card that was chosen as defining the nature of the journey this year was The Doubtful Path. This told me that the path this year would be filled with questions, doubts and points during which I would need to make decisions on how best to proceed. Already I could see that the year would be challenging. Onwards!

Map dowsing my recovery

March 1, 2012 Gwas 4 Comments

Dowsing

lately I have been over-worked and exercising too much. I have had so little time left for updating the blog and doing any spiritual work that I have been left feeling disconnected and strained. I decided I needed a break. After a tense negotiation with my lovely wife she graciously accepted that it was in … Read More “Map dowsing my recovery” »

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