forest – The Hedge Druid

Calming the Golden Dragon

July 8, 2014July 8, 2014 Gwas No Comments

When the evening is filled with sunshine and warmth then a lowly Hedge Druid has to make full use of it. I left work earlier than usual in order to beat the traffic. Arriving at Alderley Edge I found that there were few others parked up. Today that was a benefit – I wanted a quiet space in the forest to find some answers to questions I had about The Golden Dragon.

No rods tonight – I don’t have them with me. I will have to do all of this work using my senses alone. I switch on my attunement as I pass through one of the entrances to the forest, pausing briefly in order that my aura is noticed by the beings in the forest. It is recognised. We are now familiar cousins. I wander on a wavy path towards a familiar place on a rise – it is the place of cleansing, but it has moved slightly since I was last here. Nonetheless, I absolve myself of worldly energies before setting off again on my wanderings.

As I am about to walk on when a crow squawks loudly above me, landing on a tree next to the one I am beneath. I notice it, and it caws again, it’s beady eye catching mine. I see – tonight you are the messenger, Mr Crow. Then I will follow your direction. The crow lifts up into the air and soon drops onto the top of a nearby tree. I walk towards it, and as I am about to pass a specific pine tree it caws loudly once more. I look up at the crow – this one, I ask? “Caw!”. I thank the crow for his guidance and he lifts himself away into the blue evening sky – his work is done.

The pine tree is dying. As I touch it I can feel its energy sapping away. As I commune with the tree I begin to appreciate what is happening here. Part of the work I did with the Golden Dragon in this very forest a few weeks earlier has hastened the rate at which the dying trees are killing themselves off to make more material and energy available to the living trees. This is part of the process of the living trees strengthening their existing root systems. But what a sad consequence for the weak trees! Suicidal sap! However, when you consider that trees are much more communal and inter-related than humans, then the sacrifice seems more comprehensible somehow. This is an existing cycle of regeneration, but my recent work has added impetus to that process, that’s all.

I decide to move on. The crow has disappeared, but other crows take flight silently as though to indicate my next direction. I begin to head deeper into the forest in search of more inspiration.

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Recovering the Golden Dragon

June 21, 2014June 11, 2014 Gwas No Comments

Dragons, Hedge Druidry, Natural Magick

You may remember that I left you on a bit of a cliff-hanger at the finale of our visit to the French forest of Broceliande? I had been given the gift of a Golden Dragon but Kal had been incredibly suspicious of it, and his dowsing reported to him that it could only do harm. Well, at the time I released the dragon in order to save Kal from any harmful effects. In fact, at the time I dowsed for the level of harm it would do Kal and confirmed that actually, it was very harmful to his energy field to have this dragon presence around.

Now I was back in Britain, and curious to know more about this incident, and to see whether the Golden Dragon could be recalled to service. Was there a way of getting it back, and how could I protect Kal from its influence, if I could get it back?

For some reason I think of Alderley Edge. It seems to have the right environment for dragon work – a mix of good energies and different types of spaces – caves, trees, cliffs, streams, and even a fake stone circle. I arrive and have to make a decision – to dowse or not to dowse? I decide to let the dowsing rods guide me until I am cleansed, protected and in tune with the vibration of the forest this evening. I’m just being lazy, but dowsing is like a “fallback” position now and reliable as hell.

The rods lead me to a familiar place at the brow of a small hill. Yes, this is a cleansing place, so I stand in the rays of the evening sun and I let the normal world slough off me like a snake sheds its skin. It feels good to open up energetically, yet this is also a vulnerable moment, and so I put up some protection immediately, as though, having gotten ‘naked’ I should cover myself in energy in order to present myself to whatever I may meet. Even The Otherworld has its etiquette.

As I think about where to go next a hare breaks cover and scoots down the hill towards a quarried part of the forest. Then, lead on! The hare is clearly my guide for the evening. I walk down following the hare’s trail. By now it has vanished, of course, but its direction was clear enough. I follow the path into the quarry and realise I am where Kal found a cave once. Now it is very much on our “map” of the forest.

In cave I settle into the vibe of the space and feel my aura compressing to match the shape of the rock around it. I am also aware of the being at the end of the cave, but on this occasion I merely acknowledge its presence and choose not to converse. I have work to do for myself. Soon the cave’s natural earth energies allow me a deep root connection with Brittany again. Whilst at Barnenez tomb complex I had created a strong earth link, and here I was experiencing the same form of connection – a really strong two-way link between my root chakra and the ground itself. Almost like my “tail” was stuck on the rock, and I was shackled by it, yet fed by it at the same time. An umbilical cord into Mother Earth.

I got a set of crystals ready for use, but now is not the time to use them. I feel that will come soon enough, and I pack them away again. Go with your instincts on things like this. I am sure now that I have been grounded and cleansed. My spirit guide prompts me that the next stage is to find a Faery Grove in order to connect with the Golden Dragon. I thank him for his intervention, and excitement builds as I consider the possibility, then look around considering which direction to go. A hare bolts from the nearest bush, streaking off out of the quarry and heading deeper into the forest. Then, my little fleet-footed guide – let’s go meet a dragon!

11 Beltane 2014 – Faeries and Dragons Finale

June 9, 2014June 11, 2014 Gwas 6 Comments

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?”

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!!

10 Beltane 2014 – Lair of the Land Giant

June 6, 2014May 30, 2014 Gwas 1 Comment

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?

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….

Rowan trees and subtle energies

March 19, 2014March 16, 2014 Gwas No Comments

Telluric, Theory, Trees

Whilst working at Alderley Edge just before Spring Equinox 2014 I was taken to the location of a Rowan tree. I meditated at the base of the tree and felt a connection to the tree itself, and so I asked for permission to dowse about the nature of Rowan trees generally, in respect of their … Read More “Rowan trees and subtle energies” »

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.

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.

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