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Tag: gwyn ap nudd

Winter Solstice 2013 – Saints and Druids in Llangollen

Posted on January 8, 2014January 8, 2014 By Gwas 2 Comments on Winter Solstice 2013 – Saints and Druids in Llangollen
Ancestors, Other Entities, Wheel of the Year

Winter Solstice was spent in and around the Llangollen area. It’s not only easy for us to get to, but there are some favourite sites which we know always deliver when it comes to both scenery and ‘sorcery’. Kal has already covered our visit to St.Winifrede’s Well in Holywell, which was a shared experience. The next couple of posts will concentrate on our next two places – Vale Crucis Abbey, and then the hillfort of Dinas Bran and I will describe the visits in terms of what happened to me.

Before we arrived at Vale Crucis, though, we came through some back roads from Holywell which meant that we came over Horseshoe Pass. At that time of the morning and at this time of the year the views were stunning:

Horseshoe Pass - Winter Solstice 2013 (2)

Vale Crucis – free and open in Winter

We began our visit by taking some photographs. You have to get the fiddly stuff done first in this weather or your fingers freeze up! Having got that bit done we circled the site in opposite directions, each of us choosing our spot through a combination of dowsing and intuition.

Vale Crucis Abbey - Winter Solstice 2013 (3)

Conversation with Collen

St Collen is famous for having refused firstly the invitation of, then the hospitality of Gwyn Ap Nudd – the Faery King. After causing him to disappear through the application of holy water, little more is heard of Collen. The story, from the ‘Life of St. Collen‘ and quoted in Lady Charlotte Guest’s translation of The Mabinogion, is reproduced here. [Thanks to Ian Pegler for correcting that].

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Summary 2013 – Lessons Learned Pt2

Posted on December 31, 2013December 31, 2013 By Gwas No Comments on Summary 2013 – Lessons Learned Pt2
Hedge Druidry, Hedge philosophy

In the second half of my second summary post I’m completing the lessons learned for the remainder of the year – that’s August to December. In this post I talk about the stag energies, energetic balance, death energy and some of the natural magickal techniques that I have been shown this year.

August

Stag and the Staff

  • Learned that a staff can become associated with a kind of ‘patron’ energy form
  • My new yew stag-headed staff becomes associated with the Gwyn Ap Nudd/Herne/Cernunnos energy.

Related posts: Initiation of the Yew Staff

Balancing and Tuning at Sacred Sites

  • You can reconfigure your own energy field to match that of a sacred site (especially a stone circle).
  • When the circle is at a balanced point in the year (equinoxes) then you can easily balance your chakras/energy field

Related posts: Mitchell’s Fold balancing

  • Chakras can be tuned through the vowel sounds – caves are excellent places to do this

Absorbing the Gwyn energies

  • The energies of an energy form such as Gwyn Ap Nudd can be absorbed into your own energy field, such that they “walk with you”
  • The purpose of this is to be able to invoke their guiding presents more readily

Related posts: Chun Quoit, Faery Portal, Faery Feast

What the Romans Did For Us

  • On Anglesey I discovered that one of the few remaining traditions that were left virtually intact by the Roman invasion were the arts associated with the knowledge of local plants and their powers.
  • I was asked to continue this tradition when communing with the shade of Iestyn.

Related posts: Lligwy Lore and Song

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Summary 2013 – Lessons Learned Pt1

Posted on December 30, 2013 By Gwas No Comments on Summary 2013 – Lessons Learned Pt1
Hedge Druidry, Hedge philosophy

In the second of my year-end summary posts I am listing the most important things I have learned this year. I’ve arranged them in chronological order by month as this seems to show the development of the learning in the best way. There’s too much to read in one go, so I’ve split this into two posts. Part 1 is January to June/July. Part 2 will be the back half of the year.

One of my favourite phrases is “Every day is a school day.” It certainly feels like that walking this path of druidry and divination!

January

Spooky!

  • Learned that some pet energies can be grounded through respectful burial involving knowledge of their energetic links to humans (e.g. an owner)
  • Also found a spirit that is classically called an Incubus preying upon the vibrant energies of the three teenage girls in the house. Discovered that they can be ‘ensnared’ using a spiral-carved stone to confuse their pathway, and by changing the energy flows around the house to disrupt its patterns and portals.

Related posts: Exorcising an Incubus, Poltergeist Pet

Tarot Framework

  • Created a four-stage cross tarot layout coinciding with the Celtic festival dates, and drew from the Camelot Oracle to define the path, the champion and the challenges at those special dates. The result was a fantastic way to keep me on track with my progress!

Related posts: Arthurian Overview of 2013, Camelot Oracle

Read More “Summary 2013 – Lessons Learned Pt1” »

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Summary of the Year 2013 – Themes

Posted on December 20, 2013December 24, 2013 By Gwas No Comments on Summary of the Year 2013 – Themes
Hedge Druidry, Wheel of the Year

Welcome to the first of three posts to summarise the adventures I’ve had this year. The first post will discuss the major themes of the year and my opinions on them. The second post will go into detail about the lessons I’ve learned and how I have developed as a result of those teachings. Finally, … Read More “Summary of the Year 2013 – Themes” »

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Samhain 2013 – Charging the Stag Staff

Posted on November 13, 2013November 12, 2013 By Gwas 1 Comment on Samhain 2013 – Charging the Stag Staff
Ancient Sites, Magick, Staff, Wheel of the Year

In this second part of my Samhain visit to Tinkinswood I tell about how I negotiate the charging of my new yew staff at a sacred site near to Cardiff. The site is a ‘burial chamber’, and was chosen due to the amazing response we got from it on our last visit. Having travelled over three hours to get here, we were rather pleased that the site was in a powerfully energetic state as this time of the year. “Lucky”, I guess, right?

At the entrance to the site is a new audio feature powered by cranking a handle. We listened to the various sections which speculated as to the purpose and use of the site in relation to the archaeological evidence. This kind of thing always makes us smile. Looking at the archaeological evidence of a sacred site is like looking at the waste products of a household and deducing their philosophical predilections from the packaging they discard. A mere sliver of the total amount of available information, as any psychically-oriented person will tell you,. The key phrase which sets us off is the phrase “…for religious purposes…“. We love that.

Here’s a snippet of what’s on offer:

https://www.hedgedruid.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Tonkinswood-1.m4a

Charging the Stag Staff

Interesting – that’s the first time I have written “The Stag Staff” as a description of my new staff, and yet that’s what I should always have called it. I will call it that from now on.

Tinkinswood Chamber - Samhain 2013 (canon) (15) (Large)
An inner chamber where The Elemental Masters congregate

I ran through my usual “dowsing etiquette” questions – the ‘could I’, ‘should I’, ‘may I’ type of preliminaries, and getting a favourable response I began to search for the best location to station my staff while it was worked upon.

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Lammas 2013 – The Faery Feast

Posted on August 27, 2013August 25, 2013 By Gwas No Comments on Lammas 2013 – The Faery Feast
Faery, Hedge Druidry, Ritual, Trees, Wheel of the Year

In the culmination of the Lammas work I describe a long-awaited meeting between the Lord of the Underworld – Gwyn Ap Nudd – and little old me.

Now, I have some caveats about this post which I will point out straight away. The location was given to me by a devotee of this site along with a request not to divulge the location of the site. I will honour that promise entirely – so you will need to use your imagination for this one because there will be no photos or definitive descriptions of the place – just general references.

I began that morning by collecting some fresh wild flowers. I know people disagree with the concept – I know. However, I don’t go around doing it for no reason, or simply to decorate my house. These flowers were a one-off offering that I had been specifically asked to collect as part of the ritual. Yes, I could have refused on principle, but we are ‘sacrificing’ vegetables all the time for things Like Harvest Festival celebrations. This was the same sort of enterprise – a dedication of the finest ‘fruits’ of the land to create a banquet as an offering to a major spirit form. I felt it was necessary in this case. Please forgive me if it causes you distress. And take care where you walk when you go out in the countryside. Those blades of grass don’t repair themselves, you know?

Next we had to find the right place. I had a set of printed instructions that had been left deliberately vague. Well, lets’ say there was margin for error anyway. Once you knew where you were going you realised the instructions were dead on, but you need to read between the lines. Luckily I had my Druid Glasses on. Both Kal and I walked to the spot we believed was the right one. Actually, I had been intending to go alone, but it worked out that the best time was when Kal was there too. So be it.

As soon as I got the end of the known instructions I knew the rest of the way myself. I could feel the draw, the magnetic pull of the place. Yes, this was the right spot indeed – I knew that even from the outside. A suitable entrance needed to be found, and duly I was led there by forces unseen and sympathetic to my cause. I was still carrying a large bounty of flowers, most now wilting in the harsh heat we were having this Lammas day. I got them inside the sacred site unscathed. Now what?

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Lammas 2013 – Lunasa, Lunacy and Re-balancing

Posted on August 23, 2013August 21, 2013 By Gwas No Comments on Lammas 2013 – Lunasa, Lunacy and Re-balancing
Faery, Wheel of the Year

August has been a busy month – socially, and in terms of holidays and druidry. So at the end of August begins our stories about Lammas, Lughnasah, or Lunasa – whichever you prefer. I used to call it Lammas, but I’m coming around to the ideas of using Lunasa, as it contains a more direct reference to the inspiration for the day.

Lammas (or Lunasa, Lughnasagh – The Assembly of Lugh) was about a meeting with a faery. It seems so obvious now, but the signs were constructed in a long draw-out jigsaw, and the final pieces only came together as I write this post. Sometimes the obvious is not obvious until it makes itself so. I discovered that I would be having this meeting, this assembly, at the Summer Solstice on Glastonbury Tor. I think even then, because it was Glastonbury Tor, I knew which faery I would be meeting – Gwyn Ap Nudd. He is also known as Lugh (Light), and Herne (The Hunter).

Certainly all the indications were such – it had to be someone powerful, I needed to go through an elaborate ritual of gathering the fruits of the summer, and I would need to provide a gift of these fruits at a banquet where I would meet him. A few words of advice had come through from Kal’s spiritual mentor Cailleach too. She had advised that I “must find the banquet“. Indeed, I would have to gather the flowers of the land on the day of the festival from all the places I visited that day. The flowers did have to be found. The place and the time had also to be right, astronomically and in terms of the time of the year. After a chance encounter on this blog I knew the place. The time and star positions were going to be Lammas and in view of the constellation Orion – The Hunter. Gwyn, of course, is also The Hunter, hunting the Scorpio constellation across the sky, so I’m told.

As a courtesy to my “informant” I will not be discussing the place where the meeting would take place, but I will describe what happened. However, that’s a few posts away. For now, there were preparations to be made, and the first was a suggestion of Kal’s – Bryn Celli Ddu.

Anglesey - Lammas 2013 - Canon (6) (Large)

The site is usually very well maintained, energetically speaking, but this day we both independently discovered that some balancing work could be done. When we conferred about it we decided to go about it in our own ways, but agreed that it needed doing. Only a marginal tinkering, this time, just to being the site into harmony with our energies, and vice versa.

I dowsed for the place to do this work from and found a place to the upper side of the entrance to the mound. On the opposite side Kal was already sat so I asked him if that was “his spot” to which he responded that it was indeed. Of all the places we could have chosen, we chose opposite sides of the entrance. I sent female energy around the outside of the site and dowsed later that it blended with the existing female flow.

Anglesey - Lammas 2013 - Canon (15) (Large)

Kal, it turns out, had been sending male energy the other way round. Without any preparation we found ourselves working harmoniously in a balanced way until the site dowsed as being perfectly in harmony between male and female, and that this was consistent with the energies of the moment (positions of moon, sun and stars at this time of the year). The female outer ring and male inner ring around the mound were moving freely, and flowing to a design that we had dowsed on several occasions now (see our site maps of Wales for a clue to that formation’s general layout).

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