healing pool – The Hedge Druid

Towards the end of the first day on Iona we walked to the northern end of the island to climb the hill known as Dun I (‘Dun-ee’). It was only a short distance from the abbey’s grounds, and according to the signposts there was only a 600m walk to the top. I was determined to go because there are so few sacred places on this small island that I wanted to see them all, and with no rain in sight this was a perfect opportunity to do such a climb. It was my belief that somewhere up on top of the hill there was a healing pool, and I was keen to find it and use it. Besides, this would be a great place for me to find out what the quest was for the next part of the Wheel of the Year. I was hoping this would be the place to find that information. So it turned out to be,

There are few signposts on Iona. Locals know where they’re going. Visitors should have the time to find what they need without needing direction. There was one small, and I mean small, concession to this rule and that was the inch-high sign pointing out the footpath to the mountain/hill of Dun I, and the sign on the gate alongside it re-iterating the route. Frankly, you’d be hard-pressed to miss it anyway, even in fog! It’s only five minutes walk north from the Abbey.

Entrance to Dun I — Dun I – the only tall thing in the North of Iona

As we stepped onto the smooth grassy path something ached in my feet – a longing to be free of the shoes that I had spent all day walking around in. I set my feet free. They practically sighed at the coolness of the mossy grass path and delighted in the cooling dew and occasional crossing rivulet of water. This lasted for about two minutes, then they began to get cold. My brain chimed in with a gentle reminder that this was September, and that I was in Scotland. Thanks, Rational Mind – you’re always useful, never superfluous! Another minute and the climb up the hill began – it was slippery, muddy, rocky and cold. Was this a wise decision now? No, but I continued anyway. Sometimes hardship leads to a better insight. Reward comes through effort, as they say (Who says this? They need a smack!).

Considering that we’d only landed on the island a matter of an hour prior to this point a lot had gone on already. This was fixing up to be a worthwhile visit already. Whatever next? As though in a form of light relief I switched my attention away from the ancient mound of the giant towards the 12th Century buildings that were the focal point for the rest of the day’s tourists. They almost seemed like light relief at this point.

With the whiff of lit incense still fleetingly scented in the environs I went into the abbey grounds to trace the other end of the ‘corpse road’ that led up to St Ronan’s Chapel. I went in search of any energetic hotspots in the abbey. Dowsing rods at the ready, and now completely uninhibited about doing dowsing in public, I made my way to the ticket booth – paid my way (five pounds sterling or so) – and entered the well-coiffured lawns of the abbey.

Hotspots in the Abbey Grounds

I find it fascinating that most of the major energetic sacred sites that have had churches built upon them (i.e. Christianized pagan sites) have a story that tells how the church had to be rebuilt several times either because it fell down or was de-constructed by spirits. The Abbey of Iona has the same tale. Unaware of this at the time the focus of my investigations was wherever the rods decided was the most energetic point. They dutifully swayed in a sinewing path towards the round stone-walled well that stood before the main entrance to the larger part of the abbey building. A well, I mused? No – the rods were playing a little game as they sometimes do. They swung towards the well’s wall, skirting it closely, and then deviated away from there to point towards a small opening alongside the main building. I peered into the opening – a small archway of stone without a door. Inside the room seemed very small – big enough perhaps to hold my tall frame and not much more.

Outside the entrance was a small stone block about a foot square. On it someone had placed a few stones. In my pocket I had a couple of stones that I had picked up from Ronan’s Church. One was red and the other indigo coloured. Seemed kind of fitting at the time, so I deposited them on the stone here, almost like I was “paying” to enter the shrine, or that they were something that I couldn’t take in. One of the two. No-one else was inside so I ventured inside with my staff. This was St Columba’s Shrine.

Inside St Columba's Shrine — Inside St Columba’s Shrine, Iona Abbey

The small room was light enough to make out the scant decorations – Christian crosses with rather Celtic looking ‘holy’ symbols on them. A book of prayer. A wooden kneeling stool. An altar with a candle flanked by simple ornaments. The wooden kneeling stool invited me to prostrate myself in devotion. Pah! Not likely! I asked the rods to define exactly which point inside the shrine was the most energetic. Right in front of the altar they crossed. Above the kneeling stool. I turned around and sat on the stool instead, preferring to face the light and greenery of the outside space than to lose myself to the dead space of the wall and to mimic the many people who had been in that shrine before me. I would do this my way.

Tag: healing pool

Ionian Equinox 4 – Dun I and the Healing Waters

Ionian Equinox 3 – The Abbey of Iona

Share this:

Share this: