Ireland solstice 2015 – The Hedge Druid

Summer 2015 – P7 – The Light of Brighid

August 6, 2015August 6, 2015 Chris No Comments

Churches and Temples, God or Goddess, Holy Wells and Sacred Springs, Pilgrimage, Saints, Spirits, Tombs and Monuments, Wheel of the Year

In the last of my Summer Solstice posts (can you believe we’ve generated so much from one weekend?) we are taken on an escorted tour of a sacred site. We have left David at Fourknocks, but Regina has stayed with us to show us one more site: The Shrine of Brigid at Faughart.

We arrived at the shrine site and parked alongside a bus and another car. Throughout the period we visited the car park would get busier, and the site more populous. Regina mentioned that most of the visitors were from the traveller community. The site was quite unusual – a mixture of ancient stones with healing properties and a clutter of modern …. stuff… that seemed to be aimed at… er, informing the visitor and guiding them on their sacred journey in praise of this popular saint. We ignored all that and instead began to dowse for the most energetic locations.

Foughart and Brigid - June 15 (7) — Shrine to Brigid or cricket pavilion?

The casual visitor, or veen the dedicated one, would be led from the bottom to the top via a numbered procession of artefacts and sacred spots. The idea seemed to be that they would perform devotions and request healing specific to their ailment from certain locations. Regina asked if we could like to travel from bottom to top or top to bottom (in number sequence). We suggested that we would actually ignore all that, and we wandered off using the dowsing rods to suggest our route.

Foughart and Brigid - June 15 (10) — Where is Brigid? Follow the signs!

Summer 2015 – P6 – Three Winds

August 5, 2015July 31, 2015 Chris No Comments

Ancient Sites, Crossing The Hedge, Elements earth-water-fire-air, Hills and Mounds, Holy Wells and Sacred Springs, Quests, Sylphs, Wheel of the Year

After spending a delightful lunchtime in the company of our Irish hosts Regina and David, we set off again heading for a site which we had visited before – Knockbrach – a hill which we knew had a ‘fort’ on top. David, however, wanted to show us some other structures on the hill that we might not have known about. How exciting! What were these structures? Regina drove us to the foot of the hill and we tumbled out into the summer sunshine, yet clothed against the cool wind.

Drawn to one side

As we walked up, chatting and enjoying the spray of summer flowers creating fan patterns as they flowed in chorus with the breeze, there was an increasing sense of increasing our senses. Everything was being heightened as we climbed. Their “yellowness” was commented on, considering my experience at Fourknocks mound.

Knockbrach - June 15 (2) — Beautiful yellow wild flowers at Knockbrach Hill

Half way up we stopped. Regina had sensed something and was taking an interest in a climb of bushes on the hillside to our left. We noted it, and said that we would return once the “main event” was over.

At the top of the hill David guided us off the main path which led towards the tall radio mast, and instead we veered left into another field. Here, he said, were some ancient mounds that might be interesting.

Summer 2015 – P5 – Faery Awakenings at Fourknocks

August 4, 2015August 3, 2015 Chris No Comments

Ancient Sites, Dolmens and Chambers, Energy, Energy work, Faery, Hedge Druidry, Natural Magick, Spirits, Wheel of the Year

I have mentioned on previous occasions about how I believe that the Faery kind have got both a King and a Queen, and that they revealed themselves to me in Brittany one year as “Bel” and “Titania”. Together, this is where I think we get the Celtic festival of “Beltane” from – from the union … Read More “Summer 2015 – P5 – Faery Awakenings at Fourknocks” »

Summer 2015 – P4 – Tara Celebrations

August 1, 2015September 11, 2016 Chris No Comments

Ancestors, Ancient Sites, Circles and Stones, Dolmens and Chambers, Faery, Higher-Self, Hills and Mounds, Modern Druidry, Quests, Tarot, Wheel of the Year

Hill of Tara – County Louth, Ireland

It was still the first day of our visit, but we had checked into the B&B in order to get freshened up and prepared for an evening at The Hill of Tara. We were staying in Blackrock – quite a way out from the main attractions, but very reachable in our hire car. The travel gave us thinking and preparation time. Talking of preparation – before I left that evening I decided to do a tarot reading for the events that might happen.

In a bid to get one up on The Future I did some divination. Let’s call it preparation. I drew three tarot cards that would be my guidance for the events that were to come at Tara – one card for the Past, one for the Present and one for the Future:

Tarot for Saturday June 15 — Past,present,future: Summer solstice tarot reading for Tara visit

A Quick Reading

At the time I didn’t know what to make of those cards. On the surface they seemed to suggest to me that Tara – the place where my ancestors may have met – was brought out in the Past card. The Present card seemed to represent an aggressive attempt to capture something naturally difficult to deal with, and this was leading to frustration. I took this to be my strong desire to make spiritual progress and I wondered whether I was going to end up frustrated if nothing happened? Finally, the King Of Vessels seemed to indicate a Future where the emotional responses were under control. The tarot’s related question is “Where is tolerance needed?” That seemed to chime with the other cards. This is the year of patience.

Now it was time to bring the past, present and future together at the Hill of Tara.

Summer 2015 – P3 – A Sting at Dowth

July 29, 2015July 29, 2015 Chris No Comments

Ancient Sites, Hills and Mounds

This is a short post. It’s also a sad post (for me) and a humorous post (for you). It concerns an object lesson in following one’s intuition.

We were in Ireland and were visiting the Boyne Valley sites again. We had bought tickets for both Knowth and Newgrange, but as we left Knowth Kal wanted to go directly to Dowth. He reckoned that there was nothing there for him at Newgrange, and although I actually did want to go, my brain kicked in and added several reasonable reasons not to visit: it would be busy, we would have to get the hot stuffy bus back and wait for another one going back out, Dowth was just a lovely walk down the road.

We went to Dowth. It was a lovely walk, but as we approached I had mixed emotions. My thwarted intuition was giving out warning signs, but my rational ego-driven mind was tweeting to all and sundry that I was about to enter one of the most interesting and energetic site sin the area. I don’t know if I was trying to convince myself or what, but as soon as I approached the site I knew I had made the wrong decision.

Dragon Master of Knowth – Summer 2015 – P2

July 26, 2015July 27, 2015 Chris No Comments

Ancient Sites, Dolmens and Chambers, Hedge Druidry, Other Entities, Wheel of the Year

It’s only rarely that I go to a sacred site and find that I am there to offer someone else advice, rather than learn something myself. Knowth, one of the treasures of the Boyne Valley complex in Ireland, offered me both opportunities on my last visit. On this visit I would hear a dire warning for Kal, and also encounter the spirit offering that warning, learning something new about dragon energies in the process. Go grab some refreshments and light snacks – this one’s a long one!

We skipped Newgrange. Although we had tickets to see both sites, we really wanted to start with Knowth. After our productive last visit this was where we wanted to spend our first afternoon, and then move to Dowth just a mile or so away.

We arrived and immediately asked for permission from the tour guide to dispense with her well-rehearsed wisdom. We needed free reign to wander where the rods instructed us to go, and soon we had negotiated this freedom, and off we went.

A Site of Learning

I was taken past one of the openings in the large central mound, and then the rods swerved to lead me via a zig-zag path until I was sat at the far end of an open remnant of a chamber.

Then the teachings came.

Meadowsweet, Larks and Loughcrew – Summer 2015 – P1

July 22, 2015July 27, 2015 Chris No Comments

Ancestors, Circles and Stones, Dolmens and Chambers, Ghosts and shades, Hills and Mounds, Wheel of the Year

In the first of my seven Summer Solstice stories I will tell you about how I encountered an ancestral spirit who would work with my Spirit Self to bring about a culmination of my ancestral work on this weekend’s journeying. This was only realised through the two days work, so the stories piece into each other like fragments of a mirror revealing a full picture towards the end.

In order to pull all the stories together I have used the tag Ireland solstice 2015.

Sunset to Sunrise

I was asleep at sunset and then awake again at sunrise. Seems like a long time, but actually it was only a few hours. On arrival, tired by excited, we zoomed off in the hire car heading for the first destination. It was a place I had heard of by reputation, but we hadn’t visited it yet – Loughcrew. We know nothing about it.

Solstice P1 - Loughcrew - June 15 (12) — Loughcrew’s information sign

The car park has space for a few coaches and about 20 cars. This was clearly an important site, and we weren’t used to such “hospitality”. I noticed a memorial to a guy called “Mick Tobin“. The dowsing rods said that paying our respects was a useful starting point for the day’s work, so we acknowledged the gentleman – this “Child of the Solstice” as he was poetically named. It seemed fitting to our Solstice outing!

Solstice P1 - Loughcrew - June 15 (1) — Mick Tobin’s memorial at Loughcrew

I walked up the steps a few minutes after Kal. At the top of the steps, before the path went into the foot of the hill, there was an interesting triangle of green grass and young trees that caught my eye and made me stop. It was a place of preparation. I dowsed to the correct spot, and got energetically cleansed and prepared. Cailleach appeared offering me the protection of her Black Dragon once again (see previous Ireland visit). I gratefully accepted this, and as the dragon’s wings enfolded me I felt a surge of power, and felt that wave burst out like a blast across the countryside around, sending a warning message to all the potentially mischievous spirits. “Be warned” – it signalled – “this one’s with The Dark Lady!”

I drew in the powers of the four elements from their respective cardinal points, and with that felt that I had offered something in return to Cailleach for my protection – the energy formed by the union of the elements that is the singularity of my self.

Kal was waiting by the gate with a grin on his face as he watched me. What, I asked? “A place of preparation?” he inquired? I nodded. “That was the same spot as I was used.” We laughed. Such synchronicities already! What next?

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