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Tag: nottingham

Spring 2015-P5 – Oak Staff of Sherwood

Posted on April 21, 2015April 23, 2015 By Chris No Comments on Spring 2015-P5 – Oak Staff of Sherwood
Staff, Trees

For a while I’ve felt that I needed a staff that is more practical than my too-obvious antlered yew staff. The yew staff was right at the time, and is good for ceremonial occasions, but is impractical, too decorative, and was fashioned by someone else. I felt I needed something more subtle that I can carve and work myself. Something that I more “me” and “now”. An oak staff, perhaps?

As we travelled homeward from Dale Hermitage we discussed potential source forests. The New Forest? No trees, mainly gorse bushes and not many oaks. The Forest of Dean? Lovely place, but it had the wrong vibe for me personally. The conversation paused for a moment while we assessed where we were.

We just happened to be around Nottingham heading towards Mansfield. Did we have time to search in Sherwood Forest? Wouldn’t that be a perfect place to get a new oak staff? We set the navigation and within the hour we were parking and preparing for our new outing.

8 - Sherwood Forest (1)

How To Find A Staff

Dowsing is a great method of finding your way on a spiritual path. It can lead you efficiently towards your goal. When dowsing leads you back to the same place but by a different route then you know that you are being taken to a special place. Such was the case as we made our way through Sherwood Forest, visiting the Major Oak first, then moving off the paths following the dowsing rods in meandering trajectory into the woodland.

8 - Sherwood Forest (16)

We passed many fallen branches on our journey. Each time we assessed their suitability, but the rods carried on regardless. They were all clearly “wrong” in some way. Mainly because they weren’t oak, I suspect. After fifteen minutes walk the rods swung together and crossed at a point in the forest where the trees were taller. I stopped to assess the area.

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Spring 2015-P4 – Dark Shadows at Dale

Posted on April 19, 2015April 12, 2015 By Chris No Comments on Spring 2015-P4 – Dark Shadows at Dale
Spring 2015-P4 – Dark Shadows at Dale
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.

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Spring 2015-P3 – Hemlock Stone vortex

Posted on April 15, 2015January 26, 2016 By Chris No Comments on Spring 2015-P3 – Hemlock Stone vortex
Spring 2015-P3 – Hemlock Stone vortex
Arthurian, Circles and Stones, Crystals, Visions, Wheel of the Year

Having found very little in the way of sacred sites to keep us in Rutland or Leicestershire we headed northwards towards Nottinghamshire. We had in mind to head for Dale Hermitage, but there would be an unexpectedly pleasant detour first, for as we passed round the outskirts of Nottingham a place popped into mind – The Hemlock Stone. One of our blog readers had mentioned it in a comment recently, and I had not had a great deal to say about it at the time. For some reason it impinged on my thoughts very strongly today. Kal did a quick calculation and we found that we were only 20 minutes drive away. Then, we should pay it a visit.

5 - Hemlock Stone (5)
Approach to the Hemlock Stone site

We arrived and parked in the Bramcote Park facilities, which today included a convenient ice cream van. Far too cold for that, but Kal wasn’t going to be put off. We wandered across the road to Stapleford Hill, and were fortunate enough to have the place to ourselves for the duration of our visit. Everyone else was busy being entertained in the park.

Free To Roam

I don’t cope with barriers very well. Demarcations. Fences. Gates. Ditches. Boundaries of any sort. I like to think of the land as being open and free. That’s part of what our grandparents believed they were fighting to preserve, so you could consider it a “landright” – an inherent right to roam freely on the land if not causing harm. When I’m retired I intend to walk the Belinus Line from the south coast to the north without deviating. That will be one hell of a book, right? I can write it in prison. Anyway – The Hemlock Stone.

As we approach we see the railings around the stone “protecting it”. Well, it is sandstone, so it will wear down easily. Yet, I assert my landright and intending no harm I hop over the railing, as does Kal. It’s his first time here, but my second.

Today felt different from my last visit (which was in February). The energies are much stronger. I felt a tingle of excitement as I sat on the stone. Something was going to happen!

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The Hermit and the Sun : Beltane 2013-2

Posted on May 21, 2013May 21, 2013 By kal No Comments on The Hermit and the Sun : Beltane 2013-2
Edge Wizardry, Quests

Well, what a year. Or rather what a slow year. To be more accurate it has been a spurts and sputters kind of year as fas as sacred journeys go. We had a fabulous trip out to Delphi in Greece that seemed to be the promise of something special. But then the weather back home … Read More “The Hermit and the Sun : Beltane 2013-2” »

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Beltane 2013 Pt2 – Wilderness and Laughter

Posted on May 12, 2013May 12, 2013 By Gwas No Comments on Beltane 2013 Pt2 – Wilderness and Laughter
Ancient Sites, Dowsing, Energy work, Hedge Druidry, Telluric, Wheel of the Year

I had deliberately kept the number of site visits low for Beltane. The daylight hours are still short, the distance we had to travel to get there was sufficient to drain away the day, and I wanted to be able to feel ‘unhurried’ when we got to a site. Almost as if enhancing this mood I had parked at The Broad Oak pub car park in the village of Strelley. It took us ten minutes to walk to Catstone Hill, and really it would have been easier to park right on the corner of the road just before the main village where there was ample parking, and the distance would have been more than halved. Such is life!

That wasn’t the end of our woes finding the site. Intuitively, and with only the barest map navigation, we found our way on to the hill. We inspected the broad flat plateau but couldn’t find any “capstones” for burial chambers. Were they hidden by the brambles and gorse? We tried to find more accurate maps on our phones but failed, so we resorted to dowsing rods. The rods pointed us out in the direction of a ploughed field. Our rationality kicked in and caused us confusion. We split up and went searching. Eventually I found the right place. It was at the end of the ploughed field and off the plateau behind a line of trees. The M1 motorway was is view below. Nice! Being off the main plateau was why we hadn’t seen it. We also realised there was a much easier way in if we’d only taken the steep tracks up the hill instead of following the main path. Once you know, you know – hindsight is clear.

Catstone Hill's buried chambers
Catstone Hill’s buried chambers

We inspected the area around the capstones. No entry into these chambers, if ever there was any. They were silted up to the brim now. Disappointment began to set in. We stumbled around tripping over the tangle of briars and bramble thorns, the thick dead grass and the outcropping tangle of shrub branches. Our sense of frustration was compounded when we discovered that the site had no energy signature either. There were no earth energies running through the site at all. The disappointment grew. Should we turn away and go somewhere else?

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Finding my spiritual centre in England

Posted on July 21, 2012 By Gwas 1 Comment on Finding my spiritual centre in England
Dowsing, Quests

There are many ways that people have devised to find the centre of lands. From the beginnings of recorded history and probably much before then humans have established centres of land masses in order to establish a “pole” – a symbolic tree whose roots are planted in the core of the planet and whose branches … Read More “Finding my spiritual centre in England” »

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The Beech of Clumber Park 2012

Posted on March 4, 2012September 12, 2026 By Gwas 11 Comments on The Beech of Clumber Park 2012
The Beech of Clumber Park 2012
Healing, Hedge Druidry, Natural Magick, Trees

This is the first of a few posts telling you about my trip to the beautiful county of Nottingham. You may remember that I had dowsed using rods and map to find a location in which I could spend a few days of peace and quiet. The dowsing rods had done me a good turn. Hold on … Read More “The Beech of Clumber Park 2012” »

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