samhain – The Hedge Druid

The Thin Veil – Samhain 2016

November 21, 2016 Chris No Comments

Ancestors, Ancient Sites, Churches and Temples, Draco The Dragon, Quests, Staff, Wheel of the Year

It’s Samhain, or Halloween and I’m travelling to Valle Crucis Abbey in Llangollen in the heart of the night. The idea is that I will meet with Cailleach and Duignan to take advantage of the thin veil between the Middle Earth and The Underworld. If you need a “catch up” on these two “personalities” then … Read More “The Thin Veil – Samhain 2016” »

Direction from the River Dee

November 27, 2014November 25, 2014 Chris 4 Comments

Dowsing, Quests, Spirit of Place, Wheel of the Year

Needs must when you realise that you’ve forgotten something important and you’re not in the ‘right place’. Through a series of unfortunate events I had come to realise that I was not on “the path” – I wasn’t following my correct course of action in accordance with my spiritual direction. I knew this because I had succumbed to a cold that my wife had been sporting for a few weeks. As she got better I caught the offending cold. Now usually I simply breeze past such things with nary a glance, but this one had my full attention. It was all so unnecessary and I didn’t even feel like I had a proper illness – it was merely a ‘reminder’ that I was off course.

Several other happenings substantiated this condition of malaise, of dis-jointedness. They all culminated in my being offered an interview for a job. I have recently gone independent, as you know (see Reconstellation.com). I wasn’t really wanting to be put straight back where I had just escaped from, but this job was a shoe-in – a complete match for what I had been doing, and with the added attraction of working for a small company in the local area. Dammit – when temptation comes it comes in the form you most admire! I needed help to make a decision – back to where I was or continue on my new course?

In addition I had forgotten to ask for what my quest was for the time between Samhain and Winter Solstice! How could that have happened? Well, because I was seriously “off course”, that’s why! I needed to get back on, and quickly! Hence, with the restrictions I had on time and distance I opted for the nearest large water course – the River Dee. For some reason I felt I needed water. Water would help me decide.

The Cold Harsh Reality

River Dee - Nov 14 (1) (Medium) — The River Dee on a cold day

With some to-ing and fro-ing in Kal’s car we made it to the bank of the River Dee. At this point the river has been cultivated to run straight. The area is called Deeside, and soon the river runs out into the estuary to mingle with The Irish Sea. It felt industrial and unwelcoming, yet there was a certain power emitted from the expanse of water which made me sure it could help me. I considered my questions and prepared for my encounter with the spirit of the River Dee.

Samhain at the Summit – Part 1 of 2

November 16, 2014November 14, 2014 Chris No Comments

Ancient Sites, Dragons, Meditation, Spirit of Place

You may rightfully ask “Where the hell have you been?” A distinct lack of posts from me for a while. The response to such a question would be that I have been out of the country for a while. I spent Samhain in Africa, climbing the largest free-standing mountain in the world – Kilimanjaro. Did that prevent me from having a spiritual experience? Of course not! Here is one small part of that story.

Kili Samhain 14 (24) (Medium) — The summit of Kilimanjaro in the distance

When we reached the second set of huts called Horombo we had an ‘acclimatization’ day. This was a chance for us to relax a bit after two days of lengthy walking in thinning air. I decided to conduct a group meditation session half way up the mountain, and by chance we found that there was a tranquil place next to a stream just seconds away from the huts we had been staying in the for the last day, but which no-one had noticed until now.

Everyone seemed to come away from the session feeling much more relaxed, yet focused on the objective, and connected to the mountain.

Kili Samhain 14 (49) (Medium) — A cheeky meditation session at altitude

The Power of Kili

Using the meditative state I tried to connect to the Spirit of Place for Kilimanjaro mountain. It took a while to get myself into the right vibration, and then my attention was swept up to the white peak that I could only see in the distance at this point. I felt a deep and powerful stirring in the mountain, and suddenly something emerged through my connection.

Samhain 2014: What about the Tarot?

November 14, 2014 kal No Comments

Dowsing, Experiment, How To, Quests, Signs and Synchronicity, Tarot, Visions

Okay, in all the excitement of my Samhain outing, I completely forgot that I had taken my Tarot cards with me until I took them out of my pouch at home. With some shock at my lack of presence I quickly grabbed the rods and asked whether I could still do some work with them? … Read More “Samhain 2014: What about the Tarot?” »

Samhain 2013 – Hay Bluff stone circle

November 15, 2013November 13, 2013 Gwas No Comments

Ancient Sites, Dowsing, Energy grid, Energy work, Experiment, Spirits, Wheel of the Year

The second place we intended to visit on Samhain this year was a newly-designated stone circle on the exposed side of Hay Bluff. Hay Bluff is a beautiful bracken-laden burgeoning hill which rolls gently upwards from Abergavenny until it tilts downward towards its English cousin Hay-On-Wye. As we rose towards the top of the hill we simply had to stop and take some photographs because the vista was so stunning.

The drive up revealed the autumn rust colours of the bracken contrasting beautifully with the remaining greenery. The narrow road gave us a few heart-stopping moments, but on the whole most people were very courteous in letting us past or negotiating a passing place. It was worth the treacherous and tortuous tiny road required to reach the top.

A Sad Little Circle

On arrival we found that the exposed ‘circle’ was too windy and wet to do much for any length of time. We had to work quickly. The circle has one standing stone a few feet tall and angled. Other stones are small, buried and often missing. The size of the circle is about ten feet in diameter. It doesn’t dowse as being very strong. No wonder it had gone unrecognised for so long!

My reason for visiting was that I thought we have some work to do here and I want to find out what that was. Were we expected to protect it, put energy into it, clean it up or restore its spirit of place? I got out of the car and began to dowse despite the howling wind that was causing people around us to pull hoods up tight and shuffle off on their walks with some element of doubt about why they had chosen this day.

The dowsing revealed that we should work to restore the circle’s part in a larger network by inviting back the missing Spirit of Place.

I turned to Kal and explained my findings. He explained his. They were the same! With that kind of independent correlation we knew we had to do something. We split up again and began to work how each of worked best.

Samhain 2013 – Charging the Stag Staff

November 13, 2013November 12, 2013 Gwas 1 Comment

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:

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.

Samhain 2013 – Tinkinswood and The Blood Ring

November 11, 2013November 8, 2013 Gwas No Comments

Ancestors, Ancient Sites, Dowsing, Magick, Quests, Staff, Wheel of the Year

Samhain is a point of extreme contrast. It is in opposition to the bright awakening of Imbolc, and is the point of darkening – the clocks go back, the days shorten noticeably, the sun weakens, and the separation between the souls of the living and those of the dead is momentarily dissolved. This last aspect is almost completely forgotten by mainstream society now in favour of the costumery of Halloween. For many in the pagan community it marks the end of the year and the beginning of the new year.

We had decided to go back to South Wales, and then to work our way back up north through The Golden Valley near Hay-On-Wye. Our first site visit was a re-visit to Tinkinswood burial chamber. It had had such a positive effect on my ash staff (which I lost this year) that when I replaced the Ash Staff with a new Yew Staff, my first thought was that I ought to go back to Tinkinswood. This was my first clear opportunity to ask the spirits that inhabit this sacred site whether they would consider charging up my new staff.

As we arrived, parked up at the convenient small lay-by, and made our way through the dip towards the stone, the antitcipation level;s were rising for me. We stopped, me with staff in hand, at a recumbant set of stones near to a signposted old quarry. For some reason we were both drawn to stop here, and we knew from experience that this was our cleansing point. A place to re-attune our energies to those of the site nearby. A place to shed our modern world taint.

As we stood at the flat stones I felt like I should sheathe the overhanging power cables with some protective energy to prevent them affecting our work at the site. A moment of concentration later and the effect was realised. I didn’t mention it to Kal, but later he remarked how quiet the cables had been during our visit. When I revealed my preparation work he had to laugh: “That will be why, then!” he giggled.

Now we come to the work that was done at this powerful site on this special day…

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