Tag: song

A Song for Merlin – Part 2

Posted on By Gwas No Comments on A Song for Merlin – Part 2
Ancient Sites, Dowsing, Hedge Druidry, Natural Magick

Here is the second part of the Merlin Song story – and it gets to the interesting part of the experience – the appearance of Merlin. I’ve been doing a lot of reading about these Arthurian archetypes recently and the excellent words of Ross Nichols – former OBOD chief – have been very revealing to me about the possible ancient and current uses of such figures from a historical, magical and psychological perspective. I recommend reading his work “The Book of Druidry“. It’s fascinating, and I’ll come back to that at a later date when I talk about the Arthurian archetypes in another post.

In the meantime, we left our protagonists struggling to avoid certain wet feet as they mooched across the marshy moorland in search of a new stone circle, reputed to be of extensive size and infrequently visited. Only one of those qualities turned out to be true!

The Cockpit – fight of flight?

At the Cockpit stone circle the Merlin Quest details were explained to me. I would need to protect myself when working in the Sanctuary. I didn’t understand why yet. Then I would have to draw down the energy from the star Arcturus. I knew this star was part of the Bootes constellation, and that the name was linked with Merlin, being known as the protector of The Great Bear (King Arthur). That was the additional information I got, but I already knew that I needed to recite the Welsh phrases that I had extracted from the various power places around the country.

“The name of the star derives from Ancient Greek Αρκτοῦρος (Arktouros) and means “Guardian of the Bear”, ultimately from ἄρκτος (arktos), “bear” + οὖρος (ouros), “watcher, guardian”. It has been known by this name since at least the time of Hesiod. This is a reference to it being the brightest star in the constellation Boötes (of which it forms the left foot), which is next to the Greater and Lesser Bears, Ursa Major and Ursa Minor.” (source: Wikipedia)

With thoughts of Arthur and the Polar constellations spinning through my head I turned my attention to Merlin. Why was I being drawn to a Cumbrian stone circle? What was the purpose?

Cockpit circle – no spirit of place here

I needed a little reassurance. I knew that this was the second time around the spiral for my work with Merlin, but I didn’t understand why I had to do a similar quest as last time (August 2010). I used the energy of the circle to call upon my spirit guide and ask about the purpose of the meeting with Merlin. What was the outcome all about? I was a bit of a cheeky question, bit I felt I needed to ask. The answer was interesting: I  was not going around the spiral a second time, I was going up the spiral. It was different this time. Last time I was waking Merlin by visiting him in the underworld. This time he was trapped in the Otherworld, and I was freeing him.

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A Song for Merlin – Part 1

Posted on By Gwas 2 Comments on A Song for Merlin – Part 1
Ancient Sites, Dowsing, Spirits

A song for Merlin is nothing like A Song For Europe (you may be pleased to hear). I was tasked with discovering the various lines of the song or poem, and then learning to recite it at a northern stone circle whose location i had been given in a vision. One snag – the poem was in Old Welsh – I don’t speak Welsh (although I’m trying to learn occasional modern phrases). Also, I had to gather the lines using remote viewing, and then correctly interpret them so that they had meaning and I could recite them with the correct intent. Oh – no problem then! This post gives some background on that part of the task. In this post I will be describing how I came to deliver the poem at the right place at the right time in order to unlock the Merlin energy from its trap and release it for my own uses.

Let me explain briefly what I felt I was dealing with here. I consider, at this stage in my development, that Merlin is a psychological archetype. I feel that I am able to use the mythology, the legend, and thus the thought-form that Merlin has become in order to access parts of my subconscious capabilities (knowledge, observation, power). To me, Merlin therefore represents a characters who is the embodiment of particular possibilities for spiritual growth. All I know about that potential is that it can be realised by following “quests” (or a set of tasks) that require me to go to some effort to improve myself, or to mine for arcane knowledge, and sometimes to learn a new skill or magickal process that I can use to unlock this potential. Beyond that is madness.

 The origins of that vision were a month ago, but now I have had the chance to conclude the quest. Here’s the story.

Imagine a sunny day in Cumbria. I couldn’t. I certainly couldn’t remember one, so when the day started grey and drizzling I wasn’t hopeful. An hour’s drive north later Kal and I were driving into a clear blue sky and the day looked promising. I had various sites printed out and highlighted on OS maps, but there was no strict agenda. All of the sites were, amazingly, in close proximity to each other. We would only need to travel for an hour to see all of the sites that I had previously picked. This seemed like a good idea considering Kal’s situation (he’ll tell you about this).

The Goggleby Stone

We approached Shap and initially tried to find a stone circle marked on the OS Map. Not there. We couldn’t find it. It was supposed to be right next to the A6 road just off Junction 39 of the M5 motorway. Couldn’t find it. It’s amazing how many stone circles disappeared in this area when the motorway came through. Almost as if…. no I won’t say it. We headed for a standing stone instead. We found the Goggleby Stone easily. It is situated next to a marked path which makes it easy to get to, and it was quite obvious sat on its little hill amongst the turnips. We approached through the turnips with the daintiest of footsteps so as not to disturb any of the crop. Considering we’re bungling idiots we did very well not to trample anything.

The stone was lovely. It had a nice feel. You could see that the farmer had kindly fertilised the stone to make it grow better, as there were remnants of sticky straw welded to the sides. Cattle seemed to have rubbed the underside of the protrusion as it was worn smooth. The setting was glorious on this sunny day – stone-walled fields of patchwork greens all round and a bank of trees to shield the motorway from view. Delightful. I set to work.

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Scotch Mist and Scotching Myths

Posted on By Gwas 7 Comments on Scotch Mist and Scotching Myths
Ancient Sites, Experiment

Oh blimey! We’re so far behind with our posts. Here’s one from the early part of June that I’ve just got around to. It’s the second part of the story of our Wales visit during the Venus Transit early in the month. I think I put “Mid June” at the start of the last post, but actually it was early June. Wishful thinking! I’m determined not to fall further than a month behind with these posts. We’ve got so much to tell you still! Onwards!

In this post I will tell you about some dowsed history of Dinas Emrys, and then another experiment we did with sound and chakra points. The scene starts with curtain up on a wide valley steeped in wisps of flowing mist like the breath 0f a Welsh green dragon filling the world with its presence.

Mist in the Nantgwynant Valley

Breath of the Dragon

As we turned the corner and passed over the crest of the A498 heading towards Beddgelert were were greeted by a sight that literally made us gasp in astonishment and wonder. The sweeping panorama of the lake and valley of Nantgwynant is stunning on any day of the year, but today there were wisps of cloud hanging on to the sides of the mountains that made the whole scene magical. Snowdon had never looked more mysterious, and broad smiles were pasted to our faces for the rest of the journey into the valley below.

Parking in one fo the handy lay-bys at the side of the road we got our wet-weather gear ready, despite the humidity. It was definitely going to rain. It had been raining all morning everywhere around us on the journey in. All surfaces were wet and slippery. I put my sturdy boots on. Kal went in trainers. He surely had to expect wet feet again?

We climbed over the iron gate, got to the path, and climbed up past the static caravans up the less steep side of the hill to the first plateau. Once reached I reminded Kal that this was the place where the mythological red and white dragons had their battle as Merlin and King Vortigern watched. Kal ignored this wonderful piece of information and reminded me that his vertigo had gone. I’m sure he misheard me!

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Going Native in America p5

Posted on By kal 5 Comments on Going Native in America p5
Edge Wizardry, How To, Ritual, Spirits

So this is the last post in the mini series that was my 3 days with a trio of native americans. The other posts can be found by following this native american link. At the beginning of these meetings, Jenni, the leader had told me that she would share knowledge about experiences if I would … Read More “Going Native in America p5” »