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Tag: staff

The Thin Veil – Samhain 2016

Posted on November 21, 2016 By Chris No Comments on The Thin Veil – Samhain 2016
The Thin Veil – Samhain 2016
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” »

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Belas Knap, Chakras and The Merlin Staff

Posted on May 28, 2015May 26, 2015 By Chris No Comments on Belas Knap, Chakras and The Merlin Staff
Belas Knap, Chakras and The Merlin Staff
Ancient Sites, Chakras, Dolmens and Chambers, Ley Lines, Quests, Staff

On a particularly sunny day Kal and I planned to venture forth into the world in search of adventure. We had a plan, of course. A rough plan. I wanted to go to Belas Knap long barrow, which I first and last visited in the autumn of 2013. I had been thinking about how I could achieve my quest: to find the essence of The Merlin Staff – an oak staff in preparation, but yet to be created. The ‘thinking’ involved letting myself be guided to the image of Belas Knap. On rational reflection it seemed to have all the right ingredients: I had met with Merlin there, brandishing a staff and inviting me to call down lightning.

Belas Knap Long Barrow - May 15 (3)
Belas Knap is at the top of a steep hill

This was Kal’s first visit, yet for both of us we were not allowed immediate entry to the site. Both of us had to go through an extensive cleansing process by waiting at various power spots until our energies were sufficiently re-attuned. I had to sit on the mossy tree seat which is conveniently located in a shaded area next to the site before I was allowed to proceed.

Belas Knap Long Barrow - May 15 (15)
A mossy seat for cleansing at Belas Knap

Another regular feature of our site visits is the entry point. Finding the correct entrance is crucial to a positive experience. It’s not advisable just to assume that the people who administer the site know the “right” entrance. This is specially true if you intend to work with the site on any energetic level. The best experiences are those where the site’s energy is respected as part of your work.

Using dowsing rods I was taken to a part of the stone wall almost directly in front of the “false entrance”. The exact spot was kindly pointed out by two strands of tall grass which showed me exactly where I should climb over. If there had been anyone else there it would have looked odd when there was a perfectly serviceable entrance only twenty feet away!

Belas Knap Long Barrow - May 15 (18)
My entrance to Belas Knap

Did Belas Knap change to accommodate my current quest, or was I directed to come to the perfect place to be in order to get my questions answered? I don’t know, but when I began to ask if I could get answers related to the essence of the Merlin Staff then I was taken on a sinewy path to the back of the mound. There I sat out of the wind in a little oasis of calm with warm sunshine on me. Soon my question became interactive as I began to reveal the way the site was laid out and how that related to my own energy body.

Read More “Belas Knap, Chakras and The Merlin Staff” »

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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.

Read More “Spring 2015-P5 – Oak Staff of Sherwood” »

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The Whetstones and The Hoarstones

Posted on December 17, 2014December 17, 2014 By Chris 1 Comment on The Whetstones and The Hoarstones
The Whetstones and The Hoarstones
Ancient Sites, Dowsing, Healing, Hedge Druidry, Staff

In this second part of our Winter expedition to Shropshire we re-visit two circles that we have only been to once before – the so-called Whetstones and Hoarstones circles. Having had such a wonderful experience at Mitchell’s Fold there was little or no expectations attached to our visits to these much smaller circles. As this tale of healing shows, you can’t always judge the power of a circle by its size!

The first of the circles was The Whetstones, a semi-destroyed circle in the lee of Corndon Hill, less than a mile away from Mitchell’s Fold.

Sharpness at The Whetstones

We parked on the small road which passes the base of Corndon Hill, and looked for an entry point into the field. We could see that there was a cluster of stones in the second field away, but we couldn’t remember how we had got there previously. Over a rotting wooden stile, slippery with moss, and then into an empty field. We walked along the barbed wire fence until we found bunches and branches of prickly holly, ripe with berries, but slashed from the bushes, and now lying forlorn in the field. We both carefully gathered a small sample – only taking the fallen bounty.

Whetstones - Dec 14 (8) (Medium)

We found a slack part of the barbed wire where others had obviously gained entry to the stones as well, and we hopped over into another field empty except for some distant sheep and a cluster of recumbent stones only feet away on a low rise. The circle was energetically defunct – that much we could tell from its feel and when we dowsed this only confirmed what we already ‘knew’. We’re getting good at identifying subtle energy forces now, and the rods only act as confirmation most of the time.

We checked whether it was suitable and proper to try to re-energise the circle. There was no spirit of place to connect to – one did not exist for this site, and so we only had our intuition and the dowsing response to work with. This informed us that it was okay to try, and we both got the same reply. Independently, and in our own ways, we both laid down offerings at different parts of the circle. I had with me the recently acquired holly, a stone that I had picked up when walking to the circle, and some old bones that I had obtained from Five Wells Barrow in Derbyshire. Now was the time to use these objects to set a new intention – to re-energise this site.

Whetstones - Dec 14 (5) (Medium)
Bones used to energise a sacred site

After setting our intention we did a bit of dowsing to see whether our work had attracted a new spirit of place or not. We both learned that the new spirit would be an animal spirit, and that it  will come to the circle some time in the near future, although we couldn’t tell when. Kal dowsed that it would be a rabbit!

With that done, we felt ready to move on to our next objective – another small stone circle in the marshlands about a mile or two further on close to the village of Hemford.

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Learning more about “the dress”

Posted on December 13, 2014December 10, 2014 By kal 2 Comments on Learning more about “the dress”
Learning more about “the dress”
Other Entities, Staff, Visions

In this post I told you about my intuitive push towards buying a dress. I know, it sounds weird to me too. Gosh! However, since Chris and I were out hunting answers at sacred sites, I thought that I  might try and discover more about this departure from the norm. It was approaching mid-day when … Read More “Learning more about “the dress”” »

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Wizards & Goddesses

Posted on March 23, 2014March 21, 2014 By kal No Comments on Wizards & Goddesses
God or Goddess, Staff, Trees, Visions

It is a week away from the Spring Equinox and I was wondering. At our last outing a couple of weeks ago we went to Nine Stones close and I was informed that I would need to have merged with my Energy Double to be able to sustain a meeting with the Ice Dragon. What … Read More “Wizards & Goddesses” »

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Solstice 2013 – A Cautionary Tale about Attachment

Posted on July 16, 2013July 15, 2013 By Gwas No Comments on Solstice 2013 – A Cautionary Tale about Attachment
Ancient Sites

Still the first day of our Summer Solstice outing in Cornwall. Dragging on a bit, isn’t it? Well, there are a lot of places to see in that area, and we had all day to see them in. Long warm days full of sunshine make us go a little bit crazy. However, this was our last site for this first day, and it would turn out to be the one that had the biggest impact on me personally because I would be taught a very strong lesson about attachment.

Death and the Maidens

Finding the Merry Maidens stone circle should have been easy. Kal had been there a few times before, and he told me “you can see it from the road“. Well, we scoured the road, passing by sights which Kal recognised and then we got into that grey area of “…and it’s somewhere around here.” Next thing you know Kal was putting the anchors on, “We’ve definitely gone past it.” We had been approaching from the Penzance end through Newlyn on the B3315, but if the site is approached from the other side, then it’s much easier to find. Soon we were parked up in a layby next to an information board, and then over the stile and up the slight hill through a green meadow towards the visible stones on the top of the slope.

As I parked myself by the outlying “heel” stone Kal zoomed off towards a stone which was seemingly embedded into the nearby hedgerow. I waited for a while and then couldn’t resist going over there too after he wandered off elsewhere. Something was inviting me to take a look, and the dowsing rods confirmed that the spot had some form of energy. But what? I peered into a circle of flattened grass – there was the corpse of a dead rabbit! It looked like a natural predatory death, but everything like this raises suspicions of peculiar rituals when they are close to stone circles.

Merry Maidens - Solstice 2013 (15)

Read More “Solstice 2013 – A Cautionary Tale about Attachment” »

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