I was only at Delphi because Kal wanted to be there. You may have read already about his Dragon’s Soul quest and the book of its lives that needed unlocking. Delphi was the place he was hoping to do that. On this quest, I as the sidekick. However, I did have a few ideas about what I might like to do here – to find Hamish Miller‘s Athena/Apollo ley line, and to meet The Oracle, or whatever remnants of that idea might remain at such an ancient site. Here, in three parts, is how I got on.
We started on the wrong foot. That seems to be the de facto starting point for quests these days. We had hired a car for our trip to Delphi and they warned us that the petrol levels might be full, half way or empty. Ours was empty, and it was late in the evening, and we had no idea where a petrol station might be. When we found one it was temporarily closed – “Ten minutes” said the man strolling leisurely about the forecourt. Yeah, ten Greek minutes….. Time passed until almost an hour later our fuel hostage ended and we were able to fill up. Good start!
The way to Delphi was not without incident either. It encompassed several wrong turnings, a near miss, and a number of difficult overtakes. I was used to a more powerful and better-handling car. We arrived alive in the depths of Friday night. All I knew was that we had climbed substantially, and that I was now very tired. Time for sleep. The next day we would have all day to see a number of sacred sites all in one hillside complex.
The Cave of Impassibility
The next morning the day dawned with a bright blue background as the sun rose. Once outside of the beautiful tourist town of Delphi we got our first glimpse of the surrounding hills in their full glory. Oh…my…word….it was stunning! The ancient Greeks couldn’t have picked a more beautiful place to site their most sacred buildings. The view down to the sea was incredible through the mountains, and the green slopes formed a perfect foil to the sheer salmon-pink cliffs that rose impossibly steep above the tree line, only to be capped with a sprinkling of snow at their summits. Amazing!
One of the reasons why I drive a four-wheel drive car is so that I can get to sacred sites. As we climbed high into the Parnassian range of mountains it rapidly became clear that February was not the ideal time to go sightseeing! The car complained about the climb, and then debated whether to grip the un-gritted roads by the ski centres. We flinched at every corner concentrating on keeping the car in line with what we could see of the road.
After several miles we realised that we had not seen our marker points for the Corycian Cave. We were debating where it might be safe to turn around when the car made the decision for us by parking itself sideways into a pile of snow on a corner composed of sheer ice.
We turned back and found the entry point to the tiny track we had missed on the way up. There was nowhere to park that we could expect to get back out of, and the track was piled high with snow and slush. A three-mile walk to the cave did not sound inviting. Kal made me get out and dowse whether we needed to go to the cave or not. Turns out it wasn’t necessary. Was that the case before we set out or had things changed just now?
1. Before the Agora
We are led to several stones lying on the ground. We are following the same energetic trail. We began to query this situation. Kal went straight to the heart of the situation – “Were we being led by something?” YES. He thought about and tested some possibilities before hitting the right question? “Was it Pan?” YES.
I dowsed similar questions and got to the same answers as Kal by a different route. We were both being led a ‘merry dance’ around energy power centres by what can only be described as the energy form of the god Pan.
Well, as a Trickster spirit we may be in for some fun here. We’d have to be careful not to get led astray from our purpose. Oh wait! I didn’t have one. Well, I was OK then. Lead on, Pan!
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