yew tree – Page 2 – The Hedge Druid

The Vortex of The Fortingall Yew

October 12, 2014October 12, 2014 Chris 2 Comments

Trees

There is a tree that I have been hoping to visit since I first heard of its antiquity – The Fortingall Yew. It’s not every day that I get to visit Scotland, and so while I was “passing through” I made a slight detour in order to seek this tree out. Actually I made one hell of a detour to get to see it, but it was worth it.

Fortingall is a small village lying within a caber’s toss of Loch Tay. The flat valley floor hides a number of beautiful secrets bypassed by the major road nearby, and taking the scenic route was a real feast for the eyes in terms of scenery. Or it would have been if I hadn’t been trying to manoeuvre the motorhome though lanes that were only just wide enough for it. I won’t be doing that again, I can assure you. So when we arrived at Fortingall Church I was pleased to see that there was a hotel with a public bar next door to it.

As we approached the yew through the churchyard we found ourselves being transported back through time. Inlaid into the floor are highlights from history and at the end is the yew tree itself, demonstrating its incredible age (2,000 to 5,000 years old). Now we were within touching distance of the tree, and I was keen to find out what this tree was capable of.

Recovering the Church of Michael

July 8, 2014July 8, 2014 Gwas 1 Comment

Angels, Crystals, Dowsing, Energy cleansing, Energy work, Hedge Druidry

Is it wrong for a druid to be working for an angel? Let’s not even start that discussion! Let’s just say that I took the ‘case’ on and I am working it, like some kind of kindly private detective. This post relates to the direction I was given recently at The Druid’s Circle. There I was directed by Archangel Michael (who I will refer to as Michael) to take note of the direction of a rainbow, and to use that as guidance to find a church that was dedicated to his name. The indications were that something terrible had happened at the church which had changed the energies at that site in a drastic way. Michael had asked if I would take on the task of re-aligning the energies so that they would be compatible with his vibration again. It would be my pleasure!

I find myself in the delightful company of Magic Mike (hereafter ‘Mike’), who tells me coincidentally that this is the moniker that he has been given by his friends who live at the site of his holiday home. I love coincidences like that. We are venturing forth deep into the heartland of the eastern Welsh hills, close to the town of Oswestry and Welshpool. The bearing that I had taken at Druid’s Circle has pointed directly to a church called ‘St. Michael’s‘ in the village of Llanfihangel Yng Nwynfa. The sun is shining and the day is shaping up to be a hot one, and so we come prepared – we’ve brought a picnic! No, seriously, I’m equipped with a special crystal. I have brought the rose quartz crystal that appeared on the path in front of my house recently.

I discuss the apport incident with Mike, and he reveals to me that he was told that an apport always contains a little of the energy used by the spirit that apported it. I had dowsed that morning that the crystal’s appearance was directly linked to Michael, and so now I find myself carrying a crystal with angelic energy in it, and heading to Archangel Michael’s church in order to do his work. Another set of delightful links.

The Unlucky Horseshoe

At the entrance to the churchyard is a white-painted iron gate leading to a line of yew trees. We open the squeaking gate and Mike immediately senses that this area is full of “bad energy”. He turns to the yew trees and senses that they are bearing the brunt of the pressure of trying to absorb this energy. I accompany his senses with some dowsing and find the same results – the two entrance yews are saturated. Normally yew trees will absorb and ground energies that are associated with the process of death and decay, dispersing them far into the earth below. In this case they are being overwhelmed by the bad energy and it is spilling out beyond the confines of the churchyard.

As if in some intuitive moment I looked upwards above the white gate. Hanging overhead is an iron horseshoe – prongs downwards. We look at each other – that’s the “bad luck” way, right? Indeed it is. Superstitious, but in this instance an indicator which just seemed to re-enforce the feelings and our findings. We vow to resolve the problem once we have looked around the rest of the area. There may be something still more sinister at work here!

The Yew, the Tree of Life and the Golden Bough

April 17, 2014April 4, 2014 Gwas No Comments

Bookshelf, Staff, Trees

Since Imbolc I have been reading up on yew trees. The aim is to assimilate as much knowledge as possible about this incredible species so that when Spring Equinox comes around I will be able to begin the process of understanding my yew staff’s potential powers. At the moment it is merely a piece of yew with a stag’s antlers on top. Soon I am hoping that we will forge a relationship that will be as fruitful as the one I had with my ash staff.

To start the process off I read Allen Meredith and Janis Fry‘s book “The God Tree“, as recommended by Philip Carr-Gomm‘s blog post.

This book revealed many amazing insights which I had never considered before such as:

yew trees may have been transported here from the staves carried by such well-known early Celtic Christian saints such as Cadoc, Patrick, Christopher and Bueno
the trees may be the source of the myth of the “golden bough”
the yew tree is the origin of the concept of the World Tree – or the Tree of Life

Death Eating at Llangernyw

March 1, 2014February 7, 2014 Gwas 3 Comments

Death Eating, Hedge Druidry

This post is out of sync with the other posts. It should have been posted before Imbolc, but our experiences on that day took precedence. So, here it is at the start of March, over a month since it happened! Hey – that’s the way it goes. Sometimes we don’t have enough stuff to post, sometimes posts are bountiful! This post will be talking about a visit to the Llangernyw Yew tree, where I discovered something interesting about “death eating” – the process of absorbing death energies.

The Grave of the Last Sin Eater in England

Previously at this yew tree I had been given the name “Death Eater“. I considered it like a Scout Badge – another tool in the plethora of skills and experiences which make up the modern druid. I had read Ross Heaven‘s books about the Sin Eater – an old and now lost profession which bears a striking resemblance to the Death Eater methodology that I had been shown, except that it had taken on a symbolic ritual involving the consumption of food. I don’t know whether practitioners still retained the concept of soul absorption.

As the Wikipedia article says:

“Not to be confused with the ’80s pop singer Sinitta“

A Hearty Meal

It was unusual to be in the churchyard in daylight. We normally visit at twilight or in the dark. Not for any nefarious purposes, just because that’s the way it pans out. Today we had daylight, and so I felt Like a normal visitor to the yew tree! I settled into a power centre next to one fo the lower branches, a familiar place which had been once again pointed out by the dowsing rods as the best position for any work today.

Soon I was in tune with the tree, and the images and messages began to come to me as I asked whether there was anything for me to learn here today. There was, and I felt the exciting ripple of new information from outside of my own thought processes, and recognised that the yew was communicating with me. What was it saying to me today?

Imbolc 2014 – From Imbolc to Beltane

February 28, 2014February 5, 2014 Gwas No Comments

Hedge Druidry, Quests, Trees, Wheel of the Year

I needed to ensure that I had read as much as I could about Henbane. Countless encounters with spirits, guides and psychics had reaffirmed this, no mater how bewildered I was that I needed to research the properties of a well-known poison! For what purpose, I didn’t know. Nevertheless, I diligently sought out and read all the books I had on the subject. Or so I thought.

Henbane and I

I have been redecorating my study. It has taken my several weeks to get everything out – my extensive library and music collection particularly – and then to decorate, re-furnish, and replenish the study. Now it is finally in a fitting state. Now that I have new bookshelf space I was surprised to come across a book in a completely different part of the house which I felt should have been in my collection in the study. It was a book of healing herbs! I looked up Henbane. No, I had not read this entry, despite having read every other possible entry in other books. I read the information on the morning of Imbolc. The first line of the “uses” section made me jump: “Used in the treatment of asthma“.

I have been struggling with asthma for almost thirty years. I have almost overcome it through a combination of steroid inhalers, vigorous aerobic exercise, and recently with the help of a friend who is working for Forever Living. He has put me on a treatment program which has added a little boost to my own efforts. Nevertheless, I have always been seeking the one final natural cure. Here was a possibility. I was being guided to it. Henbane.

I realised what I needed to do – this year I needed to gather Henbane, then prepare an essence of the plant. I would create my own homeopathic remedy for my asthma! I was excited. This was uncharted territory, and if there’s one thing I knew about Henbane, it was that it was deadly poisonous! Extreme caution must ne taken. But wow – the possibility!

This is to come in the second half of this year. For now, let’s leave this subject and go back to my other topic – what will I be doing from Imbolc until Beltane?

Becoming a Death Eater

November 5, 2013February 7, 2014 Gwas 1 Comment

Death Eating, Dowsing, Energy cleansing, Hedge Druidry

Another night prowl. In the surprising relative warmth of a mid-October night Kal lured me into an excursion across to the western end of North Wales. Our target was, of course, The Llangernyw Yew tree. That ever-faithful dispenser of all things Otherworldly.

As we got closer that evening the mist began to form until, on our arrival, the churchyard had adopted what for most people would have been a “spooky” atmosphere. For us, it was our cloak. The moon hung wide and bright, close to its full Harvest wax, but not quite full. There was enough ambient light to move safely without torches.

A Question of Service

As I walked through the graveyard I became aware that something was different about this visit. I decided to ask some questions using the dowsing rods to see if I could figure out what that was. I began by asking:

Is there anything for me to gain here? NO.
No? Then is there something for me to give here? YES. I am here to be of service.

Interesting. This doesn’t happen very often,and probably because most sites we visit have been worked on by Kal and I already, and so rarely need energetic attention or healing. However, in this case it seemed like it was not the usual energy healing that the Llangernyw site needed, it was something different – something that I had not been called upon to do at a site before (although as it turned out it was similar to something I do regularly anyway).

I was curious, so I asked the dowsing rods to lead me to a place where I could be of service…

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Cloak of the Green Man

August 6, 2013August 6, 2013 Gwas 1 Comment

Ancient Sites, Crossing The Hedge, Other Entities, Staff

It was shortly after the visit to Dinas Bran in Llangollen that an opportunity arose to visit the old Llangernyw Yew tree near Conwy. Of course the weather reports said “rain” so we planned for sun. It was sunny. The shadows were lengthening at the end of the day, but the temperature was still warm. Always handy if you’re walking through a graveyard because it keep the chill of the shades off you!

I was here to try to learn something more about my new yew staff which I had recently acquired in Glastonbury, and which had just been “initiated” (charged up) at Dinas Bran. Now I wanted to know about the energy that it now contained – was there a spirit form associated with it (as there had been for my previous staff – the ash staff)?

Straight away on our arrival I put up protection. Recent experience had made me more careful. Although I felt I knew this place, maybe there had been some recent new arrivals? Better safe than ill! Kal immediately went off dowsing and I headed up to the church area to see where I should be going first.

Read More “Cloak of the Green Man” »

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