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Right back to my blog... In the book Barry suggests playing a game with the Genius Loci, which he calls the magical mystery tour, which is contained in his poem -
Whitley Grove
The call of the woods
In the morning light!
Trees upon a hill -
Its like coming home.
The green pool, the scarred birch
The weathered Lime,
Ramsons' garlicky stink
Upon the bank
And in the deep
The deep secrets of the earth
Emerge and are held in a dark hollow
Where broken tree limbs
Sandstone and tangled birdsong
Meet in the water
The slumber of summer
Stifles the sound
Of our voices in the leafy bower
Where we wait
For something to appear
A guide to show us the way.
The iron gate is warm from the sun
An emerald fly
sits upon one of its spikes
It can only see our shadows
When they fall
It flees, we follow
Bobbing eldern umbels
Mark the way
Stink of nettles and dark earth
A string of cloud is pulled
From across the sun
The door is open,
The game's begun
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I had a ritual to do, in the forest. I knew the forest was the right place to do it, and I had the right time coming up. What I needed to do was to find the right spot within the forest. I was sure I knew where this was, I had been there before but I wanted to go and check it out again before wandering there in the dark, so I took a day to visit the forest again with this intention. But having been reading Barrys book, I decided to play the magical mystery tour, certain that it would take me to the place I had already decided. I know this part of the forest and that was the best place.
I pulled up in the car park, unloaded and booted up, unpacked the dog and waited. I breathed, and I spoke my name, what I wanted to do in the forest, the reason for the ritual, and asked if it would guide me to an appropriate place to do it.
And I waited.
Birdsong...... so I followed it, and it stopped. Again I waited.
Movement... a treecreeper on the trunk of a tree, flitting from one tree to another, always on my side of the tree, always in my sight, and it was following a path.... so I followed.
At a crossroads, the treecreeper left, so I waited. In the tree above me, a chaffinch started to sing, so I watched and waited. It flew to another tree, following the direction of one of the paths, so I followed, and on to another and another, I followed. then it went silent. Crossroads again.
Another chaffinch picked up the call of the one I was following, I couldn't see it so I followed the sound until it stopped. At a crossroads again. I waited. Voices could be heard ahead.
I wasnt sure if people were included in this, so I hesitated. I had a choice of 3 paths to take. A black dog came hurtling through the trees along one path and skidded to a halt in front of us, sniffed little Ruby and then ran off again back along the path back to its owners. So I followed.
Walking along a straight path now, with really dense birch saplings on the left, fields on the right. Following the path straight ahead, the branches of one tree on the edge of the field seemed to be swaying indicating to go into the birch saplings. They were so dense though, I would be squeezing through them, and there was no path... I was unsure, so I waited.
The sunlight picked out a swarm of midges on the path ahead, dancing on the breeze. I checked behind me, no midges. So I followed them until they werent there any more. No more signs... so I stopped.
Breeze again. The tree next to me swayed its branches towards the birch saplings and this time there was a very vague twist path to go through the saplings. Climbing over branches and stumps and brambles, and squeezing in places, I followed, picking up the sound of a great tit. It stopped. I was in a very small space. The path had twisted and turned and actually wasnt far from the main path, it was hardly private enough for a ritual and there was not enough room. Ruby trotted off and made herself busy elsewhere.
"Oh well. I may as well see what she is doing"... so went in her direction.
CLACK CLACK in the breeze, 2 saplings were knocking against each other, so mi picked up that trail, and it stopped.
I was now hidden well amongst the birches in a small clearing in the root-space where a tree had fallen. It was peaceful and private, not big enough for my ritual, but it felt nice, so I sat down and just felt the place about me.
Peace.
What do do now? I'll sit and just be here for a while.
Across the clearing came a fly.A large brown fly, walking across the forest floor. Walking straight up to me. I sat still. It walked up to me and reached my leg. I sat and watched it. It climbed up onto my right knee, shifted itself out of the breeze and settled down. One of its wings as broken, and it couldnt fly. It was a Hover fly, just like this one, but with only one and a half wings.
I sat a while longer, closed my eyes, making certain that i didnt move my hands about in case I squashed the fly. When i opened my eyes again it was still on my knee. Warmed up a bit, it moved about and turned facing straight at me, and I sat there wondering what on earth was going to happen next.
A family of great its came through the trees, searching for insects, all around me in the tips of the young birches. Among the was a siskin that paused for a second and tilted its head to see what i was doing.
And then they left, and the space felt empty again. It was different, it was over.
So I thanked the fly, picked it up and put it onto the trunk of a tree and it climbed up as I picked up my things and tried to work out how to get out of here back onto the path. When I next looked, the fly had gone.
I hadnt found anywhere new to do my ritual but I had felt something special. I got back onto the path and wandered about in the general direction of the place I had first thought of going. No agenda other than walk over there and see how it was.
I picked up some litter that was there along the way as I walked, and just through general meandering, wandered into a part I had never been in before, through some mature beech trees. There ahead of me was a clearing, a fallen tree to sit on, and the entrance to the clearing was through an arch where two trees had grown into each other. I walked into the space. It felt right. The arch was even in the west. It was perfect. I had found my new place.
Saying thank-you, I picked up the pile of litter I had collected and went back to the car. I will be back, when the time comes.
