I sent a few messages out and found that the wheat up the coast from me in North Wales was ripe, but as yet unharvested due to the wet ground, so having got permission, I secured myself a spot at the edge of a field, accessed through woodland and overlooking the Dee Estuary
I was there before sunset, and performed the ritual through that liminal time of not quite day but not quite night, through the time of the biting insects, but as I had invited the god into my ritual, and blood-letting was a part of it, I accepted whatever form he chose to arrive in ;-)
After the sun had set, and after closing the circle, I sat in the darkness and was joined in the tree above me by a tawny owl, right above my head, who was calling to another owl in the oak tree in the centre of the field, and pretty soon another had joined in from several fields away behind me. Rabbits were thumping an alarm from quite nearby to me, and badgers were in the woods.
The rising sound of a multitude of birds from the estuary signaled the turning tide, so on my way back home Istopped off at the Point of Ayr to watch the tide come in. The amount of birds there in the darkness, and the intensity of their calls as they flew in to the rapidly diminishing beach was amazing! She Herself was ever present at the mouth of the estuary, and blanketed us all in the thickest and blackest of cloud, the only senses remaining were the touch of the sand on my bare feet, the sound of the waves coming in and the call of the wading birds who inhabit these liminal spaces.
Taking advantage of the darkness and the solitude I took off my trousers and paddled thigh deep in the water, noting for future reference the strength of the current.
It was the full moon a couple of nights ago, so this was the highest tide of the month, the blackness was broken by a gap in the clouds, it was as if somebody had switched the light on. I decided it was a good time to come out and find my clothes and look at the beauty of the beach and the dunes revealed by moonlight.
High tide was at 01.30am, and it was time to head home, by now realising that I had fasted all day, so I headed back through the dunes, and made the discovery that the entire area inland behind the dunes also floods with the high tide, so once again I had to strip off and wade through the water to get back to dry land.
It was the full moon a couple of nights ago, so this was the highest tide of the month, the blackness was broken by a gap in the clouds, it was as if somebody had switched the light on. I decided it was a good time to come out and find my clothes and look at the beauty of the beach and the dunes revealed by moonlight.
High tide was at 01.30am, and it was time to head home, by now realising that I had fasted all day, so I headed back through the dunes, and made the discovery that the entire area inland behind the dunes also floods with the high tide, so once again I had to strip off and wade through the water to get back to dry land.
(dry land is that way!)
Such an amazing and beautiful area, shared by holiday makers, wildlife, and the unseen people, like myself. So very much worth protecting and saving for all our sakes, its not just the obvious uses and the financial reasons that we need to consider. Any Unconventional Gas Extraction industry will completely change the nature of this landscape, not just on the coast but inland too.
There is a local group PAFF and Frack Free Dee committed to protecting this area from the fracking industries, they have already had some success in time for their first harvest of Lugnasadh, where Cluff Natural Resources have now made an announcement that they are not planning to come here in the foreseeable future the burn the coal beneath the estuary to release the gas from it.
We await the news of the 14th round of PEDL license sell-offs to find out just how much of our beloved land has been sold off to the gas industry. I see no other option, as a pagan, than to resist this destruction.
There is a local group PAFF and Frack Free Dee committed to protecting this area from the fracking industries, they have already had some success in time for their first harvest of Lugnasadh, where Cluff Natural Resources have now made an announcement that they are not planning to come here in the foreseeable future the burn the coal beneath the estuary to release the gas from it.
We await the news of the 14th round of PEDL license sell-offs to find out just how much of our beloved land has been sold off to the gas industry. I see no other option, as a pagan, than to resist this destruction.
