So here are my thoughts after the solstice, and a bit of rambling. I feel that there is some kind of energetic connection between the cave and the mound. I don't really understand it, but together they act as a 'system' ore than the sum of their physical parts. Or rather, they used to, and still can, though the components are a bit rusty from lack of use and maintenance
The 'hole in the sky' was a portal from the Upper World, a place of bright light and energy, a place of knowledge and wisdom.
The evening after the solstice, the hole in the sky kept coming back into my mind and with it was a lot of anger -a frustrated anger which came with a message.
The way things used to be, was that there were fewer people. People took from the land, and it was generally acknowledged that something had to be given back. Balance was kept.
Now, things have changed. We've changed ourselves and the ways we live. We have changed the system. That in itself is not the problem. Times change, people change, systems change. But we've changed the system to a damaged or incomplete one that does not work, and on the whole we are too blind or self centred to see or care.
People used to take from the land , and they gave back. Some are always able to give back more than others, but the 'debt' was manageable, and it worked because everyone chipped in.
Now it seems everyone takes. And they take on a huge scale, and they are so many... There are people out there who have given themselves in service of the land, in one way or another, but the debt is so great that they cannot cope with it all. They are doing what they can, but they carry a debt from thousands or millions of people who keep on taking, and their work is exhausting them, depleting them so much that they cannot do enough.
If this is the system that we have chosen to work with, we are missing a cog in the working. If it has to be down to one set of people to pay back everyone's debt, there needs to be another set of people about simply to support them in their work. But quite often there isn't, and sometimes the work they do drains them completely to the point of exhaustion, and they have to stop until they have recuperated.And this in itself is damaging on a physical level.
Our way of life is Damaged, it needs fixing. And the people upstairs are really pissed off that we have got it like this.
Friday, 30 December 2011
Winter Solstice 2011
A lot happened for my solstice celebrations this year. I had the ceremony planned with my druid grove, for the solstices I dont quite feel that this is enough, I also have to see the sun rise on that day , so in addition to this, I felt that I should be at the cave and mound.
It started on the 21st, I and my companion went to the cave for sunset, which meant an early start, leaving home at 2pm. Luckily, it is en-route to where our grove was holding their ceremony.
We arrived at the site in time for the sunset, although it was a mostly cloudy afternoon, when we stood on the mound, we could see the valley to the south-west shining with a golden light, and as the sun slowly dipped down towards the horizon, the golden light spread along that valley to the coast and then started to crrep up our own valley, and we hastily legged it down to the cave before the light faded.
We didn't get the shaft of light on this occasion because of the thin cloud cover over the sun, but the inside of the cave was certainly very bright and we went inside, I went into the chamber and stood in the darkness for a while, listening to the creaking and groaning of the earth and the water seeping though it, and felt totally calm and relaxed and at peace with everything.
I came out after a while and spoke to my companion, she had had her own experience while I had been gone, had sensed 2 other people with us that was quite consistent with how I had seen them before, and she had done some visualisation and given healing to the cave.
The altar/mandala that I had left previously was still in place, a little disturbed, and I'm not sure if it was because of human movement or natural movement with the cold and draughts etc, but it was almost exactly as I had left it. I had been thinking about whether it was actually a good idea to leave it here or not, I didn't want to attract the wrong attention to the place, so i made a decision to move it all. Together we chose a small nook in the side of the walls where it would be out of site, and I made the affair quite minimal - a beeswax candle which would burn away to nothing, and incense that would just turn to ash, apart from that the only signs visible to anyone if the found it would be a feather and a shell to hold water. There is a small depression to hold a few offerings , so I picked up some of the beans and snail shells and put them in there, taking the rest outside to be eaten by any passing wildlife.
And so that's how we spent our sunset, sitting mostly in silence in the cave, the air thick with incense and lit by the candle. We rattled a little, and I sprinkled some blessed water that had been given to me earlier in the year, it was produced during a full weekend shamanic embodiment course that a friend had been to, and the water had been blessed by the embodied spirits of many deities, and was meant for blessing the land.
Again, whilst this was going on, my friend had experienced another small detail that was the same as i had had on a previous visit - which was fantastic, and its also for this reason that I decided to leave out various personal details, so that I am not influencing people on their own experiences.
Now, what I feel should happen is that this altar should be maintained from time to time. It's hidden location should be passed on person to person as they are taken to the cave, so that if and when they are passing, they are able to go in and spend a few minutes there, the altar id simply a focus, to tidy up, refresh the water, burn a candle and some incense and to mark the place as somewhere that people were buried and loved and cared for, and a place they lived. Like a shrine. Our scared places are everywhere but are largely ignored or not known about. Having a number of people knowing about this and maintaining it as and when they feel they want to , and clearing away any rubbish that has been left there is a step towards maintaining the sacredness of our land.
Just imagine that we all lie in a ritual landscape, and as you ravelled from A to B, you knew that there was such-and-such a shrine in the woods over there, another in a cave up there, and a few miles further on, so that you had an internal map of the spirit of the land, passed on by oral tradition and being shown where they were.
So... there we were, with darkness creeping up, we set off back through the woods to the car and set off to our grove for the ceremony.
And wow, what an amazing yuletide evening it was. The ceremony itself was done in darkness outside and was very powerful for us. As well as that there was sharing of food and drink, songs and games, laughter and friendship before we all set off for home again. It was gone 1am by the time I got back to the house.
But it's not over yet.... I barely slept and was up again at 5 to go back, this time, to the mound. Now I'd figured that with the cave catching the dying sun, a possible purpose for the mound was simply as a platform, when you stand on the top of it, you are raised above the tree-tops so the rising sun clearing the distant hills is clearly visible over the woodland. So that's what I intended to do...
The path through the woods was pitch black, and as i went along it a tawny owl flew across, really close, not expecting me to be there, I remember the pale flash of its under-wing as it banked to one side to avoid me, before gliding off into the trees and calling to its mate.
It was cold and dark on the mound, and windy, so I did my coat and hood up, and waited. though several times I took my hood off to look around because I was convinced that other people were there with me, had arrived unseen. there was nobody physically there with me, so i settled in with it, and closed my eyes and waited for the sun to rise.
Eventually, I felt a change, a shifting of something, I don't know what, but I opened my eyes and the sky had turned golden. There was an hour to go. Soon, a pair of ravens woke up and started circling and tumbling in circles above the woods.I sat still and waited, and waited. I drummed a little, and then walked round the perimeter if the mound, drumming, before settling again. A little later a fox trotted past the mound, seemingly oblivious to me, with a rabbit in his mouth. Still the sun hadnt risen and the tension was building within me.
Then I saw that bright red line on the horizon where the tip of the sun had broken through, and I stared, watching it rise, drumming away to welcome his return. As he rose higher he seemed to get stuck on a couple of points and i found myself standing on the mound, drumming away, shouting "PUSH, PUSH" to get him to rise clear of the Earth. And so, he did :-)
I stood watching for a short while, I could see that the sky was clear and beautiful, but there was a narrow band of cloud that would obscure him after a while, so i stood and stayed in that moment, staring into his fiery redness, and then - after he was well clear of the Earth, the sun changed... changed from red into pure white, and it didn't look like the sun any longer, I felt like I was staring into a circular hole in the sky, like a tunnel through to the heavens and upper worlds beyond, and that felt really strange. It was as if I could have reached through with my hand and pulled myself through into somewhere else.
He was approaching the clouds now, a flock of seagulls came overhead from the coast and circled above me, checking if I was having a picnic or not, but I wasn't, so I legged it down to the cave again, and lit a candle and took the light into the cave, spreading it around to show the re-birth before setting it down on the altar, then I grabbed by drum and BANG BANG BANGED away...
WAKE UP!
And that was it... the journey through the woods and back home was amazing in the golden sunlight, I got home, and danced, then went out with my partner and had a huge cooked breakfast, and came home and slept....
It started on the 21st, I and my companion went to the cave for sunset, which meant an early start, leaving home at 2pm. Luckily, it is en-route to where our grove was holding their ceremony.
We arrived at the site in time for the sunset, although it was a mostly cloudy afternoon, when we stood on the mound, we could see the valley to the south-west shining with a golden light, and as the sun slowly dipped down towards the horizon, the golden light spread along that valley to the coast and then started to crrep up our own valley, and we hastily legged it down to the cave before the light faded.
We didn't get the shaft of light on this occasion because of the thin cloud cover over the sun, but the inside of the cave was certainly very bright and we went inside, I went into the chamber and stood in the darkness for a while, listening to the creaking and groaning of the earth and the water seeping though it, and felt totally calm and relaxed and at peace with everything.
I came out after a while and spoke to my companion, she had had her own experience while I had been gone, had sensed 2 other people with us that was quite consistent with how I had seen them before, and she had done some visualisation and given healing to the cave.
The altar/mandala that I had left previously was still in place, a little disturbed, and I'm not sure if it was because of human movement or natural movement with the cold and draughts etc, but it was almost exactly as I had left it. I had been thinking about whether it was actually a good idea to leave it here or not, I didn't want to attract the wrong attention to the place, so i made a decision to move it all. Together we chose a small nook in the side of the walls where it would be out of site, and I made the affair quite minimal - a beeswax candle which would burn away to nothing, and incense that would just turn to ash, apart from that the only signs visible to anyone if the found it would be a feather and a shell to hold water. There is a small depression to hold a few offerings , so I picked up some of the beans and snail shells and put them in there, taking the rest outside to be eaten by any passing wildlife.
And so that's how we spent our sunset, sitting mostly in silence in the cave, the air thick with incense and lit by the candle. We rattled a little, and I sprinkled some blessed water that had been given to me earlier in the year, it was produced during a full weekend shamanic embodiment course that a friend had been to, and the water had been blessed by the embodied spirits of many deities, and was meant for blessing the land.
Again, whilst this was going on, my friend had experienced another small detail that was the same as i had had on a previous visit - which was fantastic, and its also for this reason that I decided to leave out various personal details, so that I am not influencing people on their own experiences.
Now, what I feel should happen is that this altar should be maintained from time to time. It's hidden location should be passed on person to person as they are taken to the cave, so that if and when they are passing, they are able to go in and spend a few minutes there, the altar id simply a focus, to tidy up, refresh the water, burn a candle and some incense and to mark the place as somewhere that people were buried and loved and cared for, and a place they lived. Like a shrine. Our scared places are everywhere but are largely ignored or not known about. Having a number of people knowing about this and maintaining it as and when they feel they want to , and clearing away any rubbish that has been left there is a step towards maintaining the sacredness of our land.
Just imagine that we all lie in a ritual landscape, and as you ravelled from A to B, you knew that there was such-and-such a shrine in the woods over there, another in a cave up there, and a few miles further on, so that you had an internal map of the spirit of the land, passed on by oral tradition and being shown where they were.
So... there we were, with darkness creeping up, we set off back through the woods to the car and set off to our grove for the ceremony.
And wow, what an amazing yuletide evening it was. The ceremony itself was done in darkness outside and was very powerful for us. As well as that there was sharing of food and drink, songs and games, laughter and friendship before we all set off for home again. It was gone 1am by the time I got back to the house.
But it's not over yet.... I barely slept and was up again at 5 to go back, this time, to the mound. Now I'd figured that with the cave catching the dying sun, a possible purpose for the mound was simply as a platform, when you stand on the top of it, you are raised above the tree-tops so the rising sun clearing the distant hills is clearly visible over the woodland. So that's what I intended to do...
The path through the woods was pitch black, and as i went along it a tawny owl flew across, really close, not expecting me to be there, I remember the pale flash of its under-wing as it banked to one side to avoid me, before gliding off into the trees and calling to its mate.
It was cold and dark on the mound, and windy, so I did my coat and hood up, and waited. though several times I took my hood off to look around because I was convinced that other people were there with me, had arrived unseen. there was nobody physically there with me, so i settled in with it, and closed my eyes and waited for the sun to rise.
Eventually, I felt a change, a shifting of something, I don't know what, but I opened my eyes and the sky had turned golden. There was an hour to go. Soon, a pair of ravens woke up and started circling and tumbling in circles above the woods.I sat still and waited, and waited. I drummed a little, and then walked round the perimeter if the mound, drumming, before settling again. A little later a fox trotted past the mound, seemingly oblivious to me, with a rabbit in his mouth. Still the sun hadnt risen and the tension was building within me.
Then I saw that bright red line on the horizon where the tip of the sun had broken through, and I stared, watching it rise, drumming away to welcome his return. As he rose higher he seemed to get stuck on a couple of points and i found myself standing on the mound, drumming away, shouting "PUSH, PUSH" to get him to rise clear of the Earth. And so, he did :-)
I stood watching for a short while, I could see that the sky was clear and beautiful, but there was a narrow band of cloud that would obscure him after a while, so i stood and stayed in that moment, staring into his fiery redness, and then - after he was well clear of the Earth, the sun changed... changed from red into pure white, and it didn't look like the sun any longer, I felt like I was staring into a circular hole in the sky, like a tunnel through to the heavens and upper worlds beyond, and that felt really strange. It was as if I could have reached through with my hand and pulled myself through into somewhere else.
He was approaching the clouds now, a flock of seagulls came overhead from the coast and circled above me, checking if I was having a picnic or not, but I wasn't, so I legged it down to the cave again, and lit a candle and took the light into the cave, spreading it around to show the re-birth before setting it down on the altar, then I grabbed by drum and BANG BANG BANGED away...
WAKE UP!
View from the cave to the east
View from the cave to the west
And that was it... the journey through the woods and back home was amazing in the golden sunlight, I got home, and danced, then went out with my partner and had a huge cooked breakfast, and came home and slept....
Saturday, 24 December 2011
Full Moon, December 2011
The cave ...
The basic idea was that my daughter was home for the weekend, so we should do something together. The Saturday was also the only day that her boyfriend was off, so that 'something' would be best as a shared 'something'. It was also the night of the full moon, so I came up with a basic idea of going out for a bbq at a location where I can do my thing, they can do their thing and then I can take them home afterwards and everyones happy.
So.. I packed everything up and we set off for the cave. I had decided to make a mandala at the back of the cave where the chamber is, where the shaft of sunlight hits, so I took beans, shells and natural stuff that I could leave there as a creative offering. After some exploring and settling in, I explained the principle of it to my companions and sent them off hunting in the woods for things I could use. Partly to give them time together, partly to give me time to make the mandala, to meditate in the chamber and rattle for the spirits, and partly because 'hunting' was part of the bigger plan.
The bigger plan was that the cave is a place of burial, a place of spirit, and ritual and I would do something to acknowledge that. It was also a place of living and family, and they would do that part.
I had just finished the mandala when they came back with a few bits to add to it, so it was completed, I had incorporated a feather, a shell for water, some charcoal for the incense and a beeswax candle, I lit the candle and charcoal, put some incense on, and pulled out a bottle of beer that i had bought previously especially to use as an offering to the ancestors. I poured this round the mandala, then we all shared the beer and I sprinkled it round the cave in general, I hadn't actually planned this bit but it worked, I kind of expected that my daughter and her bf would go off and do something else, but they sat with the altar , shared the beer and well, just sat there for a minute or so sharing the atmosphere and being silent. It felt quite special.
Then we did the living.. we'd brought wood, a kelly kettle and a bbq and a firesteel
:-)
I showed them how to start a fire without using matches, and set the bbq going and we put food on, and closed the lid so it would cook. To keep us warm they then had to start their own fire which was quite fun, as well as moving the rocks and stones around so that we had a place to sit round the fire itself... the rest of the night was... sat round the fire, cooked and ate the food we had brought (that was why I got them to symbolically hunt in the woods for the mandala), told stories, sang a song or 2, played a party game, stayed out much longer than we had intended.... I did notice that, even though we were sat in the mouth of a cave, round a fire, Liam still went 'outside' to have a cigarette, which , amusing as it is was also touching that the cave really kept itself as a homely place, and that he respected that.
When the tealights had burnt themselves out, I collected them back up, picked up the rubbish that other people had left, the fire died down to a few embers and it was time to go home, through the woods in the darkness of the night, leaving the mandala behind.
The basic idea was that my daughter was home for the weekend, so we should do something together. The Saturday was also the only day that her boyfriend was off, so that 'something' would be best as a shared 'something'. It was also the night of the full moon, so I came up with a basic idea of going out for a bbq at a location where I can do my thing, they can do their thing and then I can take them home afterwards and everyones happy.
So.. I packed everything up and we set off for the cave. I had decided to make a mandala at the back of the cave where the chamber is, where the shaft of sunlight hits, so I took beans, shells and natural stuff that I could leave there as a creative offering. After some exploring and settling in, I explained the principle of it to my companions and sent them off hunting in the woods for things I could use. Partly to give them time together, partly to give me time to make the mandala, to meditate in the chamber and rattle for the spirits, and partly because 'hunting' was part of the bigger plan.
The bigger plan was that the cave is a place of burial, a place of spirit, and ritual and I would do something to acknowledge that. It was also a place of living and family, and they would do that part.
I had just finished the mandala when they came back with a few bits to add to it, so it was completed, I had incorporated a feather, a shell for water, some charcoal for the incense and a beeswax candle, I lit the candle and charcoal, put some incense on, and pulled out a bottle of beer that i had bought previously especially to use as an offering to the ancestors. I poured this round the mandala, then we all shared the beer and I sprinkled it round the cave in general, I hadn't actually planned this bit but it worked, I kind of expected that my daughter and her bf would go off and do something else, but they sat with the altar , shared the beer and well, just sat there for a minute or so sharing the atmosphere and being silent. It felt quite special.
Then we did the living.. we'd brought wood, a kelly kettle and a bbq and a firesteel
:-)
I showed them how to start a fire without using matches, and set the bbq going and we put food on, and closed the lid so it would cook. To keep us warm they then had to start their own fire which was quite fun, as well as moving the rocks and stones around so that we had a place to sit round the fire itself... the rest of the night was... sat round the fire, cooked and ate the food we had brought (that was why I got them to symbolically hunt in the woods for the mandala), told stories, sang a song or 2, played a party game, stayed out much longer than we had intended.... I did notice that, even though we were sat in the mouth of a cave, round a fire, Liam still went 'outside' to have a cigarette, which , amusing as it is was also touching that the cave really kept itself as a homely place, and that he respected that.
When the tealights had burnt themselves out, I collected them back up, picked up the rubbish that other people had left, the fire died down to a few embers and it was time to go home, through the woods in the darkness of the night, leaving the mandala behind.
Keeping up
So much has happened just recently, stuff I really want to share with people, but with the right people, I find I'm treading along a thin line between sharing the information I have so that it can be used positively, and telling the wrong people who could just as equally use it to destroy.
One thing thats certain is that I'm not finding these things out just for my own private use. I also want people to be empowered to look at their own landscape where they live... everywhere is sacred, and you do not have to be 'special' or trained in anything to acknowledge this or to be able to go out and enjoy the land.
Some details I need to put in because they lead onto other things and ideas. Some details I will leave out. The best way i could do this would be word of mouth, but the community I need to tell are too far apart to make this a reality.
One thing thats certain is that I'm not finding these things out just for my own private use. I also want people to be empowered to look at their own landscape where they live... everywhere is sacred, and you do not have to be 'special' or trained in anything to acknowledge this or to be able to go out and enjoy the land.
Some details I need to put in because they lead onto other things and ideas. Some details I will leave out. The best way i could do this would be word of mouth, but the community I need to tell are too far apart to make this a reality.
Saturday, 3 December 2011
The Secrets of Gop Cave
I have been meaning to go back to Gop Hill and its caves for a while now, since winter is approaching. This morning I woke up with a firm decision to go there today, I had a bit of faffing about to do in the morning and set off in the early afternoon.
So, I'm guessing anyone reading this might not be familiar with Gop Hill. It is on the hillside above the village of Trelawnyd in North Wales. It is the second largest man made mound in the UK, after Silbury Hill, and like Silbury Hill, no explanation has been found for its construction, made from white limestone which would have gleamed in the sun and moonlight before it gradually grassed over. Today if you go you can see the white stones quite clearly under the loose soil that has accumulated.
From www.megalithic.co.uk -
It sits on top of a hill some 800 feet above sea level, commanding a panorama through nearly 360 degrees, with the dimensions being oval, around 300 by 240 feet, and 40 feet high, dating between 4000 and 3000 BC. Excavations in 1886-7 revealed just a few bones of animals, with no chambers or passages being discovered.
In the hillside underneath the mound are caves, the largest of which had a walled up chamber inside at the back, inside which were the bones of 14 adults dating back to neolithic times.
From http://www.wrexham.gov.uk/english/heritage/tomb_builders/gop_cave.htm
So, I'm guessing anyone reading this might not be familiar with Gop Hill. It is on the hillside above the village of Trelawnyd in North Wales. It is the second largest man made mound in the UK, after Silbury Hill, and like Silbury Hill, no explanation has been found for its construction, made from white limestone which would have gleamed in the sun and moonlight before it gradually grassed over. Today if you go you can see the white stones quite clearly under the loose soil that has accumulated.
From www.megalithic.co.uk -
It sits on top of a hill some 800 feet above sea level, commanding a panorama through nearly 360 degrees, with the dimensions being oval, around 300 by 240 feet, and 40 feet high, dating between 4000 and 3000 BC. Excavations in 1886-7 revealed just a few bones of animals, with no chambers or passages being discovered.
In the hillside underneath the mound are caves, the largest of which had a walled up chamber inside at the back, inside which were the bones of 14 adults dating back to neolithic times.
From http://www.wrexham.gov.uk/english/heritage/tomb_builders/gop_cave.htm
Gop Cave in Flintshire was excavated by William Boyd Dawkins in the 1880's. Inside he found a stone-walled chamber filled with human bones; some stacked together in piles.
Much of what he found has been lost, but the records he made at the time contain a puzzle for future archaeologists...
The burial chamber was 1.2m square; too small for an adult to lie down in. But the remains of fourteen people were found inside. How did they all fit?
Were people smaller than us at this time? No. Measurements of their bones show they were the same size as us.
Were only parts of bodies buried? No. All parts of the body were found in the tomb.
Did one corpse decompose before another was added? Yes. Radiocarbon dates have shown that the tomb was used for a thousand years.
And on that website you will also find outlines of how the bodies were arranged inside the chamber.
Now... at the back of the cave to the right, is a small passage, if you crawl through this, it opens up into a chamber with smaller tunnels leading down and further into the hill, and two chimneys rising upwards towards the mound.
Earlier this year, I tracked down some of the bones from this cave to Grosvenor museum in Chester, and went there with a friend and were able to hold the bones from horse, pig, cattle, and one of the human burials.
After parking my car in the village, I walked up to the mound through the woodland, feeling some presence and expectation. On my journey there, I had come up with a possible ritual that I could do there in the future, and with this in my mind, I imagined how I could do this, and for some reason assumed that i should have my face painted white when I did it.
First I sat on the mound, and then went down to the cave and just sat there for a while getting used to the atmosphere, and wishing that I'd thought of bringing a torch with me so i could see what I was doing, as it was, I only had the light from my mobile phone. When I felt settled I left the cave and re-entered, pulling a rattle I had made previously from my bag, and rattling round the inside of the cave , rattling as I crawled into the chamber, felt my way inside and rattled round the inside of the chamber three times, and then broke the rhythm and sat there in silence and pitch black, and tried to visualise what was there to be seen in meditation. I didnt see much, other than the walls of the cave, but they were all painted white. I had some sort of thought about checking the orientation of the cave, for alignments, but I dismissed these as coming from my thinking mind, and anyway, its a cave, not man-made to any alignment.
To end this, I stood up inside the chamber and addressed the spirits of place, that they were still there, even though their bones had gone, they were being kept safe, and that they had not been forgotten, and were still held with respect.
Then I crawled out of the chamber, all the time I had a real sense that someone was going to come into the cave and disturb me, that's one problem of doing this alone I guessed, so now out of the chamber, I just sat at the back of the cave and closed my eyes and relaxed, and internally asked that if anyone was there, could they show themselves to me.
There was a loud rasping noise to my left, at about head height, and i shat myself and was shocked out of any meditation
It was then, with my eyes open that I realised that the cave was full of light and I could see perfectly well all the details around me. as the sun had started dipping down in the sky, it was shining into the cave, and there was a very defined shaft of light shining though to where I was sitting , just by the entrance to the chamber
Thats with no flash... with the flash you can see how close this is to the entrance to the chamber
Hmm... Interesting...
I started to leave the cave and stopped in the middle to look at the stones and debris on the floor, and then noticed that on the side of the cave is a boulder with contours that look like a face... looking towards the back of the cave and this face was coated in a white deposit, literally pained white by the chemicals in the rocks.
The features of the face are quite difficult to capture on camera as they are worn and smooth contoured.
Right, this got me more excited, with it being December, and the solstice coming, I started thinking about the chambers at Newgrange which are illuminated at sunrise on the solstice... this seemed quite similar, except it was heading to sunset.
I couldnt leave now, I had to see how the suns rays travelled in the cave.They hit the back of the cave, where i think the walled up chamber would have been, and as it got later, they moved across towards the entrance to the chamber.
I got a stick and stood it in the ray of light so that it gave me a defined shadow that I could lay my compass on, and the light was coming in from the south-west, to hit the entrance to the chamber in the north-east. There was an alignment!
Just outside the entrance to the cave is a pile of earth from excavations, so as the sun started to dip lower, the ray got lost behind this pile. as it started to fade, I went and sat in the ray of light, right in the entrance to the chamber, and you know what? the white boulder/face is looking straight at that point!
I feel I've scratched the surface of something here... just by accident, I've never been here in December as the sun starts to go down, and it just happened that it wasnt too cloudy on this particular day.
The following photos show the final ray of light before it is lost behind the earth mound outside, which is recent. Without this obstruction to ray would be able to move further in toward the entrance to the chamber
First photo without flash, the second with flash to show how close it is to reaching the chamber
And from this spot, looking out, the white face shows up as looking at this spot.
I'll be back!
Friday, 2 December 2011
Flame keeping
For almost a year now, I have been flame keeping, tending a flame from the Goddess temple in Glastonbury
( http://www.goddesstemple.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=22&Itemid=35 )
The basics of which are that each lunar month, on the Wednesday nearest the first quarter, everyone with a flame lights and tends the flame from Dusk on Wednesday through til dusk on Thursday. This can be done with as little or as much ritual or ceremony as you wish.
Over the year my practice of this has varied from month to month, sometimes it simply allows me some peace and purpose and a marking of the moon, and at other times some really profound teaching or understanding comes through . Although each month is different, I'm kind of settling into a routine which I'd like to share at the moment, its not a template to copy or a 'how to...' just how i do it, because it works and feels right for me and my individual circumstances.
I like blurring the edges of things, so theres no real set point of a beginning of the routine, as the day approaches i become aware that its flame keeping on the wednesday, and start to think about what I will do this month. On the day itself I've started to go out and collect things to decorate the altar with, this might be as simple as going out on a shopping trip especially to buy flowers, or it might be to pick flowers from my allotment, this month i went to the beach to collect shells and 'pretty things' to decorate it with.
At the beach, it was high tide, so we walked along the breaking waves as they withdrew and I spent a few minutes thinking about the moon and tides and the tide going out meant that she was pulling the water towards herself somewhere else, and then started collecting shells. There were some really nice ones there, and i got a bit of variety, when i decided I had enough we just walked the beach and I thought that a piece of driftwood would be a nice addition so I scanned to beach for any obvious pieces and saw one some way off and went over to investigate.
It turned out to be a HUGE vertebra probably from a dolphin or small whale, and I was really excited about this and frantically looked around for any more, but couldnt find any, but nevertheless was dead chuffed with my find.
In the evening I set about decorating the altar with the shells and bits and bobs that I have, I put the whale bone on as a representative of North, lit the incense and got ready to go to bed. I like to sleep with the flame, we have a room which is a spare bedroom, not that it is ever slept in by anyone else other than by me, as it is mostly a temple room where I keep my altar and other parphanalia that gets accumulated.
Then my partner came in , he was stressed and needed to get some things off his chest about the situation he is in with his elderly mother, he generally finds these things difficult to talk about, he is not pagan nor does he have any specific faith or belief, but I've spoken to him before about the flame and encouraged him to use the time and space as a quiet and reflective time if he ever needs it, and this time round, whether consciously because of that, or just because he needed it, he came in and lay on the bed and opened up his thoughts and worries about his mother, and I listened and held him, also aware that yes, this was quite a thing to do in the presence of the goddess, and that in some way the flame keeping had opened up a special and sacred time and space here that was being acknowledged.
After he had done his sharing and left, I sat in the bed and organised my thoughts, about the goddess and what she means to me, and with the altar being particularly themed about the sea, especially with the whale bone, I though about her as giving birth to all life, and how this had always been the case, with life itself coming from the sea. All life comes from her. And with that I drifted into sleep.
The next day is usually an ordinary day, I just check on the flame from time to time, until bed time when again, my routine is broken by taking the time to sleep with the flame. When I woke up, I sat still in the darkness for a while, just with the candles glow and allowed myself some calm quiet time before getting up and extinguishing the flame and getting ready for work. I was quite pleased about what had happened the night before.
I kind of review what has happened in the past 24 hours and in all there has been a shift in my thinking. I have so much contentment in my life right now. It dawned on me that all I need and all I want are right here or within hands reach. From time to time I do a bit of soul-searching or questing to find something that I feel is missing from my life, but really, its always here, I've either ignored it, or am so used to it being here that its forgotten. And I mean this in a very rich and real sense.... its food and shelter, its knowledge, whether i know it or at least have access to it if I apply myself, its my relationship with my partner, my really supportive and valuable, special and inspirational network of friends and acquaintances, if I need help with anything, someone is always able to point me in the right direction. I have employment and enough money to allow to to live my life more or less how I want.
Internally and emotionally, I feel 'whole'... I may write more about this if I can find the right words to express it... sometimes i feel like i need to add something to myself to be complete, but, you know what, I have realised that i don't. I have done a fair amount of searching this year to make a connection to the god/ male energy - and I have it, I've not noticed it in any big way because its always been there. I've fallen into the trap of our society that takes all value and worth away from us at birth, so that it can sell it back to us... I want to expand on that, so I may post a stream of conciousness later on!
I feel absolutely wonderful, and absolutely blessed x
( http://www.goddesstemple.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=22&Itemid=35 )
The basics of which are that each lunar month, on the Wednesday nearest the first quarter, everyone with a flame lights and tends the flame from Dusk on Wednesday through til dusk on Thursday. This can be done with as little or as much ritual or ceremony as you wish.
Over the year my practice of this has varied from month to month, sometimes it simply allows me some peace and purpose and a marking of the moon, and at other times some really profound teaching or understanding comes through . Although each month is different, I'm kind of settling into a routine which I'd like to share at the moment, its not a template to copy or a 'how to...' just how i do it, because it works and feels right for me and my individual circumstances.
I like blurring the edges of things, so theres no real set point of a beginning of the routine, as the day approaches i become aware that its flame keeping on the wednesday, and start to think about what I will do this month. On the day itself I've started to go out and collect things to decorate the altar with, this might be as simple as going out on a shopping trip especially to buy flowers, or it might be to pick flowers from my allotment, this month i went to the beach to collect shells and 'pretty things' to decorate it with.
At the beach, it was high tide, so we walked along the breaking waves as they withdrew and I spent a few minutes thinking about the moon and tides and the tide going out meant that she was pulling the water towards herself somewhere else, and then started collecting shells. There were some really nice ones there, and i got a bit of variety, when i decided I had enough we just walked the beach and I thought that a piece of driftwood would be a nice addition so I scanned to beach for any obvious pieces and saw one some way off and went over to investigate.
It turned out to be a HUGE vertebra probably from a dolphin or small whale, and I was really excited about this and frantically looked around for any more, but couldnt find any, but nevertheless was dead chuffed with my find.
In the evening I set about decorating the altar with the shells and bits and bobs that I have, I put the whale bone on as a representative of North, lit the incense and got ready to go to bed. I like to sleep with the flame, we have a room which is a spare bedroom, not that it is ever slept in by anyone else other than by me, as it is mostly a temple room where I keep my altar and other parphanalia that gets accumulated.
Then my partner came in , he was stressed and needed to get some things off his chest about the situation he is in with his elderly mother, he generally finds these things difficult to talk about, he is not pagan nor does he have any specific faith or belief, but I've spoken to him before about the flame and encouraged him to use the time and space as a quiet and reflective time if he ever needs it, and this time round, whether consciously because of that, or just because he needed it, he came in and lay on the bed and opened up his thoughts and worries about his mother, and I listened and held him, also aware that yes, this was quite a thing to do in the presence of the goddess, and that in some way the flame keeping had opened up a special and sacred time and space here that was being acknowledged.
After he had done his sharing and left, I sat in the bed and organised my thoughts, about the goddess and what she means to me, and with the altar being particularly themed about the sea, especially with the whale bone, I though about her as giving birth to all life, and how this had always been the case, with life itself coming from the sea. All life comes from her. And with that I drifted into sleep.
The next day is usually an ordinary day, I just check on the flame from time to time, until bed time when again, my routine is broken by taking the time to sleep with the flame. When I woke up, I sat still in the darkness for a while, just with the candles glow and allowed myself some calm quiet time before getting up and extinguishing the flame and getting ready for work. I was quite pleased about what had happened the night before.
I kind of review what has happened in the past 24 hours and in all there has been a shift in my thinking. I have so much contentment in my life right now. It dawned on me that all I need and all I want are right here or within hands reach. From time to time I do a bit of soul-searching or questing to find something that I feel is missing from my life, but really, its always here, I've either ignored it, or am so used to it being here that its forgotten. And I mean this in a very rich and real sense.... its food and shelter, its knowledge, whether i know it or at least have access to it if I apply myself, its my relationship with my partner, my really supportive and valuable, special and inspirational network of friends and acquaintances, if I need help with anything, someone is always able to point me in the right direction. I have employment and enough money to allow to to live my life more or less how I want.
Internally and emotionally, I feel 'whole'... I may write more about this if I can find the right words to express it... sometimes i feel like i need to add something to myself to be complete, but, you know what, I have realised that i don't. I have done a fair amount of searching this year to make a connection to the god/ male energy - and I have it, I've not noticed it in any big way because its always been there. I've fallen into the trap of our society that takes all value and worth away from us at birth, so that it can sell it back to us... I want to expand on that, so I may post a stream of conciousness later on!
I feel absolutely wonderful, and absolutely blessed x
Tuesday, 1 February 2011
Imbolc and Gop Bone Cave
From Coflein :
"Two cave chambers, explored from 1885 onwards. Finds have been mostly of animal bones, with some human material, both artefacts and bones."
and...
"first discovered in the late nineteenth century by a mining engineer and rediscovered in 1910 by Henry Hughes, a Gwaenysgor miner and quarryman, when blowing up a fox’s lair for a local farmer. He and subsequent investigators have found the bones of several pleistocene animals including bison,reindeer, Irish elk, hyena, woolly rhinoceros and arctic lemming. The cave was shown to the public for a number of years before being closed as unsafe."
Having spent some time at Gop Cave itself, and going through a drum journey there a few weeks ago, and knowing that there was another cave nearby where lots of bones had been discovered, I wanted to check it out.
So off I went.
I got to the field where I knew it should be, but wasnt sure whereabouts exactly it was, so, on a hunch, and following a raven, I got to a dip in the field, the sort of dip you'd expect to find a drainage pond in except it was bare earth and a bit of a 5 bar gate sticking out of the earth. As i walked round the edge of the dip, i saw the hole, and on closer inspection, found it was the entrance to a tunnel into the earth - the entrance to the cave!
The ground was very muddy and slippy and I slip more than walked down to the hole, and peered in, and could see the cave tunnel stretching down into the earth, the gate was suspended into the hole...
Me being sensible, thought that it looked quite dangerous, and was a bit miffed that I had made the journey and this was as far as i could safely go.
The other half of me said "...fuck it, I'm here now" so...... the gate was hanging from a tree by a piece of rope, and I clambered down the gate, squeezed myself through the narrow hole and ended up dangling from the bottom of the gate, not daring to let go... the tunnel went down further than I could see, steeper than a 45degree angle, and where it had been filled in with loose earth, it was slippy and there was no stable floor to grip onto. I made sure that I held onto the gate tightly and took a photo.
I struggled to squeeze out again, but felt really exhilarated to have been inside for those few minutes.
Walking around the field, I noticed there were lots of rabbit burrows, so went to check these, just on the off chance that the rabbits may have uncovered something from their digging...
The place was littered with bones! None ancient though... a rams skull, fox skull and jawbone, pelvis... a few others... as I made my way back across the field there was an odd shaped stone sticking out of the mud, U unearthed it with by boot and picked it up, immediately feeling sharp teeth pricking my fingers from the underneath... a stoat or weasel skull!
So the Bone Cave keeps its title.... the bones found there had been debris from what had been dragged there by hyenas in the ice age, and as I walked back to my car, I wondered what it would have been like for the people living in the main Gop Cave, just a little way round the other side of the hill, knowing that hyenas lived as their neighbours. Both caves had bones from the same period found in them. Gop cave itself was inhabited on and off for thousands of years and when it was re-discovered and excavated, a bricked up burial chamber was found at the back, containing 14 people.
I love this area :-)
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