Wednesday 23 March 2011

Many Roads

There now follows a period where I seem to lose my way somewhat, my spiritual friends are drifting away from me and I'm sometimes losing faith in what I'm doing.

I keep seeing and hearing owls. They're trying to guide me but for some reason I don't tune in and follow their guidance.


I sit and meditate by the river Rye to try to find out what's going on, and there I am given more guidance about my path and my fears, and how to release them. I'm also guided again to place crystals in springs, I'm even told which spring I should visit next, but somehow I get side-tracked and don't immediately follow the guidance.

I return to Mulgrave woods and visit the castle there where I have a flash back from a past age.


As I walk back through the woods I hear a tawny owl hooting, and then I get a text message from a friend. It's an old message, about owls! My phone is playing up and keeps sending me this old message. Strange indeed!


I visit Thor's Cave in Derbyshire,




and then the Neolithic burial chambers of Minninglow where I climb into an ancient grave and am visited by a malevolent goblin who seems to work on my body before draining all my energy and leaving me feeling gray and lifeless. Again I get flashbacks of past lives and then a vision of the dragon from Lake Gormire ( see Lake Gormire - Awakening the Dragon ). "Look at what you have unleashed!" says the goblin. Was he warning me or trying to scare me?

Next week I visit Glaisdale head, which has a story about a witch-hare.


I can sense the Fae here but before I leave an offering and meet with them I do some dowsing and discover that they are not friendly. They are dark elves and I was about to make a big mistake by meeting them! So if I can make a mistake here then where else have I made mistakes? "Look at what you have unleashed!" comes into my head again. Now I'm really starting to doubt myself!

I continue to explore this remote dale-head, climbing over ancient rockfalls and through twisted forests that cling to the hillside until I came to a glade where a pair of huge gnarly oak trees grew. I sat and meditated by the trees and was carried up through their branches into the heavens until I arrived at a bright place of pink fluffy clouds where I was shown a baby. "He's yours of you want him" a voice said. I was then told to release my fears which I was carrying from past lives.

I thanked the oak trees and left an offering and then decided that this was a good place to tune in and find out more. I was told again to focus on my mission of placing crystals in springs. I had to put my intention into these crystals so they would cleanse and purify the entire river system. I must also help the elves in Leadhills and also help to connect fairy hills by creating portals between them. These missions were being given to me by Merlin but no specific guidance was given. Which fairy hills? How do I create a portal? The Fae are no longer able to travel to our lands, the 'straight road' that once connected our two worlds no longer exists I am told.

I leave the glade and wander off into some birches. The birch spirits greet me and remind me that if I need them I need only to call upon them. Then suddenly I spot an adder!


He hisses at me as I approach. Rarely has a human trodden in this remote spot! He puffs his body up and lunges at me when I get too close, so I decide to leave him in peace.

I climb up through the crags and eventually make it to the edge of the high moor where I find a crow trapped in a cage. He looks terrified but I open the cage door and stand back while the he flies away to freedom, escaping for now the farmer's revenge. I feel such a sense of joy to watch him fly away over the dale and I continue to watch as he shrinks into a black speck in the distance to begin his new lease of life.


A few days later I decided to head back up to Scotland, but I still felt strange and disconnected. Somehow I was being guided in the wrong direction and focusing on the wrong things. I visited the elf woods and the elves at Leadhills but nothing really seemed to work out as it should. So on the way back I drove to Traquair and took a walk up onto Minch Moor to visit a fairy spring called the Cheese Well.

I cleared up some mess there and left an offering in a scallop shell. The fairies appreciated this and I could sense them flying all around me. I purified my wand in the spring and was told that my wand had an unwelcome guest. A hobman was hitching a ride in there and should be removed! I then planted my wand in the earth and drew in energy to help heal the fairies, before energising a crystal and pacing it in the spring. I waited for the crystal to energise the water before taking a cupful to drink. Strangely the water tasted cheesy!

I then sat down by the well as a fine drizzle started and a rainbow filled the air and very soon I fell into a trance...

Small elfin creatures appeared with skinny limbs, large heads and pointy hats. The whites of their eyes flashed as they danced around joyfully, energised by the healing I had given them. They took me by the hand and got me to join their dance, and then they started to spin threads around me and wrapped me in a silken cocoon. They rolled me down the hill and took me to see the old owl, the tawny owl. Was he the one who had been trying to contact me all this time?

"You have gone too far down the wrong path," he told me, "you must go back, and find the right path!"

He then grabbed me with his claws and took me high into the air, flying over the landscape!

"Too Woo Too Woo!
You know what to do!
Follow me high over hill and dell.

Too Woo Too Woo!
You know what to do!
Follow this road it will treat you well.

High in the sky,
And deep underground.
Howling wind,
And never a sound!
Down trickling stream,
And deep dark well.
Country lane
And sound of bell."

Speaking in riddles I was getting used to by now, so I didn't try to analyse his words too much, I just accepted the gist of his message. I must find out where I went wrong, and then pick up from there again. The elfin creatures were happy now:

"Yippee! Yippee! We've come to take back the world!" they cried.

I felt as if they'd been oppressed for a long time but were finally taking back their freedom.

I opened my eyes from my deep trance and was immediately presented with a reward! A bird I'd always wanted to see but had never had the luck to spot before, a beautiful red crossbill! He lingered on the tree opposite for quite some time while I admired him.


As I got up to leave I noticed more 'trash' in the well which I hadn't noticed before. A small white piece of something. "Odd" I thought, so I picked it up and it was soft and squidgy, like cheese! It made me reconsider why this well might be named The Cheese Well!

I set off back down the hill but before I reached the bottom I remembered I had a little ritual to perform. I went off into the woods and thrust my wand deep into the earth and cast out the unwelcome hobman. He can roam the woods now far from people and hopefully not cause too much trouble!

Later that day I spoke with a psychic called Helen Fatir. I didn't give her any clues about the kind of things I was into but she had many insights into my past lives, fears and purpose, but most interestingly she told me that I was not originally incarnate as a human and came from another world! I was a highly evolved soul who had travelled here with six guides for a specific purpose.

My next journey was to Somerset where I visited Horner Woods near Exmoor.


There I encountered a flock of jays which I followed until I lost them and heard the bark of deer in the woods. Near the head of the dale I found a magical spot where two streams joined.


I knew there was something I had to do there but I couldn't work out what it was, it something relating to one of the springs. I scouted around and eventually found the problem. A spring had been blocked up and diverted by a local landowner so that it no longer flowed into the valley. This despite it being in a national park and national nature reserve. I took a note of the location and told the environmental protection agency about it later. Walking back through the woods I enjoying the nature and encountering wild ponies.


I then returned to my favourite haunt in Somerset, Dundon Beacon (see Dundon Beacon, Tree Spirit ) with its magical spring and woodland clearing that was like a temple. I cleaned up the spring there and spoke with the spirit of the spring. She told me that by placing quartz crystals in the springs I was amplifying whatever vibration they carried (a bit like homoeopathy!) I must find the springs that are carrying the correct vibration in their waters, and then amplify them. So I placed a crystal here, in my favourite spring, amplified its energy, and then took a drink of its waters, taking its amplified vibration into my own body!

The next day I went over to Nyland Hill, a similar mound rising from the Somerset levels. I climbed the hill and strolled through the ramsons which were in full bloom on this tranquil wooded hilltop.


I could sense elves in the woods here so I sat under an old oak tree and meditated. The elves appeared and eyed me warily, wondering what I was doing in their woodland. They were lithe and sinewy, with smooth oily skin which was a dark olive green. Their eyes were large black and slanted. I took out my glowing wand and revealed my true form as Aurvandil, a shining white lord of the Fae! They opened up to me then, and told me that their woodland was now isolated and needed to be connected to other elf woods. 

So I called for guidance and was directed to another woodland nearby called Stoke woods. Once there I found a suitable tree and placed green crystals all around it. I then sat in the tree with my wand and consciously opened a portal between this woodland and Nyland Hill. As I did so I saw a great arc of white light ascend into the sky and drop back down onto Nyland Hill, like a glowing white rainbow. It felt like the elves could now use this arc of energy like a highway to travel from wood to wood.

As I bent down to pick up my crystals again I noticed a small antler poking out of the ramsons. I picked it up and found a complete roe deer skull, perfectly white and picked clean. Another gift from the Fae!

I was then told that I had travelled to this world from the Otherworld and was here to do their bidding.

The next day I spoke to a friend of mine and she'd had a vision of me with small antlers on my head, just like on the skull I'd just found! I was carrying a wooden sceptre in this vision with a knobbly end. But what did it mean? She also told me that linking the forest energy had something to do with breathing. Could the elves not breathe outside the forests?

The day after that found me in Blean Wood in Kent. Spring was in full bloom and I was enjoying all the beautiful spring flowers.




What had guided me there I do not know but I was told that I must find a pond so I took out my dowsing rods and within minutes was directed to a small pond in an isolated corner of the forest (dowsing never ceases to amaze me!) The water looked dirty and polluted so I tossed a crystal in there and called upon it to cleanse and purify the water and to heal the spirit of the pond. The water didn't seem to be flowing so I realised it would take time for the crystal to take effect.

I then headed for Canterbury where a fairy festival was taking place.


While there I went on a powerful shamanic journey to past lives. I travelled to a cave that looked like Thor's Cave where I saw brutal cavemen boiling human body parts in a cauldron. This was the 'Cave of Violence' that mt friend had told me about. Suddenly I was in the midst of a Viking battle, lashing out with my sword in all directions, fighting for my life! I was consumed with fear and anger, a red rage that took hold of me as I parried blow after blow. I then saw myself charging into the cave and slaying all the cavemen, my heart filled with revulsion and anger. My guides told me that I needed to release all this fear and anger, and my whole body shook as I did so.

I then felt a sense of incredible calm and tranquillity, and was transported to happier past lives. I walked hand in hand on a Scandinavian hillside with a beautiful happy woman who seemed to be dressed in a traditional folk costume. Then I was a child in a wooden longhouse, safe in my mother's arms and the glow of a warming fire.

Despite all these experiences, or perhaps because of them, I was still feeling rather spaced out. I headed back home to Yorkshire and finally decided to visit the spring I was told about all those weeks ago while sitting by the river Rye!

I travelled to a remote little valley on the North York Moors called Parci Gill. I climbed down into the gill and then followed it upstream where I found a dead rotting sheep lying right in the middle of the flow! I stank to high heaven but I knew I had to remove it as it was polluting all the water, so I grabbed it by the horns and yanked it out, placing it over a tree trunk nearby to dry out.

I then headed further upstream and finally found a little spring bubbling from the ground near a small twisted oak tree.


I tuned in there and got the message through that I am a changeling! A Fae placed in a human body to carry out a task here on Earth. I am not here to help the humans, I am here to help the Fae! I am placing crystals in these springs in order to transform the earth into a place more suitable for them to inhabit.

So I take another crystal, place it in this remote spring, and then activate it. The energy then travels:

"From the rivulet to the gill
From the gill to the stream
From the stream to the river.
Energising the land.
Purifying it."

Now path is set for me. Now I am following my guidance again. Now I am back on track at last!

Tuesday 22 March 2011

Tarn Hole Spring

After reading about some strange 'unknown structures' on the moors above Tarn Hole I decided that I would like to return there. The place was magical, a place of 'high energy', somewhere to absorb yourself in nature and recharge your batteries. The last time I had been there I had had the experience of becoming the wildman himself (see Tarn Hole - The Wild Man of the Woods )

I walked back to the magical glade where I'd had these experiences and as I approached I saw a leaf suddenly dance up into the air and then settle back down to earth again. There was absolutely no wind so I took it as a sign that this place still held its magic. I sat down there and meditated, and as I did so a small shiny greeny-blue fly landed on my knee and looked at me. It seemed like he had a message for me but I was in no hurry to go running off on another quest, so I just sat there soaking up the magical atmosphere of the place until the fly suddenly buzzed off, away across the stream.

After a while I got up and crossed the stream myself, and headed up the hillside through deep bracken that grew between small twisted oak trees. Soon enough I was out of the magical wooded valley and up on the high moorland, and it didn't take me long to find the stone structure that I had come here to look for.


It looked like a shrine so I knelt before the small opening and left a food offering there. I then got up and did some dowsing to try and see what I could find out about this place. As I did so a large bumblebee suddenly appeared out of nowhere and buzzed round and around my head several times. He said he was sent by Marielle, the spirit of this place, and his message to me was that I should sit down inside the shrine and meditate there.

The hole was cramped and full of dried sheep poo, but I managed to cram myself in there and then tried to meditate again. At that moment the greeny-blue fly returned and landed on my knee again! I was sure it was the same fly I had seen earlier! This time I couldn't ignore him so I tuned in to see what he had to say.

He said he had also been sent by Marielle, the spirit of this place and the spirit of insects. He told me that my task now was to place crystals (quartz points) in springs to cleanse and purify the water and reinvigorate the land. This would prepare the way for 'The coming of the elves'. He also mentioned something about a 'ring of fire' which I didn't understand.

I was now feeling very uncomfortable and cramped in the hole so I got up and started heading back down into the wooded valley. But I hadn't gone very far down the hillside before I heard the very faint tinkling sound of running water. I thought I must be imagining it at first but then it grew louder as I found a tiny rivulet flowing through the bracken. Well where there's water perhaps there's a spring? I followed the tiny stream uphill through the bracken until it seemed to emerge from some rocks under a holly bush.


"It couldn't be!" I thought. I couldn't have found a magical spring so quickly! But as I pushed back the undergrowth and peeped under the dark shade of the rocks, there it was!


This place wasn't marked on any maps, I had found it purely through guidance and intuition. Now it just so happened that I was carrying some quartz points in my bag. The last time I had found a magic spring I knew I needed a quartz point, though I didn't know why, but at that time I didn't have any ( see Return to Scotland - Polveoch Burn, Aberfoyle and the Highlands ) so in the intervening period I had purchased some.

Now that I understood my quest I held the whole batch of crystals in my hand and called upon the power of Merlin to energise them. The crystals filled with a bright white light which spread to fill my entire body until me and the crystals became one, filled with the same energy. I then placed one of the crystals deep into heart of the spring, at its very source, and called upon it to energise the water, then taking out my drinking cup I drank three cupfuls of the clear sparkling water, thereby absorbing its magical energy back into my own body.

With my third eye I could see the crystal energising the spring, causing its water to shine with a brilliant white light. This white light energy was being carried downstream into the valley, flowing out into the world...

====================================================

Rob Wildwood (Aurvandil) has now released a book containing hundreds of his own stunning full colour photos of many of the magical places he has visited in his travels. The images capture the magic and mystery of each place and are enhanced by extracts of local folklore that reveal the magical lore of each place and tempt deeper investigation. Every site listed has full directions and map grid references that can be checked online, so join Rob Wildwood as you discover Britain's magical places at www.themagicalplaces.com

Monday 7 March 2011

Return to Scotland - Polveoch Burn, Aberfoyle and the Highlands

Having completed my quest for King Erowyn I returned to Lindsaylands faery mound and met with my guide Atheron there. The place seemed troubled, not so tranquil as it had done before, but eventually I was able to make contact with the king again. As I stood on the mound meditating I saw Aurvandil walk towards the King Erowyn and his court and embrace the king's daughter. It was odd, usually I am Aurvandil but now I was seeing him in the third person. So is he me? Or is this a vision of another time, another world? He dwells in the land of faerie where all things are beautiful and immortal, yet here I am stuck in this human body with all my bodily cares and woes. If I am to receive any reward for my efforts then seemingly these rewards are going to come to me in the otherworld and not in this world? My task as a human being seems to be to release all my negative energies and fears, and raise myself to the level of the Fae so that I may join them again in their world. So have they tricked me again? Has it all been for nought?

I am left pondering this as I turn to leave the fairy mound again, clearly there is nothing more for me to do here, my task for King Erowyn is done. I ask Atheron to accompany me and guide me, so that when I lose my way I can call upon his help and guidance.

So I had been guided to return to Scotland to look for 'elves'? I realised that the word used was vague, that these were going to be different beings from those that I had already encountered and called elves. I was guided to visit the Leadhills area of Lanarkshire and so I began my search there using my dowsing rods to guide me.

My guidance eventually led me to a remote windswept hillside known as Corbie Hall, I couldn't work out what a 'hall' was but it seemed to refer to some large underground chamber. I lay down in a small gully there to get out of the biting wind and tried to commune with the beings who lived there. I could sense tall thin brown-skinned creatures all around me. They had black bug-eyes and long pointed ears, their voices were rasping and unfriendly. They wouldn't talk directly to me but my guide Atheron was able to communicate with them.

"Two roads cross on high. Take the holy spear!" he translated.

I didn't know what it meant. Were these elves trapped here? Did they need this magic spear in order to free themselves? I was able to get that the cross was in Scotland (Ayrshire?) and that Hecate would show (or guard?) the way. I could sense other communities of elves around who were even less friendly, these were not the gentle Fae I was used to.

I decided to leave Leadhills for now and head further west to Kirkconnel. I'd heard an interesting piece of folklore about some devil-haunted woods around there near the Polveoch Burn.

"The braes of Polveoch, at the west end of the Bank Wood, was a favourite trysting place of the fairies. Here the good little folks assembled on May Day to celebrate the advent of summer; contingents came in from Kello Water, Glen Aylmer, and Glen Wharry, and when all had gathered together they rode merrily over the knowes towards the Bale Hill, in whose sun-ward slope a beauteous doorway was said to open for them, which they entered two at a time, the green turf closing over the last pair to get in. Hallowe'en was another of their gala nights.

It is related that one Hallowe'en two farm servants, while on their way to Todholes to see their sweet-hearts, heard sounds of most enchanting music issuing from Polveoch Burn. Turning aside to discover from whence it came, they were astonished to see in a green opening among the trees a company of fairies, male and female, dancing to a band of pipers. All were dressed in the most elegant style, and their delicate little bodies swirled round in a fashion that quite entranced the awestruck swains. One, however, thought the strange sight could bode no good, and he beat a hasty retreat, leaving his companion gazing admiringly on the dazzling show. Long he stood and feasted his eyes and ears on the exquisite scene and the delicious melody, when, his presence being discovered by one of the company, he was invited to take part in the dance, and presented with fruit and wine. He daringly accepted; the refreshments seemed to put a new life into him, and he joined in the dance with the most lively spirit, acquitting himself so well that he was made quite a hero by the little ladies in green, who did all in their power to make him enjoy himself. To drink of the fairies' wine was to lose all calculation of time, and twelve months went round and found the young fellow still enjoying himself with the wee folks. On Hallowe'en following he was found at the same place by his companion, who, refusing a drink that was proffered him, gave offence to the fairies, and, dragging hold of his friend, pulled him away, and broke the spell that bound him. He could scarcely believe he had been twelve months with the fairies, and said the time only seemed like an hour or two. Ever afterwards he was endowed with second sight."

I started by walking east through once much-haunted Bank Wood which still held all its trees, protected as it was nowadays between a steep slope and a railway line. I came across a beautiful spring under a rock ledge and as I meditated there I had a vision of small green glowing lights emerging from the hillside all around. I also had a vision of the sidhe, processesing in their glowing white robes along the Polveoch Burn.

As I stood gazing at the spring I remembered a message I'd got. I was to place crystals in these spring in order to energise the waters, but unfortunately I had no crystals on me at this time.

I walked all the way along the base of Shiel hill (Sidhe hill?) and then climbed up to its summit. I stood there at the summit on a small square rock and had a vision of one of the sidhe riding up to me on a horse. He was wearing a green robe and was quite confrontational. I held him at bay with my wand and revealed to him my true form as Aurvandil. He told me to return later in the year (at Beltane or the equinox?)

I also had a vision of the faerie king by the Polveoch Burn so I decided that it was time to go investigate the mysterious brook that lay on the far side of the hill. I walked down the hill until I came to a small burn with a little waterfall. I followed the stream downhill and eventually came to a much larger waterfall that disappeared into a gully.


Unfortunately the water here became polluted with mine run-off, which somewhat spoilt the magic of the place, but it was a tranquil and beautiful spot nonetheless.

I followed the burn back to the road and further investigations in the area revealed nothing more that day. The elfin knight had told me to return later so maybe I had to visit the place on a date when the veils were thinner before this place would reveal more of its secrets to me?

My next stop was Aberfoyle where I intended to return to Doon Hill. I picked up my friend Catriona and we headed off through the woods towards the famous fairy hill. I stepped through the forked tree that I had stepped through the last time I visited and as I did so a voice in my head said:

"Two times in, two times out!"

It was a reminder that the last time I came here I had forgotten to step back out the way I came in! Perhaps this was why I had been feeling so drained and spaced out since then? My head had been stuck in faeryland!

As we approached the fort I felt the bolts of energy being cast down at me again, but this time I did not resist and simply let them enter me. They seemed to be cleansing me and removing my negative energy! Why had I not trusted them the last time?

We reached the glade at the top of the hill where the magic trees with their clootie rage stood and I was struck by the change in atmosphere there since the last time I had visited! It was so much lighter and more airy and magical! The place looked clean and well cared-for and wind chimes gently tinkled giving it a serene atmosphere. It was almost as if the work I had done here the last time I came had raised the energy of the place and made it more light and magical.

I found one of the fluorite eggs I had placed on my last visit and was told to take it. It had now done its job and I could keep it.

Catriona meditated and met with her spirit guides. She was then taken to see a bear and a beetle. The bear represented the strength in the land, but now that bears were extinct in the British Isles mankind had to find a way of fulfilling that role. The beetle said something very simple: "Remember the small things!"

The only message I got was to cleanse my blue teardrop-shaped pendant that I had found there the last time by placing it in a spring.

After spending some time soaking up the atmosphere there we headed back down the hill and this time I remembered to climb back through the forked tree, twice! So now I was back in the real world at last!

I said goodbye to Catriona and continued my journey north, up into the wilds of Scotland and up the eastern side of Loch Lomond.


This is the less-visited and much wilder side of the famous loch and I headed as far north as the road would take me, to a tiny little place called Rowerdennan.


There I got out of my car and climbed up to a secluded little waterfall by a place called Rowchnock.

I had come to this secluded spot for a reason, to connect with the spirit of Mother Earth herself! As I sat there meditating by the waterfall with the earth beneath me I suddenly felt a huge surge of energy as I felt myself connecting with the spirit of the entire earth! I had never felt anything like this before! This was huge, powerful and terrifying!

As I felt this awesome power it made me realise how insignificant we all are, scratching a living here on the thin surface. The spirit of the Earth lives deep deep below and is all powerful! I wondered then if people in ancient times had felt this power as I was feeling it? If they were aware of such a powerful presence then its no wonder that they treated it with such reverence! Did they also feel the power of the sun and the moon in this way? What an amazing thing is creation! How the powers of Earth, Sun and Moon keep everything in constant motion, ensuring that the Earth is constantly recreating itself. The winds blow, the clouds deposit their moisture, the rivers cut deep fissures in the earth, the continents shift, volcanoes create and destroy, and the atmosphere creates a perfect greenhouse that sustains all life.

All of this came to me in one moment, the awesome world that we live on. Everything of the earth is Gaia! One great living organism. Even all the creations of mankind are of Gaia. The clothes that we wear and the technology that we use, it all comes from Gaia and it will all go back to her as the Earth constantly recreates itself. We are nothing more than an itchy fungus on her skin, so insignificant and so small that Gaia is not even aware of us!

But in that brief moment of communion with the great mother she was aware of me! She noticed me! I felt it!

I was playing with forces here more powerful than I could possibly comprehend! But what an exhilarating experience it was nonetheless!

**********************************

I continued my journey further north until I arrived at Tyndrum where I wanted to search for a patch of ancient Caledonian pine forest by the name of Coille Coire Chuile that clung to a snowy mountainside.


My first attempt to reach the forest failed as the way was blocked by a deep and fast-flowing stream at the bottom of a gully.


But undeterred I tried another approach and walked from Tom na Croiche until I reached a rickety little footbridge that crossed the Allt Gleann Auchreoch stream. The 'bridge' was just a couple of railway lines with loose wooden sleepers in between that were all rotten and broken. Some of them had already disintegrated into the raging waters below, so I had to get down on my hands and knees and edge my way slowly across to avoid toppling into the stream!

I finally made it into the pine forest and it was a magical place, unlike any modern forest or any forest you've ever been to until you visit one of these ancient places.


I walked slowly through the ancient and silent forest, touching some of the trees as I went. The area seemed to be covered in mounds and dips and hidden gullies. As I approached a wide basin-like gully in the centre with a small mound in the middle of it I spotted some roe deer ahead of me grazing. I sat and watched them silently before they eventually noticed me and skipped away. I then made my way to the small mound in the centre and meditated there.

I got the sense of this tiny forest being like a fortress, holding out against the forces of change and the modern world, waiting patiently to repopulate the land once its time came again, once the invaders had exhausted their food supplies and retreated. The modern world is unsustainable, and the trees silently waiting knew this.

But the trees here were not happy, the land was over-grazed and no young trees were growing. They were under siege and weakening. I drew energy down into the place, as much as I could, to help with their regeneration.

I continued on up the mountainside but the weather was starting to turn so I decided to head back and try to cross the stream higher up. I crossed a small stream and found myself on a high spit of land. I sat down there and plunged my wand into the earth where it sank deep into the peaty ground. I imparted more energy and healing into the land and then withdrew my wand to find it stained dark by the peat.

I tried to continue but found the larger stream ahead to be uncrossable, so eventually and with trepidation I had to make my way back to the rickety footbridge!

I had made my way up to the wilds of Scotland again and had all kinds of interesting experiences up there, but now it was time to turn around and head south again, back home.

====================================================

Rob Wildwood (Aurvandil) has now released a book containing hundreds of his own stunning full colour photos of many of the magical places he has visited in his travels. The images capture the magic and mystery of each place and are enhanced by extracts of local folklore that reveal the magical lore of each place and tempt deeper investigation. Every site listed has full directions and map grid references that can be checked online, so join Rob Wildwood as you discover Britain's magical places at www.themagicalplaces.com

Friday 4 March 2011

The Fairy Cross Plain and Danby Heads

After acquiring more fluorite crystals and getting them energised at Linsaylands fairy mound in Scotland it was time for me to return to the Fairy Cross Plain (see Hecate and the Fairy Cross Plain - Jan 2011 )

I knew I had an important task to complete today, so to avoid drawing attention to myself I didn't start near the village as before but parked up on Danby Rigg and followed an old overgrown footpath down the side of the hill.

As I neared the edge of the rigg the views of the Fairy Cross Plain below were spectacular. The morning mist that hung in the valley was just about to clear and a large bank of clouded blotted out the sun but was just giving way to reveal a beautiful blue winter sky.


The rounded fairy hill that was the destination of my quest was clearly visible in the plain before me, sitting proudly like a pimple.




I scrambled on downwards through last-year's dried bracken and hopped over a drystone wall into the plain. 


The fairy hill beckoned before me but I looped around the back of the hill to avoid prying eyes, and then made my way past the rabbit holes that cluttered its flank until I reached the summit of the mound.

My first job was to retrieve the 10 crystals that I had left there in January. I had popped them in the entrance to an old rabbit hole, but now, no matter how hard I tried I didn't seem to be able to find them. Perhaps someone else had found them, or perhaps the rabbits had buried them deep underground? I had one last look and then finally I spotted them! I stuffed my hand in the hole and pulled them out, one, two, three... I managed to retrieve only seven in all, so now I had to stuff my arm right down the rabbit hole and root around, clawing out mud and turf until finally, with great relief,  I retrieved the last one!

I placed them with the two new crystals I had brought along so now I had them all at last! Twelve fluorite eggs that had all been energised on the fairy mound at Lindsaylands in Scotland and had now been brought here to Yorkshire, for what purpose I did not know.

I sat there and meditated with the stones and fairy king Arathon appeared, with white beard and cloak, looking much as he had the last time I had visited. He instructed me to lay them out in a twelve pointed star and I remembered the pattern I had made at Doon Hill in Aberfoyle. What was the significance of this pattern?

I started to place the crystals all around the top of the hill, but the hill top was rounded and uneven, and the grass was long, so I soon started to lose track of where I had placed the crystals. I started to panic and decided that I had to get all the crystals back before I forgot where they all were. I retrieved most of them but there was one which I just couldn't find no matter how hard I tried! I now had no idea at all where this crystal was, it could have been anywhere on the hilltop hidden in the long grass!

There was nothing for it, I took out my dowsing rods and decided that the only way I was going to find the crystal was to dowse for it. I walked around and around the hilltop with my rods out in front of me, focusing on the missing crystal. Suddenly the rods crossed over! I looked down at my feet and there it was, the missing crystal! If ever I needed proof that dowsing worked then surely this was it!

Happy to have my 12 crystals back again I walked to the very crown of the hill, stabbed my crystal tipped wand into the ground, and then laid out the crystals in a much smaller pattern around the wand. I now remembered that this was what I had attempted to do the first time I came here when I didn't have enough crystals with me. I guess that my experience at Aberfoyle had distracted me into thinking I had to lay the crystals out in a larger pattern. I had to learn never to assume that what's good for one place is suitable for another!

I stood there above my star grid, closed my eyes, and was just about to call in the energies when I heard the chugging of a tractor approaching the hill. It was the local farmer, no doubt come to give me a telling off for being on his land! I quickly grabbed up my wand and my dowsing rods and put them back in my bag, but by now he was upon me and was not happy! Who knows how long he had been watching me and what he thought I was up to up there. He probably thought I was after his rabbits! I tried to explain to him that I was just here to dowse for energy lines but he didn't want to know. Despite being only yards from a public footpath he basically harassed me until I was forced to leave.

No matter, I figured that I didn't have to be actually standing on the spot to call in the energies. I had left an imprint there and the crystals were still there in their star pattern, so all I had to now was find a suitable spot to call down the white light to energise this place. I continued northeast, crossed the lane and climbed Danby Head opposite, which is the long hill that separates Great Fryupdale from Little Fryupdale.

When I reached the top of the slope I stood up there on Danby Crags and looked back down over the plain.


The fairy hill was still clearly visible in the plain below and so I took out my wand and started to focus.


I pointed my crystal-tipped wand directly at the top of the mound and focused upon drawing energy down into the star pattern that I had created. 

Immediately a huge column of blinding white light shot down from the sky and entered the crown of the knoll. The knoll then filled with energy. more and more of it, intensifying until the knoll seemed to glow from within. The top of the knoll then appeared to peel away to reveal a huge clear crystal like a column of pure shining quartz . The crystal filled with blinding white light until it couldn't contain the energy any more and then suddenly burst forth beams of white light in all directions. The beams connected this place to other similar places places, filling them with energy and energising the grid.
 
So what did the vision mean? Was it a vision of the future, or was what I had witnessed actually happening right now, but on another level and another plain to the one we are consciously aware of in our day to day lives? I knew one thing though with certainty, the task that I had been given all those months ago by King Erowyn at Lindsaylands fairy mound was now complete. It felt strangely anti-climactic somehow, I knew I had achieved something, but what? And what next? "Fear of completion" is what Alphedia would have called it, or "being at a loose end" is how I would describe it!

I did some dowsing and was told to return to Scotland to meet the elves there, my job on the North York Moors was now done.

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Rob Wildwood (Aurvandil) has now released a book containing hundreds of his own stunning full colour photos of many of the magical places he has visited in his travels. The images capture the magic and mystery of each place and are enhanced by extracts of local folklore that reveal the magical lore of each place and tempt deeper investigation. Every site listed has full directions and map grid references that can be checked online, so join Rob Wildwood as you discover Britain's magical places at www.themagicalplaces.com