Bob explained to me as we were walking around sacred landscapes that it was important to get to know a place. To introduce your self to it and allow it to introduce itself to you. That was when I began to realise that place could be sentient; could communicate and feel. Whether it is the spirits of place or the landscape itself I think depends a lot on what you believe. Perhaps they are one and the same.
I didn’t know how to introduce myself at first. Bob laughed at my early attempts, but told me it was intention more than words and it was important to talk to the landscape in the same way it spoke to me if I wanted it to understand me. So I would talk and send images and feelings at the same time because that tended to be the kind of thing I received when talking with stone. Images of what it is to be human; of me and where I was from; a little of how I felt. Then to open and see what images and feelings came through.
Walking into Weyland Smithy for the first time felt very special. I was drawn to it and could feel it calling out. It was a very warm place; lived in and living. Unlike the West Kennet Long Barrow, which I had visited not long before and which had felt abandoned and cold. Perhaps the difference was because Weyland Smithy had been reclaimed by the living in some way where as West Kennet Long Barrow was for the dead. Perhaps for other reasons. My feet connected with earth and I felt my roots go down with every step. I felt welcomed and happy.
When communing with specific stones, I was shown yellow rectangles and pink looped lines and a blue-green spiral as I walked among them. The images came very easily as if the stones were eager to communicate with someone willing to listen to them. Similar types of stones had similar shapes and colours, which I found to be very interesting and thought was linked to their purpose. Bob smiled and said nothing.
Green and Grey 