earth energy – Page 2 – Green and Grey

Beginning the Shamanic journey

My travels in 2010 in the landscape of my ancestors, experiencing the connection between blood and place, and the shifts within myself of how I interacted and worked with such energies led me to further studies. I had began with books; my literary studies had commenced several years before my travels and had in some ways inspired them. But my journey also fed the direction that my studies would take after my return. One of the main reasons for this was a fellow traveler, Gede Parma.

He was the spiritual adviser on a tour of the Pagan sites of West County England and Ireland held by Dragon Eye Tours in 2010, and the author of the book ‘Spirited: Taking paganism beyond the circle’ which I had read shortly before signing up for the tour. My first group pagan ceremonies were held on this tour, many led by Gede, and after my return we kept in touch. A short time later I commenced a two year apprenticeship in Shamanic Practice, led by Gede, which helped me to learn a series of techniques and practices to expand my awareness of the possibilities and how I interconnected and worked with them. My focus was on expanding my understanding of connections and embracing my nature using the cauldron of land, sky and sea. Through this I learned grounding and foundation practices, divination and spirit working practices, and practices related to the underworld and ancestors. Whilst not a tradition in and of itself, the Shamanic Apprenticeship is fed by various traditions and we were encouraged as students to adjust the teachings to our own ways of working.

The Shamanic Apprenticeship provided me with the groundwork I needed to understand my earlier experiences and encouraged me to explore connections with the landscape in which I live, which is not that of my ancestors. I will explore this in more detail in future posts.

For those who are interested, much of the techniques and practices from the Shamanic Apprenticeship are captured in two other books by Gede Parma: ‘By Land, By Sky, By Sea: Three Realms of Shamanic Witchcraft’ and Ecstatic Witchcraft: Magick, Philosophy and Trance in the Shamanic Craft’. All three books are published by Llewellyn Worldwide Publications http://www.llewellyn.com/

More information on Dragon Eye Tours can be found here: http://www.dragonseyetours.com/

Gede Parma, St Nectan's Glen, 2010 — Gede Parma, St Nectan’s Glen, 2010

Working with Earth Energies

When I found ‘Working with Earth Energies: How to tap into the healing powers of the natural world’ by David Furlong, I had been searching for something that kind of related to communing with stone but wasn’t sure what I was looking for. This book helped me to begin to understand the work I was becoming involved in from an energy working perspective. Most of what I’d found after being introduced to communing with stone tended to focus on ley lines and dowsing, and because I wasn’t sure still what I was actually doing finding books that were relevant was quite tricky. Yes, David covers dowsing and ley lines, but he also covers a lot of other things.

One thing from the book that really resonated with me was the small story about St Nectern’s Glen and how it had been transformed from a place where the energy was driving people away into one people were drawn to. This vignette would have greater resonance later on for me, but as I’d recently been to St Nectern’s Glen and had experienced the energy of the place first hand (it’s one of my all time favorite places so far), I found myself really drawn into the story. What I like about David’s work is that he talks about how he experiences a place; what he looks at and does in order to adjust the energy; and the results of the work.

The book is also full of different energy associations that could be worked with from land chakras to the plants and animals that are on it; to Feng Shui; to Luciferic energy and more. David discusses energy exchange that occurs all the time between everything and how this influences health (both physical health of people and of the land itself). The concept of healing the land through energy work really attracted me and felt like it fitted quite strongly with what I had been doing when communing with stone.

Beneath Your Feet

I am
Beneath your feet
I am
In your heartbeat
I am
The bugs and bone
I am
The soil and stone

I am
Beneath your feet
I am
In your heartbeat
I am
The tree that grows
I am
The thorny rose

I am
Beneath your feet
I am
In your heartbeat
I am
The crops you reap
I am
The food you eat

I am
Beneath your feet
I am
In your heart beat
I am
The clothes you wear
I am
The flesh you tear

I am
Beneath your feet
I am
In your heartbeat
You are
A part of me
So open your eyes
And you’ll see that

You are
Beneath my feet

Listen to the song

Time for expansion

My introduction to the vibrations and energies of the land was by being embedded in some very sacred ancestral places and allowing myself to open so that I experienced what the place had to offer me. By doing this I saw images and shapes that in an Irish museum exhibit on paleolithic art were described as energy representations. My experiences had extended to feeling these vibrations by dowsing with two rods as well as through using other senses like the mind’s eye. My eyes were opening to this new (well, for me) and fascinating path of working with earth energies. Where to now?

On my travels I also had some wonderful shopping experiences (especially in Glastonbury) and collected a range of books. My next step was to begin reading them so I could have some background on how other people had experienced earth energies – including the serpent lines / dragon lines / ley lines.

Published in 1989 originally, “The Sun and the Serpent” by Paul Bradhurst and Hamish Miller provided an insight into another’s journey through a landscape etched in stone. I learned that they too had experienced interesting energy shapes when dowsing the Hurlers Stone Circle on Bodmin Moor. In fact a large chunk of the places I had traveled to in the Western part of England had been on or very near to the ley lines that were followed in the book. From a personal experience of specific stones, I was beginning to see just how much experiences of the land vibrations or energies have influenced and continue to influence us and our relationship with the land.

Geometric Revelations

Wandering through the landscape of the tombs and temples of my ancestors I was often struck by the geometric designs carved into the stones. Designs like spirals, wavy lines, circles and zig-zags. What did they mean?

Being new to energetic lines, it didn’t occur to me until I saw an Irish museum poster that the geometric shapes were representations of the vibrations and energies I had been seeing in shapes and colours when communing with stone. Then it just seemed so obvious and I felt very stupid for not noticing earlier.

I began to wonder why we stopped drawing them, or if we had changed and were drawing them in a different way (and if so why). Was it that we had moved into a different direction and we were dealing with energetic lines and vibrations in a new way, or had the knowledge become secret? Perhaps what had changed was simply our awareness of them.

Whatever it was, now that I did know I had become hooked and eager to know more.

Seeing Energy: an Encounter with Ley Lines

Stones for me had always been alive – but I had yet to feel the connecting energy that linked them. It was while learning to dowse at Avebury Henge that I first began to ‘see’ energy. And became acquainted with ley lines.

The rods in my hands moved as I ran them slowly up the face of a stone, far enough away from it that the rods didn’t connect. And they moved at very specific points, which we were told were vibrational energy points the stone was giving off, and that these points could also be read by other more sophisticated machinery.

Avebury Henge also happens to be on a ley line – energetic lines of energy that criss cross the Earth. In the United Kingdom, the ley lines are referred to as Michael and Mary lines. We walked in a line across one and felt the edges of the energy line; demonstrated quite clearly by the moving rods. I closed my eyes and saw orange lines of energy – some bits closer to being white – like blurred neon signs in a timelapsed photograph. And opened them to see where I’d been looking was part of the ley line.

Later that week, we returned to Avebury and walked to the top of Windmill Hill through some fields. I closed my eyes, and saw the orange-white energy lines – two of them – one curving away from me through the mounds. I was surprised that I could see it and it awoke something within me. I felt connected somehow to these lines of energy – like they were part of my blood, part of my heritage.

Riding the Serpent

I feel its breath calling me
From beneath
Underneath
Soil, grass and dirt
Like a magnet it draws me close

It rises to meet up with me
I reach out
And feel it
Move, turn and sway
Feel the power that swells it

That one touch sparks something
Within me
I respond
Mind and body
Instinct and experience combine

The colours dance before me
Orange green
Black red white
Pulsing vibrant
A dancing map before my eyes

I pull from the stars and send
To the deep
Flushing all
Toxic blocks
Billowing and swirling away

Coiled becomes straight and the blocks
Become pure
Red to green
Black to white
Absorbed into the intensity building

And then comes that final rhythmic pulse
As all moves
Falls away
Becomes still
And the serpent once so awake rests again

Exploring how landscape feels

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.