Waiting to go to St, Catherine’s Hill for the Mayday conclusion to the male and female mystery teachings we had been shown on the Magdalene Down Barrows, instead, we get the call to go to Danebury Hillfort… again! I was told that I would be given a new symbol there and another essence.

Danebury is the active Mother site for Hampshire, connected to many other settlement sites around the county, including St. Catherine’s Hill in Winchester. We receive many gifts at Danebury Hillfort and are often ‘called’ to go there. As usual, it is best to go without expectations because what we received was not what we expected.

As we walked through the entrance and into the womb of the site, I felt the guardian walking behind me. This time, he was wearing a simple creamy-white ankle-length tunic. But as we walked to the highest point, beneath the huge beech tree, I became aware of the old woman. I was surprised to see her, as it is Spring, so I did not expect to see the Crone of Winter!

But, she explained to me as we approached her, that modern humans have a tendency to separate the seasons. We see Spring as separate to Summer; summer as separate to Winter; Winter as separate to Spring. But they saw it as a continuum, an interconnected cycle, each season growing into the next. There was nothing to separate them. She highlighted the Blackthorn and how it flowers in Spring, then the blossoms become fruit which are then harvested in early Winter (They had no autumn!).

When we got up to the top, I saw her patiently waiting inside her house, sitting beside the fire. She told me to take the bottle of water as she wanted me to make an essence. Into the bottle, she place a flame of her fire, to keep me warm in winter. Next, she put in a ladle of fruit-brew, made of leaves and berries she had collected since spring; food that had been picked and stored all year to prepare for the winter months. It represented the knowledge of how to prepare, how to save, how to source food from their locality. She placed some wheat into the bottle too; grown in Spring and harvested in late summer, again stored in pits for the long winter months. The essence was to be called: Winter Fruits.

Next, while the bottle was still open, she gave us each a gift. Mine was an arrowhead, on a thong made of deer-hide. Chris’s was a chalk loom-weight. Once she had given us these gifts, she then picked up an adder by the tail and dropped it into the bottle, then instructed me to close it, so the energy could not escape. I was also instructed not to release this essence until the right time, because it for the teachers.

It was then Chris’s turn to work. He was told to pour water on the ground, on a specific point, and when he saw the water go out in blue lines to other places. These lines also appeared as ribbons. Then he became aware of the Maypole and how lines of different colours, connected to different sites, radiated out into the landscape. The people dancing around the Maypole gathered the lines, like ribbons of energy, and wound them around it, thereby connecting themselves energetically to these other places. The coloured ribbons represented frequencies of light in and above the landscape.

This is something I have anchored in other places too, but the first time that Chris has seen it. These ‘poles’ are static; they are not moved. The original meaning, and function, of the Maypole has been lost, but can be brought back if enough people learn how to work with them again. They are anchored at important sites, such as Danebury, Winchester, and Beacon Hill, and maintain the important energetic connections between sites.

When the Crone had finished her gifting, the Male Guardian appeared. He stood in front of me and drew a symbol of light with two colours, on my forehead. He said that this symbol was used in conjunction with the Shepherd’s Crook symbol, so it was a teacher’s symbol, for those ready to guide others through their initiatic gateways.

So, releasing expectations was the order of the day.

But we’ll still go to St. Catherine’s Hill, just in case…