A few weeks ago, we went to the New Forest to visit an Iron Age hillfort called Castle Hill, near Burley. I was reading The Forest by Edward Rutherfurd and he mentioned a myth about a dragon there. As I have often found, where there’s smoke, there’s usually fire. Myths are great for finding sites associated with dragons because ancient cultural beliefs remain in the collective unconscious of the area.

Once we climbed to the hillfort, not realising until we were inside that there was a road which would have given us direct access, we found a beautiful old oak tree. It felt like a Mother Tree, and it stood at the western entrance. We were told to make an essence in this old tree, which was a combination of her ancient stability and wisdom, and the white dragon energies that protected the site.

The white dragon, which looked very ‘fleshy’, more like a Chinese dragon, had long serpent-like tendrils hanging down from beside its nostrils and it stood at the entrance, facing outwards, acting as protector of the hillfort. On the other side of the hillfort, at the other entrance, I could see another one, looking out towards Lymington. They instructed me to walk sunwise around the inside of the fort and to connect the dragons to each other via a white light ring. In my mind’s eye, it reminded me of that old toothpaste advert, with its ring of confidence. White with a blue tinge.

As we walked in a circle around the inside of the fort, we continued to tune into the energies of the site. We were told that this place was a place of safety during times of invasion from people outside. When outlying villages were attacked, the people who lived outside would come to be fed and protected. It felt like it was during a time when there was much instability and villages were routinely robbed and destroyed.

Dragon priests, able to communicate with the elemental energies of the place, were given forewarning that an attack was imminent, and they informed the villagers, who trusted them completely. They then left their homesteads and came to the safety of the fort, often returning later to burned homes and destroyed livelihoods.

Part of the energies of these dragons was that the protection they offered was an energetic force-field that only allowed in energies in that resonated with them. The priests of the place held that energy. If others came with bad intention, they were denied access. It was as if they would feel repelled by the place. Perhaps a fear set in, or a superstition triggered. Something always kept them out. I have found this before at particularly elemental sites. An energy-field that you could only access if you saw beyond the glamour surrounded them. They were invisible to most people. The ‘glamour’ came in the form of fear. For no reason that you could see, you would suddenly become afraid, seeing darkness all around you. Only if you could see the fear for what it was could you access the wisdom and knowledge of the elementals who inhabited the place.

The white dragons fulfilled the same purpose in Castle Hill hillfort.

As we made the white dragon essence at the Mother Tree, I became aware of a blue dragon energy moving in a line behind me. I was facing the centre of the fort, and the line, which looked like a blue serpent energy, entered the back of my Hara and rose out of my crown, then travelled down through my feet. I had the strongest feeling we needed to go to wherever this blue dragon line was coming from. This turned out to be the Avon River at Ringwood.

We drove to Ringwood and brought this new essence to the river, following our intuition to where the river by a lovely green area called Jubilee park. As I poured some of the tree essence into the river, I heard myself say: ‘A gift from the Mother’.

Next, I filled a bottle with water from the river to take back to the fort. I was told it was ‘the gift of water’. And I was aware of how privileged we were to have water. Some places don’t have any! The feeling was that water was a gift and one we could not live without. There were so many places that did not have water, such as in desert environments and places where humans have polluted the seas and rivers and groundwater. We do not recognise what a gift we have. What I loved about this exchange of gifts was that they were given freely, in recognition of the importance of both places.

This was also my cue to stop complaining about the extremely wet winter we have had all winter! I had become so tired of my back garden quagmire, which my hens had created, and I’d thought the rain would never stop.

Before we left the little park, I had a desire to stand on the bridge over the river. Looking across the sparkling waters, the view was beautiful! There was a glorious feminine energy presiding over this fast-flowing river, and she told me she would like to add to the essence, which now contained oak, dragon, and water energy. She put a fish into it, just like at the Itchen last year. The fish is masculine energy, but still hers.

We drove back to the hillfort and brought the water to the tree. There, I had to walk it anti-clockwise in a circle around the tree, pouring some of it on the ground as I walked. Chris did one half, and I did the other, like a yin/yang.

It felt like we had completed another circuit.

The following week we went to Lymington. Such a lovely town, with its old fishing alleys and small slipway. Now it is a marina! We walked as far down to the sea as we could and stood beside another slipway from where I could see the opposite shore. I never know what to expect when I reach a place and this time they did not expect me to do any work. Instead, I felt an energetic aura of water emerge from the sea and surround me, as if I was carrying a bubble. This was to be brought back to Castle Hill!

We drove into the hillfort this time and wandered down to the oak tree at the entrance. Standing beneath its branches, I felt the bubble of water that undulated around me suddenly flop down onto the ground, seeping into the soil in a cascade of blue.

That was all I needed to do, I thought, until I saw a large white dragon’s egg appear beneath the tree. We were instructed to stand within this egg and were told that this was an initiation into the protective guardian energies of the White dragon. We could transfer this protection to people who would be the guardians of a sacred place. We could also place it around a home if that place was going to be a sanctuary or healing space.

After this gift, the work was complete, so we explored the rest of the hillfort. There are old gravel pits there now, filled with rainwater and as I stood looking into one, I felt an impulse to throw a little gold ring in. It was a tiny ring I had found walking up a road around Winchester and which only fit on the first joint of my little finger. It had originally been on something, like the rim of a bottle, but I knew, when I found it, that it was destined for someplace else, so I had worn it with that in mind. I have very little jewellery left at this stage, as so much of it has ended up in pools or rivers. A gift for a gift – or a symbolic sacrifice, a letting go of attachment. Plus, the metal can work as a physical anchor for activated energies.

It makes me wonder, though, what the purpose for all those iron-age swords and gold found in rivers and bog pools was.

Perhaps those ancient people also exchanged gifts with the spirit of special places and energies…