Flowerdown Barrow

September 21, 2023September 8, 2023 / Ann Murphy / Leave a comment

A few weeks ago, I had a sudden impulse to take a different route to my father’s house, (every time I write My Father’s house, I think ironically of the biblical heaven, which it clearly isn’t) and went through Littleton, in Hampshire, passing Flowerdown Barrow as I did. Passing the site, I felt a connection to the barrow, which then anchored itself in my lower hara centre, behind my navel. This is my energetic connection to Mother Earth the human energy field. The connection looks, to my inner sight, like a gold cord, vibrant and alive.

I wondered what I was supposed to do with it. Two weeks later…

5th September.

This morning was one of those mornings when I had no desire to do anything. Usually, my mornings are filled with a routine: reading for an hour, somatic exercises, then breakfast, followed by a shower, and then writing for a bit, or getting some shopping for Dad. On mornings when my time feels empty of purpose, I have learned that that is when I need to go out and walk – there is energy-work to do – somewhere.

I drove in the direction of Barton Stacey, still unsure of my destination, until the idea to visit Flowerdown popped loudly into my head! I had wanted to visit the stone beside the barrow there since I had a dream about menhirs a month ago. The dream showed how outlying menhirs were anchors of fertility, like electricity pylons, creating an anchor for the energies of the larger sites that control fertility, such as stone circles and disc barrows. They are erected on a line of energy from the main site and then that energy is transmitted into the surrounding landscape, adding energy to the land.

This is very much the same as having acupuncture to keep your body’s meridians flowing. The energy flows, unhindered, through your chakras. These chakras, or ‘wheels’, distribute the energy throughout your body, filling it with vitality. When the tissues are infused with higher vibrational energy, the body is healthy and can do what it was designed to do.

Stone circles ‘contain’ the energy of the land, which is brought into it from the solar energies at specific times of the year. It is channelled into the energy point below it, or into underground waterways, which then feeds the surrounding countryside, like a chakra point. But a circle only has a certain radius. The way to get around this is to place outliers, menhirs, which can hold an energy line from the circle and radiate it into its locality. One circle, either stone or henge, can have many outliers at a certain distance from it, and I imagine, the tall individual standing stones would have stood within a certain area and also be used as territorial marker stones, or signposts. They might have had multiple uses, but their primary purpose would have been as an energy transmitter.

Thinking about that, it makes me wonder if the menhirs also signposted the proximity of a sacred site? The people back then would have known and understood the function of the Menhirs, and would have also known how to use them to find their way to sites or settlements.

The stones, stone circles, and barrows do the same for the landscape as acupuncture needles do for the body. If the energy is flowing well, the fertility of the soil means better crops and healthier livestock. The sarsen in Littleton, which had been found in 1906 in Dean Down Drove, would have been connected to the Flowerdown Barrow, the largest barrow in Hampshire and, according to ‘Upstairs’, one of the most important sacred sites in the prehistoric area of modern-day Hampshire.

The stone itself is beautiful. It is a golden sandy colour and might have stood at least a meter higher if the top had not been broken off. I also found some interesting markings on it which maybe someone can explain to me. There are many scratches on one surface, which makes me think they could have happened during the move to Chilcomb Museum. But there is a definite lozenge carved into the surface. Again, it could be accidental, but equally, it might have been intentional. You can see these lines in one of the photos below. The lozenge seems to be part of a bigger pattern but the stone is quite damaged here too.

The stone is obviously not in its original position, it was moved originally from Dean Down Drove, which leads off from the barrrows, but I can find no evidence of the stone on old OS maps so it might have been buried under years of mud and vegetation. But there is also a hole which has been bored low down on one side, which I initially thought was a core sampling hole, however, it is too shallow and too wide. Could it have been used as a gate post, perhaps at some more recent date? That is what it reminded me of, yet there is no record of a stone anywhere near either of the Dean farms, where, I imagine, the drove-way lead to – or from… The hole might also have been caused by rain but I would have thought there would have been more, in that case…

On this particular visit, my job was to connect the stone to the disc barrow, as I imagined it was originally connected before it was moved or had fallen over. But first, I had to walk anti-clockwise around the first barrow, something I had not done on all my previous visits. Halfway around the barrow, I became aware of a woman in handwoven, woollen clothes standing on top of it. She watched me, as I went around, and I got the impression that she was waiting to see if I knew what I was doing. She continued to watch, while I finished the round.

I was then told to create a lemniscate, the infinity symbol, by walking anti-clockwise around the disc barrow, joining the two barrows. I’m always curious why things happen at certain times. I have been coming to this barrow site for nearly twenty years and only now are these two barrows being connected. As I came close, to where I started walking around the larger barrow, I felt energy rising which to me feels like excited anticipation. Sometimes it makes me want to exhale forcibly, but not this time. I have to say, feeling energy that way is one of the things that makes this work so enjoyable. It is as though I am doing what I am supposed to do, working with the landscape the way our ancestors did. In that moment of rising energy, I am the ancestors.

As I completed the round of the disc barrow, I stopped to take some photos and then heard ‘Complete the circuit’. I realised that I had not gone back to the beginning. There was still about two meters to go. I completed the circuit, as instructed, then walked into the centre of the barrow. I was immediately aware of the emerald energy but it was coming in with a blue ray, like sapphire. I have worked with Sapphire before but I’m still not sure where it fits. I asked what this ray was and was shown a blue dragon descending through it. Aha! The blue dragon is water, rain. My immediate thought was, ‘Haven’t we had enough of that?!’ (As it turned out, the land in parts of Littleton floods when the winter bourne rises).

The emerald energy above the sapphite tube represents the energy of vegetation so in that context, it made sense that the blue dragon would descend down a column of sapphire. You can’t have vegatation without water.

Once this energy had been fully anchored, I moved off the barrow. As I approached the other, smaller burial mound, I heard: ‘A message for you.’ The woman in her reddish-brown, shin-length dress was there again. She wore a blueish tartan-like top, all handwoven, and was old, her hair yellow-white. She would have been fair-haired when she was younger.

As she looked down at me from the top of the mound, she held out a package wrapped in soft brown leather, tied with a leather thong. ‘Take this,’ she said, ‘And guard it well.’ She placed a yellow flower on top of the package, which looked like a dandelion, or cat’s ear, then added, ‘For the chosen one.’ I took the package, knowing I had to pass it on to someone else. Then she said, ‘For you.’ And she gave me a bottle, the lower rounded half wrapped in a leather casing, like a bottle of sweet wine, or Sherry, from Spain.

She then went on to tell me that she was a Mother in the local community, which now lies beneath Littleton … somewhere. As I was walking away, she stood and waved, but now she had her granddaughter with her, reminding me that her daughter was a spiritual leader within the community and that she herself was teaching her granddaughter, just as the Neolithic ancestors had done. It also made me wonder if both hers, and her granddaughter’s, ashes were in the smaller barrow. It also made me think there was a subtle message there too about teaching my own granddaughters…

Later, I wondered if the single yellow flower represented the energy of this ancient Down (a Hampshire word meaning a chalkland hill) which had been called Flower Down. It has been called Flower Down for centuries, possibly because of the profusion of wildflowers that grow on chalkland, and it has been called that since before 1750. It was originally used as common land to graze animals, and therefore never ploughed. This is why the barrows were left alone and undamaged. It must have been beautiful if they called it after the flowers that grew there, the land fertilised by all the animals. After the Enclosures Act, a patch of land, with the barrows on it, was allowed for the villagers; the rest was owned by a landowner. Thankfully, he left them that part, or we might not still have them and all that information would be lost!

Continueing my journey to Dad’s, I passed hte Running Horse Inn and had the thought that I should have breakfast there one day, that therre was something beneath it that needing accessing. So, next Sunday, we are going to check it out. I’ll let you know what happens.

If you are ever in Winchester, pay Flowerdown Disc Barrow a visit, and tune in. It is a wonderful place, as many Wintonians can vouch for. I know some of you already know this stone, and these barrows, very well indeed.

https://www.cityofwinchester.co.uk/history/html/sarsens.html

The Enclosure Acts

https://www.alresfordhistandlit.co.uk/72%20An%20Introduction%20to%20Hampshire%20Drove%20Roads.pdf

Click to access Flowerdown-Sir-John-Moore-Barracks-A-Planning-Overview.pdf

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Connecting Trees with Crystalline Energy.

September 1, 2023December 29, 2025 / Ann Murphy / 2 Comments

A few months ago, I was driving through Crab Wood, (on the outskirts of Winchester, in Hampshsire) and received a message from the trees which, at the time, I completely misinterpreted. Crab Wood is an older woodland on the outskirts of Winchester, in Hampshire. It is covered in bluebells in late Spring and has been coppiced since at least the sixteenth century. It also contains beech trees, some large old oak, birch and ash and lies within the boundaries of Farley Mount Woods, which has its own elemental energy guardian.

View of Sparsholt from the edge of Woods.

I was feeling particularly tired, over-extended and emotionally drained on that day, and I needed the green of early spring leaves to make me feel normal again. The one-track road snakes through the woods, surrounded on each side by beech trees planted to create a boundary line, and as I drove along I suddenly felt like I was a tree and had four large branches, each extending, like arms, in four directions. At the time, I interpreted this to mean I was being supported by the tree, and that it existed somewhere in these woods. It felt very nurturing, as though the tree was reminding me that I was not alone; my tree-family were with me. At that point, it was exactly what I needed, and so feeling soothed, I continued on to my father’s home.

Three weeks ago, (July 13th) I drove that way again, but I was early and decided to stop off in a layby to go for a walk. I had passed a path through the trees many times but never stopped to explore it. Today was the day for exploration. I followed the path until I saw a huge old beech tree, which on approaching, I could feel its energy. It extended out about twenty feet from the trunk.

For this tree, I had to walk around it anti-clockwise and when I did, I placed my hand on its trunk and allowed my consciousness to travel upwards into its branches. There, I experienced a mind-to-mind connection, like a melding of consciousness, and I was told I needed to walk back the way I had come because there was another tree I needed to connect to. As I walked away, following the instructions, I felt a gold line connect to my crown centre from the upper branches which I knew was to do with the other tree.

When I came to the road, there was the tree I had passed on my way into the woods. I had noticed it at the time but, because I felt no energy from it, continued along the path. But I had needed to notice it because it turned out to be important. That often happens. You notice something but it doesn’t feel ‘quite right’. Yet!

I tuned into the tree and saw an amethyst above its branches. At first, I thought I was imagining it. Why would a tree be connecting to an upper, crystalline layer? But then, I saw energy from the amethyst layer flow into the branches, filling them up. But the energy didn’t stop where the branches did, it continued to flow out the end of each tip creating a giant amethyst sphere all around the tree.

The tree was the conduit, and anchor, for the amethyst energy which spread out well beyond it. I had the idea that every person who drove by, or walked that path, would receive some of this energy and the thoughtforms it contained. The amethyst level of the earth’s crystalline field is a higher frequency layer akin to the spiritual mind of Earth, if you imagine that earth has its own energy field, just as we do. That Mind contains ideas and thoughts that can benefit the world, like a computer database which we can download mentally, if we are given access. I wondered what those thoughts and ideas might be. Perhaps ways of caring for the woodland and the surrounding countryside, or more in line with what nature wants, rather than what we think it needs? Or, perhaps, they could be spiritual ideas, ways of staying healthy or ways to connect with trees. I don’t know. But I will be keeping an eye on what happens in the area.

I didn’t have time to do more, although I knew that on the other side of the road, and up the path through that part of the woods, there was another tree I needed to find. But it would have to wait until next time.

On the seventeenth of July, having time to spare, I followed the path through the other woods. I had no idea where to find this tree but I knew it was there somewhere. I walked through the woodland, took photos of fungi, and felt the trees I came to along the way. Feeling is about opening awareness and feeling for the vibration of consciousness. The right tree would make itself known. Having wandered for over half an hour, following little paths that meandered through the woods, I found myself in a clearing. There was the tree I was looking for.

There were two trees in this clearing and I knew both were significant. One was a Mother Tree, the other, a Brother. That is how they came to me. They didn’t feel ‘awake’, but I acknowledged them both and went to the older Mother Tree to tune in. I sat at the base of the tree but felt the need to walk anti-clockwise around it. However, when I had finished the first circuit, I continued to walk clockwise around the Brother Tree, thereby creating a lemniscate pattern of golden light. I did this three times. Something made me feel this was not simply about the trees but also about a situation in ‘real life’, that this joining was about joining a mother with a son. Yet this figure of eight pattern not only joined, energetically, it also created a boundaried separation, as though it was saying: you are energetically connected, but exist independently with your own purpose, and within your own space. And that is as it should be.

I was impulsed to stand on the cross-over point of the pattern of eight and as I did, I saw a gold line going from this point along the way I had come, then another going off in the opposite direction. I knew I had to follow this second line.

This gold-line direction was showing me the path to another tree, and I had to completely trust my intuition, because I was in the woods after all, and the paths are not straight, as the gold line was. But the next tree was so obvious. It was huge, very old and the energy emanating from it was unmistakable.

I walked towards her and her energy was strong. She invited me to connect with her, so I walked around her once, and then leaned my back against her wide trunk. Then I heard her say: I am an old woman, guardian of these woods for many years. I hold the elemental energies of this place, ensuring all is kept in balance. She felt so old, like a grandmother, and all the trees were her children. Much like the tree in the woods beside Lainston house on a previous visit.

Then she went on to give me advice on how to work with the elemental energies of France and Spain, which is the next part of my journey, once I am complete here in the UK. As she spoke, I had that familiar feeling of wanting to curl up in her roots and sleep like a baby. This is a common experience when connecting with a Mother tree. They have such a nurturing energy that you feel you want to lie down in the safety and love they provide. In the photo just above, you can see how children have created a couple of rope swings to swing from her branches, which is lovely.

Before I left, she gave me an etheric bottle of her essence, to fill me when I needed extra energetic help. These etheric energies kick in when needed and most times I don’t know I am using them. Much of it happens in the astral layer of the energy field.

That earlier connection, through one tree, as I drove through Crab Wood, was a download I would be using at some later point, but which I didn’t recognise at the time. And that is often how it works. You could be given an energy that might come into play months, even years, after the initial download. But as soon as you ‘see’ it, while working, you will recognise it and remember. In effect, you are like a living computer with installed software in the different layers of your energy field which you only use when called to do so. Which is reassuring because then, nothing is wasted. Even if you have to take breaks between the times you work and the times you cannot, you can be safe knowing that the energies will be used at some point. Sometimes too, it is not the right time and other things need to happen first, or you need further development before you are ready for that particular job.

But rest assured, it will happen, because once the download is installed, it is only a matter of time.

What was most interesting to me about this particular tree-work was the connection with the crystalline Amethyst sphere. I had not been aware that trees could channel these energies, or that they were compatible with the very different crystalline energies and were able to hold them. But I suppose, if we, as healers, can hold the energies of trees perhaps I should not be so surprised that trees can hold the energies of crystals. The tree was an anchor for those energies, like bringing heaven to earth, making those higher thoughts available to us here on the ground.

If you want to visit, the tree is on the left side just before you leave the woods on the way to Sparsholt Village. It lies next to the path which leads up along the wood boundary.

You can’t miss it.