The Practice of Circumambulating.

March 26, 2023September 8, 2023 / Ann Murphy / 4 Comments

When I first began doing earthwork, I started working with Bronze Age burial mounds, also known as round barrows. I did not know then that it was the beginning of a remembering of ancient energy traditions that would take the rest of my life to learn. Every experience taught me something – it still does – but at that time it was new to me.

One of the things I found myself regularly doing, was circumambulation. That is: walking in a circle with sacred intention. My first experience was in the woods by the side of the road at Farley mount. Just inside the tree boundary is a large barrow with a couple of lovely Beech trees growing on top of it. I already had an interest in prehistory because I had been doing a degree in Practical Archaeology and loved reading the landscape, discovering ancient sites, and learning to see the world as the ancestors saw it.

Standing beside the barrow, I felt a strong impulse to walk around it three times anticlockwise, so I followed the impulse. Then, I stood on the Barrow and saw, with my inner sight, or higher sense perception, that it was built on top of a cross-over of two energy lines, except that it was no longer aligned properly. Over time, the earth’s magnetic field had shifted and so the lines were no longer in sync with that field. My job was to adjust them so they could do what they were designed to do – whatever that was. Through the power of my intention, and following instructions from ‘upstairs’, I mentally allowed the lines to vibrationally upgrade. I have no idea how that happened, it just did. Often I didn’t know why things happened but I learned to simply watch what my internal self was doing. (Round barrows are often built on energy lines and the people buried or cremated there act as energy guardians, as though part of their energy remained after death to take care of the place. You will find, if you are tuned in, that they will communicate with you so that you can carry out the work together, although this doesn’t always happen).

I remember the first time I got an inkling about some of the need for this anticlockwise walking. I had gone to two Bronze Age burial mounds that were beside each other, on Cheesefoot head, in Hampshire. At that time, twenty years ago, they were at the edge of a ploughed field and close to an ancient trackway that ran over the downs and into Winchester.

Standing at the barrows, I felt the impulse to walk around the first one three times anti-clockwise. But as I finished the final circuit, I was told to continue walking around the other one but in the opposite direction, sunwise, and this time to walk four times not three. There was a meaning to this. 3 +4 felt like feminine and masculine energies and they were joined in a figure of eight; the lemniscate, an energy I now associate with life-force, or dragon, energy.

As I walked around the twin mounds, I imagined the farmer and how annoyed he’d be that I was on his land. In my imaginary conversation with him, as he strode purposefully towards me, intent on telling me off, I joyfully informed him that I might be trespassing but at least his land would now be more fertile.

Ah, that was what I was doing! Although, I didn’t exactly know how. (At a recent visit to those barrows the field is now grassland and the barrows over-grown with vegetation and young trees. They are surrounded by a fence which gives them protection. No chance of them being ploughed out now).

After that, nearly every time I worked at a site, I had to walk around it first. I was usually told how many times to walk around, which at a large site took some time! Most times it is either one, or three times, depending on what work needs to be done. If it is simply to access the site, it is once, but if more energetic work is to be carried out, it is three times. The deeper into the energy layers you need to be in the more times you walk around. It is not often that I am instructed to walk four times around a site. In fact, I think that barrow at Cheesefoot was the only time I had to do it.

I never really thought of this as anything other than an earthwork practice until I started to recognise it in other places. It was a common practice in Ireland, for instance, which I didn’t discover until I returned there for a year in 2006. Although I had grown up in Ireland, I hadn’t taken much notice of old traditions, except for the yearly Pattern in St. Mullins. A pattern (from the french Patron) is a holy day dedicated to the saint who established a settlement, or church, there. In St. Mullin’s there is a holy well where people would go to pray and collect the holy water, which was reputed to have healing powers. The tradition was to walk around the entire settlement sunwise, but this gradually changed so only the well was walked around, usually following the Stations of the Cross (not a great energy to be anchoring!). Sunwise follows the sun.

When you walk clockwise around a site, it opens the Solar energies, the energy of male power, but anti-clockwise, or widdershins, opens the feminine energies of a site. Moving in an anti-clockwise direction was believed to have been the wrong way, the way of witches. No surprise there, especially when you think how the church lost the connection to the Divine Feminine early on, and therefore any reminders of the power of women, or Goddess, were to be suppressed at all costs. She could only be a saint because saints devoted themselves to a male god, but she should never get too big for her boots. It was especially important NOT to walk anticlockwise around a church. God forbid (excuse the pun) that the Divine Feminine should have a part to play in people’s spiritual beliefs unless she was in a lesser position. Such was the fear of Divine female power.

Video by Turlough O’Brien

But it wasn’t always that way. In early Celtic Christianity, the feminine was acknowledged and venerated, but over the centuries the recognition of feminine spiritual power was slowly transformed and energies from the earth were seen as dangerous. Hell was down there, after all, where Satan lived, and women who worked with the earth were in league with him. We all know how that went. To the church, everything good came from God, in heaven. The female power of the earth, and its mysteries, was suppressed, and the rituals associated with her, demonised.

In 2006, we lived for a few months in a converted methodist church, around the corner from St. Fiacre’s church, near Borris. There was a spring out in the field by the church, which is now in ruins. Every year, the people from the local town of Graiguenamanagh, where I grew up, went to the well to take care of it, just as they did in St. Mullins. Part of the tradition was to walk clockwise around the well, seven times. (They still make the annual pilgrimage, which incidentally is close to Imbolc). This walking seven times around reminds me of Mecca. But there, the devoted walk around the Kaaba seven times in an anti-clockwise direction, thereby unwittingly keeping the Feminine energy of the site alive and well. (Unfortunately, it is still controlled by patriarchy, much like the RC Church). There is a spring in Mecca, the ZamZam well which, according to the story, Allah opened for the rejected slave girl, Hajar, so she could keep her baby son, Ishmael, alive. Ismael was the son of Abraham. In reality, just as the ancient springs in the British isles were associated with female guardians, the Well Maidens, in the pre-Islamic world Mecca was originally dedicated to three goddesses, Al-llat (the Goddess), consort of Al-Lah (the God); Al-Uzzah (the powerful; and Manat (Destiny). (Virgin, Mother and Crone?).

Walking anticlockwise is the way of the Goddess, the way of the Divine Feminine, and when you walk around a site anticlockwise you are opening to the wisdom of the land. But often, this opening is also an anchoring. When I was doing archaeology at a site in Wiltshire on an Iron Age Banjo enclosure, I discovered that the circular site, with its bank and ditch avenue, was fed with red energy that came from a larger site a few miles away. I walked in the circular ditch, through the tangle of trees, and as I did, I laid the red energy from Fosbury Hillfort, encircling the enclosure with life-giving red serpent energy. I did the same thing a couple of days ago, when I returned to the round barrow in Farley mount, the one I had begun with all those years ago, and I was ‘told’ to walk around the site three times. I did the rounds twice but before beginning the third circuit I stopped. The sun had come out and I felt an impulse to raise my energy to its light. As I did, I was instructed to continue the walk but as I did the solar energy was coming with me, as if the barrow had a ditch (many of them do) and I was filling it with liquid solar light. The circuit was complete when I reached the point I had started from. In this instance, the masculine energy of the sun was anchored around the site. Why? I don’t know, but it was like an activation, of sorts. A feeding.

Once the rounds were complete, I stood on the barrow. My crown centre opened and information, in the form of light, flooded into my head. It lasted for a minute or so and then all was finished. I did not know what this light was about until the following day, when my daughter came around for some healing, which turned into an initiation. The energies she needed were given to me on the barrow. Because she was being initiated into a deeper connection with the earth, the energy had to be given by the earth. Another new experience for me. And for her.

So, when you are at a sacred site, and you feel the impulse to walk around, follow it. You are opening the energy of the place and therefore will be able to access its wisdom, and gifts. Your service to the planet is to utilise these gifts and to reawaken the Divine Feminine. The trick is to trust yourself. Trust the impulse, because it arises from a deeper part of you that knows what it is doing.

If you find yourself at a site but you do not feel the impulse, don’t do anything. The sites are not always accessible or don’t need you to do anything. When they are active, you will know it. When they are not, you will know that too. Don’t do it because you ‘think’ you ought to. That is the mind interfering with your higher sense perception. Tune into the site, if you feel you need to, and ask. You will soon learn what a positive or negative answer feels like.

There is so much work to be done to bring back the Goddess consciousness, but it is always important to remember that it is to bring the balance of life back into consciousness. Not for one to overpower the other, which has happened far too many times. It is time for Love to balance Will.

The link below was written by my great Grand Uncle, John O’Leary, from Graiguenamanagh, where I grew up. If he was around now he would have been a great blogger. Here is also a link to a book my uncle Philip wrote about the O’Leary’s who were artists, writers and antiquarians.

https://www.abebooks.co.uk/book-search/isbn/0954654382/

Click to access OKR1948-20-John-OLeary-Ullard.pdf

Some more information on ‘doing the rounds’ in Ireland.

Video: Doing the rounds at a number of sacred wells.

For more on pre-Islamic religions.

A very interesting site on sunwise walking lore.

https://rootedseedsproject.wordpress.com/2013/07/04/a-sunwise-journey-turas-dieseal/

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An Elemental Invitation.

August 26, 2022August 18, 2024 / Ann Murphy / 2 Comments

“Down through the centuries, man has attempted to outwit the forces of nature. Now, it falls to them to be the custodians of those same forces. It is no longer enough to live on the world; now it is necessary to live in it.

The time has come for all men (we include women here but it is more expedient to use one term only) to unite against the destructive beliefs of those who seek to destroy the natural world. It is time to unite against the forces of humankind who would seek to eliminate the wealth of the natural world in order to line their own pockets.

But how can we accomplish such a task, we hear you ask?

From your perspective, it appears to be an insurmountable task, but from ours, it is relatively simple. Those of you who work with the natural forces, i.e., the trees; the elemental spirits, the Ancient Ones, the dragons, etc., already have it within your means to help stem the tide of destruction.

All you have to do, and we will assist all those willing to give of their time and skills, is to focus daily on the energies that surround you, your gardens, your parks, your woodlands. Focus on your own area, then contact, mentally, the elementals of that area. Commune with them. Concentrate on their essence, see their forms, and hear their songs.

Once you have accomplished this, create centres of learning so that others can go there and learn to commune with them. Create your own Nature Elemental Universities, where students can visit when they feel called, to connect with the Elemental energies that wish to work with them.

There is still time to change the tides, but you must not tarry.”

I received this a couple of weeks ago and wondered how to connect with the Elementals as they suggested. It usually takes me a few weeks to process what they have given me but then I remembered something that happened at my friend’s house a few months ago. She lives just a few miles outside Winchester, surrounded by fields, ancient trackways and woodland. Having a cup of tea, and looking out her window at apple trees, roses, and the pheasant who comes for feeding daily, I saw images of a thin, gaunt giant striding slowly across the landscape in the field opposite her house. He was the Elemental energy of the area, the one who took care of what used to be the old estate. He is the one who maintains the balance and looks after all the other energies who live there, both seen and unseen. I hadn’t called him, but he came of his own volition, inviting my friend to connect with him.

He was not what I expected from an Elemental, but his energy was calm, slow and peaceful. He exuded love and care which was a joy to feel. My friend saw a different image of him, one that had meaning to her. (We all see the Elementals according to our beliefs so however they appear to you is the right way for you).

I remember too, at another friend’s house in Dorset, seeing another Elemental. At the time I didn’t quite understand what he was doing as he was peering at me, rather grumpily I thought, through a triangular portal I had anchored there. He looked like a Sulamith Wulfing illustration. (She could see the elementals clearly). I knew the triangle allowed communication between humans and the Elementals but didn’t quite realise why they were created there. The channelling above explains why.

A few weeks back, I created a triangle portal on the site of an old Roman villa, in Sparsholt. When I opened the portal, I didn’t understand why they placed it there. The roman villa was not a sacred place, I thought. But my thinking was limited. I was only seeing what used to be there, not what is there now. I was thinking of the past, not the present.

When anchoring the triangle at that place, I did not know its purpose, but on a return trip, after receiving this channelling, we went back up, passing the bronze age burial mound on the way, to connect with the elemental energy there. As soon as we entered the woods, the wind started rising, moving through the branches of the beech trees. We walked around the edge of the woods, listening to the wind rise and fall. I had the impression that the elemental communicated like that, through wind in the trees and I remembered a similar experience many years ago after trying and failing to find the villa site.

Hopelessly lost, after half a day of searching the woods, I gave in and asked the energies of the woods to please help me. Almost as soon as I uttered the words, a wind moved through the trees on my left as if they were saying, ‘follow me’. So, I followed what seemed like a wave of wind as it moved the tree branches. I followed this wave of softly moving branches, walking in a straight line through brambles and undergrowth, until five minutes later, I found myself in a square clearing. A feeling settled in my stomach as I heard the energies, through the wind and trees, say ‘Welcome.’ The voice was low and airy and I was both amazed, and overjoyed at having finally found the place. I was also fascinated by how the energies there communicated with me and how they had helped me locate what I had spent ten years trying to find.

That was my first experience. I didn’t know it at the time but I had connected with the elemental guardian there but on this last visit I understood more. Because I knew it was there. Placing the triangle of energy told me that. After walking the old paths, we came to the site of the villa and the winds stopped, completely. There was a stark difference between this clear space and the surrounding trees. Outside the space, the wind moved strongly, rustling the branches, but inside the space, there was no movement, at all. It was completely still, peaceful, like the eye of a storm.

Sitting on the wooden bench, I mentally called to the elemental telling him(?) of my intention and I waited. I noticed a wind come up again, to my left, and saw a man taller than the trees, striding through them, moving the branches aside as if they were tall grass. To my mind, he looked like the BFG. Gentle and caring. But he did not enter the villa site. He moved in the trees surrounding it. I was curious about this so as we walked back I asked him how we could help, based on what the channelling had suggested. I also wanted to know more about him.

This is his area. It even looks like an elemental.

I heard, as words in my head, ‘This is my kingdom.’ And he showed me the entire woodland and a red line drawn around the boundaries. As the elemental ‘King’ he strode around these boundaries, holding within them his trees, as though he was a tree-shepherd. This sounded familiar and I remembered Tolkien talking about Tree-shepherds. But Tolkien’s shepherds were trees. This elemental was not. He was distinct from them. A being in his own right. Trees are rooted. They cannot move. But he can, and does, caring for and protecting everything within his red line. Looking at the map of over 130 years, I can see that he has done a pretty good job as the woods are still there and have been added to, not diminished.

We passed an old beech tree that had been planted as a boundary tree to separate arable land from woodland. I looked up into its branches and was reminded of Enid Blyton’s The Magic Faraway Tree with its ‘lands’ at the top that changed all the time so you never knew what land was going to be there next time you climbed it. This reminded me of what my guides had said about how to access inspiration, by moving along the branch of a tree and connecting with the story/poem/painting there; an interdimensional tree.

That, it seemed, was the answer. Write stories. Let the stories be about them. At least for me. For you it might be different, based on your life’s work.

During the previous week, while anchoring a red dragon line on the south coast which will eventually stretch from Worthing to Portland Bill, I opened a triangle portal at Littlehampton. Once it was open, I contacted the most beautiful sea elemental I have ever connected to. The triangle goes from Littlehampton to Arundel, making it a water portal as it follows the river, Arun. I had never opened a water portal before, not like this anyway.

And I have also never experienced such loving elemental energy. I wanted to stay in this place forever. Usually, when I do energy work, once I have completed the work, I have no more desire to be there, but this place was different. I didn’t want to leave! The elemental appeared as a large brown boulder covered with barnacles and mussels, like a rock you would see beside the sea when the tide has gone out. It looked bulbous, rounded and swollen, with a wide, round nose and large, large lips that stretched around its face, like a cleft in the rock. Its eyes were closed and its face turned towards the surface, absorbing the sunlight that filtered through the water. He didn’t move around, this elemental, but remained in this place doing his job as elemental balancer. But he did give me a gift that would allow me to share his energy as an attunement.

I am not a beachy person; I don’t enjoy lying on a beach all day but prefer to be walking, picking up fossils and stones and feathers and taking photos. But I could quite happily have stayed on this beach, within his loving, nurturing energy.

Putting all these things together, I assume that triangle portals open up places to be used as Elemental Universities. Visiting these places and having the intention to learn from these elementals will teach you what they want you to learn. Perhaps too, a human will be a guardian of a particular portal. Someone who feels drawn to being there. Each place has one. Someone who can communicate with the Elemental guardians and help keep the balance, and can share the knowledge of these wonderful guardians, passing on their teachings through the written word, music or art.

For now, I will share the places where portals exist, which is also the reason for this post, so you can go yourself and connect to them and see what they want you to do.

There is still time, as they say. But do not tarry…

If you wish to work with the Elementals in this way, you can receive the Elemental Portal Attunement. which will attune you to their energies and which will allow you to install the portals where you are guided to.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sparsholt_Roman_Villa

https://www.greatbritishlife.co.uk/things-to-do/walks/walk-around-farley-mount-7246968