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Postcard Number 3 28 July: Bryn Celli Ddu Yesterday was mainly a rest day. In spite of that I wake feeling slightly off colour and drained. My CG tells me that it is because my energy is being ratcheted up for today. I do not know how I am to cope with our journey to Anglesey or Môn (its Welsh name) let alone be in a good state of mind and have the energy to cope with what I believe I am to experience at Bryn Celli Ddu. I sit quietly in the car and enjoy the wildness of central Wales as we drive north. The scenery is stunning and changes continually. We follow the old Roman road, now a modern 2-way carriageway. The hills to our left are so old they are rich in copper and gold. One gold mine still operates. We see terrible scars on the earth, great barren heaps of slate and rock left over from mining. We pass Mount Snowdon, its summit hidden in cloud. Eventually we come to the bridge over the Menai Strait to Anglesey. Somewhere along the way my energy lifts. Travelling to the northwest we come to the parking space opposite the path leading to Bryn Celli Ddu – a Neolithic “burial chamber”. The path is fairly newly laid – bordered on both sides with Hawthorne no older than 10 years. All along the side also grows blackberry brambles. They are flowering – rather late as most of the blackberries we have seen have already set their berries. These ones have pink flowers. As we arrive I see a rather fierce male guardian on top of the mound. He demands respect for this place. We offer him tobacco. The entrance to the mound looks to me just like a woman’s labia. I am given permission to enter. One must bend low to move through the stone lined passage which reminds me of a vagina, into the chamber in the centre. As this had been excavated and then reconstructed, the far end of the chamber is not covered with soil, but left open and allows light in, though no one would be able to enter through the gaps between the huge vertical stones. Standing in the chamber I suddenly burst into tears. It is like coming home. Here I meet a white goddess, full of light. Her presence is so loving and here she initiates me, touching my forehead and heart and bright light flows through me, down through my body into the earth. I gift cornmeal and a stone Niru had instructed me to bring on my journey here. About 2 weeks before leaving NZ on this journey I felt strongly I needed to visit Niru. (see www.moonsunearth.com/Niru.html for Eileen Nauman’s meeting with Niru) My friend and I went together and almost before I could say hello, Niru had jumped in and said, “You are going on your travels?” I could hear drums. “You will have a wonderful trip,” she informs me. “She then instructs me, “Take a piece of myself.” My analytical mind comes into play and I begin to tell her I may have trouble with customs and agricultural regulations. She of course does not understand what I am going on about. Anyway what does she mean about a “piece” of herself? I begin a list of suggestions, but she leans over and touches my third eye. Then it is clear what she wants – to take some of the pebbles from her temple. She shows me exactly which I am to take. I feel enveloped in love and she touches my heart before I leave. I have brought 2 pebbles with me from Niru, well scrubbed so as to pass any agricultural investigation. The goddess at Bryn Celli Ddu and I talk and she asks me to bring greetings to her sister Niru. Standing near the upright stone, a rare thing to be found in such a barrow, I can feel energy tickling through the heart area of my aura, from right to left.
There are distractions and my meditation is interrupted by another sightseer, so after taking a few photos, or rather checking that my husband had got the ones I wanted, we left to find some lunch. We ate in the shade of a macrocarpa tree in the café garden by a bower of roses and honeysuckle. Barclodiad-y-Gawres We travelled north to the next site. High on a bluff just south of Rosneigr, overlooking the sea and the Bay of Trecastell, stands this cairn. It had been excavated in the 1950s and then reconstructed with a concrete cover. Though I had felt that the visit to Bryn Celli Ddu had been enough for me for one day, as we had come so far we had decided to look at this site too. The notice board said that the cairn was locked and to go to a nearby shop to get a key on deposit of 5 pounds. It was then that I felt we would not be able to enter the chambered cairn. I enjoyed a relaxing 20 minutes as the men went to find the key. There were many holidaymakers enjoying the beach in their summer clothes with bright umbrellas. Brave swimmers were striking out through the gentle waves to sea. Children were paddling and digging in the sand with spades and buckets. The men returned empty handed. Both keys were out. We decided to walk the 500 meters to the cairn and see if anyone bearing a key was coming back. In spite of this the key bearers had either disappeared or evaded us! The mound is impressive in its siting and has been nicely restored though not in its exact original form. A concrete dome has been placed over it to protect the surviving stones, some of which are carved. The whole construction is covered with earth. A barred gate obstructs full entrance to the chambers and is securely locked. One can see that others have been here and left offerings. I am somewhat relieved it is locked, in spite of having met the guardian as we approached and being met by a Druid at the entrance. It was inappropriate for me to meditate there, so that came later in private: The guardian who was at the top of the mound appeared with a furry face and I was told it was a Griffin, though at times during our talk he shape shifted into a dragon. I introduced myself and he gave me his name. I was somewhat puzzled about a Griffin being here as had thought that Griffins were English, not Welsh. He answered, “Well I am here,” in a how-silly-can-you-get tone of voice. I asked what he did there and he said, somewhat to my chagrin, “To keep idiots like you away.” He is tough, to the point and pulls no punches. He is grounded to the place. He turns and looks into the middle distance as if watching the paths for intruders. We then go and talk to the Druid who also gives his name. He advises me to keep away, not enter the mound “because it is dirty”. I am shown the energy lines that flow through the inner chamber and they look full of dark energy. I question the druid further and he says that it is “due to that stupid Griffin up there”. I am now aware that there is discord between the guardian on top of the mound and the Druid. I ask my guides what the problem really is and they tell me that it is due to confusion of intention, the Druid’s intention. He has been coming here and is not clear about why he is here or what he is doing. I ask if we can help and am given the affirmative from my guides, the Druid and the Griffin. Though he is gruff in his delivery his assent is clear. We invoke the local spirits. First we place a trough of water in front of the mound and wash the Druid in it. Water is sprinkled through the mound in the chambers. The Druid is still confused in his intention so we take him some distance from the barrow and shine light on him. We see that he is bound in a fine dark net. This was placed around him by a black witch (female sorcerer) many centuries ago to hinder him in his work and power. He had no idea that he was so afflicted. The binding was removed and taken away. He is now resplendent in colourful glittering robes. The whole barrow is then cleaned out, the dirty gunk forming a tornado sucking the place clean and the dirt taken out to sea and washed away. The relationship between the griffin and the Druid is now restored; they are getting on as two beings that work together for the purpose of this cairn. The original builders appear and are joyful. They are pleased that the original intention is now clear. We rattle around the cairn and make our farewells. |
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The entrance to Bryn Celli Ddu barrow |
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Raewyn Freedman Shamanic facilitator |
