Wholistic Arts

To venture to another venue Winter Solstice here once more An ancient cross for us to view From the ninth century or before A leyline found passes through The cross and church East to West Tweny three paces is the norm too A recent move may be for the best Ancient tales, if you could speak For over a thousand years so unique I feel you talk within my soul Saxon worship to make them whole      Further on we passed a mound By the Railway station it was found For burial may be even though A leyline through suggests it too                                                             ...

Hob Hurst's House now stands there proud On Beeley Moor so high, far from the crowd For three thousand years hidden from view This rectangular barrow has secrets anew   The name comes from a hobgoblin who In folklore did frequent this house too Amongst the other cairns on this moor A tidy creature who would clean the floor   Human bones were found inside In the nineteenth century in this hide A burial place so grand and serene Such a resting place pastures green   High on the moorviews all around me No one else, as far as the eye could see Cars in the distance, a humming sound Romantic and scarey yet so profound   How strange and lonely is this place Barren now mostly at such a slow pace Before mankind had cities abound Groups of people interspersed around.   I explor...

  Celebrated St John's Day in Pontevedra. Malusa, Loreto, Victor, Raye and David all   danced over the candles later, but before and during the day og the 23rd and 24th we all (including Wilma and Louisa) watched the firework displays. Spectacular! Loud bangs and amazing sites. Some fireworks looked, as they exploded across the Bay , that they were about to land directly on us….just an optical illusion…but amazing. "Religious and folk law and happens at the turn of the shortest night" Apart from the fireworks, bonfires were lit all around on the night of the 23rd.

We set off to research another ley On the map north of Thorpe Cloud Many barrows on the line there lay They shouted to me from the map, so proud But we seek the one at the back of a farm On a hill. I thought, why, I'll do no harm The farmer was good though and let us through We missed some others without a clue Round and up the hill we did climb At the top the trig point and barrow for to view Magnificent sites. Tissington Trail. Sublime. My rods found the ley. I felt. I knew. Twenty three paces as is the norm Then on to the church in Milldale Again I found the ley in true form The line ran North to South no fail The rain laid off and the weather was clear A satisfying day with leylines, to me so dear

Petroglyphs, Pontecaldelas Up in the hills between Pontevedra and Ourense sits a small town named after the incredible Roman bridge it grew up around. We went there in time for lunch, then followed the river from the bridge for a surprisingly warm and sunny walk through a forest and back. Then it was further up into the hills by car to find a beautiful collection of petroglyphs. We expected to find the usual couple of outcrops with a few abstract patterns mixed with matchstick hunters and their prey. Instead we found a beautifully decked path winding a couple of kilometres circle around a mild yet exhausting incline.  There were about five seperate outcrops of rock, the largest of which was absolutely covered in art - the neolithic equivalent of graffiti'd rolling stock. I wondered to my two companions (Loreto and Malusa) at the sheer work involved in calving intricate designs in solid rock. This is no mere cavepainting; spitting red paint over your hand to leave an imprint ...

Thorpe Cloud James and myself set out for Dovedale. I had discovered a leyline starting at Thorpe Cloud and heading directly North. Today we revisited our old haunt. The weather on top was windy as usual but what fantastic views all around, including the ley. The leyline has 8 barrows within a few miles and probably many more if I extended it further.  We decided to leave the barrows for another day, which was at Imbolc. For the first barrow. Yet again the weather wasn't too good but the rain stopped for a short time while I investigated the first barrow, which had been extremely hard to find. And yes, I found the leyline running directly through it N-S direction, exactly 23 paces wide, as usual.

I had two trips for this equinox. My aim was to investigate the leyline (source: Ley Lines Across The Midlands by Anthony Poulton-Smith) which runs between Burrough Hill and Bardon Hill. Burrough Hill On Sunday 22nd, Raye and myself went to Burrough Hill in Leicestershire. This was an early Iron-Age site inhabited firstly by the "Coritavi" tribe and then the Romans with evidence they lived together for a while. This was a huge square site on top of the hill. My rods followead the outer embankment and crossed throughout the inner. The trig point had a sun dial showing the exact location of Bardon Hill. I climbed onto it and had a fantastic view. I could see the trees lining the leyline towards the hill.         Bardon Hill On Wednesday 25th, James and myself went to Bardon Hill, the highest point in Leicestershire. This was probably an Iron-Age fort but extensive quarrying has eroded evidence. We trekked up the hill through the trees and up to the mass...

Ribadumia, Pontevedra Having stayed at home for the summer solstice (see St John's Day the year before for an idea of what we did!), we decided to make a day of it for the equinox. We headed out to Ribadumia and had a walk through a forest to have a picnic. After walking along a river to a natural pool and dipping our toes, we headed back to the car and out to a castro nearby. Despite the amazing weather and thousands of people around the picnic area, the castro was completely deserted.  Parking, we could see that some building works were under way for a visitors centre. We headed up the hill and had to sneak through some fencing to get a look at the castro. It's all sectioned off at the moment because they are painstakingly piecing it back together and laying down a bed of white stone to keep it from overgrowing again. Looking at the work already completed (see picture), we could tell that once completed, this is going to be one of the biggest castros in the area (...

Robin Hood's Stride Ventured out to Robin Hood's Stride otherwise known as Mock Beggars Hall. The name Mockbeggar is apparently an old sailor's term for a lone house. The outcrop was quite a climb even though there was a path around it, it still needed a bit of climbing. As I got to the top I noticed the view towards the Nine Stones Close stone circle, it looked very impressive from this viewpoint as did the surrounding areas.  Raye had waited at the bottom and taken the photo of me. We then went through the fields to the stone circle. There are only four stones left, apparently there were nine. Even though there were two upright stones used as gateposts and another standing stone nearby I feel that the four remaining stones are the most important. This is because they are at four corners facing NE, NW, SW, SE.  I checked them out with the dowsing rods...within the area of the stones the rods crossed, indicating strong earth energy. But outside appeared to b...

La Lanzada, Pontevedra We visited this small chapel on a once-defended with a tower peninsula sticking out into the sea, but since then they've excavated a castro on the land side of the last sticky-out bit. It's a really nice, cleanly rebuilt castro with stones of many different colours, suggesting that some had been brought to the site from outside. This is one of those sites with more questions than answers. Obviously the chapel was built here because it was already an important site - the chapel is dedicated to sea-farers, and is still an important place for those who have family working out at sea. But before you get out to the last finger of land, you cross what was obviously once a well defended castle gate with now collapsed tower. While there is plenty of write-up around the castro, the tower has no placard or notice; not even a simple sign with a name that could've offered a clue, such as 'Gothic Tower'. The stones are the same as the castro, but thi...

Heath Wood & Foremark Hall, Ingleby Early start. 10am. I went to Heath Wood near Ingleby. Approaching the wood there were a few stones that could be neolithic or later used by Saxons. Walked round and through the wood but only saw two mounds! Then I walked back on the other side. There was a large area cordoned off with wire fencing. I went inside under the fence, having found the gate later, and saw 4 areas covered with corrugated iron. They were not mounds but probably excavations. I had read an archaeological document to say that one dig concentrated on these four burial mounds. Apparently there are 59 in the wood! They were probably graves of the Viking Great Army 873-8 a.d. and what is interesting is that they had all been cremated. This is currently the only site found in Britain with Viking cremations. They had changed their practice. Another interesting point is that the wood is quite high and because the leaves have not yet formed on the trees I was able to see the vi...

Castro Neixon, Noi a We delayed our solstice by a week to allow for the arrival of the rest of our solstice-watching team; Raye and Dave. We took them to a Castro sticking out into the sea on a little peninsula, which the three of us (Vic, Loreto & Malusa) had visited earlier that year. The castro itself only contains a couple of very large round buildings (although more remain unexcavated), but as a location for a Celtic village we could see it was positioned more for resources than defence. With pine forests a short walk inland, and mudflats to either side of the mini-peninsula (or is that mininsula?!) for shellfish. As always, we pondered over the archeological and spiritual implications of these places, but soon noticed that we weren't the only ones to make a spiritual connection around solstice-time. In the centre of one of the circular buildings was the remains of a recent bonfire, with flower heads scattered across the ashes.  The flowers were various types and colou...

Anglesey The land of King Arthur and Merlin. Raye and Dave's first day was spent investigating...Cliff Castle...a promontory on Holy Island which is a part of Anglesey. Spectacular views...and understandably probably a hill fort although little remains of any signs of past life. The following day we visited Holy Mountain and stopped at the RSPB at South Stack island (lighthouse). Right next to this area was Elin's Tower, a castellated tower. Nearby we walked to an area covered with hut circles. Brilliant, there were about 15 (only 1 shown in photo). They were just like those we visited in Galicia which are called 'castros'. The dowsing rods crossed within each household. Assuming there was a lot of earth energies within each hut. We also found a leyline running right through the village. This was a fantastic find due to the close connection with Galicia. We probably knew this before but it would suggest a Celtic connection. We then visited a few standing stones,...

Petroglyphs in A Caeira, Pontevedra  We took a short drive up into the hills overlooking the city in search of the closest mystical sight we could find. The seasons arrive bang on schedule in this part of the world, so the weekend arrived with heavy rains and winds. Despite the proximity, Malusa managed to fall asleep in the car on the way, but we could see the stones from the side of the road, so we had a look around in the drizzle, a little disappointed that there weren't many to see. But before we left, we noticed a map showing more up the side of the hill. Not wanting to leave baby alone for too long, Loreto put her inside her cagoule and carried her with her - asleep the whole time. We were astonished by the shear number of clearly visible calvings, including the one shown here of two deer mirror-imaged one above the other. What are these things? I'd like to suggest that they are the neolithic equivalent of road signs. They were probably highlighted with paint (a p...