After familiarising myself with how the stones aligned with the directions for a while I felt ready to begin. The place was quiet with only a couple of dog walkers and most of them were heading down the pathway away from where I was, so I wouldn’t be bothering anybody.
I began just before 8pm, standing at the beginning of the path between the sun and moon dials. The sun and full moon were equal in the sky, with the moon to the south and the setting sun behind me to the west. I went through the motions as instructed, but did not use my lighter for fire, as it felt inappropriate. I followed the instructions up to the end of the Druid’s prayer, walking around the three concentric circles of stones, then entered the central ring and climbed up onto the top of the rocking stone. I sat there with my knees drawn up to my chest. There my path-working began.
I saw my grove from above. It was dark and velvet-backed blackthorn leaves shimmered in the moonlight. My view descended and I saw myself entering the grove. It was a clear night, cloudless except for the occasional wisp and there were many stars shimmering like silver thread in the blanket of the sky.
I find that I am standing surrounded by trees. It is dark but I can see a light ahead. I walk forward through the trees and approach the light. It is a bonfire burning in a clearing. The fire is tall but and there is a light breeze but the fire does not threaten the trees. I expect to see one person there, a druid, but I am surprised to see too. They look like they have been expecting me. They urge me to come over to them. There is one man, and one woman. The man is white with dark hair, with piercing eyes and thick eyebrows. He is nearly 6 foot tall and slender but strong. He wears dark browns and greens and a wet-looking leather jacket with a hood underneath it. The woman is shorter and darker. She has a plumper face and dark eyes. Her black hair is plaited behind her in a long pony-tail. She wears a long dress and she is cooking something in a cauldron. She looks over and smiles, then carries on with what she is doing.
“Welcome,” we’ve been expecting you, says the man. He doesn’t ask who I am. He seems to know. He shows me over to a log that is lying on the floor near the cauldron and I sit down. The lady picks of the bowls from the end of the log I am sitting on and starts to dish out pottage for each of us. We all sit down and eat a full bowl of the pottage – carrot, potato and turnip, but you can’t really taste the turnip in the broth. Nothing is said.
We sit for a while quietly and then I say, “Um, this is not really what I was expecting. I thought we’d be beginning straight away. Do you need me to do anything?”
“We are waiting for a messenger. We will begin after he comes,” he man said and smiled. The woman grinned and gave a little chuckle. Then she said something quietly to the man. She left us, saying that she was needed elsewhere. The remaining druid sat for a little while longer, looking into the bonfire.
The man gets up. “The messenger has arrived. Wait for him here. I shall meet with you afterwards,” he says, and them moves away into the trees. I am left sitting on the log.
At this point I come out of my meditation. I feel curious but slightly irritated at being disturbed. An old man, a young man, a boy and a girl are walking in the park and are approaching the stones. The two men are talking about the stones, especially history about the rocking stone I am sitting on.
“Have you made the stone rock?” asks the older man.
“Not today,” I reply.
“It has been very busy here today. Lots of little people, elves. Have you seen any today?” he continues.
“No,” I reply and pause. He looks at me intently and I am not sure if he is serious or taking the mick. “Not today…” I continue, questioningly.
“That surprises me. I can see them. Have you seen them?”
“I don’t know what they look like,” I reply.
He begins to describe them and how to see them, first like a distortion of the light, like looking through raindrops on a window when its raining, a slight shift in the air which creates a blur of form. He then described how some of them look. The ones around this circle are small and gangly, with large heads, chubby faces and long hooked noses. They wear hats that look like mushroom caps. “You won’t see them if you don’t try to see them, and you don’t have to look too hard.”
I hear a rustling behind me from the bushes. “I see,” I say and nod. I decide he’s serious, or at least that he seems to know something. I see a distortion like what he describes over by the South-East outer stone and I listen more intently. He continues to talk about the elves, and then moves onto talking about pixies, and their long ferocious teeth and claws, their snarling and “their almost cannibalistic biting”. They would think nothing of eating each other. The old man seemed to scare himself with that thought and started to mutter incoherently and he wandered off to catch up with the others.
I sit for a moment on the stone hugging my knees and thinking about what he said and trying to decide if he was insightful or bonkers. I decided that if he was mad, then it was in the best way and that he was actually quite insightful, and that he probably was the messenger that we had been waiting for, even though it wasn’t as I expected. The stone was hard. I made myself comfortable again and continued.
This time it was dark and cool. It takes me a moment for my eyes to get used to the light. I am standing on stone and it looks like I am standing facing the rock-face of a cliff. It is wet, shiny and worn smooth. I realise I am not alone. The male druid is there too. He lights a torch on a stick and holds it aloft. We are in a cave and not by a cliff at all. It is a large cave and the ceiling is tall like in an auditorium. The floor slopes gradually down into a pool. There are gemstones within the rock that light up iridescently with the light from the torch. The ceiling is dotted with numerous mineral stones that light up like the night sky. The druid explained that we were in the womb of the earth, a safe place and then asked me questions regarding my intent. Some of the questions were difficult to answer but he seems satisfied. He also asks me if I wished to continue now or later as I am about to go into a time where I will be heavily distracted by the mundane. I say I want to continue. He tells me things about my character as he leads me around and out of the cave. We walk up a tunnel that sloped gently upwards. The tunnel emerges from behind some rocks into the forest. We walk on a little further and return to the clearing of the grove. The bonfire is dying down now. The druid says goodbye and leaves me alone to contemplate my thoughts. I sit and rest, warming myself near the embers. I feel tired.
I notice that a mouse is nearby, wandering around. It looks like he’s looking for food. It approaches me, looks up and says, “I am like you.” I am surprised first of all that the mouse has spoken and also at the directness of the address. I look to the side of me and notice a chunk of cooked carrot on the floor from the pottage from earlier. I reach over, pick it up and give it to the mouse. The mouse takes it, examines it and holds it up triumphantly. “Life can be rewarding!” he says, and then scampers off with the carrot cube. I feel pleased that I have made the mouse happy. I look into the smouldering ashes of the bonfire and doze off.
I return back to the stone circle. The rising full moon and the setting sun are equal in the sky and it is getting cool. I see distortions around me that look like they may be the elves the old man from earlier spoke about. I feel inspired by the mouse and feel really happy. “Life can be rewarding.”
