Three years ago there was a total solar eclipse. In anticipation of the occasion I had been scouting my local landscape for the right place to contact the spirit of a particular oil, and had finally found what I saw as the best possible location for the undertaking, Roslin Glen.
Although known to most in Scotland and many further afield, the Templar built chapel at Rosslyn shot to worldwide fame in 2006 thanks to the work of Dan Brown and his book “The Da Vinci Code”. The chapel suddenly received funding for thorough restoration, and a snappy visitors centre was attached to this sacred place, complete with gaudy gift shop and coffee.
The number of visitors passing through the doors increased immensely, and remains high to this day.
Those unwilling to get their shoes dirty are missing out on some of the more sensually alive secrets that sit in silence nearby, but for the sounds of running water, dripping caverns, the rustling trees and sonorous birdsong. Roslin Glen drew the Templar Knights to this place, and the dragon line said to run through seems very much alive and kicking. Take a look at the Apprentice Pillar and see how the dragons in the base writhe around underground.
I had already been to one spot, tucked away down serpentine tracks. Jumping gingerly down neck-breaking gaps, one suddenly discovers a list of names carved on a facing stone. The dates speak of long dead visitors, lost intent, and the draw this power spot held over centuries past. Just writing these lines pulls forward strange dreams from around the time of my visit.
Here, the bottom of the slippery rock descent finds me carefully stepping through dippled mud while water streamed down the bank above my head, falling and echoing to my left. A suitable rock had been chosen for the occasion, and as the eclipse had already perfected, the gloomy skies grew ominously dim in the approaching twilight. I didn’t know what to expect from any connection I could make, and a strained butterfly bumped around in my stomach with increasing intensity. Re-framing this as excitement, I prepared offerings and climbed up on the nearby rock, facing the water curtained cavern.
Stripping to my waist I anointed myself in the appropriate places and went through the prescribed ritual motions. Expressing my desires, which included an enhancement in spirit sight, I sat in the most silent state I could muster. Soon after, the monkey mind began to calm and the night’s tension pooled into open focus…
A writhing serpentine body came clear. It was thrashing furiously in effervescent blue, but I couldn’t make out head nor tail. Then the sliding slowed as a head reared up to face me from a spectral distance, opening unseemly wide jaws. She struck forwards to my face, and I popped back at the sensation of being bitten.
That night I had a brief yet pointed dream. There was a mechanism, full of cogs and reminiscent of an old fashioned cassette tape. I could see inside at the parts, which were frozen over in ice. A smiling, blonde haired youthful man was watching the scene with a wry smile on his face. These were my senses, and they needed thawing out. What I had asked for in the cave the night before hadn’t been a gift to be bestowed from an outside source, it was all about a process of self discovery.
The establishment of contact continued to manifest in the most interesting and surprising of ways. Guidance. Dragon eyes would appear as I went to sleep, or sat behind houseplants in the living room. The next day another suggested route. Improvements in divination methods. He led me down to meet some of the forces mentioned elsewhere in this blog, sparking more life shifts, and I suspect more lessons lie in wait.
The Lucken Hare 