Pilgrimage words

A dark time pilgrimage.

We always have a choice on the esoteric work we undertake for the land. Sometimes though the offer is a little forceful, especially when things seem to have been contrived to bring you to a certain place, at a certain time and it would seem churlish to refuse given that fact.

This occurrence was what bought me to Stratford upon Avon, on the day of 11th September 2021. To a room in a hotel that overlooked the theatre. I town I should not have been in and a room that was not mine to have.

Initially I had no idea – often the way – that I was required to carry out any work on any scale but I did immediately upon entering the city begin to feel strange. The term “strange” covers all possible feelings. In this case it began with feeling unsettled and out of sorts and grew as I landed in the city with an undercurrent of anxiety (I used to suffer from anxiety attacks and this was low key but enough to remind me of those long days) and feeling battered by the environment, people and sounds. This continued throughout the day with a lack of flow and where places of rest, relaxation for food etc were intruded upon by extractor fans, exhaust noise and intrusive people. There was no place to find an escape. 

Even seeing the Comedy Errors, part of the reason for the visit, was not without incidence, with a member of the audience taken ill and even our good selves found the experience, one that required hard work on our part to stay present, despite the quality of the performance. 

Everything seemed to place us in an unsettled feeling, jangled and raw.  

There were moments of respite, a small gap around 7pm, when I was eating but it was a momentary lift and then plunged back in. I still can’t fathom why that occurred but it was marked and potentially to bring clarity that things were afoot. For whatever reason, I still had no clue that I was in store for work that night.

It is always wise, when these feelings arise, to tune in and to ask if there is anything to do, such as a pilgrimage through the town to move or lift the energy and I did this request but there was no strong sense of need or the expected draw to walk. I also asked that if this was not mine to let it lift and move on, so that I could enter the weekend with more joy. It did not lift and so therefore had to be mine to deal with.

By this time I was really feeling it within the area of my body associated with the sacral chakra. An uncomfortable and painful experience that I could not shift. I ended the evening sitting on the terrace of the hotel, with a glass of wine in hand, reading a book on the Greek Islands and calming myself. This terrace was directly under my bedroom window and adjacent to the original memorial theatre. Listening to the evening performance of the play and to an adjacent residents iPad watching the tennis final.

Finishing the wine and driven inside by the iPad noise, it seemed like an early night was beckoning. You may remember a reference to extractor fans. Well, I had endured their presence for both afternoon tea and evening meal and now it transpired there was one directly outside my bedroom window that shut windows and heavy curtains, could do nothing to limit its intrusion. 

Sleep was not forthcoming and at 1am, I was awake and aware of the room and the quiet of the night outside. It was then that the polite request came into my consciousness. This happens to each of us differently. I get no great voice or message but just an awareness that I need to “do” something. My focus went to the memorial theatre and I was asked to bring in a column of white light that descended from above into the theatre and then spread out around the town and out beyond. There were moments when it went pink and green, that seemed to indicate that the theatre was the heart centre of a landscape temple. Later confirmed by Peter and Sarah Dawkins (Zoence), whose work on this area has been pivotal in increasing our understanding of the significance of this part of the country.

My role was to bring in the white light and then to allow it to continuing pouring its energy into the land so that it might spread out to where it was needed. I was given information that this was required and needed here because astrologically the position of Stratford upon Avon is in a position where the word or the “message” can go around the world. This was part of the reason that the plays of Shakespeare are so important to the wider world and the messages woven into the plays make an impact on the world’s thinking to this day. That though is another whole article!

I was also aware that the day was significant and a need to redress the balance of people’s conscious thought, due to the 20 year anniversary of a world event, that prompted acts of memory, loss and connections for many people’s timelines.

In the universal rules though, where there is a place of movement “out” there is also a corresponding movement “in” and that this energetic exchange needed the light to transmute the return into a positive force for change, a memory to move things forward, not hold things back.

This action, of a huge column of white light, carried on throughout the whole night only completing with the first hint of the dawn. It was such a marvellous dawn, as my room faced directly east and I saw the strength of the sun rise over the memorial theatre, a place that I had been engaged with during the dark time and bring in the white light and now here it was bathed in golden sun light.

All feelings associated with the day before were lifted but I also knew that I needed to ground all that had happened out of the city. This act of grounding makes sure that you do not carry any of the residue of the work and also anchors it in a sacred place that can accept and welcome the energy of your work.

This place for me was the Rollright Stones, a journey to the south east from Stratford upon Avon and a famous ancient stone circle.

Coincidentally or not, it was a place that had already been on the radar for a visit the next day and so it felt a beautiful connection to take the energy of the city, to the energy of the rural and to bring in the balance. 

The Rollright Stones felt wonderfully calm and I spent some time with the queen stone and the Hawthorn that was full with red berries. At this ending there was no great vision or drum roll but there was also neither extractor fan or intrusive people and so I felt the work had been completed and the feelings of anxiety lifted. Though my sacral has remained sensitive for some days and required self care.

Often there is no grateful thanks for a job well done or sense of completion, only in a requirement to close the work and to ground purposefully. It is for my own sense of worth, that know that I did all that was necessary.