Rob:           I am standing in the middle of the circle and looking at the maypole. All things revolve around the centre.

I see a rocky outcrop to the North is heavily covered in vegetation. This forms the Green Man, who is mature and strong. Ivy forms the backbone of his face. His eyes are totally black, except for a small fleck of gold to show that they see.

It is cold, as it is winter here. There is no snow, but there is a biting wind. I am wearing a coat made of animal skin, lined with fur inside. My hands are in gloves and my feet in thick boots.

The grass in the circle is pale and stringy, and flattened by the wind. Two animals are present, a she-wolf and a kestrel that is sitting on it’s stone eyeing me.

“To long you have been away. Where is thy brother?”

I make my way from the circle and up the rock face to the small cave entrance. Then I crawl through the opening into the cave itself. There is a fire in the cave, above it I see a small hole that serves to take the smoke away. A wall that reflects the fire light seems to be made of coal.

There is a large build up of energy here, very large. It has a shape like a fat low cylinder. The kestrel calls from outside the cave, and again. I sit down by the fire. There is a drum there about two feet across, shallow and made of animal skin. Next to the drum is a stick to beat it, which I pick up and begin to drum.

I see a man dressed in feathers dancing around the fire. He is chanting, the chant sounds like “Tika hara hara ha!” He carries a staff that is made of a long bone from an animal. He is a shaman. He is dancing faster. He wears a hat made from the body of a bird. He shouts and I feel my heart beating faster. I am lying down by the fire now. I am still in the cave, but the walls have dissolved.

I am being approached by three woodsmen wearing long angular face masks, with square eyes. They wear grass skirts. They step around me. One has a rattle which he shakes over me. My face is covered in ash. They smear red kohl over my eyelids. Around my neck, one of them places a garland of watercress and long thin aquatic plants from the river. I am being prepared for a journey.

I have the impression that someone is observing what is going on. Now they are saying words, they are reciting over me. I must be journeying. Upstairs, someone in there, in our room.

I see a king standing with a full crown, and a purple robe trimmed with ermine. He carries an orb and a sceptre and has golden hair. I hear snatches of words that don’t make much sense, “in accordance with practices, misnomers arising”, they are all jumbled up.

Then I see the image of an open door, the door is light by a strong light, a white light. I cannot see beyond it. The tree men, (woodsmen mentioned earlier), have lit some sort of pipe, it’s a long tube of hollowed wood. They are smoking something at the bottom of the tube. They smoke with bulging cheeks and blow the smoke over me. I see directly above me a white flower opening. It becomes a crescent moon with a snake coiled around it.

The crescent becomes the horns of Isis in the form of divine cow. At a right angle there is a thick ‘L’ of wood, as this wood is moved I can feel an extension of it as if it were touching me. It floats on the ground. It is on the intersecting point of two ley lines.

Now I see a stone pathway leading up to a bridge that is near a canal. I can hear a dog howling in the distance. I am standing at the top of the pathway, watching ordinary people going by. One looked at me, and then ran off.

I still have my body covered in ash, but now I am just wearing a loin cloth. I have long thin slivers of bone stuck in my arm, but they are not painful at all. I howl.

Now I smell a wood, greenery, and then I am there. There was only a brief sensation of moving. Now there are a lot more trees, but still people around.

I carry a spear with a stone end, no metal. I hold a sword in my left hand, it is quite long. Someone is trying to be reasonable and saying “Give it to me”. I look at my left hand. The sword is gone and my hand is bandaged, there is no pain though.

I know that it is time to return. I am back in the cave, the three tree men are still there. One has a cone, which he puts against my ear. He whispers, “That wasn’t so bad was it? Next time you can go further. It will make more sense next time.”

I crawl out from the cave and see the wolf looking at me appraisingly. The wolf howls and so do I.

 

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