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Well I hope everyone found The Woodshaw Inn without any difficulty.
The Stonehenge Trip is sold out, but if you wish to put your name down in case any one has to cancel give Chris a ring. Her number is in the front cover.
Shaun now has an itinerary for the Long Weekend trip to Herefordshire, so speak to him for details also for addresses of B&Bs or for our block-booking at the campsite.
You are perfectly welcome to come for just part of the trip, just let Shaun know when to expect you and he will sort out a meeting point or tell you where to find us.
Let’s hope the weather will be kinder to us this year!
Jason Viner from the Bristol Dowsers is running a one day Basic Dowsing Course on April 12th, cost £25.00. If you are interested in attending give him a bell on 0117 9498933. Some of you will remember Jason’s talk from late in 2006, very good it was too. Jason is also doing another talk for us later this year.
The Society AGM will take place at 8 PM on May 19th immediately before Francine’s talk. If you have any issues to raise, or wish to volunteer for the committee please contact Shaun Ogbourne before that date..
Lotmead Farm, Wanborough, Near Swindon. Meet in the car park 10.45 am. On the A419 leave at the A420 exit and make for Wanborough. As you rise over the flyover over the A419, Lotmead is immediately on the left, take the 2nd turning.
Lotmead is now a Pick-Your-Own organic farm, but has a rich history reaching back from common land let out in strips or allotments, hence Lotmeads, to a rich Roman heritage and before that ring ditches show that it has always been inhabited. A fine double hedge follows the hundred boundary.
Access is not allowed to some places as per the state of the farm at the time, so please honour the farmer's wishes. A map will be given on the day. It might be a good idea to wear wellies.
After lunch we go on a return visit to The Lawn in Old Town, Swindon, just off the High Street. We did a trip here a couple of years ago but the date clashed with the funeral of a much loved member, which most of our regular field-trippers attended, and several asked for the Lawn trip to be re-run.
It is always interesting to re-dowse places that you have dowsed earlier, as energies can and do change, for all sorts of reasons. Apart from the historical parts of the site there are plenty of old and unusual trees to dowse and enjoy.
The Wyvern Dowsing Society has an interesting one-day workshop lined up for early November this year, to be held in Avebury village hall. The workshop is to be run by Summer Watson.
What Sort of Person is Your House (and does it love you)?
When we move in to a property we are starting a very intimate relationship with that house that could last 6 months or 60 years! This workshop will help you find out exactly what sort of ‘house-person’ you are living with at the moment, how it is affecting your life and what you can do if you find that the relationship is less than ideal.
Using a simple floor-plan of your house (or any other building you want to work with) we will explore:
• What sort of energy blueprint is underneath the house. To do this we will be dowsing over the floor-plan to see what energy lines run underneath it and what their archetype is.
• How do the lines running through the property connect you to other features in the landscape around you.
• Is a it a more male or female house and how that affects the occupants
• Looking at the history of the house/land to see if there is any geopsychic stress or residues still playing out.
There will also be some ‘House Clinic’ time at the end of the workshop where we can address specific issues that have come up during the day.
You will need to bring: a pendulum (I have some spare ones but only a few!), some pens (preferably in different colours so you can mark up your plan), an ordinance survey map of your area (or copy) and willingness to have fun and to learn how to read a house in a whole new way!
The cost will be £20 for members and £25 for non-members. Light refreshments are included in the price but please bring your own packed lunch. Please book promptly as places are limited to a small number so that everybody has the opportunity to do some individual work with Summer.
Summer gave a fascinating talk to the society some time ago, on dowsing for problems in the home, and how to deal with them.
Our stall will be there with pendulums and other dowsing tools on sale, along with the book stock.
Bookings should be made with Chris, whose phone number is at the front of the journal.
The new catalogue from our main source of books has just arrived, so there should soon be some fresh stock on the stall at the meetings, all below list price as usual. The small selection of Green Man plaques have almost sold out and Shaun and Mary are hoping to pay a visit soon to Kent, where the plaques come from – hopefully we will be able to get hold of some new designs.
“Time and Mind” – the Journal of Archaeology, Consciousness and Culture, is the title of a publication that has just issued its first volume. It fills the gap that was left when “3rd Stone” disappeared. Some of the people involved in “Time and Mind” were also featured in “3rd Stone” but in many ways it is a completely different sort of magazine, being much more academic and rather less wacky, and the production and printing are of a very high standard. The editors include Paul Devereux and Neil Mortimer.
I believe that it is only available by subscription at present, and is published by Berg Publishers of Oxford.
Kenneth is an archaeologist who has long been interested in Shamanism and has spent time living with the peoples of the remote areas of Kazakhstan where ancient rock-art was, and still is, revered by many.
Much of the rock-art, or petroglyphs, depict animals which are believed to have had spiritual significance. Many of these drawings are in very high or out-of-the-way places so were probably only meant to be seen by Shamans or only on special occasions.
Some of the drawings date back to at least the Bronze-age, although it is hard to be exact as the normal carbon dating techniques are unusable due to a modern method of recording the pictures having contaminated the surface of the petroglyphs
The animals depicted include many horses, eagles, deer with elaborate antlers, wild boar and goats. In addition there were many sun-headed gods of human form. The solar-headed gods have associations with sacred bulls [in particular] and other animals.
Kenneth gave a fascinating and detailed talk, finding similarities between the shamans who probably used the petroglyphs and Druids. Many of the pictures include lots of small dots which are believed to be records of past visionary experiences, probably in trances induced by music or sound vibration.
Some examples of Kazakh rock-art are shown, all featured in books or articles written by Kenneth Lymer and reproduced here with his kind permission, also from the “International Newsletter on Rock Art.” Which is based in France.
We have since found out that Kenneth does talks on a couple of other fascinating subjects so I expect we will be seeing him again!
Once again we were lucky with the weather – let’s hope this sets the pattern for the season! Two fields of large sarcen stones at Lockeridge Dene were the focus of the morning dowsing session. The first of the fields to be visited also has a large pond which is now dry. It looks as though it was a dew pond but apparently is not. A narrow band of energy was easily detected by dowsing, very close to the edge of the pond and around it’s perimeter and at the part nearest the cottages there were strong eddies flowing off of this perimeter line.
The over-all atmosphere of the field was very peaceful and it was a great place to dowse and spend time in. The second field had no pond but was also a lovely place just to be in, with plenty more to dowse.
After a pleasant lunch at the nearby Who’d Have Thought It. Pub., we went on to St. George’s Church at Preshute, on the outskirts of Marlborough.
The main part of the church is comparatively modern having been re-built, but parts of the tower are Norman and there has been a church here since at least 1066. A point of interest is the old black marble font. This was brought to the church from it’s previous home in the chapel at Marlborough castle, after the reign of King John, and is one of the largest fonts I have seen.
Outside the church are some impressive old memorials and interesting trees, including several yews.
A good day’s dowsing and we managed to get back into the car just before the rain reached us!
Hocktide takes place on the Monday and Tuesday that follow Easter Monday although the festival may well be of pagan origin. In the small town of Hungerford the Hocktide customs lasted at least up to the first World War and probably beyond.
The local belief is that the festival has associations with John of Gaunt who gifted some manorial fishing rights and other common rights. The fun and games were started by the blowing of an ancient horn which was given to the local people by John of Gaunt. In 1634 they had a new horn made specially for the purpose and the old one was put away for safe keeping. At 8am on Hocktide Tuesday the town-crier would blow the horn from the balcony of the Corn Exchange.
After this all the commoners of the Borough and Manor of Hungerford were commanded to attend the Court of Feoffement at the local Court House to give their names, or they would be fined.
Two elected Tutti-men go to the Constabled house to receive their Tutti-poles, about the same size as a broom-stick, with a garlanded top. There is a possibility that these poles have some pagan significance as a phallic symbol as the Tutti-men have the right to kiss any ladies they encounter – probably a watered down version of their rights in olden times.
Any woman who refuses a kiss from the Tutti-men has to pay a fine of one penny [in 1913]. At lunch the new constable would be elected, and it was believed that if the sun shone on him this was a good omen. S.C.
A foray by the society’s intrepid explorers has just taken place to the wilds of Herefordshire, to check arrangements for the trip. Thankfully the area seems to have fully recovered from last summer’s flooding, which caused the cancellation of the 2007 trip.
In addition to checking previously chosen sites, we discovered several other interesting places in the same area, so hopefully this year’s long-weekend trip should be especially good, to compensate for last year. Details from Shaun.
From the M4 junction 16 head towards Wootton Bassett along the A3102. At the 1st roundabout take the 1st exit signposted to Interface. Follow the road to the next roundabout and take the 3rd exit signposted to Broad Town. After about 100 yards turn right signposted to Woodshaw. Shortly take the 1st left then the 1st right and right again which should lead you into the pub’s car park. There is plenty of parking in the pub car park, on the road nearby and probably in Tesco’s car park about 30 yards away.
The Woodshaw Inn serves food from 6pm until 9pm in the evenings. The meetings will be in the function room at the back of the pub. Hope to see you all there.