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Beltane Revisited
Merrivale in May
There are few good opportunities to measure the real-time impact of a ceremony on a sacred site. Wandering round a church, rods in hands, during a service would seem disrespectful, while dowsing a stone circle or temple when empty is a bit like investigating a steam engine in a siding – interesting, but only the backcloth of the tapestry. So, the chance to dowse a sacred site in active use, without offending the participants, is a rare treat – even if it does require the dowser to get up at 4am.
A few years ago I followed in the footsteps of Hamish Miller in measuring the effect of the Beltane ceremony at Merrivale stone circle, which forms part of the Tavistock Sings spring festival. We each found that the number of radial energy lines generated from within, or attracted to the circle, increased before and during the event. We found different numbers, presumably because our mental processes were operating in different ways, but the magnitude of change was similar and our conclusions were identical – the earth is listening.
This year, I returned to the event to check what was happening and confirm or refute our original findings.
The Merrivale complex is effectively my ‘home’ site. I go there whenever I have a spare hour or so and fancy being blown off my feet. I have found that the circle itself has about 14 radials (7 coming in, 7 going out) when ‘at rest’. However, the dowser has almost to sneak up to it to experience this as the site seems to have a premonition that someone is taking an interest. My wife mentioned to me, as we trudged through the wet grass in the near darkness, that she felt the stones knew we were coming. When we reached them, my first walk round found 20 radials. This could have been the residue of previous activities, or it could indeed have been some anticipation on the part of the energy there of imminent friendly interaction.
As I ambled round the circle in the gathering twilight, the number of radials rose slowly but steadily through the twenties and thirties until by the time the first of the singers were arriving there were about 40 radials present. There was then a little boost in energy and the radial count reached the mid forties – and stopped. I had not experienced this before. Energy is naturally dynamic, ebbing and flowing with the wider world, but here it seemed to have reached a plateau.
Despite the arrival of 20 - 30 more people, there was little further movement in the count until the arrival of the chief organiser (and former Mayor of Tavistock), Caroline Keane. At that point the radial energy resumed its upward trend for a few minutes and reached 60, only to stop again.
The singing started more or less at sunrise (not that one can ever tell at this moist moorland venue). The radials count crept reluctantly upward, but seemed to take little account of the increasing numbers of people or the enthusiasm of their singing – that is, until the last part of the event, which involved both harmonious singing and the group dancing in a double spiral. Someone unseen threw a switch and the energy surged up to 86 radials – but again stopped there.
As the participants drifted away the radial count fell quickly, almost as if it had reached an artificially high level and was keen to resume a more everyday state.
This was not at all what I had been expecting, nor what I had experienced on previous occasions. The energy of the site seemed sluggish and, although it responded to the ceremony, it was less synergistic than I had felt before. What was at work here?
The first point of question is always the measuring device – myself. Yet I was feeling quite lively for such an ungodly hour and having seen my home town football team avoid relegation on the last day of the season, I was quite relaxed and perky. Not me.
Was the input of the singers and dancers any different from before? The numbers were similar and the enthusiasm was certainly there. After all, no one was making the participants get up and go moor walking when the younger generation are just coming home from ‘having it large’. This did not seem to be an issue.
My only insight was that, in the manner of the modern world, the event was held on Bank Holiday Monday, as opposed to May Day/Beltane itself. There has been much debate about the construction of the Merrivale complex as an astronomical calculator, or at least its use as such in at least one phase of its development. The nearby stone rows certainly seem to act as a series of points indicating the passage of the planets – so perhaps the circle, too, is highly sensitive to astronomical events.
My experience of measuring energy shifts at eclipses - perhaps the most dramatic and easily experienced of all planetary impacts - indicates that precision is paramount. A few minutes either side of totality makes a massive impact on energy change. The stone structures of Neolithic times are built with (if you’ll pardon the pun) astronomical precision – a few inches out of true diminishes the dowsable reaction significantly. Could it be that a few days wide of the cosmic Beltane also changes the measurable physics to a major extent?
The conclusions of this return to Merrivale were; that the earth is still listening and interacting with energies of humans, and presumably others; that the arrival of the first participant (usually myself) actually has the greatest impact; that the arrival of the participants with greatest intent has a similar impact; that the actions of the group members have the greatest interaction when they are working with the spiralling energies of the site and that the precise time of holding the event may have a major effect on the strength of the response.
Not bad for a couple of hours dowsing – and back home in time for breakfast.
Many thanks to Caroline Keane and her colleagues Val and Susan for organising the Tavistock Sings event and for tactfully tolerating my presence.
Nigel Twinn
Tamar Dowsers
May 2008