We have been fascinated with standing stones and stone circles for many years. Soon after moving to our cottage high on a hill in the Forest of Dean, thoughts turned to creating a special place in the garden. By that time we had just 5 years of dowsing experiences under our belts and had begun to realise what powerful places megalithic sites were.
With the idea that we needed a special place that we could use all the year round, the idea of a circle grew.
At that time, John was helping to run South Herefordshire Dowsers and was fortunate in organising a series of speakers who would be very helpful in the planning process. One of these was Robin Heath who was generous with his help – much needed for two mathematically challenged people! After studying Aubrey Burl’s “A Guide to the Stone Circles of Britain, Ireland and Brittany” and Robin Heath’s “Sun, Moon and Stonehenge” we settled on a flattened ‘type B’ circle as it felt just right to us.
Our priority was to build a circle incorporating as many features of a ‘real’ circle as possible. Accordingly, the measurements were made in Megalithic yards, (ours is 7 MY across), the stones were set with their inside faces being flat or concave (Paul Devereux and Aaron Watson: Sounds of the Stone Age).
Preliminary dowsing had indicated a water line running diagonally across the garden. Further dowsing requesting the ‘best place’ resulted in a rather inconvenient result but which soon revealed itself to be over a blind spring. At that time Billy Gawn visited and we were delighted when he confirmed our findings. We were particularly interested to know if there would be any undesirable consequences to the building of a circle on the site and were pleased to receive the ‘all clear’.
The stones were sourced from a local, very ancient quarry, so are identical to those used in our cottage. They are levered out of the quarry rather than blasted.
The stones were manhandled into place and then inserted into their sockets with particular intent, set into each of the nine ‘streamlets’ branching out from the central blind spring. The entrance is inclined towards mid-summer sunrise. Fortunately the four cardinal points each had a stream underneath. The tenth stone was placed purely for appearances’ sake but curiously, within a week had acquired its own water line.
Once the circle had been finished in June 2001, we held a party for our friends at South Herefordshire Dowsers with a short ceremony to dedicate the circle to healing.
Since that time we have had many dowser visitors, including Sig Lonegren, Hamish Miller, Joey Korn, Roy and Ann Procter as well as Patrick MacManaway and Grahame Gardner. Each added something to our knowledge of the site. Other friends have visited when ill or troubled and seem to gain some benefit.
Dowsing reveals that each stone has its own energetic features and each stone is inter-related to the others. A large spiral of energy spreads out from the centre, well over 250 yards into the surrounding countryside. It is a very peaceful spot.
We try to mark the solstices and cross quarter days and light a lantern for special times and when any friend or family member needs support.
