SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 6, 2008

CORNWALL

Mara had engaged a wonderful local tour guide, Cheryl Straffon, to lead today’s journey.

Cheryl Straffon at Carn Euny

Cheryl is an expert on ancient , and has authored many books, two of which I picked up (listed below). Her knowledge covers the Cornish archeological sites, ancient Cornish deities, folklore, mythology, fairytales and legends, rural Cornish traditions and customs, and anomalies such as earth mysteries, ley lines, energy lines, mythic pathways, ghost roads, etc. She is also the editor of a Cornish Pagan magazine, Meyn Mamvro. A truly knowledgeable and fascinating woman, we were delighted to have a day of her expertise.

Cheryl told us that many of the ancient sites are very active, still used reverently by the Cornish people following the customs of their ancestors.

Ballowall Barrow

Cheryl fist led us to Ballowall Barrow near Land’s End, which was not far from where we were staying in St. Just. It is an open barrow with labyrinthine passageways. We clambered over the stones, into the passages, admiring the beautiful heathery flowers that seemed to grow out of the stones.

Ballowall Barrow

Ballowall Barrow

The Barrow is a Neolithic “Scillonian” type of chamber tomb, which archeologists believe was added onto over time, creating a complex of passages and chambers. It consists of several graves and a central area that may have been a ritual area and is estimated to be over 5, 500 years old.

A “Scillonian” chamber tomb has a narrow entrance leading into a rectangular burial chamber, covered by stones forming a rounded “cairn”. The cairn is now gone, but the foundation stones remain. These cairns are often within sight of each other, leading experts to suspect that they may have also served at beacon hills.

Ballowall Barrow covered with heath flowers

I could imagine what it might have been like when the mound was intact with its stone and turf roof, being led deep into the chambers past the burial niches of my ancestors, to a central place where people were initiated into the mysteries of this remarkable neolithic culture. There was a resonance of deep magic here.

St. Helen’s Oratory

From there, we traveled to a field not far from the ocean, with a wonderful little 5th Century oratory dedicated to St. Helen. This may have been built over an earlier Pagan site dedicated to a local Goddess, Elen.

St. Helen’s Oratory

It began to sprinkle and we were grateful for what little protection the ancient stones had to offer.

St. Helen’s Oratory

Paul Screeton, past editor of the Ley Hunter magazine wrote that “many wells are dedicated to St. Helen, a confusion with Elen, the Celtic Goddess of roads and armies. Elen, reputedly the daughter of King Cole, is Albion’s equivalent of Thoth, Hermes and Mercury. She, according to the Mabinogion, built a system of roads from one castle to another throughout the Isle of Britain. This suggests the construction of track ways following the placing of stones, mounds, “one tree hills”, to mark ley lines. Elen, or the Christianized St. Helen, has given rise to such names on leys as Heel, Heol, and Ellie stones, Elen’s roads, and Elen’s causeway.” (from Caroline Wise’s website)

Caroline Wise sums it up on her website, “So here we have the matron saint of ley hunters.” As we were to encounter that tribe of seekers over the next few days, I was delighted to pay homage at St. Helen’s oratory and ask her blessing for our journey following the paths she may well have marked for us centuries ago.

We decided to break for lunch in Saint Just before exploring our afternoon’s sites. Virginia, Lalanya and I found a delightful little tea shop and I treated myself to a delicious Cornish tea with scones, clotted cream and jam! We went shopping afterwards and spotted a beautiful antique grail-shaped blue glass bowl. We decided that it would be a perfect thank you gift for Mara from our group!

Sancreed

Cheryl led us on a footpath through the moorlands, then into a woodland area for a very sacred place – Well.

Moorlands near Land’s End

Sancreed Well

A “Clootie” hawthorn tree next to Sancreed Well

Tying our own healing wishes to the tree

Cheryl has this to say about Cornwall’s holy wells, “Cornwall contains within its one hundred or so miles a great number of sacred and holy wells. Although some of these have now fallen into disuse and disrepair, there are quite a few still preserved and visited, particularly in West , a most mystical and elemental landscape where the ancient stones still live and the sacred sites are everywhere to be seen. Among these sites are some few dozen holy wells which have living legends of their power to heal and foretell the future associated with them.” (from: http://newagetravel.com/straffon.shtml)

She told us that these wells were visited by locals and tourists who leave offerings and prayers for healing, and they are still sites of worship for local Pagan groups. The wells are seen as portals into the earth, the body of the Mother Goddess, and are held in great reverence. The wells are places of healing, and also divining, as there are methods for young girls to ask the well how many years until their marriage by counting the bubbles after throwing in an offering. Virginia and I dowsed the site with our pendulums, and discovered the energy was feminine, not a surprise!

I had brought many ribbons with me to tie on the various clootie trees I’d encounter on this journey. It’s an incredible feeling to take part in a tradition that goes back thousands of years, creating a bond between me and my predecessors, who came from the British Isles. When I perform a ritual, even so simple as to tie a ribbon to a tree, in these holy places, I feel that the spirits of the land notice and take heed. Often my prayer is to come back again someday, and always that prayer has been answered. I whispered a prayer and asked the tree and the well to draw me back to this place again. Again, I used my pendulum and asked if I would return. To my delight, it swung clockwise – a definite yes!

Carn Euny

This Iron Age village is among the best preserved in Cornwall, which was occupied from Neolithic times until the Roman era. The site includes the foundations stones of the original houses as well as a well preserved “”, which was an underground passage. Some archeologists believe that fogou’s were simply underground storage area, but others realize that they were too awkward to use for storage, and are more likely sacred – a place of ancestor worship.

We traveled through farmland, and found the ancient village on the other side of a simple gated wall.

Gate to Carn Euny

Carn Euny foundation stones

Remains of a stone home in Carn Euny

Lalanya at Carn Euny

Virginia and Lalanya at Carn Euny

Carn Euny

Carn Euny

Amely and Simon at Carn Euny

Entrance to the Fogou

Inside the Fogou

Chamber inside the Fogou. An underground ritual site?

Again, as so often in this magical land, I was overwhelmed by a mystical feeling, almost one of homecoming, as I imagined my ancestors living in this simple stone village. Their lives must have been filled with their daily chores, drawing water from the well, harvesting the grain, fishing, hunting, cooking over simple fires, and celebrating the passage of seasons, and of lives in their central complex, what we call a fogou. I wonder how stable that society might have been, for how many generations of families lived there, and what became of their descendants. I am so thankful that this has been preserved, and we can literally travel backwards in time in places like these. Crossing back through the gate, I could look back and almost see the shadows of ancient people passing to and fro in their daily routines. I wonder if I was once one of them in a past life?

Boscawen-un

Boscawen-un Stone Circle

Cheryl led us to our first stone circle of the trip, Boscawen-un, a bronze age stone circle near St. Buryan. This unique circle consists of 19 upright stones with one large stone leaning just south of the center of the circle. There is a gap in the west which may have indicated the ceremonial entrance to the circle. Strangely, the leaning stone is in perfect alignment with the center stone of Men-an-Tol, which we would be next. Could they be related, a part of a ritual procession?

The leaning stone

Simon enjoying the earth energies

Virginia dowsed the leaning stone, and it’s energy was male. But we found another stone which had a lot of quartz in it, that registered as female energy, so this circle seemed to be a balance of both energies.

Mostly quartz healing stone.

This remarkable stone was on the opposite side to the entrance gap, and all of us could feel the steady pulse of healing energy.

Receiving healing from this amazing stone

From here, you can see the “Gap”

St. Just

Back to Saint Just, where I ambled again in their delightful woodland property, and was compelled to take more shots of the rambunctious, noisy rooks!

More rooks

Trees full of rook

Boscean’s horse

A scotch with a fellow traveler, Shirley

Our shoes were soaking wet from our travels, and the well prepared Boscean Arms staff offered their “warming room” for our collection of footwear, which meant nice warm, dry shoes tomorrow! Gratefully we all accepted their offer and gave them our shoes.

We had an excellent dinner, and I selected a delicious chicken dish with bacon. We chose to present Mara with her Grail Bowl that night at dinner, and she was delighted! Since she and David had brought their own car, we knew it would be packed and stored safely away until they could bring it home to Wales.

Finally, after a long, exhausting but exhilarating day, I crawled into bed and was soon fast asleep.

Books:

Megalithic Mysteries of Cornwall, by Cheryl Straffon, Meyn Mamvro Publications, Penzance, 2004

Pagain Cornwall Land of the Goddesss, by Cheryl Straffon, Meyn Mamvro Publications, Penzance, 1993

Website:

Cheryl Staffon: http://goddess-tours-international.com/cheryl_straffon.htm

Cornish Holy Wells: http://newagetravel.com/straffon.shtml

Meyn Mamvro: http://www.meynmamvro.co.uk/

British Society of Dowsers: http://www.britishdowsers.org/

Carn Euny http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carn_Euny and http://www.megalithics.com/england/carneuny/caremain.htm

Ballowall Barrow: http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/celynog/Cornwall/ballowall_barrow.htm and http://www.intocornwall.com/engine/azabout.asp?id=162&code=

Boscawen-un: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boscawen-un

Merry Maidens: http://www.stonepages.com/england/merrymaidens.html

Scillonian: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scillonian_entrance_grave

Elen. Matron Saint of Ley Hunters: http://www.andrewcollins.com/page/articles/elen_2.htm (Caroline Wise’s excellent website)

Sancreed Holy Well: http://www.megalithic.co.uk/article.php?sid=8132

Clootie Wells: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clootie_well

Society of Leyhunters: www.leyhunter.org