Quests and Questing

Here we want to share with you some of our questing experiences.

A part of our research involves questing.  A quest can be defined as "an act of seeking, search, pursuit or inquiry"
Sometimes questing is about seeking out an object.  Other times it is about information.  We are interested in many things and questing helps us search and find some answers to the questions we have.  We class this as our action research and it takes us out into many different places. 

We use many techniques when questing. These include:
Crystal dowsing
Satellite imagery
Interviews and story telling
Internet and library research
Using old maps and archived documents

Our instincts

...and a splattering of Latin and Greek
In the following pages you can see one or two examples of the quests we have undertaken.  For those interested in dowsing we recommend membership to the British who provide really helpful advice and information on all forms of dowsing.

The Avebury Swan-Serpent hybrid.

Background

In his book Cygnus Mystery, Andrew Collins discusses the concept and the winged serpent and examines some important sites and references.  One of the sites mentioned is Avebury, where the 72 remaining stones stand.  Andy was interested in the  findings of John Wakefield, who in his book Legendary Landscapes: secrets of Ancient Wiltshire Revealed, identified a possible swan-serpent carving on one of the standing stones.  The line drawing in Wakefield's book is clearing indicative of swans head, with a strong impression of a serpent body or a winged serpent.
 
We wanted to locate the carvings to see for ourselves if these were indeed natural effects or purposely carved.   From the texts we had,  It was impossible to identify which of the stones was the one know as # 25s.  We knew the stone was in Kennett Avenue, but more than this had not been revealed.

Avebury

It was a cold and very windy day in Avebury (October 2006), so we had the Stones pretty much to ourselves.  Our questing began with walking through the stones and meditating on the images we had seen.  We looked at some of the stones carefully and waited to see which stones we were drawn to.  
 
We had no intention of searching through all the stones, the task would have been too much for such a cold and windy day.  We ran our hands over the stones noticing the different temperatures and energies emanating from them.

It was then that we became aware of two small carvings, or at least they appeared to us as carvings.  We thought maybe we had managed to trace the carving that Wakefield referred to and photographed them.  At this point we abandoned our search in favour of a warm fire and real ale.  We contacted Andy and Sue Collins and arranged to meet them at Avebury to verify the carvings. 

It was during this second trip, we found the location of the original carvings, they happened to be on the next standing stone to the ones we had identified!

The proximity of the carvings and the similarities adds weight to the argument that these carvings are not natural occurrences and were created, suggesting the Avebury standing stones are linked to the winged serpent concept

Boudicca's last battle

Background

The starting point was to a request to help heal the land.  The land in question is the heart of England, the poverty and mis-fortune in the area is apparent.  We were given some starting information about Boudicca's last battle reputed to have been in the area.

To begin to develop any sigils and rites for healing the land, we had to identify more closely some of the areas where we felt there was the strongest negative energy.  Our starting point was a literature and image search by internet and dowsing using crystals and OS maps.

The results of our initial searches led us to the following:

Places; Mancetter, High Cross, Watling Street and Fosse way.
People;  Epona, Claudius, Paulinus Suetonius, Boudicca, Tacititus,
Images; Horses, horse-serpents (dragons) bronze, roses, coins,

Through satellite imaging we were able to identify an area of land with a scarred heart image.  We later identified this as a site very close (metres) to the High cross.  A crossing point of two roman roads, Watling street and Fosse way. 

Through crystal divining we identified two areas we deemed worthy of investigation as the last battle ground of Boudicca.  The description written by Tacitus 30 years after the event has led many to believe the site was somewhere around Mancetter – Just off Watling street. (Although there are several other contenders from including Rugby and Tring). 

We plotted a journey from the Fosse way, to High cross and then onto Mancetter.  

High Cross

The land we wanted to explore was inaccessible, and the scar not apparent from the ground.  The High cross monument appears to be on private land and at this stage did not warrant further investigation.  We were struck by the extraordinary number of horse signs and symbol s we were presented with.  There is no reason why we should see today two different women riding two different white horses within five miles of each other.  (Thoughts of Godiva)

There seemed to be many equestrian centres, stables, liveries etc in the area from High Cross to Mancetter, the images appearing and re-appearing.  The Celtic Horse goddess Epona is also associated with the rose, an image which also presented itself in several different ways.  It is recorded that Epona was also revered by the Romans.  There are several dedications to her at Roman forts in Britain. 

Mancetter

Apparently translates as "place of chariots".  Taking a small road off Watling Street, we took a canal path. Obviously the canal is a more recent contribution to the landscape.  However much of the surrounding area is still farm land.  Our dowsing led us to a particular spot where we believe the last battle of Boudicca's army faced the 10,000 Roman soldiers.  Estimates suggest that 80,000 Britons were slaughtered in the battle and 400 centurions were lost. 

If Boudicca was travelling with 230,000 people the encampments must have been enormous.  There are still several camps to be investigated, Oldbury camp and Camp hill being two of them.  Camp hill is today known as an impoverished area of Nuneaton. 

Artefacts found at the site: flint arrow heads, maybe a stone axe head, Victorian(ish) glass

We are left with a strong feeling of more work to do here, in particular moving two fields over to examine the earth energies and to dowse around the Oldbury camp and camp hill areas.  Also feel the need to follow up another line further down the canal.