Continuing the collaboration with Portland Sculpture & Quarry Trust (PSQT), Peter & Sarah Dawkins and GT trustee Angela Shaw joined PSQT’s Hannah Sofaer and Paul Crabtree mid-February in Portland. In addition to discussions about the carving of the Gatekeeper Stone and planning for an Autumn Equinox celebration, this visit was primarily to determine where the chakras are in the Green Corridor of Tout Quarry Nature Reserve and Quarry Park, and how best they should function, and to offer advice on what might be appropriate to mark or honour each chakra, including advice on the Portland stone archway installation.
Peter and Sarah explored the site the day before meeting up with Hannah, Paul and myself, during which Peter was able to discover exactly where the great angel of Portland was centred, and to realise that the original island had been much larger, but was now partly submerged on its eastern side. He was also ‘informed’ that the Isle of Portland was an island of Venus, associated with marriage in an initiatic way, but that one half of the island’s ‘married couple’ had been swept away in some kind of violent storm or earthquake, or both, and that was why Peter felt such an overwhelming sense of grief when visiting Portland – a grief embedded in the still-remaining part of Portland.
Peter was also informed that the island was not just an Isle of Venus but also an Isle of Merlin, the former associated with the Lesser Mysteries and expressed via the orientation to the rising sun at Beltaine, the latter associated with the Greater Mysteries and expressed by the orientation to the north, towards the crown of the planet and North Pole Star.
Then, when exploring with Sarah the upper Inmosthay Quarry pathway leading to Tout Quarry and the Green Corridor, it was confirmed for Peter that there were two chakra systems, one large, one small, in which the smaller one (the Green Corridor) acts as the ‘head’ of the larger one. Peter felt that the tunnel beneath Wide Street acts as a diaphragm between the solar plexus area and the chest/heart area of the larger chakra system, and that the chest/heart area was the large open space of Tout Quarry that is located immediately before the entrance to the Green Corridor.
On the day of the meeting 13 February, after discussions in the Drill Hall around the maquette for the Portland stone ‘Archway’, Peter, Hannah and Angela walked the upper Inmosthay Quarry pathway to Tout Quarry and the Green Corridor. After passing through the tunnel beneath Wide Street and emerging into the heart chakra of the larger landscape system (where in August we sang ‘Dear Earth’), the position for the Archway was assessed. Peter stressed that it was important for this Archway to be orientated on a north-south axis, so that when someone was passing through the Archway, from the heart area into the Green Corridor, they were facing due north. This north-south orientation would then match the main axial orientation of the Memory Stones, with the two axes parallel and close to each other.
Peter then pointed out that the Archway would be the entrance into the head, containing the throat, brow and crown chakras of the larger landscape temple. He explained that the head is equivalent to Solomon’s Temple, the roofed part of the whole temple complex. Moreover, Solomon’s Temple has the twin Great Pillars standing each side of its entrance, so it is perfect that the Portland stone Archway has twin pillars on each side of its archway.
Synchronistically, just as Peter was carefully determining the position for the Archway, the exact position was confirmed by a ball rolling down the snaking pathway and landing between Peter’s feet, before it was retrieved by the dog and its owner. This brought mirth to all, affirming nature was in accord with this siting. Peter also knew that it was exactly the right position because the previous day he had been inwardly told that the Isle of Portland was an Isle of Merlin, and Merlin is associated with Sirius, the Dog Star.
As we started walking up the Green Corridor, Peter explained that, as a ‘head’, the Green Corridor is certainly an appropriate place for learning and contemplation, which suited the PSQT’s plans for the Green Corridor to act as a study/interpretation area concerning the fossil record and geology. Moreover, Peter explained, like any head or temple the Green Corridor has its own microcosmic chakra system. This Peter intuitively dowsed as we walked up the Green Corridor path, with him explaining how this complete chakra system fitted with the throat-brow-crown scenario of a head. All this seemed to fit reasonably well with the PSQT’s plans, and gave more exactness to the right positioning of the learning, contemplation, visualisation and meditation areas.
Coming up to the Gatekeeper Stone, Hannah explained the area around it would be cleared and opened up, so that the back of the Gatekeeper Stone would be more visible, and there would be a seating area for learning and reflection.
To quote Peter: “When we reached the Gatekeeper Stone we were in the crown chakra. The Memory Stones together with the Gatekeeper Stone form the crown chakra of the Green Corridor. In terms of an EW axis, the Gatekeeper Stone seems to stand due east of the centre of the Memory Stones Circle. In this position the Gatekeeper Stone functions as a true Gatekeeper in terms of the sunrise at the equinoxes of the year, just as the Hele Stone does for Stonehenge at the midsummer sunrise.” It appears this unique stone is slowly revealing itself as its different faces and functions are uncovered.
Connecting the Gatekeeper Stone to the Memory Stones is a “desire line” pathway worn by visitors to the site. Peter feels that steps would be appropriate here to aid the connection and to make people wonder about the link between the Gatekeeper Stone and the Memory Stones Circle.
Peter has kindly submitted a very comprehensive report to PSQT which will greatly assist in their interpretation of the site as a landscape temple and insights into the mysteries of the Isle of Portland itself. Gatekeeper Trust are also extremely grateful for our founders’ support and guidance.
Peter considers it important to complete the carving of the Gatekeeper Stone and clearance of the area around it before GT has any further celebration in Portland concerning the Gatekeeper Stone. If possible, a celebration in 2026 would be very fitting.
On a deeper level, in order to heal the island’s “grief” that is held in the stones, Peter suggests imagining that the two parts of the original island, existing and submerged, physical and astral, contemporary and ancestral, earth and water, continue to make their marriage, renewing their vows to each other and the Divine at rhythmically occurring auspicious moments in time. The rising sun marks the orientations of auspicious moments in time, such as the Beltaine and Christmas rising suns, or indeed all eight of the ancient solar fire festivals (solstices, equinoxes, and quarterdays).
The proposed lantern procession on Saturday 20 September 2025 for the Autumn Equinox could be such an occasion. We hope Gatekeepers will feel drawn to take part in these celebrations with PSQT and the Memory Stones.
Angela Shaw (Trustee)