12 Noon, local time
Sun in Capricorn, Earth, the Initiator;
Moon in Cancer, Water, the Guardian
St Ann’s Well Dressing 2013, Buxton, Derbyshire (photo “visit Buxton”)
Dear Gatekeepers
Welcome to our first newsletter for 2026. Wishing you all peaceful pilgrimaging on our beautiful planet as we start our annual pilgrimage around the British Landscape Zodiac. This full moon is another supermoon and is in the sign of Cancer, the element of water and guardianship, reflecting the element of earth and initiator in the sun in Capricorn.
Cancer on the British Landscape Zodiac takes us to the north of England and here in Buxton, Derbyshire, we find the element of water rising from the earth. St Ann’s Well is an ancient natural warm spring, one of the places in the area where the mineral water emerges at a steady 27C.
Originating from rainwater that flowed onto the local rock 5000 years ago and taking all that time to filter through to the pure drinking water we enjoy today. The Romans settled here and named the area Aquae Arnemetia, after the Romano-British goddess of the sacred grove. The healing powers of the warm mineral rich waters have been used for time immemorial. In the Middle Ages this spring became associated with the healing powers of St Ann and was renamed St Ann’s Well.
Here we meet Charlotte in the sun sign of Capricorn. Click here
Portland Update
A wonderful photo sent through from Hannah Sofaer and Paul Crabtree showing the Memory Stones and the accuracy of their alignment to the sun marking the Winter Solstice.
Memory Stones Portland: Christmas Day 2025 11.52am (Photo PSQT)
The shadow of Wren’s Stone (South) is perfectly aligned with the North Stone – shadows at their longest of the year (14-15m) touch the inner circle where the stones have been set out in proportion to the Earth’s orbit around the Sun.
The Gatekeeper Stone is shown with received light on its East face. This sentinel’s full presence is manifest. It will be more visible and accessible when the area is cleared and opened up to become an outdoor learning space and portal into the Green Corridor chakra path.
The lower portal will be established by the installation of the Archway from Fleet Street, London (next to Wren’s St Bride’s Church). Plans are nearing the drawing board stage and it is expected work will commence in 2026. Support for the project is being given by Dorset Council to instruct a structural engineer and to draw up the architectural brief.
MEMORIES FROM DARTMOOR
Keith Fielder’s funeral
Keith, and his wife Maggie, were deeply involved with the Gatekeeper Trust for many years. Here Charlotte writes of his funeral. “Keith was hoping Peter (Dawkins) could come to his funeral, as Keith was deeply interested in Peter’s work. Peter was ill at the time of the funeral, and so he was unable to come, but his memory of Keith was that Keith was a true friend, always unflappable on pilgrimage and someone Peter could count on to help if needed. Keith was quiet, loyal and loving, with a questing mind. He was a true ‘Swan knight’.”
“Keith being a true Swan knight is associated with a European tradition about the Knights of the Seven Swans. It is also an Orphic-Dionysian tradition. Keith was not just such a Swan knight; he was also able to play a brilliant jester." (Peter Dawkins)
Charlotte continues: “For instance, I remember a time in the 1990’s, when Peter and Sarah ran a pilgrimage in France, in the Auvergne, which Keith and Maggie attended. I also was on this pilgrimage. I remember that, after walking up the giant Auvergne volcano, Puis de Dome, we returned to our base at the Hotel la Rose des Vents, where we enjoyed an aftersupper pilgrims’ pageant in which Keith hilariously played Mother Mary, with Anne Harper sitting in his lap, playing baby Jesus.
The idea of a Swan knight also refers to such a person being a supreme poet like Orpheus – and Keith was a poet. For instance, whilst Keith could still walk, he came on our trips exploring the landscape of Dartmoor, where we wrote several improvised group poems. We were like troubadours. It was so enriching.
The first trip was up Hay Tor in July 2012, about which we wrote a bardic poem:
HAYTOR BARDIC GROUP SONG – July 2012.
A mystery tour of creative glory.
Soft cumulus clouds drift above gigantic granite outcrops.
I grew up on your heartland.
Space is freedom.
This forever land in forever time I honour.
Gently the feminine embraces even the hardest stone.
The stone lion, unmoving since time began, crouches without intent.
Haytor from the back – feminine power and beauty.
Dark shadows melt across the shifting landscape.
Journey’s end – a vast wooded valley.
Be calm. Be still, Honour Me.
Haytor Bards.
Hay Tor is connected to a story of a pure-hearted virgin who declined her parents’ instructions to marry the man they provided for her. Eventually she married the love of her heart.
Keith was such a person who could be, and was, so loved, as he himself had a pure heart filled with love, which overflowed with love for others.”
Before Keith and Maggie moved to Totnes in 2001 they were friends with Mary Caine and for many years, pilgrimaged within the Kingston Zodiac, as the London Gatekeeper Group.
Memories and photos by Charlotte Yonge, Peter and Sarah Dawkins.
Sending love to you on your landscape.
Rose
Rose.wol2022@gmail.com