CANCER SUN and CAPRICORN MOON
JULY 13TH AT 12 NOON
Boundaries for quiet reflection or creative interaction with Nature - protecting liminal space and its potential for leaps of insight. Abor Low nestles in a landscape full of sacred spaces.
Arbor Low henge and stone circle with its boundary gaps for interacting
with the wider ritual landscape.
[https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/arbor-low-stone-circle-and-gib-hill-barrow]
The wider landscape could be connected to the circle, as the stones of Arbor Low seemed to encourage an elevated sense of celebration. Robin Hoods Stride seemed to encompass a dragon path with stones along the way. Rowtor Rocks had caves in which pilgrims could sit in silence to contemplate their journey.
Robin Hood’s Stride, Peaks 2018.
Rowtor Rocks, Peaks. 2018.
Two prayer cards for reminiscing a plgrimage in the Wheel of Life Project 2018 .
Theme: the boundaries between fantasy and reality are delicate and unstable, as we observe the effects of Nature’s beauty on our senses. Flexible boundaries between us and the landscape allow for dialogues, growth and spiritual emergence.
Cancer sun (questing the ‘inner guardian’): How do I create good boundaries for my vision and become a guardian of the beauty within and without?
Capricorn moon (‘inner consolidator’) , intuitive-response: The consolidation of experience of good boundaries provides us with a culture of self worth, meaningful upliftment and a history of cultural rootedness in our landscape sanctuaries and gardens.
We exercise our fantasies in our pilgrimages,, using plants as a dialogue for our search for beauty and meaning. In Walled gardens we seek places of reflection and refreshment. Are we seeking new ways of crossing inner boundaries and re-creating sacred space?
Rosemoor Gardens, Exmoor - a rose garden seat. The roses scent fills the air, and we stop to reflect on the beauty …as we bump into our true selves in places of beauty amongst plants – Nature’s sensory intimacy encourages reflective mindfulness. [Charlotte Yonge, 2022)
In the same way, our local home landscapes become listening partners for our inner life. Landscaped parks become ritual pilgrimages for reflection and re-calibration of our memories.
London is one of my home towns: During the Jubilee I had a ‘virtual pilgrimage’ through my favourite part of central London. Celebrations were building a feeling of shared life by thousands of people, as they walked the same route as one of our London pilgrimages. In 2019 a small group of us walked from Trafalgar Square through the Mall to Buckingham Palace, the same path of the People’s Pageant which recapitulated the last 70 years of life in the UK. They returned to Westminster through St James Park past the little lake with swans and a barrow from a very distant past. There were certainly angels presiding over these beautiful trees and parks.
St James’ Park, a shared cultural meditation space graced with carefully tended trees and plants – gaps in the trees revealed the rest of the city’s built environment.
[Montage: Charlotte Yonge 2019]
St James’ Park Barrow? - [photo Charlotte Yonge, midsummer pilgrimage 2019].
An old Roman road is said by William Stukeley {1722} to have passed through the park: [http://www.johnchaple.co.uk/watling.html]
Interconnections between ancestral boundaries of city parks and their trees: The specially positioned parks in London hold cultural memories, connect to arts and philanthropic groups. Trees seem to be planted in alignment of paths, as guardians of reflective conversation. In Regents Park is Queen Mary’s Rose Garden, while all around the park are busy streets. One street leading through St Johns Wood to Hampstead Heath and Boudicca’s Grave.
This barrow is still held in great respect at a place where parliaments must have been on the hill. The symbolism of permanence and spirit of place attached to barrows in London is still there, and as they are still visited, trees planted around them have held a spiritual significance, guarded by carefully designed garden parks.
Boudicca’s Grave on Parliament Hill, where we pilgrimaged in 2002 with poetry and music by Amy Thurdakas.
[Photo: https://lostcityoflondon.co.uk/2018/07/23/boudiccas-grave]
‘At Parliament Hill is a prehistoric mound – the Llandin which in Welsh means llan = sacred and din = eminence. It is supposed to be a Gorsedd (great seat) a place where anciently important tribal meetings were held – parliaments indeed…’ [http://www.johnchaple.co.uk/parliamenthill.html#:~:text=At%20Parliament%20Hill%20is%20a%20prehistoric%20mound%20%E2%80%93,nothing%20to%20do%20with%20the%20Houses%20of%20Parliament.
City pilgrimages and building personal memories: During my working and training life, as well as spiritual pilgrimage, I visited Primrose Hill, Parliament Hill, Canonbury Tower, St Paul’s and Westminster Cathedrals with their circle of little trees and gardens, and Tower Hill. All along the road there were trees in their special little enclaves, and St Paul’s had a carefully designed flower garden. At Temple Church a tiny garden held the spaces for intimacy, it guards a processional route – older than memories - between the Tower and Westminster. The trees lining the route were my favourite memories, which made the city a very special place for me. It is not for nothing that London is called an ‘urban forest’, because when you look from any high place, most of what you can see is green foliage.
Park Boundaries are created by trees that are protective of animals and plants, trees that help to recycle the pollution from traffic, as well as being sanctuaries for people:
‘Trees play a vital role in supporting communities of birds, mammals, insects, lichen and fungi. With our interactive map you can discover some of the most remarkable and beautiful trees in Regent's Park….’
‘Regent’s Park is a busy and very popular playground for Londoners and visitors. It’s home to the London Zoo, an open-air theatre and lots of sports facilities. Yet it’s still a great place to appreciate nature in the capital, with a diverse range of environments including woodland and wetland, as weas open meadows and formal gardens. The great trees of the park are its crowning glory.’ www.royalparks.org.uk
Tree boundaries of Regents Park…. for walking and talking.
Ancestoral Places of quiet feed into the life of the city:
On the outer park ring is Nuffield Lodge where my father worked generating grants for marine research in Commonwealth countries. My memories are of working near here in a multi-story office block with views over to Hampstead Heath and Primrose Hill. Nearby, I trained in Energy Healing called ‘The Radiance Technique’, sending healing to other parts of the world… I felt the power of the hill reinforcing my commitment to healing the land.
Primrose Hill and its view over the city. It used to have a twin, now used as a reservoir on Barrow Hill, it is considered a Celtic sacred site by Druids since 1717.
[https://www.royalparks.org.uk/parks/the-regents-park/things-to-see-and-do/primrose-hill]
An Arthurian mystery traditions of London:
Ancient sanctuaries in London include earlier temples as well as barrows and processional routes. The Romano/Celtic Temple to Diana is found under St Paul’s Cathedral and the Temple to Apollo under Westminster Abbey.I n a working study paper, - ‘London: Royal throne of >ARthur the Grail King’
Peter Dawkins wrote about the special centres that surround the city of London and its sanctuaries. He called these landscapes a manifestation of a ‘heart centre’ for the Grail Temple of Britain and France: a ‘temple wheel’ based on a geometric alignment to the eight directions, or compass rose. Like TC Stewart’s ‘The City as an Image of Man’ (1970). ‘The city, village or house as they are expressed in religion and mythologies, have been used as expressions of the wholeness of the world that we live in…’
City boundaries and gateways of the liminal: Peter Dawkins’ conception of the ‘rose’ of landscapes around London includes cities which are equidistant to the London Stone, near St Pauls: Winchester opposite Colchester (kingly seats/palaces); Oxford opposite Canterbury (religious and educational centres); Cambridge opposite Brighton. In between are centres of spiritual activity such as the Seekers’ Trust and White Eagle Lodge.
Recreating concept maps using twilight images, and graphics as tools for imagination - artistic boundaries to conjure a sense of wholeness. [Charlotte Yonge 2022. after Peter Dawkins’ working paper ‘The Rose Centres of London’]
The alignments connected to London show symmetry and permanence acting as gateways between the city and the sanctuaries of the wider landscape. [The background image in the picture show winter trees in the gardens around Westminster - inspired by Peter Dawkins’ working paper ‘The Rose Centres of London’]
Editors: Charlotte Yonge and Rose Williams, July 2022.