Full Moon Meditation – 21st July

SUN IN CANCER ‘THE GUARDIAN’
FULL MOON IN CAPRICORN
JULY 21nd at 12 Noon

The ‘Sphinx Line’ within the British zodiac (Peter Dawkins: https://www.zoence.co.uk/zodiac/british-landscape-zodiac/)

Cancer a water sign of fluidity, and of ‘good boundaries’ created between earth and water, and of sacred symbols and geometry in the landscape. As guardians of sacred space, we treasure the inherent logic and mathematics of the oldest of landscape designs.

A sacred geometrical angle combining the qualities Leo and Virgo. In considering the ‘leadership’ role of pilgrimage, both landscape, geometry and inner coherence to the ‘guardianship we exercise through honouring the symbol of Cancer in our star map. Its cusp with Leo is a synthesis of wisdom, tradition and responsibility.

‘The axis of the Compass follows the division (cusp) between the signs Leo and Virgo in the unequal-sign zodiac. In the British Zodiac the Fosse Way is laid along this axis. This axis or division is known as the Sphinx Line, the sphinx having the body of a lion (Leo) and the head of a woman (Virgo), thus marrying the two. The line passes through Lincoln, Leicester, High Cross, Stratford-upon-Avon (approximately) and continues south-westwards to Bath on the ecliptic.’ [Peter Dawkins, www.zoence.co.uk ]

The ’Compass’ is embodied in the Fosse Way, leading to the ancient Celtic roads of the South West Exeter to Plymouth route. Here we have a symbol in the landscape of ‘incarnation’… like an arrow shot from a bow, we are a ‘Sphinx’ emerging as a radiant light being evolved from sacred co-creativity with the ‘Planetary Light Being’ we call Gaia. (see our previous article).

In the balance of good boundaries for our islands is fluid and creative, we are reaching towards a dynamic between the ‘three lands’ through our seaways. At the root of the temple of light in its wholeness is St Michael’s Mount just offshore from many stone circles of Cornwall.

The three lands, and their borders, holding similar spiritual traditions, and sharing landscape energy and symbol.
The British Isles is represented as a ’triskele’ of three mainlands, and through this geometry we contemplate the ‘guidance’ we receive from our ‘altar major’ chakra at the back of the neck. Our encircling islands may define our national psyche or ‘cultural angel’, within which each one of us is an island of conscious intent in a state of semi-transcendence as we serve our beloved planet with loving protection. We are working with our radiat-hearted ‘Leo’ selves as well as our inner ‘Virgo’ seeker of creative beauty. Both these signs lie either side of Cancer, as a synthesis of a transformational cycle.

A map of the holy isles – a draft sketch for further research:

From rough drawings to clearly defined local maps, we explore myth, history and land-to-sea boundaries. How the energy of water was harnessed by monastic cultures, to promote technology and advancement of learning.

LANDSCAPES TRIGGER THE ‘DREAM’ OF THE NATIONAL ANGEL’ INHABITING THEM.

We are ‘active dreamers’ and are beginning to realise our role as initiators and creators of sacred space, of grail space, and our role in co-creating new realities through dialogue with the angelic kingdoms.. The archetype of ‘guardian’ applies to our love for our planet, and how we re-envisage our cultures to respect the wholeness of our own Nature as well.

QUESTING THE ROLE OF CANCER ‘THE GUARDIAN’ in our creative vision, we explore the Aquarian leadership role: What are the key Pilgrimage facilitation skills indicated in the new Age of Aquarius?

• Becoming a ‘grail’ of spiritual values awaiting manifestation.
• To ‘pour out’ from our hearts to humanity in exploratory dialogue with the subtle angelic realms.
• To facilitate group awareness as the extension of angelic qualities of ‘radiance, shining awareness’, purity of self giving – offering unconditional loving enthusiasm for individual attunement.
• To be a nurturing bridge between the angelic realm and dimensions of manifestation in matter: a focus and interpreter of the invisible realms.
• synthesising the role of guardian as well as ‘designer of beauty’. (Virgo)

The visionary tradition of the ‘Apple Islands’: triskelion of dynamic and infinite energy between earth and humanity.

The ‘Tinners Rabbits’, Dartmoor - found in nine places in the moor, a symbol of harmony and infinity
The ‘circle of holy isles’ can be divided into three groups:

The Western coast – St Michael, Lundy, Ramsey, Holy Island, Hilbre Islands, and Piel Island. These were covered in the previous Cancer Full Moon article for June.

The Eastern coast – Lindisfarne (Cancer/Leo), Humber (Leo/Virgo), Ely (Virgo), Mersea (Libra/Scorpio) Sheppey and Thanet (Scorpio/Sagittarius).

The Southern coast – Portsea and Hayling, Isle of Wight (Sagittarius/Capricorn), Portland (Capricorn/ Aquarius). These ‘holy isles’ have a connection to defence as well as ‘wheel of life’ sanctuaries which use the eight directions of the solar/lunar festivals and cycles. These will be covered in the next Full Moon (Sun in Leo) article for next for August. It will cover the mainland sanctuaries linking to holy isles, including St Michael’s Mount and the extraordinary 15 stone circles of Cornwall and their alignments. In addition, the St Michael and St Mary lines seem to spring from this landscape and connect with a further six terrestrial star maps up to Suffolk.

https://www.legendarydartmoor.co.uk/2016/03/24/three_hares/

The Megalithic ’triskelion’ carving at New Grange, Ireland, suggests the ‘isles of the golden apples are fluidly connected, they suggest cultural sharing and evolution in a timeless connectivity and wholeness.
‘The Triple Goddess’ has ancient origins, and in mythology refers to the British Isles as they were seen by navigators, rich and prolific with promise. We touch the feminine within us as a path of conscious evolution: ‘the maiden, the mother and the crone’ are guidelines to our own path of incarnation.

From St Michael’s Mount to Holy Island Lindisfarne, the Cistercian ‘alchemical knowledge’ of water energy stimulated growth of technology to improve human evolution on the land, working with the elements. A ‘semicircle of islands’ created by spiritual leaders, hermits, Cistercian abbeys, etc.

Down the East coast from Lindisfarne, we find islands emerging under human initiative:.

From Humber to Portsea, isles indicate a different role of ‘protection’ of inland sanctuaries, and inspire greatness of leadership in technology and navigation: for instance the innovative, ‘emergent islands’ of the sand banks, a Cathedral, the Thames Estuary which has submerged the causeways to Sheppey and Thanet, and the ‘warrior’ islands of the South coast at Portsea and Chichester harbours.

In the South: Portland/Hayling are in Sagittarius and the Isle of Wight (cusp of Sagittarius and Capricorn) inspires and draws upon a ‘landscape wholeness’ in connection with a ‘wheel of life’ in the mainland. The Isle of Wight connects with the Itchen Valley and Winchester’s ‘St Catherine’s Wheel’. Portland connects with the circles and sanctuaries of the Dorchester landscape. Each of these two indicate a ‘cusp of alchemy’ between the signs of Capricorn and Sagittarius, (Sussex and the SE). in the East, and Capricorn and Aquarius in the West (Dorset and the SW). A fulcrum of inspirational landscape architecture that makes use of the LIMINAL SPACE, between the inherent cosmic star-temple archetypes.

HUMBER and RECLAIMED LAND/SAND BANK AND THE SUNKEN PORT OF RAVENSEA.

WHITTON ISLAND, Humber and emerging islands from sandbanks – cusp of Leo/Virgo

Appropriately, Virgo is in attendance, a female sign of a virginal birth, LAND being created, and are firstly the sandbanks form part of the sea-womb for the islands of Whitton and Sunk. They become bird sanctuaries. In the past, Ravensea island was claimed by the sea, returned back to its ocean origin… a Virgo quality of reconstitution?

Whitton Island, its birth emerging from a sand bank Whitton Island is a natural haven for birds – no public access

‘Whitton Island is an ait (or eyot), formed by the deposit of sands and gravels washed down by the river, which accumulate over a period of time, and become consolidated by the vegetation that colonises them.’ Wiki

The Lost Towns – ‘forgive and forget’, the lost towns were sacrificed to the North Sea, including the port of Ravensea (‘Raven’s Tongue) off Spurn Head. The Leo/Virgo cusp is about giving birth to ‘perfection’ within the scale of creative embodiment of your vision. It emerges, and dissolves, that is the nature of perfection. The craftsperson is engaged in addressing the powerful pulses of the ‘sea of creation’ and the ‘ideal’ or ‘perfect’ vision received in the intuition. The craft is to aim for perfection, to create a mirror and voice for perfection and to ‘forgive’ the act of approximation, the creativity that evolves in collaboration with Nature’s cycle of rebirth and transformation.

The Libra’ quality is ‘mediation’, and therefore Virgo’s seeking perfection results in a mediated line of dialogue: a gathering of vision, an agreement of its embodiment, which is Leo’s role as ‘playful leader’, with heart radiance, and acceptance of encouragement for individuation, experimentation and exploratory initiative.

Leo aims to bring forth co-creative form, that dialogues with Natural causes: the spirit of beauty and the cycles of birth and death, re-emergence, the crossing point in the Milky Way where the challenge of heaven on earth is an agreed innovation:

Off the Spurn Head, Ravensea Odd used to stand where the River Humber meets the North Sea. ‘Yorkshire’s Atlantis.’ The sandbanks on which its foundations were set, shifted as a result of steady erosion, and Ravenser Odd was swept away. During the winter of 1356–57, northern Europe was battered by a fierce storm, known as the Grote Mandrenke, which plunged the town into the depths of the North Sea.’

This cycle of co-creation with Nature has to be navigated bravely – ‘brave hearted Leo’ suggests collaborative re-construction of built environments, and emerging sea-bed platforms for new life (grass for animal life).

Read Island (Pudding Pie Island/Old Warp Island – photo by David Wright)

‘…the site was for many years a large sandbank going by the name of "Old Warp" and is shown on the 1734 Customs Map of the Humber where Read's Island now lays, and extending further downstream….Grass was then seen growing on Old Warp by the end of the 18th century and cattle were put onto the island to graze…There is a wooden cottage and a well of pure water.' Wiki. [Did the sand filter the sea, and so create a well for the animals living on the island? If so then we have an example of how ‘purity’ is created within a Virgoan ideal of healing and cleansing the dross of life. To this end playfully active Leo drives forward with optimistic encouragement and innovative expectations of more beauty invoked out of loss.]

Sunk Island - Holy Trinity Church,1855 – ‘There are near 2000 acres enclosed with high banks to keep out the sea, which otherwise would overflow the island at spring tides. Besides this, there are six or seven hundred acres more of very good ground, and as fine grass as any in England, not enclosed, and therefore frequently overflown at high tides, on which they feed a great many horses and sheep. But tho' it be overflown, the water rises not much above the ground, so that it is soon dry again.' Today a fort from the last war, a church and a few houses still exist.

THE WASH and THE BROADS – cusp of Virgo and Libra

Hand-crafted, an Experimental island, ‘Outer Trial Bank’ was created to hold back the tides. This ‘bank’ is an attempt to bridge the Wash with a ‘tidal barrage’ 1972, to protect the Broads.

Wiki: ‘The bank (known locally as "the doughnut" due to its biconcave shape[4]) was constructed of a sand fill protected by limestone riprap. Measuring 250 metres (820 ft) in diameter, the island contained a small reservoir measuring 1 hectare (2.5 acres) in the centre.’

Together with The Broads, this is now a national reserve for nesting birds. With sea rising in the near future, the water is serving our best interests, and a sensitive and loving co-creative approach to the sea is what we are asked to put into action.

Wiki: ‘The area is 303 square kilometres (117 sq miles), most of which is in Norfolk, with over 200 kilometres (120 mi) of navigable waterways. There are seven rivers and 63 broads, mostly less than 4 metres (13 ft) deep. Thirteen broads are generally open to navigation, with a further three having navigable channels. Some broads have navigation restrictions imposed on them in autumn and winter, although the legality of the restrictions is questionable.’

Norfolk Broads lakes formerly surrounded an island on which Ely Cathedral and City how stand:

“A cure of souls, the Broads offer lock-free waterways for leisure activities, including ramblers, artists, anglers, and birdwatchers as well as people "messing about in boats". (Ted Ellis, local Naturist)

ELY ISLAND (old map) – Cusp of Virgo/Libra - hand crafted for perfect landscape boundaries.

‘A monastery: ’Until the 17th century, the area was an island surrounded by a large area of fenland, a type of swamp. It was coveted as an area easy to defend, and was controlled in the very early medieval period by the Gyrwas, an Anglo-Saxon tribe. Upon their marriage in 652, Tondbert, a prince of the Gyrwas, presented Æthelthryth (who became St. Æthelthryth), the daughter of King Anna of the East Angles, with the Isle of Ely. She afterwards founded a monastery at Ely, which was destroyed by Viking raiders in 870, but was rebuilt and became a famous Abbey and Shrine.’ Wiki

LEADERSHIP of the MANY as ONE -The wisdom of a generous, enlightened leaders: we are all chalices for the energies of life, and through experience we become ‘grail knights’ who recognise good boundaries, uphold the ideal of beauty and love in action, become available to serve the needs of others. ... With the waterlogged Fens and river access, Ely was known, as far back as when the Vikings roamed East Anglia, as the 'Isle of Eels'.

MERSEA ISLAND, Suffolk – Cusp of Libra and Scorpio

The Church of St Peter & St Paul in West Mersea is believed to have been founded around the 7th century as a priory.

Wiki: ‘A large Romano-British round barrow near the Strood contained the remains of a cremated adult in a glass urn, within a lead casket, now in the local Mersea Museum. In 1730, a large mosaic floor was found underneath the Church of St Peter & St Paul at West Mersea and in 1764, Richard Gough discovered further evidence of Roman remains around the church West Mersea was believed to be a holiday destination for Romans staying at Camulodunum (Colchester).

The Strood causeway was also built by the Saxons;... By 950, there was a Benedictine priory at West Mersea and land here was granted to the Abbey of St Ouen in France by Edward the Confessor in 1046.The priory survived until the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1542.] The Parish Church of St Edmund in East Mersea dates from around the 12th or 13th century, with extensions in the late 15th or 16th. The church and hall are surrounded by a moat that is thought to be the remains of a Danish refuge after their defeat by King Alfred at Farnham.’

‘Grim’s Hoe’ – Mersea Mound/Mount, Barrow

Just up the East Mersea road as you come onto Mersea Island, there is a conspicuous mound on the left…. thought to be a Roman burial barrow, dated around 150 AD. The mound was excavated in 1912 and an entrance passage built. In the centre was a small burial chamber built of Roman bricks capped by ‘septaria’ (clay nodules)...

THE PROTECTIVE ROLE OF ISLANDS FACING THE ENGLISH CHANNEL

SHEPPEY AND THANET ISLANDS, Thames Estuary – cusp Scorpio and Sagittarius – gateway for the Pictish, Babylonian and Roman navigator/invaders. Through this gateway a synthesis of cultural practices and values became embedded within our national ‘angel’. The good qualities of each racial memory are allowed to rise to the surface and co-create new cultural forms.

These former islands of the Thames Estuary are associated with the ‘Wheel of Life’ i Kingston Zodiac, was researched by Mary Caine and local Gatekeeper Trust members Maggie and Keith Fielder, and Richard Douglas, who pilgrimaged with her over many years. Jo Ward is now the pilgrimage facilitator: https://www.kingstonzodiac.co.uk/kingston-zodiac/.  ‘Jo explains: As we walk we will be connecting to the landscape with the intention of healing the Virgo energy both in ourselves and the land.’ The transformative role of the ‘wheel of life’ in the landscape engages our psychic archetypes, and brings them into focus of our inner ‘star self’.

Mary Caine’s map of the Kingston Zodiac.

Isle of Thanet (after Tanit the Phoenician Goddess of the Sea)

There is a dynamic between ‘wheel of life’ starmaps and holy Isles. The two islands in the Thams Estuary, Sheppey and Thanet, have been linked through modern progress, and their causeways lie under road bridges and farmland. Their role is also linked together with each having towns named ‘Minster’ – the Abbey of St Mary and St Sexburgha: ‘Minster Abbey occupies the highest hilltop position on the Isle of Sheppey and has been a place of worship for over 1,400 years’. https://www.westsheppeyparish.org.uk/minster-abbey/

Isle of Thanet old map.

The sea brings new sandbanks and causeways interlinking the mainland with dynamic islands.

Isle of Sheppey – old map.

Wiki: ‘A large hoard of Bronze Age implements has been found at Minster-in-Thanet; and several Iron Age settlements have also come to light.

Julius Caesar made two attempts to invade Britain, in both 55 and 54 BC…….In 597 Augustine of Canterbury is said, by Bede, to have landed with 40 men at Ebbsfleet, in the parish of Minster-in-Thanet, before founding Britain's second Christian monastery in Canterbury (the first was founded fifty years earlier by Columba on Eileach an Naoimh in the Hebrides): a cross marks the spot.'

Isle of Thanet old map.

Romney Marsh and Dungeness.

Rye before 1287 storm - Romney Marsh and Dungeness

Dungeness

St Mary-on-the-Marsh – Romney Marsh

Dengemarsh: ‘Dungeness's name means "the headland at Denge", referring to nearby Denge Marsh. The marsh is first mentioned in 774 as Dengemersc. Its name may mean "marsh of the pasture district", from Old English denn *gē mersc, or else "marsh with manured land", from Old English dyncge mersc.’ Wiki.

Portsea, Portsmouth, with Hayling Island

PORTSEA ISLAND, Hampshire – near the cusp of Capricorn and Sagittarius.

Portsea Island has the third-largest population of all the islands in the British Isles after the mainlands of Great Britain and Ireland; it also has the highest population density of any British Isle, and Portsmouth has the highest population density of any city in the UK outside of London.

‘Two Bronze Age hoards and a hoard of Roman coins have been found on the island. In 979 AD the island was raided by Danes. At the time of the Domesday Book, three manors were recorded as being on the island.’ Wiki.

Chichester harbour - and Portsmouth Islands: Thorney, Whale, Fowley and Hayling – a conglomeration used by the British Naval Force facing Europe, these are the protective ‘outer garment’ of a nation surrounded by seas, isles and inlets. The ‘armour’ of our national identity, which morphs elegantly with the various invaders’ cultural gifting, and defends the nation in the two world wars.

THORNEY ISLAND, now joined to mainland, facing the ‘great deep’.

HAYLING ISLAND, East Sussex – also near cusp of Sagittarius/Capricorn

The Peter’s Church, Hayling Island

Promoting the French/English cultural/religio-synthesis…The monks of Jumièges Abbey, Normandy, began to build Northwode Chapel about 1140; this became the site of the present St Peter's Church, now the oldest surviving church on the island. St Peter's three bells, cast in about 1350, are one of the oldest peals in England.

An Iron Age shrine in the north of Hayling Island was later developed into a Roman temple in the 1st century BC and was first recorded in Richard Scott's Topographical and Historical Account of Hayling Island (1826). The site was dug between 1897 and 1907 and again from 1976 to 1978. The remains are now buried under farmland. The first coin credited to Commius that was found in an archaeological dig was found at the temple. Wiki;

Whale Island – predominantly reclaimed land.

Hamsey Island, River Ouse

St Peter's church, Hamsey (Sussex) is the only visible relic of Hamsey Island's former glory.

Our island home is a symbol for our future ‘co-creative’ path together.:

The archetype of a visionary leader is within our national psyche, connected to our collective Soul of Britain. We can access its qualities and learn to manifest ‘love in action’ through the transformational ‘wheel of life’ of our human destiny.

• Generosity and open heartedness
• Enthusiasm and encouragement for personal individuality
• Collaborative ‘visionary’ of clear intent and passion of purpose
• Acceptance and willingness to initiate group cohesion and transformation, through setting creative boundaries that nurture vision

Holding the vision of ‘The one and the many’ an Aquarian leader is also clearly aiming the sword of truth, the intent to accomplish, and hold the symbol of hope steady.

Co-editors: Charlotte Yonge and Rose Williams, 2024.