FULL MOON MEDITATION – SUN IN CAPRICORN

SUN IN CAPRICORN AND MOON IN SAGITTARIUS
12 N00N JANUARY 2023

Good boundaries: Roundway Hill Fort [https://www.tripadvisor.com]
Guarding the landscape star map of Capricorn at the gateway
of the Milky Way.

Rory Duff a geophysicist and dowser, leads large groups to key sacred sites which he has researched as having powerful interconnecting lines of energy:

‘The beautiful landscape of Roundway hill fort in Wiltshire had around 120 people gather. This place is really off the beaten track in many ways and one of the UK’s best kept secrets. Many people are also surprised to find out that this is a 5th order node as it has a pair of type 4 lines running through it – well known ones too – the St Michael and St Mary line. The Master Dowser Hamish Miller described it in his book The Sun and the Serpent as ‘An exhilarating place and a site of considerable significance.’ [Rory Duff 2022]

THEME:

Capricorn solar creative theme concerns how we adopt the role of ‘consolidator’ and ‘initiator’ in this the darkest time of the year. Cancer ‘the guardian and protector’ is the responsive answer which comes through our intuition: developing ‘good boundaries’ measurement, adjustment, and reflection on experience.

Throughout our work in Gatekeeper, Capricorn/Cancer ‘landscape guardianship’ initiatives build on experience of the past, on the links to the powerful passages through the landscape of the Michael and Mary Lines of Dorset and Wiltshire. Roundway and Knowlton are two that have been researched by Rory Duff as ancient sanctuaries of power, long researched and now visited at solar festival times.

When I was researching the Capricorn zodiac in the late 1990’s Roundway was one of the clues to their being a vast landscape sanctuary linking smaller well known sites. Roundway hill fort sits near a semi circular road from Amesbury to Avebury, forming 20 mile diameter circle with UpAvon in its centre. It displays equidistant towns and sacred sites such as Devizes, Avebury, Silbury Hill, Marlborough, Merlin’s Mound, Ludgershall Castle, Durrington Walls and Woodhenge, Stonehenge, and East and West Lavingtons. I concluded that the Roundway fort must have been positioned at a point where this sacred landscape could go undetected and at the same time as being protected.

After a small group researched the maps of this area, Anthony Thorley researched the pre-reformation churches in the Pewsey Valley and decided they formed the outline of a Milky Way Star Map. Here below is the work in progress to date. Roundway is a little above Devizes in hypothetical Gemini. Is this a true interpretation? The signs are that between Gemini and Taurus lies the Pewsey Valley where each pre-reformation church lies on the position of a major constellation in the Milky Way star map on the ground. It reveals a ‘blueprint’ of great precision for us to learn from, for we all travel a Milky Way in our daily challenges: a death and resurrection show minute by minute.

Work in progress draft star map of Capricorn – [Charlotte Yonge 2016] – The star map it comes at the position of Capricorn in the British Zodiac.

The Roundway Abbess – this site was considered a holy and protective site by pagan and Christian alike:

‘In 1840, a barrow on Roundway Down was excavated to reveal a Saxon woman buried with various items, including a coin and a beautiful gold and garnet necklace. She had been laid to rest on a wooden bed, wearing a Christian cross on a small enameled disc, mounted on a chain between two gold pins. The extraordinary gold jewellery showed she was a Christian, and probably an abbess from a local noble family. [www.wiltshiremuseum.org.uk]

Knowlton Church and Rings – symbols of protection and pagan/Christian interconnection

https://www.dorsetlife.co.uk/2014/12/treasures-of-dorset-knowlton-church-henge/

The church is built in the middle of a Neolithic henge dated between 3000 and 2000 BC. It is one of four henges that make up Knowlton Rings and the area is rich in round barrows and burial mounds.

The henge may have marked a residential settlement, but more likely was for ceremonial purposes.

Known as Knowlton Henges or Rings, this is a complex of henges and earthworks in Knowlton, Dorset. [Wiki] ‘The henge enclosing Knowlton Church is the best known and best preserved, but there are at least two other henges in the vicinity as well as numerous round barrows.

The North Circle is a small henge to the northwest of this church, largely destroyed by ploughing, an is one of 35 known barrows of the ‘Knowlton Circles Barrow Group’. It clearly was used as a significant ritual landscape, each henge marking a sacred space, and holding the ancestoral wisdom protected for forthcoming generations.

[Wiki] ‘The site is clearly visible as cropmarks, although its original form is uncertain.[5] It appears to be an elongated oval enclosure comprising a ditch with external bank, orientated roughly northwest to south east with a maximum diameter of 94 metres There is a large entrance on the southeast side. ‘…

Knowlton Barrow Group [Wiki]

Rory Duff’s group reports on its energetic status and significance in connection to larger landscape sanctuaries: ‘The ruins of a church stand inside a circular mound and ring ditch and in the foundations of the church you can still see the original sarsens that were once part of a large stone circle here. This is another 5th order node as it sits on the type 4 alignment that runs up through Glastonbury, across South Wales and into Ireland. [Rory Duff Newsletter 2022.]

As another part of Capricorn, guarding a powerful symbolic landscape, the Rollright Stone Circle is part of the Cygnus star pattern which spans the cusp of Capricorn and Aquarius. This is a significant constellation relating to the Shakespeare as the ‘Sweet Swan of Avon’, Stratford coming within the star map as depicted in landscape geometric alignments. At the north point of its axis is Warwick, and in the South the Rollrights.

A montage of the Rollrights (Charlotte Yonge 2022) with an artistic sculpture of the female spirit of place, as a wicker woman pointing to the earth as if to encourage nurture and regeneration of imbalance.

The Rollright Stone Circle, at sunset around the winter solstice – a photographer’s dream. (Charlotte Yonge December 2022). Each image we capture, enables us to reminisce and return to the sense of the sacred within our minds eye, protecting its hidden wisdom and extending our imaginative attunement.

Stratford Cygnus sculpture set within the idyllic river banks and flocks of swans in the heart of the town: [montage Charlotte Yonge 2021].

Reading into the montage, we see it depicts the dual nature of the human soul and personality. Shakespeare’s works played on the idea that ‘all the world’s a stage’ and we are merely actors upon it, learning the language of duality, and the way divine intelligence itself is propelled into manifestation. The interpretation of Cygnus as ‘the pure poet’ relates to our own poetic destiny to create beauty within earth’s physical dimension, and so the dualistic arts in the landscape are potent ways of relating to ‘soul wisdom’ in the dialogue of love within our consciousness.

HONOURING WINCHESTER and the HARROW WAY: a ‘cusp network’ spanning the South of England with the ‘oldest road in England’, it spans from Rochester in Kent to Seaford in Devon, therefore linking East to West the signs of Sagittarius, Capricorn and Aquarius.

PILGRIMAGE 27th December – re-enacting the path between St Catherine’s Hill and the sanctuaries of Winchester City.

On St Johns Day 27th December, 2022, I felt drawn to walk from St Catherine’s Hill to the Pilgrims School, the College and Wolvesley Abbey, reuniting the sacred sites under the centre of Winchester:

‘This morning I had a wonderful solo pilgrimage from St Catherine’s Hill along the river (ancient pilgrimage route) to the College (site of the Roman Temple Of Apollo) and Wolvesey Abbey (near the site of the Temple of Concorde outside the East end of the Cathedral). It was the first time I had done the walk, and it definitely must have been both a pagan and Christian pilgrimage path, it was highly charged with many dedicated city walkers practically every day. I sensed a white star came with me beaming down silver starlight which turned my footsteps into gold.

St Catherine’s Hill -it has a Wheel Of Life circle of sacred sites round it, including the cathedral in the NW direction, from where the new Celtic year begins.

A work in progress drat of the ‘wheel of seasons’ around St Catherine’s Hill.
(Charlotte Yonge 2021)

In the NE is another Wheel Of Life at The Punchbowl, which forms the confluence of two major pilgrim ways along the N and S Downs. This can be seen as constituting the ‘protective veil’ of the heart chakra (London) of the Grail Temple. At the heart of London (below) there are three guardian angels which we pilgrimaged in 2019. This shows the Park beside Buckingham Palace.(Image of St James Park and angels)

Montage of the ‘three angels’ at the heart of London: Westminster, Traffalgar Square and Buckingham Palace.

Art in the landscape as a form of meditation: The creative synthesis of images above serves as an art-dialogue of memory and reminiscence for subtle energies felt along the pilgrimage. In another sense, the subtle ‘angellic’ presence can be protected with ‘good boundaries’ of balance and beauty, within our memory. For me, this also serves as a ‘peace prayer’ trigger, for extending heart attunement into a larger landscape sanctuary. I felt this connection as I walked the old path:

St Catherine’s Hill seen from the ancient footpath to the city sanctuaries.

The Swans at the junction of rivers near the college - reflecting the sunlight

The college chapel tower - near the site of the Roman Temple to Apollo.(Collage from gate of Abbey)

Ruins of Abbey - near the site of the Roman Temple of Concord.

The Wolvesey Abbey chapel (‘Wulf Island’, in between two branches of the River Itchen).

Cathedral Tower and East End in the distance, with pilgrims on the way past Wolvesey Castle. (Charlotte Yonge 2022) The Cathedral points to the site of the Roman Temple of Concorde. Two stone circles are believed to have existed under the Cathedral Close.

The Larger landscape:

Winchester is a guardian city for London, being part of the Rose Centres Of London and equidistant to the Zlo don Stone with Colchester. It is also prominent in the N-S line from the Isle of Wight, going through Oxford which is equidistant with Canterbury in the Rose Centres. The N point of the St Catherine’s Hill Wheel is at Twyford Church, which still has 12 stones of its circle under its tower. For me this signifies the importance of the longer NS line which passes through what Peter calls The Hill of The Masters’ – St Giles Hill – which rises up at the base chakra of the city. My memory is of the last ‘Encircling the Land with Sacred Dance’ event at the Cathedral in 2015, and our attunement on St Giles Hill at sunset encompassed the city and its energy with an aura of sacredness and completion. This whole landscape complex sits on the cusp of Capricorn and Sagittarius, which also mediates the old EW Harrow Way path through St Swithun’s Way.

At Winchester’s Punchbowl in Temple Valley, the St Swithun’s Way links to the Harrow Way at Farnham, to Overton, past Stonehenge, through West Dorset, through Halstock (Roman Villa on site of prehistoric farm), Corscombe (‘Common Lane’), Evershott, Hillfield and Seaton, Devon.

The Harrow Way [Wiki]

Linking Canterbury, Winchester, Stonehenge and Dorset’s Knowlton Rings and Cursus, as well as King Alfred’s journey to kingship through the Wessex Temple. He followed Roman Roads, and reigned in his palace at Winchester, through gathering his ‘kingdom’ and establishing Wessex. Winchester’s landscape links to the North Downs, as well as to the South Downs Way (https://www.southdownsway.co.uk). Thus Canterbury and the Kent Downs are connected as part of the ‘protective veil’ of London.

The Harrow Way - surviving track north east of Overton, Hampshire, passing by Iron Age Whitchurch (White Church) on its way to Andover and Stonehenge.

Its name is derived from ‘Witcerce’, (interpreted as ‘Place of Proclamation’) owned by the monks at Winchester. I wonder if it relates to the fact that it is a crossing place between travellers going both N-S and E-W. It certainly holds a significance in our exploration of the Harrow Way, across which I have travelled all my life, moving from Winchester to London in the 1960’s, and then to Bath and Bristol in the 1990’s. From Bath to Winchester, King Alfred carried his ‘royal procession’ after his coronation, to honor these ancient roads and paths, travelling along the Roman Road past Haydown Hill (north-east of Ludgershall in the Capricorn zodiac and a crown chakra of the Wessex Temple), through Andover (Andeferas = ‘ash tree water’ referring to the sacred Ash, and a place of baptism of a Viking king Olaf) and down the Roman Road next to Barton Stacey to Winchester.

Harrow Way North of Overton
https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/3667065

‘In Dorset, the Harrow Way can be traced through the villages of Halstock and Corscombe, (where it is known as Common Lane). At the Halstock end, a short length was realigned to form the access for a Roman villa (which was built on the site of a late Iron Age farmstead.’ [Wiki]

The connections made by the Harrow Way give significance to both the pilgrim paths and Roman Roads such as the Fosse Way, and branches to Dorset’s Knowlton Rings. It is thought that in Roman times the route was rerouted via Ilchester and the Fosse Way. [https://www.sabre-roads.org.uk/wiki/index.php?title=Harroway]

Ancient Harrow Way route across high ridgeways, from Seaton to Yeovil [Folkie http://xlforum.net/forums/showthread.php?t=2069874]

King Alfred’s Journey to kingship along the ‘hard way’ or Harrow Way:

In his book ‘King Alfred A Man on the Move’, [https://king-alfred.com/wp/tag/harrow-way/] Dr Paul Kelley tracks the king’s travels along ancient tracks, creating meeting points for his army, through the Deverills which are part of the ‘Wessex Temple’ researched by Anthony Thorley.

‘The ford that lies on the border between Kingston Deverill and Monkton Deverill is thought to be at the junction of two important Roman roads and the area is just a short distance north of the ancient track known as the Harrow Way (also known as the Hard Way). In fact, some of the nearby A303 main road lies on the course of this ancient trackway. Indeed, near Willoughby Hedge service station, the A303 (on the line of the Harrow Way) crosses one of the Roman roads that leads to the aforementioned ford…’

The ford between Kingston Deverill and Monkton Deverill, Wiltshire.
Two Roman roads crossed at or close to here. [Paul Kelley]

He goes on to say ‘There is a legend that Alfred prayed at a church at Monkton Deverill before the Battle of Ethandun, and this church later became dedicated to St Alfred the Great.’

Later Alfred beat King Guthrun of the Danes at Edington, and baptised him before being crowned at Bath.

Being a Landscape Guardian: All these places and their ancestoral stories are now anchored within my memory through art and photography, which supported my travels and reflections. Living in Bristol, 1990-2015 I travelled to my family home in Winchester past the Mendips, Cley Hill, Stonehenge, the A303 with its remnants of the Harrow Way, and then often on the A34 past Whitchurch and Overton, Andover, Durrington Walls and Amesbury. I travelled to London many times for meditation and solar festivals, travelling the M3 over the North Downs Harrow Way, into London, linking many complex sanctuaries under my conscious mind. These ancient roads interpenetrated my movements and energy, weaving their own message to me through somatic senses. It is on reflection that our several ‘inner selves’ and core ‘star self’ begin to weave together with the help of beautiful landscape angels.

We are all turning our landscape ‘wheels of life’ as the seasons turn, and as we spin daily through the ‘rose’ compass directions of transformation weaving the seasons of love and the ‘hard way’ of life, in the search for Truth and Beauty. The homeland of our families is where love is seeded and creative diversity begun within good boundaries.

Dutch Cottage and the setting sun, with hedge boundaries, rose trellises and patio pots, pregnant with the thoughts of summer. [See Rose Williams’ letter about winter consolidating and seeding the flowering of summer beauties].

The Yonge family home lies on the ancient track to Silkstead belonging to the Prior of Winchester, at some time point contained a farm, chapel and herb garden.

Good Boundaries reflect the setting sun of the past, and warm an inner peace. From guardianship to blossoming, our human family is pregnant with vision and creative promise.

Editor: Charlotte Yonge, 2023.