A Sacred Journey to Ancient Scottish Springs and Stone Circles
It is midsummers eve in the middle of Scotland. The eve is endless. Literally. Twilight lasts forever. Even in the darkest three short hours between midnight and 3am, it is but a deep dusk, a mere flicker of a shadow before the twilight begins again.
In the midst of a flower codes group pilgrimage, I am trying to get some sleep. With the curtains pulled tightly closed, I still struggle. Yet it is in this wakefulness that the morning’s task becomes clear.
Find the 9 maidens well, collect water to make Wild Rose essence and charge it in Croft Moraig stone circle.
Wild Rose had been singing out ever since arriving four or five days ago. In full peak of bloom along virtually every laneway, Wild Rose is humming her song softly in these peaceful valleys. The sheer amount of her blooms fills my ears and soul. If there was an essence to be made in the busy schedule we had, it was Wild Rose who was calling. It seemed we were about to squeeze it in on the morning of Summer solstice.
After our morning check in, clearing and tune in, we set off to find the well of the nine maidens near Kenmore. It’s thickly overcast – not the greatest for making a flower essence. Yet in trust we head out anyway.
Mythic Living is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
Nine Maidens or Beltane Well
The actual name of the spring is the Beltane Well or An Tobar (‘a well’ in Gaelic) or later, the Holy Well of Inchadney. It sits midway between an old church (no longer there) and an ancient stone circle. Paul Bennet in the Northern Antiquarian tells us that near the church a Fair of the Holy Women (Feill nam Bann Naohm) used to be held. Gillies in 1938 tells us these holy women were none other than the Nine Maidens. The well was apparently frequented by crowds of people every Beltane up until the 19th century.
It is surrounded by a small wall of white quartz stones, which some liken to teeth, and the waters are purported to be a cure for toothache.
We park nearby and follow a crude map and directions, to discover the spring must be down a very steep and deep gully. We walk back and forth trying to find a path through the nettles that will lead us safely down. With a glass bowl and knee injuries to boot, my hesitation is high. Boldly our water vessel bearer heads down a section of steep slope. One by one we tentatively follow finding our own paths, one footfall at a time, sliding amidst leaf litter and trash. Sadly, the area has been used as a dumping ground. It is a challenging and slow journey. In fact, I am quite ready to give up half way down the steep embankment as I cling onto tree roots. But the persistence of the other women who keep finding new footfalls, keeps me moving on. The water bearer takes a slide and lands in a black plastic bag – ‘oh no, please don’t be a dog poo bag!’ Luckily it isn’t. The whole area feels degraded, mucky and disrespected.
Even once at the bottom of the gully, it takes a little journey picking the way upstream before I hear the shout that the well has been found! Phew!
While the area downstream is in need of some tender loving care, the well, with its quartz boulders oozes crystal clear water and is softly beautiful. Nettle and buttercups grow upon it and a delightful grove of yellow iris is blooming a few metres away in the boggy shallows.
Well, that had taken much more effort and time than we had bargained for!
We make our offerings, sing up the waters a little and collect water in the glass bowl. Just a few metres upstream we discover the real path to the well! It is relatively straightforward and clear.
Rose has its thorns. Obviously we needed a challenge.
We head off to Croft Moraig stone circle about 10 minutes away. Having seen wild roses everywhere the past few days, I assumed we’d find some along the way, yet as we arrive, there are none in sight. But there must be some somewhere around here. A short walk down the road and we discover the grandest bunch of divinely scented wild rose so far. Carefully, intentions made known, we listen for which flowers we can harvest. Before making our way into the stone circle.
Croft Moraig is an interesting stone circle in that it seems to have three circles within each other. It had not been on our agenda until a dear friend, a Scottish Australian bard described it as a must visit. And I’m grateful he did, as there is a lovely feel to the place, like it was used for gatherings, celebrations, ceremonies, dancing.
Wild Rose in the Beltane Well water in the centre of this somewhat celebratory stone circle in the centre of Scotland. We sit down to tune in, for the potency in a flower essence comes from our interaction with the plant deva while it basks in our attention, the exchange seeping into the water alongside the physical molecules (more about that here).
And just as we settle in, for the first time in the day, the sun shines out from the clouds. It continues to shine for the few hours that we are charging the essence. The elementals are smiling on us.
We have a date with an ancient tree at 2pm, and just a little before that, the sun goes in. The essence is complete.
Learning from Wild Rose
Deep listening to learn from Wild Rose, this is a taste of what she spoke of.
Wild Rose is the original rose – pure, soft, whimsical, beautiful and at the heart of things. All other roses stem from her.
All the segregations of different rose species, of different roses with different medicines is a mirror of the complexity that humans like to place on things. A mirror of the human story – of separation and division. Each different rose (colour/species) a mirror of the myriad aspects of humanity. Each a different layer. While people place linear constructs onto rose teachings, at the heart of it, all comes back to the original, wild rose. As she contains them all. Like a mother to a thousand different children. Playing with the medicine of red, white, pink rose is to play with linear layers that are useful to a point. But in the end, all comes back to wild rose at the centre. At the heart of it all. Aspects of a greater whole.
Wild Rose is middle realm medicine. The realm that needs the most attention in humanity as its where we aren’t always aligned and in harmony with all beings naturally.
For wild rose is like a woman standing in the breeze, barefooted and wild, her hair blowing in the wind. She is in synchrony with all of nature, wild at heart in the true sense of the word. Her purity and beauty reside in this at-oneness with all. She is herself while at the same time in harmony with all around her. She knows she IS nature.
Wild Rose essence then, is to support us to be in this deep open-hearted connection with the all. Her soft calling is to return to the heart. She can show us where we are closed, have ancient armouring, emotional heart wounds that need healing. For all of these things require attention for our hearts to open into synchrony again.
Wild rose can show you what is true in your heart and path. The real truth. Along with what we really want – our innermost desires and ideals so we can determine whether they are aligned to our truth. She gets right to the heart of things, even if that feels a bit thorny to confront.
When the heart is open and pure, we are in connection with all that is. The heart is our greatest sense organ, our connection to nature, to others and to self all resides within it.
Wild rose goes directly to the heart, to softly draw us to work with the blocks we have to expressing our wild hearted, connected self. To showing up the places we are living in disconnect.
Rose is middle realm medicine. The medicine for humanity in the current era – the only species in nature that lives in disconnection with our surroundings and other species. Able to continually inflict harm unconsciously through this inner separation.
Look to how the wild rose grows. The branches arch every which way through the sky, just as soft hearted love at the centre of our being throws itself out through the cosmos. The branches are thorny and should anything come up against them with anything but gentleness and softness, a thorny prick is likely. Each thorn, a reminder to soften and open, to deepen into connection and harmony, to feel the full effects of your actions throughout the realms.
Wild Rose essence is a good all purpose plant for the heart. Her medicine is soft yet all encompassing. She is non specific in her very being – in her action and in her love. In her essence also, so she is not a plant you would choose to get to specific layers – other herbs are more suited to that, but Wild Rose can be used at any time and at the same time as any other herb.
Purchase this Wild Rose essence here
The next Flower Codes training is enrolling now through to the end of September for anyone called to the flower path, (there’s loads of plant communication practice as part of it).
And if you’d be interested in hearing more pilgrimage journeys in here – a little like this one – but with more myth and story of place – from my upcoming book as part of a pre-release serial run (it would be behind a paywall but with added goodies that won’t be in the book), I would love to hear from you, as I’m playing with the idea! Send me a message!
Reference:
Bennet, P., Beltane Well, Kenmore, Perthshire. www.thenorthernantiquarian.org/2018/12/11/beltane-well-kenmore/
Leave a Reply