Since it's been a few months since my last entry, and I definitely don't want to have another massively long stint without updating my blog, I wanted to share some recent witchy experiences. Mainly my trip to this amazing place.
Now, some of you are probably looking at this photo and thinking "wait, I know this place and this isn't Ireland". Correct, it's in Wales. Or, rather, the England/Wales border... but it's more on the Wales side. The reason why I mention Ireland is merely to explain how this Midlands witch ended up here.
We got the ferry to and from Holyhead, so we stayed at a hotel nearby on both ends of our journey. Upon our return to Wales, I insisted we do two things: the beach and a stone circle or two.
The beach was amazing, as it always is. I've done posts previously about how I feel about the coast. This trip was especially poignant, as it was the first time I'd been to the coast since 2019. Which also means it was my son's first ever visit to the seaside. At first, he was excited... which then turned to trepidation when we got to the sea itself. At one point he literally scaled me to get away from the water! Then, after he played with some seaweed, he got into the swing of things and had the absolute best time splashing about in the sea.
Those of you who are parents could probably guess what happened when we told him it was time to go. Let's face it, I had a similar (if more restrained) reaction as I didn't want to go either. But we had a very long drive ahead and more to see.
As our son fell asleep barely 10 minutes into the drive (after all that excitement), we had to skip the stone circle my husband had originally planned for us to stop at and continued on to this one.
Mitchell's Fold is one of the oldest stone circles in the UK, dating back over 3,000 years to the Bronze Age. It's tucked away between England and Wales, atop a very very tall hill. Whilst getting up there was quite a trek, even in my car, it was worth it.
Whilst the majority of the visit did involve making sure our son didn't run off, I was allowed a bit of time to stand within the circle of stones and conduct a short ritual.
I had to improvise a bit, as I often do. Whilst at the beach, I collected some shells (following what I've read on ethical shell collecting, I only picked up shards of broken shells which cannot be used as housing by wildlife) and it felt poetic that I would be holding something I picked up from one end of Wales at the "bottom" and I was now standing at the other end of Wales, more or less at the "top".
I stood in the centre of the circle and closed my eyes, concentrating on the energies from the area around me and the shell in my hand. I thought about the calm of the sacred space and the happiness from the ocean, meditating on both and how I wanted to carry those feelings with me after I'd left.
I projected that energy into the shell shard, with the intention of making it a calming talisman.
Not a dance ritual this time, mainly because I tried that in the ocean already that day and my son came to join me and broke my concentration (but in a good way because, without skipping a beat, I pulled him into the lift from Dirty Dancing, which he found hysterical). That said, the amazing calm of Mitchell's Fold was the perfect atmosphere for silent meditation.
If you ever find yourself nearby, it's well worth a visit. It's a steep drive through!
Blessings,
Shanti )O(