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Sacred Sites Monthly Visits

Castlerigg Stone Circle, Nr Keswick, North Lake District
by Alex Chaloner

Castlerigg Stone Circle

Locations: OS 89.292237
Above Keswick Northern Lakes

Previous Months

January - Thornborough

Introduction

In September we are visiting these and other sites in the wonderful energy of the Lake District, please click here to find out more.

Above the bustling town of Keswick lies one of the most beautiful circles of stone I have ever had the pleasure of being with. There are some 35 stones remaining, but I suspect there were more! When you approach Castlerigg it feels like she is standing on a mound at the bottom of a huge cauldron, as the magnificent Lakeland Fells of Blencathra, Clough Head and the Derwent Fells circle the site like great towering Anscestors.

I have visited Castlerigg on a number of occasions and it never fails to impress me. I have a stong connection to the Lake District and have always felt like this place was once my ascestral home-land. Castlerigg's size, location and energy vibrations all add to the sense of coming home.

Sitting in the circle of stones you are filled with a sense of grounding, belonging, connection to the past. In the mists of one typical Lakeland day I can remember feeling very emotional as I heard the sound of distant drums beating for an initiation right. I felt the land as it was in pre-Celtic times. A young woman had just expressed her first blood and she was to be honored and welcomed into the fold of the Women of the Clan. She was excited and had spent so many nights comuning with her totem anscestors and animals to help her choose her new name, her woman-name, the name that would signify her power, her own personal expression, affinity and relationship to the Goddess. I wondered if I was remembering myslef in the circle, my past rites of passage. I felt sad at how in this age we do not mark this natural initiation in a young womans life, and how our blood is something to keep quiet about, secret and hidden. Oh how we have strayed!

You can feel this circle is still loved, still cared for and venerated. The stones are not as asleep as some other ancient places I have visited. You get a sensation of a spining wheel when you connect with the energy of the site and a sense of being transported into the starry realms. The lack of large industrial sites in the Lake District also adds to the feeling of this place having held its original energy vibrations from long, long ago. I would challenge anyone not to feel a sense of connection in this place!

The Story of Our Visit Yule/Winter Solstice 2004

Myself and Bobby stayed in the wonderful Borrowdale Valley the night before Solstice. We visited the pub and sang carols with the local Choir (with some of the words changed!) Afterwards we drove up Honister pass into the wilds of the fells.

I love the fells at night, they have a different feeling in the darkness, sometimes verging on malicious and I like testing my fear of the darkness. We parked by the river and turned off all the lights, the moon was waning but still bright behind the clouds and we sang away our Karma.

On Solstice morning we gathered with around 11 or so others, all of them with their own reasons and desires to see the sun's rebirth seeded. The sky was fairly cloudless and the fells began to take on that eerie winter-solstice hue. Snow clung to the Fells tops and the ground beneath our feet was crisp and frozen. Earth was in slumber and the growing world in stasis. As the sun began to show in the East above the Fell tops the energy charged up and we began to sing and place our offerings on the stones. The stones blinked and noticed us for the first time - or so it seemed! The beauty of the site and the sunrise brought tears to my eyes and I felt truly thankful to be a part of this Earth and to honor her cycles.

People wandered in and out of the stones, and as we passed by we offered one other silent prayers of unity and wished each other a happy Solstice or Yuletide. At one time it was as though we were old spirits enclosed within the walls of the modern world, not understanding how we ever got there. What luck we found each other on that wonderful Yuletide morning. What luck we still remember how to honor our lives and our world. What luck our anscestors built Castlerigg!

As the sun grew higher in the sky we began to dispearse to our separate lives once more. Our next stop was a lovley Keswick cafe for breakfast!