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On the news this morning are reports of a fire in the Bellever forests on Dartmoor that has destroyed about 40 acres of woodland. It is being treated as suspicious: [url:37r1uwlc]http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/devon/6547645.stm[/url]
I found this especially curious due to the coincidence that on Tuesday me and my wife were there, walking in that very forest and exploring the complex of ancient Bronze Age monuments on Lakehead Hill and Bellever Tor. If you’re interested then for a good overview of the complex try [url:37r1uwlc]http://www.legendarydartmoor.co.uk/bellever_comp.htm[/url], and there are some photos on [url:37r1uwlc]http://www.richkni.co.uk/dartmoor/bellever.htm[/url]. I took some photos but don’t have a digital camera, so it’ll be a while before they get developed.
We chose to visit because of the legend of Tom White, who one night many years ago had a frightening encounter in the area with the piskies ([url:37r1uwlc]http://www.legendarydartmoor.co.uk/huccaby_courting.htm[/url]). From the early 1900s there are also the strange stories of the Hairy Hands, forcing people off the B3212 near Cherrybrook Bridge ([url:37r1uwlc]http://www.legendarydartmoor.co.uk/hairy_hands.htm[/url]).
We didn’t have any problems going over the bridge, nor did we see any piskies. However, in the centre of one of the stone circles I found a black feather, its tip planted deliberately in the ground so the feather stood upright. Had it been done as an idle whim, a joke, or with ritual intent, and if the latter, positive or negative? I don’t know, but did not feel inclined to remove it, so I just did a simple blessing.
Just in case there’s anything in it, if anyone gets any psychic information on what’s been going on, or any other updates, I’d be interested to hear.
I have a slightly uneasy conscience about the fire. At the stone row we greeted the piskies and danced around the stones, and at the circle where we found the feather I also invoked the piskies to come. Perhaps they did come and burnt the forest down; it was only planted the 1920s, perhaps they didn’t approve. Or I inadvertantly called up a fire elemental.
Michael
more or less on the same subject , as we live in Devon My wife and I spend a lot of our time out on the moors chasing stone circles and standing stones etc , about two years ago we had a run in with the pixies of Dartmoor and would not be too keen for a repeat performance .We had gone out one Sunday morning onto langstone moor to visit the stone circle whic sits on Peter Tavy great common, its a fairly easy one to find ,just follow the track out from Peter Tavy ,hang a right at the tall standing stone ,skirt the Bog ( DEFINANTLY skirt the bog!) and the circle is a couple of mile into the moor, on this Sunday morning the weather was fine and visibillity very good but despite using a compass and ordance survey map the circle was`nt where it was supposed to be ,It finally appeared to our left and some way up the hill. to our delight it was a perfect circle with all the stones standing proud and erect although it did seem to take an extrodinarly long time to walk around what was in essence a very small circle . How ever we sat in the circle ,the moors to our selves ,a truely magical morning .
After a while we set off back to the car but decided to visit the burial cairns on White tor on our way back. the nearer we got to White Tor the worst the weather became untill at last we had to seek shelter behind some of the larger stones as the heavens opend .It was here that the fun started ,despite being less than half a mile from the track that would take us back to the car we could not get off that hill, every time we tried we got turned around or sent off in the wrong direction, remember we had compass. map .wet weather gear etc and knew our way around the moors.We spent three hours just trying to cover that half a mile ! Finally I found a spot back on top of the Tor which I knew from a previous visit faced directly into the bog but also faced straight onto the track out. so disregarding maps etc and keeping a large rock directly behind us to ensure we kept to a straight line we set off again with me looking back at that rock every five mins , as I looked back to my front after the fourth or fifth look back at the rock ” something “took off from in front of me , It was about four foot tall with a greyish sort of jacket but the thing that remains most clear was that it ran upright on cloven hoofs ,as I registerd it it slowly vanished from the top down.Both my wife and I saw the “thing ” clearly and both of us saw it vanish , The first thing my wife said was”Pixie led ,no wonder were lost ” and at that moment we stumbled back onto the track way . a turn to the right and then just a couple of miles back to the car thoughrly wet and tired.
Not being the sort of persons who like being given the run around by elementals we went back to the Tor the next weekend , sufficiently “armed” shall we say to deal with said elemental should it choose to appear again.This time how ever it was a different story .apart from a howling wind at the top of the Tor every thing was as it should be .
The funny thing was that when we went back to the stone circle it was`nt there, oh there was a circle there all right , with stones missing and others fallen and lower down the hill than it had been. but not the perfect Circle that we had found the previous week, We have been back to the same spot several times but have never managed to find our perfect circle again.
So did we slide in time for a brief spell or was the fun and games with the Pixie ? on the Tor the price we had to pay for finding the perfect circle ,I still dont know .Incidentally we regularly find featherd offerings or charms , bits of wool tied with coloured yarn and black feathers in the stone circles especially around lambing time , I had always assumed that they were just “old religion ” offerings to protect the new born lambs , kinda reasurring in some ways .
Wild!
We were always told as children that if you found yourself pixie-led and couldn’t find your way out of somewhere (although you knew where “out” was supposed to be) that we should turn our jumpers/coats inside out and that that would let us break out.I never had anything so dramatic but there was a wood in Donegal where you could never come out at the same place you went in, despite following the same route back.
My mother claims to have had a similar experience in a field which was all the more dramatic because the field was flat and square and not finding the right side after four attempts would normally take some skill (or substance abuse!)
I must admit that I am very wary about fairies (I don’t know how to say that without sounding completely deranged). My wife and I had a strong but entirely naive fairy theme going through our courtship and wedding but after some “bad things” happened we toned down the whole thing and better luck ensued. I think I mentioned this before in relation to Daniel Pinchbeck’s comments about how he inadvertantly attracted a bad spirit, it caused some strife in his family and he ended up having to exorcise it. The bottom line is to realise that, deliberately or not, you are invoking some kind of power that is most definitely double-edged (pregnant women and mothers of new-borns take especial note!).
Or am I being unduly fearful?
The Hairy Hands story reminds me…
Two separate people have told me that they have had nightmares where they were being pulled out of their beds by disembodied arms. They woke to find themselves halfway down the bed…and, although now awake, saw the arms “running” out the bedroom door. Not nice.
I’m all doom and gloom tonight…must be something I ate!
Cheers chaps, excellent stuff! I’ve filed your stories and will have to go to that part of Dartmoor ourselves (Donegal is off the beaten track for us). Despite having lived down this part of the world for nearly 8 years now, its amazing how little opportunity we seem to get to explore our own area. Also good to see that the black feather in the circle is a positive thing, something to do with the lambing season you say?
Faerylore is more my wife’s interest than mine, but I have gathered that the Other Folk are ambiguous, sometimes dangerous, and ought to be treated with respect. Just like human beings I suppose. Malcolm, what did you ‘arm’ yourselves with. Have this picture in my mind of you and your wife preparing to go back out there…”OK, got the rifle, flamethrower and explosives, let’s go, go, go!”. But seriously, I am interested to know what you use.
I wonder with the disembodied arms, if the phenomena is linked more to the place (as with the Bellever Hairy Hands). Did their homes have any history?
Michael
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