Castlerigg stone circle

Castlerigg is a stone circle near Keswick, in the Lake District (UK). I first went there in my late teens, and haven’t visited in a good twenty years. I didn’t think it was a place I would ever be likely to see again. Getting to have a brief visit on the way back from Northumberland was an absolute blessing and I was quite emotional about it.

I haven’t got a photo of the whole circle because there were a lot of people there, including a picnic happening in the middle. My feeling is that this circle has always been a place for people to gather and hang out. The location is incredibly dramatic, with a ring of high fells surrounding the much smaller hill where the circle stands.

I did not perform a ritual or attempt any deep communication with the place. But it was good to walk the circle of stones, to stand with a few of them, and put my hands on some of them. It was wonderfully good to see the landscape, and simply to be in it for a while.

My life is changing a lot at the moment. It’s going to involve more being out in the world, this much is clear. More walking, and more time to explore landscapes. More scope to go out and do things that feel inherently Druidic and that have more of a spiritual aspect to them. Ritual has featured more in the last year than it has in the last decade, and I’m interested in exploring it as something expressive and as a way of making beauty. 

For the first time in a very long time, it makes sense to ask what I want, and not to be so focused on trying to fit in around what everyone else wants. My heart longs for something more expansive, something wilder and more exciting, a life with more possibilities in it. More prehistoric sites, more wide open views, and more adventure.