During our extraordinary sunny dry May weather we enjoyed a few days exploring Dartmoor’s many neolithic monuments. With no expectations Mike followed Lance’s enthusiasm to visit Dartmoor’s neolithic landscape next but he unexpectedly found a truly mystical journey full of wonderful coincidence.
Mike: “I had thought that the stones on Dartmoor more numerous than spectacular in this bleak landscape, that I have previously skirted but not really explored, and figured that might be rather disappointing after Stonehenge. We’ve been to other small stone monuments and they can have little sense of energy or be of that much interest, other than logging “more of the same” in our research. But in spite of the modest size of Dartmoor “stones”, they were intriguingly different and quietly peaceful and energetic. I like to think that the energetic experiences might have been linked in some way to what was for me quite a magical weekend full of the pleasantly unexpected. I felt like something shifted and I had accessed the deeper spiritual plane on which my life in all aspects was clearer and different. There were some fascinating and delightful unplanned coincidences and opportunities. And oddly we picked a time when everything was quiet and delightful from the moment I left my house to the moment I returned rather than the overcrowded people intrusive experiences too often had.”
Coincidence 1: Great paella, river, and runners
The accommodation had been picked due to its proximity to a pub/hotel/restaurant by the Exe, and it turned out to be perfect, trying their excellent paella on our first night. So a lovely quiet restaurant meal, even though the pub garden was full of sunny evening drinkers by the river. Feeling good that a good choice had been made, a walk back to the hotel on the other side of the river was the perfect way to round off the evening.
Extraordinarily for Mike, a park run was happening and, given that Mike has been running in order to combat age related health problems since the winter, he was so delighted by seeing people run, gaving him great encouragement to persevere with his own running. To Mike it just felt like the universe was offering a very special tailor made day for him helping with his own physical health difficulties. On its own it wasn’t a significant coincidence but there is more.
Coincidence 2: Hunting The Moon
There had been problems with one of the orders at “Hunt the Moon“, Mike’s new screen printing supplier and he had wondered if they were just unlucky with that order or just untrustworthy or inefficient. It is the only small independent supplier so Mike wanted to support them if he could. He knew it was somewhere in the West Country and so a visit would have to wait. The first day on the moors started with breakfast in a cafe in a Dartmoor village where there was a visitors centre. After a good breakfast and perusing the village high street, Mike stopped in his tracks; he was outside Hunt the Moon. It was a Saturday so their high street workshop was closed.
Mike was thrilled at the coincidence of being unexpectedly outside Hunt the Moon even if it was closed through the bank holiday. We went into a coffee shop next door that looked like it offered great coffee, which also turned out to be a cool clothing shop, and a large friendly guy took our order. Mike spied a door behind him that looked like it went to Hunt the Moon next door and in slow motion the cogs in Mike’s brain whirred as it dawned on him the clothing shop was actually the “parent business” to Hunt the Moon, the brand name of the shop. And one more click of the intuition and he blurted out to the man “Are you Rory?”. He replied affirmatively, and Mike continued “Do you remember an unusually 2 part order in February, when one order had a damaged screen due to a leaky bottle?” Again he said yes and next there’s a full on “hail fellow well met” bromance buddy thing and next we are whisked off to the workshop and given a very comprehensive tour. Mike was able to ask all he needed for the next order. Then back to some great, if lukewarm, coffee in the sun outside.
Coincidence 3: Peace amongst the stones with lunch
Just near the shop it was decided to change plans and go to some nearer stones, which were not too challenging to get to. This opened up the stone and landscape experience we had come for incredibly and felt like another happy coincidence. Mike brought his “magic” staff and we discovered an interesting avenue of two double lines of stones with a beautiful little rivulet running between. There were walkers, a road near, and, slightly strangely, a man on his knees very focussed on cutting already short grass around some stones with shears; but this was serenely peaceful, quiet and magnificent nestled in the tor landscape. It quickly felt like how Neolithic people would have experienced the place, at least minus road and distant buildings. It felt slightly like being in a different time from people around, disconnected from them and completely connected to the landscape.
Mike used his wand to detect energies rising which there were strong from a large flat stone at the start of the stone avenue. It was a wonderful place to just relax and sit. We walked the modest avenue and connected with the stone circle and the larger standing stone. It seemed to be a gently spiritually energetic place and some of the stones, oddly not the the larger standing stone that had energy around them. There was also two stones at the beginning of the avenue that definitely felt like a portal to another subtle spiritual level but as with all these things quite likely our wilder imaginations or was it.
Then needing lunch, we decided to see what the pub you could see from the stones had to offer. A great independent pub, with one of the chefs cooking steaks on an open fire inside. We had a great ploughman’s lunch with a very healthy spread; another lovely coincidence.
Coincidence 4: David Olusoga
Mike is a particular fan of certain history programmes, as certain historians are really opening up what was once the very narrow, skewed and incomplete history lessons from school, a sign of the times then. Mike went down to the car in our preparations for another day on the moors and almost walked into David Olusoga, one of his favourite historical presenters, and whose activist presentations of diversity, especially ethnic, and his way of talking about people so beautifully and respectfully, whilst maintaining some revelatory and hard hitting historical points, has made him a bit of a hero and role model. What a lovely start to the day for Mike and definitely another significant coincidence.
Coincidence 5: The quiet day
Again we changed our mind as to which monuments to visit. We were drawn to parking near a reservoir, as our stones book suggested and then walk to certain stone circles. The walk included beautiful forested areas and we found three great circles, one still used today it seems, but what for, other than to have the ashes of a fire lit within in, was not clear. More wonderful energies although we both had different responses. For long periods of the day we had the whole landscape to ourselves, whether forest, stone circle or on the top of a tor surveying the surrounding hills. We had wanted to to enjoy more of being alone in the landscape as we had experienced in the Preseli Hills. Yet we had thought this unlikely. But once away from the walkers on the round reservoir path we met no one else all day with the exception of one lady and her dog who walked the hills and lived locally. She was able to tell us things which coloured our knowledge of the landscape which we hadn’t gleaned from the map. We remarked on how wonderfully quiet it was and she mentioned that if we had come yesterday it would have been very busy with groups of youths trekking over the hills there as part of some competition. All this came together making a day which seemed perfect and allowed us to be completely alone with the stones and appreciate again the magnificence the unchanged Dartmoor landscape, again seemingly another magical coincidence, especially as we got the quiet day not the busy one .
Coincidence 6: The wrong day
Mike had spent a lot of time organising this Dartmoor visit and had with some difficulty of diaries found a date to meet two separate old friends from school and uni. People he hadn’t seen for over 20 years both living in Devon near Dartmoor. The arrangement had got very tight and after travel he had planned to travel on to Wales all on the same day so far from ideal. Mike isn’t great on dates, a sort of date dyslexia, and he had checked and doubled checked and checked again. He messaged his friends on the morning of the meet ups to confirm. Oops! Mike had got it wrong after all that. Luckily one could now do the date and the other couldn’t. Turned out perfect as the first meet up started late and included a fabulous scratch lunch and endless chat. A much better arrangement by mistake it seems. Just what was needed and originally wanted even if the second friends would have to wait for another Dartmoor visit, which is definitely on the cards.
So these seemingly coincidental experiences may all just be helpful happenstance, or perhaps something more mysterious and synergetic. But whether pure chance or not, it was still a magical weekend for Mike where very welcome things just seemed to turn up out of the blue one after the other. And all with this increasingly peaceful calm and interesting insights, our close connection to the neolithic landscape along the way.
