Gorse: Onn
by Blayze 

Sink your awareness down into the earth. Become aware of your breathing. Enter a trance state (using usual breathing techniques…)You find yourself standing at the foot of a large hill - all around you is darkness pierced only by the brilliant light of the stars… twinkling like jewels embroidered into the velvet cloak of the night sky above you.By the light of the stars you can see that a path winds in a spiral about the hill. You move to the left and begin to walk along the path - ever twisting and spiralling to the left. 

You begin to feel the ground slope beneath your feet as you slowly walk the spiral path. Your awareness shifts with each turn as you sink deeper and deeper into trance.You are aware moonlight growing brighter as you near the summit of the hill and you realise that the moon is rising to hang just above the hill itself. Bathed in the moonlight is a tall, ancient stone that stands in the centre of a flat plateau. 

The spiral path winds ever towards the stone in the centre, one half of which is in shadow, the other illuminated by the silver light of the moon.Gradually you find yourself walking in a ever tightening spiral as you move closer and closer to the stone… always and ever moving to the left. At last you come face to face to with the towering and ancient weathered rock. 

By the light of the moon you see that there is an image carved upon its surface… A straight line runs from an inverted V at the base to the top of the stone. Halfway up the line you see two horizontal lines biscecting the vertical line. This is the Ogham Onn - the Gorse carved into the single upthrust spur of living rock.You feel the power awakening in the stone and sigil as the moon continues to rise. The Ogham stave glows and you run your hand along its length. You feel the energy tingle through you from the tips of your fingers to your feet upon the earth. 

Suddenly everything shifts and you find that you have passed through the stone into another realm. Mist envelopes you and you experience a moment of disorientation, but you can now feel the stone standing at your back. 

You stand with the stone at your back. The land before you is shrouded in mist. The ground is spongy and damp beneath your feet and the land is cloaked in the dull gray of early morning on an overcast day.

You begin to walk forward and the mist begins to clear under the gray skies. Before you is a flat moorland, wild grasses dot the ground. Up ahead you see a border of low bushes all covered in bright yellow flowers that stand out against the stark landscape. You move towards the bushes that form an inpeneterable hedge. The hedge curves away from you, giving the impression that it forms a circular border protecting the area in the middle.

You walk up to the hedge and look at the long woody stems covered in sharp, inch long thorns or spikes with a profusion of yellow pea-like floers. The scent of sweet coconut fills the air. You can see dew on the flowers and branches. The air is damp.

You feel the dampness on your skin and in your bones, the earth is spongy beneath your feet.

You take off your clothing and hang it over the gorse bushes in front of you. The thorns hold your clothing in place and you know it will not blow away.

As you place the last piece of clothing, your prick your finger on a thorn. Take a drop of blood and let it fall upon the ground between the two bushes. The hedge parts and there is now a an opening before you.

You move through the thorny bushes and find yourself in a clearing bordered by the bushes. You immediately begin to hear a buzzing in the air and you look at the flowers and notice that there are bees everywhere, crawling over the plants with pollen laden legs.

They are intent upon their work and will not harm you.

The centre of the clearing is pooled in mist. You walk around the edge, The gorse reminds us and allows us to clean up any magical work that we have had to abandon or not finished properly. As you walk the border of the clearing, listen to the buzzing of the bees and hear what they tell you about such work you may need to clean or undertake to complete.

You now have the knowledge given to you by the bees. You arrive back at the entrance bushes. You see that the bushes have now closed up but they are marked by only scattered flowers, no longer the profusion of yellow blooms that fill the rest of the border.

You look to the centre and see that the mist has cleared. You see a wide, sprawling gorse bush in the centre. The branches are long and straggly, flowers cling to them. The tree reaches to head height.

Armed with your new knowledge of what needs to be done, you approach the central bush. Begin to circle around it, dancing... call out to the tree that which you need to cleanse. You feel the air around you becoming drier and warmer as you dance. Several popping noises rend the air and you see that several seeds have popped from the plant and have scattered over the clearing.

Still you dance. Begin to concentrate on the grey skies above. The sun is beginning to show itself above you.

The Sun gets brighter and brighter and glints off something hanging amongst the thorns. You stop your fancing and look closely amongst the branches. It is a glass lens surrounded by golden sun rays. You pick the lense up and the sun above you becomes brighter and stronger.

You have given the tree all of the knowledge of the works that need completing or cleansing. Concentrate the rays of the sun upon the gorse bush. Slowly smoke begins to thread from the tree. Eventually flames appear and the bush begins to burn merrily away, Call out to the Sun and the Gorse your thanks for aiding in the cleansing.

Sit before the tree and watch it burn, feel the heat against your skin. Eventually the bush burns to the ground and the ashes cool.

Pick up some of the ashes  and rub them into your skin. You feel alove in the spring day and new insight and understanding is gained. Takes more handfuls of the ashes and begin to scatter them around the clearing and under the border trees. As you scatter the ashes, give them as a gift of the knowledge gained, the testing you have endured and the knowledge of how to handle yourself in the future.

Finally you return to the ashes in the centre of the clearing and you see that from the ashes, new shoots have set forth, tender and new. Showing no thorns, they provide sustenance for any animals that may venture into the clearning. From your mistakes comes new understanding and new growth. 

Walk towards the gate of gorse trees. They part for you.

Make your way across the moorland to the Stone.

Finally you return to standing stone.  but this time a spiral is carved into its surface. Move to the stone and begin to trace the spiral as it twists to the right. You become aware of mist forming around you once more and again a feeling of disorientation. As the mist begins to clear you find that you are once again standing upon the hillside under the fading light of the setting moon. By the light of the stars you begin to walk the spiral path out from the centre, ever moving to the right. You begin to feel the path sloping downwards as you tread the spiral path around the hill. As you walk you feel yourself becoming heavier and heavier, you begin to be aware of other sounds…. Slowly you reach the bottom of the hill and sit at its base. You become aware of the feel of your body, the shape of your skin and your breath. You feel the blood flowing through your veins . You become aware of the sounds around you… When you are back… open your eyes.