Adam’s Pilgrimage part 1: Diagnosis
and Prescription
as played via e-mail
Adam will
contact Victor and arrange to meet up in
Strangely enough
Adam finds reporting in to MI13 very easy. Usually government bureaucracies
demand multiple form signings and doctor's certificates when requesting leave
of absence but Adam gets 'Sure, take as long as you like' and 'get in touch if
you have trouble seeing a specialist'.
Victor claims to
be fully booked up for the next 3 months but he says he can squeeze you in for
a half-hour consultation when you say you're a fellow practitioner experiencing
problems.
When you ring
his doorbell, it goes 'choo-choo' in a highly
realistic imitation of a steam train's whistle. Seconds later the door opens to
momentarily reveal a bearded face wearing a pipe who blurts out 'tradesman's
entrance round the side' before shutting the door in your face.
You wait what
seems an age to see if the door reopens but it doesn't. Then just as you sidle
sideways to seek a rear entrance, it does open and Victor chortles 'gotcha!' as
he clamps a hand on your shoulder.
This isn't the
last time he tries his sense of humour out on you and his wife (bringing in a
pot of tea while he's out of the room) advises you to not be alarmed if one of
his trains 'breaks' in your hands.
You and Victor
drink tea while you start telling him your problems but as soon as you drain
your cup he says he can't think about your case down here and drags you
upstairs to play with his train set. You hear a lot about pacifics,
tank engines and diesel shunters, none of which makes
any sense, save that they're all 'trains'.
Thanks to Mrs
Wellington's warning, you're semi-prepared when Victor gently hands you a loco
saying, '...and here's my pride-and-joy, the best of my collection'. Needless
to say, you hold it delicately for all of four seconds before it starts coming
apart in your hands. Victor gasps, 'oh noooo!' and
for a second you know true horror. But then he chortles 'gotcha!' merrily
again, pulls the pieces from your hands and reassembles body, chassis and
several brass fittings.
Now, I need to
know exactly what you tell Victor about what you think your 'problem' is and
how it came to be?
I'll
tell Victor, “I seem to be suffering from performance anxiety.”
Victor raises an
eyebrow in slight surprise. Perhaps he understands 'performance anxiety' to
mean something other than how you are using the term, but he nods in
understanding as you go on.
“I
want to use my Reiki healing in stressful situations and I have trouble getting
it to work. It's very hit and miss. It all started
when I was working for the government.”
Victor makes an
audible 'tut-tut' - evidently he regards working for the government as damaging
to your karma.
“Some
of my team mates were injured on top of a hill and I just couldn't seem to get
the Reiki Healing to work. The thing is it always has some healing effect but
it also seems to have a reassuring affect on patients who have recently
suffered from shock. We have a medical doctor so first aid isn't an issue. The
calming effect is particularly useful in the work I'm in - at Broadmoor and the governmental work.”
Victor nods encouragingly.
“I
think it all stems from a time I was on Silbury Hill
(which is on/near a ley line) and tried to do some
Reiki Healing. When you do it you are opening yourself up to a healing source
of energy which you can then use. I felt an evil taint in the energy (from the
hill) and I feel the taint may still be with me.
“I feel some sort of cleansing ritual/process may be required. Once I feel
cleansed I think my anxiety issues will disappear.”
As you mention Silbury, Victor leans forward, putting aside a carriage he
was fiddling with. Suddenly you feel the full focus of his attention, and that
in some way he's using other senses than the usual five (which shouldn't come
as a surprise to Adam 'cos he does the same all the
time).
Victor has heard
that Silbury is on a ley-line,
the one running between Avebury and
He's familiar
with the 'channelling' technique you refer to and has often used it himself but
he's never heard of an 'evil taint' in any energy taken from a ley-line.
He accepts
without question that you felt the taint, but he wants to know more about the
nature of the taint, where exactly it came from, etc, etc. He agrees that a
'cleansing' is in order but pooh-poohs your idea that this is a 'performance
anxiety'; something has got inside you and is interfering with the workings of
your ability.
As a
demonstration he runs a battered old loco round the track and you see it derail
as Victor deliberately sets the points mid-way. He says something has got
inside you and is interfering with your points. Once he has a better idea
exactly what it is, he's sure he can help you.
I may not have
mentioned this before, but as a fully paid member of the security services, you
have signed the Official Secrets Act and obviously MI13’s most vital precept is
that the public must not know of the Mythos. What do
you tell victor?
I
believe that some ancient people used power from the ley
line to trap some evil energy/creature beneath the Silbury
Hill and the taint has remained. These people thought that the creature was
some unintelligent minion of a wizard or sorcerer. I'll do a sketch of how it
seems to me.
Adam will do a vague sketch of the creature from memory.
(Geoff, I don't
think Adam ever saw the creature without its disguise so I presume the drawing
- btw, does Adam have any artistic skills? - would be of the creature as
Treadle or Hagrid with eyes popping out on stalks. If
you reckon Adam saw the creature less well covered, please feel free to
contradict. Also note that a shoggoth without such a
disguise is essentially just a blob.)
Victor seems amazed.
So all the conspiracy theorists are right? Adam can see Victor mentally
revising his list of 'truth vs garbage' regarding
such things.
Victor seems to
take Adam's word as gospel over these revelations but Adam can tell that, at
some visceral level, Victor still does not understand the nature of what the
creature is. (Basically, he's never been driven insane by the Mythos.)
Regretfully,
Victor puts away his trains and takes you down to his library, where he picks
and chooses 3 books carefully, muttering to himself the while.
Then he opens
the books to certain pages, none of them looking particularly well thumbed.
Adam quickly notes that all 3 pages share a common theme, the history of
demonic possession in the ancient and middle ages.
Victor tells Adam
that long ago, people without the modern medical vocabulary devised their own
nomenclature for maladies such as Adam's; this tainting of the spirit by evil
from outside was viewed by them as 'possession' by evil spirits - demons, if
you will.
Now the 'cure'
for such possession varied from culture to culture. Trepanning (cutting a hole
in the skull to allow the demons to leave) was perhaps the earliest treatment
but Victor doesn't think anything so drastic will be necessary, 'We'll leave
that for a last resort, eh?'
The Catholic
Church, of course, has the sacrament of exorcism and, in the Middle Ages, someone who thought himself possessed might go on a
pilgrimage to a place holy to the Catholic church and be exorcised by a priest
after a vigil and a fast. Victor has heard of exorcism being most effective
even today but he suspects Adam's faith lies elsewhere than
Now this is not
something that Adam can do himself. Since his own healing powers are tainted,
any attempt by Adam to drive out his own 'demons' is doomed to failure.
Instead, Victor intends to take the part of the priest but still Adam will need
to do as much as possible to aid the process.
Victor suggests
that Adam uses the tools of the spiritualist to discipline his mind via his
body, to ensure he is in the right frame of mind for Victor's 'exorcism':
meditation during a pilgrimage, fast and vigil. Victor will then channel
energies from a suitable source of power through himself and in to Adam to
flush his soul clean of contamination.
Victor advises
that you both need to decide upon a suitable place. It must be a source of
spiritual power. It must be a good distance away but not ridiculously so,
reachable by walking over a few days to weeks. Ideally it should be freely
accessible but not overly so as they will hardly want an audience;
Adam will need
to meditate before he commences his pilgrimage to 'get off on the right foot'
as Victor puts it. He should then make his way on foot all the way to the
agreed site. He will need to go equipped to face the elements, as April's
wonderful weather has turned distinctly wet in May, but he needn't camp out;
hotels are perfectly acceptable.
During this
pilgrimage, he will need to follow a strict diet. Nothing too harsh as he will
be indulging in strenuous daily exercise but Adam must feel real hunger as he
approaches his place of pilgrimage, as this will help focus his mind on the
coming ceremony. Victor will draw up the diet sheet for him.
Once at the
place of pilgrimage, Victor will meet him and take Adam through the beginnings
of the ceremony and give him a final meal of bread and either water or watered
wine. Adam and Victor will then mount a vigil through the night before Victor
performs the exorcism at dawn.
Victor smacks
his lips in satisfaction before asking, with the air of someone deciding on
their holiday, 'Now, where shall we go?'
Adam
is no artist or occult specialist either - he will freely admit this. Doing a
little research, though, he might suggest the Shap
circles on the Belinus line?
Shap is a little too close to
However, this is
only a factor if Adam starts from
If Adam is
starting from somewhere well south of Lancaster, Shap
might be ideal. If he's even vaguely fit, he should be able to make 20-25 miles
a day (3mph for 6-8 hours a day). Victor doesn't want Adam to do more. The idea
is to arrive with a feeling of having been tested but he doesn't want you too
exhausted to perform the vigil.
http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/sumer_anunnaki/reptiles/reptiles29c.htm
this site says something of the Belinus Line
The problem with
the site is that there's no focus or centre today. Apparently antiquarians in
years past mention several circles, one 400 yards across with a stone at its
centre, but it sounds like today they've mostly been destroyed (the
southernmost by the railway). A great pity, but that would explain why this
'complex' isn't more widely known.
Victor loves
trains and he has no objection to Adam taking the train to a given start point,
it might even be a good idea to start somewhere auspicious. It's less important
than where you end up but can't do any harm and every little helps.
If Adam is going
to go back to regular work for a bit and then do the pilgrimage then somewhere
down south might suit. The St Michaels Line might be more suitable.
Victor thinks
Adam's pilgrimage should take 1-2 weeks. If we assume 20 miles a day, that's a
minimum of 140 miles, which is a surprisingly long distance. It would get you
from
The trouble with
going back to work is that ATM Adam will find it very difficult to do his job
while this 'evil taint' interferes with his spiritual powers. At best, all he
could offer is straight counselling, for which other people are frankly far
better qualified. And even this is questionable if the ‘taint’ takes on a more
active role – after all, it does seem to be interfering more with Adam’s psyche
than it was a few months ago.
However, Victor
sees you're a little confused and says he wasn't thinking of you having to wait
weeks to start, as it's obvious this needs to be
tackled ASAP. He just needs a few days, this weekend would be fine.
Looking at the
Lake District, which Victor is fond of and is also very easy for him to get to,
he suggests the Cockpit Stone Circle, which is relatively easy to reach and not
too popular.
If you're happy
with that as a point of pilgrimage, Victor reckons you could start your
pilgrimage from anywhere south of a line drawn through
How
about the Uffington White Horse and nearby Dragon
Hill - multimap thinks it's about 190 miles. Adam
could then walk along the Belinus line to the lakes -
the weekend after next would seem more likely than the coming weekend. Adam
could travel to Oxfordshire tomorrow and start his walk Thursday/Friday.
An excellent
choice, Victor is really pleased. It will be tricky following the ley-line but not impossible.
Victor suggests
you keep in touch nightly by phone. This will allow him to follow your progress
and 'coach' you spiritually. When you say you've reached Shap,
he'll drive up the following afternoon.
Sounds
fine to me - Adam will probably buy some hiking gear in
Remember Adam
should phone Victor each evening (except possibly while camping in the
Victor advises
against taking a mobile phone. However he understands that you may need to
carry a mobile in case of injury or accident, but if you do take one, you
should keep it turned off.
You should make
no attempt to contact friends or family - unless you're ending your pilgrimage
early, of course.
You should be
friendly and courteous to all strangers but you should not court company. If
asked, be truthful but be careful as it's quite possible that the media will
take an interest in your pilgrimage if it becomes widely known and interest
from the media will severely impair your chances of success.
You should avoid
using your spiritual skills aside from meditation.
Adam will take
his mobile but keep it turned off and avoid major towns where possible - unless
this means a large detour
If he's
following the Belinus ley-line,
I'm afraid it seems to go right through the middle of
What I need to
know is whether Adam wants to detour to visit certain places of interest. Biddulph Grange and Alderley Edge
are actually on the route and don't need detours so I shall assume you do want
to visit them unless you say otherwise.
One of the
websites reckons the Rollright Stones and Meon Hill are on the line (though they don't seem to be
when I draw a straight line between Biddulph and the
White Horse on a map). Does Adam want to visit them? They will make the route
slightly longer but that could be a good thing. They may even prove interesting
in a RP sense.
He'll buy the
camping/hiking stuff that day, travel south the day after and start the walk
the day after that.
OK, so he buys
hiking gear Wednesday afternoon (no point carrying a tent and cooking gear
until you reach
Adam
is happy to do the detours to Rollright Stones and Meon Hill.