Freddy Silva is one of the world's leading researchers of ancient civilizations, sacred sites and their interaction with consciousness. He is the best-selling author of The Divine Blueprint.
MOREJoin author and sacred sites researcher Freddy Silva on an immersive journey along England’s Michael and Mary energy currents, exploring megaliths, cathedrals, holy wells, and mythic landscapes.
For millennia, seekers have walked these dragon paths to dissolve the ego and reconnect with the spirit of place. Beginning near Avebury, the world’s largest stone circle, this boutique tour winds through Wiltshire, Somerset, Devon, and Cornwall, visiting temples, faery mounds, Gothic marvels, and Arthurian sanctuaries. Along the way, you’ll hike ancient pilgrim trails, hear tales of Druids and initiates, and experience landscapes that still pulse with earth energy. READ MORE
Freddy Silva is one of the world's leading researchers of ancient civilizations, sacred sites and their interaction with consciousness. He is the best-selling author of The Divine Blueprint.
MORE
Tour Description
The Thin Places: hotspots on the land where the laws of nature allow us to cross a threshold into another reality. Cultures connected to the landscape take advantage of this life force to dissolve the ego and reconnect the self, opening the gate into the inner temple. Every esoteric group has known this since time immemorial. And today, so does science.
Initiates described the experience as 'drinking from the cup of everlasting life' because it empowered them to live as autonomous beings. And they didn’t keep the understanding to themselves. To be certain that future generations could share in the experience, temple builders marked these portals with standing stones, holy wells, hermitages, and later, Gothic cathedrals. Their singular vision resulted in over 400 sacred sites in a near-straight line from East Anglia to Cornwall, marking two of the most studied telluric currents on Earth: the Michael and Mary lines.
Now is your chance to awaken that greatness within, by joining me and fifteen other Info-dels on a quest that, for the most part, follows these two dragon paths as they flow along southern Britain. This is a journey for seekers to immerse in the spirit of place, to make new friends and, hopefully, connect with the spirit of place.
Based near Avebury, the largest stone circle in the world and the heart of Neolithic, Gaelic and Gothic cultures, we will visit sanctuaries marking the passage of Michael and Mary and their tributaries through an enchanted landscape — Silbury, a giant energy battery resembling the belly of the Earth Mother; the giants grave of West Kennett; passage mounds such as Adams Grave and Devil's Den; faery mounds that once were the domain of Druidhe; the 6000-year old Ridgeway pilgrim track; Dragon Hill and its chalk White Horse; Wells Cathedral and the mesmerizing resonance of its Chapter House; the healing waters of Chalice Well gardens; two of Michael and Mary’s prominent markers, Glastonbury Tor and Barrow Mump; the windswept hilltop church at Brentor; the solitude of Cletherer's sacred well and chapel; Tintagel island and Merlin's cave, home to the Arthurian resurrection myth (no stopping to meet Poldark, sorry ladies); and the stone circles and dolmens amid Cornwall’s untamed heather and gorse land.
That’s quite the inventory of experiences. To ease our quest we will regularly partake of dry English wit (sarcasm), and dabble in food and banter at multiple ‘research facilities’ (pubs).
What, no Stonehenge, I hear you say? Sadly, due to it now being worse than Disneyland and overwhelmed by mass tourism, the site no longer fits the intention of my tour and is no longer included. Trust me, the sites in and around Avebury alone will more than compensate.
Join me in this boutique tour selected for a very small group and experience the ways of the earth force, its shrines and points of power.
A word of warning: we will be hiking hills, steep paths and taking long walks at a brisk pace every day. The nature of the terrain makes it unsuitable for those with physical issues or slow mobility, so unless you love sitting in a hotel or contemplating your navel for hours in a minibus in a grey layby, please do not book this tour.
Arrival in London—for those flying into London Heathrow Airport on Oct 5 or 6, an airport transfer will be included to the hotel where you can spend the evening relaxing and settling into your awaiting adventure.
(Overnight in London at Bailey’s Hotel or similar)
Group welcome, followed by breakfast and departure for Wiltshire. After a two-hour ride, and a hearty group lunch at the Rose & Crown, Ashbury, we hike up to Wayland's Smithy, a remote 6000-year old passage mound attributed to a god who forges himself a better life through alchemy.
With the rolling English high plains for company we then walk the Ridgeway, one of the oldest pilgrim tracks, to the Uffington White Horse, the most elegant figure carved out of the chalk upland, marking an area where wisdom keepers gathered at midsummer, concluding with a climb of Dragon Hill, potent repository of earth energy as it curls to the summit like a coiled serpent. Coincidentally it marks the circular path of Draco around the pole star.
We close the day in the delightful market town of Marlborough and the 15th century Castle & Ball hotel. Dinner on your own.
(Overnight in Marlborough at Castle and Ball Hotel or similar)
After breakfast, a short ride to the hill of Woden, Norse god of wisdom. From its summit we gain the best view of Silbury, Europe’s biggest conical mound, rising out of a designed landscape like a pregnant belly to mark the Mary Line. We pick up the Michael Line nearby by walking the one mile processional avenue of standing stones, entering Avebury stone circle as it was performed in 2600 BC. After a tour of the site we will stop for lunch at a local restaurant and personal time. Later, we hike to West Kennett Long Barrow, where the remains of very, very tall shamans were interred, and adepts were initiated into the Mysteries of the Otherworld. If time allows we finish the day with another walk on the Ridgeway for quiet time among the faery mounds and their guardian tree circles overlooking the enchanted Avebury landscape.
A well-deserved group dinner follows at the Wagon & Horses pub, a medieval coaching inn featured in a novel by Dickens. Ghosts recently reallocated. Return to Castle & Ball hotel, Marlborough.
(Overnight in Marlborough at Castle and Ball Hotel or similar)
Breakfast and departure for Somerset. First stop, a hike along the Marlborough Downs—home to sarsen stones used for Avebury and Stonehenge—to Devil's Den, a weathered passage mound and one of the oldest megalithic sites in southern Britain. A short drive to the rim of the Pewsey Vale—also known as crop circle central—allows us to hike up to Adam's Grave, a long barrow with a sweeping view of the serpent hills where Jesus himself once sought consultations with the Druidhe. A short drive along the vale takes us to lunch at The Millstream pub in Marden, a small hamlet originally formed by a stone circle even larger than Avebury.
After lunch, a traipse through fields of curious cows takes us to the quiet 12th century Templar Church at Alton Priors. The church, along with its 1700-year old yew and remains of a stone circle mark the head of an 87-mile ancient pilgrim trail.
As we make our way towards the cathedral city of Wells, we’ll stop for a hike to Furze Knoll and its protective fairy trees, where priestesses used to practice their magic. And still do.
Upon check-in at The Swan, the finest hotel in Wells, you will have time to unwind and enjoy an included dinner.
(Overnight in Wells at The Swan or similar)
An early breakfast allows us to stay ahead of the crowds at Wells Cathedral, Gothic architecture’s most graceful gem, still renowned for its music academy. We will focus on the Chapter House, one of the world’s greatest acoustic marvels where words are denied and sound elevates the soul to lush planes. There will be free time to wander and find the 28 hidden Green Men among pillars and architraves.
A drive to nearby Glastonbury for lunch at-large is followed by contemplation at Chalice Well, site of pilgrimage since the Mesolithic, whose iron-rich waters from deep fissures have sustained the locals even in times of drought. The area was notably settled by Joseph of Arimathea, whose thirteen round huts became the focal point of the town. We follow in the footsteps of pilgrims by taking the steep hike to the summit of the Tor, with its man-made labyrinth path leading to the ruined church of St. Michael, where the Michael and Mary lines intertwine in a sacred marriage.
Return to Wells and dinner at-large.
(Overnight in Wells at The Swan or similar)
After breakfast we check-out for the long trip to Devon and Cornwall, stopping for a short hike up Barrow Mump to meet another Michael and Mary node. The hill is a mirror image of Glastonbury Tor but is pleasantly crowd-free.
The scenery radically transforms as we cross into Devon, home of prehistoric peoples, wild and windswept landscapes filled with stone circles and menhirs. We stop for lunch in the middle of nowhere at the Castle Inn, Lydford, before continuing to Brentor and Britain’s remotest church. Dramatically erected atop a volcanic outcrop and its vertical granite face—courtesy of the devil, no less—this loneliest of Michael’s outposts is also one of its most potent.
After consuming the energy of place we thread our way into the brooding landscape of Cornwall. Driving down steep headlands and sea cliffs we wind into the secluded village of Boscastle, home of many a pirate (if you don’t believe me try a pint at The Cobweb Inn), check-in to the charming Riverside Inn and enjoy dinner at the restaurant. Should the weather cooperate, I recommend working off your meal with a walk to the ragged cliffs to watch the sun set over a restless Atlantic. Be sure to look for the large dragon and its breathing hole — no, really!
(Overnight in Boscastle at the Riverside Inn or similar)
Another hearty breakfast puts us in the mood to tackle the steep slopes of Tintagel Island, resplendent with tales of Arthurian legend, an initiation chamber, and a footprint carved in rock where the seeker is empowered by the energy current flowing up the cliff from a church dedicated to the mother of the gods. A steep descent leads to Merlin’s Cave at low tide. Inside, initiates conquered fear at night as they were threatened by a rowdy incoming tide, then threaded through the ceiling into the interior before appearing resurrected at dawn on the summit. Health and Safety may have blocked off this last route but we can still be immersed in the drama of the cave.
After a refreshing lunch at the remote Port William Inn and its Atlantic vista, we travel to the remote sanctuary of St. Clether’s Chapel and Holy Well. A sensitive restoration means it still looks and feels as serene as the day it was built by an itinerant Celtic monk seeking solitude and a personal experience of God.
Totally relaxed and away with the faeries, we return to Boscastle for dinner at-large.
(Overnight in Boscastle at the Riverside Inn or similar)
Breakfast, check-out and departure for Land's End, tip of Britain and remainder of the sunken land of Leonais which once connected Britain to Brittany and its extensive megalithic metropolis.
A traipse through gorse fields leads us to Mên-an-Tol, where invalids have come to be healed for millennia by passing themselves through a hole in a megalith. Suitably healed we will continue to Chûn Quoit, the most charming of dolmens, one of the portals of the Shining Ones, with a sweeping view of the end of Britain and the ocean.
Thoroughly windswept, we break for lunch at the Trewellard Arms.
We pick up the Michael Line at Boscawen-un stone circle, still maintained and honoured by local covens and esoteric seekers, followed by a good hike through the fields to our final megalithic wonder, the Merry Maidens stone circle.
Overnighting at The Lugger Inn, in the old fishing town of Penzance, we wrap up our adventure with a good slap-up meal, mugs of ale, and tall tales of invisible folk and other oddities.
(Overnight in Penzance at The Lugger Inn or similar)
One more breakfast before boarding the train to London Paddington, a five-hour ride across some of the best scenery in southern Britain. Once at Paddington it’s a short two-block walk to the Mercure London Hyde Park Hotel, and one more adventure ticked on the to-do list.
(Overnight in London at the Mercure London Hyde Park Hotel or similar)
Today our shared journey draws to a close as you make your way to the airport for your onward travels. For those departing from London Heathrow Airport on Oct 15, an included transfer will be provided.
(B = Breakfast; L = Lunch; D = Dinner)
Note: This itinerary is subject to change due to conditions beyond our control.
