From: hawksmoor@dial.pipex.com (Julia Hawkes-Moore)
Newsgroups: alt.out-of-body,alt.dreams.lucid
Subject: Trip to Saffron Walden Maze
Date: Thu, 03 Sep 1998 18:09:38 GMT
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    Every full moon since April, a group of us have been meeting 'out
of body' in interesting locations around the globe and then sharing
our experiences on the internet.    
   This Saturday night (September 5th 1998) is the night before the
full moon, so we should all be waxing at our most powerful for astral
travel, lucid dreaming, remote viewing and OOBE. We are planning a
very special event, which I invite you all to participate in. 
   A group of fellow astral travellers, healers and meditators are
meeting 'in the flesh' between the hours of 8pm and 10pm on the turf
maze on the Common at Saffron Walden. We plan to chant and meditate to
contact and greet all you members of the newsgroup who are able to
join us. 
   A timechart to work out what time you need to meditate or dream,
whichever state or country you inhabit can be found at the website.
There, you will also find a list of techniques used by other
successful travellers. Please email a report of your experience after
the event to the website, which gives a lot of helpful information, as
well as displaying the reports of previous trips out. You may only
recall a glimpse of something odd, but post it anyway. The address is:

http://members.tripod.com/~Frodpod/obemain

  Saffron Walden is in Essex, England. It lies to the north of London
and a little south of Cambridge. It is an ancient market town of great
beauty, with twisty streets of pretty inns, shops and houses, and with
a lively community of 10,000 residents. There are many notable
landmarks and interesting features. These include the huge and
exquisite Parish Church on the highest land, built from pure white
stone in the 14th century, 183 feet long and with a slender and
graceful spire 193 feet high. It is visible from miles around. Near
the church is the crumbling ruin of a large flint castle, dating from
1125 and thrown down in 1157. Beside the castle is the large
rectangular green space, fringed with trees, which is the Common of
Saffron Walden, the site of medieval tournaments and town celebrations
for a thousand years. At the far side of the Common from the church
and castle lies the turf maze.
  The maze is mysterious and ancient. In 1699 15 shillings was paid to
recut the maze, so the earliest maze may have been medieval. It was
originally much larger, and supposed to have been made by a travelling
shoemaker, the member of a secret guild of magicians. The maze today
is about 100 feet in diameter, with a narrow winding path nealy a mile
long. A photo and plan can be seen on the website. The path was cut
into the white chalk landscape, but was laid with 6000 red bricks in
1911. Until 1823 a large ash tree stood in the middle, but it burnt
down on November 5th in the Guy Fawkes celebrations. In the 18th and
19th centuries local 'beaux and belles' gathered there for fun and
games. The young maiden stood in the centre with a tankard of cider or
beer whilst her young man (or men!) followed the path as quickly as
possible - before she drank it all?!
   Today we host maze conferences - there is also a Victorian yew
hedge maze in the town and we are planning an orchard maze with a
firemaze for the Millenium. We have Morris dancing there and regular
maze walks on the solstices. To walk the maze requires a state of
meditation, losing yourself in a small and well-known space. 
   Please do come along, enjoy our welcome, and then post your report.
We welcome UK members who are able to get there 'in the flesh' as much
as we welcome travellers out-of-body! The weather is set fair, but if
it is raining heavily, we will all go to my house and meditate, so
search for me! Think; "Julia in the maze at Saffron Walden" and you
will find me. As easy as that!
  All best wishes, Julia Hawkes-Moore.