He moved to pick it up, but something stopped him. He must not touch it. It was wrong, very wrong. He quickly pulled back his hand as if he had been burnt. Then he noticed something else. In a corner of the casket was a small, black rectangular object, about an inch long, half an inch wide and deep. He moved to touch it. Again, he was stopped. Under no circumstances must he touch it.
The sense of urgency punched his mind back to reality. He must leave. The impression was so powerful that he broke into a cold sweat. Then a sudden calm flowed through him. The urgency was still there, but he was completely calm. Everything seemed unreal. He must throw away the black object, throw it into the river. But he must not touch it. He took the trowel and with it lifted the metal or stone object, and walked slowly to the bank of the river, arm outstretched. He lifted the trowel and tossed the black object high into the air. It arched silently and fell into the waters, to be lost forever in the murky depths.
He hurried back to the car, slid the Stone into a paper bag, the only container he could find, and put it in one of his trouser pockets. For an inexplicable reason, he returned to the hole and reburied the empty silver box, filling the hole along with the others he had dug, and stamping the turf back into place. Even as he did this he did not know why. But it must be something to do with the opposition; they must not know that he had found the Stone. They were coming, and they knew where to find it. Surely, they would not be deceived by an empty silver box? They would know for certain that it had not been on its own. It would have no deposits covering it. And they would be able to tell that holes had already been dug. He had an answer, but could make no good sense of it, although it had something to do with leading them astray, into believing that a third party had found the Stone.
As he ran back to the car a further impression struck him. He must tell no one that the Stone had been found. He must return with the others to the Swan’s Neck as if nothing had happened. Only he must know. When they reached the safety of Marion’s home, he must give the Stone to Gaynor, before he or anyone could touch it. Why could he not take it to her now, immediately? The answer was a definite no. He jumped into the car and drove away.
Safely out of the area he pulled into a lay-by. In his pocket lay the Stone. He was sure now that the opposition was real. But it was not so much the witches that worried him. It was the evil force itself, whatever it was, which was his primary concern. A force that knew no distance or boundaries. His only hope was that it did not know he had the Stone. He was scared. The almost unreal experience at the Swan’s Neck had passed. He was alone. He would feel safer with people around.
He sat in a small cafe in the nearby town of Pershore, trying to understand why he had experienced such a strong compulsion not to take the Stone to Gaynor straight away. Perhaps the opposition knew and were observing them. If so, why had they not stopped him? He could not solve the problem. Perhaps they could mind-read. All he knew was that he must go through with it and pretend the Stone had not been found.
When he telephoned the headquarters, he discovered that they were all there, anxiously awaiting his call. He said he had been researching at the library. For convenience’s sake they arranged to rendezvous at Knights Pool before going on to the Swan’s Neck. As he waited, he cleaned the casket. Perhaps there was an inscription on it as there had been on the sword? The deposits came away relatively easily, revealing the whole box, not grey as he had first thought, but gold coloured. He examined it closely. It was brass, but without any inscription.
Shortly after lunch, the researchers met together at Knights Pool. Graham had by this time begun to doubt his feelings. Should he, after all, tell them so that they could go immediately to Marion’s and escape from the area. But when they told him of Gaynor’s, Alan’s and Terry’s visions of the casket, which were identical, and of Gaynor’s impression of the two stones and of not touching the green stone until she had it, it confirmed his own impressions. He dare not ignore them.
They studied the OS map, Graham deciding to act as if nothing had happened. He must let them search.
As they left the narrow lane that leads to Knights Pool, Alan and Terry, following the others in Alan’s car, noticed a white Ford Escort pull out from a farm track opposite. It followed them at a steady pace, some distance behind. After several turns it was still there. Terry and Alan glanced back nervously.
When they pulled up at the roadside to make a phone call to Marion, the car passed them. Two men sat inside. Terry and Alan were relieved as it disappeared round a corner in the distance. They laughed. In the heat of the moment their imagination had got carried away. They set off again. As they rounded the corner, they saw the car again, parked in an entrance to the left. It pulled out a couple of hundred yards behind them. After a short time, it was gone once more. Again, coincidence.
They pulled into a lay-by beside the road that looked down over the River Avon and the Swan’s Neck. Looking over the gate, they could see the broad valley where the river follows its winding course into the plainly visible Swan’s Neck, and the church tower in Birlingham rising above the trees. Climbing a gate, they set off down the pathway to the Swan’s Neck. For some time, they mulled around the area, unsure what to do next. Alan suddenly alerted them. On the hill where they had parked their cars was the white Escort. Two figures stood on the skyline, leaning over the gate. There was no doubt that they were being watched.
Graham was petrified. The opposition knew. His intuition had been right. How did they know? How had they known they would be at Knights Pool? Had they followed him there, and, if so, did they know he had the Stone?
They arrived back at the cars, relieved to find the Escort gone and their vehicles untouched. Graham breathed a sigh of relief; the brass casket, minus the Stone, had been hidden in the tool box in the boot of his car. Now he must keep up the charade, for everyone’s safety.
They drove on, having decided to try the other side of the river, splitting into two groups to foil their adversaries. Alan and Terry parked by a bridge half-a-mile downstream from the Swan’s Neck and walked along the river bank. Andy, Graham and Janet drove into Birlingham. When they joined up at the Swan’s Neck, neither group had seen the white Escort again.
Everyone but Graham was astonished to find the avenue of trees as Marion had described. Excited by the discovery, they began to search. Graham was now even more concerned. He knew the opposition was there, watching and waiting. Suddenly Andy called them. He had found holes, evidence that someone had been digging.
Graham was terrified. A number of deep holes had been dug precisely where he had been. But he had refilled the holes he had made. There was no doubt, someone had dug in exactly the same spot during the two hours since he had left to meet the others. Perhaps they thought the grassy rise the most likely place, or had they seen him digging? If so, it might well mean trouble. They would know he had the Stone. Then why had they not tried to take it from him? Perhaps they were waiting for others and were ready to use force.
His dilemma was frightening. The very lives of his friends might hang in the balance. His only chance was to maintain the charade.
Much to Graham’s relief, Alan announced that he was sure he would know if the Stone had been found by the opposition. But he was confident they had not found it. Terry agreed. Andy and Janet dug in and around the holes, as Graham listened to Terry and Alan discussing their course of action. They all agreed they were probably being watched. What would they do, therefore, if they did find the Stone? As Terry and Alan continued their discussion, Graham joined Andy and Janet still digging around the holes. He could see clearly that the spot where he had reburied the silver box had been dug over. The silver box had undoubtedly gone.
Their search continued around the avenue of trees. Graham tried to stay calm. If they were under observation in that isolated setting, there was trouble ahead. It was like waiting for a death sentence. As the light began to fade, Graham decided they could wait no longer. There would be nothing suspicious abou
t leaving as darkness approached; without light they could do little more.
But it was difficult to persuade the others to leave. If necessary, they were prepared to dig all night, believing there was still a chance of finding the Stone. Finally, they agreed to leave. On the telephone to Wales, Marion could tell them nothing more; she advised them to make for her house as soon as possible. At midnight, the witches would begin their ceremony and it was better that they were together, with or without the Stone.
As they left, Graham glanced round nervously, every second expecting a car to pull out and stop them. But there was nobody. They drove on through the night, each mile taking them nearer to North Wales and safety. Nothing happened. With each passing minute he felt more secure. He tried to figure out what had occurred, where the two men in the Escort had gone and how many more there might be.
At last they arrived. As the others went into the house, Graham took the Stone and slid it from the bag back into the casket. He put it in his briefcase and followed them inside. He knew he must give the Stone to Gaynor, for she would know what to do with it. He asked Marion if he could speak to Gaynor, but she said that she was already in bed. He told her it was important, so she went to check. They found her waiting at the top of the stairs.
‘You’ve got something for me,’ she said.
He opened the briefcase and removed the casket, handing it to her. Marion was open-mouthed. Gaynor smiled, and opened the box and looked inside. Not a flicker of surprise crossed her face.
Marion was almost speechless. ‘Is that it?’ she stammered. ‘How did you…?’
Graham hardly heard her. He glanced at Gaynor and then at the Stone.
‘Yes,’ he said, ‘that’s it.’
Marion burst into tears, ‘Oh, my God, if we hadn’t got it!’ she cried.
They made their way downstairs.
As Graham explained what had happened, Gaynor said nothing. She sat and stared at the Stone. Still she did not touch it. When he had finished, they looked to her for an answer. She had been so accurate before. The Swan’s Neck, the two stones, the brass casket. They examined her drawing of the casket. It was identical. She had known Graham had it, so surely she must now know what happened next. She leant forward and picked up the green jewel. Then she handed the Stone to her mother.
‘You must use it,’ she said. They looked at her again. With a little smile she turned and was gone, off back to bed. Her work was done.
In just under two hours the dark ceremony at the Rollright Stones would begin.
At midnight, as they passed the Stone round, they all felt a strange vibration coming from it, a sensation almost of warmth. Marion took the Stone. She now knew what had to be done, although she could not explain it to the others. As she held the Meonia Stone in her hand, she felt it almost growing, pulsating with energy.
She felt a mysterious sensation as she lay back in her chair. All she wanted to do was close her eyes. To sleep. She told them to sit round her in a semi-circle and remain quiet.
She was no longer in the room. The Stone seemed to vibrate. She felt a cold biting wind on her face. Then there was darkness. She was standing among trees, and she could hear the wind through their leaves.
The Green Stone
Then she heard voices, chanting voices. Next the fire, crackling in the night. Burning wood, heavy smoke. She saw them, a huge circle of grey-robed and hooded figures around the fire, inside the ring of stones. The flames cast long shadows around them. A single black-robed figure stepped forward to the fire, a woman with long black hair. It was she. The leader.
The woman threw back her arms and head, shouting aloud into the night. The coven responded. She chanted again, reaching out, stretching and clawing at the sky like a cat.
Light. A sickly orange light tore away the darkness above her. She shrieked in ecstasy. The coven chanted in response.
Marion knew that the force of pure evil would manifest through the woman in physical form. She felt the Stone pulsating, throbbing in her hand. A shape began to form in the orange light, a huge winged mass. Then came a cry, a cry of triumph from the manifestation. The woman screamed, her cries merging with the demon’s.
The Stone burned into Marion’s hand. She had to stop it. Use the Stone. She felt the power growing within her, her spirit body overflowing with energy. Concentrating her entire force of will against the fiery abomination, she felt an immense shock jar her body. It was turning on her. There followed a brief moment of struggle. It was too powerful. It could overcome all that was directed towards it. She knew she could not destroy the evil by force, it thrived on such actions. She must return its own malefic intent. Use the Stone to reflect its power. Light burst round Marion as she held the Stone before her. The abomination recoiled. Enveloped in an intense whiteness it gave a final embittered cry and was gone. The woman sank to her knees, bathed in white light. Then she ran in terror. The power of the witch coven and their priestess was at last broken. The demon was gone.
Marion woke from the strange sleep and blinked up at them. She relaxed and smiled.
‘It’s all over,’ she said, sighing with exhaustion. ‘We have done it. We’ve won. Now we can rest.’
The force had lost its power over the Warwickshire coven. (5) That night they all believed the evil had finally been destroyed. But in reality it had lost only the first battle. Now it had an advantage, for at last it was aware of its opponents.
Graham Phillips with the sword and casket in the early 1980s
Chapter 11
A Sense of Evil
The impossible had happened. They had found the Stone. From that day onwards, their lives would never be the same again.
But what was the Meonia Stone and what were its origins? All they knew was what Joanna had told them, that it was a Stone that could be used to overcome this unnamed force of evil.
It had been closely guarded by a select few for centuries. It had come from the Megalithic culture of Britain, a race whose monuments still survive today in the form of standing stones, stone circles, long barrows and burial chambers scattered throughout the British Isles. The Pharaoh Akhenaten had fallen heir to the esoteric knowledge possessed by these peoples, a knowledge which had ultimately led to their destruction. It had been created to oppose the evil force which had eventually destroyed them. But this was all they knew. Could Joanna be contacted again?
Graham made further unsuccessful attempts to fall into the trance state to enable them to communicate with Joanna. Still she would not return to help them.
Yet it was not from Joanna that they were to find their answer. It was from Gaynor and another child, a teenager called Andrew James, who had first contacted Marion after she had appeared in the local newspaper requesting other UFO witnesses to come forward and report their experiences.
In the summer of 1976 Andrew had been walking along Coed-on Lane, the same lane from which Gaynor had seen her UFO. The narrow road begins on the outskirts of one of the Oakenholt housing estates and leads to a number of farms in the surrounding districts. Where it leaves the estate, it overlooks the Oakenholt school. As he walked down the lane that summer afternoon, he became aware of a bright multicoloured object above the school. He watched as it manoeuvred, banking towards him and after further manoeuvres disappearing in the distance. In the windows in the side of the object he had seen several figures looking down at him.
The Pharaoh Akhenaten
Although he was unable to recall the exact date, he was sure the experience had occurred within a week or so of Gaynor’s in July. Andy, Graham and Martin had questioned him closely and found his testimony consistent. In addition, many of the circumstances tallied with certain unpublished details of close-encounter cases they had been investigating.
In the weeks and months following this encounter, Andrew was to develop quite remarkable ESP. He, too, appeared to have maintained psychic contact with the beings inside the craft.
During November 1979, Gaynor and Andrew, simultaneously
and quite independently of one another, both felt inspired to make a number of drawings and automatic writings concerning the Megalithic culture. (1) Neither of them knew anything of the involvement of the Megalithic people with the Stone. For unexplained reasons, they both felt inspired to make drawings of standing stones and stone circles, burial mounds and chambered tombs.
The writings spoke of a great power that Megalithic people controlled, a power that could be harnessed at certain selected sites on the earth, to enhance what we would today call psychic abilities. But most interesting of all was a series of drawings made by Gaynor, which appeared to represent a pictorial history of the Megalithic civilisation. The last picture was a representation of the Meonia Stone at the centre of a stone circle on an altar. Gaynor said that the Stone itself had been used by Akhenaten’s followers who came to Britain to oppose the evil force that had helped bring about the downfall of the Megalithic civilisation.
If the Meonia Stone had existed for so long, was there any historical reference to it? Surely there must be a legend. Andy discovered several legends concerning a small green stone that allegedly held great power, and a magical green gem that acted as a talisman against evil. (2)
The possibility that Marion’s astral projection to the Rollright Stones had been her imagination was dismissed when John Ward telephoned the Wolverhampton headquarters to report a dream he had experienced on the morning of Halloween. The dream was almost exactly as described by Marion, although he knew nothing of the witches’ coven that night at the circle.
As Alan set off for work on 1 November, he experienced the most terrible feeling. By now he was becoming accustomed to the psychic messages, but this time there was something different. The feeling was one of panic. Then he was sure. The opposition knew who they were and knew them all. Now it would begin its assault. First it would attempt to isolate them, to break up the group. He tried to shake off the feeling, to persuade himself it was just his imagination. He had thought it was finished. They had found the Stone and destroyed the evil. Surely their task had been completed. Andy, Graham and Terry could discover what it had all been about. All he wanted to do now was to rest and spend a few days at home with his wife and two small children.
The Green Stone Page 13