Throughout the years, all the leaders of the Order inherited a mystical amulet, a key to unlock the full potential of the Meonia Stone. It had been a small silver cross containing a mysterious power. When the malefic being itself manifested in the cellar, its force was so great that the power of the silver cross was erased. Although the cross itself had been destroyed, the influence it had contained was still held in the atmosphere of the cellar. Knowing all was lost, and that they no longer possessed the power to release it, Mary Heath disbanded the Order. She would utilise her remaining power and knowledge to one day bring the Order together again. This was what was now happening. She had drawn them together to complete her work, those who were psychic, and some who were merely investigators.
But why had she disbanded the Order? The answer was clear.
The glass spelt out: ‘The seeds of destruction lie within, as you were told. This has resulted in the failure of The Nine so many times in the past, and why they have never destroyed the evil being we sought to oppose.’
Many in the Order had been corrupted by the power and their secret knowledge. Thus their successive leaders had elected to leave the Stone hidden.
‘There is a fine line between power used for preservation and power used for gain,’ the glass spelt out.
Mary Heath deemed that the only way to recover their power from the Evil One was to begin anew, and for those who inherited the task to be unaware of how to wield their inheritance for personal gain. Thus, they had been chosen.
But why had she not used the Stone to reflect its attack in 1875?
In their weakened state the risk of losing the Stone was too great; their own corruption and hatred had weakened the strength to use it correctly. The force of the Evil One could therefore have destroyed the Stone. After their failure in the cellar the infernal guardian now held the key to the ultimate power of the Stone, thus preventing it from being used.
Q. But does the Stone not already have power?
A. Yes. But the only power remaining in it is the power necessary to reflect his attacks. If used correctly the full power of the Stone can destroy him.
They then asked if ‘he’ could ‘tune in’ to this communication? It answered no, not since Gaynor had repelled his attack.
They had many other questions. What had happened to Pakington’s original sword? How were UFOs involved? How had it all begun? And, most importantly, where was it all leading? The spirit refused to answer. There was something they must do now; release the key to the power of the Stone. The spirit told them that it would take too long to explain by using the glass. Instead it would inform Marion Sunderland. Seconds later, the phone rang. It was Marion.
She had just had a powerful vision. They must go immediately to the cellar, draw an eight-pointed star on a piece of card, stand in a circle and call upon the force of St Michael.
The force to hold the key had been cast by Satanism. Therefore, they must use an old banishment to break it. Since they had not been corrupted, they could succeed where Mary Heath and the Order of Meonia had failed. She asked them to get a pen and paper and write down what she told them.
They must go, she said, to the cellar and sprinkle a circle of holy water around them. Graham told her this was impossible. How were they to obtain holy water? But Marion had the impression that they had some and that he could check. He asked the others and Alan produced the phial of Lourdes water he had felt impelled to bring. No one but Terry knew of this, and certainly not Marion. She then instructed them to take a rosary blessed by a priest. Again, Graham protested, but she assured him she was being told that they did have one. He checked. Alan, Terry and Jane shook their heads. Mike looked astonished and produced a rosary, adding that it had been blessed.
Graham returned to the phone. Marion said: ‘Somebody must hold the rosary high above their head and perform the act of banishment.’ As he scribbled down the instructions, Marion explained that they must draw an eight-pointed star and lay it between them as they reached the cellar. As the star of St Michael, it would act as a point of concentration. When Graham asked her to describe exactly what the star looked like, Marion thought for a moment.
‘I’ve just been advised that one of you has been told to draw it.’
Graham hurried to the others. To his astonishment he saw that Terry had at that instant received a psychic impression to construct the eight-pointed star, which he was now drawing. There was no doubt that the simultaneous impressions proved that they were meant to perform the banishment.
The final thing they needed was salt, said Marion, to cast a circle of protection round them. Her impressions continued, and she next received a string of words. Graham was told to write them down exactly as she gave them. They must recite the words in the cellar, and, following this invocation, banish the guardian with more words to invoke the symbolic power of the Archangel Michael.
Now they must go and perform the banishment.
At 10 pm, the five made their way to the Oaks Crescent flat. They pulled aside the trap-door beneath the hall carpet, and by candlelight descended into the dark cellar. A narrow passage led to the main room, a cold, stone chamber of whitewashed brick about five yards square. The flickering candles cast long shadows on the peeling whitewash as they formed a circle. Alan had remained outside, waiting to run for help if things went wrong.
Graham sprinkled the salt and holy water round them as Mike held the crucifix. Terry then read aloud the words Marion had given them to summon the Archangel Michael.
‘Archangel Michael, I adjure thee in the name of the blessed Virgin, by her holy body, by her sanctified body, by her sanctified soul, to come forth. I ask thee by all the holy names, bring thy legions of angels.'
These words were followed by others she had been given to banish the guardian.
As Terry finished speaking, they all felt a tremendous surge of power flood through them. Everywhere was calm and still in the hitherto disturbed atmosphere of the cold cellar.
Leaving, they returned to Jane’s house and phoned Marion, who was certain they had succeeded in banishing the guardian and releasing the key to unlock the power of the Stone.
The following day Graham and Jane checked many of the facts in the Wolverhampton records. They discovered that Thomas Reade had indeed existed and had lived at Number 2, Oaks Crescent in 1875. They were unable to establish exactly where Number 2 had been, since all the houses were now different. But Number 2 appeared to have been at least near the site upon which 19 Oaks Crescent now stood. The building plans for the present house no longer exist. Whether the cellars were there in the Victorian period, or a tunnel had led there, or if they were one and the same, remained unknown.
Now, with the banishment successfully accomplished, how were they to gain the full power of the Stone?
Later that night Jane was at home when she suddenly experienced the strange feeling that a message was being given to her. She saw a woman in white standing beside an old stone cross. This vision, she knew, had something to do with their reinheriting the power of the Stone.
That night Alan went to the Sunderlands’, and there he, Marion and Fred used the glass and letters in an attempt to obtain further information. It said simply that the evil had been banished from the cellar in Oaks Crescent, and they could now find the power of the Stone.
That something powerful had taken place was confirmed when Andy, now living in Essex, came to stay for the weekend in Wolverhampton on Friday, 21 November. That evening Andy and Graham decided to take a look at the empty cellar. Perhaps there would be some indication that the tunnel once led into it, or that the cellar itself had been there in the Victorian period.
As they examined the brickwork in the main chamber, they heard a deep groaning noise. They froze. They then heard the noise of someone or something clambering down the pile of magazines in the corridor and into the cellar. They stood petrified as the noise grew louder, approaching quickly and now only just around the corner. As they waited in the near dark
ness, they had no idea what might emerge from the passageway.
Silence. There was not a sound in the cold cellar. The seconds seemed like hours as they edged forward nervously, glancing into the passage. There was nothing there. Quickly they scrambled up the piles of magazines and out of the cellar.
Had they, they wondered, heard the last fading energies of the evil guardian that for so long had held the key to unlock the power of the Stone?
That night something remarkable took place. Gaynor suddenly awoke to find herself in a wide-open void, a white marble floor stretching to infinity around her. A figure, the woman she had seen at Biddulph Grange in a white flowing gown, approached and gave her a silver cross. She said the cross now held a power to call upon a guardian. The woman explained, but Gaynor could not understand, except that it would act something like a radio.
Gaynor awoke to find the silver cross still in her hand! She recognised it as her own cross. Everyone was astonished. She had lost it months before in the town. The woman, presumably Mary Heath, had returned it by supernatural means they could not even begin to understand.
It appeared that the key to summon the power of the Stone that they had released from the cellar and was once focused in Mary Heath’s pendant, had now been restored in Gaynor’s cross.
At last they had the key to unlock the power of the Meonia Stone.
The sword and casket
Chapter 14
The Reawakening
Christmas 1980
Marion and Fred had invited Graham to spend Christmas with them at their home in North Wales. It would be an ideal opportunity to relax and reflect on the events to date. However, many questions were still unanswered. What was the ultimate purpose of the Meonia Stone? What were they to do where Mary Heath and the Order of Meonia had failed?
Boxing Day 1980 was to bring new answers. That night Graham experienced a vivid dream, in which he saw what he took to be the Pharaoh Akhenaten lying on a stone slab in an underground chamber adorned with hieroglyphics. In his headband was a small green stone - the Meonia Stone. Around the slab stood a number of small white pyramids. A procession filed into the chamber, each person picking up a pyramid and making their way from the tomb along a stone corridor.
As he dreamt, he had the impression that the centre of learning - Akhet-aten - had fallen to their adversaries, the followers of the Amon religion. (1) Akhenaten’s people knew this and were preparing to leave for Britain with the Stone and these nine small pyramids. What they were Graham did not know, but as he awoke the words, the nine lights, were still clear in his mind.
He was puzzled. Why should he have dreamt this? What could it mean? Perhaps Gaynor would know. In the automatic writings that followed they found their answer.
The pyramids each contained an aspect of power, one of nine aspects necessary to use the Meonia Stone. When Akhenaten died, his Egyptian followers knew that their task had failed, and that their centre of learning would soon fall. The power of the Stone, being so potentially destructive, was taken from it and split into nine separate parts. Each of these nine pyramids contained one element of the power of the Stone.
The party came to Britain to establish a secret Order and preserve some of the knowledge of the Megalithic culture with which to resist the workings of the Evil One. The Stone could be used to ward off this force, but its full power was divided into the Nine Lights to prevent its misuse.
If the energy of the Stone was complete, and it was misused, it could result in the end of the Stone, which was the only means of finally destroying the Evil One.
Before establishing their colony in the centre of England, the Egyptians first travelled to southern England. There, at nine sites sacred to the Megalithic culture, they transferred the power of the Nine Lights from the pyramids into the sites. Nine aspects of power necessary to realise the full potential of the Meonia Stone.
So the next part of the group’s quest was to relocate these Lights and to channel them back into the Stone. Since the time of Akhenaten this had not been achieved. His Egyptian followers had brought and left these powers so that when the time was right, they could be repossessed by those who held the Stone.
The group must begin their search on New Year’s Day 1981, the search for the first four of the Nine Lights.
Gaynor asked who she was communicating with and was told that it was the spirit guide to the First Light. Ideally it was she who should carry out the search, but she was too young and vulnerable to risk so dangerous a quest. Others must be chosen. But who could she choose? Not her mother, for she had to look after her younger brothers and sisters. Terry, Martin and Alan? Of course. But no, they had to work, and she knew the search might take weeks.
That something so important and unusual should be stopped by something so normal was a paradox. She was left with only one choice: Graham, who must also take Andy. Perhaps Terry and Alan could help along the way? She knew that whoever went would immediately become psychically attuned to the guides, since they possessed the Stone.
Graham was concerned. How could he accept something so important? Suppose he failed? And how was he to obtain the information?
Gaynor knew. He must take the pencil as she had done and put it to paper. The guide to the First Light would write through him and communicate that way. Half-heartedly he agreed. If Gaynor said so then he had to try it.
He took the pencil. Who or what were they communicating with? It confirmed that it was the guide to the First Light and went on to explain that they were now seeking the first four. Each one would be at a site important to the Megalithic culture, and at each site there would be a spirit guide to the Light. There would also be a spirit guardian, and finally a living person who would guide them to this guardian.
This was the process to find each Light. They had first to be led to the site by the spirit guide. Then they must find the person who would tell them of a local tradition or legend about the mythical or symbolic spirit guardian. They must then summon this spirit guardian and the energy would be transferred back into the Stone. Throughout history the leader of the Order was given the key to release the guide to the first Light. At any time, the Order could have regained the Lights, but because of the risks involved in fully charging the Stone they had never done so.
But how could people today lead them to an energy stored over 3,000 years ago? The guide gave its answer. The Stone and the Lights had been programmed to ensure this. When the guide to the First Light was released, this programming became immediately effective. Whatever circumstances were necessary to find the Lights would be established and set in motion by the Lights themselves. This process was too complex to explain; they must simply accept that it would happen. The banishment performed on 18 November 1980 had enabled Gaynor’s White Lady to release the guide to the First Light.
They must now find the first four and finally the Ninth Light that would link them as one.
The guide said that the First Light was near Dorchester, in Oxfordshire. But how would they know where to begin? The parting words were that they would soon know.
Graham was flabbergasted. This was simply not possible. But again, as so many times before, he reflected on the recent past. Everything else had been impossible so why should this be different? Besides, perhaps it was not so ridiculous. As an investigator he knew that many of the things that had occurred were not as impossible as they might have appeared, since most paranormal experiences occur using the available belief systems of the person who witnesses them. Seen in this way it was perhaps not so unbelievable.
Barry Sunderland was psychic. He claimed to have had psychic experiences, but he had never done automatic writing or drawing like Gaynor and Andrew James. As he handed his mother his drawing of the old stone cross, he knew it was important. Something had told him to draw it and that Gaynor and Graham must have it.
Barry’s drawing came only seconds after the end of the communication. An old cross and Dorchester? Not much to act on, but what was there to lose?
A trip to Dorchester could do no harm. And if it was correct Graham couldn’t let the others down. He telephoned Andy and told him the details. They would rendezvous in Dorchester on New Year’s Day.
On New Year’s Eve Graham, Terry and Mike stood in a field near Terry’s house in Saverley Green. Terry explained how the night before he had tried to concentrate his thoughts in order to obtain information about the First Light. A vivid image flashed into his mind’s eye: a carved figure of a man sleeping, with a strange diagram like the Hebrew Tree of Life in the stained-glass window above him. Terry knew it was connected with the First Light, and when they found this they would be on the right track.
Gaynor had suggested that they stand in the field and attempt again to communicate with the guide. As Graham held the Stone, he heard the words, ‘Follow the Neots until you reach the Waters of Isis. There you will find the one who will tell you of the guardian at the place of the First Light.’ In his mind he saw the image of two long earth banks.
New Year’s Day. Graham, Terry and Mike met Andy and Peter Marlow in Dorchester. Peter was a London businessman who had generously offered to finance the search for the Lights.
At last they found it, a tall stone cross outside Dorchester Abbey, which was itself interesting, since it was a Rose Cross as Barry had drawn and dated back to medieval times.
Dorchester Abbey
Inside the Abbey, Terry stared at the stone carving of the sleeping man, and above him the brightly coloured stained- glass window depicting the Tree of Life.
The Green Stone Page 17