DURDLE DOOR, Dorset
The light at Durdle Door took me by surprise. Which I find fascinating as I have visited numerous times, it being a local beach of mine in Dorset: twice, at dawn on Christmas Day to watch the sunrise with friends; many a walk before or after Sunday lunch; swimming with my dog in my twenties, for cold water swims in more recent years; with my son, on numerous occasions with friends and family - including when two of us scrambled up to its summit…before this became inaccessible due to erosion. My preference has usually been for the adjacent Man o’War cove in summer…it is ‘deep’ enough energetically to absorb summer into its crevices and hidden lines, and has a feminine beauty, I find. But on this winters’ afternoon, it was Durdle Door which was in its mastery of light. There was something about the energy as it hit the cliffs and pebbles on the beach. I was entranced…I was seeing it for a first time - the incoming beams felt like they were coming from further away, more translucent and ‘higher’ in coding and vibration. The phrase which came to mind was, ‘it was setting its own scene’ but it was something more than that - something ‘underneath’ the view which on this day in particular, felt special.
A second afternoon of pure sunshine called me back the next day. I needed to know more. Channelling angelic realms raises our vibration; being in the energy of the light does also. A morning of channelling and an afternoon peeking into what I can only describe as another dimension certainly took things up a level.
I have begun a new project - which means new ‘training’ by my spirit team. Both days, as I was pulled to sit on the shingle beach, I was probed to observe what I noticed. On the second, a drone went overhead and it reminded me of a similar intrusion when visiting a crop circle last year. ‘This has a similar frequency to a crop circle’, I said to myself. I was then nudged to record it for an energy reading (why had I never thought of doing one of this historic landmark before?) at which point I entered a different frequency.
Durdle Door is part of the Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site, located on the Lulworth Estate in south Dorset. The coastline is of international geological importance and was designated England’s first natural World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 2001. It is also a part of the South West Coastal Path (a 630-mile hiking trail around the coastline of England’s south west peninsula). An iconic landmark, it has featured in many music videos and films - including a popular Bollywood one a couple of years ago which has resulted in drones of visitors (exclude the pun…and the reason why I now mostly stay away during the summer months). The beach also hit the headlines during the lifting of the first pandemic lockdown when it (and the local area) was inundated and trashed by tourists. This got me thinking…when we became able to travel after lockdown, why did so many people immediately head here?
Research spiritual places in Britain, and you are not likely to find Durdle Door among the list. But on this quiet mid-week day, with just a couple of other people on the beach, a spiritual dimension revealed itself to me. As I observed and asked permission, it let me in.
Wherever the lip of the land meets the sea, a mystical doorway presents itself. Attuning to the beach and the ‘touch’ of the water, the area began to literally vibrate with light. I noticed a silence I had never heard before: full, pregnant with power - a silence, implicit within the light - which reminded me of the beautiful stillness of a cemetery after a funeral. Constantly moving and ‘here’, my attention roamed: from the cloudless sky, host to the incoming energy rays; to the golden reflection of the beach; to the thundering presence of the cliffs behind me - themselves fragile to their ever present erosion to the beach below. Energies from above, behind, in front rolling and falling into this prehistoric and powerful spot on Earth.
Mostly my eyes were magnetised to the water beneath the arch: with hardly a breeze in the air, it had a voluptuousness and slowness. A depth and ease with itself. Rolling and moving; almost caressing itself. A settling sun creating a range of golden blues under the arch of the Door, the sea alive…an equal participant to the moment.
Each time I closed my eyes and reopened them, the sea become bluer and the feelings expanded and intensified. I didn’t know ‘what’ to record for the energy reading; from the dinosaurs to shipwrecks, maybe this was enough. Then, I closed my eyes and meditated. Not for long, but as I opened my eyes and softened my vision, a bright pink aura surrounding the protrusion of Durdle Door and its arch below revealed itself to me. I shook my head, it went. I closed my eyes and again, opening and softening my gaze, it appeared. Now, I couldn’t un-see it. I looked to the surrounding cliff edges and rock-sides but it was only present around Durdle Door. A vibrant soft cerise hugging the outline of its surface, mirroring the intensity of the surrounding blue sky and seas.
I have only visually seen auras a couple of times - both times in a specific woodland, not far from the coast. I sense and feel energies in people and places, visible to my inner eye, but never in this way. If I needed a sign that this was an area of spiritual importance, I had been given it. A transcendent moment of unequal beauty.
Taking my leave before the sun dropped too low, (it is a steep climb back up the cliff, and descent over to Lulworth Cove where I was parked) I reluctantly said goodbye to the noticeably ‘clean’ aura of ‘the Door’ before twilight, to the pink and rainbow colours, like oil, tumbling in the water under the arch, and to the beauty of my magical encounter. With so many visitors (now 3 million a year), a beach in constant demand and the changing seasons and patterns, future encounters with the divine at Durdle Door cannot be guaranteed. And yet…could this be a place only just awakening to its beauty? Does ‘the Door’ attract the visitors or do the visitors, in their appreciation, bring a divinity to it? Somewhere between the two, between the elements and the worlds, lies a portal - an avenue to one’s soul and spirit. This, I know for sure :)
Now back in London, I keep reflecting. My ‘spirit team’ nudge me to reflect on the light here - it also being a beautiful day of clear cold sunshine. It is harder for the light to land in the city, I feel - too much human activity which keeps it suspended, outside the bubble. My experience has shown me it’s a co-creation (maybe that’s why the yogis start the day with a sun-salutation) - we have to call in the light…connect with it. Like we might when we sit on a park bench and turn our face to it. Otherwise it is just ‘there’, hovering…an unused dynamic of potential. I reflect upon nature, how it turns to the light; how it signals to it. If we work ‘with’ the light, perhaps we could, as a society, also work more masterfully and mindfully with the shadow and dark? It is food for thought: a little more care needed with city living, a little more appreciation when it can land so powerfully.
After 25 years, Durdle Door has become an enigma to me. Maybe it was my time and we all get our time. Definitely, it was right before my eyes :)
Love Delilah
Visited: 09.01.24 + 10.01.24
If you are considering visiting Durdle Door, please bear in mind it involves a steep (slippery when wet) descent and climb back up, including steps (and a longer walk over the hill if coming from Lulworth Cove). Parking is fairly limited and there are no facilities of any kind on the beaches or the descent to them, including no toilets. Please take all rubbish home with you and leave no trace.
(see Instagram post for additional images to be posted soon)