The site is home to a centre for personal and spiritual development which attracts people from around the world. Several years ago a visiting Meti Cherokee shaman told me that there was a hidden chamber attached to the fogou and that it was time to open it. This was interesting because several old accounts also indicate that there may be Hidden Chambers
The shaman said that during the search for the chamber we should allow no photographs in the fogou until the excavation is finished.
'When the ancestors want us to take advantage of power spots, they sing power songs,' he said. 'Photos can interfere with this - it fixes the energy. Many spirits work with the excavators. If they don't want it done, the excavators will die.'
This made sense to me. Before I came, the site had developed the reputation for a having a curse on it because the original owners had demolished most of it to build a house. Any further interference would need to be respectful, because disturbing the site can have some odd consequences.
As the site is protected by law, it is not possible to excavate inside it. So where would I start? An archaeologist told me I needed access to sub-surface scanning equipment. But where would I find such equipment, even if I could afford to it?
Although the feeling that something wanted to be revealed stayed with me, I let the matter rest...
Recalling the shaman's words about opening up concealed parts of the fogou, I had offered a four-day workshop in CAER's Programme called 'Hidden Chambers'. I felt this would be a good way to gather people to help me with the task, and would also attract people to the centre. But there are not enough takers and I have to cancel. I feel despondent.
A wind gusts and swirls around the trees, chilling me. I am ushered through the entrance. The guardians of the fogou seem welcoming. I tell them my troubles and they listen.
The candle at the far end of the passage sputters. It looks as if it will go out. I think that this is probably a sign that I'm going to have to go too. Then the candle pulses into life and glows steadily. It does this several times.
A voice urges me to write, to continue with a book, started twelve years previously. One of the guardians insists I complete it 'this month'. It is the 25th. That's absurd. It only gives me five days.
'One month to the next full moon', comes the reply.
That gives me three weeks. I start writing.
Whilst writing, I get a telephone call from someone who visited earlier in the summer curious about the 'Hidden Chambers' workshop. He is a TV producer from 'Time Team', an archaeological program on Channel Four, and he wants to do a piece on the fogou. 'Time Team' uses Geophysics, Ground Probing Radar and computers linked to satellites, which produce detailed images of what lies underground. He says they want to map the site and explore the possibility of a hidden chamber. I could never have imagined that the fogou might one day be explored through the medium of Virtual Reality.
We fix dates for filming.
And so, in mid-March, this remote site near Lands End will be exposed to a forty strong team consisting of TV crew, archaeologists, researchers, computer operators and presenters, nine satellites, Ground Probing Radar, a sixty foot crane, a mechanical digger and a helicopter. Hidden chambers won't stand a chance.
Inside the damp, slabbed, granite passage lie secrets waiting to be tapped. Listen and the fogou stirs ancient memories, forgotten dreams.
'You want my secrets,' she says, 'you want to find more of me? You want the ancient songs of knowledge encoded in my stones? There is a need in this time for people to come close to their source in the land and in their hearts. And so I will reveal myself to those who would see. Yet listen, not to me, but to yourselves.'
Watch this space...
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