Today is the Winter Solstice, or as they said on NPR this morning, “a fancy way of saying that it’s really dark”. Our spinning blue globe is now at the farthest point away from the life giving Sun that it will reach on its travels. If there was a day when the Earth would go hurtling out of orbit and flinging a million miles per hour into the cold, dark reaches of space, plunging our planet into a darkness so cold that it makes Nuclear Winter look like a Summer day in Arizona, today would be that day.
But that, quite thankfully, is not going to happen. I know this with a realatively HUGE degree of certainty because this island Earth has been floating in the seas of our region of space for a very very long time, and man has been observing its cycles as constant since the dawn of his age. In fact, for over six thousand years, humans all over the world have actively worshipped on this particular day as a day of extreme holiness. After all, in a culture centered around agriculture, no other source of power and magick could ever replace the Sun, and the Winter Solstice is the pivotal day when you hope and pray that that Source comes back in the Spring. It must come back. To this end, sacrifices were made, chants were recited, and temples and monuments were built.
This previous Summer, while on our honeymoon tavels in the wonderful nation of Ireland, Jill and I had the opportunity to be a part of that; to actually go inside of one of the greatest monuments to the magick of the Winter Solstice that has ever been constructed by man. I am talking about the ancient passage-tomb of Newgrange. This is one of the finest examples of a tomb of it’s type (actually a “cairn”) anywhere in the world, and amazingly, this tomb has not only stayed almost completely intaact, but not leaked any water, in its staggering 5,000+ year lifespan (this makes it 1,000 years older than Stonehenge, and 1,300 years older than the Great Pyramid at Giza, Egypt). One of the many things that makes Newgrange so significant, though, is its precise (even still, after 5,000 years!) astronomical alignment with the Winter Solstice sunrise.
It is on that magickal morning that the sun’s rays enter a special box above the entrance to the passage (dubbed a “roofbox” by Professor Michael O’ Kelly when he excavated the temple) and reflects up the curved passage, travelling until it Illluminates the central room for a maximum of 17 minutes (weather permitting) before receeding back down the passage. Having witnessed a demonstration of this (with artificial light.. the curators of the Bru Na Boyne museum complex hold a lottery to see which lucky 15 people get to witness the real thing), I can say that it is one of the most magickal events I have ever experienced. To the Neolithic Shamans that no doubt oversaw the building of this great temple, and subsequently worshipped there, this must have been the gateway to pure Gnosis (unity of the Self with the Divine) in a sense that is incomparable anywhere else I am aware of.
The Bru Na Boyne valley, and Newgrange in particular, has been said to be the most “Paranormal”-ly active spot in Ireland, with more reported UFO and Ghost sightings in and around this area than anywhere else in that extremely paranormal land. One only has to spend a few minutes looking into the details of the area to see why. Here are a few sites to start with:
The Wikipedia entry on Newgrange
101 Facts About Newgrange
Newgrange, tombs in Co. Meath
*Our photos from the day we visited Newgrange
Specifically check out the 101 Facts About Newgrange page as it is loaded with interesting information about the site.
I spend so long talking about Newgrange not only because it is one of the most amazing places I have ever been, but because it directly, physically (literally “set in stone”) illustrates the magick and importance of the Winter Solstice day/night. It is easy for us in our modern conveniences and constant artificial light to forget the magick of the cycles of the seasons, and that today is “the day the sun goes away”. I don’t know about you, but I pray to the Gods that it comes back…
Have a Happy and Blessed Solstice
