Loughcrew: Corvids…

County Meath, Friday, 29th July 2022…

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These birds seem somehow aligned

with the structure.

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And it is not just here.

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They hang out at Castlerigg,

and Whiteleaf Cross Barrows too,

amongst other megalithic sites.

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At Clonmacnoise it was jackdaws

on top of the round tower,

 like at Peveril Castle in Castleton,

Derbyshire, King John’s last bastion of hope

in times of crises.

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Is it coincidental that these birds

are renowned for both high intelligence

and human speech?

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There is a hypothesis

that the megalithic builders

trained them and used them for guides

to the ’cause-ways’ as sort of ‘stand-in’ hermits,

especially at the more remote sites.

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If true, it would explain a lot.

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It is hard, too, not to be minded of Odin,

who is reputed to use ravens as his eyes and ears.

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Along with other threshold figures.

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Psychopomps some would call them –

guides to the mid-life…

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leading the soul in glory!

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‘The Devil’s Arse’

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‘But Big-Boss Stud, had already put three crafty spells of magic on him,

so that Elkmar felt no hunger, and he felt no thirst,

and he saw no sun set, for the space of nine full moons,

which passage of time seemed to him but the length of one whole night,

and one whole day, during which time he and all his people,

worked at the task which Ekane had set him, and to right good effect at that!…’

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HEART OF ALBION

Stuart France & Sue Vincent

Unwittingly drawn into the mysterious and magical landscape of The Initiate, Don and Wen pondered the visual language of symbols, stumbling across revelations and realisations that would alter their perception of the age-old stories they thought they knew… tales that entwine across the tapestry of time.

A hilltop steeped in tragedy, a child whose eyes see too much… a Word-Weaver’s birth into darkness… strange forms shimmering on the edge of vision. They learned to walk the Living Land, listening to the whispers of Earth memory and the ghosts of the most ancient past. And from those tales, another line of communication opens as they explore the folklore, legends and traditional tales handed down, from heart to heart, over the millennia.

As the two friends travel between the sacred sites of Albion, they discover stories that tell how the leys were made, the true origins of the hill-forts and the reason why Father Fish had breakfast in Slug Town.

Striding across this landscape of myth are the giants. From Cerne Abbas to the top of the Beanstalk, from Camelot to the Castle of Maidens, how and why is their presence stamped on the Living Lore of the land by their seven-league boots?

Join Don and Wen as the adventure continues, un-ravelling its mysteries and the magical relationship between Albion and its people.

Available in Paperback and for Kindle

via Amazon UK, Amazon.com and worldwide.