‘Ch… Ch… Changes’…

Posted on November 11, 2022 by Stuart France

County Meath, Saturday, 30th July 2022…

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The entrance stone of New Grange.

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…It is easy to say, certainly,

but less easy to say what

is, in fact, happening with such changes in form.

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New Grange Gnomon-Stone.

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Rudolf Steiner talked a lot about

changes in the nature of consciousness over the ages

and this has more than a mere ring of truth to it.

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New Grange Gnomon-Stone.

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It is linked to the ‘bear-shirt’

which gives us, berserkers, and also

to the were-wolf as well!

*

In the Scandinavian folk record

such ‘shape-shifting’ abilities

are linked to certain royal bloodlines.

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New Grange Gnomon-Stone.

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It may also have something to do with

animal totems and clans?

*

It may even have something

to do with the stars?…

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Bend it like the Boyne…

Posted on November 10, 2022 by Stuart France

County Meath, Saturday, 30th July 2022…

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The Whispering Spring

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“What did they say,

oh, what did they say?”

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They said, “knowing these people,

it would not be beyond the bounds of possibility

that the ‘Bend in the Boyne’ was manufactured.”

*

‘Manufactured’ is the correct word

even though it now has a modern,

rather hollow ring to it.

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What is so appealing about the Irish myths

is that they put things very simply…

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Loughcrew: Metempsychosis…

Posted on November 9, 2022 by Stuart France

County Meath, Friday, 29th July 2022…

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‘Cairn of the Cailleach’ and its satellites

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The apron or skirt-full of stones motif

is associated with these sorts of sites in Ireland,

England, Wales and Cornwall.

*

It is usually an old hag or a giant’s wife

and often these things are synonymous.

*

At any rate the ‘stone-dropper’ needs to be huge,

if not gigantic, and also needs to be capable

of, as Swift puts it, prodigious leaps!

*

Mister Swift certainly seems to have known

more than a thing or two

 with his Lilliputians and all.

*

Didn’t they make

our gullible Gulliver a giant?…

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Loughcrew: Corvids…

Posted on November 8, 2022 by Stuart France

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.

*

They hang out at Castlerigg

and Whiteleaf Cross Barrows too,

amongst other megalithic sites…

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Loughcrew: Moots…

Posted on November 7, 2022 by Stuart France

County Meath, Friday, 29th July 2022…

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Some of these gatherings of stone

seem distinctly gravid.

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Some of them much less so.

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It has something to do with perspective.

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The top of the morning?

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Some of the art moves

beyond symbol

and into mosaic.

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Some of it appears positively sexual…

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Loughcrew: Concentrics…

Posted on November 6, 2022 by Stuart France

County Meath, Friday, 29th July 2022…

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***

Stones on the interior of a barrow

displaying art suggests that such barrows

were intended at some juncture to capture the light.

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***

Such stones

at the Loughcrew complex

are legion.

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***

Not only were the solstices and equinoxes

tracked but the cross-quarter days,

the moon rises, and sets,

and most impressive of all, some star-paths too…

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Loughcrew…

Posted on November 5, 2022 by Stuart France

County Meath, Friday, 29th July 2022…

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The conception merely glimpsed

in the lowlands of Carrowmore

is here, finally, made manifest.

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And what a conception!

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It is wrapped about

with something of the awe

which Watkins must have felt

when the lightning flash

of the Old Straight Track

was graced to him…

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Feichin at Fore…

Posted on November 4, 2022 by Stuart France

County Westmeath, Friday, 29th July 2022…

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That is St Feichin to you!

*

Some of the Irish saints

are less holy men

and more your itinerant geomancers,

which some might argue is equally holy

but in a different way.

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Although, this seems

not to be the case here.

*

There is no round tower, either,

which is usually the sign

of something much more ancient…

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‘Yellow Meadow’…

Posted on November 3, 2022 by Stuart France

County Roscommon, Friday, 29th July 2022…

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A bonus dolmen,

courtesy of our ‘special guest guide’

by way of, ‘The Tribe’…

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‘Meehambee Dolmen’

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And a little beauty to boot!

*

If little be appropriate for stones of such size…

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And Drift…

Posted on November 2, 2022 by Stuart France

County Westmeath, Thursday, 28th July 2022…

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‘Place of the ford of Luan’

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Athlone on the Shannon.

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It did not always look like this!

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For one thing,

it used to be a lot greyer.

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But gradually, along with the boats,

colour started to seep into the area.

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If only, for a long time,

a sort of mucky brown.

*

Athlone castle is already present in this picture,

and probably had been for quite some time.

*

It is just visible on the left.

*

At some point a garrison was stationed there,

whose efforts, so the story goes,

finally brought to an end the endeavours at Clonmacnois,

and it would still not be inappropriate to regard the building as a fort,

and a very formidable looking fort at that.

*

However, it is now a museum and there were rumours

that a couple of Sheela-na-Gigs are now housed there.

*

Or at least, they once were,

the tourist guide made no mention of them,

and instead extolled the virtues of the very latest

interactive experience…

*

The museum, though, for all its hype,

still has the air of the sort of place

that once entered might be very difficult to exit.

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*

Apart from the foreboding cast

of the new museum

Athlone, is a very pleasant,

and suitable hole-up in which

to enjoy a well earned rest-day…

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