Deaf Pagan Crossroads

It is just before sunrise on a cold December day some three thousand years before the coming of Christ. For those crouched at the heart of the mound it must seem as though light has been banished forever. Then, suddenly, a tiny sliver of sunlight strikes the stone slab at the back of the chamber. Slowly it widens, climbs upward, illuminating a number of mysterious carvings – circles and spirals, zigzag patterns. For the people crouched in the center of the great mount of Brug na Boine (also known as Newgrange) every symbol has meaning. But by far the greatest significance is the return of the sun itself. The light that enters the dark womb of the earth brings with it the promise of warmth and life to come.

John Matthews

The Winter Solstice

Throughout northern Europe one can find various sites – relics of prehistoric times – which appear to have been oriented to capture the rays of the sun at specific times of the year – most often during the solstices. The most famous of these sites is Newgrange, in County Meath, Ireland. Newgrange, also known as Dun Fhearghusa in Irish Gaelic, is the best known of the passage tombs in the Bru na Boinne complex, an internationally known complex of Neolithic chamber tombs, standing stones, henges, and prehistoric enclosures. Along with other sites in the complex, such as Knowth and Dowth, Newgrange is famous for its examples of megalithic art, including the triple spiral motif found on its magnificent entrance slab and repeated along the passage and inside the chamber itself.

However, in spite of its impressive artwork, the most significant aspect of Newgrange is its alignment with the solstice sun. During the week of the Winter Solstice, from the 19th to the 23rd of December, the passage and chamber of Newgrange are illuminated by the sunrise. A ray of sunlight shines through an ancient roofbox over the entrance of the mound (as can be seen in the picture above) and penetrates the passage to light up the chamber. This dramatic event occurs for approximately 17 minutes every morning during these days. Then the light retreats, and all is dark again.

This alignment with the sun is too precise to have occurred by chance, thus suggesting that there was something indeed something very magical and very mystical about the Winter Solstice, which exerted its power over these ancient peoples.

The celebration of Midwinter, of the demise of the old year and the birth of the new, has always held a deep fascination for humanity. Long before the coming of Christianity, people all over the world celebrated the rising of the Midwinter sun and the birth of the gods who held out to them the promise of a New Year with new hopes.

The Winter Solstice was the turning point of time and the birthday of the sun, the moment of new beginnings. All of nature was poised then to step over the border of the year. When it became the birthday of Christ, Christmas night became the hinge of the year. It commemorated the timeless moment when heaven…came into contact with earth, and each year the anniversary…re-created once again the circumstances of that first Christmas.

E.C. Krupp

Beyond the Blue Horizon