Being close to a sacred place at a time of year that is also considered sacred (the Autumn Equinox) was too wonderful an opportunity to pass up. So we made our way to Loughcrew, in County Meath, Ireland intending to be there to see the sun rise. The passage tomb was aligned in such a way that the rising sun at (and around) the Autumn Equinox would enter the tomb.
Being at Loughcrew in daytime is pretty special but being there in the dark and (as it turned out) fog was something else. The eeriness of pre-dawn fog and anticipation for the sun to rise combined with a place that pulsed from centuries of sacred connection transformed Loughcrew into a gateway from this realm to somewhere else.
We didn’t get to see the sun rise as the fog failed to lift, despite our pleas to the elements. But we were able to do something else pretty special, and that was to spend some time inside the tomb with flashlights. Inside, in the darkness, with the thick smell of earth and constant presence of stone cramping our movements, there was a stillness. A reminder that this was a tomb; a sacred place where ancestors traveled to the realm of the dead and a doorway for those remaining here to visit, remember, and reconnect with them.
Green and Grey 