Sacred Stone, Sacred Water

Préface
Introduction The predawn Equinox morning was dark and crisp as we began to climb the hill of Loughcrew, also known for its ancient name, Slieve na Calleagh, or Hill of the Old Woman. Our twenty-minute climb began in twilight; we could see stars in the dark Irish sky. Still, as we walked, we were at the cusp of time. The sky seemed so large I thought of sailors on the high seas. As we crested the hill, the night had turned cobalt blueotherworldly and clear. A few stars still shone. We were wrapped in gloves, hats, scarves and heavy coats. Some of us had a thermos of hot tea, or something stronger, in our backpacks. Before us now was the sacred mound of Loughcrew: an apparent dusky pile of stones. Back in the day, 5,000 years ago, it had been a dazzling mound of white quartz and massive granite megalithic stones, set together to make an inner chamber large enough to hold a dozen people. Inside, twice a year on the Equinoxes, the rising sun precisely enters the mound and illuminates beautiful, ancient carved stones inside. That is, if the sky is clear. Which is never taken for granted in rainy Ireland. I'd climbed Loughcrew on Equinox dawn before only to be met by grey overcast skies. Still, that morning, the signs were good. We stood in a line with about 200 people; there was a hushed awe as the sky turned pink, then rosy salmon, too bright for words, and the orange sun peaked the hill and touched our faces. It is not exaggeration to say that every single human on that hill was beautiful. Our longtime friend and guide, Ger Clarke, and our equally loved driver, Trevor Mitchell, had climbed up with us, all of us with wide-open faces of wonder. We were on a journey to discover something found in only a very few places on the planet: an alignment of sun and stone planned 5,000 years ago. In this book, you will see that the solar alignment occurred, and we were there to witness it. You will see the poetry and writing that unfolded, and images of an unrepeatable moment. You will journey with us to that place and to many others, as we explored the incredible Boyne Valley, the unrivaled landscapes of the Beara Peninsula in the south, and the devotional places of the goddess/saint Brigit in Kildare. Ours was an intimate journey, and this is an intimate book. Journey with us, and we will show you what we saw. We used poetry, story, essay. We used the lens of our cameras. We used pen and ink, paintbrush and lithograph. What emerges is a vision of Ireland not often seen. Most of us have photographs in the book, but deep admiration and thanks go to Janis O'Driscoll and Suzanne Dempsey, whose images grace many of these pages. It was watching the two of them with their cameras, holding still for the shot, that gave me the idea, before I'd even seen a photo, that we had seriously good work in the making. I offer deep gratitude in particular to Janis O'Driscoll, artist, photographer, lithographer, whose book design elevated these works into pure vision. Yet even before I thought about images or a book, I was hearing the writing. Every day, we gathered to write in order to bear witness to all that we were seeing as we journeyed through Ireland. The group of eminent women traveling with me in September 2016 were published writers and artists, healers and medical doctors, singers and musicians, teachers and political organizers, engineers and social workers, and leaders in women's international activism. The writing that emerged was lush, profound, raw. Ireland had opened all of us up, and we took up her invitation. Personal, mythic, magical, heartbreaking, triumphant. We were there. And it was radiant. Come, join us. Carolyn Brigit Flynn

Auteur
Carolyn Brigit Flynn is a writer and teacher dedicated to language as a pathway to soul and spirit. Her poetry collection Communion: In Praise of the Sacred Earth was published by White Cloud Press in April 2014. She is the editor of Sisters Singing: Blessings, Prayers, Art, Songs, Poetry and Sacred Stories by Women, and The New Story: Creation Myths for Our Times. Her poems and essays have appeared in literary journals and anthologies nationwide, including Calyx: A Journal of Art and Literature by Women, The Pedestal Magazine, Porter Gulch Review, Monterey Poetry Review, Dark Matter: Women Witnessing, the Santa Cruz Sentinel, Phren-Z, Black Buzzard Review, Intimate Kisses: The Poetry of Sexual Pleasure, Inside Grief: Death, Loss and Bereavement and New to North America. Carolyn is a popular writing teacher in Santa Cruz, CA, providing a powerful container for writers to generate new work, and to edit and complete their writing for a broad audience. Many years ago, she discovered a profound affiliation with the ancient places of Ireland, and she periodically brings groups of writers and artists there. She received her B.A. from George Washington University and her M.A. from UCLA. She studied the craft and soul of writing with poet and novelist Deena Metzger. She lives in Santa Cruz, CA.

Texte du rabat

SACRED STONE, SACRED WATER is an elegant and intimate collection of writing, art, and photography evoking Ireland's wild beauty and deep soul through the work of 14 American women writers and artists at some of the island's most eminent sacred sites. Their journey produced exquisite poetry, photographs, drawings, and essays from visits to three renowned parts of Ireland. They explored world-famous Newgrange and ancient monastic sites in the Boyne Valley, and experienced the rising sun enter the 5,000-year-old passage mound at Lough Crew. In the scenic southwest, they traveled the world-renowned Healy Pass and the Ring of Beara, and were immersed in the exquisite Irish landscape through sun, wind, rain, rainbows, mists. They completed their journey with an immersion of the spiritual legacy of the goddess/saint Brigit, at her ancient monastic site, sacred wells, and Solas Bhride in Kildare.
The contributors include award-winning writers, poets, photographers and artists, with backgrounds as medical doctors, healers, psychotherapists, musicians, shamans, teachers, social workers, and international women's activists. They include: Carolyn Brigit Flynn, Janis O'Driscoll, Nora Jamieson, Linda Serrato, June BlueSpruce, Judy Tsafrir, Anne Fitzgerald, Jean Mahoney, Jennifer Comeau, Suzanne Daub, Sandy Dempsey, Sarojani Rohan, Jessice Webb, and Ursi Barshi. Contributors are from California, Washington, Oregon, Maine, Pennsylvania, Connecticut and Massachusetts.

Échantillon de lecture
Autumn Equinox at Slieve na Cailli Sandy was the first of our group to emerge from the passage mound, bowing down under the low stone doorway, face glowing, lit by the sun rising in an almost cloudless sky. Illuminated, like the intricately carved stone at the back of the mound's inner chamberwhich lies in shadow except two hours at sunrise a few days a year, when light and dark balance exactly. Sixteen of us hiked slowly up the steep hill through sheep pasture in near dark, some leaning on aluminum poles in place of ancient wooden staffs. We carried offerings of stones, tobacco, cedar. Hearts beating fast, we sought an opening, Earth's womb, creation's mystery. One by one we passed through the gate, then circled the mound step by step sunwise. In dim light, we glimpsed lichen-covered kerbstones of the mound, then faced east toward a slice of lightening sky. Below, low spots in the undulating green landscape filled with white mist, like the shallows of a great sea. Mist, too, is a doorway, a threshold; in the mist shapes shift, reveal magic. As the orange arc of sun rose above eastern hills, the sound of drums, ram's horn, pennywhistle and rattles reverberated against stone, vibrating our bones. Strains of the Great Song entered the mound, the body of the goddess, fierce grandmother An Cailleach, for whom this hill is named. The first slanted rays of the sun reached in …