Winter Solstice MMVIII

I'm writing this as the darkness falls on the shortest day of the year, another solstice, one year ending and another beginning. This is the third year in a row that I have been to Avebury for the Solstice, rising at five in the morning to drive the forty-odd miles towards the Marlborough Downs for that strange informal semi-religious ceremony of welcoming the sunrise.

They reckon the circle is older than the Pyramids, and it's still impressive in spite of all the stone breaking and theft that has taken place over the centuries. Perhaps this makes the Solstice ceremony held here the oldest in the world: I don't know. If so, it's important to maintain the tradition. This year there were about eighty people in the circle and scattered around the stones. That's quite an increase over recent years, perhaps because it's a weekend and it's easier for people to get here. Terry the Druid lead the ceremony as he has for forty years, with his mix of enthusiasm, amateurism and humour. He's not imposing or ascetic but a typical round rubicund Briton, long-haired, bearded, pot-bellied and jolly. This year he passed a horn of mead around the circle for us all to drink from, saving the leftovers for the earth at the centre of the Stones.




It was a cool cloudy morning today, so after arriving Moonface and I decided to walk along the Avenue extending south from Avebury, and were rewarded by watching the daybreak colours change from dark through many shades of grey to speckles of pewter, fresh lead, silver and light. A falcon cut low through the air as we walked toward the dawn.

I'm looking forward to 2009.


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