(A description of The Winter Solstice at Stonehenge 2015)
The Busker
In the Tube Station
Played
Here Comes The Sun
As we headed West…
We drove through
The trafficless night
As if down a waterslide
And joined the pilgrims
Walking to The Stones…
The wind blew wild
A bagpipe droned gently
A Bodhran played the march
As We arrived at The Drove
Marked by a mile
Of painted Buses and Caravans…
We were in the black field
Moving to The Henge
Its epic Trilithons suddenly
Visible in silhouette
And in the dim pre-dawn
Druids Witches and Pagans
Are suddenly all around
We join the throng
In the great circle
And sing a note
Together to bind us all…
The Arch Druid Rollo
Addresses
The Mother Goddess
Nature herself
In all her magnificent
Invention
And thanks her
For her glorious gifts
To be renewed
Now as the light
Dissolves night behind
The dome of cloud
And the splendour
Of the gathered Pagans
In their techni-coloured
Cloaks and gowns
And Shamanic robes
And antlered crowns
And swords and staffs
And flowing hair
And crystal beads
Are revealed…
We thank the Sun
For being reborn
We ask for peace
In the North and East
And South and West
For peace everywhere
(Especially in Syria this year) …
The Choir strikes up
And sings simple groovy
Secular hymns
And everyone joins in
Unabashed in choric joy…
The drums are beating
Outside The Stones
And the Skin-Headed
Whirling Dervish
Druidess in full robes
Dances us into
A celebratory trance
We dance with her
Together as the drums’
Poly-rhythms hypnotise
Us into ecstatic gratitude…
At every Stone Witches
And Wizards and Shamans
Hold court to the curious
At the Heel Stone
King Arthur – victor
Of battles in court
For Druid access to
The Stones and battles
On the land
To save Albion’s trees –
Communes
With his merry Warband…
Musicians are mingling
Everywhere
Dancers dance
Children play
Everyone does
As they please
With no bowdlerised
Book or Liturgy
To control what they
Think do or say…
Winter is begun
But Nature has
Shown the Light
Of the Sun will return
For another year
To renew life
On this blessed earth…
The thousands here
At the Solstice
In the great old temple
Of Stonehenge
Are smiling like
Winter sunflowers
Swaying merrily
And turning together
To the light of the reborn Sun.
Roddy McDevitt
Illustration Nick Victor