Sacred Sites

by Tim Billbrough Introduction: Druids scattered across the globe outside of the ancient Celtic homelands often find solace and spiritual connection in ancient and sacred sites in their own locales. These sites, often tied to indigenous cultures, carry an immense historical and cultural significance. However, with this privilege of accessing...

by Jude Neeme-Samson For many years I have undertaken journeys to places that have touched my soul and spirit. When I was young in Southern Africa I walked up Mount Aux Sources, visited God’s Window and watched fish eagles on the waters of the Okavango swamp. They all remain within...

Orkney by J Scott By R. H. In October of 2007 my family and a group of friends took a two-week vacation visiting various destinations in Scotland. To save money we stayed at self catering B&Bs where we could cook simple food and keep our costs down. We rented a...

by Mirella Giuliani In Italy, in the Po Valley, a land rich in verdant fields, soft hills and waters that irrigate it, is situated the city of Lodi, which is crossed by an imposing river, theAdda. The stream divides it like a big silvery ribbon and, in a delicate way...

by Philip Carr-Gomm   Built by the strong Dagda, it was a marvel, a court, a wonder hill.~ The Book of Ballymote ~ New Grange is the largest and most impressive of several dozen prehistoric monuments found in the Boyne Valley 32 km (20 miles) northwest of Dublin in Ireland....

by Martin Samson It was the full moon before the summer solstice this morning, a good day to go and do some earth healing. I caught the train into Berlin to visit the Brandenburg Gate. Coming up from the underground station I was met with the busy noise of summer...

by Andy Norfolk What is a sacred place?According to Ronald Hutton, ‘Any place can be a sacred site if a group of people regard it as such’ (1). Of course this means there may be a sacred No. 97 bus stop somewhere. There is a web-site which lists a drive-in...

The Boyne passes in a loop around Newgrange which is the modern name for the ancient site of Brugh na Boinne, the House of the Boyne. It is one of the most remarkable megalithic monuments in the whole of Europe, being nothing less than a measuring instrument of time itself....

by Philip Carr-GommWe can never be born enough. We are human beings for whom birth is a supremely welcome mystery, the mystery of growing: the mystery which happens only and whenever we are faithful to ourselves.~ e.e.cummings Sacred places often exist in the wider context of a sacred environment that...

by Philip Carr-GommPersonally I have never felt affronted by the Cerne Giant and have no time at all for the simpering old ladies who cluck-cluck every time they pass it. The only residents I sympathize with are the elderly males or tired Dorchester business men who are constantly reminded by...

by Joan Letchford, daughter of George William Smith, Chosen Chief of the Ancient Druid Order 1946-54 ~ Foreword These are the memories of our mother Joan born 7 March 1923, died 2 November 2011. In her last months, she was delighted to find her memories were of interest outside the...

by Marilyn Head ~ The “ravaged colossus” of Stonehenge, with its monumental circle of standing stones, attracts thousands of visitors a year to the tiny town of Amesbury in England. Now New Zealand is about to get its own Pacific version – Stonehenge Aotearoa – scheduled to open next month....

by Philip Carr-Gomm ~ The Salisbury Plain Training Area has, even for those of us living in Wiltshire, a little of the mystique that the Dark Continent once had for the Victorians: largely unknown, dangerous, but full of interest and known to have concealed within it ancient ruins and traces...

Summer Solstice, 21 June 2000 ~ by Emma Restall Orr ~ Over the few weeks before the Summer Solstice, I was asked a thousand times what I was expecting to happen on 21 June at Stonehenge, whether I was looking forward to it, whether I would be there at all,...

by Paul Nettle ~ St Catherine’s Hill was a centre of human settlement around 3000 years ago, long before the founding of Winchester. An iron-age fort was constructed here in the 3rd century BC, and a Celtic oppidum within it. However, some time around 100 BCE it was occupied by...

Personal thoughts concerning modern-day Druidic and Pagan theologies of burial, life after life and the conflicting practices of archaeologists. by Blackbird ~ There are many different realities in the worlds of philosophy, religion and science, and my perception concerning the reburial issue is Druidic, and concerns esoteric concepts of time...

by Mara Freeman ~ It is an extraordinary thing to consider that there are still literally thousands of holy wells in the British Isles. Most of these are natural springs; some open pools like St.Madron’s, while others are contained by a stone edifice, often covered. The majority, however,are in ruins,...

by Ricardo Campos ~  There are many, many Pagan monuments in Portugal that will appeal to the traveller in search of sacred spaces. This short article will introduce you to a very small number among hundreds of beautiful pre-Christian sites in my country. I hope someday you may come to...

by Philip Carr-Gomm If you feel the call of Iona, then answer that call and make the journey to her. She is like a very old Crone, rocky and barren and eternally loving and gentle and tough and wise. She is very old. She is very holy. There is no...

by Fiona Macleod ~ A few places in the world are to be held holy, because of the love which consecrates them and the faith which enshrines them. Their names are themselves talismans of spiritual beauty. One of these is Iona. The Arabs speak of Mecca as a holy place...

by John Attwood – The Rollright Appeal ~ PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE On October 1st Karin-Ann and I were handfasted under the perfectly clear and starlit skies of a New Moon night at the Rollrights. It was a year and a day since our civil wedding and, as we made...

by Michael Maxwell Steer ~ What is beyond us? What is it that we reach out to? What is it that sometimes rewards us with a blast of oxygen in a smog-filled world? Bigger than all these questions: why has consciousness evolved in humans to be so blind, destructive and...

by Philip Carr-Gomm ~ There is on the confines of western Britain a certain royal island, called in the ancient speech Glastonia, marked out by broad boundaries, girt round with waters rich in fish and with still-flowing rivers, fitted for many uses of human indigence, and dedicated to the most...