We headed over to Golden Ball, a most magical place in a sacred landscape near Avebury and the Wansdyke, a place steeped with folklore and mythological tales going back centuries. In high summer, if you stand on the top of Golden ball hill you are very likely to see a crop circle in the wheat below you in the valley.
We arrived in the dark and drizzle, and tramped up the steep hill with some wood to make a fire for the ritual. Phil lit the fire and we sat and waited for midnight, the hour when according to Phils tradition, the old earth goddess dies and then minutes later, is reborn as a child. In the dark half of the year we nurture her as Mother Earth, planting and tending, looking after her. And then in the light half of the year, she has grown and she looks after us, until Samhain, when she is born again. As we waited silently by the warming fire in the misty drizzle, we could sense the ancestors around us, gathering in for the ritual. The air sparked with something ethereal and magic, and the firelight crackled and chased the shadows around the hilltop. At midnight as Phil conducted his ritual holding the earth mother, the clouds parted and a shower of shooting stars cascaded high over the hill in the starry midnight sky, one after the other like a blessing from the heavens. A truly magical experience.
Home again in the early hours for some sleep, because the next day was a special day…
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