Here Comes The Sun….. Smiley Faces…. BBC Pics. Of Scotland…
by Bernie Bell - 09:13 on 09 September 2023
Here Comes The Sun…
I’ve been encouraging folk to go to see The Science Festival Sun in St. Magnus Cathedral, saying that it could be the only time they get a chance to experience such a thing….
https://oisf.org/portfolio-items/the-sun/
When the pilgrims used to come to Orkney to see the sun in Maes Howe around the shortest day that was probably seen as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity too. Maybe some folk who lived locally or in what’s now known as Scotland got the chance to go there more often but for many it will have been a one-off.
https://theorkneynews.scot/2017/12/22/the-light-in-the-mound/
I know – The Sun in St. M’s is man-made, but so is Maes Howe – the man-made structure enabled the event to happen. The people did see the actual light of the sun – they didn’t see the sun, but they saw it’s light, caught by the passageway of Maes Howe. In the St. Magnus’ Sun, we see an ‘artificial‘ light caught in the orb. All light, is light, and we are drawn to it.
The light-bulb which just came on in my head is….a similarity between folk going to see the sunlight in Maes Howe – possibly a once in lifetime experience – and folk going to St. M’s to see the Science Festival Sun – possibly another once-in-a-life-time experience.
We still have the same yearnings – to the planets, to light, to all the things which we see as being ‘other’ than us. We have a yearning toward them, but if you accept that all are one and one is all, then we are one with them………. is that why we connect?
PS
We went to St. Magnus Cathedral on the 13th of September...and saw the sun....
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Smiley Faces….
Reading Kenny Brophy’s ‘V’ Word piece…
http://www.spanglefish.com/berniesblog/blog.asp?blogid=16483
….the image of the painted Maen Llia stone, oddly enough reminded me of a carving in Fourknocks, Bru Na Boinne and some local lads reaction to it – as told of here…..
“Subject: The 'Smiley Face' at Fourknocks
You say "When Henri Breuil turned his attention to megalithic art, he saw many of the motifs as anthropomorphic representations..."
Here's another wee tale - only if you want to read it.....
You'll be well aware of the 'Smiley Face' at Fourknocks? Whether it is meant to be 'human' or not ? - I'll leave it to each person who sees it to see it as they choose.
Here's the tale........
When we went to visit Fourknocks, we got the key from Mrs. White down the road, and went along to the cairn. While we were there, some lads turned up with their football. They are local lads - have lived there all their lives - aged around, I'd say, 18. They like to come to the cairn to go on top of it and look around, and so they took us up on top of it, and pointed out which all the mountains that we could see were, and anything else of interest. It was a clear day, and we could, as the song says, see for miles and miles and miles and miles and miles. This, as you'll guess, added to our perception of the position of the cairn.
One of the lads has had a lot of trouble in his life, and likes to go there to look around him and clear his head. All part of it.
The lads had never been inside the cairn, they didn't like to ask for the key, and, in fact, doubted if Mrs. White would trust them with it! So, they came inside with us. They loved it! They loved the 'Smiley Face' - that's what they saw it as - they just loved the whole place - asking lots of questions - Why was it built? How old was it? What was it for? We answered as best we could (!), and suggested that they go to the library, and find out more about it. I tried to interest them in the carving which I think of as The Lady. They said they could see it was maybe a pregnant woman, but weren't very interested. They liked the zig-zag carvings a lot, and they liked the Smiley Face best. They took loads of pictures of it, which they were sending to their friends, explaining what it was. Mike also made some toning noises, and they very much liked that - said it was "cool" - that cover-all approval word of the young these days!
These lads were local - it's part of their 'patch', yet they'd never been inside. Also, a lot of folk would maybe have seen them as 'youths', and stayed clear or doubted them. I saw them as lads, out with their football, as lads will have been, way, way back, too, with whatever the equivalent of football was, then!
They were genuinely interested and impressed. Found it hard to believe that folk 5,000 years ago had built this structure - the usual question about how did they get the big stones, up there? and they got excited about making suggestions about how they thought that it could have been done.
I'm telling you this because, to me, that was all part of it - part of the history of that cairn - that the local kids are still interested, and admiring of it. It was a centre of attention, all those years ago - maybe on and off in different ways since, and those lads were interested, but had never been in it, even though it is part of their local 'stamping ground'.
Being with them also added to our visit - not only because they took us up on the top and pointed out what the mountains were etc, but also - being with young folk there, young folk who were interested, and for whom it's part of their life, still.
They went off into the field to play football, and we went back and posted the key through Mrs. White's door - she'd warned us she would be going out.
I had a wonderful dream about the cairn a few nights later, of people coming out of the stones, and dancing round inside the cairn, to humming music.
A really good visit, made better by the presence of this generation of inhabitants of that area.
They just loved the Smiley Face!”
Re. The Lady…
https://theorkneynews.scot/2019/07/24/when-flesh-becomes-stone/
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BBC Pics. Of Scotland…
1st – 8th of September 2023….
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-66658846
Rob Willocks isn’t the only one who sees Saltires….
https://theorkneynews.scot/2022/06/25/symbols-of-scotland/
To paraphrase a well-known anthem……
The People’s Flag
The People’s flag
Is brightest blue
Crossed by a broad
White line or two.
It stands for Scotland
Standing free
Not bound by force
Or adversity.
So raise the blue-bright
Banner high
Beneath its shade
We’ll live and die
Though cowards flinch
And traitors sneer
We’ll keep the Saltire
Flying here!
BB – 2021
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Here’s one I made earlier…. https://theorkneynews.scot/2022/02/22/the-nebra-sky-disc/
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