In Vision Begins

In Vision Begins
After leaving Massive Attack to rescue family members from the fallout of addiction, knowing they’d meet a very sticky end if I didn’t, I spent a crazy eventful summer in orange groves in Portugal to recover and re-gather myself. Here I fell in love with the father of my daughter whilst helping Angel through acute psychosis, (not that cute close up) and not that much of a rest. Upon my return I found London too exhausting, fuelled by resentment for my messy family I moved to Nottingham to work with Charles Webster, where I’d started my career with Time recordings. We embarked on project Lo Rise and sadly much of our work wasn’t released though we toured extensively to promote his Presence albums. The Irish loved us and us them, we spent the summer gigging Irish festivals and soaking up the culture. In my usual fashion I befriended lovely locals for a deeper experience.
We became good friends with one of our fans, Neve, a kindred spirit with deep Irish roots. To her delight we’d never heard of Newgrange, Dowth, Knowth and the Hill of Tara. An unforgettable experience ensued.
On a rainy grey day we drove from Dublin to the Boyne Valley in County Meath to visit the jewel in the crown of Irelands ancient East with no idea what to expect. Tunes blasting out of the car stereo, Neve and enthusiastic friends were excitedly banging on about how awesome it was to have a monument older than Stonehenge and the pyramids on their doorstep. The sun came out just as we arrived on site shining down on the enormous quartz walls of Newgrange. It had instant overwhelming presence giving me an eerie feeling. The car fell silent at last.
A circular grassy mound 76 metres across covers an acre of ground, shining quartz stonewalls rise out of the earth with a quiet majesty. Magic in the air and mushrooms in our pockets we parked up and began exploring. 200,000 tonnes of beautifully and ceremoniously organized stone lay before us. People dedicated at least 30 years of their lives to building Newgrange, how the vast stones were moved remains a marvel and a mystery. To my surprise few friends have heard of it. Here we have the oldest buildings in the world on our British Isles, equally as magnificent and awe inspiring as the pyramids and Stonehenge.
“The stones of time”
“The bend in the river Boyne encloses a picturesque area dominated by three large stone structures, megalithic mounds and named Newgrange, Knowth and Dowth. These are strategically positioned on ridges, appearing above a landscape dotted with smaller mounds, earthworks and standing stones” http://www.boynevalleytours.com/knowth.htm
I stooped low to enter the 19 metre passage, which opens to a central chamber with three 'chambers' in the walls at intervals corresponding to north, west, and south. Cunning engineers and master astronomers designed and assembled this vast structure, still standing intact over five millennia.
The long passage within the mound at Newgrange admits a narrow beam of light illuminating the central chamber at midwinter. The light makes its appearance every year in spectacular fashion through a small “roof box”. We sat inside for a simulation, a bright torch shone in, slowly lighting up the whole chamber floor, breath taking. A lottery is held every year to actually be in the chamber at solstice to witness this genius of alignment.
New theories suggest the ancient stone builders were advanced astronomers able to arrange sacred sites in straight lines across vast distances, tracking vast periods of time, bringing the sky down on to the ground in a grand astronomical scheme.
I became obsessed with “Pi In The Sky” for quite some time, aware of a 'cosmic grid' of aligned ancient sites. The level on which ancient people worked is far more advanced than we think. Have we have lost as much knowledge as we have gained? “What has become clear is that the astronomers who built the Boyne monuments used a complicated calendar based not only on the sun, but on the moon, planets and stars also”, says Mr Murphy in his book “Island of the Setting Sun”.
From here we ventured to the Hill Of Tara located at the centre of an extraordinary alignment of ancient sites, its location is part of a huge astronomical blueprint set down in the Stone Age. We lay at the top of the hill looking down on the colourful wishing tree full of wish ribbons absorbing the cosmic atmosphere. Three girls were there, giggling and high on the days’ events, we all hugged the Stone Of Tara, a phallic standing stone and an ancient fertility symbol possessing mystical powers! Within a year the three of us were pregnant! It was an unforgettable mind expanding trip, my favourite kind of adventure.