As the darkest of nights draws ever closer and the hours of darkness deepen. We can take comfort that the night is no empty space, the heavens open up for us and at this time of year our ancestors in the Bronze Age would have seen a great river of stars, now known as the Milky Way, arching across the sky above them. The Milky Way has long been both a boundary and a bridge. Across cultures its silvery light holds a shadow of darkness, imagined as a pathway for the dead or a dividing line between lovers. In prehistory it was likely seen as a place of wonder and story, perhaps a path trodden by gods and giants.
Perhaps those who carefully set stones as a link between the circles at the Hurlers in Cornwall, or on the ground next to the towering monoliths of Dartmoor’s Piles Hill, sought to mirror the heavens upon the earth. In doing so, they brought the stories of the stars within human grasp, creating an opportunity for transcendence by reaching out to touch the world beyond.
In Wales, the children of Dôn knew the Milky Way as Caer Gwydion, the castle of the trickster who strides across the firmament in pursuit of his elusive wife. And in that lost sky we may find the shadow of his companion, Bran the Blessed, raven-king of night. His presence remains in the Cornish hills at Mȇn Scryfa, a solitary menhir inscribed with memory of a royal raven, and at Caer Bran, the hillfort that bears his name. I like to think these are more than places of earth and stone, but gateways, places we may stand and look upward and perhaps trace the crow’s path along the starry river.
The dark skies, once alive with ancestral stories, are no longer what they were; they have been dimmed by our lights. Where once every soul knew the sweep of stars, now only a few of us get to glimpse the Milky Way. True darkness has grown rare. Yet we are fortunate in Cornwall, where it can still be found arching across the sky. To stand at Caer Bran or Mȇn Scryfa on a clear, moonless night and watch the Milky Way blaze forth is to walk another time perhaps beside the raven.

Happy winter holidays all