Reed Kuehn

Ancient Dawn

​

 

He gently held the smooth vellum in his trembling fingers and stared at the blood-red lettering of the invitation. It wasn’t Newgrange, but he couldn’t pass on a genuine druid solstice ceremony.

 

As instructed, he committed the directions to memory, burned the invitation, and left his phone. Swirling mists surrounded him as he drove through ancient moors, arriving late into the night at the site. He found the nearly hidden path which was illuminated by flickering candles. As if snuffed by an unseen hand, the candles extinguished with each step. Soon, the ancient henge emerged from the darkness. Torchlight shadows danced and played across the stone edifice as it emitted a calm and powerful natural energy. A shrouded figure approached and extended a cloak. He donned it and followed inside, eventually coming to the central chamber. Like sentinels, silent figures lined the walls of the circular room. The first individual guided him to the circle’s center and faced him east toward a well-polished crystal set into the wall. They knelt and raised their arms, and he mirrored their movements. A faint light crept into the chamber, herald of the glorious sunlight that soon poured through the crystal. An eternal warmth washed over his body and bonded him with the earth and heavens. Pain replaced comfort as the heat grew with the ferocity of a wildfire, welding him in place and igniting his robes. The figures chanted and bore witness to the conflagration as it consumed and silenced him.

​

​