The Boundary Stones

 

My journal entry (text in bold represents a truth or factual event):

Tonight I followed the northern path beneath the oaks, the gentlest and most polite quarter of the forest. The trees are ancient here, their roots deep in forgotten ages, their branches witnesses to generations long vanished.

 

I had almost reached the end of my wanderings when I came upon a row of standing stones. I counted six of them, weathered and silent, set roughly in a line. The stones varied in height, the smallest rose no higher than my knee, while the tallest stood a hand above my own head. They appeared to mark the boundary of something that could no longer be seen, some ancient division whose meaning had drifted away like mist.

 

It seemed there had once been a seventh, for at the end of the row lay a hollow in the earth, some three feet across. The soil there was dark and damp as though the wound in the ground had not long been made. Whatever had happened, the earth had not yet forgotten it.

 

I was born on the seventh day of the fifth month, and so the number seven has always carried a quiet importance for me. The old stories speak of it as a number of hidden power, appearing wherever the ordinary world brushes against the realm of wonder. In the land of my forebears, seven wanders often through the old tales. Seven sisters shine in the heavens, seven years pass beneath an enchantment, seven trials await the traveller who strays from the path. 

Looking upon these weathered sentinels, I found myself wondering what story belonged to them, and whether the missing seventh stone had once marked a threshold now forgotten.

The Truth In the Text

I was born on the seventh day of the fifth month and the number seven has always been my 'lucky' number. The land of my forebears that I am referring to here is Wales, the country where my father was born. I didn't really know him, I was conceived when my mother was quite young and their lives were not meant to be entwined. I did meet him when I was a teenager, along with his wife and my two half brothers, but the last time we spoke was over 40 years ago.

There is a group of standing stones in Wales called Cwm Irfon Standing Stones (Seven Sisters). They are situated on the moorland/hills near the village of Seven Sisters (Map Ref: SN834085) in the county of Glamorgan (I know, right). The site is explicitly recorded with the alternate name "Seven Sisters" on the Megalithic Portal.

Another interesting connection to my heritage is the legend of the Pleiades, the legendary star cluster known as "Y Saith Chwaer," or "The Seven Sisters".

The website Mid Wales My Way says: In ancient lore, these seven brilliant stars are said to be the daughters of the mighty Titan Atlas. With Atlas bound to his eternal task of holding up the sky, his daughters were transformed into stars to escape the relentless pursuit of the fearsome hunter Orion. Even now, they dance gracefully across the heavens, a glowing tribute to sisterly love and unity. Yet, whispers of an ancient tale suggest that one sister fell in love with a mortal and slipped into hiding, which is why  we only see only six stars now gleam in the night, leaving the seventh cloaked in mystery.

What a remarkable process this is becoming, the weaving of stories and truths together so tightly that the edges between them blur. 

The Make

For this one I wanted to use my Prismacolor pencils, I quite enjoy using coloured pencils on kraft paper so I sketched directly on the back of the preceding entry. I used  Google to find a few reference photos for inspiration but I have not been able to locate an image of the Seven Sisters stones in Wales, the land is now afforested and no stones are visible. More mystery I suppose, are they still there? Perhaps the entity that removed my seventh stone has also been at play? 

The journal text was done on my typewriter, torn edges inked with Pumice Stone distress ink by Tim Holtz. This was layered onto a marble pattern scrapbook paper by Kaisercraft.

The second page of journaling sits beside a pocket ready for the next entry which will feature a curious Jackdaw.