Navigating Newgrange: Lessons from the Ancient Past

Imagine navigating the lush Irish countryside, stepping into a monument older than the pyramids, and feeling a deep connection to the past. This episode not only captures the awe-inspiring wonder of Newgrange but also compels you to reflect on your own beliefs and where you place your hope for life after death. Whether it's material wealth, personal pleasure, or even nihilism, we all worship something. Tune in to explore these timeless questions and find out what the builders of Newgrange might be teaching us about our innate desire to connect with something greater than ourselves.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Here for the memories thought-provoking audio memoir shorts filled with stories, humor, anecdotes and commentary on social, cultural, business and religious issues. Whatever Lyndon remembers and thinks will entertain, challenge and inform is a possible subject. The collection of memories about one's life allows for the development and refinement of a sense of self, including who one is, how one has changed and what one might be like in the future.

Speaker 2: 0:34

Greetings and salutations. I'm Lyndon Wolfe and welcome to here. For the Memories, I do hope all is well with you. Today we are going to talk about something very old, even older than me, if you can fathom that. Have you ever heard of Newgrange in Ireland? Well, I hadn't until a couple of months ago, but a recent trip to Ireland exposed me to the fascination that is Newgrange. Venturing from our fisherman's cottage near the Irish Sea in the health district of Dublin, we traveled about 40 miles north. Let me say I'm thankful for my wife driving on the left side which to me is the wrong side of the road through the narrow, winding back roads of Ireland to get us to not only this destination but several others. In the pastoral scenery you often associate with the Emerald Island, among sheep and goat farms, lies Newgrange. If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, I would have thought it to be a myth, and it is almost as old as myth itself. Here is an overview from Newgrangecom.

Speaker 2: 1:48

Newgrange is one of the finest examples, not only in Ireland but in Western Europe, of the type of tomb known as a passage grave. Its probable date of erection that 3000 BC. It belongs to a time when stone, not metal was the everyday material for tools and weapons. No metal has yet been found in a primary context in an Irish passage grave. The tomb consists, as the name passage grave implies, of a passage in the chamber, the walls and roof of which are built with large slabs without mortar. That's amazing, my comment. A large circular mound, or cairn, of stones covers the tomb and a curb of massive slabs laid on their long edges ends touching surrounds the base of the cairn and was intended to act as a retaining feature. Surrounding the mound, but situated 7 to 17 meters outside of it, was a circle of tall, widely spaced standing stones. Now I actually entered one of these passage graves, the one that I entered. Over 5,000 years since its erection still did not leak in rainy Ireland, despite not having any mortar between the building stones. Truly mind-blowing. Some of the stones were brought in from as much as 30 miles away. Try to figure out how they did that 5,000 years ago. And it took an estimated 80 years to complete.

Speaker 2: 3:27

But beyond the otherworldly nature of the structure of the mound itself was its otherworldly purpose. The outside of the passage tomb was adorned with stones carved with circular images of the sun which they worshipped. They secured the interred remains of high-ranking members of the tribe. They were housed there in preparation for their possible transition to the afterlife. So here's what I find so remarkable these primitive souls believed in the soul and worshipped something that was a soul sustainer. And, even more remarkable, they had no clear religion or scripture to base their beliefs on.

Speaker 2: 4:08

You could in no way explain Newgrange by saying it was a cultural phenomenon. So why would they worship something superior and believe in the prospects of an existence beyond this life? Their conscience, of course. They were wired that way, and all humans are. It's innate to believe in such things. It is abnormal not to. The Newgrange tribe was instinctively but unknowingly sending us a message, a message without the provocation of religion or religious texts, that with no other stimulus than their own instincts, that there is something vastly bigger than us worthy of worship and a life beyond the grave.

Speaker 2: 4:55

So what do you worship? Invariably it is something or someone. It may even be yourself, or pleasure, or material possessions. Strangely, it could be that you have made a god of worshiping nothing at all. Anyways, we all long for something far better than the now, and we all worship something or someone bigger than us. Where have you put your hope with the possibility of life after death? Do you long for an existence similar to what some call heaven? Peruse your memories and see if you can find a time and place where your belief system, relief system, created in you a peaceful spirit. I know mine has. I'm Lyndon Wolfe and you've been listening to Hear for the Memories. Thanks for stopping by and listening for a spell. Visit again soon, and often I am telling the truth. Thank you, thank you, you.