The Making of an Irish River Goddess
The curtains in the morning don’t block the glare of the sun on the River Boyne. It comes flashing in my bedroom, dust and bird shit illuminated on the glass. The room looks dusty and hazy for a moment, as if I’ve been transported back in 1904 when the river’s mills were working and pumped Boyne’s waters. I had been drawn here, to work as an au pair next to the river. I knew not why. Just that Ireland always felt like a land of living magic, an emerald place defying explanation, and the Boyne Valley felt like its mystical epicenter.
In Ireland rivers are always considered feminine, their serpentine energy like the feminine creative flow. Boyne River is personified by the Irish goddess Boann, who created the river we know today. Her name comes from Bouvinda. Bou, meaning cow, and Vinda, meaning whiteness, brightness, wisdom.
The Boyne moves through time and space, stitching Eire together through topography and mythology. She orients herself on the map haphazardly, flowing in bends and eddies. Unbelievably, she almost perfectly mirrors the Milky Way above. In the curve of her bend lie the great temples of indigenous Irish spirituality: Newgrange, Knowth, and Dowth- ancient astrological temples aligned to the stars.
In the morning she looks shy, blushing like she’s not quite ready to wake up and be seen yet, frosted pink with…
