The Orb - an encounter with a hidden East Anglian Tumulus

Still remaining…a small ancient place, surrounded by flatpack pines, but ringed with birch. The Ordnance Survey ‘Tumulus’ has been spared, and stands now isolated from the East Anglian heath and the view of the Saxon shore.

I visit to satisfy myself that it is still as shown on the map.  To know that it has not been devoured by forest and it awaits the day…

My approach is clumsy. I push through the pine branches, out of the shade and into the bright open space preserved by this mound, and look up…deep blue sky, bright white clouds.  I look back to earth.

A perfect circle surrounds me, the forest crowds in, but kept at bay by birches.  Crickets call in the grasses and I stumble over old roots and hollows where past growth has been cleared away.  Someone is watching over this place.

But it is not until I turn to leave that I stumble upon the most beautiful thing…countless orb webs guard every passage between the trees.  A spider lies sentinel on each web, feet sensing vibrations, linking earth, tree, grass and air in a natural spiral maze.

I realize I have blundered through their silken ring, and suddenly feel very human!

The ancient orb spun across generations,

Waits to be found by those who seek it.

Gauzy and ethereal, anchored in ages past,

It reaches out to futures present.

Stumble not into the maze, for you will destroy the very threads that you seek.

Though ethereal and elusive, you will find the threads within yourself.

Catch the glint of light and your way will be illuminated.

Like morning dew on a cobweb field,

The threads appear and Life’s maze reveals itself.

Jack in the Green