My Sunday Best 05

///cartography.synchronicity.mystery

///dance.agree.beauty is the lakeside where I watched otters play among the reeds; ///mercy.feed.places - the hospital in which my son was born; ///brew.unguarded.limp was my first nightclub experience and ///composes.howled.roved is the most beautiful beach in Sligo.

Our lovely neighbours across the lake gave us directions to nearby caves. Instead of co-ordinates or pointing to a spot on the map, they gave us words. Did you know that the entire world is word-mapped? Perhaps I am late to the party, but this is the kind of cartography I get excited about.

What3Words is a global address system that divides the world into 57 trillion three-metre square blocks and assigns three random words to each square. Chris Sheldrick, the creator, teamed up with a mathematician and language specialist to create it.

Initially, badger advocates and tree surgeons used it to pinpoint precise locations, but now it is a multi-million pound business used by the emergency services, delivery companies and in-car navigation systems.

I am a What3Words convert in every way but one: the suggestion that the words are random.

The lake over which my writing desk looks is a turlough. It comes from the Irish Tur, meaning dry and lough, meaning lake. It is a phenomena unique to karst limestone in Ireland where bodies of water disappear and reappear in response to the rise and fall of the water table.

They have a slugaire or swallow hole on the lake floor where water funnels into the rock. It is hard to determine the exact location of the swallow hole in this lake when the level is so high, but it may be either ///hand.swallow.affirm, or //fluffs.stared.underworld.

What if names were keys to doors into new worlds?

In search of the swallow hole.

Manchán Magan’s fantastic book, Listen to the Land Speak, explores the mythology around Lough Gur in Co. Limerick. While not a turlough, it is fed by underground springs and is said to disappear every seven years and be replaced by a tree. This opening in the lake floor was seen by our ancestors as a threshold into another dimension. So, when What3Words uses underworld in the description of the swallow hole in front of me, I pay attention.

‘There is culture, wisdom and lore lurking behind every rock, tree and mound.’ - Listen to the Land Speak

Magan has taught me a lot about the fractal nature of the Irish landscape. There are patterns, layers and synchronicities everywhere, if we take the time to look. One of the words for the hawthorn tree under which I sit is ///incarnation. I receive this as an invitation to listen and learn from her ancient spirit.

If you’d like to know more about the interconnectedness of the natural world and ancient stories, read Magan’s books or listen to his gorgeous podcast The Almanac of Ireland for exquisite storytelling. This one is my favourite.

Wherever you are today, look up the three words for the square in which you sit and see if it reveals something you don’t already know.

Happy Sunday x