August is not the best time to see the northern lights, that’s actually November through to February at midnight according to the guidebooks. That was fine with me, I came to Iceland for the waterfalls and ‘the crack’ - the Eurasian and North American continental plates are moving apart at the top of the world and liquid rock bubbles up through the crack to form Iceland. Hectic.
On our third night a local told us that the “lights forecast” for tonight was favourable. He also responded with “oh yes, the green house” when we said we were in an Airbnb around the corner so the whole exchange felt a bit dodgy. We went outside late at night anyway but some clouds came over and nothing happened. We got back to our business of looking at waterfalls, volcanic rock and glaciers for the next few days and it was all sensational. One night after a long walk, a thermal spring and some shark-jerky we were driving back to our accomodation. There was a strange cloud in the black sky. It travelled in a straight line from one horizon to the other. It called to mind a gentle stream that was rippling across the sky, white and slightly transparent. We looked and looked back and decided that in fact it could be a streak of aurora borealis. I drove back quickly and we scrambled out of the car. The situation had escalated! The sky had become light-fire. Pink and green dripping shapes began to dance around the horizon. We had a nearly unobstructed view from the gravel driveway. Suddenly and also quiet gently the colour coalesced into a dancing animal that we described as many things between a hippo and an eel. This shape was predominantly pink and was close to a mountain ridge at the near horizon. It felt like something magnificent we could witness at a safe distance. So far the whole scene had felt very safe and entertaining, beautiful and wonderful but defiantly benign. Then it changed. The dancing pink worm creature abated and bright green liquid light began to drip upwards from the whole perimeter of the sky bowl. The green was vivid at its closest to the earth and steadily faded as it climbed up the sides of the enormous dome we suddenly realised we were standing at the centre of. As the light gathered at the centre directly above us it also gathered power and vigour. The green moved together from all points above us before coming together and cascading directly down and into our souls. The three of us cling to each other as we were pressed back onto the bonnet of our car in awe and shock. We exclaimed out loud. The light was no longer a natural phenomenon for us to watch and enjoy, it had become a personal experience of the very tiny humans and the very powerful universe. An eye of galactic judgement, or a dragon of righteous inspection had come to our world and we felt vulnerable. After a while the sky eased and lights danced on in the distance. We stood back upright and looked at each other. I could see that the others had also glimpsed something incredible. I’ve asked the other two since. None of us have seen anything else that engendered the same sense of awe. I took a shaky photo, on an old phone as the universe poured directly down from the centre of the sky into my spirit. It doesn’t do it justice.
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AuthorHigh school teacher Archives
September 2023
CategoriesThemes |