“A bridge is a structure built to span a gorge, valley, road, railroad track, river, body of water, or any other physical obstacle.” (Wikipedia)
I believe a bridge is much more than a physical “structure”. Symbolically, I see it as a crossroad, if you will, between one piece of land and the next. It has an “in between” feel, neither here nor there. Other places have this mystical in-between-ness, like doorways, like the shore, like twilight. It is said that this is often where a person may get a glimpse of the Fae – in that in between place, where there is a “thinning of the veils”, between our world or realm, and theirs.
A Crossroad, of course, means a direction must be chosen, a decision must be made. Will you go forward, or back? What will it mean once you leave one side and come to the other. Are you leaving someone behind? Someone you love?
The Greek Goddess Hecate is oft associated with the Crossroads, the Three-Way Crossroads (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hecate). It is rather fitting that we talk of Hecate and the Crossroads on this eve of Oct 31st, the Celtic New Year, or Samhain. Quite auspicious, really…. More on this at another time, as Hecate is a Goddess with many stories to tell.
Backing away from the idea of Bridge-as-Crossroad, the Bridge can be seen as a divider, a necessary change or path. There are stories about bridges, or where a bridge puts forth a heavy presence. There are cliches about bridges: a person will “cross that bridge” when he or she comes to it; or to “build” or “burn” one’s bridges. I suspect these bridges in the cliches are rarely literal and concrete.
But where is Hawthorne Bridge? It is rumoured to be in Lemuria. It may be tucked deep in the Murmuring Woods, near to where the willows droop into a rambling river. It most certainly is nearby what is Not Too Far Away. Perhaps near the mines or the Hermitage. It’s one of those places that seems to exist in that time-out-of-time, like the Isle of Avalon, and very much like the rest of Lemuria. I suspect that a traveller will find the bridge when they need to, when a change is necessary, when a decision needs to be made. This is where a traveller can lean against the smooth arced rail, watching the cool, deep water swirl and fold over itself into foam. This is where the veil shifts and thoughts blur and the Higher Self can whisper to the Monkey Mind. Do you hear the whisper?
