Thunders Barrow is a Bronze Age bowl barrow and Iron Age hill fort on the hill above Southwick, West Sussex.
Similar to how Wayland’s Smithy neolithic long barrow is named after the Saxon smith god, it is likely that the Saxons discovered the barrow and named it after Thurnor the Saxon god of thunder.
The barrow is barely visible now. It is almost entirely covered in brambles, but there is a path up the side of it to a small, clear patch at the top.
Recently, there has been a terrible drought and five life-threatening heatwaves this summer, so far. The grass is dying and even ancient oaks are struggling to survive.
There have been wild fires in the New Forest, the Isle of Wight, as well as one of the local cruising grounds. Thankfully, the rains have started again. Hopefully this will help ease some of the pressure on the land. However, this is looking like a terrible sign of things to come.
In June I went up to Thunders Barrow to meet Thunder, the god of storms and lightning. This was part of a project that I had been working on with the grove that I belong to.
During the meditation, I performed while sat on top of the barrow. I met Thunder in a great, round hall. He sat naked on a throne made from a chariot. He had long, red hair and a beard which curled and forked over his broad, hairy chest. He then took me on a journey to show me the power of the storm, which I mediated to the grove in the form of a guided meditation.
When I met Thunder, he was incredibly sexy. More so than I conveyed in the meditation. One of the strong impressions that I got was how incredibly sensual the storm can be. The sounds, the smells and the feel of the storms. The passionate union of the earth and the sky.
This time, I went up to offer him my thanks for the rain that he had brought to the earth. I brought him three bottles of local beer.
It started to rain as the ceremony began and the fields and hills around me became enveloped in mist. I managed to perform a short opening ceremony before it started pelting it down. I called to Andera, goddess of these lands, and to Thunder, the god whose mound I was sat on.
I thanked Thunder for the rain that he has given to quench the earth and appealed for more.
At this point, the rain was coming down hard. I became very conscious that I was the tallest thing around for quite a large radius. So I offered up the beer, thanked the gods and closed down the circle as quickly as I could.
I was treated to a roar of thunder as I walked away from the hill and there were more flashes of lightning and thunder as I made my way back to where I had caught the bus.
The themes that the group were working with were picked at random. I really wasn't looking forward to working with the powers of the storm, as I always felt them to be a bit too macho and war-like for my temperament. But I’m really glad of the opportunity to see another side of the thunder god. One whose destruction is life-giving and who bathes the earth with rain.