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SACRED SITES
Stone Circles Stone circles were built from about 3000 B.C; similarities between them would suggest a common origin and purpose. One theory to explain this is that stone circles across Europe and the Mediterranean were built by migrant Eastern Mediterranean Neolithic peoples who mingling with the Beaker people from the Netherlands and Germany brought gold and copper to Britain, so creating the Early Bronze Age. Bronze is an alloy of tin and copper. However, radiocarbon dating has recently demonstrated that the western European megaliths especially those in Brittany predate by more than thousand years what were believed to be their Mediterranean prototypes, Therefore it has been suggested that the art was an evolutionary one among indigenous peoples who between 3000BCE and about 1800BCE were inspired to create circular ritual stone structures . The Power of the Stone Circles Even accepting that view, what is hard to explain is the advanced astronomical and mathematical knowledge used in the creation of stone circles especially at a time when tools were rudimentary and when stones often were brought great distances overland to the sites. But the stones remain five thousand years later a testimony to the builders. How many modern structures will do the same? These power centres are believed by some geomancers and dowsers to be places where natural cosmic energy enters the earth at a point where there are underground water domes, where water rises vertically from deep in the earth. Cosmic energy which forms ley lines at these points, is regarded in almost every culture as yang, positive and masculine, emanating from the sky, the power of the Sky Father. Water is yin, negative in the electrical sense and female, flowing from the womb of the Earth Mother. At sites where these energies met and harmonised, such was the experience of spiritual and physical power and well-being that they were chosen for the places of worship thousands of years ago. Others say that these circles sites are where an intersection of underground streams are crossed by an energy ley, perhaps even two Almost all the stone circles are aligned at to sunrise or set on the Solstices . They may have been used as an astronomical calendar, in the case of the most sophisticated Stonenehenge, precisely marking lunar and solar alignments, so allowing the prediction of lunar and solar movements and even accurately predicting eclipses. However over the centuries the main use of stone circles was ritual as with native North American medicine wheels. The circles were used even in Christian times despite church disapproval, to celebrate the annual cycle of the seasons of the year. By dancing or walking in processions round the circle, earth energies were symbolically woken to fertilise land, cattle and people. This fertility cycle was strengthened by the combination within the circle of the male pillar stones either with diamond shaped females ones or with the female energies of the circle formation itself. Castlerigg Circle Castlerigg Circle also known as the Druids’ Circle, is on of the most beautiful circles. It is set 700 feet above sea level in a meadow on open moorland near Keswick in the Lake District in Cumbria, surrounded by mountains. Built around 3000 BC and one of the oldest in the UK, the main circle of 38 stones is oval rather than circular shape with two larger pillar stones in the North and a large space between them , forming an entrance. Unusually there is a rectangle of 10 smaller stones within the circle. The tallest stone in the circle near the rectangle of smaller stones ,nearly eight and a half feet high, is aligned with the beginning of November sunrise. This three day period, now recalled in the modern Halloween, was called Samhain (Summer’s End)by the Celts. It marked the beginning of the pre Christian new year and the start of winter and was the time of the ancestors. Great fires were lit, possibly in the centre of the circle at Dawn to mirror the sunrise and to welcome the ancestors with the sunrise. Legend says that no one ever counts the same number of stones twice. Stonehenge Stonehenge is the ultimate megalithic Sun Temple, now a World Heritage site. On the flat Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire, it is visible from miles around Investigations over the past 100 years have revealed that Stonehenge was built in three main stages from 2800 - 1800 BC. Stonehenge is oriented to mark the sunrise and moonrise at the summer and winter solstices. The Heel Stone or Helios Stone named after the Greek Sun God, is known as the sun-stone, for over this the sun rises at the Summer Solstice around June 21 and sets over it on the Winter Solstice six months later. As the sun rises above the horizon, it appears to be resting momentarily on top of the Heel Stone. The slow decline of the year and light nights and the beginning of ritual cycle of the annual death the old sun gods after the Summer Solstice is symbolically marked at sunset on the Summer Solstice when the setting rays cast a shadow on the Altar Stone. One of the features that set Stonehenge apart most from other circles are the five central trilithons, each consisting of two stone pillars with a third across the top. They form a horseshoe open to the Summer Solstice sunrise, a gateway to the Otherworld for the Sun God under whatever name. At many times of the year, if the sun is at the right angle and the conditions right, you will see in the reflected shadows of the stones part of a magical Sun wheel radiating from the centre. The flat horizon extends for miles. All around the plain surrounding the site are mounds where the ancients were buried in the foetal position, the entrances to the tombs aligned to the Midwinter Sun at its lowest place in the sky, so that they might with the rebirth of the Sun likewise attain new life. Ales Stenar, the stone ships Throughout Scandinavia ancient stone circles are set in the formation of ships with stern and prow stones. My own favourite and one of the most beautiful is Ales Stenar, It consists of 59 huge boulders, set on a grassy headland ,above the beach of Kåseberga village near Ystad in Skåne, overlooking the Baltic It is suddenly visible as you reach the top of the winding stone steps truly the place where Sky, Earth and Sea meet. Each stone has different energies and dowsers have been rewarded by images of past worlds of the Vikings. Most significantly for me, there is totally free access, as there are to all such sites in Sweden You can walk in, pray, make offerings and even camp there – and there is not a single piece of litter or graffiti. Ales or Als means sanctuary in e ancient Nordic language, though the place may have been named after a Viking chieftain who lived some time before 1000 CE. Another version of its origins is that the Viking chieftain, Olav Tryggvasson, was buried on this ridge together with his ship. Oskar Montelius The dates for the monument vary from 3600 BCE to 600 CE Most likely they were built 540-650 CE in the later Viking period. More than a thousand stone ships have survived in Southern Scandinavia. The stone ship - symbolized Vikings' belief that death was a voyage into the unknown., steering North to the realms of the dead. The Ales Stenar ship-setting has been aligned to the winter and the summer Solstices. The legends of the stone circles One theory is that semi-mythological Atlanteans who survived the submerging of their land were the instigators, a theory strengthened by the case that many were created close to the Atlantic coastline. This has strengthened the belief that megaliths appeared first in Brittany because this was the first Atlantean resting place. But in Cornwall especially folk lore attributes the origins of the circles to people turned to stone for various misdemeanours . For example the Hurler stones, three stone circles at St Cleer on the edge of Bodmin Moor in Cornwall near Liskeard were said to be local men playng hurling on the moor on a Sunday instead of going to church. St Cleer himself turned them to stone.. When I lived in Liskeard local people told me that on windy nights the stones could be heard howling their anger and that lights of the Hrlers restored to life were seen dancing over the circles at Halloween. The nineteen Merry Maidens near Lands End were likewise turned to stone because they met to pipers on the way to church and stopped to dance. However, they and the pipers were turned to stone by a thunderbolt from God. Thereafter they and the Pipers were condemned to stand in adjoining fields never to meet. Healing with stone water At Stonehenge, the stones were washed and the water poured into baths in which the sick then bathed. Healing properties continued to be attributed to the stones at Stonehenge in the 17th and 18th centuries. Two of the Rollright stones in Oxfordshire stones also have a long healing tradition, one for headaches and the other for arthritic/muscular problems and are still believed to be active. Most stones in circles today are so worn and dirty that you could not use the water for healing humans. However you can go to stones on a rainy day and collect water pouring off the stones in a bottle or flask and it is very good for reviving plants. You can also endow bottled water with the power of the stones.
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