Stonehenge

Week 38

STONEHENGE

Probably the most famous ancient monument in the world. Older than the mighty pyramids in Egypt, older than Christ and a constant source of debate in all quarters.  You all know what Stonehenge is, you most likely have a good idea of the many many theories of who built it and why.  Fact is, no one really knows.  The theories range from it being a giant clock, to a UFO landing site. It is said to have been built by the druids but it pre-dates what we know as druids.  It was built by the people and there is great evidence to suggest it was used as a place for feasting by people who travelled hundreds of miles to be there.  I'm am sure you can find out lots of information on Stonehenge on the countless websites and books dedicated to it.  I'm no expert, I have my own thoughts on it which I will share with you.   What I will discuss with you in the blog is the people who are drawn to Stonehenge in our time now.  These are my own personal observations and experiences from the last decade.  It's all about perspective, my experiences aren't your experiences.

FREAKS

I don't know what it is about Stonehenge but by gods it attracts some right freaks!  As you may be aware, I am a member of the Loyal Arthurian Warband and I'm friends with Arthur Pendragon. You'd think being friends with someone who claims to be the current incarnation of King Arthur, would be a freak.  Not at all, he's the sanest bloke I know.  However, the people he attracts vary from loyal supporters and friends to the biggest fuckwits going.  I often joke with him that he needs to remove his fuckwit magnet.  In the ten years I've been involved, I've become friends with some wonderful people but in a lot of instances, people who I thought were nice, who then turned out to be the most hateful, poisonous, spiteful, vindictive fuckers I've had the displeasure to meet and deal with.  Just as you think the dust has settled, another fuckwit comes along and says even more dreadful things than the last one. Then they get together and join forces.  I think the next blog will be about Trolling because it's a major problem with our pagan community and needs to be blogged.  Hell, I've mentioned it so many times in my blogs this year, it's daft.

So Arthur campaigns at Stonehenge. He fought to get our Free and Open Access for summer solstice after the exclusion zone went up. He was not alone but he was 'front line', picketing in all weathers. After many arrests and years, English Heritage took down the excursion zone. This was all around the time that Arthur found himself and his Quest. If you'd like to read that story, then please read his and CJ Stone's book Trials of a modern day king - an honest read and very interesting. There is a newer revised edition too but I think the first one is better (looks like it's no longer available on Amazon either).  He campaigned to get them to take down the fences and that went up for review so that was another battle 'won'.  The most recent campaign is to return the cremated remains of those buried there aka Bones Protest.  Now because he uses the media to highlight these causes, he's hated by people in the pagan community.  The press give him titles and claim he's King of all pagans/druids etc etc which pisses people off.  He has never made these claims, it's the press writing an interesting story.  Everyone is entitled to like or dislike whom they wish. However, when this dislike becomes an obsession, it poisons everything around it.

Many people agree with the fact that something needs to be done. Arthur does it. People hate that. And that hate is spread about thick and nasty.  You have the elitist druids/witches who want Stonehenge just for their own use and to keep the great unwashed out. You have English Heritage who only give you an hour or two access for worship, which has gotten worse since winter solstice 2013.  You have the Drove lot who either support Arthur or do everything to spite him. It was Arthur who fought to save the Drove aka Byway 12 from being closed, so that these people could carry on staying on it!  Now these haters aren't freaks because they are societies oddities. No, they are freaks because of their psychotic hatred when they preach peace and love and band about 'namaste' like it's a cure-all.  If you think someone who calls himself King Arthur is a freak, then after reading and hearing some of the things these haters say, makes Arthur look like Joe Bloggs.  These people are freaks.  I don't understand how so much poison festers around Stonehenge, how these people who can be in the presence of such a wonderful place, be so damned nasty.  Is Stonehenge a fuckwit magnet - you know what, it totally is.

MY FIRST ENCOUNTER

I first visited Stonehenge in 2003 with my son.  As I drove down the A303, I spotted Stonehenge on the side of the road and actually said WOOHOO!  I was so excited, I didn't think I would be but there I was, woohoooing.  I had read Arthur's book and decided I'd not pay to go in and view the monument but stand by the Hele stone and take pictures from there. People were walking about like sheep, around the wrong way too.  I later found out that it was because the guide who'd recorded the tour for the headphones, had done it the wrong way and they wouldn't change it. So for years, people walked anti-clockwise around it.. which always feels wrong. There's magical reasons too but not going to tell you how to suck eggs.

I went back for Winter Solstice in 2004. I hadn't been to any pagan ceremonies and wasn't sure of what I'd find. I was still a noob on the pagan scene, I knew a little bit about some things but was still working out my path at that time.  To be honest, I found that first experience a bit fluffy - not that I had anything to compare it to.. like I said, I was a noob!

It gets bloody cold on Salisbury Plains, it's like it has it's own climate.  You get the most amazing view of the stars at night too. The wind cuts through you, the rain finds every bit of you and when it's hot, boy is it!  There's no doubt though, it feels raw there, you're exposed - no wonder they built it there.  A friend of mine said it was an energy sink hole, he found nothing magical about the place. It's strange how many conflicting opinions there are about Stonehenge. It felt worn out but still positive to me, I can imagine that when it was first built, it was much more powerful.  

Sun up - not a great pic

Aaron loved it

People keep using this image on their websites for some reason

Sun fights through the morning mists

The Drove

I loved staying on the Drove. I used to go up when there wasn't an access day.  I met a lovely couple up there who turned out to be friends of another set of friends. It's a small world.  There is a right mix of people who stay on the Drove. There's nothing quite like sitting around a fire, looking up at the stars, listening to people playing guitars or drums and singing or just the silence. And then waking up in the morning and the first thing you see is Stonehenge.  

In recent months, the Drove has become less friendly.  There are a group of haters who target anyone wearing Warband tabbards. If they can't convince you that we are all evil nasty bastards, they threaten you. In one case, someone was told they'd tent would be run over whilst they were in it and whilst they were in the monument, their tent was trashed.  That's not the spirit of the place. Those people are poison but as I said above, it's all becoming more sinister these days.  I don't understand how someone can be so consumed with hate, that they can have nothing in their life but sharing that hatred and trashing everything you do, just because it was Arthur that said it.  It's pathetic, sad and damages relationships within the pagan community.  You don't have to agree with what one group does, but that does not give you the right to defame and set out to destroy them. In every single case, it's over absolutely nothing and one of the main instigators is an ex - hell hath no fury as a woman scorned as they say but come on love, it's been a decade ffs - get over it already!

I met Richard and Darren who were promoting testicular cancer awareness, whilst on the picket with Arthur. EH wouldn't let them in for a photo, so they posed with us instead.  They've raised thousands of £ for cancer research.

Morry, Doro, Aaron, Andrea and Kim - fantastic company

Free Stonehenge picket

WHAT STONEHENGE IS TO ME

I've read some books. I've watched a few documentaries. I've seen the archaeological evidence presented in both and I've spoken with people who have been involved in the digs there. I think that Stonehenge was built to honour the winter solstice - the birth of the sun.  I think that it was a great feast site, a place for many clans to gather and celebrate. I believe that stone circles and the like are like a plug into the energy lines of our world.  Some how those who built them, worked out where to channel this energy through these mighty stones.  As I've discussed in a previous blog, each site has a different kind of energy.  I do not know why or how those blue stones were transported from Wales to Salisbury plains but the intent was enough for them to find a way, which baffles people to this day. These people were exceptionally clever and their craft has been long lost in time.. with our current technological advancements, they still can't work out how these ancient people did it.  I also believe that these places were built to enhance sounds.  I saw a great program that Paul Deveraux did about the importance of acoustics at Newgrange and other sites like Stonehenge.  I just found his book on Amazon about it too.  These ancient peoples worked all of this out without our hi-tech tools, they worked out how to build to enhance the acoustics.  These low frequency sounds created a trance like state, inducing journeying. These weren't burial places, these were places to connect to other dimensions.  Those who have been buried at Stonehenge were deemed to be highly important.  I agree with Arthur and many others that these people were guardians, mostly like a priest-caste and furthermore, placed in their chosen graves as magical protection. I hear people scoff 'how ridiculous' well hello, the peoples who built this great temple weren't like us were they? That's the problem with most of these naysayers - they look at it with modern eyes and views.  These people took hundreds of years building this temple up. They moved rocks from hundreds of miles away and for a sacred purpose. Of course any thing they did there was what we'd call magical.  They weren't simple people - they created a mighty temple that still stands to this day! They created it using methods that modern man cannot comprehend. They created acoustics for gods sake!  

I know what I feel. I feel it in my bones. That said, Stonehenge isn't the be all and end all of the pagan world.  There are other more equally wonderful sacred sites.  You don't have to go to Stonehenge for solstice etc. I do recommend you try it at least once.  Summer solstice attracts about 24,000 people.  People of all walks of life - not everyone who goes to Stonehenge are pagan.  Pagans need to get off their high horses and stop slagging off people who visit this site.  People travel from all over the world to visit this site - who are these haters to say they can't?  These haters who do fuck all to help marshal the solstice, who don't go to the Round Table meetings to positively input in to the event but would rather slag it off.   Winter solstice is more low key - it's always very cold, so wrap up warm.  The equinoxes are also quieter, you also get a lot less time to do your thing.  This is being fought by Arthur and others as many people travel great distances to worship there on these dates and they are treated appallingly.  

I suppose I better wrap this up.  I will leave you with three sources of information that I think you may enjoy.  Obviously, the Warband website has a lot of information on. There's links on there to other sources of information too - worth having a look through.  The other is our friend Dennis Price's writings - a former archaeologist who has been on Time Team and has written a few books on the subject.  Excellent book by Andy Worthington - Stonehenge Celebration and Subversion.

My final thoughts are this. Go and experience this site for yourself. Ignore what everyone else says about it. Go for you. You will either connect or you won't. No one else's opinion will make that any less real.  I hope you enjoy it as much as I have and still do.  

More love - less hate.