Stone circle, Crop circles and other weird encounters
In the first day of August 2008, we had set off to Wiltshire to experience first-hand the strange phenomena of 'crop circles'. Hardly any simple 'circles' in recent decades - the pattern became more complex and ornamented. The term 'crop pictograms' or 'crop formations' are more suitable.
Wiltshire is the world-capital of crop circles. Hundreds, if not thousands, appear there every year, and the debate continues - how, by whom and why they are being made. One interesting connection is that Wiltshire is home to Stonehenge and many other stone circles and ancient monuments - in a quantity, quality and antiquity - not met anywhere else in the world. Archaeologists have established that those monuments were built by the people who introduced farming in Britain.
In the early morning hours, we started our stay in Avebury, home to the largest stone circle in the world. In the centre of the village, there is an idyllic rural pub next to some of the largest stones. The blissfully peaceful sheep were resting in their vicinity.
Nearby Avebury village is Silbury Hill, one of the largest man-made structures in the prehistoric world. It does not look impressive from afar. Only when approaching it, believe it - it is huge. Its precise purpose, like many other ancient monuments, is largely unknown.
We decided to take a walk up and from the top we noticed 'our first circle'. It was in the shape of a star.
A few hundred feet away is West Kennet Long Barrow, a staggering burial mound constructed some six thousands years ago. It predates the Avebury circle, Silbury Hill and other ancient sites at least a few hundred years. The ancient activity was beaming here since time immemorial, as it seems. It is the best-preserved and reconstructed of around thirty other barrows in the area. According to research, the barrow had served as a burial ground over a period of several centuries.
All those monuments are part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site.
On our way there, we saw an oak tree in the middle of the field, adorned with ribbons and so-whats. We realized it was Lughnasad, a Celtic festival of the early harvest, and some modern Heathens were gathered in front of the barrow.
It was quite an unusual feeling - entering into one of the oldest burial sites on Earth. Submerging into this abysmal darkness of cold stone and soil, with the awareness that it was built thousands of years ago and used for hundreds of years. It puts things into perspective. These are the tangible beginnings of what would eventually become our modern world. It is unique experience.
For millennia, humans lived in hunter-gatherer groups. Some six thousand years ago an agricultural revolution took place and a settled life was first introduced - all thanks to crops cultivation. Civilized human progress starts here, we contemplated.
Inside, with the help of the camera flash, we found more evidence of the Pagan holiday celebrations: bunches of crops, wreaths of flowers and herbs withering away on the stone ledges.
It was time to leave this ancient place and head to Devizes, a picturesque little town, where a bus and the guides awaited, for our further exploration. We pondered on the relations of prehistoric stone and earth monuments and modern crop formations, 'circles' - of stone and crop.
Both phenomena have crop cultivation at their very core, after all.
On our way we passed some 'crop circles', one of which was definitely a 'fake' - made in a crude manner - the guides told us.
The area is also known for 'White Horses'. They are not ancients but are copied from the ancient white horse on Salisbury Plain. The one we saw was overlooking the Pewsey Vale at Alton Barnes.
The bus parked in a dirt road, and we walked through the fields for about 10 minutes.
Crop circles began being spotted here on a larger scale in the mid-1970. Unidentified flying objects (UFOs) sightings were also 'epidemic' in the 1970s in Wiltshire. In those days the fields in the UK did not have the tractor lines.
The very first crop circle researcher, Dr Terence Meaden used his training in meteorology and propose a “plasma vortex” theory to explain the circles. However they have become more and more complex as the years progressed.
More complicated formations were laid in the fields resembling galaxies, planetary systems, crescents, atoms, magnetic schemes, fractals, mandalas, as well as ancient symbols. They were materializing with extraordinary rapidity.
In the 1990s volunteers got organized in an attempt to keep guard during the nights to spot anybody or anything entering the fields after debunking men with a plank of wood. It worked both ways and the human circle makers were laughing at the 'cropies' those who believed it was a message from outer space or other dimensions. The debate goes on with a swirling process of entanglement of all involved.
Meanwhile, we were amid a mysterious swirling of the wheat field: inside there is a display of swirled or spiralled grain as it would have been pressed firmly to the ground without breaking the stems. The edge of the circle is precise and sharp. The flattened crop stems lie vertically.
Hundreds of crop circles had been documented and researched. Reports say of anomalies accompanying the formations of a crop circle: dogs going nuts with barking, balls of light observed and strange noises heard - like the rustling of electricity.
There is a report about the entire field under surveillance by researchers with high-tech equipment when a thick mist covered the area in the middle of the night. At the dawn, a new crop circle became visible; no human activity was apparently recorded.
There are man-made circles, no one denies it. However, some of the human circle makers admit they themselves experience strange phenomena. They see balls of light, shadowy figures, they feel like they are suddenly connecting to higher intelligence or an unconscious group-mind 'internet'.
The symbols that are put down are often imagined then designed on the night before, and some researchers claim to have seen a design before it appeared. This gets very weird.
The one we have entered on the 1 August 2008 was named ' Swallows' and it appeared several days before, over a period of two nights.
Well, to create such a work of art - this is what we consider crop formations - first and foremost - in such a short span of time is something remarkable and extraordinary. What human being would like to be involved in creating tens of such huge formation in the middle of the night over the Summer months for over two decades now? And for nothing, just an artistic prank. These were questions we have to ask ourselves. Perhaps it is possible. Humans are able to do incredible things. With a help of some high tech equipment, we thought it possible. The motives are however still beyond anybody's comprehension.
The earliest written report about the phenomena dates back to around 800s. There is a mention in a French manuscript about the bishop of Lyon warning that there had been some local parishioners who were collecting seeds out of "flattened circles" and using them for fertility rites. Another early historic record is in a woodcut from 16th Century. It depicts the devil mowing a field into patterns.
From 17th century circles in crop fields had been documented in texts - over two hundred accounts, according to researchers. The circles expanded hugely in the 1970s-1990s.
After a short bus drive, we walked into another circle, this was smaller but with a completely different 'feel'.As if another artistic technique was employed here. This crop formation was named 'Owls' Eyes'.
The idea of all man-made crop circles has prevailed in public opinion. British tabloids are believed to paid money for those who came forward and claimed they did the circles. One of German's television had
made a hoax itself - paying locals for making a primitive-looking
formation and screen it on TV as a proof of man-made circles.
Biophysical testing on plants within the circles was conducted by the BLT Team. They discovered that some of the epicentre plants were covered with iron particles fused in some of the plant tissue. In the end, the research was not accepted by many researchers who had a scientific background themselves. As we looked through the data, it remains inconclusive.
Nevertheless, British Army helicopters had been seen over the fields, often chasing balls of lights, according to many witnesses reports. Some farmers destroy the crop formation as soon as they appear, others cooperate with the public and quite understandably, they need some payback for entering their fields.
After a day in Wiltshire fields we have enjoyed the Summer Crop Circle Lectures. Listening to really some odd theories - it was fun in itself. Taking a relaxed approach is the best what we have learned. We've seen many people in our lives, acting weird or talking rubbish.
As with everything - ones you are an expert in something you lose a bigger picture and become emotionally defensive about your area of expertise. This is related to both professionals and independent researchers.
Our stance, we gathered, is to take a step back and look at something from the birds perspective. It is so easy to lose sight in details, in materialistic only or spiritual only - approach. This was our most valuable 'lesson' from this amazing trip into the fields.
Swallows formation, Southfield Alton Priors, Wiltshire, 22nd July 2008:
Owls' Eyes formation, Hillside Farm West Woods, Wiltshire, 20th July 2008
Two last Images credit to Temporary Temples.
If you would like to have your mind blown away by the phenomena of crop formations, visit their website: https://temporarytemples.co.uk/
Highly recommended!
The link to all 2008 crop formations that had occurred in Wiltshire, documented with painstaking accuracy: https://temporarytemples.co.uk/crop-circles/2008-crop-circles
Wiltshire is the world-capital of crop circles. Hundreds, if not thousands, appear there every year, and the debate continues - how, by whom and why they are being made. One interesting connection is that Wiltshire is home to Stonehenge and many other stone circles and ancient monuments - in a quantity, quality and antiquity - not met anywhere else in the world. Archaeologists have established that those monuments were built by the people who introduced farming in Britain.
In the early morning hours, we started our stay in Avebury, home to the largest stone circle in the world. In the centre of the village, there is an idyllic rural pub next to some of the largest stones. The blissfully peaceful sheep were resting in their vicinity.
Nearby Avebury village is Silbury Hill, one of the largest man-made structures in the prehistoric world. It does not look impressive from afar. Only when approaching it, believe it - it is huge. Its precise purpose, like many other ancient monuments, is largely unknown.
We decided to take a walk up and from the top we noticed 'our first circle'. It was in the shape of a star.
A few hundred feet away is West Kennet Long Barrow, a staggering burial mound constructed some six thousands years ago. It predates the Avebury circle, Silbury Hill and other ancient sites at least a few hundred years. The ancient activity was beaming here since time immemorial, as it seems. It is the best-preserved and reconstructed of around thirty other barrows in the area. According to research, the barrow had served as a burial ground over a period of several centuries.
All those monuments are part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site.
On our way there, we saw an oak tree in the middle of the field, adorned with ribbons and so-whats. We realized it was Lughnasad, a Celtic festival of the early harvest, and some modern Heathens were gathered in front of the barrow.
It was quite an unusual feeling - entering into one of the oldest burial sites on Earth. Submerging into this abysmal darkness of cold stone and soil, with the awareness that it was built thousands of years ago and used for hundreds of years. It puts things into perspective. These are the tangible beginnings of what would eventually become our modern world. It is unique experience.
For millennia, humans lived in hunter-gatherer groups. Some six thousand years ago an agricultural revolution took place and a settled life was first introduced - all thanks to crops cultivation. Civilized human progress starts here, we contemplated.
Inside, with the help of the camera flash, we found more evidence of the Pagan holiday celebrations: bunches of crops, wreaths of flowers and herbs withering away on the stone ledges.
It was time to leave this ancient place and head to Devizes, a picturesque little town, where a bus and the guides awaited, for our further exploration. We pondered on the relations of prehistoric stone and earth monuments and modern crop formations, 'circles' - of stone and crop.
Both phenomena have crop cultivation at their very core, after all.
On our way we passed some 'crop circles', one of which was definitely a 'fake' - made in a crude manner - the guides told us.
The area is also known for 'White Horses'. They are not ancients but are copied from the ancient white horse on Salisbury Plain. The one we saw was overlooking the Pewsey Vale at Alton Barnes.
The bus parked in a dirt road, and we walked through the fields for about 10 minutes.
Crop circles began being spotted here on a larger scale in the mid-1970. Unidentified flying objects (UFOs) sightings were also 'epidemic' in the 1970s in Wiltshire. In those days the fields in the UK did not have the tractor lines.
The very first crop circle researcher, Dr Terence Meaden used his training in meteorology and propose a “plasma vortex” theory to explain the circles. However they have become more and more complex as the years progressed.
More complicated formations were laid in the fields resembling galaxies, planetary systems, crescents, atoms, magnetic schemes, fractals, mandalas, as well as ancient symbols. They were materializing with extraordinary rapidity.
In the 1990s volunteers got organized in an attempt to keep guard during the nights to spot anybody or anything entering the fields after debunking men with a plank of wood. It worked both ways and the human circle makers were laughing at the 'cropies' those who believed it was a message from outer space or other dimensions. The debate goes on with a swirling process of entanglement of all involved.
Meanwhile, we were amid a mysterious swirling of the wheat field: inside there is a display of swirled or spiralled grain as it would have been pressed firmly to the ground without breaking the stems. The edge of the circle is precise and sharp. The flattened crop stems lie vertically.
Hundreds of crop circles had been documented and researched. Reports say of anomalies accompanying the formations of a crop circle: dogs going nuts with barking, balls of light observed and strange noises heard - like the rustling of electricity.
There is a report about the entire field under surveillance by researchers with high-tech equipment when a thick mist covered the area in the middle of the night. At the dawn, a new crop circle became visible; no human activity was apparently recorded.
The symbols that are put down are often imagined then designed on the night before, and some researchers claim to have seen a design before it appeared. This gets very weird.
The one we have entered on the 1 August 2008 was named ' Swallows' and it appeared several days before, over a period of two nights.
Well, to create such a work of art - this is what we consider crop formations - first and foremost - in such a short span of time is something remarkable and extraordinary. What human being would like to be involved in creating tens of such huge formation in the middle of the night over the Summer months for over two decades now? And for nothing, just an artistic prank. These were questions we have to ask ourselves. Perhaps it is possible. Humans are able to do incredible things. With a help of some high tech equipment, we thought it possible. The motives are however still beyond anybody's comprehension.
The earliest written report about the phenomena dates back to around 800s. There is a mention in a French manuscript about the bishop of Lyon warning that there had been some local parishioners who were collecting seeds out of "flattened circles" and using them for fertility rites. Another early historic record is in a woodcut from 16th Century. It depicts the devil mowing a field into patterns.
From 17th century circles in crop fields had been documented in texts - over two hundred accounts, according to researchers. The circles expanded hugely in the 1970s-1990s.
After a short bus drive, we walked into another circle, this was smaller but with a completely different 'feel'.As if another artistic technique was employed here. This crop formation was named 'Owls' Eyes'.
Biophysical testing on plants within the circles was conducted by the BLT Team. They discovered that some of the epicentre plants were covered with iron particles fused in some of the plant tissue. In the end, the research was not accepted by many researchers who had a scientific background themselves. As we looked through the data, it remains inconclusive.
Nevertheless, British Army helicopters had been seen over the fields, often chasing balls of lights, according to many witnesses reports. Some farmers destroy the crop formation as soon as they appear, others cooperate with the public and quite understandably, they need some payback for entering their fields.
After a day in Wiltshire fields we have enjoyed the Summer Crop Circle Lectures. Listening to really some odd theories - it was fun in itself. Taking a relaxed approach is the best what we have learned. We've seen many people in our lives, acting weird or talking rubbish.
As with everything - ones you are an expert in something you lose a bigger picture and become emotionally defensive about your area of expertise. This is related to both professionals and independent researchers.
Our stance, we gathered, is to take a step back and look at something from the birds perspective. It is so easy to lose sight in details, in materialistic only or spiritual only - approach. This was our most valuable 'lesson' from this amazing trip into the fields.
Swallows formation, Southfield Alton Priors, Wiltshire, 22nd July 2008:
Owls' Eyes formation, Hillside Farm West Woods, Wiltshire, 20th July 2008
Two last Images credit to Temporary Temples.
If you would like to have your mind blown away by the phenomena of crop formations, visit their website: https://temporarytemples.co.uk/
Highly recommended!
The link to all 2008 crop formations that had occurred in Wiltshire, documented with painstaking accuracy: https://temporarytemples.co.uk/crop-circles/2008-crop-circles