SACRED SITES IN ENGLAND: PART 3, Stonehenge
Our next destination is Stonehenge, a landmark branded in the world’s imagination, an enigma, a Chinese mystery-box of stone. Just the mention of its name brings up fervent curiosity and questions. Why does it exist? What is its purpose? Is it, as STONEHENGE DECODED explains in part, an observatory of nineteen-year cycles, an elaborate natural computer of solar and lunar movement and eclipses? But if it was created merely to track the sun and moons’ progress through the heavens, why? Or does it exist with vastly greater esoteric purposes in mind?
"Despite the fact that we have entirely forgotten the reasons for the origins of these sacred sites, many of them still emanate a strange power over the human mind, a lost dream where stone circles and monoliths, mounds and barrows, hilltop shrines and holy wells were utilized to create an intimate contact with the secret rhythms of the Cosmos."
Stonehenge stands in middle of the Salisbury Plain. On the road from Avebury to Stonehenge, Salisbury Cathedral can be seen rising over the mostly treeless plain, the tallest spire in England. The remains of the Stonehenge circle was built during three separate time frames, beginning about 3100 BC and ending about 1600 BC, and contain two distinct varieties of crystalline stone. The first group of smaller stones, known as blue stones, were hauled four hundred miles from Preseli Mountain in Wales, forming a double crescent. Two to three hundred years later, the second group of sarsen stones (each weighing 25 tons) were brought from the same Marlborough quarry as those of Avebury, some twenty-five miles away.
Unlike Avebury, which may have been a training ground for Stonehenge, the stones at Stonehenge were deliberately cut and shaped, then put into position. Each lintel stone forming a cross-beam had "grooves" drilled in it to fit perfectly into carved "tongues" of the standing sarsen stone. "At the centre, five huge trilithons, each of two uprights and a lintel, were raised, and around them were set 30 sarsen uprights in a circle capped with a continuous line of sarsen lintels…" This project dwarfs understanding, as one tries to imagine how prehistoric people moved these massive stones such a great distance, then hefted the massive lintels to fit on top of the standing stones. Even with modern technology, many of these megalithic stones cannot be moved today.
Like Avebury, Stonehenge had a ditch and mound encircling it, within it a complex of timbers, which have eroded over the centuries. In the surrounding countryside are burial mounds, and leading up to Stonehenge is a long processional Avenue, similar to Avebury, but almost completely destroyed. The Druids worshipped at Stonehenge and were once thought to have created it. However, research now shows that a more ancient people constructed the monument.
The British National Trust, in order to preserve this treasure, has put up fences and barriers to keep visitors at a distance, but is now rethinking its position. In the future, roads may be detoured around Stonehenge, to prevent vehicle exhaust from further eroding the monument. The entrance may be re-situated at the heel stone, believed to be the original entryway, and visitors may be allowed intimate access to the stone circle. At this time, however, sacred site tour groups must obtain special permission to enter the inner circle.
My own personal experiences with Stonehenge, although not universal, has been deeply provocative. Prior to traveling to Stonehenge with a spiritual tour group, the ancient site appeared to me in a vision the day before we were scheduled to arrive. I was told "We have been waiting for you. Bring a drum and make sacred sounds. Sit among us and we will share with you." I’m clairaudient and quite used to hearing psychic messages, so I purchased a drum to bring with me.
Our group had special permission to enter the stone circle after visiting hours, but we were delayed by police and dogs chasing some young people who had climbed the fence. When we were finally allowed access, the stones were silent and still; none of my group could perceive any energy there. (I was told later that dawn is a better time to visit, although possibly the "chase" forced the energy underground.) However, I dutifully played my newly-purchased Celtic drum for two hours, but didn’t intuit any messages. The rest of my group wandered around, took some spectacular photos and we left feeling rather disappointed.
I was still drawn to Stonehenge and returned again the following year. However, I had to walk around the traditional gravel path with other visitors. This time two different sarsen stones "opened up" as I walked around the circle and I went into an altered state, standing still on that path. Perhaps the stones recognized me and my drumming and allowed me deeper access. I seemed to travel to other times or dimensions through the stones’ energy portals and I "received" information, which I’m starting to compile.
When I returned home to California, I was "told" to create TIME TRAVEL (now closed after 7 years), which I did. . I began to have many visions and dreams of Stonehenge, as though it was talking to and instructing me. One vision is that Light is being beamed into Stonehenge and other sacred sites to enhance global healing and wisdom. Lately when I’ve lectured on sacred sites, Stonehenge’s energy seems to enter into me and the audience has mystical experiences as a result. One member of my audience later started having visions of her own of Stonehenge, and dreamt that she lay upon the Altar Stone, receiving messages and healing.
I believe stones at sacred sites contain vast amplitudes of energetic coding, with messages waiting for all of us. Perhaps the power and information of Stonehenge is so great that one cannot take it all in at once. If that’s true, with so many messages encoded into the stones, it may take numerous visits, both physically and psychically, to discern them all. Furthermore, energy may be buried deep under the site, awaiting the right individual or collection of individuals to unlock all its secrets.
What will unlock them? Barbara Marciniak says sound unlocks the secrets in stone. With my drumming experience, I’m inclined to agree. In my book THE LEMURIAN WAY, I discuss how the Lemurians used sound extensively at their own sacred sites called Light Temples. Therefore, through toning, chanting, singing and musical instruments, Stonehenge may resonate and gift us with an outpouring of love, information, knowledge and wisdom contained deep within its stony intelligence.
If you're interested in Stonehenge, here's a tour company who can take you there.
Featured tour company: SACRED JOURNEYS FOR WOMYN
Sally Griffyn and Alaura O’Dell
A native Briton, Sally was interested in sacred sites from an early age. She was taken to Stonehenge at age nine, and inspired by a spiritual experience there, sought out many British sacred sites in her teens. She pursued spiritual archaeology, visiting Crete, Mexico, India, and Nepal. She worked as an archaeologist and photographer for the Museum of London and the University of Edinburgh. Her life’s turning point was when she excavated a highly-charged ritual object, a carved stone ball, which was then stored away in a vault! Losing her faith in archaeology, Sally changed her approach to sacred sites, extensively read Celtic mythology, and attempted to "listen to the stones." She learned that ancient people esteemed stones for healing, amplifying emotions, releasing negative feelings and creating a sense of well-being.
Alaura grew up in England of Irish/English ancestry. She owned a record company and performed all over the world with a band. As she traveled, she discovered sacred sites, with the standing stones, stone circles and other sacred sites in England and Ireland calling her most intensely, and she began years of research on these sites. She helped with the archives of Marija Gimbutuas, who wrote "Civilization of the Goddess" and "Language of the Goddess," has worked with healers at many powerful sacred sites, and enjoys bringing her children to them as well. Her favorite sacred sites are Silbury Hill and West Kennet Long Barrow. "…from an aerial view, one can see that she [Silbury Hill] is the Goddess in pregnancy, waiting to give birth at Llammas. The dry moat around her body was once full of the water of the Goddess, and her naval aligns with the sleeping Goddess burial chamber of West Kennet."
Sally and Alaura teamed up in 1996 because of their mutual love of stones and began taking others to sacred sites. "Our company is in touch with the spiritual needs of the 90’s…We seem to be at a major turning point in history – with psychological, environmental and spiritual issues – and people are seeking more…the difference between a holiday and a journey. Our tours are set up with a personal touch and we keep things small. Women get personal attention, feel safe and have a chance…to look at their lives in a circle of friends…Many of the women who [attended] had difficult times in their own lives and by taking them to Stonehenge, Avebury, Glastonbury, many small and little-known holy wells and stone circles, they felt a shift in their consciousness…They actually looked more healthy and radiant by the end of the tour…and had a good time."
Sacred Journeys for Womyn, (USA) 707 874 8176 (FAX 707 874 8176) PO Box 893, Occidental, CA 95465 USA E-Mail: alaura@wco.com or shiatsubear@enterprise.net
https://www.facebook.com/Sacred-Journeys-for-Women-1629056624059443/
COSMIC GRANDMA WISDOM, Lauren O. Thyme, LOThyme Publishing, Santa Fe, NM 2017STONEHENGE DECODED, Hawkins, Gerald, Doubleday & Company, Inc., New York, NY, 1965 EARTH, PLEIADIAN KEYS TO THE LIVING LIBRARY, Barbara Marciniak, Bear & Company Publishing, Santa Fe, NM, 1995
