Tickling the Omphalos of Britain
Earth Mysteries, Healing Stones & Croppies
Ok, just a friendly warning up front …
Those of you who find some of my posts which touch upon dowsing etc, to be a little too woo may want to step away from the blog at this point!
This weekend I am heading to the ancient spiritual centre (and in some sense the actual the centre) of Britain, the British omphalos if you will, Avebury.
Avebury is a special place and worth a visit at any time, just to chill out and soak up the vibes within the stone circle. Unlike Stonehenge, you can wander in amongst the stones and around the massive henge and it has a much more homely feel. I once described the vibe of Avebury to a friend as feeling like an old pair of slippers. Not that it isn’t a powerful place, but it just feels familiar and comfortable, as if we all belong there. As is presumably becoming apparent, it is one of my very favourite places.
I have a dual mission this weekend: to continue my quest to visit as many of the crossing points of the Michael and Mary energy currents as possible and to attend a dowsing course. Obviously I have dabbled with dowsing without giving it too much thought, but the results have been interesting enough to make me want to dig deeper.
Avebury is the perfect place for this. The instructor pointed out that it is ideal for dowsers of all levels of experience as if you don’t feel anything at Avebury, you are probably already dead.
Avebury is also pretty much the mid-point of the Michael-Mary alignment between Cornwall and Norfolk and there are multiple crossing points and comings together across the 3 mile temple complex.
[Although most people visiting Avebury will just visit the henge and stone circles, the actual complex is huge, although with not much remaining after the heinous destruction of most of the stones by local farmers - heavily encouraged by the Church - during the 17th and 18th centuries. It stretches from Windmill Hill in the north via the main henge, down to the Sanctuary in the south and encompassing amazing sites such as the massive man-made mound of Silbury Hill and West Kennet Long Barrow - probably the largest remaining barrow in Britain.]
As I do not fancy getting up at stupid o’clock on Saturday, I travel down on Friday and so have the opportunity for a further half day of exploration. I have cunningly signed up for National Trust membership to cover the parking. I had previously been a member, and let it lapse, but I am confident I can get a decent ROI this time, starting with 3 or 4 days parking at £8 per day and £7 entrance to the somewhat diminutive museum, I will be well on my way. But I digress.
After a short wander around the henge and stones
(plenty of time for that over the weekend) I decide to head up to Windmill Hill.
I have not been here before, but want to visit because it is (a) the oldest part of the complex and (b) the first crossing point of the two lines. It is also, I am led to understand, usually pretty deserted. Not so this time as there is a cyclist sitting repairing a puncture on top of one of the burial mounds.
Perhaps he didn’t ask permission to enter from the Guardian of the place and was being punished? This is something I discovered over the weekend. Apparently you are supposed to ask permission before entering sacred places. I have generally blithely wandered in, dowsing rods a-blazing, but I was told that this is not the way. I mentioned to the tutor a previous experience I had had at West Kennet Long Barrow when I had wandered around happily enough but at the point of entering, had a strong sense of foreboding and backed away. He asked if I had sought permission to enter, which had obviously never occurred to me, and was treated to a knowing look. Live and learn.
Anyway, back at Windmill Hill …
This was a major settlement at one time and the first part of the complex to be built/used for festivals, with signs of occupation dating back to 3700BC. Now there are just a few scattered banks and barrows visible, but artefacts from the site are in the museum in the village. This the Alexander Keiller Museum, named after the guy who undertook many of the excavations in these parts in the 1920s. Apparently he was a Marmalade Baron, which conjures up all sorts of images, but probably isn’t relevant.
Anyway, the confluence of Mary and Michael confirmed, I head back down being treated to some fine views over Avebury on the way.
I have a final wander up to the top of the henge, primarily because I had heard that there was a crop circle nearby and figured it should be visible from the henge. And indeed it was. More of this later…
It is quite a simple arrangement, but more is visible from the air, including a number of overlapping rings forming a vesica piscis.
This drone footage giving an arial view of the crop circle also gives a great view of the henge from above, although the video could probably have been improved without the commentator.
It is a warm day and I feel that I have earned a pint after the hike up to Windmill Hill and so retire to the Red Lion pub. Whilst I am absolutely horrified by the destruction of the stones and the fact that a village was built right in the middle of it, there is something very satisfying about being able to sit with a pint and admire the stones at the same time. I’m such a hypocrite!
And then it is off to Devizes for a sleepless night in the hottest hotel I have ever stayed in. I should have learned my lesson about Travelodge after many years staying in Swindon, but it seemed like a good (read cheap!) idea at the time. I suspect that if we keep having summers like this, Travelodge will go out of business unless they splash out on aircon.
Day 2 of the trip and it is course time! I had thought that I might be the only one on this, but the course is full. There are 16 of us from diverse backgrounds - many involved in spiritual or healing practices, others just curious. They are a great bunch and we have a lot of fun over the weekend.
After some introductions, there is a showing of a video of the Sun and the Serpent. Regular readers may remember that this was the book that set me off on this quest. The video shows legendary dowser Hamish Miller and Paul Broadhurst following the St. Michael alignment before discovering, at Avebury, that there are in fact two lines and that they are far from straight, necessitating them going back to the start. When I read the book, I had assumed that one of the was driving and the other was dowsing, but it appears that Hamish was driving whilst dowsing and making some mad turns to follow where the rod was pointing. I feel this would not pass muster in a hands-free world. Simpler times…
The course is a combination of introducing different dowsing techniques and obviously a fair amount of fieldwork to practise. Clearly I have only been scratching the surface and am introduced to a world of energy patterns - spirals, columns, risers, droppers, energy drains…
It may take some time to assimilate all of this!
It also becomes apparent that
(a) no one really knows what the energy (this is specifically an earth energy course) is, other than by analogy with ideas about the energy structures in people - chi, prana etc. - with the earth as a living entity having its own energy field and
(b) there are endless different opinions as to what a ley line is!
For what it’s worth, I would tend toward the original definition from Alfred Watkins, with a ley line just being an alignment of interesting sites. There may be energy running along a ley line or there may not.
In the case of the St. Michael Ley Line, the alignment runs straight from a point near Lands End to Hopton-on-Sea in Norfolk. The Michael and Mary energy currents weave along this line, snaking their way like rivers (and I believe that there is often an association with underground water). The serpent-like nature of these lines, brings to mind dragons (and they are referred to as dragon lines in China) and I think it is no coincidence that the churches plonked at specific points along the lines are dedicated to entities known for dragon slaying.
Whilst we are out dowsing around the site, lots of people stop to ask what we are up to. Invariably the answer “Looking for Earth energies” is met with a look of puzzlement followed by, “What, you mean like ley lines?”. Whatever, easier to just answer in the affirmative.
Now dowsing in a group is very interesting as it is useful to see if results match up. They generally do and it is this repeatability between people and across time which got me hooked in the first place. Between us we start to build up an interesting picture of the energy overly of Avebury.
One of the dowsers homed in on all of the healing stones on the site. Interestingly, these matched ones that a friend (a lot more energy savvy than myself) had felt drawn to on a trip last month. I went back and spent some time sitting on one of these stones after the course and the day after I got home I felt great, with lots of minor aches and niggles having vanished, so I am all in on that! I have their locations tucked away in my head for future trips.
The other thing we were keen to look at was if there was any relationship between the stones and the crop circle just outside the henge. Now when I first saw that, I had pretty much convinced myself that it was a fake (largely due to the vehicle tracks leading up to them but these, when seen from the arial view, were clearly just tractor tram lines).
By the end of the weekend, I have a completely different view of crop circles. We did some investigation and the Mary current runs right through the circle, exiting via a particular stone. It is possible to pick up the current in the ditch behind the stone and then back up on top of the henge, where it is aimed directly at the crop circle. Apparently there have been a number of crop circles (usually more complex) in this exact location over the years.
We have an entertaining time coming up with theories as to what is going on - from a venting of excess energy (this particular circle appeared on the 14th July New Moon, which is apparently when the energies are at their peak), to the energy currents somehow reprogramming and shifting themselves to accommodate the changes since the site was built - break up of the stones, roads passing through etc. When dowsing on West Kennet Avenue where the Michael current was originally constrained by the stones, it became apparent that this had shifted over time, so whatever the purpose of all of this is, it appears to be self-healing.
Having finished the course, I take a trip up to the Sanctuary to tick off the final crossing point. The stones and wooden posts are long gone, but the energy remains!
The next day, I decide to make the most of my time in the area rather than head straight home. First stop, a crop circle on the hill just above where I am staying. On the crop circles web site it looked quite impressive - two complex designs. By the time I got there it looked like this
Because of the weather I think a lot of fields are being harvested early. Probably lucky that the one at Avebury was still there.
On the way up, I passed a number of croppies outside there vans. These are folk who hang out at all the hotspots or turn up when a circle appears. I would have thought that one of them could have told me that it was gone! Ah well, it is a not unpleasant spot for a morning walk.
This is one of the intriguing things about crop circles, there are often enthusiasts sat watching fields until darkness descends and then up at first light, only to discover that a circle has appeared within a few hours. They generally appear at night, but there have been formations filmed (pre-AI days, but who knows if that is genuine). It formed in 4 seconds apparently!
There was a famous Julia set crop circle near Stonehenge which formed during a 45 minute window (according to a pilot who flew over the site twice) in broad daylight. An eyewitness who was tracked down later suggested that they had watched it being formed for about 20 minutes.
Stonehenge Julia Set Crop Circle
And so now, of course, I have to head to Alton Barnes, Crop Circle hotspot and home to the eponymous white horse
to visit the Crop Circle Centre
It is not open when I get there, but the fine cafe serving an superb veggie breakfast is, so waiting is no hardship.
The museum is excellent. It documents many of the main examples and covers all of the various theories of how they may be formed - from man-made, to electrically charged winds, earth energies, heated water from underground aquifers, sound generated…
Clearly many of these are indeed man-made, but I am now onboard with the earth energy explanation (at least for simpler ones). One intriguing idea is that they are created by sound (there are reports of people hearing strange tones at night and crop circles being present in the morning).
It is well known (or at least well known amongst people who are interested in such things!) that sound waves can produce complex geometric patterns. This is the science of cymatics. I find this quite compelling for the more complex but regular geometric patterns. Of course this then pushes the mystery back to where the sound comes from…
Anyway, the museum is pretty even handed with its exploration and I pass a fascinating hour there. They also track recent crop circles, together with access permissions, should you wish to visit one yourself.
Onwards and I had intended for the final part of my journey to be to Ogbourne St. Andrew and Ogbourne St. George - two more of the Michael-Mary cross-over points. At Ogbourne St. Andrew the road is closed and there are a large number of people walking down the narrow roads being herded by folk in hi-vis jackets. Clearly something is going on. After a few circuits of battling sat nav and diversion signs, I decide to abort. Ogbournes you are dead to me.
No matter, I will just mosey on down the line. I decide to head for Wittenham Clumps near Oxford as it is sort of on the way home and is another crossing point. On the way, I pass through Marlborough and get a good view of the Marlborough Mound from the road, and this pleases me greatly.
[ The Marlborough Mound is another large man-made mound like Silbury Hill and the Gop, but is within Marlborough College and off-limits to the public. They have occasional open days so I will get to visit it one day! It is another one of the crossing points. Nobody knows what these mounds are for. They are not burial mounds and they seem to be made up of alternating bands of organic and inorganic matter. The tutor on the dowsing course suggested that Silbury Hill was an earth energy capacitor. I have no idea if this is the case, but I find the idea very appealing.]
And so on for a final stop at the Clumps
As far as I can tell, the crossing point here is behind this locked gate
Foiled again! I find it somewhat ironic that access to a key point in the earth’s energy system is blocked by an organisation called earth trust especially as the reason is fungal decay. That’s what fungus does! I call shenanigans on it.
Time to head back north. It has been a fun weekend and taking the Sun and the Serpent as a guide to short trips within Britain seems to be panning out pretty well!