Crop Circles & the Symposium

Walking in crop circle, August 2, 2011

 I have been waiting to write about crop circles, largely because there's so much information that has been available (and a lot of disinformation as well).

Here it is, from the air on Windmill Hill site

I attended the Glastonbury Symposium, and listened to various experts on the subject, among them Lucy Pringle, whose beautiful photographs, and many years of dedicated research I have the highest respect for.  She's been flying over crop circles for 30 years, and has participated in many research projects.  At the Symposium she spoke about studies of subjects brain waves ( including herself) within quite a few circles - the results were surprising, showing that the circles produced a trance or meditative state in many who spent time within them.

Sig Lonegren, a famous dowser living in Glastonbury (he is also my teacher, and it was a real pleasure to meet him and his wife again after all these years) believes that some crop circles act as batteries - concentrating energies that dissipate after a while (depending on how long they have  been present, and also how many people enter them)  Of course he comments that many crop circles, but not all, are human made.

 It is clear that there are amazing anomelies surrounding crop circles - many occuring within minutes of them not being there by witnesses, and people having experiences inside of them, including visions, healing, etc.  In what they call "authentic" crop circles,  there have been electro-magnetic anomilies, inexplicable white powder, and evidence that the circle was formed by short bursts of great heat, resulting in plants being inexplicably  bent at joints but not broken, the joints being burst.  Some plants that occured in crop circles come back larger and healthier the following year, and some , areas not so, or a "ghost image" of the circle occurs in the field the following year.  Some crop circle "ghosts" can even be seen in the winter, when snow surrounds the area of the circle, but is not visible on the "ghost".

I must also add here that a great many crop circles are human made.  I met a woman right here in Glastonbury, who is affiliated with the Temple, who told me that when she lived in Avebury she and her husband belonged to a group of people who made crop circles, for fun, and also because they considered it earth art.  There is a famous crop circle of the Goddess that she told me they made.  I see no reason to disbelieve her, and there are groups who have clearly demonstrated their ability to create crop circles, as well as earth art that includes sacred geometry.  With anything that has been going on so long, and generates so much interest, is it any surprise that this should be so?  Many circles include universal human sacred symbols - I do not negate them because they may have been created by humans.   Why do they do it at night, and secretly?  Because they can.  Why not admit what they've been doing?  Some have, but  because destroying  crops is illegal and they can go to jail if caught they tend to keep quiet.  And the secrecy is part of the excitement - also, apparently there are  "true believers" who refuse to  believe that any crop circle can be human made, becoming hostile even when they demonstrate that they can. Here's a very funny "crop art" that happened in Wiltshire this past July of an ET smoking a pipe. 

Please do not think, reading this, that I am thus negating the mystery of the circles.  Indeed, my own research this summer, and attending the conference, has convinced me that the phenomenon is real.

There is a very  famous analog video (made on vcr camera in 1996) that was filmed at dawn by someone camping on a hill overlooking a field - the film was analyzed in labs, and no one was ever able to determine how it could have been faked.  But, as with so much of what I can determine about the phenomenon here, there is a controversy surrounding the film, as the film maker vanished without being able to locate within a month of having produced the film - perhaps he didn't like the publicity, or perhaps there was something darker about his disappearance.  All of this is available in most of the books written about crop circles.   Anyway, here's the famous clip:

So, to conclude, I have to say that from what I can understand, this is a great mystery, some are enormously complex and inexplicable - they don't know who made them, and could not be made by any human means, and have many anomalies surrounding their creation and presence. They are communications that, like all symbols, exist on multiple layers of meaning - like dreams, perhaps.   There are also many that could, and probably were, made by people.

My trip to a Circle was with 5 people, and we left Glastonbury toward Avebury, stopping at the Silent Circle Cafe - a cafe near the town of Devizes (but out in the countryside) that features the 'CROP CIRCLE REPORT" - a map with all the current sites of circles, pictures of them, and information as to when they occurred, and whether they are still in existence.  It's in the midst of "crop circle hot spot country"..... and a great place to hang out and meet people from all over the world who are pursuing the Circles.   Looking out over that vast mosaic of wheat fields, and the strange march of standing stones and prehistoric barrows that are to be seen occasionally in the midst of it all.........one can well imagine this being a canvas for the "Circle Makers".

(Here's one that was made in 1999 called the "Basket Circle" - notice how the wheat is woven within this amazing circle - this is considered one that is inexplicable, and too complex to have been created in a single night by a group of people. ) 

The crops are currently being harvested, and so many circles are about to become bread or cooking oil (which I found kind of energetically wonderful as well).  Like the sheep wandering through the avenues of Avebury, it all seems of a piece, the mysterious, the sacred, and the mundane magic of the agricultural world.  it's all about the Great Mother and the true  alchemy of the land.

We walked for quite a while on the borders of some extraordinarily beautiful golden fields of ripe wheat.  The heavy heads of the wheat rustled in the breeze, very peaceful to be in.  At  last we came to the  circle........walking along the lines of the tractors (left when the crop was planted) so as to not hurt the surrounding fields of wheat we entered the circles that made up a much larger circle.  It was peaceful, and I confess I enjoyed lying down on the soft, swirled bed of the circle.  Did I feel any special energy?  No, and I confess as well to breaking some stems of wheat and feeling that my efforts didn't look very different from the bent stems I walked on.  It was, howevever, and "old" circle, having been discovered on the 20th of July.  Sig has commented that as a dowser, he's seen that circles seem to lose their energy with time, and depending on the number of people who visit them.   I personally found no evidence of anything strange within the circle of circles, although when one considers the vast scope of it (it's huge), that is pretty amazing to everyone except, no doubt, the farmers who planted the field.  I understand many of them are very angry about the phenomenon, although I suppose they are used to it by now as well.

I'll close with a trailor from a new movie about the phenomenon that I've heard many good things about.  I'm glad I got to walk in one at last.

Here's the website: http://www.whatonearththemovie.com/flash/#/trailer/clip