Fairies
The energy, the relationship between mind and stone matter, here at Stonehenge, is all powerful. I can feel fairies prickling up the hairs on the back of my neck — for the fun of messing with me, as I approach. Here is a door to an otherworld and it is buzzed by ancient, enchanting fae. Tylwyth Teg, fair folk, to this Welshman.
Hold yourself still, quiet, tune out the other people, the birds, the wind. Just you and the ancient, magical stones. Think of nymphs, nature in human shapes. Fairies, if you like. Open your mind, your heart. Believe or pretend to believe. In front of your eyes or in your imagination, you will see them frolicking, dancing and humming around the remembered feelings, senses and smells of your ancestors. They have always been here. And are here for you now, in this fraction of a second that you will carry forever.
The stones have their own old enchantments. Chief among them, the legend of the countless stones: count them twice and you will never reach the same number — a trick the fair folk play on the tidy-minded. Daniel Defoe recorded the tale of a baker who carried a basket of loaves and laid one on every stone, and still could not settle the sum. And for centuries, visitors chipped bits from the stones as charms — in Victorian times the blacksmith at Amesbury would hire you a hammer for the purpose. Luck, protection, healing: fairy logic, applied with a chisel.
Fairy orbs
I’ve had many interesting discussions with others at Stonehenge about the otherworlds. Often, I’m shown mobile phone pictures of fairy orbs around the monument, at low light levels; sometimes the photos show swarms, masses, particularly around auspicious dates.
I really, really need to draw your attention to my own witch photographer photo of fairy orbs, The Ellylldan and the fairy orbs. It’s a story of Welsh fire-elves who take orbs from fairies, so they can use the siren light to lure travellers deep into lost woods. Available at your local witch photographer website, now!
The energy orbs at this sacred site are teeming with faces, figures, magical sigils. Sometimes full of colour, others a grey light. They speed, float, dance and follow people. Spirits, souls, entities, angels, fairies, otherworld, paranormal, supernatural – it doesn’t matter what words are used; it’s the feelings they are able to bring that are important.
A century before camera-phone orbs, two Yorkshire girls with a borrowed camera produced the Cottingley Fairies — five photographs of paper-winged dancers that fooled, among others, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of the most rational detective in literature. As a fellow photographer of fairies, I pass no judgement whatsoever.
Fairy circles within circles
Fairy rings
Easily seen and wondered at, these days via Google Earth, these mushroom rings grow outwards from a single spore, eating the nitrogen and spreading ever outwards in the search of fresh supplies. This happens in deep, darkest woods; I see them on my dog walks. As well, on grassy fields, around the Stonehenge area. Here the grass is eaten by rabbits, but they don’t like mushrooms, so the rings seem more pronounced as they stand proud of the shortened grasses. When the hungry circle is quite large, around 20 feet, the inside is full once more of nitrogen from the rabbit poo and ready for another circle to start, which may be concentric to the first, or not. The effect is like raindrops on ponds.
On Google Earth, there are plenty of mycelium circles to confuse the amateur archaeologist. Me included.
Stories told and retold
Personally, I find fairy rings fascinating. Whether spotted in local woods where they’re 3-4 yards wide or on a neighbour’s lawn and only a few feet across. They conjure my own amusement and wonder, even though I know the science. Even though I know the science, I’ll not step inside.
I read that one in France is 2,000 feet wide (600m) and 700 years old, and there are many on the South Downs that are also several hundred years old. I guess they need peace and quiet to grow larger. Perhaps, like 5,000 years ago or more, when there was little human interference in Britain. Though long before the Romans first brought rabbits over to feed their soldiers — and it took the Normans to make them stick.
Stories are remarkably similar throughout Europe. Be they devils, fairies, or witches. It’s all magical. And dangerous! You don’t want to step inside and never, ever, ever damage the ring. Or else!
But what of our ancestors, the builders? Maybe Stonehenge is a fairy ring. Did they build one atop an existing ring? Did they copy the idea? Were they instructed by a fairy god?
The diameter of the enclosing ditch is around 360 feet (110m) and the outer sarsen circle 108 feet (33m). Quite plausible that it would reflect a fairy circle.