“Britain has given the go-ahead for a new 25 million pound visitor centre at Stonehenge and will shut a road that runs alongside the country’s most famous prehistoric monument … The Stonehenge Programme Board (SPB) has now given approval “in principle” for a new visitor centre to be built at Airman’s Corner about 1.5 miles (2.4 km) from the current site. In addition, it has proposed closing the A344 road which takes traffic very close to the stones. The project will now need planning approval and funding, which will come from both private and public sources.”

No doubt this newly-approved plan could unravel if funding isn’t found, but I can’t imagine the government would balk at improving this World Heritage Site and risk international embarrassment. Whether these developments will please Druid leader King Arthur Pendragon, who is risking arrest by camping out in front of the site, remains to be seen. However, it certainly is good news for anyone (including Pagans) who care about the sites future.

“[King Arthur Pendragon] believes visitors should be allowed to walk close to the stones and touch them rather than being confined to a visitor centre and a pathway well away from the monument. Pendragon also believes the fence designed to keep visitors out has a damaging impact on the stone circle itself, holding it “in a stranglehold like a snared animal”. Wiltshire county council launched legal proceedings to force Pendragon to move away. Salisbury crown court granted a possession order, in effect giving him until Sunday to pack up and leave. But outside court, bearded Pendragon, who was flanked by supporters in white robes, said he would not be budging.”

Pendragon has already vowed to fight the issue in court and to stay in his camp despite threat of arrest. The Druid leader also claims to have the full support of the Council of British Druid Orders (though it is unknown how much support among modern Druidry that really entails). There are certainly British Pagans who do not support the idea of allowing unfettered access to Stonehenge, especially considering the damges that were inflicted on the site leading up to imposed restrictions in the 1970s. Meanwhile, while Pendragon kept his vigil, British beuracracy continued to slowly trawl forward in finding a solution to Stonehenge’s issues. Specifically the now-published and approved proposal from the Future of Stonehenge Public Consultation.

“Although the Government decided that the A303 road improvements were unaffordable, it has made a commitment in December 2007 to review the Management Plan as the overarching strategic document for the Site, and to complete environmental improvements at Stonehenge, including new visitor facilities, in time for the 2012 Olympics. This work includes examination of the case for closing the A303/ A344 junction to improve the setting of Stonehenge. A new Stonehenge Project Board, chaired by the Ministers for Culture and for Transport, has been set up to oversee this work.”

While Pendragon’s stance may be noble and heroic, it is far more likely that the impending 2012 Olympics will finally spur the government to make the needed improvements in order to avoid international embarrasment over the state of a World Heritage Site. Still, you simply can’t buy the kind of publicity that gets you listed in all the major British newspapers, so I suppose this is something of a PR coup for Pendragon and his followers. Whether anything constructive will come of this limelight remains to be seen, but having raised the stakes it’s jail or go home now.

The National Trust, which owns much of the village, has found itself caught in the middle of several different interest groups: English Heritage wants to preserve the stones, the council wants to keep roads open, the police want to stop anti-social behaviour, the pagans want to uphold their right to their religious observances and residents want the three-day ‘invasion’ kept to a minimum.

For now local residents have decided to continue allowing limited camping near the site, not so much for selfless reasons, but because they are genuinely afraid of “significant problems” if they outright ban camping at the site. Many still recall with dread observances from 2005 and 2006 when disorder and chaos ruled the day and seek to avoid a repeat if they can.

In 2005 and 2006, residents complained of chaos and anti- social behaviour with complaints of drunken revellers urinating in gardens, rubbish left everywhere and emergency service vehicles unable to get through the village. The situation has improved in the since with first police and council officials clamping down on cars parked outside the designated car parks and then the National Trust not allowing camper vans and travellers’ vehicles into the main car park. It has meant numbers at the solstice have more than halved, with many travelling on to Stonehenge.

Despite the popularity of the site and the thousands of visitors, the residents are facing a town in slow decline without a proper post office, no school, and until very recently, no local shop. It’s little wonder the remaining residents are ambivalent about their seasonal “guests”. Meanwhile, due to the global economic downturn, sites like Avebury and Stonehenge are being starved of much-needed funds that could go a long way toward making improvements and easing tensions between locals and visitors.

I think it’s hard for Americans (and other non-UK residing Pagans) to understand the emotional and spiritual resonance these sites hold for the British Pagans (and the British in general), so I won’t venture to guess as to what could solve all the problems faced here. I suppose that time will, in the longer run, finish off the last vestiges of the declining village at Avebury. Allowing The National Trust (which maintains the site and the village) to transition the site into a purely tourist-going affair. But in the meantime, tensions will no doubt persist, and one hopes that local Pagan leaders will be at the forefront of ameliorating mistrust and fear among Avebury residents.

The right-wing site NewsBusters, who expose liberal media bias by reveling in their own conservative media bias, takes a few pot-shots at Margot Adler’s coverage of Dylan Mortimer’s Public Prayer Booths for NPR. NewsBuster Tim Graham seems particularly unhappy they sent a “pagan witch” to cover this story.

“NPR sent reporter Margot Adler – the pagan witch – to address this issue, and she just happened to stumble across the New York City Atheists as she opened the story … it’s hard for most listeners to buy the argument that Bronstein [of the New York City Atheists] “just happened to be walking by.” If Adler didn’t contact him beforehand … another reason for skepticism: Adler failed to just discover a protester in August as she delighted in a piece of public art that satirized waterboarding SpongeBob Squarepants … There’s no spokesman for “organized religion” in the prayer-as-art story…”

It seems that Graham’s biggest problem with Adler is that she isn’t a conservative Christian, that an atheist was hanging around when she recorded the report, and that she didn’t talk to some conservative Christians. Oh, and she didn’t find a (Christian or conservative) protester to talk to in a completely unrelated story. Mr. Graham obviously hasn’t done much in the way of “man on the street” reporting (too busy writing about Hillary Clinton I expect), or he would know that you take what you can get, and sometimes it isn’t completely and perfectly ideologically balanced.

The Oregonian positively reviews a new play by Marc Acito entitled “Holidazed”, a comedy that follows a normal Christian family who take in a homeless Pagan teenager.

“Susannah Mars shines at the story’s center as Julia, a typical suburban mother trying to survive a mother’s many holiday duties. This year seems like any other until she gives a bag of Halloween candy to a homeless girl. When the girl asks her name, a random act of kindness becomes a personal encounter, prompting Julia to take her home for the night … As played by Ana Reiselman, Luna makes a wonderful catalyst for change. Sassy but loving, tough but fragile, she is first and foremost a human being, deserving of love and dignity. While paganism may seem strange in a holiday play, Luna’s knowledge of it strips away the family’s illusions about where their supposedly Christian traditions began, opening their eyes to simpler truths.”

The play runs at the Artists Repertory Theatre in Portland, Oregon through December 28th. You can also read about the process of making “Holidazed” in this separate Oregonian article. If any of my readers in Portland end up going to this, please post a review!

The Scifi blog IO9 points us towards an upcoming mythical indie film about Thor’s last day on Earth.

“Don’t let the generic indie guitar music fool you, this looks like quite a little cutie. The film follows Thor, the Norse God on his last day on Earth, as he knows he must die to save the planet. On his final day the fearless warrior traverses about a little suburb meeting people and causing a chain reaction through each character.”

Pope Benedict XVI in questioning interfaith dialogue shocker!

“Pope Benedict XVI cast doubt on the possibility of interfaith dialogue but called for more discussion of the practical consequences of religious differences. The pope’s comments came in a letter he wrote to Marcello Pera, an Italian center-right politician and scholar whose forthcoming book, “Why We Must Call Ourselves Christian,” argues that Europe should stay true to its Christian roots. A central theme of Benedict’s papacy has been to focus attention on the Christian roots of an increasingly secular Europe.”

Marcello Pera, a conservative backer of Silvio Berlusconi, has long railed against post-Enlightenment attempts to “build up a society without God”. Yet, long before Europe’s “Christian heritage”, it had a vibrant pagan one. Pera and Benedict have both intimated that Western democracy can’t survive without God, but fail to mention that Western democracy wasn’t invented by the “Judeo-Christian” tradition.

In a final note, a wealthy Druid and his hereditary Witch wife, when forced to downgrade from their Weymouth mansion to a detached house in Dorchester, decided to take their megalith with them.

“The stone circle megalith was originally erected in the grounds of Abbotts Court by Burberry fashion house founder Thomas Burberry in the early 1900s. The Burtons bought the mansion in the 1980s and could not live without the monoliths when they downsized to Dorchester. Neighbours watched in bewilderment as druid John and hereditary witch Suky used a crane and a huge truck to transport the 6ft stones to their new abode. The couple – both antique dealers – aligned the stones at special points along a powerful ley line around the garden to encircle themselves with positive energy.”

Now that’s what I call landscaping!

That’s all I have for now, have a great day!
]]> http://wildhunt.org/blog/2008/11/pagan-news-of-note_24.html/feed 0 http://wildhunt.org/blog/2008/10/winning-battle-of-stanton-moor.html http://wildhunt.org/blog/2008/10/winning-battle-of-stanton-moor.html#comments Sun, 05 Oct 2008 13:32:00 +0000 Jason http://wildhunt.org/blog/2008/10/winning-the-battle-of-stanton-moor.html Emily Dugan of The Independent profiles the tree-sitters and eco-warriors who have spent nine years living in the trees at Stanton Moor in the Peak District National Park. Their goal? To stop the planned re-opening of two mines that threatened the Nine Ladies stone circle.

The Nine Ladies

Now awaiting the official letter from Local Government Secretary Hazel Blears confirming their victory, the tree-sitters spend their last days saying goodbye to what has become their home, and wondering how they will re-enter normal English life.

One of the tree-houses.

One hopes that the admirers and supporters of the Nine Ladies will be able to help the protesters re-acclimate to the modern world after living a Robin Hood lifestyle for nine years*. This is truly a group who “walked the talk” of wanting to save England’s heritage. To read more about the history of this protest you can head over to the Nine Ladies Collective web site, or the Nine Ladies page at The Modern Antiquarian. As for Stancliffe Stone, the company that wanted to re-open the Lees Cross and Endcliffe quarries, they will be allowed to extend an existing quarry in exchange.

* I hope I’m not the only one who noticed the mythic resonances of protesters sacrificing nine years of their lives in order to protect the Nine Ladies.
]]> http://wildhunt.org/blog/2008/10/winning-battle-of-stanton-moor.html/feed 2 http://wildhunt.org/blog/2008/07/what-to-do-about-stonehenge.html http://wildhunt.org/blog/2008/07/what-to-do-about-stonehenge.html#comments Tue, 01 Jul 2008 12:10:00 +0000 Jason http://wildhunt.org/blog/2008/07/what-to-do-about-stonehenge.html Though the Summer Solstice revelers have moved on, that most famous of British neolithic monuments, Stonehenge, remains in the news. First off, somewhat controversial Druid leader King Arthur Pendragon (no, not that Arthur Pendragon) is camping out near Stonehenge, and vows to continue to do so until long-promised improvements to the site are made.

John Rothwell, aka Arthur Uther Pendragon.

However, this outrage over the condition of Stonehenge isn’t isolated to Druids and Pagans, and with the Olympics coming to London in 2012, there has been increased pressure to improve the state of England’s heritage sites. One manifestation of this willingness to do something about the state of Stonehenge is an upcoming three month public consultation on the future of the site. Organizers are no doubt hoping that this period of public input will quell criticisms of governmental negligence, and spur renewed action.

Stonehenge

Perhaps the fear of worldwide embarrassment over the care of Stonehenge will do more to motivate renewed care and attention to the monument than any protesting Druid could ever hope to achieve. In the meantime, King Arthur camps, and we wait to see if the government and English Heritage can finally find a long-term solution for the site’s care and maintenance.
]]> http://wildhunt.org/blog/2008/07/what-to-do-about-stonehenge.html/feed 1 http://wildhunt.org/blog/2008/03/new-stones-old-stones-and-witch-pits.html http://wildhunt.org/blog/2008/03/new-stones-old-stones-and-witch-pits.html#comments Mon, 10 Mar 2008 15:25:00 +0000 Jason http://wildhunt.org/blog/2008/03/new-stones-old-stones-and-witch-pits.html Britain’s sacred landscape is very much in the news lately, with new finds, concerns over the land’s archaeological heritage, and plans to build new sacred sites getting attention from mainstream media. To start, Jonathan Jones from The Guardian looks at Stonehenge, and the increasing encroachment of development onto the site.

“In the misty, rainy morning, pairs of bright white lights keep appearing on the near horizon, and across the grass there is the unholy spectacle of a continuous flow of cars and trucks on the A303. Amazingly, this crowded road is soon going to get worse. In February, it was revealed that Tesco plans to build a gigantic warehouse near Andover, from which it is estimated a Tesco juggernaut will emerge every minute – many of them on to the A303. The Tesco “MegaShed” is just the final, farcical insult after the terrible news that hit Stonehenge three months ago. Just before Christmas, after nearly two decades of ambitious planning to rescue this landscape from traffic, came a brutal government press release: Tom Harris, under-secretary of state for transport, declared that plans to enclose the A303 in a tunnel under Salisbury Plain ‘would not represent best use of taxpayers’ money’.”

Jones, pondering why the British people don’t care more about Stonehenge, wonders if the recent de-mythologizing of the site by experts and archaeologists has led to a blase’ attitude towards Stonehenge’s fate.

“Stonehenge is a miracle, a mystery, like the ancient world sites that are its peers: the pyramids of Egypt and Mexico. This is why the tourists come. But official archaeology only tells us what we shouldn’t think: we must not believe that this is about astronomy, or druids, or mathematics, let alone – as Oxbridge scholars argued in the 1950s – that the dagger carving on stone 53 betrays a link with the ancient Aegean world. No, it’s the very people whose job it is to describe the unique nature of Stonehenge who make it sound as if it’s nothing more exciting than all the earthworks they dig up in bogs with a couple of wooden posts stuck in the peat. Stonehenge has been talked down by the experts. And now the philistines have an excuse to treat it as if it was nothing special.”

If Stonehenge is losing its enchantment thanks to modern science, the urge for scared monuments haven’t left the British people. In Northamptonshire, two new sacred circles, one explicitly Pagan, are being constructed.

“A ‘woodhenge’ in Rothersthorpe and a new stone circle in Crick are both under construction. The woodhenge is being constructed by organic cooperative Permorganics … The other structure, which will be made of four massive stones, is an art project being sponsored by the East Midlands Arts Council which will eventually stand on Cracks Hill, Crick.”

The stone circle at Cracks Hill will have its foundation markers laid out by local youths on the Spring Equinox, with the project reaching completion in five years. The Permorganics project will take longer, since it has to wait for the planted orchard to grow and surround the sacred grove. Both projects seem to speak to a desire for re-sacralizing the landscape by embracing elements from the land’s pre-Christian past.

Speaking of re-sacralizing the landscape, certain Pagan practitioners are going to love the following story. It seems that excavation efforts of 35 pits along the Cornish countryside have turned up evidence of pre-Christian offerings from a decidedly Christian time-period.

“Evidence of pagan rituals involving swans and other birds in the Cornish countryside in the 17th century has been uncovered by archaeologists. Since 2003, 35 pits at the site in a valley near Truro have been excavated containing swan pelts, dead magpies, unhatched eggs, quartz pebbles, human hair, fingernails and part of an iron cauldron. The finds have been dated to the 1640s, a period of turmoil in England when Cromwellian Puritans destroyed any links to pre-Christian pagan England. It was also a period when witchcraft attracted the death sentence.”

Archaeologist Jacqui Woods then makes an interesting comment regarding one of the finds.

“Often when secret rituals are abandoned people will talk about ‘things that were done in my grandmother’s day’ but there has been no whisper of this. It really makes me wonder whether that is because it is still going on.”

Pagan survivals? Folk customs given a Christian gloss and performed by people who considered themselves good Christians? None of the above? The article all but screams “witches”, and no doubt these discoveries are going to end up generating some interesting conversations among Witches and other Pagans.

These articles all point towards a palpable desire to embrace a sacred landscape that is not only post-Christian, but increasingly post-secular as well. A land filled with myth, story, and art. Enhanced by a ritualized awareness of the changing seasons, and reinforced by natural and man-made monuments. A land where modern Paganism fits right in.
]]> http://wildhunt.org/blog/2008/03/new-stones-old-stones-and-witch-pits.html/feed 3 http://wildhunt.org/blog/2007/05/deification-of-joe-strummer.html http://wildhunt.org/blog/2007/05/deification-of-joe-strummer.html#comments Thu, 10 May 2007 15:27:00 +0000 Jason http://wildhunt.org/blog/2007/05/the-deification-of-joe-strummer.html Film-maker Julien Temple, director of the infamous mockumentary “The Great Rock ‘n’ Roll Swindle”, has made a new film about his friend and punk legend Joe Strummer. Strummer, the lead singer and rhythm guitarist for The Clash, died an untimely death in 2002 due to a undiagnosed congenital heart defect. Temple goes beyond mere documentary as tribute to his friend, as evidenced by this article in the Guardian where standing stones, magic mushrooms, and bonfires enter the picture.

“…they were, he says, “in stasis”, unable to work out how to honour his memory. First, they attempted to build a stone circle in the back garden of the singer’s Somerset home, “in the old druid style with big levers and stones, trying to line them up by the stars and all that kind of thing”. This, he concedes, was a nice idea in theory, but perhaps a little ambitious in practice: “It was a kind of Spinal Tap thing. It went on for about six weeks, in the mud in February; we got about three stones done and then we thought, ‘We’ve had enough of this, bring in the diggers,’ which Joe would have liked. So we got a digger and, having done three stones in six weeks, we got the rest done in an afternoon. I suppose you could say it was very Joe-like, a mixture of the old way and the new way. But that was all we managed to do, and I just felt that maybe it would be a kind of a good way of moving on if we all got together and made this film.”

For the film, Temple created a series of bonfires to facilitate honest conversation about Strummer, and perhaps they invoked something a bit more in the process.

“Eventually, he came up with the idea of interviewing Strummer’s friends and fans around a series of campfires. In his later years, Strummer had become obsessed with building campfires, most famously at Glastonbury, “almost as a creative statement – there was this idea that it was a great leveller, that it reached back to prehistoric man, that people never really meet each other that profoundly in any other context”. Temple’s first attempt to recreate a Strummer campfire, however, was rather too successful in conjuring what he describes as their “bacchanalian” spirit: “The first one was in the middle of a blizzard in February in Somerset, and I don’t know who it was, but someone put magic mushrooms in the tea and …” He trails off, chuckling.”

So who knows, with such inspiration in the air perhaps some form of punk apotheosis has occurred, and the divine spirit of Joe Strummer now watches over the oppressed and helps protect the natural world. “The Future Is Unwritten” debuts in the UK on May 18th.
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