As promised I am sending out another quick letter as so much is happening in the fields.
I forgot to mention that the Chilcomb Down, Winchester formation appeared on Midsummer’s Day, the night of the Strawberry Moon. Some 12,000 people thronged to Stonehenge to witness the sunrise and renew the energy of the land and its crops. They were blessed with good weather.
Solstice derives from an ancient Latin word ‘solstitium’ meaning ‘stop’ or ‘sun stands still’. For the first time since 1967 the summer solstice coincides with a rare ‘strawberry’ moon with possibility of bringing 17 hours of sunlight.
It is an extremely rare event. The Algonquin tribes of North America believed June’s full moon signalled the beginning of the strawberry picking season. This event in the Northern Hemisphere is sometime also called the Rose Moon, the Hot Moon and the Honey Moon, whereas in the Southern Hemisphere it is known as the Long Night Moon.
Being such a sacred and ancient place, people have gathered at Stonehenge and celebrated the solstice for thousands of years. We are told that the day is considered to be sacred by many pagans around the world who celebrate the solstice among their yearly holidays and sometimes call the festival Litha, a term dating back to the Venerable Bede for the months of June and July.
As the land warms up after the long days of winter, the summer solstice is a time of joy and jubilation as the crops planted earlier start growing repaying days of toil; the seeds that were planted in the fields bringing forth promise of their forthcoming abundance and making all the hard work worthwhile. Being the longest day of the year, it is a time of light not just literally but a time of Light in our souls. It is the time of Celebration when we renew our Inner Light; a renewal; a time when the sun washes away the dark days and enters our being. A time of Love and gratitude and growth.
The circle at Chilcomb Down seems to be showing us a glorious abundance of petals, maybe a reminder that our souls can open with joy just like the petals.
The next event came with a complex circle at Hackpen, Wiltshire close to the ancient chalk white horse.
James Hussey has kindly opened his field to visitors yet again. Almost two years ago James’s lovely wife, Gill lost her hard fought battle against breast cancer and James set up a charity in her memory to raise money to equip a breast screening radio therapy unit to be built on the site at the Great Western Hospital, Swindon, as the closest unit was in Oxford and for Gill and others to have to travel many hours for a daily treatment lasting a few minutes each time over a period of six weeks was altogether too exhausting and draining. This is a really splendid and worthwhile Charity worthy of support. Since then the Charity has raised £750,00 against a total target of £2.9 million. Brighter Futures who are running the appeal tell me that to date ‘we have received support from companies in Swindon such as Sainsbury’s Stratton and TE Connectivity. Staff at other companies including Corporate Events, Arval, Jury’s Hotel, Nationwide and Santander have all supported the appeal by fundraising for us.’
‘Many schools, nurseries and centres for learning have also adopted us as their chosen charity for the year, as have many other smaller organisations such as churches, local groups and WI’s and Rotary Groups. To find out the latest news about what we are doing with the help of local people visit our website on www.brighterfuturesgwh.nhs.uk.’
The circle is a strange one, depicting fishes and sharks. To me its meaning is complex and I am sure others will find many varying interpretations. Certain sharks with their open jaws full of terrifyingly sharp teeth can be regarded as aggressive, fearsome beasts whereas fishes, the symbol of Christianity signal love and peace and harmony. Yet despite whales being mammals, they both share the same environment, the oceans. We live in changing times and maybe in the two opposites we are being shown the need reconciliation, for that is just what we urgently require worldwide, particularly just at this time in this Sacred isle of Albion after all the bitterness of our referendum to stay or leave the EU. Tempers have run high and great divisions have been created even among families. Maybe the shark and fish depicted as swimming together are showing us the way to forget our differences and how we all need to work together towards the Greater Good for everyone. I like to think of this circle as being a personifying messenger of healing and unification.
As a reminder, I still have few Stonehenge tickets left so please hurry if you would like to join me for the private entry evening visit on the 28 July.
Also I have a list of people who would like to fly with me in a helicopter and earlier this week I took up Mona de Silva and we had a wonderful evening flight over the Tichfield, Hampshire formation. She was thrilled to bits with the experience. The helicopter can take three people plus the pilot so that means there are two spare seats available. We fly from Thruxton, Andover, Hampshire with brilliant pilots.
May you have joy and happiness in your heart.
All very best wishes,
Lucy