I could hardly contain my excitement about going to Stonehenge, as my traveling companions will attest, having heard my screaming before 6 am that one of my buddies goaded me into expressing. Others in the group were not so thrilled at my self-expression! But, I was giddy as a schoolgirl, as they say. If you're going, I recommend planning far ahead to get tickets for a dawn viewing (groups are allowed in at two viewing times for an hour each).
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| Dawn breaking at Stonehenge |
Our guide had arranged, almost six months in advance, for us to enter into the stone circle. The English Heritage site arranges limited viewings inside the circle at dawn and dusk for a maximum of 26 people. Although the shop and cafe are closed when you arrive, you can arrange ahead of time for a guide book for an additional cost, and can return to the site later the same day for free, if you must have a souvenir. There aren't any guides or audio tours at dawn, but what you do get is the privilege of walking amongst the stones. Ordinary tours, during the days the site is officially open, relegate your viewing to a pathway many yards outside of the circle. It's good to plan ahead, as the site is closed down the weeks of the equinoxes and solstices, so
check the application forms on line for all the details.
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| Before entering the circle |
I was disappointed to learn that I could not touch any of the stones, but as it turned out, that wasn't much of a let down. People in our group brought dowsing rods and pendulums to play in the energy. The most active area is right at the center of the stones between two small stones in the ground. Pendulums go like crazy there, and the dowsing rods cross there, and at every stone in the circle. At one point, after charging up some crystals I'd brought with me at the center of the circle, I decided I'd lie down there with my heart center on the ground and charge myself up! For me, it was actually a calming and grounding feeling, like being embraced by the energy.
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| Lying with my heart center on ley line, view to Heel Stone |
I used Reiki techniques to connect with the energy of the stones, even though I could not touch. The guards at the site seem to pay very close attention to your every move until they're sure you can be trusted. I guess they've seen their share of lunatics (a word, of course, deriving from being "moon struck," so maybe I am one, too). I did get an incredible sense of the age and prestige of the circle, in the sense of its having been a primary place of ceremonial activity.
It does inspire a great deal of awe considering how the Welsh bluestones got to this plain in the first place from 150 miles away in Pembrokeshire, and how they were lifted up sometime between 2200-3000 BCE, each stone weighing between 25 and 50 tons. Some speculate that the circle was a place for healing, and certainly we know it was a burial ground and was designed to track celestial events, like spring equinox, marked by the alignment of the center of the circle with the "heel stone" outside the circle. And, it could be that the site was used for ceremonial purposes back as far as 8000 BCE, from archaeological finds of wooden post-holes (marked in the car park area by round circles).
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| Within the Circle |
A sense of history, of reverence for the land, for centuries of awe and respect for the engineering feat, and the pulse of the Mother's heart beneath, Stonehenge was undoubtedly one of the magical experiences of my trip.
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