Stonehenge for solstice sunrise and other adventures
Our stone adventure began at Stanton Drew on Monday, the third largest stone circle complex in England. This was Elijah and my third visit, we needed to complete the three, and were guided where we needed to be. I walked barefoot and accidentally trod in a cow pat. Elijah thought this highly amusing, with my squelchy cow poo toe.
I found it amusing too, especially that his memory of Stanton Drew on this trip will not be one of wandering around and climbing on the stones as I connect with the place, but of my foot, and the dreaded cow pat. We dowsed a few spots to stand and the stones told him they didn’t really like him standing on them, a whole new level of respect arrives at age 8! We also visited the Cove, which is my favourite. The stones spoke; “Be gentle, let go”.
We weaved our way to Stoney Littleton from there, a long barrow nestled in beautiful countryside. I was amazed to find a couple here, there has been people at Stanton Drew earlier, very unusual, we’ve always had the place to ourselves previously. Now here we had to share Stoney too, although we did get a few minutes when those people left before the next people arrived.
This stone and earth tomb was thought to be built in the early Neolithic period, probably between 3,800BC and 3,400BC but really who truly knows. Elijah dowsed it as being much older than that and who am I to tell him otherwise. It contained the buried remains of several individuals, perhaps three or four generations of men, women and children. It’s also thought it might have been a religious shrine for the living. To me it’s utterly amazing and to build something like this as a container of energy for the dead and the living is a testament to how much people used to care…
Chambered long barrows are thought to be the oldest monuments in Britain and about 200 were built in the Cotswolds and elsewhere in Southern Britain. They say that Stoney is one of the finest surviving examples and I certainly felt it’s incredible energy. It’s an amazing place, feels clean, clear, and very welcoming. What struck me most was the plethora of wildflowers growing along the way including the medicinal plant, clary sage, and a selection of thistles reminding me of the clary sage and milk thistle that I’m growing back home.
I would’ve liked more time here, as the landscape is stunning, off the beaten track. There is a pretty river too, always a water source close by, and the smell of the elderflowers fills the air, how I love elderflowers, having made my second batch of cordial just before we left (as an aside, if you walk up the St Martin’s side of Petit Bot hill here on Guernsey, it is awash with elder trees and the smell of the flowers is a tonic for the soul)
The place near where one can park is perfect for a picnic, but we were headed onwards, this time for Elijah, and a visit to Bowood House, a Georgian house, and the playground. We’ve taken him, E and I a few times over the years as Tractor Ted world used to be located here and he has always been mad about tractors – in fact one of the joys of these trips, for him at least, is seeing all the tractors we pass along the way, he knows them all, and gets super excited by the size of some of them.
The adventure playground at Bowood House is fun, Elijah enjoyed it, especially as there were only a handful of other children there, quite a different experience to when I took Eben on a bank holiday and the place was packed. He was happy to walk through some of the Capability Brown landscaped parkland (not the whole 100 acres!), with its grotto and lake. I studied Capability Brown at uni and while I don’t really like the landscaped approach, it’s still a stunning place with a ton of amazing specimen and mature trees and I could have spent the whole day just wandering amongst these.
But alas, we were on a schedule and from Bowood House we drove the ten minutes or so onto Avebury, the largest stone circle in Britain. I was particularly keen to access the coves but the whole of the village was lined with ‘no stopping’ cones, which I can only imagine had something to do with the solstice. Even the carpark in the pub was closed so I couldn’t stop there, nor up the Avenue where I usually park. It was all a bit random but I ignored the cones, momentarily leaving the car in a field exit at Adam and Eve cove and we ran out to the stones. I LOVE these stones, and needed to hear their message, continuing a theme.
I parked up the car momentarily again at the bottom of the Avenue and rushed out to the first two stones, I love these stones and I had a message to deliver, Elijah running with me, to touch the stones, before running back to the car again, no harm done and no parking ticket! It does seem ridiculous that on one of the most auspicious days of the years, at least from a Neolithic stone alignment perspective, one cannot park at Avebury, sigh!
Leaving Avebury, I kept accidentally missing our turn off and on third time lucky, the road took us all the way past Alton Springs, which I’d strangely wanted to visit but didn’t think we’d have time. So we stopped, as I wanted Elijah to see and touch the supposed 1,700 year old Ewe tree in the church grounds, and we managed to make it into the small medieval church itself to sign the book and absorb the stained glass windows . They found a trap door in here with a sarsen stone buried so a bit like the goddess statues found hidden in two churches in Guernsey, one imagines this was a special site from a Neolithic perspective.
We also saw the Alton white horse, this our second white horse of the trip having seen Cherhill white horse earlier. This created much excitement for Elijah as he hadn’t seen any previously. There is something quite remarkable about these white horses carved into the limestone – something to look out for in this area of the world!
Alton springs seemed all overgrown since last time, clogged by greenery and not nearly as vibrant and alive as they had been when I visited with Eben back in spring, reminding me how the land changes season to season. It’s interesting actually, visiting these places at different times of year, I noticed this at Adam and Eve, the once exposed and windy field was now a scene of beautiful wild flowers including lots of ox daisies.
From there, we followed the road straight down (or so it felt), through Durrington and past Woodhenge, to Amesbury, where we had booked a YHA for the evening, before heading down to Southampton airport to collect Star and Willow off their evening flight from Guernsey. I was a little stressed by then, not least by all the driving, having done my usual thing of over extending myself, but also because I was slightly conscious of all the crowds I’d seen at Amesbury presumably intending to go to Stonehenge for the solstice.
We did attempt to get to Stonehenge for sunset, but the traffic queue was so long that we aborted when it became clear that we wouldn’t make it to the stones in time, not with the 20-25 minute walk from the carpark, and anyway, we weren’t really there for sunset, sunrise was the important bit at least from an alignment perspective. The situation was actually a blessing, for it meant we could go back to the YHA and get a few hours of sleep, plus it was already beyond the children’s bedtime and asking them to walk for almost an hour would have been a little challenging, for all of us!
I have already done solstice sunrise at Stonehenge, seven years ago now for my 40th birthday, and I couldn’t remember us having any problems accessing the site, but the queues on the A303 awaiting entry that evening were making me slightly concerned about our morning arrival time. Thus we decided to err on the side of caution, and all three alarms were set for 1.45am, yikes.
As it happened, we could probably have stayed in bed a little longer, as we arrived into the carpark at Stonehenge without any queuing and were out at the stones by 2.45am, giving us a clear two hours until sunrise. Still, I’m grateful that we had this much time to take in the atmosphere, and be able to touch every single stone in the inner and outer ring, stepping our way over sleeping bodies and those nestled against stones. The combined smell of cannabis, sage, frankincense, alcohol and burgers permeated the air – yes, here at Stonehenge on solstice there are fast food vans and I was certainly grateful of the cup of tea.
It was cold and busy, and the children didn’t like the crowds and the noise – the Hare Krishnas were in full chant, there were South American panpipers, a group of men and women dressed all in red sang together, a whole heap of drummers and just general talking, shouting and everything in between – so we hung out at the heel stone, which is a beautifully calming stone and a wise teacher. The half-moon was prominent in the sky to our right and ahead of us the sun below the horizon started lightening the view (the heel stone is aligned with the rising sun on summer solstice)
Star and I took it in turns to stay with the children who had settled themselves on my mum’s raincoat on the grass, Elijah playing a tractor game on his iPad and Willow alternating between watching his game and having a lie down. This created quite some interest from some of the other people, who commented on the coming together of the two worlds – an ancient monument aligned to the moon and the sun, and here my son playing games on the technology that is an iPad. I really loved that, that we can be accepting of it all. They actually had their photo taken at least twice!
People don’t necessarily get this, but stones have a consciousness as does the land, and the two talk more loudly at these ancient sites. Sometimes we might just get drawn to a certain stone or find ourselves by one, as I did with the heel stone, or we dowse, which I also did and there is a funny story with that one. In one of my rambles around the stones on my own, I dowsed a stone to visit and I was taken to one of the ones in the outer circle just to the left of the sunrise alignment. I found a spot to stand against it and take it in before carrying on.
Later, about ten minutes before sunrise, I suddenly remembered my stone friend back at home and thought I should take a small stone from the earth back home to him, so he could feel the Stonehenge energy. We were standing near to the dowsed stone by then so I ran over and nestled my way between the various people to dig my nails into the earth and try and find a little stone at the base of the HUGE stone. I managed to find a few little ones and rushed back to Star, only to realsie that I had collected a heart-shaped shell that someone had clearly left as an offering at some point, as it had wire tied around it.
It was quite mind blowing actually because it’s a big site and I could have gone anywhere to get a stone from the earth (we’re talking nail size here before you think I took a piece of the sarsen stones, nope, this was a bit of stone in the actual earth), but I went to the exact spot where there was a heart shaped shell buried. I couldn’t help wondering how long ago the shell had been placed there, whether it was my friend’s all along, perhaps from another life time, or just a sign that Stonehenge wanted to send its love to him!
We felt the boost as the sun rose, not that we could see it until we were leaving the site, but you can feel the energy coursing through the place nonetheless. The land and stones are super alive and no doubt delighted to have so many make the journey to celebrate, regardless of the differing backgrounds, perspectives and expectations - stones bring unity, such a contrast to our current intense polarisation.
We were definitely guided and I am grateful to the Goddess; the two hours was an absolute blessing on that land and we were lucky to get the bus back to the car park and have an easy journey all the way back to the airport. We were back in Guernsey by 9.15am and home on my yoga mat by 10! I was wired all day and managed to stay up late into the evening catching the sunset from an aligned site here on Guernsey, it was almost a 22 hour day in the end!
Back home I am very aware that the solstice just ushered in a huge shift for us. We are on very shaky ground all of us, as we are each being forced to look at our shadows and where we are living out of alignment with our truth. This is really not easy as our conditioning runs deep and we are living in a way that constantly denies us our deepest truth because of all the expectations placed on us, all the ways that we have been told (and continue to be told) how to be and live and relate to ourselves and this world.
Constantly we are caged and boxed, I’ve talked about this previously, from our culture, religion, tradition, care givers, friends, family, educators, society, from every area of our life, so that we don’t know who we are beyond what is expected of us and the way we have trained to be in this world. There is a part of us that is wild and yearns for greater freedom but this means we must sift through all the layers that prevent us from accessing this deeper part of self, the part that cannot be tamed, caged or boxed away that knows that there is more to us and our life than we are living.
Simultaneously we are reaping what we sowed and having to deal with those consequences of actions taken that weren’t necessarily in alignment with where we’re at in our lives and within ourselves now. This is highlighting the classic battle that is played out between head and heart and we might have to come to terms with the fact that while we thought we were living from the heart, we were actually living from our head – the ego is a tricky thing and does a heart disguise well. We’re also having to accept the uncomfortableness of the lack of deeper connection.
But in many respects this is all part of the process and necessary. What’s called for now is deep stillness and courage. Courage to sit still and courage to act when the moment becomes clearer. Now we’re just in a squishy and squeeze time. Things are shifting rapidly and nothing will necessarily make sense. We’re all connected but moving at different paces, and there is a divine timing to everything. Essentially though, we are being encouraged to free ourselves from anything which binds us to an outdated idea, narrative or belief about ourself and the old world that we are being asked to leave behind.
There is a real shift towards new beginnings and this on a fundamental level, in terms of not only how we relate to ourselves but how we live in this world. I’ve had numerous conversations with people about this these last few days on Guernsey and in Glastonbury. It’s time for wholeness and to walk our truth, make the changes we have been talking about but haven’t necessarily done anything about, the changes that the pandemic tried to usher in, but isn’t quite there yet in reality.
Essentially it’s about simplicity and shifting our perspective away from the human centric view of the world where money, power and control are seen as the motivation for all that we do and the way that we live on planet earth, to one where we appreciate our place within nature and attempt to live in greater harmony not just with nature but with our own nature too. So much of the way we have been living, not only destroys nature but denies our own inherent nature.
The pandemic slowed us all down and encouraged us to begin the process of seeing through more of the illusion, it gifted us the opportunity to live a different way, at a different pace. Many people preferred it, the slower more home and family based life, where they had time to appreciate nature, and others fought it as it went beyond their conditioning and what had become ‘normal’ to them and therefore felt safe. Because we seek safety outside of ourselves, many have been keen to rush back to the pre-pandemic way of life without appreciating that life has changed and will never be the same again.
We see this with air travel. People have been desperate to travel again but the industry has changed and there are no longer the staff levels to support it so people are finding flights and holidays cancelled and many are left stranded. It’s a lesson! Life has changed! I’m also having to come to terms with this and I did decide in Glastonbury that all this air travel has to stop. It’s not easy living on a small island but we each have to play our bit. We really do need to be the change we’d like to see, and I’d like to see less airplanes up in the air, as much as I’d love to see less people with their heads in their phones and 5G killing us all quietly.
Really though what’s happening is an intense polarisation between those waking up and those staying asleep. Our opinions are divided on everything and the systems no longer fit. This is potentially a huge shifting time for humanity on planet earth and I can’t help wondering if there’ll be something else that wakes up more of those asleep, so that they too can see beyond the conditioning that keeps us trapped in the illusionary world.
I mean there are other realities beyond the one we can see, but even in the one we can see, we are all looking at it from different perspectives and with different interests and even amongst friends, opinions can be divided. There is little middle ground. This can lead to greater disharmony as we see the other as bad and wrong…overlooking that again this is just more of the illusion…it’s not real, just more conditioning helping to keep us caged to maintain systems. The minute we take a side, is the minute we lose ourselves to it. Really, what is the right thing? Or the good thing?
No doubt we can come up with an answer quickly, but what is this based on? I suspect it’s based on something someone told us or taught us or programmed into us. To put it another way, at some point we took on a contract that told us that we would see the world a certain way. And now we’re being asked to break that contract, because it’s no longer real. There are new contracts to form instead, contracts which offer freedom. But first we must set ourselves free. We must break everything that is misaligned and outdated, that has us believe we need something outside of ourselves to be happy.
We must let go of the idea that we need more technology, bigger and better houses, a brand new Range Rover to prove we’ve made it, inflated lips to look like a celebrity, bigger boobs to prove our attractiveness, or a smaller waist to show that we’re great, or more qualifications to show that we can use our left brain and be trained to use it a certain way too (denying the right side), so that we might see more of the world the same way that others want us to see it, or that somehow gives us a false sense of worth, much like the need for ‘likes’ on social media because we can’t find this within ourselves and need the external validation and us women up against ourselves, trying to be all things and slowly dying from tiredness and frustration on the inside.
We must let go of the endless doing to be anywhere but where we are now, of continuously focusing on outcome and overlooking the joy and beauty of the process, of denying our creativity because it’s undervalued and pouring all our efforts into achievement for the sake of achievement, of feeling guilty when we put our own needs first, of feeling shame because a relationship didn’t work or we fell in love with someone else, of caring what others think of us to the extent that we dress and behave a certain way, not because it’s our nature but because we care more about them than our own sanity.
We must let go of it all being about material gain, about upwards flows being good and downward flows being bad, of good and bad in its entirety, of right and wrong, of should and shouldn’t, and find the joy and abundance in all of it. It is all of it spiritual, the only difference is our perspective and whether it fills us up or depletes us. This is an abundant universe, but true abundance goes beyond materialism, it is about cycles and nature and the joy that comes from being ourselves, without our petty concerns, worries, doubt, uncertainties and anxieties exhausting us.
We need it all, the ups and the downs, the dark and the light, and everything in the middle. Look at nature. See how the sun now wanes and the moon too, we’re on the wane too if we allow it. Even this messiness is OK. It’s all OK. Our pain is needed, as much as our joy. For now we have to settle into the messy transformational energy that’s triggering old patterns so that they can be seen and let go of. Within all this is trust, always trust and an invitation to be more discerning between the voice of the head and the voice of the heart…and to orientate towards our true self, beyond all our conditioning…and live simply, treading lightly on this earth…good luck!
Happy turning of the wheel!
Love Emma x
PS. A HUGE thank you to Star for many of the Stonehenge photos and for joining us for 13 hours of adventure, fun and memories made, sometimes we just have to do these crazy things!