With the 2011 crop circle season already underway, I thought it might be a good idea to have a few catch-up blogs looking at some of the formations* so far.
* For the uninitiated ‘formation’ is a word we crop circle people use to describe the crop circles. Because so many of the crop circles are actually not circles at all, the word formation seems to cover a multitude of possibilities.
Give the ugly kid a chance!
Chepstow, near Gwent, 22nd April 2011. Oilseed rape (Canola)
The first formation of the UK 2011 crop circle season was reported on the 22nd of April, near Chepstow, Gwent. It signalled a fairly early start to the season, whereas in contrast, in 2006, we had not seen any formations until June. Oilseed rape (known as canola in the USA), is the first crop that grows tall enough to bear a crop circle in the crop growing year. It is a tall vegetable-like crop (up to 6ft tall), with a consistency something like the stems of a giant broccoli. It smells cabbage-like, and has a bloom of pretty four-petalled, brilliant yellow flowers – which smell sweet and heady. When it is young and still growing the stems do have a certain amount of give and bend – especially when the stems are no so tall or thick. However, when the crop begins to mature it becomes much less malleable, its flowers are replaced with seed-pods and eventually the plants dry out and die. Ultimately the crop becomes brown and brittle, and is harvested in late June.
There is always a great sense of anticipation amongst those that follow the crop circles by mid-April. Only those blithe enough to ‘expect’ the crop circles are immune to at least a few pangs of anxiety while wondering if the crop circles will actually return. I have to say, I make a concerted effort not to take the circles for granted. Occasionally there is the odd naysayer who predicts the demise of the phenomenon, usually, without any particularly good reason. I try to tread a middle path; it irritates me in equal measure to hear both those who never question the return of the circles and those who seem to make a habit of prophesising their doom.
After a volatile and somewhat turbulent end to the 2010 season, it was always going to be interesting to see how 2011 would manifest. The crop circle phenomenon is traditionally sympathetic with the moods and disposition of the community that follows it. 1993 was a particularly quiet year after the Doug and Dave story broke, but by 1994 a revival was underway, the phenomenon seemingly not ready to simply die away. There have been several similar troughs and peaks in activity over the years.
The Chepstow formation was interesting. It was criticised almost immediately because its geometry was distinctly skewed. Accustomed to a diet of precisely presented shapes and immaculate accuracy, this formation seemed oddly unpalatable. Many were writing it off without even taking the time to sleep on it. Again I admit, I find this mildly irritating. I actually think that all circles that happen during a season are important. I think it’s important to record as much as we can because it is sometimes impossible to see the importance or merit of some events when they happen. It is only with hindsight or more information that their meaning may become clear.
While I can see the rationale for consigning an unattractive and inaccurate formation to the proverbial ‘crop circle trash-can,’ I am left wondering why with so much talked about the symbolism of the formations, the symbolism of this formation was barely addressed? Could it be that in our haste and confidence in our expertise that some of us have become a little too arrogant? Could it be that we have got into the questionable habit of only considering the symbolism of attractive formations? Perhaps this is a sad reflection of our society, particularly in the west, where we slavishly extol the beautiful, while mocking the awkward. Perhaps we judge every book by its cover because we have either forgotten how to read, or were illiterate in the first place!
My overwhelming first response to the formation was that it looked ‘broken’. It looked like there was something wrong. Interestingly, I seem to remember a similar response to a formation back in 1992, the season after the Doug and Dave announcement* in 1991. It seemed that the crop circle design had mirrored back to us the broken state of the phenomenon at the time. I wondered, was this formation showing us something similar? On further contemplation, I found myself absorbed by the thought that the design of this formation had been somehow ‘infected’ with the negativity still hanging around from last season and as a result was deformed.
I’m sure there will be plenty out there that will tell me that a formation with such incompetent geometry is clearly the work of pranksters. But I rarely think in such terms. I prefer a more holistic, inclusive – integral – way of looking at the crop circles.
I decided to draw the formation. Hand drawing geometric patterns like the crop circles is a deeply contemplative and even mystical activity. I thought if I drew the formation, correcting its deformities in the process, it would be a conscious symbolic act of healing. To give this crop circle my time and energy, my intercession and healing would somehow express my desire in thought and deed for remedy and restoration.
In drawing the circle it seemed that the design missed not only in the placement of the four large outer rings, which did not sit at ninety degrees to one another, but also it seemed to miss a containing ring to accurately constrain small box shapes around the central ring. The formation also lacked a correspondence of diameters and ratios so often displayed so expertly in some designs, where smaller measurements are multiplied to create larger ones. However, I did like the ‘wingnut’ shapes created by the way in which the four outer circles intersected with the standing blocks around the central ring. Perhaps they needed a quick turn to tighten up the geometry of the formation! None of these points are criticisms, merely observations. There is still so much I don’t understand.
KAREN ALEXANDER – JUNE 1, 2011
* Doug and Dave announcement
Again for the uninitiated – this was when in 1991 Doug Bower and Dave Chorley announced to the world that they were responsible for creating the crop circle phenomenon.
Recent Comments