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…
Equilibrium?
Silbury Hill, Wilts, reported 29th April 2011. Oilseed Rape (Canola)
Strictly speaking, the Silbury Hill formation was not the first crop circle of the 2011 season as it was mistakenly billed on the website of one well-known national newspaper. It was instead, the third formation of the season (that we know of). It wasn’t even the first formation in Wiltshire – that happy county of crop circle abode – it was the second. There had been a very small formation below the White Horse at Alton Barnes reported two days earlier on the 27th.
The formation was a pretty six-fold design. Six rings arranged in a fan-like swirl around a central point. There were then six additional smaller rings circles arranged in a similar fashion within (or on top of) the larger six. Once again the accuracy of the geometry was slightly askew, although not to the degree we had seen at Chepstow earlier in the month. See my last blog.
Six is a number we see with regularity in crop circle design. It seems a favourite number of the circle-makers. It is very interesting number. It is, for instance, the first of the so-called perfect numbers. Perfect numbers are those numbers who are the sum of all their divisors – in this case 1, 2 and 3. Other perfect numbers include 28, 496 and 8128. Six is also the number of balance, relationships and love and is associated with the Goddess Venus. In France (the capital of amour) they call Friday (the sixth day of the week) Vendredi – Venus Day. It is also the number of the tarot card The Lovers – so six, it could be said, is the number of perfect love.
Six is also a number of best economy. The six-sided hexagon (a solid with six equal sides and angles) is used in the construction of honeycombs, where the bees achieve the most storage space using the least amount of natural resources. It is a shape that fits together endlessly with no spaces between.
This formation offered an interesting opportunity on the drawing board. It could, of course, be drawn in the traditional way. But because this design was essentially a grouping of overlapping circles, the circles could be individually drawn, cut out and assembled. Sometimes I like to do this because it gives an insight into the 3-dimentional aspects of the formation and it shows how the design works in a more hands–on and less cerebral way. It also allows you to see the individual component shapes and how they are put together to make the overall pattern.
You can see both my workings with the design above. It was incredibly satisfying to swirl around the six arcs that make the outer shape of the formation; there was an economy and symmetry to it that echoed its association with perfection on a fundamental level.
I think six-fold patterns hold within them an implicit plea for balance and harmony. In their creation, these formations radiate a universal balancing effect into the landscape and they unconsciously soothe our own imbalances. On a larger scale, six-fold formations could be seen as steadying influences in the process of conscious change, as they counter polarisation and turbulence, with perfect equilibrium.
Despite imperfections, this was a very attractive formation. I still think we are having the general state of negativity toward the phenomenon reflected back to us in the fields. The relationship between the public and the crop circles is a complex one, one that often is played out in the designs put before us. It is a symbiotic relationship; one needs the other and vice-versa, we are endlessly intertwined like lovers. The circles are never more at their best than when people are enjoying them, being inspired by them and are creating positivity and generosity of spirit.
As I have said before, the crop circle phenomenon often seems in uncanny sympathy with our general attitudes and positions in relationship to it. The fact that we have a formation that expresses the perfection of love in a deformed way leaves a keen impression upon me. I realise that I look at these things deeply, but for me the crop circles express some very deep things. More than mere, signs, or even symbols, I believe they have a connection to the collective psyche that is very profound. It seems to me that they bring to into the manifest world the workings of a largely unconscious collective soul of mankind (the anima mundi) and I think this crop circle was reflecting back at us a pretty critical message about the way some are currently approaching this phenomenon.
KAREN ALEXANDER – JUNE 6, 2011
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