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…
Simplicity Itself…
East Kennet, Wiltshire, Reported 17th May 2011. Barley
It appeared that the simple ringed circle at East Kennet had been there one to two days before it was spotted by circles researcher Bert Janssen. However, the eagle-eyed farmer spotted it almost straight away; luckily for us, he put an honesty box inside and acquiesced to visitors to his field. I can’t tell you how cheered I was by this simple act. I can’t imagine what it must be like to have your crops modified each year into gigantic patterns, and for hundreds, if not thousands of strangers to arrive en masse on your private land to visit them. However, what I do know is that the crop circles have been appearing for a very long time in this area, and I can see no sign of them stopping completely anytime soon.
It is a headache for the farmers, that is for sure, but I am always pleased to see some take the pragmatic route and erect the faithful donation box. I know they can be vandalised, broken into – I know that someone once put fake boxes in a field and then took all the money… But (as much as a distraction as it must be), if the boxes are well made and emptied once a day it can be a way of ensuring that a negative turns into something of a positive.
Visitors to the crop circles (on the whole) are only too happy to contribute to a box. It is a simple exchange of goodwill – a thank you, a doff of the metaphorical cap, an act of respect towards the farmer. Visitors are not responsible for the crop circles, most are simply curious members of the public, while others enthusiastically follow the circles as they appear throughout the summer.
I don’t subscribe to the ‘land belongs to everyone’ argument. I’m sure in some larger picture the entire Earth belongs to everyone, but at this level the farmers are in charge as they plant and maintain the land. It’s disrespectful to blindly pile into a field without permission, or worse think that you don’t need it!
We have rarely seen such circular simplicity in recent years. The crop circle phenomenon does, now and again, offer us some retro designs reminiscent of years past, but we have of late been used to a blistering procession of the gigantic, the complex and the mind-blowing. In 2009, I thought the pace was particularly uncomfortable; it seemed that the amazing circles we were being presented with were being forgotten as soon as something new arrived. There was no time for scrutiny, pause or contemplation. Most of all, there seemed no time to appreciate what we had before we were giddily off looking at the next. I realise this is probably a personal thing – as I have openly admitted I am a bit of a plodder – but I think time to appreciate what has been put before us is important and is particularly helpful when it comes to learning not to take things for granted.
Steve and I drove up from the South coast to see this circle. The barley was already at an advanced stage of recovery: phototropism causes the plants to try and right themselves towards the sun when they have been flattened. There was a beautiful spoked, or ribbed pattering in the crop. This happens in most barley formations when the crop is of a certain maturity, the circle is created, and then the crop has had 2-3 days to recover. In fact, I think this only happens in barley formations full stop, I’ve never seen it in another crop type. But it does look very pretty. It was hard to explore the circle, you couldn’t walk around it in the traditional sense, only the very centre was truly flat, but you could walk the tractor-lines and around the outer ring (if you were careful). It was a lovely location; we heard the call of pheasants and watched swallows riding the thermals on the strong breeze. We had great views of West Kennet Long-barrow and to the top of Silbury Hill.
At the centre of the circle had been a group of standing stems, around which the rest of the circle had been swirled. There was very little of this left by the time we arrived, most had been cut away. Apparently, some white, powdery, web-like substance had been found on the stems that had puzzled some. In my humble opinion, this was possibly (probably) the web of the Ermine moth, which has infested our countryside this spring. I have seen their webs in hedgerows all over the countryside of late, I think it looks very similar to photos I later saw of the substance in the circle. It could also have been coated with whatever pesticides the farmer had sprayed the field with, giving it an extra powdery look. I assume the stems that were cut away will be tested? If so, hopefully we may soon have an answer.
You can see some of the amazing shots Steve took on our visit to this formation in our Image Library.
Finally, I decided to look at whether, or not, there was any particular relationship between the size of the circle and its orbiting ring. Sometimes crop circles have hidden numbers or proportions within them. I found to my delight a decagram (ten pointed star), which when touching the outer perimeter of the ring, perfectly defined the size of the centre circle.
If the circle represents one, unity, the divine, then could the ring be a halo? In traditional number, nine is the last of the archetypal (parental) numbers, ten is 1 and 0 and it represents transcending the world of the archetypes. There are in fact at least two different decagram stars, this one is made from two pentagons, introducing the magical number five into the picture. Five (as we discussed last time) is the geometry of life. Unity, Divinity, life, and transcendence are encoded into this little formation – no wonder it was universally loved.
KAREN ALEXANDER – JUNE 17, 2011
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