Cerne Abbas, nr Dorchester, Dorset.

The chalk hill figure at Cerne Abbas is known the world over – as the Cerne Abbas Giant. It is regarded as an ancient fertility symbol dating back to the Iron-Age. The giant stands 180ft tall and is in fact the largest chalk hill figure the UK – he stands on the side of the hill fort at Cerne Abbas. There is an earthwork at the summit of the hill known as the Trendle. You can read more about the Cerne Abbas Giant here.

This circle appeared at the bottom of the hill close to the chalk figure, but not in the field directly below. It is immediately recognisable as a Vesica Pisces design, this is where the perimeter of one circle intersects the centre of another and creates an almond shape where they overlap. In scared geometry this is called the division of unity, where unity (the circle) replicates itself rather than being cut in anyway – in this way unity remains a whole. Self replication is considered a fundamental sign of life. Cell mitosis works in exactly this way. The phrase Vesica Pisces literally means fish-bladder, but it also a vaginal symbol, as this almond shape is from whence all other shapes are born, beginning with the triangle, then the square, the pentagon etc, etc. The exercise of drawing this progression has a long history amongst artists and geometers. The placing of such an image in close proximity to a symbol of male fertility is not without irony.

This crop circle has been interpreted either as an anatomical representation of female genitalia, or as an image of the Virgin Mary  – the two are not that unrelated – so either one – or both – could be appropriate.

In the gallery below are a series of images showing the drawing of this design by Karen Alexander. We hope you enjoy seeing the progression of the drawing from beginning to end.

Karen currently has a section of her original paintings (from 2017) for sale. Click here to see the paintings available.

Visiting the Circles? If you are thinking of visiting any crop circles this summer, please read our Visiting the Crop Circles section. It’s full of useful information and etiquette for visiting the countryside and the crop circles. Please remember that you should not enter any fields without the express permission of the farmer.

Please Help to keep us Flying in 2017: If you have enjoyed looking at our pictures and information please consider making a small donation to keep us flying. There are so few of us left regularly recording the circles it’s really important that we continue. And while some now use drones to record the circles, it is important that there are still images taken from aircraft where the best quality camera equipment can be used and images that include the broad vista of the landscape can be taken. This kind of photography is expensive and it gets harder with each passing year to raise the funds we need to continue our work, but if everyone who regularly looked at this website made a small donation we would meet the funds we need. You can make a donation here.

NOTE: Click on each image to enlarge them and see the whole picture.

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