Near Cley Hill, Warminster, Wiltshire.

(Close to Norridge Wood and West Wilts Way) 

Detail & Location: This circle was reported on the 30th of May. It is in a field of green barley and measures approximately 100ft in diameter. See the Google Maps link for precise location.

Ground Report: Click here for Ground Report and pictures by researcher Dan Vidler.

Crop Circle Reporting and Covid-19: After considerable thought and consultation, we have decided we will not be censoring crop circle locations during the Covid-19 pandemic. There are no current restrictions in place in the UK that call for a blanket ban on visiting the countryside. We consider the reporting of crop circles to be in the spirit of journalism, and censorship to be an anathema to that spirit. Therefore, we will be treating the crop circle community as adults and asking everyone to approach the information carefully and responsibly. This will include not visiting the circles if the farmer has not given explicit permission to do so and should permission be given that they practice social distancing by staying 2 metres away from fellow visitors. It would be our very strong advice that visiting the crop circles on the ground should be kept to an absolute minimum for now. However, because we know that the location of any given circle can be important to researchers and those that record the circles from the air, we will continue to share what we know. 

Flying during the Covid-19 Pandemic: As of the 1st of June, because of the current pandemic, we have not been able to take to the air to record the crop circles as we usually would. We are however, very confident that the restrictions keeping us grounded at present will be lifted before too long and we will be able to cover the rest of the season as usual. In the meantime, we are every pleased to have teamed up with the excellent AEROBO (Art in Flight) who will be helping us collect images and drone footage of the latest crop circles to share on the website. 

Visiting: As far as we are aware no permission has been given to visit this crop circle. Please do not visit this circle. Thank you. 

History & Connections: Cley Hill has seen many crop circles in the fields beneath it, the last one being a huge star-star-terahedron formation in 2017. Cley Hill also lies close to Cradle Hill, a famous site during the ‘Warminster Mystery’ flap – a series of strange happenings including UFO sightings that occurred in the 1960s and 1970s. You can read more about the Warminster happenings here. You can also read Arthur Shuttlewood’s original book on the subject see here for more information. This whole area is deeply entrenched in the mysterious.

This particular location is close to Norridge Wood and the West Wilts Way pathway. There were circles in close-by fields in both 2018 & 2019. Their designs show some similarities, they could perhaps be called siblings? 

Design & Symbolism: The symbolism of this circle is two-fold in more ways than one. In the first instance we can immediately see the Yin/Yang motif at the centre of the crop circle. This ubiquitous design is known the world over as a symbol recognising the complimentarily of seeming opposites. The dark half of the design contains at its heart a seed of the light and, as in a mirror, the light side contains at its centre a seed of the dark. The eternal chase between the two halves, speak to the eternal universality of the principle. The Yin/Yang symbol might also be considered a couple, there are two distinct partners, but together they form a new whole. 

The second part of the symbolism of this crop circle is its quintuplet motif. There are four equally spaced circles around the perimeter and the central circle – arranged like five dots on a die – four around a central fifth. This is a very traditional crop circle motif, one of the first geometrically sophisticated designs used by the circle-makers. Astonishingly, usually when this type of design is shown in a crop circle there is a ‘Squaring of the Circle’ ratio at play in the pattern. 

There is also a link between the Yin/Yang pattern and the division of a circle by five. More about this in the Geometry Gallery below. 

This is a very pretty classical design and I look forward to drawing it soon! 

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 and you will need to be aware of and abide by any restrictions in place in the UK in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. 

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Please Help to keep us Flying in 2019: 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: Some of the images below are beautiful landscape scenes. Click on each image to enlarge them and see the whole picture.

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Geometry Gallery

Initial Thoughts: Because there is a quintuplet-type element to this crop circle, I anticipate there maybe a Squaring of the Circle ratio in the design. Secondly, the classical Yin/Yang is created using the division of a circle by two, in such a way as two circles are fitted into the diameter of the original circle - they sit side by side. Therefore, the diameter of each one of these new circles is half the diameter of the original circle (or the measure of its radius, of course). If circles are then drawn that tangent these smaller circles, where they intersect with the perimeter of the original large circle, this measurement is approximately one-fifth of a circle. Walking this measurement around the circle with a compass will divide the circle into five. See gallery below for drawing. So there maybe also be a pentagonal element to the geometry of this circle. 

There's a big message in this little circle that the world needs to hear right now...

As you will discover in the picture gallery below, the iconic Yin/Yang pattern is not new to the crop circle phenomenon. It may have made its first appearance back in 1996, in the Midlands of the UK (possibly near Coventry). You can see the rather grainy picture in the gallery below. During 2009 there were no less than three crop circles containing this design, or variations thereof, there have been some beautiful expressions of this timeless pattern by the circle-makers over the years. 

At the root of the words Yin and Yang, is the word for mound or hill - the shape includes 2 mounds, one light, one dark. Yang also means Bright, or the sunny side of the hill, whereas Yin means cloudy, or the shady side of the hill. There are connotations to the light, bright day and the dark, shady night. 

Pop culture often sees this little icon as a metaphor for opposites, which on one level it is. But more than that, this is about the symbiotic nature of opposition, the complimentary nature of opposites as a couple, as a relationship. In the Yin/Yang we notice that each half has the seed or kernel, of the other at its centre, or heart, each is a mirror for the other, each contains something self-similar in relation to the other. 

Further, the Yin/Yang, has an element of the eternal in its design, a continuous chase, or embrace. Each is essential to other, without each other there is no wholeness, no peace, or harmony. Nature doesn't complain about the winter, rather it acknowledges that all is a process, all has a part to play in the unfolding of creation. 

Finally, the Yin/Yang is about being compassionate to difference, embracing it and taking into our hearts as a part of ourselves. We are enriched by diversity, we are made whole by our opposites, we become a mirror image of unity, when we can hold all difference, diversity  and opposition within ourselves - only then will we find the peace and harmony we desperately seek. 

The Geometry of the 2020 Cley Hill Crop Circle 

This was a complex little circle to draw because there is an inherent difference in the two sides of the formation in the outer standing ring. This lead to a decision having to be made out how it is drawn. Sometimes, an accurate reproduction is possible on paper, if the formation is symmetrical, however deviations from symmetry can be problematic. 

I worked on this formation with Peter van den Burg and we came to a compromise that satisfied us both as to intent and flavour of the circle. In the end this was a personal decision, based on the geometry of the circle as it was in the field and our combined experience drawing the crop circles. You will see my pencil-line drawing in the gallery below, but the underlying geometry is best seen in Peter's graphics also in the gallery. 

In my initial thoughts about this circle at the top of this section were that this circle almost certainly squared the circle and may have a hidden pentagonal proportion - both these intuitions bore fruit. There is a squaring of the circle that occurs when a circle is drawn that tangents the inner perimeters of the four circles on the outer ring and a square drawn that connects the geomantic centres of those four circles. This is nice, because both the square and the circle are proportioned with both intersection and tangents of the same four circles. 

The pentagonal proportion is connected with the diameters of the circles used to constrict the two larger circles that make up the Yin/Yang. If we use the same circle that tangents the inner perimeters of the four circles on the outer ring and divide by five, we can construct a pentagon, then a pentagram. The inner intersections of the pentagram create a ring of the same size as those use in the Yin/Yang. There is a certain beauty of economy, typical of the crop circles, that connects both the fourfold and fivefold nature of the geometry. The discovery of a Golden Section relationship between the smaller circles in the Yin/Yang was the icing on the cake!

Note: Incidentally, if we were to construct the entire crop circle, using the second symmetry possible the two larger Yin/Yang circles would be contained within the pentagon. 

Sometimes, the size and seeming simplicity of a circle can be very misleading, often there are treasures to be found. I loved this little crop circle, it contained a lot of bang, for such a small and simple design. 

Finally, when I sat down to paint this formation, I had in mind the commentary opposites of night and day - hence the colour palette. However, it was not until I had finished reading-up on the Yin/Yang that I knew that this meaning was inherent in the words themselves. This was a lovely little coincidence that made me feel that, through the act of contemplating and drawing the design, I had had a glimpse of its implicit inner meaning. 

Karen Alexander (June 2020)

Thanks/Credits:
Text | Hand-drawn Images by Karen Alexander.
With special thanks to Peter van de Burg for his thoughts, perspectives and analysis. You can see more of his great work on his Facebook page Geometry of the crop circles.
Golden Section Proportioners by Scott Onstott.
Diagram below by Bertold Zugelder.