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Photographing stones…
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Is not like photographing people.
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Stones do not, normally, insist upon presenting their best side.
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Or veto the unhappy results.
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However, they have upon the odd occasion…
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Been known to smile.
ancient sites
Ambushed by Stone…
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Not content with capturing one rather large stone circle, under rapidly darkening skies, we set off in pursuit of another.
Which was a mistake.
For one thing, we got lost…
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And then we ran into this motley lot.
Hiding from us they were.
Waiting for the sun to go down before they pounced.
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Anyway, we tentatively made our way through their ranks.
And eventually confronted their leader.
She seemed okay and assured us her troops meant no harm.
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So we determined to return on the morrow.
In the hope that the morning light might be kinder.
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Shadow Play…
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‘Shadowing’ is our term for the phenomenon whereby a standing stone, or group of stones, recreates a distant landscape feature and thereby renders it immediately apparent or tangible.
Most other megalithic writers on the subject have also, independently, recognised this phenomenon although they usually refer to it, less accurately perhaps, as ‘mirroring’.
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This being the case, it is highly unlikely for such a notion to be the product of fantasy, yet it is still quite difficult to credit the skill set required to so accurately render this technique, and especially so in a people still regarded by many as ‘primitive’ in relation to us.
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Either, the ‘circle constructors’ had an incredible eye for, and memory of, the natural landscape, which they, inevitably, would have done anyway, or, they ‘crudely dressed’ the stones once placed.
Please note the inaccurate use of the notion ‘crude’ here.
There is nothing crude about the ancients’ ability to dress stone in this way, quite the opposite.
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Even more perplexing, perhaps, is the question of precisely why the circle constructors would do this?
The terms ‘false perspective’, ‘collapsing distance’ and ‘correspondence’ are all useful in formulating an answer to this intriguing riddle.
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All the images in this post display examples of ‘shadowing’ in one form or another, although you may have to work quite hard to discover each and every one of them.
‘Damn those pesky primitives!’…
The Big-Bold-Blue of Beyond…
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… When Brother-Warrior entered the chamber of the princess, because of his Cloak-of-Darkness, she thought she was enjoying converse and congress with a spirit.
So too, did all her hand-maids but before departing he took off his cloak and left them with the fleeting vision of a ‘Fairy Warrior’.
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After Brother-Wizard and Brother-Warrior had left for the wooded isle, Brother-Smith wasted no time in fomenting the populace who were missing the usual round of the wondrous cow.
He walked to each home-stead in turn crying “no milk today, the King of Castle-Hill has stolen your cow.”
In this way they were left in no doubt as to who was to blame for their loss of sustenance and the King of Castle-Hill spent the next nine months touring his lands putting down local revolt after local revolt without the use of his baleful eye.
The king had no opportunity to visit his daughter, as promised, and indeed, as few knew of the island’s existence, and the magic halter, and the wondrous cow were still kept there, it would have been foolish for him to do so.
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“It is time to collect the magic halter,” said Brother-Wizard to Brother- Warrior after a time.
Together, the two of them, again, set out for the wooded isle in the coracle and once they reached the tower and the nine home-steads they collected not only the magic halter, which the king’s daughter freely gave to them but also the ‘fruits’ of Brother-Warrior’s last visit.
The nine children of the hand-maids were given together in a blanket fastened by a thorn which Brother-Wizard carried on his back whilst the grandson of the king was kept in a separate cloth which Brother-Warrior kept slung upon his breast.
As they made their way back to the mainland the thorn holding the blanket broke and the nine children of the hand-maids fell into the sea and were turned into seals, by Brother-Wizard, so they would not drown.
Brother-Warrior brought the grandson of the king safely ashore…
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Newton: Wholesome Soul…
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To round off our brief but succinct survey of the Alchemists,
we shall give some examples from the works
of those savants that we have so far considered.
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Finally for now, Isaac Newton…
“… First of all know antimony to be a crude and immature mineral having in itself
what is uniquely metallic, even though otherwise it is indigested.
Two parts of antimony with iron give a regulus which in its fourth fusion
exhibits a star!
By this sign you may know that the soul of the iron
has been made totally volatile by virtue of the antimony.
If this stellate regulus is melted with gold or silver by an ash heat
in an earthen pot, the whole regulus is evaporated.
Which is a mystery!”
The Key
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The ‘star-regulus‘ or little-king,
a diminutive of latin, rex, King
was regarded by Newton as the bright-star
in the heart of the constellion Leo, the lion.
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Do not be misled by references to on high,
these are not pyrotechnics in the sky,
but fire-works of the ‘minds-eye’…
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A Red-Haired Boy…
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… The king immediately ordered a tower be built on a densely wooded isle off the coast of his lands and had his daughter put in the tower away from all danger.
Nine home-steads about the foot of the tower and nine hand-maids, one for each home-stead, to ensure that none but the king himself could enter the tower and see the princess.
Once completely satisfied that such a defence could not be breached, without his knowledge, the king set about planning the procurement of the magic halter.
After much deliberation he transformed himself into a red-haired boy and set off for the abode by the sea that housed the three brothers.
The disguised king arrived in the nick of time.
Brother-Smith was busy in the forge making weapons while Brother-Wizard stood alongside casting spells on those weapons.
Brother-Warrior was outside the forge holding the magic halter.
The wondrous cow grazed sedately in a field alongside the forge.
A dispute between Brother-Smith and Brother-Wizard had just arisen, over the tempering of the blades, and Brother-Warrior was summoned to settle the matter.
“Just look after this for awhile will you,” said Brother-Warrior to a red-haired boy who was passing by, “I won’t be a moment,” he handed the magic halter to the boy and entered the forge.
When Brother-Warrior re-emerged from the forge the red-haired boy, the magic halter, and the wondrous cow were gone.
He set up a shout and the smith and the wizard came running out.
“It can only be the King of Castle-Hill,” said Brother-Wizard looking into the far distance, “long has he coveted our wondrous cow.”
“You will have to get the magic halter back,” said Brother-Smith.
“I’ll need your help,” said Brother-Warrior disturbing the wizard’s reverie.
“Yes, yes, of course,” said Brother-Wizard, his eyes narrowing darkly…
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The King of Castle Hill…
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…There once was a king who lived in a castle on a hill.
He was lord and master of all he surveyed.
One daughter he had sired but his wife had died in giving the child life.
His daughter was very beautiful and the king looked forward to the day when she would come into her own.
By a cunning device of his mother the King of Castle-Hill had been made invulnerable and was possessed of a baleful eye which was capable of blighting all that it gazed upon.
The eye was normally kept covered by five leather patches.
The King of Castle-Hill was also a great wizard in his own right, well versed in the magical arts, and nothing happened in his kingdom without his knowledge of it.
There was little that the King of Castle-Hill wanted save for a wondrous cow which was looked after by three brothers who lived by the sea.
One of the brothers was a blacksmith, clever and skilful.
One of the brothers was a wizard, cunning and resourceful.
One of the brothers was a warrior, strong and fair.
The wondrous cow was possessed of an inexhaustible supply of milk and it daily traversed the kingdom supplying the people with nourishment.
The wondrous cow was governed by a magic halter.
Wherever the halter went, there too went the wondrous cow.
The King of Castle-Hill determined to acquire the wondrous cow and realised that if he could somehow get the magic halter then the object of his desire would follow.
About the same time as the king determined upon a plan to acquire the wondrous cow it came to his attention that certain prophesies were doing the rounds of his kingdom.
The prophecies spoke of the king’s demise.
The king summoned his soothsayer.
“It is true, my lord, words have been uttered describing your death,” said the king’s soothsayer.
“But I am invulnerable,” said the King of Castle-Hill, “I will live forever.”
“Not so,” said the soothsayer, “your grandson shall slay you by casting a spear through your baleful eye and on out of the back of your skull.”
The king fell silent in thought.
It might possibly be true, the king’s baleful eye, though a potent weapon and an effective deterrent against those who might oppose him, was also his only vulnerable spot.
“Will he indeed!” seethed the King of Castle-Hill fingering the first of the leather pouches that covered his baleful eye, “we will see about that.”…
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The Alchemist: Last Judgement…
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Perhaps, taking his cue from what little was left of the Mediaeval originals,
Viollet-le-Duc incorporated and emphasised horns, and claws, and talons,
and tusks, and fangs, and beaks, and raised heckles, in his grotesques.
Even the feathers of the birds resembled scales, or chain-mail.
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Nature for the denizens of the two towers, which between them
encompassed the directions of West, North and South,
appeared to be red in tooth and claw,
with little or no desire to transcend that state.
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As monsters of the human mind, presumably,
this state also applied to the collective psyche,
and was, perhaps, forever exemplified by the
inhabitants of Paris who moved through the streets below,
and over whom the grotesques so rapaciously brooded.
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Nevertheless, the monsters became objects
of deep and prolonged fascination for both Parisians
and those who came from much farther afield
to climb the spiral-stairwells, and gawp.
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Many of the fantastical beasts had captured prey,
and feasted, ravenously, some of them fought,
others appeared to be in the process of hunting.
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This is quite deliberate and contrasts with the Angel of the East
which sounds its heavenly horn to announce the Last Judgement.
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Behind Gabriel, arrayed along the length of the base of the harmonious spire,
pointing the way of ascent, stand the apostles, upright, and serene.
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But wait, what of the Christ Spirit?
Should not it too have been there?
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Oh, but it was…
It was one of the grotesques!
A Harmony of Eight…
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The point sits at the centre of the square,
where its two diagonals intersect.
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From the same intersection, another square
can be drawn at right angles to the first.
Like this, we create eight equidistant points.
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By taking the original squares and extending all
eight sides, a new set of intersections is generated.
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The new Octagon, bigger than the first,
is perfectly derived from its archetype.
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Extending the sides of the Octagon generates another pair of larger squares.
The pattern is infinitely extendable around the point of origin with
perfect symmetry in every direction…
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A point indicates a location in space which is present but has no dimension…
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