Sacred Places- Avebury, Wiltshire, UK

[Echo]

Avebury is perhaps less well known, certainly at international level, than it neighbour, the great Temple of Stonehenge, yet it is older, vaster, more mysterious by far. There is a sense of timelessness there that I have felt in few other places. The tiny village nestles within the encircling arms of stone. The stones stand frozen in time, balanced upon the knife edge of faith and vision, and the landscape seems to hum to the tune of a stately celestial dance.

Circle within circle, earth and stone.

Yet, the village is but a small part of a vast sacred landscape, where avenues of stone still guard the processional ways. Walk up the avenue, seeing the alternating stones.. lozenge and rectangular, feminine and masculine, negative and positive, and you cross a threshold that leads through the misty veils of time to our far beginnings.

Close by is the great earth pyramidal mount of Silbury Hill. The breast of the goddess, perhaps, or her womb? It once had a man made pool surrounding its base.. does this not remind one of the sacred mountain of the creation myths of Egypt? What must it have looked like, floating in the mists and mirrored in the pool… as above, so below.



There is the deep tomb at West Kennet where one crosses the threshold of the otherworld and walks into the chambered tomb where the bones of the ancestors lay. Candles and flowers are tucked into niches in the stonework and the air smells of damp earth and incense... very much as it must always have done. The barrows of East Kennet and Beckhampton are still closed.




A little way down the road, atop a hill where one can see Silbury, is the site of the Sanctuary, its intricate design of postholes marked now with anonymous concrete.. yet the sense of place remains.

William Stukeley drew a plan of the landscape.. it looks like the cogs of a clock.. or the great serpent of stone that he compared it to.. a great sacred complex of the dragon power that flows through the land.


The Avebury complex covers some 28 acres and dates back to as far as 2500 BC. The huge circular ditch surrounding the centre is over 30 feet deep and a quarter of a mile across. There is an outer circle of stones enclosing two inner circles some 340 ft in diameter, one contained the Cove, a set of three enormous stones, and the other held the obelisk, over 20 ft long.



Silbury Hill is 130 feet (40 m.) high, with a base of 1640 feet in circumference. Over 12 million cubic feet (339,600 cubic m.) of chalk and earth were used to build it.. by hand with tools made from antlers.. and covers over 5 acres.

Amesbury, a place of legend is not far away, Stonehenge is due south of Avebury.. again not far. Were these places connected? Look them up on google earth… see what you think.

[Mozelle]

It once had a man made pool surrounding its base.. does this not remind one of the sacred mountain of the creation myths of Egypt? What must it have looked like, floating in the mists and mirrored in the pool

I bet that was some to behold. I've never been in a tomb.

[Echo]

It is a very strange atmosphere, Mozele, quite warm and earthy, as if one is held in the womb of the Mother.. which I think maybe was the idea.



This is a floor plan of the tomb from wiki, where there is a good article with more history. The big stone in front of the entrance is over 2metres high and apart from the row of stones at the entrance it is all buried under a mound of earth.When it was excavated, evicence of 46 burials there were found, yet it seems to have been begun around 3600 BC.

[Shaggy]

Wow, I had heard of Silbury hill before but had never really looked much into it. I need to get some money so I can visit some of these places .