[Stones] Secrets of Stonehenge

[Judith Helling]

Hi Nancy,
I'm very much in accord with this line of thinking.  As an artist, I've been making in recent years my own take on the "Green Man", and have spent some time thinking about how to finish each piece - whether to attempt to make them look like wood or stone, or to paint them. I chose the latter, and have a strong feeling that the Green Men we see in medieval churches would have been coloured originally.  After all, the walls of pre-Reformation churches in England were covered with paintings illustrating biblical themes, very different from the austere country churches they have become today, which now almost seem specifically designed to celebrate the essential qualities of wood and stone.  There is also plenty of evidence that Paleolithic cave artists were frequently responding to the shapes and shadows they saw in the rock walls, "drawing out" and enhancing the animal they glimpsed there.  A basic human urge to enhance, decorate, bring out the spiritual essence of the wood or stone?  And an important human activity in pre-literate societies, where many more people would expect to engage with their world through some sort of graphic mark - a visual rather than verbal response. 

Judith
(in Cumbria)
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: The Wissers 
  To: The Stones Mailing List 
  Sent: Saturday, November 10, 2007 12:15 AM
  Subject: Re: [Stones] Secrets of Stonehenge


  Thanks, Andy. Just the fellow. I remember looking at some of his pictures for a long time thinking: aren't we likely looking at some very ancient traditions in regards to stones? Like this and this for example. We look at the bare stones that remain after thousands of years, but it's possible, even likely, that the stones in Europe and the British Isles may have been draped, decorated, and painted, treated like beings or stand-ins for beings at certain times of year, rather than regarded in modern fashion as inert clock hands or compass points. Some young ambitious megorak could do worse than to travel rural India and inquire for local stories and traditions about stones.

  Nancy


  Andy Burnham wrote: 
The Wissers wrote:
  Thank you, Ric. As you may know, I am a lover of Hindu culture (with a
leaning toward Vaisnavism). I also own and have read Celtic Heritage,
and was familiar with some of the ways the two cultures mirror one
another, but I still found the Campbell article interesting. I had
never connected that connection with megaliths, as they precede
'Celtic' cultures by thousands of years. On the other hand, I have
often thought that anyone interested in megaliths and how they may
have been regarded in ancient times would do well to look into the
practises still current, especially in rural India, connected with
certain stones that are regarded as ceremonial. A few examples were
posted to the Portal by someone whose name presently escapes me. 
    Moti?
http://www.megalithic.co.uk/user.php?op=userinfo&uname=motist
Click the link once there to see just the first 1000 photos.
Must fix that...


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