A wander. 22nd June 2025

 

There is a Winter Solstice at Stoney Littleton, when the sun shines down the central aisle of the chamber.  Luckily this Neolithic phenomena is not well known  and Stoney Littleton remains a peaceful place.  Here below is someone capturing the moment.  I do not follow the practice of geomancy by the way.  But the layering of theories in this century reaches ever new heights and it is the curious minds of so many to find explanations for everything.  Along the way of course dubious theories arise.

My relationship with this barrow is because of the history that is wrapped in its very stones.  You will see at the entrance a fossilised ammonite stone, already giving the people who raised this barrow a name.  But where did it come from?

Well ammonites are found in the quarries around Keynsham not too far from Stoney Littleton. The name Keynsham is founded on the name of Saint Kayne who apparently lived in a forest bedeviled by snakes and she had turned these snakes into stones.  The same legend applies to Whitby Abbey as well, as Saint Hilde also turned the snakes into stone and threw them over the cliff.  A story made up for the fossilised ammonite stones.

But it was the walk down a small green lane that always started off the adventure to the barrow.  Moss happily leading the way, you would come to a point in the river and a little bridge over it opposite a cottage.  A walk up the hill and through a very, very stony patch of wildflowers, the red poppies dominant. Up to the stile, where I would struggle to lift Moss over and into the little fenced off area of the compound, what the camera or drone of the film doesn't show is the wild flowers that flower on top of the mound in this barren desert of farmland.  The sweet smelling Ladies Bedstraw covering the mound.

A fuller description. Or when I said "sod painting the utility room' and I first met Littlestone or Paul.

"Geomancy, a compound of Greek roots denoting "earth divination", was originally used to mean methods of divination that interpret geographic features, markings on the ground, or the patterns formed by soil, rocks, or sand. Its definition has expanded over time (along with the recognized definition of the suffix -mancy), to include any spiritual, metaphysical, or pseudoscientific practice that is related to the Earth. In recent times the term has been applied to a wide range of other occult and fringe activities, including Earth mysteries and the introduction of ley lines and Bau-Biologie "

The Elephant in the room