Winter Solstice – Science, Propaganda and Indoctrination
As we reflect on the threshold of was is the Winter Solstice, a contemplative moment reveals the irony of how a seemingly natural occurrence in the cyclical calendar of the Earth has been artfully distorted by the Christian church. This distortion, stemming from a repulsion of perceived ‘pagan’ elements, is a source of both amusement and disdain.
It remains an indisputable truth, grounded in astronomical reality, that the astronomical ‘new year’ aligns itself with the day succeeding the Winter Solstice. Yet, one is prompted to question the number within the Anglo-Saxon Christian populace that pays homage to this alignment. The overwhelming majority, duly indoctrinated, instead embraces a day etched within the Gregorian calendar, forged half a millennium ago, a week to ten days after this celestial milestone.
This phenomenon, a manifestation of the power wielded by propaganda over the realms of science, is a phenomenon that reverberates through our society. This societal mechanism, which prioritizes pursuits like sport, gambling, and self-indulgence over rational thought, starkly contrasts with the logical examination of such seemingly trivial matters.
Historically, the Winter Solstice carried immense significance, transcending its cosmic context. It marked the juncture where ‘darkness’, symbolic of death and decay, surrendered to ‘light’, heralding the renewal and vivacity of life after a harsh winter. Such observance stretched well beyond the brief historical period of the Christian interpretation, a testament attested by Stonehenge, a prehistoric marvel dating back over six millennia, built to celebrate this event.
Thus, let the thoughts of deluded Druids serve as a reminder, for even in their misinterpretation of Stonehenge’s purpose, they inadvertently rekindle the essence of the past. As the solstice unfolds, let us embrace both the astronomical majesty and the echoes of traditions and stand resilient in the face of distortions that challenge the authenticity of our collective history.
Contrary to the prevailing belief, Stonehenge was conceived not as an observatory for the midsummer solstice sunrise but as a homage to a more profound phenomenon – the midwinter sunset, six months distant and in an opposing direction. The conventional image of Stonehenge, with its perfect circularity and encompassing lintel stones, is not without complications. However, this monument’s inherent purpose and construction technique elucidate its true character.
In seeking the heart of Stonehenge’s intention, one must diverge from the notion that it was a solar temple. The alignment towards the Summer Solstice Sunrise holds little resonance for a commemorative structure dedicated to the departed. Instead, a monument honouring those who journeyed beyond life’s horizon would find its poignancy in facing the moon’s farthest descent, the nocturnal northwest, or in greeting the Winter Solstice Sunset – an embodiment of the eternal cycle where light ultimately vanquishes darkness, symbolising rebirth.
Moreover, in this voyage of interpretation, the archetype of the Sun as life and vitality emerge. The ancient civilisations of the Middle East and the realms of South and Central America substantiate this imagery – wherein monuments to the departed are associated with the crescent moon, a symbol of continuity over time.
Stonehenge’s design was carefully hewn to mirror a crescent, entwined with the Winter Solstice Sunset’s axis, most eloquently presented by a standing trilithon in the southwest quadrant. A lone sentinel of this archetype endures, standing upright as a testament to its purpose. The annals of history, however, unveil the druids’ intervention during the Iron Age, reshaping the monument’s symbolism. The Heel Stone’s displacement altered the alignment, tethering it to the Summer Solstice sunrise, while the southwest quadrant’s trilithon met a more inglorious fate.
The ‘crescent within the crescent’, the more extensive horseshoe trilithon array, a harbinger of the Summer Solstice sunrise, bears an emblem of significance – a message across epochs. This symbolism encapsulates the notion of renewal, rebirth, and reincarnation, a testament to the lineage that survived despite the demise of their homeland, echoing across time the resilience of a civilisation’s descendants, prepared to embark anew on the journey of existence.
Archaeological evidence lends weight to the hypothesis, unveiling intriguing facets that challenge conventional perceptions. The absence of stones, seemingly ‘missing’ from Stonehenge’s architectural scheme, emerges as a conundrum, a puzzle of significance. The prevailing quandary dissipates if one entertains the notion of an incomplete monument. The curious fact where these ‘missing’ stones cluster within the southwest quadrant offers another layer of intrigue – a testament to their deliberate placement.
A question naturally emerges: if stones were to be transported away, wouldn’t logic dictate that those nearest a road should be the first to go? Yet, the stones of the southwest quadrant, far from the roads, stand as sentinels of purpose, embodying a silent narrative that resonates across the ages.
The argument against Stonehenge’s role as a solar temple deepens by examining the stones themselves. Unaltered by time’s passage, some of these stones stand as witnesses to the challenges faced by a solar temple interpretation. These stones, too small to support the weight of horizontal lintels, cast doubt on this hypothesis. Stone 11, with its inherent dimensions, paints a vivid picture, and in this enigma, the crescent moon’s symbolism gains resonance.
Indeed, the design’s logic unveils a captivating portrait. Strings converging on the centre, the moat manifesting a hexagram – a geometric form replete with significance that resonates through the tapestry of history. As explored in the trilogy’s final tome, ‘Dawn of the Lost Civilisation,’ this geometry speaks to a sophisticated intention that transcends mere architectural endeavour.
In this realm of interpretation, the enigma of Stonehenge takes on dimensions that extend beyond the physical. The stones that stand and those that seemingly ‘disappear’ weave a narrative that goes beyond the mundane, entwining with the geometry of the universe itself. Such is the allure of history – a canvas where stones and geometry converge, inviting us to decipher their secrets, the language of a civilization long past.
The Avenue
Phase II’s transformative currents within Stonehenge find a tangible trace in the development of the Avenue, a ceremonial artery that sustains the profound link between the monument and the flowing river system. Our ancestors commenced this journey with a strategic act – backfilling the northeastern site’s ditch. In Hawley and Atkinson’s astute observations, this secondary filling’s non-natural character revealed itself. An excavation delved into this layer and unveiled a tableau of artefacts – a mosaic revealing secrets of profound import.
This backfill, delving to a meter’s depth, emerges as a temporal cypher, marked by pottery shards and fragments of bluestones. Their chronology, etched into their essence, predated the arrival of the enigmatic bluestones, casting a spotlight on the events that unfolded.
In contemplating the inception of the Avenue, one discerns a dual purpose that unfurls in the winds of time. This pathway, a threshold for processions of the departed, resonates with deeper intent. As a multifaceted construct, it bore the weight of the ceremonial and served as a custodian of the earth’s vitality. In this role, it played a vital role in stabilizing groundwater levels. The transition in river levels had repercussions, leading to the dwindling of the moat, once a thriving conduit, to a mere trickle.
The archaeological tapestry of our hypothesis weaves together these threads of history. A moat liner, unearthed by Hawley, emerges as a significant clue. This liner was superfluous in the moat’s inception, as the generous groundwater tables maintained its waters. However, as the rhythmic tide of groundwater receded, necessitating the moat’s replenishment, the liner assumed its role – ensuring its vitality through various means. These means, whether drawn from the waters of the receding rivers or collected through precipitation like dew ponds, bespeak a society attuned to the ebb and flow of their environment.
Thus, the Avenue’s evolution and the moat’s liner unveil a narrative of adaptation, of humanity’s ingenuity in maintaining a spiritual and ecological equilibrium. Our ancestors left imprints that span the chasm of ages in their quest, inviting us to delve beyond the surface and decipher the symphony of their aspirations and insights.
The Avenue, a processional path etched into the Stonehenge landscape, unfolds a tale of profound import, revealing a physical conduit and a symbolic journey. A trench, unfurling over a meter deep on either side, marks its presence, its significance beckoning us to explore the interplay of practicality and symbolism.
This trench, seemingly superfluous in its function, finds its raison d’être in an alternative narrative – a narrative that transcends the mundane and ventures into realms of practicality and allegory. The trench, though not directly connected to the existing moat, unveils a secret within chalk’s porous nature. A conduit for water, it ushers this vital element along the Avenue’s length, sustaining a journey even without direct physical linkage.
The Sarsen Stones
The enigma of the Sarsen stones adds layers to the story. Transported before the river’s transformation from ‘Stonehenge Bottom’ into the River Avon we know today, these colossal stones, distinct from the original Welsh bluestones, marked a shift. This departure from tradition wasn’t purely practical but a testament to a particular purpose. The engineering marvel of these stones, the very choice of material, and the method of their transportation bespeak an understanding of their significance. In the heart of these stones, carved mortise and tenon joints speak of an engineering ambition that transcended the ordinary.
The exact chronicle of this transformation remains a tapestry woven with threads of inquiry and speculation. Clues, though partial, emerge from the landscape’s very fabric. An approximate date can be discerned by the river’s presence at the Avenue’s terminus – a prerequisite for the stone unloading process. This timeframe narrows, grounded between the recession of groundwater from the northwestern shoreline and its arrival at the ‘elbow’.
The narrative, as told through the arrangement of Sarsen stones, is a testament to our limited understanding. Commonly accepted dating methods falter when weighed against the complexities of Stonehenge’s evolution. Pottery and antler picks paint a portrait that isn’t static, upending the assumption of unchanged context.
In its orientation, The Avenue hints at a deeper layer of intent. It beckons us to question the monumental shifts across millennia. A deliberate alignment toward the midwinter moonset, the realm of the departed and afterlife, speaks volumes. Could this symbolism have transformed over 4,000 years? Could the once-healed waters now celebrate life’s renewal and rebirth through the Sun?
The alignment toward the summer sunrise, encapsulated by the Avenue’s orientation, offers a third clue, further muddling traditional dating. The Heel Stone, skewed in its current form, deviates from its original intention. Stones moved and adjusted through the ages to paint a mutable portrait.
The Avenue, the Trench, and the Sarsen stones are chapters of a narrative, an ever-evolving saga that unfurls through time. Its secrets, partially concealed within the earth and the heavens, invite us to ponder, reassess, and dig deeper, hoping that one day, the enigma of Stonehenge will be illuminated, even as its shadows dance across the meadows of history.
The most sensible alignment is straight down the middle of the Avenue. This is apparent alignment has only been partially investigated and, as a result, questions the ‘traditional’ dating of the site
The celestial dance of the Sun, a ballet that graces our horizons, is a choreography marked by the passage of time. Yet, the script of this dance, as inscribed upon the canvas of the sky, is not one of permanence. Instead, it is a tale of intricate movements, a narrative intertwined with the Earth’s journey.
This narrative springs from the Earth’s “procession,” an elegant waltz of our planet upon its axis. While delving into the intricacies of this phenomenon may require more than a mere glance, a fundamental understanding suffices. It is a gentle “wobble,” an undulation akin to a cosmic heartbeat, a rhythm that resonates across ages.
The consequence of this terrestrial waltz is profound. Once carved in the stone of consistency, the Sun’s and moon’s rise and set now waltz through the heavens in a different choreography. This dance spread across an expanse of 43,000 years, unfurls a tapestry of shifting horizons. It is a spectacle that reshapes our perspective, altering the vantage point from which we gaze upon the celestial bodies.
In contemplating the Sun’s journey, we are reminded of the ever-evolving nature of the universe itself. The heavens, far from stagnant, embrace a rhythm that spans aeons. As we stand upon the shores of time, we are humbled by the fluidity of the cosmos, a reminder that even the most immutable of fixtures is, in reality, part of a grand procession – an eternal ballet that embraces both our understanding and our limitations.
In the realm of celestial mechanics, we find another tool – a method of “reverse engineering” that weaves a date into the fabric of Stonehenge’s story. Yet, even in this approach, the cosmos maintains an air of enigma, its beauty veiled in the interplay of trees and horizon, the dance of the Heel Stone and the Sun’s golden rays.
To unlock this temporal secret, we turn to the Summer solstice sunrise, a moment marked by the heavens and the interplay between Stonehenge’s stones and the first glimmer of light. As the Heel Stone meets the Sun’s embrace, a ritual engrained over millennia, a reading of 50.81 degrees on the celestial compass beckons.
Yet, like any earthly endeavour, this measurement bears a shade of subjectivity. The treeline, a shroud that guards the horizon, obscures the precise instant when light pierces the darkness. The accepted point, where sun and stone meet, is the Heel Stone’s upper tip, as it emerges above the landscape.
With this baseline established, we journey down the Avenue, a path trodden by countless generations, now traced with virtual precision on the canvas of Google Earth. The compass whispers a reading of 49.57 degrees, a difference of 1.24 degrees from when the Avenue first graced the Earth’s surface.
In the dance of time, where the Sun’s annual shift equals 0.0002 degrees, we uncover a date that threads the past into the present. The Sun’s dalliance with the Avenue’s centre, an alignment etched over the aeons, bestows upon us a time frame – a construction date that reaches 6200 years or 4180 BCE.
This conclusion finds itself bolstered by more than mere numbers. The tale unfolds further with an antler bone, an unexpected harbinger of history. Beneath the weight of a 12-ton Sarsen stone, this bone lay undisturbed, guarded by the monumental sentinel above. Its positioning defies the shifting sands of time, casting doubt upon the conventional dating that weaves its narrative around other artefacts.
In this delicate dance of science and speculation, of shadow and light, we glimpse a history that transcends the stones. The Avenue, in its orientation, the Heel Stone in its embrace of sunrise, and the antler bone beneath the Sarsen’s weight, they together inscribe a story – a narrative that compels us to delve deeper, to question, and to unravel the enigma of Stonehenge’s origins.
Within the annals of Stonehenge’s mysteries lies a bone, an antler bone nestled in the embrace of Sarsen Stone 27. This seemingly humble relic, cradled within the “packing,” speaks a language of time – a language that we, seekers of understanding, strive to decipher.
At this moment, we turn to the realm of carbon dating, a technique that unfurls the tapestry of antiquity. The result is a range that stretches across the ages – 4342 to 4039, as intoned by IntCal20. Within this range, we find a date, a heartbeat of time, pulsating at 4191 BCE. Yet, this date, though significant in itself, offers another revelation that intertwines with the tale woven by the Avenue’s celestial compass.
As we examine the numbers, the alignment is uncanny, an echo reverberating through history’s corridors. The Avenue’s orientation, etched by the dance of Sun and stone, hints at a moment frozen in time – a moment when Stonehenge’s Phase II embarked upon its journey. The echoes of the carbon-dated bone resonate with the celestial compass, a duet of insight that harmonizes within a window of history.
Thus, with the convergence of methods and evidence, I stand before you with a conclusion that has emerged from the intricate interplay of science and narrative. Stonehenge’s Phase II, a chapter steeped in mystery, unfurled its tapestry around the year 4185 BCE. Within this realm, we glimpse celestial intent and earthly endeavors, a nexus connecting our understanding to the pulse of antiquity.
As the shadows of time cast their dance upon the stones, we stand on the precipice of knowledge, humbled by the stories etched into the fabric of Stonehenge’s stones. In this revelation, we not only uncover history’s secrets but also honour the relentless quest to comprehend our place within the tapestry of existence.
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