The Yarnbury Castle formation 28th April 2012

Yarnbury Castle (or Hill-fort) fig.02 and 03, is of course, not a fortification in the traditional sense. There are no buildings or battlements. Dating back to the iron-age these types of earthworks are simple enclosures with a bank and a ditch, which would have probably encircled a settlement. Apparently, the scoop shapes inside the formation are a mix of old quarry marks and 18th century sheep pen enclosures. Yarnbury Castle looks magnificent from the air it is one of the larger hill-forts in the UK with well defined banks and ditches. Alas, there is no public access to this amazing landmark on foot; the fort is on private property.

Fig.02 Yarnbury Castle Hillfort by the A303

Fig.03 Yarnbury Castle by Sir Richard Colt Hoare

Fig.04 Oliver’s Castle formation 2007 – 300ft approx.

Fig.05 Geometry of the formation begins with a classical vesica piscis

Fig.06 C to B indicates the radius of the traditionally placed third circle to create an equidistant triquetra. A to B indicates the slightly different radius of the circle in the Yarnbury formation.

Black ink shows the finished design.

The flight over, I wanted to get the design on the drawing board. I could see that we had a circle with a wide outer ring and that we had some intersecting concentric arcs. I could also see what appeared to be another arc intersecting in an opposite direction and that the concentric arcs had been flattened in an opposing pattern either side of this. As I began to draft out a preliminary drawing, I realised that what might be helpful would not just be to draw the formation itself, but also to draw in the radiating geometry. There are times when in order to see a fuller picture of a formation that it is informative to draw all the shapes that make up the design, even if they are not visible in the field. Sometimes it can reveal hidden aspects or explain the placement of certain elements. This particular formation makes much more sense when you can see the radiating shapes.

The design begins with a double circle, two circles in a Vesica Piscis relationship fig.05. To create the concentric rings, one of the circles is divided into six, a central circle with five equally spaced concentric rings. Then using the point at which the top arc intersects the large wide ring around the perimeter of the formation another circle of equal diameter is drawn, which connects with the bottom perimeter of the formation in the centre. What you realise is that although this formation appears to be about duality; the Vesica, the opposing flattened arcs, it has this partially hidden third element. Here was a pattern that talked much of duality, but which also had a mysterious third element – the third circle. This third circle was not in the traditional ‘third’ position that would turn the vesica created by the first two circles into a triquetra (or a tri-vesica if you will), but was placed in a slightly skewed position. See fig.06 We had a ‘irrational’ positioning of the third, rather than a logical progression of the design in to three equal parts. This is significant.

For anyone who heard the presentation I recently gave to the Earth Spirit Conference in Vermont, you will know that the idea of duality within the crop circles is something that interests me greatly. I have often talked at length in these blogs too, of the notion that something is beginning to change in human perception and that this may be symbolised in the use of duality, opposition, the vesica, interference patterns etc. in the design of many crop circles. During my Vermont presentation I showed a whole raft of crop circles whose design contained some element of duality, and those were the only ones I had time to show!

Adding colour shows the way in which the bottom pattern of the formation is divided.

The finished drawing - Pencil, drawing ink and watercolour on cartridge paper.

The fields beneath us were a patchwork of brilliant green & bright yellow fields…

In another uncanny echo of this stuff of consciousness change, the crop circles carry with them their own corrosive duality which seems to lie at the core of its being; that is the argument of real vs. not real. How can these two opposites be transcended? It is an interesting question. What could be a transcending-third?

It seems that we have reached a point, where just as Jung describes, our world-view and society has constellated the opposites to such a degree that it has become corrosive to ourselves and our civilization with extremism, materialism and over identification with the ego. A synthesis of sorts is fast becoming an imperative necessity! It is clear to me that this change is already been worked upon by our unconscious and perhaps collective unconscious, and is echoed in the crop circles. Finding our transcendental third could be our passport to a new and more harmonious reality, it is the quest of our age!

Phi as the Transcendental Third

Fig.07 Golden Section callipers laid over the Yarnbury formation. Does this suggest a Golden Section ratio hidden in the design?

Fig.07a The Golden Section. Is this venerated proportion a geometric model for a transcendental third?

Did you know Phi (capital P) is 1.618… and phi (small p) is 0.618…?!

As I looked at the Yarnbury formation, I was drawn to the relationship between the two sides of the linear curved line in the bottom section of the formation, I wondered if the unusual placement of the third circle which created that curve had some deeper significance, so I decided I would see if there was a phi relationship at work. I downloaded a blue print from the internet to make a golden section caliper. After I had made the caliper (cut out of card and joined together with a few split pins), I placed it on my drawing of the formation and fig.07 shows the result. I shared this with researcher and geometer Michael Glickman, who like me found it interesting, even if both of us agreed we didn’t fully understand it. But here is the picture, make of it what you will – are we being shown the transcendental third in the golden section? Is the Golden section at work in the Yarnbury formation? I guess only more playful, creative thinking and contemplation will tell!

KAREN ALEXANDER – MAY 7th 2012

Jubilee Plantation, nr Cherhill, Wilts. 15th August 2011

2010 had seen the first explicitly 4-dimensional formation, a Tesseract (4-D cube) at Fosbury Camp After years of showing us 2-D and 3-D images the crop circle phenomenon had evolved to another level. I must admit I had not expected that the crop circles would make another dimensional leap so soon, but then what do I know!

 

Fosbury Camp 2010 4D Cube (first 4D Image)

Allington Down 1999 3D Cube (first 3D Image)

Fig. 3 The Jubilee Plantation formation with overlaid Penteract (5D Cube)

The evolution of human art has also followed a similar pattern, the development of dimension in paintings has often been remarked upon. The first truly 3-dimensional painting appeared in around 1455-60, a painting titled ‘The Flagellation Of Christ’ by Italian artist Piero della Francesca. It is generally accepted as the first painting to successfully add depth to height and width. It is interesting to note that the painter was also a mathematician and a geometer, and wrote much on proportion and perspective.

The Flagellation of Christ by Piero Della Francesca (1455-60). The first 3D painting?

As we reach finally reach 2012, I wonder if that is going to happen again, only this time with an assimilation of other realities/dimensions into full consciousness? Perhaps the idea of the fourth dimension is symbolic of that. Clearly, we do not live in a 4-dimensional world and clearly we are not equipped to perceive fully dimensions beyond our own, but I think (as Holmes would say) that ‘something is afoot’ and that it has to do with consciousness, dimensions, perspectives, space and time.

These new tenets will not only shift the way we understand reality, but will also in turn affect our consciousness. How will consciousness look after these new ideas, perceptions and perspectives have been assimilated, how might we project them into the world?

Painting of the Jubilee Plantation formation 2011 by Karen Alexander Watercolour and Inks on Cartridge Paper

To look into the Jubilee Plantation formation is to fall headlong into another world, another reality, or at least to glimpse it. To me it is a embryonic projection of a new stage in human consciousness manifested in our 3-dimensional reality – it is therefore, in fact, anything but mindless, it is, in my humble opinion, filled with mind.

This circle reminded me of the final words of Dr David Bowman, the ill-fated fictional commander of the USS Discovery in Clarke’s and Kubrick’s mighty vision ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’. As he approached the ultimate unknown, the mighty Monolith, he exclaimed “My God, it’s full of stars”, I felt like saying the same thing I as drew the centre of the Jubilee Plantation formation. Consciousness is the next great unknown, the metaphorical modern Monolith, are we about to transcend our current limitations of perception and, like Dave Bowman, become something entirely new?

KAREN ALEXANDER – APRIL 25th 2012

Drawing of the Hill Barn Formation 2012 – Reported 15th April.

The Flower of Life

It seems perhaps appropriate that the 2012 season should start with a twelve-fold formation. It has already been labelled a ‘flower of life’, although I am unsure exactly what that phrase means in this context. I always thought that a ‘flower of life’ was a circular mandala of intersecting circles that had a distinct 6-fold geometry, although I readily admit that I am no expert on that particular branch of study.

However, all of that said, twelve is an important number in human culture. It is has also been a number that has pervaded crop circle geometry over the years. If you take the time to look back through the many forms the circle-makers have offered us, you find many twelves. Traditionally, twelve is associated with time and space. We divide our day into twelve hours and our night in to twelve hours. We divide our year into twelve months and our year is also ruled by twelve constellations that make up our zodiac. In the UK (as in some other cultures), twelve has been used as the base number of both counting and measuring systems. The UK’s currency was base-12, before our current metric (base-10) currency system was introduced in 1971. Imperial measuring systems also used base-12, for example there are 12 inches in a foot. Many cultures were organised into twelve tribes, and of course there were the twelve disciples of Christ’s inner circle. Almost all its associations pertain to the passing of time and the measurement of space, but it is also a traditional way of diving and organising cultural and social structures.

Twelve can be divided by, 2, 3, 4 & 6, it is often found in tiling and other ancient decorative arts. Triangles, squares and hexagons can be picked out of twelve fold designs, and often twelve is associated with imagery of the World as a whole. It can also be seen in our musical scales when we add in half-tones to a piano keyboard – seven notes, plus five half-tones. I think twelve is a ‘satisfying’ number. There is something about it’s correspondences and connections are edifying and harmonious, perhaps it has something to do with the relative ease by which it can be divided into further sub-components and constituents.

If 2012 truly is the end of one great cycle of time and the beginning of another, then twelve, would perhaps symbolise that transitional point, after all, thirteen (the next number) is the number of transformation.

KAREN ALEXANDER – APRIL 18th 2012

Some Historical Twelves…

Honey Street 2002 – classical division by 12

Stephen Castle Down 2000 – soap bubbles

Bishops Sutton 2000 – more soap bubbles

East Kennet 2005 – 12 paperclips

Windmill Hill 2002 – the relationship between 12, 3 & 4

Lurkley Hill 2005 – relationship between 4 & 12

1. The Roundway Melatonin Molecule
of 2011

As I write it is February of 2012 and most of the crop circle community is already expressing its excitement about the 2012 season. But I am such a slow coach, I’m still trying to fully absorb the crop circles of 2011! To me there were so many fantastic circles last season that it’s taking time to get to grips with them all, to sketch the ones I’m ‘drawn’ to and to try to tease out some meaning from their magnificent forms. Perhaps it is a sign of growing older, but perhaps it is equally symbolic of my aversion to the stamp collecting and superficiality of some of the popular interest in the crop circles. I am of course, as excited as everyone else when a new circle appears, sometimes as giddy as a school girl (I know that may be hard for some of you to imagine!), but I prefer to savour my favourites, revisit them, not abandon them as soon as some new beau arrives in town. Perhaps, I sometimes wonder, this is some reflection of our modern consumerist society, in which every ‘new thing’ is fickly abandoned in favour of every ‘new thing’. We gallop hungrily through information and news at an alarming rate in our online travails, but I also wonder, how much of that sinks in, or how much is truly understood or appreciated? To simply consume information, is not the same as understanding it, or being able to see its implications.

To appreciate the circles is to want to spend time with them, much like a good friend. I like to look at them, listen to them, and even engage in a little play with them. I like to feel that I got to know them a little and that in doing so I might be able to understand them better. The internet may have brought us ever more speedy news and images of new circles, but what has been sacrificed is a deeper engagement with the formations and most importantly: considered comment. So much of the interpretive ‘work’ applied to the circles is instantaneous, literal and shallow. I am constantly flabbergasted that they are cursorily consumed and accepted en masse with not another thought. Once a circle has been seen and some ‘soundbite’ or hurried inference is made, the case is effectively closed. I find this incredibly sad. Perhaps we have become so accustomed to being spoon-fed information, that we rarely question it, or even give it a second thought?

2. The Melatonin molecule shown as a 2D diagram

While I contemplated this, I decided to draw the formation. It was fantastic to draw! It was one of those formations that just danced itself onto the page. It was also almost entirely self-generating, each part of the formation anticipated the next, so that practically no guess work or field measurements were needed.

3. The first circle, division by 6 then 12, allows the petals to be defined and drawn in.

4. Here six and five make nine! Love, life and birth – or re-generation.

5. The six petalled flower conjoined with another circle (left) divided by six, that places the arms and circles at one end of the formation, and on the other side (right) conjoined with a circle divided by five.

6. The entire underlying geometry drawn our on the page. The diameters and positioning of every element was self-generating.

7. A collage of shapes showing how this collection of hexagons and one pentagon underpinned the whole design

After I had finished the drawing I decided to make a collage to show the way the hexagons and the one pentagon fitted together. The traditional molecular diagram (picture 2) shows exactly these shapes at work. Now that the underlying skeleton was complete all that was left was to pick out the design in black ink.

8. Picking out the design in black ink from the geometric skeleton

9. Adding in the grapeshot circles by eye and then adding in colour finishes the sketch.

Quite unconsciously, I realised sometime later, I had chosen to colour the drawing with light and dark blue, the colour of the daytime and night skies. Clearly I had been meditating deeply on the significance of melatonin while I had been drawing!

So what are we to make of a reference to melatonin? Several things spring to mind. Firstly, melatonin is a hormone produced by the body that plays a central role in the regulation of our biorhythm of waking and sleeping. Melatonin is produced in the brain when the light coming into our eyes begins to dim and prepares the body for sleep. I think there are layers of meaning here; the first is the idea that the crop circles are made during the hours of dark, and are revealed by the coming day, so they too are part of our sleeping and waking cycle. Another idea was expressed by a friend of mine who proposed that it may be a reflection of how asleep we are spiritually, and how we need to “wake-up!” Another colleague suggested that it could be telling us to “watch our dreams”, or that it may symbolise the unconscious.

Finally, some weeks after making this drawing I began to see something else. The two-fold nature of this formation had been playing much on my mind; the idea of night and day, wakefulness and sleep, consciousness and unconsciousness, standing and flattened crop and finally the thought of it’s inherent geometry and number and also its symbolism and beauty. I realised something that I think is really important to my understanding of the crop circles themselves, and that is that their designs appeal simultaneously to our left- brain with their geometry and clever design, and to our right-brain with their symbolism and beauty. The circles are not just designed to appeal to our intellect, but also (if you will permit me) to our souls. I had an inkling of this idea earlier in the season, I think I even wrote about it in an earlier blog, but this formation brought this home to me in a very experiential, visceral way. For those that consider the crop circles to be messages of some kind, the fact that they are messages that are ‘directed’ at both hemispheres of our brains is fascinating to say the least.

I wonder, however, if the crop circles are a reflection of, and simultaneously a catalyst for, a re-balancing of our very left-brained western culture. For the last hundred years or more we have seen the rising dominance of the mental/rational consciousness state. We have seen the role of dreams, art and even the paranormal suppressed by a way of thinking that cannot quantify them. We have systematically rendered our world, if not our universe and our very existence, down to a set of numbers and empty space – we are in danger of falling in to a nihilistic stupor. That we have something manifesting in our world that marries the ‘rational’ and the ‘imaginal’ is, I have to say, quite amazing and the implications are nothing short of auspicious.

KAREN ALEXANDER – FEBRUARY 27th 2012

 
More… The number Nineteen and the nature of Synchronicity

Nineteen standing stems. Picture by JPDV.

Perhaps we might be allowed to make one further, final speculation? Perhaps this paradigm shift is to do with the re-acceptance of the soul; the role of the imagination, dreams, mythology and folklore as vital parts not just of the human psyche, but as the old hermetic sages would have had us believe, as an active and fundamental part of the make-up of reality.

The Temple Balsall formation – July 2011

The Temple Balsall formation was one of a small number of crop circles to occur outside the usual Wiltshire/Hampshire heartlands where the phenomenon in the UK most often occurs. In fact, 2011 had seen two rather beautiful and impressive formations near Louth in Lincolnshire in the early part of the season, and the very first circle of 2011 had occurred near Chepstow in Gwent. Having said this, it is still relatively rare to find large and complex formations outside the usual stomping grounds, but I think it goes to show that not all the best formations happen within Wiltshire’s borders.

As its name suggests Temple Balsall has historical connections to the Knights Templar, the land there was gifted to the knights as a reward for their bravery in the crusades. They established a community there until their dissolution by Papal bull in the early 1300s. However, Temple Balsall still has a thriving Christian community to this day.

There is no reason to directly connect the Knights Templar to the crop circles. While it might be true that there might have been an awareness of the ‘Liberal Arts’ within such organisations – many see the Templars as the forerunners of the modern Freemasons – there is nothing much else that connects them. There is of course much land in the UK that once belonged to the Templars and that still bears their name. From time to time crop circles have occurred on that land – a circle appeared at Temple Farm on the Marlborough Downs for instance in 2011 – but I doubt that in itself constitutes a genuine connection.

Outline & underlying geometry. Division by thirty-two, Eight rings and four ribbons.

The formation itself was a classic mandala design, not unlike a gigantic rose window, but instead of the classical twelve-fold geometry so often found in church windows, this design was full of square numbers; four, eight, sixteen and thirty-two.

The encompassing circle is divided into thirty-two sections to create the design, then four criss-crossing ribbons (two sets of two) with reverse-point (V-shape) ends are placed at 90 degree angles to one another this creates sixteen points around the perimeter of the circle. It is this unusual V-shape that makes the pattern unique and interesting and also forms the octagram at the centre of the formation. Eight intersecting circles are then added which create the eight narrow oval shapes in the mid-part of the circle. The rest of the pattern is then picked out from the intersections of these combining parts.

The pattern is then picked-out from the skeleton geometry

This idea is expressed directly by the numbers at play in this formation – particularly four and eight. Four (as I am sure you all know by now) is the number of ‘material reality’ – the physical world.

Finalised drawing with colour to imitate both a church window and the spiritual quality of the formation

Resonance, echoes, intensification, the deepening and addition of dimensions are all part of the geometry of this formation. It is truly remarkable. It speaks to me of the transformation of the world springing up from within itself – it is perhaps a dangerous, subversive formation, yet one that seems completely in tune with the transformations occurring in our world right now.

The beautiful central lay of the formation, showing an octogram shape.

These ideas of intensification, the emergence of the fourth dimension and the interconnectedness of things are also part of Gebser’s idea of a new emerging state of consciousness which he called the Integral. We currently stand on the cusp between our Mental/Rational age of science and objectivity and a newly emerging Integral state. It seems that sometimes the crop circles provide an uncanny and a-rational commentary upon that process. Gebser also talked of the ‘concretisation of the spiritual’ in relation to the Integral state. What are crop circles, if not spiritual ideas made manifest and concrete on the face of the earth?

Drawing this crop circle was to dive headlong into the depths of this process of intensification and transformation. It required an intense concentration of mind, and was yet simultaneously a wonderfully spiritual experience. If the formation made the spiritual concrete in the field – the act of drawing it made the spiritual concrete on the page.

KAREN ALEXANDER – FEBRUARY 2012

Post Script
As I was searching the web I found these two images, one of a rose window divided into sixteen and another divided by thirty-two. The sixteen window is only shown as a diagram here, but the glass shows Christ at the centre with his twelve apostles and four saints and the thirty-two window is Christ at the centre with twelve apostles and twenty angels. Note the life-giving number five at the centre of each of these windows; Christ said “I am the way, the truth and the life”.

After completing the drawing of the East Kennet formation, as pleased as I was with the result, it seemed something was missing. It was that big blackness in the middle of the picture that bothered me. Comparing the drawing to the actual photo, it was plain that the thing that was missing was the floor-lay.

1. East Kennet & 2. The Koch Snowflake 1997 – the floor-lay in each of these formations was an integral part of their designs.

We first started to see elaborate floor-lays as early as the 1990s; the first time I remember seeing a truly sophisticated floor-lay was in the Koch snowflake of 1997. The design required a huge area of crop to be flattened in order to fill the interior of the formation. To simply flatten the crop in a big swirl would have perhaps been acceptable, even expected, but what took the Koch snowflake to a new level was undoubtedly its beautifully patterned floor-lay – it gave the formation an almost three-dimensional appearance.

The late, great, John Michell drew and painted this formation. His watercolour can be seen in our Crop circle Year Book 2000, or another version can be seen in his Magnum Opus – ‘How the World is Made’ (Thames & Hudson). John was fascinated and very impressed by the floor-lay in this formation; laid in distinctive, successive bands (from the outside inwards) until reaching a central swirl. These patterns are barely perceptible at all at ground-level; it is not until one takes to the air on a sunny day, with plenty of light and contrast, that they really come to life.

A rendering of the spider’s web floor-­lay in the East Kennet circle. Created from a ten-­pointed star
– or two pentagons.

I am no expert on the symbolism of the ancient Maya, and don’t know whether, or not, the spider’s web is linked to their culture in any way, but from a purely archetypal standpoint the web is a symbol for the interconnectedness of all things. The diaphanous nature of the spider’s web links it squarely to the realm of consciousness, where it symbolises the unseen patterns and pathways that underpin our reality. Just as the gossamer threads of the web are made visible in morning dew, the web is also linked to synchronicity – those strange connections where our unseen inner world meets the tangible outer world.

It was the Goddess Ariadne, who gave Theseus a silken thread of great strength that allowed him to venture into, and return safely, from the Minotaur’s labyrinth – her name is derived from the genus name for the spider, arachnid. She is therefore one who is a guide and protector in the realm of consciousness exploration. So as you can see, the spider’s web is of rich symbolic meaning.

An Iznik 'Spider's Web' pottery Dish.
Turkey, 17th Century

The Spider’s web formation of 1994 was also ten-­ fold in its design.

The number ten has some fascinating properties. For instance, it is the sum of the first four numbers 1+2+3+4=10. The Pythagoreans enshrined the number ten in the Tetraktys (a triangular pattern made from ten dots), which was said to represent the whole of the universe. Ten is five doubled, it is therefore an intensification of the life-generating number five and, as we shall see shortly, the pyramids of this formation each had five steps. Perhaps most importantly here, ten is a number of the new – but significantly – the new encapsulating the old. The number ten is made from the parental numbers of one and zero, but contains within itself all of the numbers of the decad. This echoes very much the link between the old and new worlds symbolised by the alien-head, the web, and the pyramids inside the East Kennet crop circle.

Finally, the East Kennet formation was surrounded by pyramids, the design looked like a gigantic ancient plaza encircled by ten pyramids, each with five steps. I saw the image (below) on the internet and have reproduced here because it gives a flavour of the kind of mental imagery that this formation evokes.

Artwork by WJ Copyright 2011

The crop circles are of profound cultural significance; they contain within their designs an amazing amount of information about the current themes being played out in the collective unconscious and beyond. Those who would strip them down to their basest, lowest, common denominators do a great disservice to our culture and our world. Formations such as East Kennet serve to remind us how the circles, if we are respectful, patient and willing, can enrich our lives. And how they can be a reflection of, and simultaneously a catalyst for, change on a monumental level.

If the East Kennet formation demonstrates nothing else, it demonstrates just how dense the symbolism, number and geometry within the crop circles can really be!

Post Script.
Back in the summer just after the East Kennet formation appeared, I was drinking a coffee in my local shopping centre (and yes it was a boring decaf!), when I suddenly looked up and this is what I saw…

Five-step pyramids! Not that I am obsessed or anything, but I saw the patterns as a synchronistic intensification of my absorption by the crop circle designs! Long may it continue!

KAREN ALEXANDER – DECEMBER 2011

The East Kennet formation of 2011 was one of the wonders of the season. A circular design, its perimeter contained 10 thin pyramids and ten fat pyramids. At it’s centre, was the now familiar egg-head shape surrounded by some kind of headdress or crown. To me this was immediately a city of pyramids – a central plaza surrounded by pyramids with a crowned entity of some sort in the centre. There was also a spiders-web spun into the laid crop around the centre of the formation. The magnificence and power of this crop circle was very reminiscent of the Silbury Hill Mayan Headdress of 2009.

The circle married together three major design elements of previous formations – the egg-head, the web and the pyramid. In this blog I want to take a closer look at the ‘egg-head’, then in part two we can look at the pyramid, the web and the how the whole formation fits together.

We had first seen the egg-head during the summer of 2009 where it appeared as a stylised ‘alien-head’ with two slanting eyes swept into the lay of the crop. Two major formations appeared that summer that included this element, one under the White Horse at Alton Barnes and another in South Field, in Alton Priors. As well as containing egg-heads, both of these designs also included seemingly impossibly long strings of indecipherable, incomprehensible hieroglyphs. While both were undoubtedly linked, each seemed to have a slightly different emphasis, on the same theme, or perhaps showed a change or transition in emphasis from the first formation to the second.

Whilst some may have seen the alien-head motif in these formations as ‘corny’, I thought they were particularly intriguing. For those that read this blog regularly, you will know that I rarely take a formation at ‘face-value’, and that I think there are often hidden depths to be teased out of many of their designs. I also believe that most are symbolic, rather than illustrative or code-like (where there is only one easy interpretation). To me, the crop circles operate much more like dreams made manifest in the fields, they are mysterious, coy even, and have to be unravelled, or detangled – like carefully pulling a comb through knotted hair, it requires great patience, gentleness and positive regard.

These formations and their alien-heads tapped into some very popular (and in some quarters) quite deeply held views about the crop circles. The idea that ET creates the crop circles is one that has been around almost since the modern-dawn of the subject. For many, these designs powerfully confirmed those beliefs, made them manifest, gave them a physicality and therefore a reality and veracity that perhaps they had not had before. Here was proof that ET was talking to us through the medium of the crop circles – it said so in the fields! It is hard to overstate the power of these formations, but as obvious as they were to some they were also full of subtlety.

The egg-head alien, with its large slating eyes, is an image that now pervades our culture. It has become a modern icon, a contemporary archetype for the idea of beings or intelligences other than our own. The egg-headed alien has in fact become so integrated into the western psyche that it is almost universally and instantly recognisable to the vast majority of people. What makes it all the more fascinating is that the vast majority of those people do not believe in the reality of extraterrestrial beings in way, shape or form! Yet the ubiquitousness of this image gives it an archetypal presence, or psychic reality, so much so that it has become an integrated part of our collective consciousness.

The egg (or alien) head shape has an important geometry. When I set out to draw the East Kennet formation I started with the central motif. I decided that as the formation was complex I would make a separate drawing of it. From looking at the formation as a whole, it was apparent that the formation was divided into twenty equal segments, these were needed to create the outer pyramid shapes. As it turns out, twenty was an important number to the ancient Maya, their counting system uses base twenty, just as we use base ten in our society. Beginning with a small central circle, a line is drawn at its widest point to denote the diameter. This is most easily done by opening the compass so that each arm touches the widest points of the circle and then drawing in two arcs; these create a Vesica around the original circle, and by connecting the apexes of this Vesica, a line is drawn through the circle to denote the diameter and a central line through it. By outlining the top of the circle and one side of the Vesica, you create an egg-head shape. A surprising amount of crop circle geometry is based on variations of the Vesica and I find this symbolically interesting (the Vesica is the birth channel through which all is created) that so many crop circles also spring from the Vesica gives the designs a congruence with everything else created and birthed in the universe.

In 2010 another similar design appeared at Stanton St Bernard (6), this time the egg-head had no eyes but wore a headdress, or crown. Are the disappearing eyes a movement from entity to pure consciousness? The relationship to the Vesica is much more obvious here. This version also includes a crescent moon as part of the headdress, with a row of fine segments stemming from the top, which looks a little like a tiara. Looking at the central motif of the 2011 East Kennet formation (8), we also see the egg-head, the crescent moon, and rays emanating from the crescent, although this time they look like points of quartz crystal. At first it seemed that these crystal-like points would slot in to the 20-fold division of the outer circle, but looking at the picture it did not fit. In the actual formation seventeen of these points are spread around the top of the crescent, I drew this central motif several times and nothing seemed to fit. In my first attempt I split the top hemisphere of the circle into twenty equal parts (8), but it didn’t look right. I tried again, augmenting the pattern, I found a geometrically satisfactory solution, but it did not marry the original perfectly. I drew twelve standing segments, not seventeen, by splitting the circle into ten; it was an elegant solution to an impossible conundrum (9). I did note however, that in the original formation the centre motif contained twenty standing segments – seventeen points, one crescent and two partial crescents – so there was a kind of numeric symmetry to the original design, if not a geometric one.

I have come to see these egg-heads as being symbolic of an ‘other’ consciousness/es, and the birth of our conscious awareness of them. To me all these designs offer a commentary of the role of the ‘alien/other’ in human consciousness at this time and also our growing awareness of its connection to the human spirit.

The spooky days of the X-Files in the 1990s seemed to be the zenith of our growing awareness of the ‘alien’ in our consciousness. Although the UFO subject had been around since time immemorial in folklore, the 1950s saw the rapid expansion of the subject in our awareness. By the 1990s our media was saturated with the UFO and the paranormal, but ten, or so, years later, it seemed this subject was beginning to touch upon our sense of spirituality.

This deepening of our sense of ‘other’ was beautifully expressed by the two 2009 alien-head formations. The first circle at Milk Hill appeared in three stages (1, 2 & 3), the first stage has an almost mechanical feel to it – an alien head wearing some kind of mechanical-helmet (sexton?) or headdress with what could be curved wires with plugs coming from one side. In stage two, these curved wires are extended and boxes and more circles are added, softening the image – the circle as well as being symbolic of heaven and deity also symbolises the spiritual, or spiritual consciousness. The long threads of glyphs appeared in stage three are perhaps a stream of communication, or an open stream of consciousness.

I admit openly here that I do not take this image too literally, I think the crop circles are much too subtle for that, but I do think that this image resonates very deeply with something that is going on deep within the collective unconscious – it could even be a reflection (or a projection) of an intense desire for, or an actual connection to a stream of consciousness from ‘elsewhere’ of which we are only barely aware. The second formation at South Field, Alton Priors, also had an ‘alien-head’ with long threads of glyphs, but this time they were connected to a bird design. The bird is symbolic of the spirit, the movement through these two circles moves the ‘alien’ away from technology and traditional investigative ufology and moves towards the psycho-spiritual. The crown of the 2010 formation is halo-like connecting the ‘alien’ with higher forms of spirituality, and the body of the formation is more bird-like. Finally in 2011, the ‘alien’ is placed at the centre of a formation for the first time. There is an enormous shift in awareness connected with other forms of consciousness being played out in our fields…

Coming up in Part Two… With the ‘alien/other’ finally arriving at the centre – what else can the East Kennet formation tell us about the state of this shift in consciousness? And what of the pyramids and the spider’s web?

KAREN ALEXANDER – NOVEMBER 1, 2011

Milk Hill, Wiltshire
6th & 8th July 2011 - Wheat

There is a complex relationship that exists between the notions of Deity, truth, and beauty. All seem inextricably bound like a never-ending Celtic knot; it could be said they are what lies at the heart of our attraction to the crop circles, what makes then so compelling and vital.

Fig. 1 - Underlying (unmanifest) geometry

The formation occurred in two phases, the first on the 6th of July, the second two nights later on the 8th. The first phase appeared as in figures 1 & 1a.

Fig. 1a - Sketch of phase one (6th July 2011)

Fig. 2 - The invisible Triquetra made visible

To me this crop circle symbolised an affirmation (or reminder) of an unbreakable bond that exists between landscape, human consciousness and the crop circles and after such an uncertain season I find it deeply moving. Just as in the crop circle design, this hidden trinity is what lies at the heart of the crop circle phenomenon; it is perhaps also a spiritual relationship in which all three symbiotically enrich each other in a profoundly mystical way.

Fig. 3 - The central rose

Fig. 4 - Completed drawing - Stage two (8th July)

I finished my drawing of the Milk Hill formation, not by making a separate drawing of stage two, but my adding the central rose to my drawing of stage one – just as the formation occurred itself. As I did so I was reminded of Keats’ Ode on a Grecian Urn – especially the last few lines…

When old age shall this generation waste,
Thou shalt remain, in midst of other woe
Than ours, a friend to man, to whom thou says,
“Beauty is truth, truth beauty,” – that is all
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.

I think the same may be said of the crop circles.

KAREN ALEXANDER – OCTOBER 7, 2011

My daughter Kayleigh, blowing bubbles in a crop circle at West Kennet 2011

The relationship between shape and sound is one that has fascinated me for many years. I first read about it back in 1996/97. By chance, as these things often happen, I was given a book by a very dear friend of mine, the book was called ‘Serpent in the Sky’ by author John Anthony West. The book is an exploration of the work of the enigmatic R. A. Schwaller de Lubicz, who spent over 15 years studying the architecture of the Temple of Luxor in Egypt. Through his meticulous work he was able to build a picture of ancient Egyptian society that was as radical as it was at odds with conventional thought. Part of that picture was that the ancients understood only too well the relationship between sound and shape and that they, in fact, encoded this knowledge into their temples in order that those visiting them were subtly effected by the buildings and inspired to greater vibration – or states of consciousness.

Dr. John Stuart Reid gives a live demonstration of a Chladni Pate at the Summer Crop Circle Lectures 2011

In modern times this science has been given a name ‘Cymatics’, and in the 1950s Swiss physicist Hans Jenny took this subject to a whole new level. Jenny created mountains, creatures and even a double chambered beating heart just from animating liquids and lipodium powder with vibration. Films of his laboratory experiments are mesmerising and at the same time deeply moving to see; inanimate compounds are seemingly brought to life under the influence of nothing more than the application of vibration. For those have the time and inclination, further study of these matters are a treasure trove of not just scientific edification, but also philosophical enlightenment. Much has been made of whether or not the circles are made by vibrations and although many circle designs look like cymatic patterns, the case is not proven, but what can be said with surety is that even if the circles are not made directly by vibrations they do create subtle vibration just by their very presence. What is not so well understood is the effect that subtle vibration has on physiology and psychology, although it must clearly have some effect. Music, for example, can have a profound effect on emotions and consciousness and ELF (extra low frequency) has been researched and was discovered to adversely affect the brain. I have theorised before that the subtle vibrations generated by crop circle designs may be responsible for some of the feelings experienced by visitors to the formations – including both feelings of wellbeing and unease.

You can read more about these ideas in the Crop circle Year Book 2000.

Preliminary sketch of the West Woods formation 21/06

Finalised sketch of the West Woods formation 21.06

The second formation appeared later on July 18th at Overton Down, close to the Ridgeway. Once again the formation was constructed entirely from circles (or rings) and this time thirty two circles are used to create the main design with a thirty-third drawn to enclose the design. Thirty-two is related to eight (8 x 4 = 32). Thirty-three is a very magical number (one of the master sequence of numbers) it was the mystical age of Christ at his death – a number of spiritual maturity and transformation. The secret 33rd degree of freemasonry signified ‘illumination’.

I deliberately drew in the extended geometry of this formation into my sketch. I wanted to see what it would look like. The result was illuminating in itself. The sketch seemed to illustrate the reach of the geometry of this formation, radiating out onto the page, or as in the case of the crop circle, out into the landscape, like ripples. Secondly, the placement and number of grapeshot suddenly made sense. Each of the twelve outer circles was placed according to the extended geometry (not manifest in the field) they were also sized according to this underpinning design – fitting snugly (or cradled) where the circles intersect. This coincidence (call it what you will) is a little piece of crop circle magic for me. The fact that part of this design is determined by an invisible (non-manifest geometry) is out of this world!

Finished sketch of the Overton Down Formation 18/07 with radiating geometry

KAREN ALEXANDER – SEPTEMBER 14, 2011

My sketch of the Winterbourne Stoke
formation of 20th June 2011

One was a small formation made from three circles with a short flattened bar. The other circle was rather astonishing. It was a very stylised design, a reversed ‘s’ shape with a serpent head at either end. It was impressively made, with cookie-cutter edges and a pretty swirled floor-lay. Such a design immediately invites speculation as to what it might mean, but very quickly it was identified as a design used by a punk band called ‘Crass’ as a band logo. Now I ask you to all forgive my mixed punk metaphors here. In 1977, the height of the punk movement in the UK, I was 7 years old and to say that the punk movement ‘flew over the top of my head’ would be an understatement. At seven I was more interested in playing with my Victoria Plum and Strawberry Shortcake (scented) dolls! By the time punk entered my vocabulary it’s blistering heyday was long gone and the 1980’s had brought forth a very different cultural sensibility.

However, after doing the most cursory of internet searches I was interested to find out that Crass were a very interesting band. You can read more about them on Wikipedia. Crass mixed their anarchic philosophy with music, politics and even art.

Of course many wanted to simply write this crop circle off as a one-dimensional manmade tribute to a long gone punk band. This may or may not be true, but as ever, I think there is something bigger at work, and that there are many connections between the physically manifested world of crop circles and the un-manifest realm of human consciousness. To me this is why there is something much more to the whole crop circle subject than just endless arguments over their perceived origins. Here we have a logo, clearly used by the punk group Crass, but is it also a symbol of anarchy on our fields?

As I have expressed before, I think the crop circle designs are often an uncanny mirror reflecting what is happening on a larger scale within the subject, or even sometimes what is happening beyond the subject. I think that the have a symbol in the fields, right now, that is representative of the anarchic punk spirit is extremely interesting.

There often seems an element of the unconscious at work in the crop circle subject; however, the unconscious is not always immediately identifiable. It is, by its very nature, not a part of our conscious state, therefore not readily apparent. It is usually identified by connections and patterns of behaviour or events, commonalities or coincidences (or synchronicity as Jung preferred). Dreams and creative acts are considered to be our unconscious at work, expressing itself.

According to Jungian thought there is the personal unconscious (belonging to each of us as individuals) and then there is a collective unconscious which is the unconscious of a society, a culture or an entire race. As human beings, Jung speculated that we had access to both, through our dreams, intuitions and our creative impulses. If our personal unconscious is the sum of our individual life experiences then the collective unconscious could be said to be what connects the psyches of all human beings, the sum of all our commonalities in experience and thought.

It has long been speculated that creativity is pulled from not just our own personal unconsciousness, but that we may also pull some of it from the collective unconscious. Jung noted that many themes in unconscious material (dreams, art and creativity) were common to all no matter what their cultural background; he called some of these commonalities the archetypes. These archetypes are thought to be universally experienced by all peoples.

Anarchy could be considered an archetype. The archetype of being without boundary, destruction as an act of creation, perhaps even nihilism itself. It could be said to be the angry rejection of all boundaries, conventions and traditions. It seems to me that there is much of this going on within the crop circle subject itself, particularly this season. There seems to be an angry rejection at work; a rejection of previous convention, tradition, etiquette and particularly long established authority figures. It is a forceful, unchecked energy burning its way through the subject with little notice of consequence or end game. This is the essence of the energy of Anarchy.

I mention this not as a political statement, but as an illustration of how there is a depth to this subject that goes way beyond our personal conscious actions. We may think we are in control, that we are steering the ship, but this subject has shown us the connection (time and time again) it has to the collective unconscious, I think is hugely significant. It is one that is rarely seen, discussed or considered. Perhaps it is still, for many, literally, unconscious.

In this case, here we have a crop circle whose symbolism, significance and magnitude far exceeds the simple, conceivable actions of any one individual, or group of individuals. That is the sheer raw power of the crop circle subject, its ability to bridge the gap between the seen and unseen worlds, between our conscious thoughts and actions and the collective unconscious of a whole community and beyond. The crop circles literally make the unseen (unconscious) manifest.

Fixing the Volatile?

‘The Crucified Serpent’ from the notebooks of Nicholas Famel

In alchemy there is a famous emblem (or symbol), which depicts the crucifixion of a serpent. It is unsurprisingly called ‘the crucified serpent’ – see below. This particular illustration comes from the notebooks of Nicholas Flamel, but I believe there are others. It represents the ‘fixing of the volatile’. Riddled throughout alchemical literature and symbolism there are countless references to pairs of opposites, male-female, hot-cold, dry-moist, sun-moon – this list is almost endless. One of those pairs is the ‘fixed’ and the ‘volatile’. In order to make the philosophers stone one was said to have had to ‘volatised the fixed’ and ‘fixed the volatile’ – like a role reversal of properties within the alchemical matter.

In this emblem, the serpent represented the volatile principal. Crucially, in order for this reversal to happen this volatile principal had to endure a symbolic death in order to be transfigured into a new state of being. I find this profoundly symbolic. Perhaps the 2011 season is exactly that, the crop circles enduring a symbolic death in the service of being transfigured into a new state of being.

There was much about this circle that was pertinent to the crop circle subject as a whole; its symbolism and timing are uncanny. That it may faithfully reflect part of what is happening in the crop circle world right now, at this very moment, is pretty damn amazing, wherever it came from.

It is the tendency of our current mental/rational age to break apart, to reduce, and to over simplify. But to me, the circles seem to suggest a completely different approach. There is a level to this subject which shows that there are qualitative connections between what is happening in our unconscious and what is happening in the material world. This is new and, I believe, important.

Finally, the nature of the phenomenon of ‘inspiration’ is one that has long occupied artists, philosophers (and others), for thousands of years. From where do we conjure our creative impulses, are they ours alone or is there something more at work? Jung’s theory of a collective unconscious offers us one theory, but there is also another. The word inspiration means to be ‘filled with holy breath’, it is a beautiful concept. It describes the idea that some inspiration may have its origins with the Divine; that we may (if we are lucky enough), for a brief time connect with something far beyond ourselves and that we channel it into the physical realm through our creative acts. When we look at some very special works of art we may sometimes see an element of the Divine staring back at us. I believe there is sometimes an element of the Divine at work in the crop circles. To look upon the soul-aching beauty of some formations is simply heavenly.

KAREN ALEXANDER – JULY 8, 2011