Tag: Frank somers

25ft Steel Ancestor Celebrates Solstice at Stonehenge

Stonehenge summer solstice 2010 is to be marked by the debut of a 25ft-high steel statue. ‘The Ancestor’, created by local sculptors Andrew Rowlings and Michelle Topps with help from Druids and the local community, will sit 70m from the stone circle and provide an alternative focus of revelry and worship at sunrise, easing congestion within Stonehenge itself.

The Ancestor is as tall as a double-decker bus, and weights a huge seven tons. It has been shrouded in secrecy until today to prevent a further swell of people visiting the already overcrowded event in Wiltshire, which tonight is thought to top the 40,000 mark. Local schools, as well as Cub Scout and Brownie groups have been hard at work on the project, which supposedly represents the spirituality of the ancient people who created Stonehenge with nothing but primitive tools (watch a video about how we’ve had Stonehenge wrong for centuries here).

“We hope that all those at summer solstice will be inspired by the ancestor.”

The result is spectacular. The Ancestor kneels prostrate, his arms outstretched and wearing a Celtic crown. His Easter Island gaze looks upwards at the sun, as thousands will do in approximately five hours’ time (here are some people to look out for at the event). “(The Ancestor) might stand to remind us all that we owe much to our ancestors and might try to be more like them in appreciation of the natural beauty around us,” says Stonehenge Druid Frank Somers.

The statue will be seen as a massive coup for Stonehenge’s pagan community, who have traditionally struggled to have their voices heard over a number of issues – not least the reburial of ‘Charlie’, an ancient child found at nearby Avebury.

“We hope that all those who gather at Stonehenge for summer solstice this year will be inspired by the ancestor,” adds Somers, “and that the ancestors themselves would approve of the way we are honouring them.”

You can see pictures, tweets and trading cards (yes, really!) from Stonehenge live by checking out Ann’s blog, where there’ll no doubt be pictures of the Ancestor as he takes his Stonehenge bow. If you are at the stones now you may want to take a look at this handy guide to get you through the night.

You can also check out this list of alternative places to see in the midsummer sun. Don’t forget that you can also catch the summer solstice at Stonehenge Virtual.

AWiL Video Series: Stonehenge Spring Equinox and the Druids

Each year up to 40,000 pour into Stonehenge for the Summer Solstice, banging drums, singing songs and generally having a wild time (here’s a guide on taking photographs at Stonehenge). But it’s just one of four times each year that the stone circle is open to the public, the other three being Winter Solstice and the Spring and Autumn Equinoxes.

While some see it as a chance to get up close and personal to one of the world’s best-known landmarks, or just to have a party, to others Stonehenge is a spiritual centre, an ethereal round table from which to honour mother nature. I’m talking, of course, about the Druids (Watch our video with the Druids).

Say what you like about the Druids – and plenty have – Stonehenge remains the focal point for their pagan worship, which they claim has continued for millennia. Yet Spring Equinox is still a scientifically important date, being the midpoint between summer and winter. “Because the Earth leans over at a funny angle,” says Stonehenge Druid Frank Somers, “at summertime we’re leaning towards the sun, in winter we’re leaning away. Halfway between the two, there’s equinox.”

But how do pagans, druids and revellers see in the date at Stonehenge? Our day begins in darkness, as we drag ourselves out of bed at 4.30am. Much yawning and head-scratching later, we’re out on Salisbury Plain with around 4,000 others. Drums are beating and chants echo across the plain as we begin a procession through the visitor car park to the stone circle.

“Stonehenge is the epicentre of the system of ancient sacred monuments in Britain.”

Being Britain in March, there’s little chance of actually seeing the sun rise, and true to form it drizzles on our parade from start to finish; the only sign of sunrise being a shift from dark to light grey. But no matter: we’re here to investigate, and we do so by sending Nicole off to join in festivities, which largely consist of chants, blessings and eulogies. By 8.00am it is all over, English Heritage throwing us off the site to indulge in some much-needed hot chocolate. But why Stonehenge?

“It’s the most powerful place we could ever be in to celebrate equinox, really – it’s the epicentre of the whole system of ancient sacred monuments in Britain,” says Glastonbury Druid Rollo Maughfling. There’s no doubting Stonehenge has a special aura about it when you get inside the stone circle: Frank thinks it connects us all to our distant past. “There’s a connection between you today and standing in that place, to the ancestors who’ve done that right back through the millennia,” he says.

The Druids claim humanity has lost its way in recent times, focusing more on ourselves than the planet. And while we don’t need giant sarsen stones to tell which day it is any more, Frank feels Stonehenge still has a role to play in allowing us to understand the earthly traditions of our forebears: “Even though today we have TV sets and radios and iPods and phones, we like to keep the old traditions and wisdom going.” I’m not quite a pagan convert yet, but looking out of the office window on a smoggy Thursday morning, I can see the point.

HD Video: Episode 8 – Spring Equinox at Stonehenge

(Transcription of this video)

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Stonehenge and the Druids: Stonehenge, Bluestonehenge and River Avon

“There’s a passing on of knowledge for over 1,500 years spanning the whole Bronze Age, between our Stone Age ancestors who built Stonehenge and our Druid ancestors who wrote down folklore that we now take from Ireland, Scotland and Wales,” says Stonehenge Druid Frank Somers. “And that means that folklore has earlier origins going right back.”

We’re stood outside a stately Wiltshire manor on a blustery winter’s morning, self apparent in the unruliness of Frank’s flowing locks. Barely yards away lies Bluestonehenge, a stone circle even older than Stonehenge itself: 2009’s biggest discovery. But Frank sees it more than an archaeological curio: he feels the ancient henge could have huge implications for the Druidic faith he and thousands of other Britons hold so dear: “Potentially it connects the Druids who were talked about in Celtic times, back through the Bronze Age to the Mesolithic Period when Stonehenge was built.

“For this we shouldn’t be laughing at the Druids in connection to Stonehenge.”

Current theories suggest funerary processions began at nearby Woodhenge, travelled down the River Avon to Bluestonehenge before embarking on the long route down The Avenue, a 2-mile road linking it with Stonehenge. As a veteran of the famous Stonehenge solstice celebrations, Frank empathises with the ancient ceremonies that went on in the area.

“You can just imagine people getting excited on the eve of the summer solstice,” Frank says, “floating in their boats, disembarking here, lighting a great bonfire and sitting in their stone circle, gathering in the energies and the focus of the ancestors before processing up to the great henge.”

“We shouldn’t be laughing at the Druids in connection to Stonehenge.”

As we pull up in the car park outside Stonehenge a little later, all eyes are on us. And it’s not hard to see why: Frank’s outfit of leather maille, tabard and trademark crook couldn’t better fit the sartorial stereotype of a Druid. But it’s clear that he cares a great deal about the ritual landscape that has shaped Druidic traditions – as do a group of hardy pagan protesters, banners unfurled and in garrulous mood as they remonstrate against English Heritage’s refusal to let people move amongst the site’s massive stones.

We don’t need to pay the entrance fee: Frank is content to show us Stonehenge’s ancient landscape from a field just opposite the famous stone circle. To our right is the mysterious Cursus, a huge 2-mile earthwork whose use is still hotly debated today. A bit further round is The Avenue, before Frank points out the King Barrows – burial places for dozens of whom he calls ‘the ancestors’, the prehistoric rulers of the region. “Druidry is about becoming synchronised with nature,” Frank says, “but also with the ancestors.” No wonder, then, that Druids are outraged at the archaeological removal of human remains around Stonehenge.

No monument has ever lived such an ephemeral life as Stonehenge. As Frank points out, “It’s a meeting place. It’s a calendar. It’s a temple. It’s a living space where people come together at very significant times to do very significant things. Every time we think we know the answer, we find there’s more to the question.”

While most people nowadays look at Stonehenge as a relic of a time long forgotten, Frank feels the entire landscape is humming with the energy of its former residents. “We feel that here our ancestors are talking to us,” he says. “This is a landscape where there are dozens of these ancestors. We don’t know an awful lot about them but they’re buried all over the landscape.”

Some people might choose to mock the Druids with their pagan practices, eccentric nature and outspoken views. But it’s hard not to feel a modicum of spirituality when faced with Stonehenge, a place that’s been the centre of British worship for over 5,000 years. Time will only tell whether Frank’s linking the Druids with the creation of Britain’s best-known feature has any legs; for now he’ll have to looks on as archaeologists uncover yet more about Wiltshire’s ancient history.

HDVideo: Stonehenge and the Druids: Stonehenge and Bluestonehenge

(Click here to read the transcript)

Watch out for more videos on Druids and Stonehenge, coming soon

You don’t have to travel to Wiltshire to see the splendour of Stonehenge and its history. Check out our very own Stonehenge Virtual to see the ancient stone circle, its local landmarks, legends and characters come to life in the comfort of your own home. Heritage Key – Unlock the Wonders.