Thursday 28 January 2016

Modern stone setting

High on the Isle of Portland is this stone setting, in nature and appearance it looks not dissimilar to the stone rows and circles found on the Scottish Isles, although it's of no antiquity at all. This stone row is a modern art installation, part of Tout Quarry, a disused stone quarry turned into a sculpture park.  Modern or not, I like it.  I'm very much in favour of creating more contemporary stone and earth settings and features, be they for memorial/monumental use (as with the new long barrow build in Wiltshire) or for contemporary ritual/ceremonial practice or whatever, to party in/at. Things with some meaning. I follow a pagan path and as much as I cherish our connection with the ancestors and their associated monuments, I feel that if we are to move forward we have to start creating our own sites, or we exist, in some ways, only as a shadow of the past.  Don't get me wrong, I love our archaeological site, but you can't 'use' them any more, can't experience them as our ancestors did,  sites must be tiptoed around and revered/respected. What we understand from many archaeological sites is that as well as ritual, there was partying, there was life and the sites were alive. We can respect our past, and live wholly in the now, whilst building for future folk to use. What would be ideal is, as our ancestors did, re-use/re-model the sites of our forebears; with respect, of course.  Sites need to be used, or they become hollowed out museum pieces, devoid of life and spirit. But that wont happen, for many reasons I can well appreciate.  So we need to build new sites and fill them with life. I'd be interested to know whether these stones share any significant alignments or are merely decorative.  Either way very cool.

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