SiO2·nH2O15th Oct 2005 TEKH’s Journal This month’s essay Grounded poses the question, "What defines a sacred space?" It is written with a previous composition in mind - Belongings, an essay which discussed the care and problems associated with the preservation of sacred objects. The Friends of T.C. Lethbridge This month’s contribution Synchronicity and Vision; The letters of T.C. Lethbridge to C.F. Tebbutt is an essay written by JON-ak. The essay sheds light on Lethbridge’s relationship with his good friend. Outtake I was recently reminded of my words to ‘the sons of t.c.-lethbridge’ track ‘A Pilot’s Eyes’, when Hob – a friend of this site, wrote to me to discuss the unusual occurrence of rock art at Stronach Wood on the Isle of Arran; “If I'm not going barmy, I seem to recall an mp3 I downloaded from ‘the sons of t.c.-lethbridge’ site website a while back, had a reference to Stronach Wood rock art on the isle of Arran. I think the track was titled 'A Pilot's Eyes'. In it, there was talk of the anthropomorphic nature of some of the carvings at Stronach. I can see it too, a figure holding a stick in its right hand - I think. And it's pretty darn unusual, if not almost unique in these isles…”  The discussion that ensued prompted me to revisit my essay and I considered it of worth to include it here on this site. The track was an outtake from the A Giant sessions and can be downloaded as an MP3 from this site. The attached photo was taken by myself on the afternoon of 14th August 1998 and clearly shows the anthropomorphic shapes associated with the cup and ring carvings.(1) A Pilot’s Eyes Through a pilot’s eyes, over the Firth of Clyde and out, over open sea, across to Brodick Bay. Through rising vapour from sodden pine, the navigator’s flight is measured and crossing Glenrosa over to Stronach Wood, it provides the pilot with a bird’s eye view of my world. Below, dense woodland, where I sit spellbound on exposed rock, as the roar of engines breaks my mood and I turn my gaze to the sky. The torrential morning rain has now gone and I have broken cover into Stronach Wood and as I ascend the woodland path, steam rises from the pines and forms broken-spectres in the translucent, afternoon light. The waterlogged track is like a brook and cuts like an artery through dense woodland, and in my mind’s eye, I imagine the land in the Neolithic. We know the ancients shaped the land, evidence of this can be seen in the massive earthworks that still litter our countryside today. The felling of trees provided them with raw materials for their dwellings and timber shrines and would have created vacancies in the dense forest, which at the time covered much of Britain. I realise that this logging would have also been systematic and deliberate. Visual effects could have been created by this innovative felling and I imagine the possibilities of this long-lost art. Parallels can be drawn to the Renaissance gardens of Versailles and Fontainebleau and of minds such as Bernini, le Notre and Vanburgh. Men who’s vision saw beyond the restriction of petty, man-made barriers. Heads who re-created a romantic vision of possibilities... Imagine a landscape of tree-lined processional venues leading to sacred hills. Sight lines through trees to distant mountaintops - and sacred groves open to the sky - just like here at Stronach Wood. The woods were perceived by many later cultures as the habitat to the godless. The management of woodland was therefore a statement of power - a control over the pagan wilderness. Since the Age of Reason, the insensitive planting of trees, the erection of dwellings and the building of walls has created the ‘blindfold’ effect. Many of the relationships between prehistoric shrines and sacred landmarks have now been lost - call me paranoid - but I believe, that much of the fragmentation of the sacred, Neolithic landscape was deliberate! Throughout our land, plantations of trees at stone circles such as Sunhoney, Midmar Kirk and Rollright, have disenfranchised these monuments from their objects of veneration. Walls at Rudston and on Stanton Moor were created, not to protect, but to detach their victims from their focus. Recently, I witnessed the hill of Prestley in Rutland obscured by the building of a dwelling between the church of St. John the Evangelist in Caldecott and this once ‘priestly’ hill. The rain has enhanced the Stronach Wood carvings. They glisten and glow and reflect back the afternoon sun into the clear blue sky. Above me Goat Fell, a focus not only for this shrine but also for the stone circle in the Clauchland Hills above Lamlash Bay. These cup and ring carvings are unique, for unlike similar carvings at Westwood Moor and Doddington in Northumberland and Cairnbaan and Auchnabreck in Argyll, these appear as humanoid shapes with the cup and ring as a head or fulcrum of activity - a psychic centre. All art is an interpretation of the chaos around us. A comprehension of the unfathomable, ‘the glittering prize’ - The mystic, T.C. Lethbridge once stated; “No artist can ever feel secure, for the knows that he can never create the perfect picture.” The exposed rock was deliberately decorated, for it represented the baron aspect of the great mother. If the seed fell here it was useless. Fertility was central to prehistoric ritual and consequently, fear of infertility gave rise to all religion - a defensive response to the unpredictability and wilderness of nature. The cup and ring carvings on the barren rock act as vessels to the rain, that drips from the pine trees, in some crazy, futile gesture to the rain gods. Was it not Plato in the ‘Timaeus’ who decreed the circle to be the necessarily perfect shape for creation as it alone formed a line of complete containment? From Stronach Wood, a rainbow forms out across the treetops, arching away from Goat Fell to the east and beyond the trees to Holy Island. For this is a very special place when viewed through a pilot’s eyes. Notes: 1. It is worth considering that that the original cup and ring markings were added to or adapted into humanoid shapes at a later date and are not contemporary with the original carvings. 2. Click on picture for an enlarged view. Thanks! I would like to thank everyone who sponsored and wrote to me with encouraging words of support for my Grimesthorpe Castle Cancer Research 10k race last month. I successfully completed my run and, to date, have raised over £300.00. Those still wishing to donate can still do so by credit card via the following link: https://www.bmycharity.com/TekhRun SiO2·nH2O?! Did you suss it? This month’s ‘News’ title is the chemical formula for Opal – hydrated silicon dioxide – the birthstone for October. "I knew that!" welbourn TEKH – Linden ‘the people of the pool’ – August 2005 |
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