Sacred Places and Ancient Ways

Festivals - stone age style

• How stone age man invented the art of raving

New scientific techniques reveal how large tribal gatherings swept neolithic Britain

Hambledon Hill, in Dorset, hosted stone-age festivals at a causewayed enclosure before the construction of its iron-age hill fort. Photograph: Mark Bauer/Alamy

They were the stone-age equivalent of Glastonbury festival. People gathered in their hundreds to drink, eat and party every summer at revelries lasting several days and nights. Young men met women from nearby communities and married them. Herds of cattle were slaughtered to provide food.

These neolithic carousals even had special sites. They were held on causewayed enclosures, large hilltop earthworks built by our forebears after they brought farming to Britain from the continent 6,000 years ago.

Avebury Stone Voices - a video

 

Equinox Gathering at Avebury: A Shamanic Circle

DATES: 21-23 March 2012
PLACE: Avebury

We will meet for a gathering involving meditation, chanting and ritual at the ancient site of Avebury. This will be the first event of this group established within Amida Trust to develop the shamanic approach to spiritual practice within the frame of Amida Buddhism.

Find out about Avebury here.

The term shaman derives from the Buddhist term sraman indicating a person who goes through trials in order to establish contact with the spiritual world. Shamanism includes the whole early tradition of spiritual practice as it is found in a wide variety of cultures.  In the West of Europe this includes the ancient cultures that set up standing stones all along the Western margin of the continent.

We shall be practising together, sharing our experience, and reconnecting with our ancient roots. Joining this event will be a good way to get involved with this group and the activities that it will be developing over the coming years.

PRACTICAL: Costs will include B&B accommodation (which you will book for yourself - here are links) and subsistence (self catering) plus an organisation fee of £20 per day.

When you have booked your accommodation confirm this with Sujatin

- sujatin{at}gmail{dot}com (replace at and dot with @ and .) -

so you can be added to the contact list to be informed of meeting places and times.

CONTACT: (from 30 January 2012) 0207 2632183

Update - how to get to Avebury

Avebury - some links

Avebury a present from the past

Avebury: National Trust

Wikipedia: Avebury is a Neolithic henge monument containing three stone circles which is located around the village of Avebury in Wiltshire, south west England. Unique amongst megalithic monuments, Avebury contains the largest stone circle in Europe, and is one of the best known prehistoric sites in Britain. It is currently used as both a tourist attraction and a place of religious importance to contemporary Pagans.

Constructed around 2600 BCE,^[1] during the Neolithic, or 'New Stone Age', the monument comprises a large henge, surrounded by a bank and a ditch. Inside this henge is a large outer stone circle, with two separate smaller stone circles situated inside the centre of the monument. Its original purpose is not known, although archaeologists believe that it was most likely used for some form of ritual or ceremonial usage. The Avebury monument was a part of a larger prehistoric landscape containing several older monuments nearby, including West Kennet Long Barrow and Silbury Hill.

By the Iron Age, the site had been effectively abandoned, with some evidence of human activity on the site during the Roman occupation. During the Early Mediaeval, a village first began to be built around the monument, which eventually extended into it.

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More links:

Avebury Stones - The Avebury Ring

Stones of England - Avebury stone circles and earthworks

Avebury - English Heritage

Places of peace and power - Avebury

Stonehenge and Avebury guides

Mysterious Britain - Avebury

Sacred Destinations - Avebury