Stonehenge: Is it sacred?

[envisager]

Sorry if question seems a bit daft: I asked the same question of (non-druids) in the Pagan community: The view was that Stonehenge is not central to Druids or Pagans, "it is simply an artefact of unknown origin."

I'm trying to work out if anyone considers the reasons behind the construction of Stonehenge to be part of their heritage more than say someone who happens to have family roots in the north of Europe.

Thanks in advance

Jon

[DaRC]

Sacred is a difficult question - it depends upon what definition of sacred you mean.
Is it holy and religious? It certainly was at one time, to those Druids in the Loyal Arthurian group probably yes
Is it regarded with reverence? I would certainly say I do because our ancestors placed it in that landscape for a reason. That landscape has a certain energy to it. It connects those who see it to the people of the ancient past.

To the wider world you could also describe a lot of world heritage sites as sacred.

[envisager]

Is it holy and religious? It certainly was at one time, to those Druids in the Loyal Arthurian group probably yes

Could you expand a little more on what you mean by the Druids in the Loyal Arthurian group? Is this the same as the Loyal Arthurian Warband or is it a term which encompasses several groups?

Thanks for the reply, much appreciated.

[katie bridgewater]

Sacred is a loaded word full of cultural assumptions. What is 'sacred' is subjective. Some peoples think that everything and everywhere is 'sacred', but even then there are often 'special' places. Stonehenge is obviously 'special' but whether it has any ''religious' significance that is separate from other aspects of Stone Age culture is difficult to know. We have no idea how integrated the social, civic, cultural and arts aspects of Neolithic society were, although it is fair to assume that, given what we know about life at the time Stonehenge was built, there was a great deal of overlap, much as there is today in many societies (the state endorsed Christian Priesthood in the UK still wield immense political power in the House of Lords, for example)

We don't know precisely what was sacred to people in the Neolithic and Bronze age. We do know that Stonehenge was immensely important because of the effort and resources involved in building it and the precision of the design. It may have been a sky burial site, an observatory, a temple, a territorial statement or something else we can't conceive of. The people who built it chose an already 'special' landscape with many natural and unusual features that informed the positioning of their structures. The mythology of this landscape may have been extremely ancient already at the time of the build, and already lost in the mists of time, even then. We can be certain that it was a gathering place used by many thousands of people. Theories abound, some of which can be substantiated and are quite plausible, and lots of which are pretty potty, with no evidence or understanding of the site or its context.

We do know for certain, that whatever the intention of the original builders, it is certainly 'sacred' now, to the British in general (who own it collectively through English Heritage) and to Pagans especially. It is held sacred by the international community and this is 'certified' by its status as a World Heritage Site, which I think is a status denoting sacredness to all people/

We are hoping that the experimental archaeology being carried out by the Ancient Technology Centre will help to answer some questions about the lives of people who built it (see this thread for more info: http://www.druidry.org/board/dhp/viewtopic.php?f=167&t=41785 )

[Sciethe]

Hi envisager,
I can answer this from a personal perspective. First, the hair of my beard tells the world that I'm a mongrel Saxon-Celt etc. My genetic paternal ancestors are Dorset and Wiltshire (2 up branches) stone miners and stone masons as far back as it is possible to go. One, a Bower, was so skilled that a King took off his glove (!) to shake the hand that created. Stonework is in my blood, as is Sacred architecture. It is quite possible that this concern with stones and stone mining stretches back further than the 900 years that I have been able to patch bits of it together. This gives me an ancestral feeling for Stonehenge as a place local to my roots that they might have had a hand in building. Whatever the lost material truth, Stonehenge is Sacred to me for this reason, I feel the hand of my ancestors, as I do at Atworth stone mines, Langton cliff mines, The Crescent in Bath, Box tunnel and all the many other places where they have built with prescision, sweat, intelligence and beauty using the stones that they shaped. It is Druidic to revere and acknowledge the ancestors. This reverence given returns to me as an emotional sense of the Sacred.
Hope this perspective helps.
Sciethe.

[DaRC]

Is it holy and religious? It certainly was at one time, to those Druids in the Loyal Arthurian group probably yes

Could you expand a little more on what you mean by the Druids in the Loyal Arthurian group? Is this the same as the Loyal Arthurian Warband or is it a term which encompasses several groups?

Thanks for the reply, much appreciated.

I should have put Loyal Athurian Warband which is what I meant

[Corwen]

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=loyal+arthurian+warband

[treegod]

What is 'sacred' is subjective.

Quite.

And with that in mind I'm going to say that I do find Stonehenge a sacred site, at least as a symbol.

It symbolises the the ancestors and their ingenuity and how that can last through time, it represents one focal point for many modern druids (for various reasons). It represents the light of consciousness shining on and through "crude" matter.

I've always found ecosystems to be "sacred sites", especially the one that surrounds me. Why worry about far of sacred spaces (that I've only ever been to once) when I have one surrounding me?

But even so, Stonehenge, at least as a symbol, is important. And in a way sacred.

[envisager]

Thanks everyone

Very much appreciated. There are some ethical concerns we're trying to work through and your thoughts are very much valued.

Bright blessings to you all