Where Spirits Sleep

A Walk in Avebury

I’ve said it before- there are some places where the veil feels thinner. As if forgotten things lay hidden all around, or as if time works differently there, and past ages are not so distant. There are places where that line between reality and myth begins to blur. Places where the Earth itself seems more alive.

Around the time of the Winter Solstice last year, I had the chance to explore one such place, Avebury.

My wife and I took a southbound bus from Swindon (lovely town) which dropped us off in Avebury village at The Red Lion. This would be my first real look at the ancient world in Britain. We had already seen Stonehenge from the car, but, not wanting to mess with the hordes of tourists we saw there, did not make the stop.

But from what I’ve heard from the locals, we made the right choice. Avebury is not only a less touristy location, with much more to see and do, it’s also significantly more impressive. The sheer scale of Avebury and its surrounding features makes Stonehenge look like a minor project.

The town of Avebury itself was serene and quiet, although I hear it gets crowded on Solstices and Equinoxes. And we certainly weren’t the only ones there to explore the esoteric. There’s a new age magic shop in town, and we saw plenty of neo-druids and Wiccans around the pub and later on among the stones. While I am an Orthodox Christian and I believe they are on the wrong path, I appreciate their desire for sacred places, for seeking the divine. I appreciate that they understand that something is deeply wrong with our world, that something crucial is missing. I wish they knew where to look. But at the very least, they are seeking enchantment, which is sorely needed.

And there is certainly no shortage of enchantment to be found in Avebury.

After a pint in The Red Lion we walked across the street and into the deep past.

Dusk was falling as we began our walk around the ancient site.

You may wonder, what exactly is Avebury? That is a hard question to answer. Avebury is a neolithic henge monument containing three megalithic stone circles and surrounded by a large henge earthwork. The entire village of Avebury fits inside this henge with room to spare, surrounded by the stone circle. The Avebury henge and megaliths are a part of a large “ritual landscape” that includes the nearby Silbury Hill and the West Kennet Long Barrow. The henge measures over 1000 yards. Outside of the village, there is a long avenue of additional standing stones, and it is clear from the archaeological evidence that there was once a second avenue leading out the other direction.

The large outer stone circle in the village is the largest in Britain, and while many stones are now missing, it is believed that their were originally 98 stones in total. Don’t imagine these are just some large rocks- they are true megaliths, some of them weighing over 40 tons. They dwarf you as you walk by them.

These earthworks and megaliths are thought to have been constructed in the 3rd millennium B.C., though others have suggested that they could be much older.

But what actually are all of these constructions? And how on earth were they constructed? And by whom, and for what purpose? We don’t know.

The gigantic stones were quarried about two miles from the site, quarried and transported by means we have no real idea of, much like Stonehenge. The entire site is aligned to both lunar and solar cycles as well as important stars and constellations. It was seemingly crafted by a race with both advanced engineering and astronomical skill. It seems clear to me that something esoteric (or scientific, if there’s really much of a difference) was being done here.

I mulled over different theories I’ve come across as I walked under the shadow of the stones that night.

Some legends say the mounds and rings are the work of giants, the same race that crafted Stonehenge. Others claim they are the work of an ancient civilization that was focused on a sort of spiritual terraforming- in changing the natural landscape into one that reflected spiritual realities, or even would somehow harness the Earth’s energies to become a literal place of power, or an axis mundi, the “center of the world”.

On the matter of harnessing Earth’s energies, some researchers have demonstrated how the stones channel energy vortexes that can be revealed by dowsing, while others have revealed how the site lies along England’s famous ley lines. The skeptically minded may be interested in these theories that imply something more scientific than religious.

Others have theorized that the henge, stone rings, and avenues were the center of a landscape meant to represent the journey of the soul after death. Or, that they were meant for people to walk in a sacred rite where they would enter the realm of the ancestors through one avenue, conduct some rite in the main ring, and then exit back into the world of the living through the other avenue.

Of course, it could be all of theses things at once, and more.

I cannot adequately cover the depth of lore surrounding Avebury. If interested, check out this conference to go deeper.

Avebury as it may have been thousands of years ago

During the Protestant Reformation some called these monumental earthworks and megaliths the work of pagans and devils, and much of Avebury was vandalized, like so many other holy sites, such as Glastonbury. Many of the stones are now missing, or have been used as foundations for nearby buildings, or have been buried underground. A great tragedy, that such beautiful works would be torn down by the ignorant.

But as for me, I think that whatever Avebury was, it was not anything demonic, nor idolatrous. Whatever these sacred landscapes were meant to do, I believe it was something brighter, something transformative. I can only say the whole area felt peaceful, serene, maybe even holy, and far from demonic or “pagan”, regardless of modern Wiccan or pagan affection for the site. I do not believe the past was filled with only darkness and terror, high and righteous civilizations have risen and faded into myth as well. The “energy” of Avebury felt only wholesome. But one can only use one’s intuition, and speculate.

As dusk was turning to night we began our walk outside of the village to find the farmhouse B&B we were staying at. Trusting our phones for directions (always a mistake on an adventure) we walked along a narrow dirt path that led past the stones and outside the hedge.

It was a clear night with the stars shining overhead and they gave just enough light to stay on the trail. As we walked in a valley under dark hills, I thought of the way ancient peoples might have walked the same routes in their rituals, to commune with the other world. I thought of the “world of the ancestors” that they would have believed this place connected them to, a place where spirits sleep, and wake again. I thought of all the myths and legends I know of sacred sites and forests that are gateways to Faerie, to the “other” and the unknown. I wondered if we were walking in such a place ourselves.

We walked around a bend and out of the darkness rose a pyramid.

I had known we were coming up on Silbury Hill, but I don’t think I was truly prepared to see something like that in England of all places, looming in the darkness. A few stars shone over it like a crown. It was one of the most stunning things I’ve ever seen.

But it was too dark to explore or take in a real view, so we continued along the path and left the pyramid for the next day.

It was then that our phones failed us, as the “road” quickly led us into what is known as a “lake that used to be a parking lot”. We were soon up to our knees in muck, hauling luggage. But they do say it isn’t an adventure until something goes wrong.

But eventually we did find our lodging and then some refreshment down the street at The Waggon and Horses, which put a Shire-like end to the night.

“Rain may fall and wind may blow,
And many miles be still to go
But under a tall tree I will lie,
And let the clouds go sailing by.”

The next morning I woke early to get a better view of Silbury Hill. Walking through the morning mists I was able to pick out a better path through the marshy roads and eventually found the official trail for viewing the hill. I soon came to a viewing area looking over a half-drowned field, wherein sat the pyramid.

It’s an incredible work of engineering. Built at the same angle as the Great Pyramid, its the largest man-made hill in Europe. And as impressive as it is, in the ancient past it was much bigger, and would have been chalk-white, and was surrounded by a great lake much like Glastonbury Tor. The lake remains today only as marshland. While it’s still an impressive sight, in the past it would have been otherworldly.

Archaeologists have admitted that no normal Neolithic society could have accomplished this fear. The hill is around 130 feet high and holds around 350 thousand cubic yards of Earth. Researchers have estimated that it would have taken 18 million working hours to complete the earthwork.

Standing there that early morning I was struck by the juxtaposition of this unfathomable ancient and esoteric structure and the A4 highway that curves around it, full of men and women on their morning commute, for whom this wonder of the ancient world is just a passing roadside view.

I sat there for a while. “What on God’s green Earth was this all for”, I wondered. Undeveloped tribes simply don’t create things like this. Somewhere in the distant past, something deep, something mystic was being done on this island. I wish I knew what.

Later we headed back to Avebury via a different route that took us past the mysterious Adam and Eve stones. These two are all that remain of the Beckhampton avenue of stones that once led to the main Avebury circle. They’re a somber and lonely sight.

Upon returning to the village, under the daylight we were able to better explore the stone circles and the village.

While the stones were more mysterious looming in the twilight, in the daylight it was even more striking just how huge they are, and what an incredible feat the construction of these landscapes was.

The world is full of great mysteries yet to be uncovered.

I can only say that if an ancient people did create these landscapes as a way of “enchanting” their world, I feel they succeeded. There’s a magic in the air at Avebury, still. At Avebury, and at many other places. I can only imagine my ancestors that crafted these landscapes, who raised the stone rings and the mounds and the barrows and the hill, and I wonder who exactly they were, and why they did it all, and what they believed in. Perhaps I’ll never know for certain.

But I know that Avebury had a little magic left. The world is not yet dead.