Whales sleeping.
When I first saw these photos, I immediately thought of the great Standing Stone ring circles that dot the UK landscape.
Callanish in Scotland
Callanish from above.
I conjured a myth about the building and meaning of the circle stones:
The seafarers who reached the British Isles had long known of, seen and heard whales. Survivors of a shipwreck reported that in their moments underwater, they had witnessed the leviathans floating vertically in a circular-like formation. They credited their survival with this miraculous vision and the idea took hold in the tribe. To honor these creatures for saving lives and to ask for their blessing be bestowed on all who sail, the building of a monument began. They integrated this with a calendar concept: the stones were aligned with the position of the rising sun on the horizon indicating seasonal passages. The stones, representing the whales, stood as a metaphor between the seen world above ground and the unseen below the surface, the living world and land of the dead. To conduct rituals among the stones meant tapping into the whale's power and asking for this power be directed with success with hunting and crops. Later tribes spent a great deal of time, manpower and sheer logistical planning to build the epitome of stone circles: Stonehenge.
The stone circles still stand today, quiet reminders of a belief system no longer practiced. An early attempt by our species to grapple with fundamental ideas of existence on the planet: life, death and the passage of time. And the concept that something larger, more powerful exists out there. Can we somehow reach out and make contact? Help us, please.
This is so lovely. It gives me a dreamy nostalgic feeling, like the stories of Atlantis. As though, if I thought just a little harder, I could remember this.
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