Persian fable states that the night conceals a world but reveals a universe, and it is true to say that there are sometimes weirder things being born in the darkness than just vampires. We take a look at these beautiful formations and explore what they might be trying to tell us.
What is a crop circle? The first point to make is that the manifestations are neither to be found purely in cereal crops nor are purely circular. Indeed in recent years, the formations agriglyphs or pictograms as the more complex are often called have targeted snow, pack ice, dust, pine needles, grass and sand as well as the more conventional fields of wheat, barley, corn, rye and oilseed rape (canola). They have appeared on private farmland, heritage land, wasteland and public areas of moorland and heath. They have appeared all over the world in varying degrees of complexity and size, though it is still in the south west of England, especially in Wiltshire and Hampshire, that the majority are to be found.
Statistics quoted on the subject state that in 1990 (which incidentally was before the phenomenon really took off properly!) a staggering 600 formations appeared in Wiltshire alone, 32 of those in one single night! 80% of the worlds total of agriglyphs occur in the UK, 75% of those in the geographic triangle created by the towns of Wantage, Warminster and Winchester. Key mystical and magickal sites such as Avebury and Stonehenge lie either within or just on the border of this area. Circles are known however to have occurred in Russia, Afghanistan, Turkey, India, Japan, Israel, the USA, Australia and most of Europe. This is a truly global phenomenon that shows no sign of dying down; in fact the designs become more spectacular every year.
The first recorded circle in the UK dates from 1678, and can be found in a story concerning the 'mowing Devil' of Hertfordshire the accompanying woodcut depicts a devil scything a roughly elliptical shape out of a field of cereal crop. Some have speculated that the circles are even older that Neolithic man was witness to them and, believing them to be the work of the Earth Goddess he worshipped, was inspired to build the great temples of Stonehenge, Avebury, Stanton Drew, Woodhenge and Silbury Hill. There is no proof of such ideas, though suggestively perhaps a high proportion of formations do appear close to such ancient monuments and often seem to be responding to the elevated levels of spiritual energy which envelop these places. Is this all mere coincidence?
More prosaically of course the circlemakers (whoever or whatever they are) may just be drawn to the chalk bedrock or underground water tables of the South Downs area, rather than the ancient sites that litter the countryside.
What is significant however is that the circles and patterns are clearly designed to be viewed primarily from the air. Many are all but invisible from ground level until you are standing inside them, and the sheer scale of some recent designs makes it impossible from ground level to appreciate the shape or pattern, particularly while negotiating the sometimes complex geography of a field. This is a marvel best seen from the air. Perhaps this helps to explain why there were so few sightings recorded between the episode of the mowing devil and the start of the modern 'boom' in 1978.
The vast majority of agriglyphs appear in cereal crops, hence their profusion in the south and south-west of England, where so much of Britain's farmland still remains. They are mainly formed between late May and mid August when the crop is in bloom, though examples have been found outside these times in immature crop and other media such as grass and snow.
Since they proliferate in the summer months one might assume that they are daylight occurrences, but generally speaking this does not appear to be the case. There are few examples which appear outside the very short hours of darkness, thereby making the figures quoted above a great test to the belief in a human agency for these pictograms. Are we really expected to believe that gangs of vandals have been rampaging through the crop fields of England and elsewhere every night for four months of every year for the past twenty years, creating thousands of perfect circles and intricate patterns without ever being seen or caught?! It seems unlikely to say the least.
In 1996 a daylight appearance was recorded which added fuel to the mystery surrounding how these images are created. On July 7th a 900 x 500ft pictogram consisting of 151 circles materialised in a field close to Stonehenge. A pilot flying over the monument confirmed that on his first flight everything was normal, but by his return a mere 35 minutes later the design was complete. What makes this even more remarkable is that no-one not the dozens of visitors to Stonehenge, nor the probable hundreds of motorists passing within feet of the field on the busy A303 saw anything of its creation. How was it possible that a design of this size, in a location this densely populated at the time, could have been formed in broad daylight with no witnesses at all, if a human agency was involved? Even more amazing was the design itself a perfect Julia fractal, a complex mathematical symbol familiar to chaos theorists. Architects and landscape artists have suggested that it would take several days for a team of qualified people just to plot the design on the ground, let alone construct it. Is this the undeniable evidence many crave of a non-human explanation for these events?
Although there are naturally a number of man-made hoaxes in any season, there are several features which tend to indicate a genuine circle, though the hoaxers have become cleverer over the years. The most visually obvious of the indicators of a genuine (ie, non-human) circle is that the stalks of the crop are bent not broken. They are folded over and packed close to the ground, but not crushed, as they would be if someone had trodden them with planks of wood or their feet. The resulting carpet of stalks is flat yet springy, and is only broken by the arrival of human visitors. In one notable case, the stalks were actually bent over about a foot above the ground you try doing that and see how far it gets you! In addition to this the crop is sometimes seen to swirl in many directions in any given design, sometimes causing alternate layers of crop to plait together creating an even tighter floor, which again is difficult to achieve with human made circles, though probably not impossible. Other stylistic features such as clumps of crop or single stems standing upright in the midst of a circle are common, and the floor patterns and structure make each design totally unique. All these minutiae are very difficult to hoax. The crop, for all that it is flattened and distorted, continues to grow, sometimes even returning to a semi-vertical state if it is young enough. When humans crush crop circles this rarely happens.
Other weirdnesses have attached themselves to the crop circle phenomenon. Sometimes the nodes or joints of a stem appear to be super-heated and literally explode outwards, leaving a hole. It is not known what creates this speculations have focussed mainly on microwave energy, though how it is applied, no-one knows but it is not something which can be created by man. The best laboratories in the world have not been able to replicate this effect, despite their advanced technology and specialised equipment, and rigorous testing of the affected stems has shown significant structural differences which are impossible to affect simply by crushing the crop. It is important to stress however that blown nodes are not exclusive to pictograms, but are sometimes found in unaffected crop too on occasion, though this does not lessen the mystery of what causes it to happen.
The links between crop circles and UFOs has often been used on both sides of the argument by believers and sceptics alike but no one denies that there is a link of some kind. Strange lights have often been reported in or near crop circles, and many photographs exist which purport to show such phenomena. There is also an excellent piece of video footage shot in 1990 by Steve Alexander one of the most prolific circle photographers of recent years which clearly shows two silver balls of light passing through a crop circle then up over a tractor in the next field; the farmer later confirmed the sighting. Another piece of video footage, greeted with excitement at first as it seemed to show silver balls of light actually creating a recent design in a matter of seconds, has since been universally denounced as a forgery, possibly as part of the continuing conspiracy to discredit crop circle researchers. It is even said that it is not the original footage (which is genuine) but a deliberate hoaxed copy put out to the media to deflect interest in the subject.
Other high strangeness has been attached to the crop circle phenomenon for years, but the most striking argument in favour of a non-human origin for these designs is the ways that people and animals react to them. Sensations like awe, respect, fascination, amazement and excitement are easy to understand the great beauty and mystery that is inherent in crop circles reaches out to a surprising diversity of people but many also experience physical and emotional reactions to pictograms, ranging from euphoria to terror. Cases have been reported of visitors to circles developing flu symptoms for several days after their visit; others are so overcome by nausea or dizziness they have had to leave the circle. Equally, some old or sick people have apparently been cured by the circles, casting away their sticks to run about like children. Crop circles are a miracle or a curse depending on your view of them.
Is there some correlation between what you want of the circle and what you get? A sceptic feels nothing, a depressive becomes uplifted and a sick person is healed. Much research into the psychic nature of the circles is ongoing regarding positive and negative power emissions that may affect visitors.
From personal experience of their power, the most dominant thing is a strong sense of electromagnetic pull surging from the ground which makes your fingers tingle. Whatever awesome power is required to create the patterns often seems to linger for some weeks after its creation (especially if it is in an isolated location, and has not been much visited), and you don't have to be powerfully psychic or sensitive to air pressure to be aware of it.
This energy also often affects electrical equipment, causing cameras, mobile phones and the like to malfunction in the circle formations.
Animals, being natural psychics, often exhibit fear or conversely hyperactivity when confronted with a circle, and no satisfactory explanation has been found for their ability to sense genuine circle from hoaxes. But they evidently do, as birds fly out of their direct route to bypass them and dogs sometimes refuse to enter them, or seem to undergo personality transplants whilst inside them.
Many psychics claim to have channelled information from the circlemakers or the Earth, and many fascinating books put forward theories, often backed up by good strong science, of how and why they occur. Dowsing the designs suggests that ancient sites do have a profound significance, and that the patterns are an attempt at subconscious communication from the circlemakers to us, a fact reflected in their apparent ability to mimic or anticipate current events. This year there were designs representing the solar eclipse of August 11th appearing several weeks before the event occurred, and previous years have given us images of mathematical formulae, magickal symbols, and even biological pictographs like the well-known DNA strand of 1996.
Since the crop circle phenomenon has been with us unsolved for so long, several theories have been put forward to explain what they are and why and how they occur. Popular theories include the previously mentioned UFO connection. Although the science of cereology has come a long way since claiming that crop circles were marks left by landed spacecraft the complexity of the newer agriglyphs gives the lie to this somewhat! we are still left with the problem that we don't know who or what the UFOs represent either.
Another theory commonly put forward by sceptics is that they are formed by crows, deer, foxes, badgers and even hedgehogs mating in the fields! Again the complex agriglyphs and other media such as the snow stand outside this possibility, and we feel that farmers would recognise animal damage and not confuse it with something more esoteric. Indeed, anyone with half-decent eyesight could see that the damage done by birds and mammals to crops bears no resemblance to the precision and beauty of the pictograms.
So is it another natural force that creates them? The most popular solution for many years was vortex winds (tiny, loose, spiralling whirlwinds which are often seen throwing out crop into the air at harvest time). However, once again, wind-damaged crop is very untidy and it takes a vivid imagination to accept that whirlwinds created the magnificent Triple Julia, 194 circles across 1000ft or the Mandelbrot, 230ft long including its satellites.
Lightning, the Earth's magnetic field, and volcanic or seismic disturbances have all been put forward, but we feel they can at best be contributory factors and not the creative force itself.
Could it be the Earth Herself, guided by intelligence inherent in Her, sending us messages or distress signals? Some researchers, the well-respected Colin Andrews and Peter Sψrensen among them, believe that the end of the 20th century is our 'wake up call', our last chance to make amends for all the ecological damage we have done since becoming industrialised. Crop circles therefore can be said to act as an agent of intelligent origin, sent to raise our consciousness to the level required of us to get us off our indolent backsides and start making a difference. This is certainly the message many people have received from these circles, with their sometimes frightening and prophetic nature, for example the Solar System glyph of 1995 that showed the orbit of our planet, but no planet!
With the wide variety of plausible theories on offer, one could easily find it impossible to decide on what is really going on and why. Perhaps the way to becoming truly open-minded on this matter is to say that all theories are valid, in that they all explain some of the manifestations, but no one theory has yet managed to encompass them all. A sceptic denies everything, a believer is single-minded in his pursuit of his own pet theory surely it is better to be open to all possibilities: some are created by the Earth, some by UFOs or strange lights, some by hoaxers, some by natural weather forces. Why does there have to be only one answer? In truth, many researchers and enthusiasts alike half hope that no definitive answer is found, as part of the circles' fascination is their sheer mystery.
The term crop circle was coined to describe the phenomenon which began to boom in 1978, when single circles, many of great size, started to be reported in the fields. By the late 1980s and early 1990s however, more intricate patterns had developed alongside the simple circles ringed circles, Celtic crosses and dumb-bells. By 1992, the phenomenon was being studied by several serious investigators, and groups of 'croppies' had sprung up who were to be found photographing, dowsing and otherwise studying and discussing the latest designs and publishing magazines with their findings.
Each year harvests a variety of designs, seemingly appearing at random, but often a pattern of sorts can be discerned. A main design feature for each season has become a part of the mystery. Insectograms, dolphinoids, scorpions, random strings and ratchets were all seen during the early 1990s. By 1996, when I visited my first batch of pictograms, the geometric age had started. The earliest geometric patterns were 1991's fabulous Barbury Castle glyph and the Mandelbrot figures which defy logic with their significance to the human race and our scientific consciousness.
The awesome power of a design of the magnitude of the Triple Julia of 1996, or the Microchip of 1999 (found upon the same farmer's land upon Windmill Hill), left all who visited them speechless with admiration and wonder. No words can ever do justice to these kinds of giant agriglyphs and the photos that exist (marvellous though they are) do little to capture the energy and sheer size of this cerealogical event. Captivated, many could not help but fall to their knees in reverence inside the endless swirling stream of flattened crop that flowed across the ancient hillside.
The growing complexity of the agriglyphs is still a puzzle, but it rules out one of more natural solutions, for example whirlwinds. Whoever or whatever is creating these patterns for us to marvel at, there is definitely an intelligence and purpose of some kind behind it all, though whether humanity will ever find out for certain what or who it is remains to be seen.
This year the designs have done something most unusual, seeming to encapsulate all the major features of the past 20 years. We have seen everything from simple circles through to the most bizarre and complex pictograms yet witnessed. Pentagrams, the Wings of Horus, scarabs, sun serpents, a Menorah, an Escher cube, even Buckminster nanotubes! The whole gamut of religious and mystical symbolism linked to natural phenomena like flowers and eclipses, all sitting alongside some of the most advanced of scientific statements. This whole phenomenon is constantly evolving, to the bewilderment and wonder of everyone who shares in its magick. Each year when we think it can get no better, it always does.
Photographs of these stunning pictograms speak volumes more than words can, so look once more at those illustrated. Do you still believe men made them all with planks of wood? Do you still think there is no mystery? What will next year the first of a new millennium bring? Only time will tell, but I for one will be there to see what I can.
Home
Back to Issue Listing
Back to Literary Header
Previous
Next
