Great Expectations: Spinning Top at
All Cannings, nr Devizes, June 30, 2008

This fantastic and playful formation could be dubbed the ‘Pregnant Spinning Top’!  It brings to my mind ideas ranging from an actual spinning top, to the precession of the equinoxes, on to the ancient ‘Venus’ sculptures documenting a lost way of knowing, as well as the monochord theory of the harmony of the spheres.  How can one symbol, gigantic as it may be, carry so much meaningful content?  It is ingenious and probably there is even more information to be discovered when closer mathematical and scientific exploration is applied to this formation of June 30, 2008 at All Cannings, nr Devizes.  For my part, I can only discuss what I perceive from the symbolic and historical/cultural point of view… 

The first point is just simple observation of the design through description:

This crop circle presents as a ‘diamond/square’, in which two similar, but different sized isosceles triangles are positioned so that they share one side as their base. Each one is filled with alternating dark and light ‘rays’ emanating from the apexes, so that, at the bases one would notice that the ending of a ‘dark’ ray of one triangle would meet the ending of a ‘light’ ray of the other at the shared base.  Instead what happens is that each ‘ray’ is transformed into its opposite shade when it travels through one of the three circles that sit directly on the base that also defines the diameters of each of the circles.  So we have this diamond shape, which at its middle, bulges out into one large central circle in between two smaller and unequal sized circles.  We have dark and light that emanate from opposing source points being transformed into their opposites.  

The square, or diamond, is a traditional symbol of the Earth.  As the Earth Diamond, this formation which can be easily seen as a square form divided into four parts by the baseline of the triangles and a line from the top vertex to the bottom one, represents the “Virgin Earth, that is, Mother Earth at the beginning of creation”.  It is also emblematic of the female sexual organ and, in Nordic tradition symbolizes the ‘Eye of Fire’ (Walker 50).   

So from the start we have reference to the Earth as feminine, and also perhaps a sense of the great hot centre of our Earth, the crystal iron core-a source of life energy for Earthlings.   

The light and dark alternations and transformations are one of many references in the crop circle phenomena to the creative power of light (i.e. the ‘blackhole’ formations of 2006, Sun/Moon references, etc.  The idea of interpenetration, interaction and alternation of the light and the dark has already been referenced in the beautiful Yin-Yang crop circle of Avebury Stone Avenue, May 8^th of this year.  

The circles in this formation have many connotations.  Their appearance at the very crucial joining of the two triangles, the central focus of the formation, and the meeting place of all the energy from the ‘rays’, illustrates the product and purpose of the energetic movement.  As was noted in Freddy Silva’s ‘Secrets in the Fields’ three circles side by side could represent the water molecule H2O (Silva 150).  This is consistent with the idea of Earth, known as the Blue Planet (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Blue_Planet ), because from afar it looks like is it made of mostly water. The rays inside the circles look like they could be refracted the way water refracts light. 

Secrets in the Fields. (150)   Thank you www.whoismanu.com 

Another, perhaps more esoteric reference can be seen in the circles as they are situated in the formation and as they relate to the whole design.  This reference brings us far back in time, which is, I believe, another function of the crop circles.  Seeing as the formations often appear near ancient Neolithic sites, and perhaps even near sites that go back as far as the Paleolithic Era, we could figure that the locations have some meaningful significance.  The idea of a relationship between this formation and the Venuses of Laussel, Willendorf and Lespugue may seem farfetched.  However, when we look at this futuristic abstract formation at All Cannings, and then compare its form, its vertical and horizontal axes and the positioning of significant elements in relation to them, we can see a plausible, although evolved, reference to the ancient artifacts.   

The first obvious similarity between the Cannings-Devizes formation and the goddess figurines can be seen in a comparison of the upper and lower triangles joined at a shared base in the middle of the formation to the upper and lower cones joined at the midriff of the goddesses.  In spite of the different sized triangles (smaller height in the upper triangle) and the very wide base of the triangles in the crop formation, compared to the equal-sized cones and a narrower base for the goddesses, the similarity in the overall form is remarkable. 

The second similarity, which is harder to perceive, is the positioning of the three circles in the crop circle compared to a similar positioning of three constructed circles on the midline of each goddess image.  The centre points of the large circles are located on the meeting point of the vertical and horizontal axes describing the greatest length and the width of the figures, and the radius of the central circle was determined by choosing a point in proximity to the ‘navel’ mark on each figure.  The smaller circles were determined by measuring half of the distance from the edge of the central circle to the outside point of the width, thus getting the radii.  In all three instances, the three circles corresponded to the ‘uterus/stomach’ area of each goddess, with the smaller circles corresponding to the ‘hip’ forms.  In this comparison, the small circles in the crop circle are slightly different in size, the larger one being on the left, whereas I have drawn equal circles on each side of the central circles for the goddesses.  The abstract field version of the Great Goddess has a slight ‘bulge’ at the equator that will prove significant when we look at the wobbly spinning top effect a little later.  Cultural historian, William Irwin Thompson, in his book, Coming Into Being, describes the form and symbolic function of the figurines as: “…the head and feet are narrow, and …the overall general form is of two cones joined, where the equator of the joined cones is the stomach, the omphalos of the Great Mother pregnant with the All.” Perhaps the new futuristic artifact in All Cannings fields also serves to represent a source or origin of creation, but at this later stage in time. 

Venus of Lespugue,  6 inches approx., found in Les Rideaux cave in the Pyrenees, in 1922, mammoth tusk carving, c.25,000 B.C. 

Venus of Willendorf,  4.5 inches approx., discovered in 1908 at Paleolithic site in Lower Austria,nr Krems, Oolitic Limestone. c. 23,000 B.C. 

Venus of Laussel, 1.5 feet high, found on wall of rock shelter in the Dordogne, France in 1911, bas-reliefin limestone, c. 22,000 B.C. 

Another observation about the figurines that could relate to the formation is the idea that some of the sculptures, for example, the Venus of Lespugue, seem to have been constructed in very clear sections that appear to be proportional to each other in the same way as the ratios of a monochord.  According to the mathematician, Ralph Abraham, University of California, Santa Cruz, as quoted in Thompson,

“the linear measurements do match the heptatonic scale of the Vedic Aryans and the Dorian mode of the ancient Greeks.  Abraham suggested further that the lines on the back of the Goddess of Lespugue may refer to some prehistoric lute or sitar, one made from gourds or clay that has not survived the millennia. … Since the Earth is said to give out a tone from the gigantic iron crystal that is reputed to be within the core of our planet, the idea of vibration may be part of some prehistoric cosmology.  Recently, New Agers, who are partial to crystals and talk of vibrations, have marketed a whistle that is said to produce the same tone that the earth does in space.  Our ancient Paleolithic ancestors may have had some similar religious feelings for sounds, for chanting within caves, and used these statues to construct monochords.  Since there is an implicit canon of proportion here, and this canon does seem to be repeated in other statuary, it does suggest that, at the very least, more is going on here than a stone age taste for fat Venuses” (105).    

For more about the monochord and how it relates to the music of the spheres see   http://www.lowbrassnmore.com/Monochord.htm . 

Another point to note regarding the Lespugue is evidence of a ‘polymorphic mode of thinking’ in the Paleolithic people, a mode in which one form contains many forms.  The back of this statue, as well as resembling a musical instrument, seems to have “male genitalia as well as female buttocks; there is a visual system of punning between buttocks and testicles, and eggs” (105). Thompson cites two musicologists who propose the existence of two systems of ratios and tones, one considered to be female and another male.  This places the statue on the level of a ‘complex hieroglyph that is expressing a cosmology’ (106).  He cites the anthropologist Gimbutas:  “the breasts, buttocks, and thighs are in ovine form to express the containment of the orphic cosmic egg within the Great Mother.” (106).  So in these goddess forms, there is found representation of both the male and female sexes; the figures are androgynous, emblematic and represent the Great Entity, Source, the Void, Hunab ‘Ku, which would be named and depicted, naturally, ‘Mother’, because at the dawn of human consciousness, the ‘mother’ was the obvious source from which all individuals, male or female, originated.   The Willendorf figure shows a similar androgynous character in that the breasts each look like a glans penis, which, like the breast, emits a vital fluid. (108)  

The spinning top analogy brings us to the phenomenon of the precession of the equinoxes that relates to the millennia as our Earth spins on its tilted axis and travels with the solar system through space.  Every two thousand years or so, we enter a new constellation zone which gives its name to an‘age’.  For instance, we are leaving the Piscean Age and moving into the Aquarian Age.  

In http://www.crystalinks.com/precession.html the significance of the ‘bulge’ at the equator as one cause of precession is noted: 

“In popular science books one often finds this explained with the analogy of the precession of a spinning top. Indeed it is the same physical effect, however, some crucial details differ. In a spinning top it is gravity which causes the top to wobble which in its turn causes precession. The applied force is thus in the first instance parallel to the rotation axis. But for the Earth the applied forces of the Sun and Moon are in the first instance perpendicular to it. So how then can they cause it?

The answer is that the forces do not work on the rotation axis. Instead they work on the equatorial bulge; due to its own rotation, the Earth is not a perfect sphere but an oblate spheroid, the equatorial diameter about 43 km larger than the polar. If the Earth were a perfect sphere, there would be no precession.

The figure explains how this works. The Earth is given as a perfect sphere (so that all gravitational forces working on it can be taken equal as one force working on its center), and the bulge is approximated to be a torus of mass (blue) around its equator.” 

The All Cannings formation has a definite bulge at the middle, and it is emphasized by the fact that one of the small circles is larger than the other, making the bulge cause a slight ‘imbalance’. 

    Earth’s Poles Describing the Precession Circle       Illustration of Constellations in the Precessional Parade 

The observations regarding an androgynous nature are important because in the statues, as well as in the crop formation we are discussing, there is a representation of the Greater One that contains the Two, and the Two could be perceived as opposite energies (i.e. Male, Female or Light, Dark).  Reference to the music of the spheres in the ratios found on the Lespugue figure also gives us a clue about how to see the All Cannings formation. The crop circle’s general shape is that of a giant top; some tops elicit a humming sound when they spin.  The Earth is supposed to emit a unique tone as it spins through space.  Finally, the observation that the bulge in the formation could correspond to the equatorial bulge of Earth connects this formation with the grand cycle of time marked by the precessions of the equinoxes which number twelve, the number of ‘rays ‘ emitted from each pole of the formation.  This brings our attention to the fact that the completion of one grand cycle will take place in December of 2012.  

So far, there is a lot of synchronous information that associates this formation with the ancients and their relationship to the world and the cosmos.   In spite of the little we know about the Paleolithic and Neolithic ways of perceiving their position in the universe, we do know that the megalithic structures built all over the world are related to sun, moon and star movements and positions, and to seasonal transitions, and if one is to give any weight to the similarities we see between the goddesses and the giant top, then we could deduce that the mode of thinking of these ancient people was holistic/inclusive and polymodal/multi-faceted.  Perhaps they used intuition more than the linear, conceptual mode of thinking we use these days.  Is this harking back to the beginning cultures of the grand cycle of 26,000 years some kind of wake up or reminder that we have many options open to us as we proceed towards our future?  Is there a hint here that an open-minded approach to understanding time, space, energy and the relationships between our planet and our bodies, our planet and the universe is the key to a new mode of living on Earth?  The last alignment of our solar system with the core of the Milky Way Galaxy was 26,000 years ago.  It was the beginning of a new human consciousness that produced the first human cultural artifacts and began a whole evolution towards our present culture of departmentalized disciplines: science, technology, art, music, philosophy, literature, etc.   Are we being kindly encouraged to prepare for stepping into new ways of thinking, living and relating in our future?

The Goddess figure of Laussel does not contain the same bisexual characteristics of her two sisters.  Instead, she holds aloft, outside of her body, a horn, or cornucopia, or perhaps something like a reed boat.  This object replaces the male symbolism in the other statues.  The male element is also considered to be the conscious ego aspect of our human psyche.  The object is notched with thirteen marks, indicating that the people who carved her were at this point, marking time according to a lunar calendar, but nevertheless noting the passage of time.  Are we now being launched on a brand new voyage, just as the ancient people who started by understanding themselves as one with the Source, and who then gradually moved psychologically, culturally away from the Unity and began exploring and knowing life in its many possibilities?  And are we cognizant that the boat, the cornucopia, the life preserver is in the hands of the UNIverse? 

–        Michelle Jennings

Sources: 

De Santillana, G. & Hertha Von Dechend.  Hamlet’s Mill: An Essay Investigating the Origins of Human Knowledge  and its Transmission through Myth.  David R. Godine, Publisher, Inc.  New Hampshire.  1977. 

Encyclopédie des Symboles.  Françoise Périgaut, trad. de l’allemand.  Le Livre de Poche.  1996. 

Silva, Freddy. Secrets in the Fields:The Science and Mysticism of Crop Circles.  Hampton Roads Publishing Co. Inc. Virginia.  2001. 

Thompson, William Irwin.  Coming Into Being: Artifacts and Texts in the Evolution of Consciousness.  St. Martin’s Press. New York.  1998. 

Walker, Barbara.  The Woman’s Dictionary of Symbols & Sacred Objects.  Castle Books. Edison, NJ.  1988.