Because it is made up of such fundamental archetypal symbols, the beautiful mandala-like formation at Wayland Smithy, nr Ashbury, Oxfordshire, July 27^th incites my need to investigate further.  It did not require too much research before the ingenious and elegant communication revealed itself.  This formation is a reworking, a reconfiguration of the traditional relationship between the circle, representing ‘Heaven’, and the square, representing ‘Earth’.  Or perhaps it is the latest development in that relationship.  Taking a look at the actual formation and its implicit relationships, and then looking at the various traditional meanings given to the basic symbols: the square, circle, and the number four, we can derive a very powerfully gentle message of joy, dynamism, creativity and hope.

The Wayland Smithy formation could have been an emblem carved on an old church wall or entrance way.  It has a somewhat familiar feeling about it, and seems quite simple in basic form yet upon examination, there is much to deliberate.  This crop circle is made up of many circles, of many different sizes.  The circles relate in size gradually to each other, forming lines that make up the sides of three squares, arranged so that the smallest square in the middle is enclosed by a bigger one and that one is enclosed by the largest one.  The centre of each side of each square is the largest circle in that side.  The circles forming the rest of the side gradually diminish in diameter, giving the square a more rounded look.  This pattern of large centre and smaller sides seems to be a development of the image of the three circles we see in the All Cannings, June 30 formation.   The three squares are divided into quarters by a cross of circles whose arms extend by one larger circle outside the perimeter of the square.  The horizontal and vertical lines of this cross are also made of circles of graduated sizes, with a larger circle on the perimeter and gradually smaller circles moving into the centre towards the smallest central circle.  This graduated nature of the lines making up the design give it a lovely sense of softness and movement as well as the typical solid sense of the square.

The ‘squareness’ of this formation is its predominant feature.  In many ancient cultures, Chinese, Indian and Mesopotamian being a few, the square is the symbol of Earth.  It is also representative of God manifest in Creation, stability, balance, wholeness, order, and the basis for inner life.  It is emblematic of the four corners of the Earth, the four directions. 

The Earth Sign, a square divided into four smaller squares by a cross, is a universally acknowledged symbol of Created Earth with the central point defined by the cross around which the world was created.  “The basic earth sign comes from China, where the ‘four-square’ earth also represented law and order, given to humanity by the Earth Mother after originating with Tao, Mother of All Things, and passing through heaven” (Perry in Walker, 51).  

In this formation we see a series of three squares, a small central one, middle one and the larger square defining the outside perimeter.  This aspect of the design brings the ‘Morris Square’, also known as the Mill, to mind.  As such it is a board for a game, but it probably came from the ancient Celtic symbol called the ‘Triple Enclosure’ which delineated “the center of the world with the four quarters, four cardinal directions, four elements, four winds, four rivers of paradise, and so on emanating from the holy Mill or Cauldron at the center” (Huxley in Walker, 57). 

So far, the square symbolism has given us a lot to think about.  The imagery of the circle and square combined carries a predominant meaning of the ‘marriage of Heaven and Earth’, the union of spiritual and material, etc.  Usually we see this image as a large square enclosing a large circle, or a square building supporting a huge dome; a sort of one to one relationship. The circle appears in this Wayland Smithy formation 241 times, as Stuart Dyke noted.   There is a marked difference in the relationship between the circle and square shapes in this case.  Rather than existing ‘above’ the square, the circle forms actually make the square and are contained within it.  They also arrange themselves in undulating lines made up of large and gradually smaller circles, suggesting movement and change.  So we have stability in the square form, yet an amazing picture of dynamic, energetic activity in the circles that define it. The square with a circle in the middle is symbolic of the Anima Mundi according to Hermetic philosophy.  The circle has long been the symbol for ‘Heaven’, the idea, and the uncreated.  It also symbolizes the cosmos.  

The eastern mandala is essentially a square formation, with an entrance on each of the four sides, and usually a circle at its centre.  Some examples of the square as traditional symbol compare favourably with the Wayland Smithy crop formation.  Even the four circles outside the square form could be seen as ‘entrances’ such as those found in many temples of the east. 

Does this new combination of circle/square relationship herald a new way of life here on Earth?  Does this picture hint at the realization of a spiritualized matter?  Does it represent the movement of spirit within?  It does have a sense of completeness, wholeness, perhaps holiness.  Are we coming into a new ‘One’?  The idea that the addition of the feminine element to the Trinity gives us completeness or the totality of the One, was expressed by the symbolic figure in alchemy, Marie la Prophétesse:  “Du un sort le deux, du deux sort le trois, et du trois naït l’un comme quatrième” (Encyclopédie, 565). [From one comes two, from two comes three, and from three is born the one as four.]  

The number four is implicit in the square, and there is such an amazing universal, pragmatic and scientific foundation for the importance of four to human life.  A very few examples of the significance of four in our lives are: four elements basic to structure of all living organisms: oxygen, nitrogen, hydrogen, carbon; four raw materials making up the ‘primordial soup’: water, carbon dioxide, methane, ammonia; four nucleotides making up the quaternary code of our DNA: adenine, thymine, cytosine, guanine; four directions for orientation in space.  The four cardinal points are a “phylogenetically ancient navigational principle” used by bees for example. (Stevens, 116 – 123).  In ancient religion the four elements were key to creation: “ ‘The square signified that Rhea, the mother of the gods, the source of time, made herself manifest through changes in the four elements represented by Aphrodite (Water, source of life), Hestia (Fire), Demeter (Earth) and Hera (Air).’  The square symbolized the synthesis of the elements” (Penguin, 915).  Four is the number of stages in alchemy, the number of degrees in initiation in the Algonquin medicine men’s lodge, the number of successive creations in the Mayan tradition, and so on.  What is crucial in all this is that the ‘Four’ contribute to the totality of the ‘One’.  Four and the square represent that old adage: One in All and All in One, as does this beautiful crop circle offered to us for contemplation and enjoyment. 

A contrasting image of the relationship of spirit to matter can be seen in an ancient Celtic artifact found in a Viking grave.  In this figure we see the square body and its interior of chequer-boards and mason squares. The head is essentially made of rounded lines and surfaces.  He represents the “individual who is spiritualized without becoming disincarnate” (Champeaux in Penguin, 912).  When this image is compared to the Wayland Smithy formation, we see that some kind of progress has been made in the relationship between matter (the body and the square) and spirit (the head and circles).  Instead of there being a definite split between the two as in the spiritually aspiring Celtic figure, there is a real union in which both the circle aspect and the square aspect are one.

The Wayland Smithy circles seem to be dancing into one great mandala representation of the Earth. This formation could be named The Square Dance of the Circles!

Michelle Jennings 

Sources:

Chevalier, J. & Alain Gheerbrant. The Penguin Dictionary of Symbols.  Penguin books.  London.  1996.

Cooper, J.C.  An Illustrated Encyclopaedia of Traditional Symbols. Thames and Hudson.       London.  1978. 

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

Julien, Nadia.  The Mammoth Dictionary of Symbols.  Robinson Publishing. London. 1996.

MacCana, P.  Celtic Mythology.  Newnes Books.  London. 1983.

Stevens, Anthony.  Ariadne’s Clue: A Guide to the Symbols of Humankind.  Princeton   University Press.  Princeton.  1998.

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