Bishop Cannings, nr Devizes, June 8^th, 2009

Three Moon-tailed Fishes! 

There are lots of associations to bring to this formation:

Fish as symbol of Jesus Christ, Saviour (ICHTHYS),

Fish as symbol of the Goddess, Giver of Life,

Fish as it is related to the seminal geometric form Vesica Pisces,

Fish as symbol of the depths of the psyche,

Fish as the First Incarnation of Vishnu, Matsya who saved Man from the flood, and so on. 

And then there is the Trinity aspect of this formation, whether it is the ancient Trinity of the Goddess or the more recent Trinity of God the Father, Son and Holy Ghost, this formation could be emblematic of either. 

From the context of the last two crop depictions of creatures, the Jellyfish and the Dragonfly, this year, we can also infer that this formation could be bringing our attention to the evolution of the animal species.  The Fish is one of the earlier categories of the phylum Chordata. The particular type of fish shown at Bishop Cannings, the bony fish or Osteichthyes, belongs to the subphylum Vertebrata that characteristically have a backbone and a cranium.  Later on in that evolutionary branch come the amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals of which humans are a late addition. 

Both the Dragonfly and the Fish evolved after (and from) the Cnidaria, the jellyfish.  The Dragonfly developed with an exoskeleton as an insect and in the direction of arthropods, arachnids and crustaceans, etc.  The Fish developed with a spine and cranium anticipating later vertebrate animals. 

In this one symbol in the fields of England we have allusions to ancient and current religious beliefs, reference to bio-evolution, most likely astronomical/celestial/solar information, and mathematics.  Is it being suggested that all these meanings can complement one another and might be various facets of one unified field of reality?   And is there a suggestion here that the events heralded by the crop circles are effecting dramatic evolutionary changes on the Earth? 

When we reflect that the Hindu Divinity, Vishnu first took on the form of a Fish to save the father of humanity, Manu, from the Deluge, we could perhaps understand that this myth is a historic/religious explanation of the creation of humanity via the evolutionary ascension of consciousness from the primordial oceanic depths.  Vishnu’s more recent avatars are Krishna and Buddha.  Buddha is known as a Fisher of Men as is Orpheus.  Perhaps this title could also refer to the idea of the spiritual teacher assisting humanity to rise in consciousness out of the unconscious state symbolized by water.   Vishnu, as Matsya, brought Manu the Vedas, the whole of sacred knowledge.  To further this point, the association of the fish symbol with the Christ/Saviour figure links the fish as well to an evolutionary step, this time within humanity itself as the impetus to the development of Heart Consciousness.  Jesus and his apostles were also fishers of men.  Christians are baptized in water. 

Clearly the Circlemakers are informing us of our own origins in Nature and of the reality of ongoing evolution on Earth, on a physical plane and a spiritual plane as well.  Perhaps this year we will become aware of the possibility that what is of the Divine and what is of Nature are not exclusive, but are two intricately woven threads of one tapestry, a great and wondrous unified field. 

Rupert Sheldrake, in his book ‘The Rebirth of Nature: the Greening of Science and God’ seems to allude to this idea when he speaks of the interaction between the creative polarities that exist within the Greater Unity: 

“If the fields and energy of nature are aspects of the Word and Spirit of God, then God must have an evolutionary aspect, evolving along with the cosmos, with biological life and humanity.  God is not remote and separate from nature, but immanent in it. Yet at the same time, God is the unity that transcends it.  In other words, God is not just immanent in nature, as in pantheist philosophies and not just transcendent, as in deist philosophies, but both immanent and transcendent, a philosophy known as panentheism.  As the fifteenth-century mystic Nicholas of Cusa put it:  ‘Divinity is the enfolding and unfolding of everything that is.  Divinity is in all things in such a way that all things are in divinity.’”(198) 

The three fish of Bishop Cannings are both lunar and solar, of the Feminine Principle and the Masculine Principle.  Their movement is initiated in the Sun symbol; their tails are crescent moon shapes.  The fish is an ancient symbol for the Goddess, love, and fertility; it is also a symbol for Oannes the Sumero-Semitic divinity, Jesus, Buddha and Vishnu (all God figures).  The Masculine and Feminine are shown here as Two working as One, as a Trinity.  There is not a oppositional, confrontational activity, but a cyclic, alternating dynamic indicated here, especially with the ‘bubbles’ defining movement from large to small or small to large. 

We could derive from the information in this crop circle that human consciousness, as we understand it, began to evolve specifically around the time that Vertebrates were evolving, about 419,000 million years ago.  Is this consciousness the goal of the impulse to life on Earth? And is the further development of our consciousness part of what is happening in these ‘end times’?  

I can only answer: Stay-tuned for more exciting, informative, inspirational and miraculous messages in the fields!

Michelle Jennings 

Sources: 

Bruce-Mitford, M. The Illustrated Book of Signs & Symbols.  Reader’s Digest. Montreal. 1996.

Carr-Gomm, Philip & Stephanie.  The Druid Animal Oracle.  Simon & Shuster Inc. New York.  1994.

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

Encyclopédie des symboles. Michel Cazenave, dir. Le Livre de Poche. 1996.

Every, George.  Christian Mythology.  Hamlyn Publishing Group.  London.  1987.

Hakanson, Donni. Oracle of the Dreamtime.  Stoddart Publishing Co. Toronto. 1998.

Swami Harshananda.  Hindu Gods and Goddesses.  Sri Ramakrishna Math.   Mylapore.

Tresidder, Jack.  Dictionary of Symbols.  Chronicle Books.  San Francisco.  1998. 

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