Monthly Archive: February 2012

The Roundway formation, 23rd July 2011

1. The Roundway Melatonin Molecule
of 2011

Every now and again, there comes a circle that is really unique, original and inventive; the Roundway formation of 2011 was one such formation. Seemingly a long, cascading, daisy-chain of flowers, stems and petals, there was something rather unassuming about the design, yet it was soon obvious that something more serious lay beneath its pretty, summery exterior.

As I write it is February of 2012 and most of the crop circle community is already expressing its excitement about the 2012 season. But I am such a slow coach, I’m still trying to fully absorb the crop circles of 2011! To me there were so many fantastic circles last season that it’s taking time to get to grips with them all, to sketch the ones I’m ‘drawn’ to and to try to tease out some meaning from their magnificent forms. Perhaps it is a sign of growing older, but perhaps it is equally symbolic of my aversion to the stamp collecting and superficiality of some of the popular interest in the crop circles. I am of course, as excited as everyone else when a new circle appears, sometimes as giddy as a school girl (I know that may be hard for some of you to imagine!), but I prefer to savour my favourites, revisit them, not abandon them as soon as some new beau arrives in town. Perhaps, I sometimes wonder, this is some reflection of our modern consumerist society, in which every ‘new thing’ is fickly abandoned in favour of every ‘new thing’. We gallop hungrily through information and news at an alarming rate in our online travails, but I also wonder, how much of that sinks in, or how much is truly understood or appreciated? To simply consume information, is not the same as understanding it, or being able to see its implications.

To appreciate the circles is to want to spend time with them, much like a good friend. I like to look at them, listen to them, and even engage in a little play with them. I like to feel that I got to know them a little and that in doing so I might be able to understand them better. The internet may have brought us ever more speedy news and images of new circles, but what has been sacrificed is a deeper engagement with the formations and most importantly: considered comment. So much of the interpretive ‘work’ applied to the circles is instantaneous, literal and shallow. I am constantly flabbergasted that they are cursorily consumed and accepted en masse with not another thought. Once a circle has been seen and some ‘soundbite’ or hurried inference is made, the case is effectively closed. I find this incredibly sad. Perhaps we have become so accustomed to being spoon-fed information, that we rarely question it, or even give it a second thought?

2. The Melatonin molecule shown as a 2D diagram

The Roundway formation of 2011 was something new. We had not seen a design anything like it before. Within hours it had been rightly pointed out that the pattern was some kind of play on a molecular diagram of Melatonin. This was very curious, many had mistakenly assumed that it was perhaps some kind of psychedelic, and at first I thought it might be Seratonin (our happy hormone), Melatonin seemed an off-beat substance to be presenting us with.

While I contemplated this, I decided to draw the formation. It was fantastic to draw! It was one of those formations that just danced itself onto the page. It was also almost entirely self-generating, each part of the formation anticipated the next, so that practically no guess work or field measurements were needed.

3. The first circle, division by 6 then 12, allows the petals to be defined and drawn in.

I began with the six-fold round-petalled flower, dividing a circle into six, by creating an internal six-fold flower. This is achieved by establishing a straight line through the centre of the circle. Then keeping the compasses at the same diameter as the circle, you place one end of the compasses on the perimeter of the circle where the straight line intersects and draw a curve (which travels through the centre of the circle) until it intersects another point of the perimeter, then you place the compass point on the place where that curve intersects the perimeter and draw another curve – so on and so on – until an six-fold thin-petalled flower emerges. The diameter of each of the six circular petals in the finished formation was extrapolated by drawing a circle that fitted exactly into the space between each of the thin petals. The further division of the circle into twelve allowed for the compass to be placed at the precise centre between the two petals to draw the circle in. This small circle diameter was then used to create all the ‘round petal’ circles in the formation.

4. Here six and five make nine! Love, life and birth – or re-generation.

Before I had gotten around to drawing the formation out in its entirety I had already drawn the central component on of the formation – a six-fold flower conjoined to a five-fold flower. I was fascinated by this conjunction. It is quite unusual to see such a side-by-side marriage of two different shapes. Usually, the combination of numbers is more centralised, or overlaid in crop circle design. Six is the number of best economy, harmony and love, while five is the number of life and the self-generation of all living things. To see love and life hand-in-hand, so to speak, was beautiful – what a marriage indeed. Five and six equal eleven, the number that signals ‘access to other dimensions’, but in this formation the particular conjoining of these two flowers produced only nine petals. Nine is the number of birth or threshold – Love, Life and regeneration was indicated – here numbers are much more than mere quantities, they are sheer poetry.

5. The six petalled flower conjoined with another circle (left) divided by six, that places the arms and circles at one end of the formation, and on the other side (right) conjoined with a circle divided by five.

The rest of the formation was made from the conjoining of many more six-fold circles. Even the placement of the arms were guided by circles of the same size, which were similarly divided into six. In picture 5 you can see the six-petalled flower nestled between two circles, one divided by six and another divided by five. On the page, I used a straight edge drawn between the two petals that would be attached to the five-fold flower to draw a pentagon, using that line as one side of the five-sided shape – then enclosing it in a circle. This gave the precise size (diameter) of the five-fold flower, which was smaller than the six-fold flower and the rest of the circles used to underpin the formation. Rather than thinking about the formation as a series of circles, which the design seems to suggest, think about the formation as being underpinned by a series of several hexagons and one pentagon at it centre.

6. The entire underlying geometry drawn our on the page. The diameters and positioning of every element was self-generating.

7. A collage of shapes showing how this collection of hexagons and one pentagon underpinned the whole design

After I had finished the drawing I decided to make a collage to show the way the hexagons and the one pentagon fitted together. The traditional molecular diagram (picture 2) shows exactly these shapes at work. Now that the underlying skeleton was complete all that was left was to pick out the design in black ink.

8. Picking out the design in black ink from the geometric skeleton

9. Adding in the grapeshot circles by eye and then adding in colour finishes the sketch.

Quite unconsciously, I realised sometime later, I had chosen to colour the drawing with light and dark blue, the colour of the daytime and night skies. Clearly I had been meditating deeply on the significance of melatonin while I had been drawing!

So what are we to make of a reference to melatonin? Several things spring to mind. Firstly, melatonin is a hormone produced by the body that plays a central role in the regulation of our biorhythm of waking and sleeping. Melatonin is produced in the brain when the light coming into our eyes begins to dim and prepares the body for sleep. I think there are layers of meaning here; the first is the idea that the crop circles are made during the hours of dark, and are revealed by the coming day, so they too are part of our sleeping and waking cycle. Another idea was expressed by a friend of mine who proposed that it may be a reflection of how asleep we are spiritually, and how we need to “wake-up!” Another colleague suggested that it could be telling us to “watch our dreams”, or that it may symbolise the unconscious.

Finally, some weeks after making this drawing I began to see something else. The two-fold nature of this formation had been playing much on my mind; the idea of night and day, wakefulness and sleep, consciousness and unconsciousness, standing and flattened crop and finally the thought of it’s inherent geometry and number and also its symbolism and beauty. I realised something that I think is really important to my understanding of the crop circles themselves, and that is that their designs appeal simultaneously to our left- brain with their geometry and clever design, and to our right-brain with their symbolism and beauty. The circles are not just designed to appeal to our intellect, but also (if you will permit me) to our souls. I had an inkling of this idea earlier in the season, I think I even wrote about it in an earlier blog, but this formation brought this home to me in a very experiential, visceral way. For those that consider the crop circles to be messages of some kind, the fact that they are messages that are ‘directed’ at both hemispheres of our brains is fascinating to say the least.

I wonder, however, if the crop circles are a reflection of, and simultaneously a catalyst for, a re-balancing of our very left-brained western culture. For the last hundred years or more we have seen the rising dominance of the mental/rational consciousness state. We have seen the role of dreams, art and even the paranormal suppressed by a way of thinking that cannot quantify them. We have systematically rendered our world, if not our universe and our very existence, down to a set of numbers and empty space – we are in danger of falling in to a nihilistic stupor. That we have something manifesting in our world that marries the ‘rational’ and the ‘imaginal’ is, I have to say, quite amazing and the implications are nothing short of auspicious.

KAREN ALEXANDER – FEBRUARY 27th 2012

 
More… The number Nineteen and the nature of Synchronicity

Nineteen standing stems. Picture by JPDV.

A close colleague of mine has for many years had an uncanny relationship and fascination with the number nineteen. In fact this number has made itself known to my friend on many occasions through the crop circles, dreams and many synchronicities. So he was delighted to find that the Roundway melatonin circle had a relationship to the number nineteen too. By counting all the petal circles and the two smaller circles attached, one at each end of the formation, and adding in the two centre circles of the five and six-fold flowers, we get to nineteen. As he walked through the circle he was also delighted to find that in the centre of one of the circles stood a central tuft of exactly nineteen standing stems. I have often wondered if the experience of synchronicity is linked in some way to experiences of the mystical, or the paranormal, in that they are all of the same ‘quality’. It is a subject that I intend to give much more thought to. But what of nineteen? Nineteen is a number that is hard to interpret, as it is well beyond the familiar decad. It is of course a prime number and it is linked to lunar cycles – the metonic cycle to be precise. A numerical link with the moon and the unconscious carries a link with larger symbolism of the formation as Melatonin. I guess we might look at nineteen then as ten and nine. If ten is the number of new beginnings, but a beginning that is embarked upon with all the experience that the decad brings (all the numbers one to nine), and nine is the number of birth and threshold, then perhaps we might say that nineteen is the number of rebirth – it is a fascinating thing to meditate upon. The idea of a re-birth or perhaps more eloquently ‘paradigm shift’ is one that many intuitively associate with the crop circles.

Perhaps we might be allowed to make one further, final speculation? Perhaps this paradigm shift is to do with the re-acceptance of the soul; the role of the imagination, dreams, mythology and folklore as vital parts not just of the human psyche, but as the old hermetic sages would have had us believe, as an active and fundamental part of the make-up of reality.

The post Sweet Dreams Are Made of This… appeared first on Temporary Temples.

The Roundway formation, 23rd July 2011

1. The Roundway Melatonin Molecule
of 2011

Every now and again, there comes a circle that is really unique, original and inventive; the Roundway formation of 2011 was one such formation. Seemingly a long, cascading, daisy-chain of flowers, stems and petals, there was something rather unassuming about the design, yet it was soon obvious that something more serious lay beneath its pretty, summery exterior.

As I write it is February of 2012 and most of the crop circle community is already expressing its excitement about the 2012 season. But I am such a slow coach, I’m still trying to fully absorb the crop circles of 2011! To me there were so many fantastic circles last season that it’s taking time to get to grips with them all, to sketch the ones I’m ‘drawn’ to and to try to tease out some meaning from their magnificent forms. Perhaps it is a sign of growing older, but perhaps it is equally symbolic of my aversion to the stamp collecting and superficiality of some of the popular interest in the crop circles. I am of course, as excited as everyone else when a new circle appears, sometimes as giddy as a school girl (I know that may be hard for some of you to imagine!), but I prefer to savour my favourites, revisit them, not abandon them as soon as some new beau arrives in town. Perhaps, I sometimes wonder, this is some reflection of our modern consumerist society, in which every ‘new thing’ is fickly abandoned in favour of every ‘new thing’. We gallop hungrily through information and news at an alarming rate in our online travails, but I also wonder, how much of that sinks in, or how much is truly understood or appreciated? To simply consume information, is not the same as understanding it, or being able to see its implications.

To appreciate the circles is to want to spend time with them, much like a good friend. I like to look at them, listen to them, and even engage in a little play with them. I like to feel that I got to know them a little and that in doing so I might be able to understand them better. The internet may have brought us ever more speedy news and images of new circles, but what has been sacrificed is a deeper engagement with the formations and most importantly: considered comment. So much of the interpretive ‘work’ applied to the circles is instantaneous, literal and shallow. I am constantly flabbergasted that they are cursorily consumed and accepted en masse with not another thought. Once a circle has been seen and some ‘soundbite’ or hurried inference is made, the case is effectively closed. I find this incredibly sad. Perhaps we have become so accustomed to being spoon-fed information, that we rarely question it, or even give it a second thought?

2. The Melatonin molecule shown as a 2D diagram

The Roundway formation of 2011 was something new. We had not seen a design anything like it before. Within hours it had been rightly pointed out that the pattern was some kind of play on a molecular diagram of Melatonin. This was very curious, many had mistakenly assumed that it was perhaps some kind of psychedelic, and at first I thought it might be Seratonin (our happy hormone), Melatonin seemed an off-beat substance to be presenting us with.

While I contemplated this, I decided to draw the formation. It was fantastic to draw! It was one of those formations that just danced itself onto the page. It was also almost entirely self-generating, each part of the formation anticipated the next, so that practically no guess work or field measurements were needed.

3. The first circle, division by 6 then 12, allows the petals to be defined and drawn in.

I began with the six-fold round-petalled flower, dividing a circle into six, by creating an internal six-fold flower. This is achieved by establishing a straight line through the centre of the circle. Then keeping the compasses at the same diameter as the circle, you place one end of the compasses on the perimeter of the circle where the straight line intersects and draw a curve (which travels through the centre of the circle) until it intersects another point of the perimeter, then you place the compass point on the place where that curve intersects the perimeter and draw another curve – so on and so on – until an six-fold thin-petalled flower emerges. The diameter of each of the six circular petals in the finished formation was extrapolated by drawing a circle that fitted exactly into the space between each of the thin petals. The further division of the circle into twelve allowed for the compass to be placed at the precise centre between the two petals to draw the circle in. This small circle diameter was then used to create all the ‘round petal’ circles in the formation.

4. Here six and five make nine! Love, life and birth – or re-generation.

Before I had gotten around to drawing the formation out in its entirety I had already drawn the central component on of the formation – a six-fold flower conjoined to a five-fold flower. I was fascinated by this conjunction. It is quite unusual to see such a side-by-side marriage of two different shapes. Usually, the combination of numbers is more centralised, or overlaid in crop circle design. Six is the number of best economy, harmony and love, while five is the number of life and the self-generation of all living things. To see love and life hand-in-hand, so to speak, was beautiful – what a marriage indeed. Five and six equal eleven, the number that signals ‘access to other dimensions’, but in this formation the particular conjoining of these two flowers produced only nine petals. Nine is the number of birth or threshold – Love, Life and regeneration was indicated – here numbers are much more than mere quantities, they are sheer poetry.

5. The six petalled flower conjoined with another circle (left) divided by six, that places the arms and circles at one end of the formation, and on the other side (right) conjoined with a circle divided by five.

The rest of the formation was made from the conjoining of many more six-fold circles. Even the placement of the arms were guided by circles of the same size, which were similarly divided into six. In picture 5 you can see the six-petalled flower nestled between two circles, one divided by six and another divided by five. On the page, I used a straight edge drawn between the two petals that would be attached to the five-fold flower to draw a pentagon, using that line as one side of the five-sided shape – then enclosing it in a circle. This gave the precise size (diameter) of the five-fold flower, which was smaller than the six-fold flower and the rest of the circles used to underpin the formation. Rather than thinking about the formation as a series of circles, which the design seems to suggest, think about the formation as being underpinned by a series of several hexagons and one pentagon at it centre.

6. The entire underlying geometry drawn our on the page. The diameters and positioning of every element was self-generating.

7. A collage of shapes showing how this collection of hexagons and one pentagon underpinned the whole design

After I had finished the drawing I decided to make a collage to show the way the hexagons and the one pentagon fitted together. The traditional molecular diagram (picture 2) shows exactly these shapes at work. Now that the underlying skeleton was complete all that was left was to pick out the design in black ink.

8. Picking out the design in black ink from the geometric skeleton

9. Adding in the grapeshot circles by eye and then adding in colour finishes the sketch.

Quite unconsciously, I realised sometime later, I had chosen to colour the drawing with light and dark blue, the colour of the daytime and night skies. Clearly I had been meditating deeply on the significance of melatonin while I had been drawing!

So what are we to make of a reference to melatonin? Several things spring to mind. Firstly, melatonin is a hormone produced by the body that plays a central role in the regulation of our biorhythm of waking and sleeping. Melatonin is produced in the brain when the light coming into our eyes begins to dim and prepares the body for sleep. I think there are layers of meaning here; the first is the idea that the crop circles are made during the hours of dark, and are revealed by the coming day, so they too are part of our sleeping and waking cycle. Another idea was expressed by a friend of mine who proposed that it may be a reflection of how asleep we are spiritually, and how we need to “wake-up!” Another colleague suggested that it could be telling us to “watch our dreams”, or that it may symbolise the unconscious.

Finally, some weeks after making this drawing I began to see something else. The two-fold nature of this formation had been playing much on my mind; the idea of night and day, wakefulness and sleep, consciousness and unconsciousness, standing and flattened crop and finally the thought of it’s inherent geometry and number and also its symbolism and beauty. I realised something that I think is really important to my understanding of the crop circles themselves, and that is that their designs appeal simultaneously to our left- brain with their geometry and clever design, and to our right-brain with their symbolism and beauty. The circles are not just designed to appeal to our intellect, but also (if you will permit me) to our souls. I had an inkling of this idea earlier in the season, I think I even wrote about it in an earlier blog, but this formation brought this home to me in a very experiential, visceral way. For those that consider the crop circles to be messages of some kind, the fact that they are messages that are ‘directed’ at both hemispheres of our brains is fascinating to say the least.

I wonder, however, if the crop circles are a reflection of, and simultaneously a catalyst for, a re-balancing of our very left-brained western culture. For the last hundred years or more we have seen the rising dominance of the mental/rational consciousness state. We have seen the role of dreams, art and even the paranormal suppressed by a way of thinking that cannot quantify them. We have systematically rendered our world, if not our universe and our very existence, down to a set of numbers and empty space – we are in danger of falling in to a nihilistic stupor. That we have something manifesting in our world that marries the ‘rational’ and the ‘imaginal’ is, I have to say, quite amazing and the implications are nothing short of auspicious.

KAREN ALEXANDER – FEBRUARY 27th 2012

 
More… The number Nineteen and the nature of Synchronicity

Nineteen standing stems. Picture by JPDV.

A close colleague of mine has for many years had an uncanny relationship and fascination with the number nineteen. In fact this number has made itself known to my friend on many occasions through the crop circles, dreams and many synchronicities. So he was delighted to find that the Roundway melatonin circle had a relationship to the number nineteen too. By counting all the petal circles and the two smaller circles attached, one at each end of the formation, and adding in the two centre circles of the five and six-fold flowers, we get to nineteen. As he walked through the circle he was also delighted to find that in the centre of one of the circles stood a central tuft of exactly nineteen standing stems. I have often wondered if the experience of synchronicity is linked in some way to experiences of the mystical, or the paranormal, in that they are all of the same ‘quality’. It is a subject that I intend to give much more thought to. But what of nineteen? Nineteen is a number that is hard to interpret, as it is well beyond the familiar decad. It is of course a prime number and it is linked to lunar cycles – the metonic cycle to be precise. A numerical link with the moon and the unconscious carries a link with larger symbolism of the formation as Melatonin. I guess we might look at nineteen then as ten and nine. If ten is the number of new beginnings, but a beginning that is embarked upon with all the experience that the decad brings (all the numbers one to nine), and nine is the number of birth and threshold, then perhaps we might say that nineteen is the number of rebirth – it is a fascinating thing to meditate upon. The idea of a re-birth or perhaps more eloquently ‘paradigm shift’ is one that many intuitively associate with the crop circles.

Perhaps we might be allowed to make one further, final speculation? Perhaps this paradigm shift is to do with the re-acceptance of the soul; the role of the imagination, dreams, mythology and folklore as vital parts not just of the human psyche, but as the old hermetic sages would have had us believe, as an active and fundamental part of the make-up of reality.

Research findings continues work of DNA Nobel Prize Winner Dr. Francis Crick

by Peter Jiang and Jenny Li

	Artist representation of Semjase who Exo-scientists indicate is a Pleiadian woman. Reference: Billymeier.com.

Collaborative research from a gathering of exo-scientists postulate that there are genes from over 20 extraterrestrials civilizations in Human DNA. These exo-scientists have continued the work of Nobel Prize winner Dr. Frances Crick, and other scholars in this area. Current findings are consistent with reports of Professor Sam Chang, who discreetly released information on his own apparent findings, in association with the Human Genome Project. Scientists are beginning to complain more and more about political attempts to compromise the integrity of their important work for humanity. The discreet releasing of findings, is one apparent way in which scientists try to cope with scientific peer pressures to conform to prevailing political pressures.

Details of findings have been published in part, by Dr. Michael Salla, who is a learned scholar on extraterrestrial research. Exo-scientists and other researchers base their findings, in part, on carefully collecting data, which includes well corroborated documented observations by contactees and “whistleblowers”, as well as other documentation. These verified reliable sources have come into contact with representatives of non-Earth Human civilizations living in human populations at-large, and also in official capacities.

Francis Crick and partner, James Watson, startled the academic world in 1953 when they deciphered the structure of the DNA molecule.

“Exo-science” is the study of extraterrestrial phenomenon. “Exo-science” is further associated with “exopolitics” which embraces the need for humanity to have open contacts with Extraterrestrials on a representative democratic basis, that respects Earth’s sovereignty.

In today’s “global economy” an “official science” which denies the analytical study of spiritual phenomena, as a legitimate context for understanding human reality, has been created over time. The “science” which is legitimated by institutions that are closely linked to this “global economy”, tends to seek to analyse only certain aspects of ‘materiality’. Priorised subjects by this “official science” are limited to areas which complement the agenda of constituencies of individuals who seek to manipulate the “recognized” body of human knowledge for power and control. That scientific priorisation context, has notably sought to exclude extraterrestrial relationships to humanity, in order to keep humanity ignorant of its apparent potential “locked” heritage within its own DNA.

	Dr. Francis Crick concluded Extraterrestrial orgins in the Human Genome, in relation to his well renown DNA research.

Indeed, efforts to seek a scientific context for the appreciation of spiritual phenomena, has also been frowned upon by the elites of institutionalized religions, which like “official science”, seek to control humanity within systems of accepted doctrine and dogma.

Collaborative exo-scientific research efforts inspired by Dr. Michael Salla, suggest that within the estimated over 20 types of extraterrestrial genes within human DNA, lies psycho-kinetic abilities associated with the genetic memories of ancient extraterrestrial races. These apparent psycho-kinetic abilities are associated with the focusing of the creative collective consciousness of be-ing in the universe.

These psycho-kinetic abilities, for example, could be viewed to manifest from time to time, when human beings in the process of trying to save another life, for example, have been recorded as executing, “great physical and other acts” which seem to go beyond the realm of understanding by “official science”. The recorded healing abilities which individuals, for example, in aboriginal communities across the world have demonstrated in relation to their spirituality, which had also been recorded of Jesus, could be viewed to be associated with accessing this DNA “memory”. “Official science” which seeks to complement the interests of various companies who seek to commercially profit from drugs and other therapies, has apparently sought to deny the awesome potentials of humanity for an elevated quality-of-living, by accessing an apparent E.T. DNA memory.

Does Earth represent a genetic frontier, to some Extraterrestrials?

There have been eyewitness accounts globally, including the broadcasted video footage of professional broadcasters, by millions of people of apparent extraterrestrial spacecraft. Exo-scientists indicate that this is because “these Extraterrestrials have sought to observe, or intervene on Earth, as a result of human beings having the genetic footprints of their ancient forbearers.” It is important to note that exo-scientists do not claim that all extraterrestrials observed by humanity, do so because of a genetic association with humanity, although “genetics” is a reported prime motivation.

Earth, therefore, appears to represent a “strategic genetic frontier”, between scientifically ascertained extraterrestrials who “seeded”, Earth, and other extraterrestrials with varying genetic agendas.

Further visible indications of apparent Extraterrestrial contact in Human DNA

The existence of diverse ethno-racial communities of humanity on Earth, perhaps, provides a further visible appearance of extraterrestrial (E.T.) ‘genetic communities’. African tribes, including the Dogon, notably, cite evidence of having origins from races of “supernatural creatures that came down from the sky.”

read more on the original link

The Temple Balsall formation, Warwickshire – July 21st (approx.) 2011

The Temple Balsall formation – July 2011

I have thought very long and hard about this blog and have wrestled with it over a prolonged period of time. There is a tale to be told about the reporting of this formation, but it is mired in the murky underworld of crop circle politics. I decided in the end to concentrate on the virtues of the formation rather than tell a story which if anything only distracted from the formation. Certainly, in the end, the tale added nothing to our understanding of it. I apologise to those of you that read this blog that enjoy a bit of intrigue and gossip, but I just couldn’t bring myself to write about it. All I can say in my defence is that I have saved you all from the temptation to use “Feet that are swift to run into mischief” (as King Solomon is said to have loudly decried), and have instead hopefully offered you something meaningful and much more interesting…

The Temple Balsall formation was one of a small number of crop circles to occur outside the usual Wiltshire/Hampshire heartlands where the phenomenon in the UK most often occurs. In fact, 2011 had seen two rather beautiful and impressive formations near Louth in Lincolnshire in the early part of the season, and the very first circle of 2011 had occurred near Chepstow in Gwent. Having said this, it is still relatively rare to find large and complex formations outside the usual stomping grounds, but I think it goes to show that not all the best formations happen within Wiltshire’s borders.

As its name suggests Temple Balsall has historical connections to the Knights Templar, the land there was gifted to the knights as a reward for their bravery in the crusades. They established a community there until their dissolution by Papal bull in the early 1300s. However, Temple Balsall still has a thriving Christian community to this day.

There is no reason to directly connect the Knights Templar to the crop circles. While it might be true that there might have been an awareness of the ‘Liberal Arts’ within such organisations – many see the Templars as the forerunners of the modern Freemasons – there is nothing much else that connects them. There is of course much land in the UK that once belonged to the Templars and that still bears their name. From time to time crop circles have occurred on that land – a circle appeared at Temple Farm on the Marlborough Downs for instance in 2011 – but I doubt that in itself constitutes a genuine connection.

Outline & underlying geometry. Division by thirty-two, Eight rings and four ribbons.

As far as I am aware, there have been no other circles at Temple Balsall or in that area before, so this was a first; I can’t help wondering what the locals made of it!

The formation itself was a classic mandala design, not unlike a gigantic rose window, but instead of the classical twelve-fold geometry so often found in church windows, this design was full of square numbers; four, eight, sixteen and thirty-two.

The encompassing circle is divided into thirty-two sections to create the design, then four criss-crossing ribbons (two sets of two) with reverse-point (V-shape) ends are placed at 90 degree angles to one another this creates sixteen points around the perimeter of the circle. It is this unusual V-shape that makes the pattern unique and interesting and also forms the octagram at the centre of the formation. Eight intersecting circles are then added which create the eight narrow oval shapes in the mid-part of the circle. The rest of the pattern is then picked out from the intersections of these combining parts.

The pattern is then picked-out from the skeleton geometry

It is the numbers that are most important thing about this formation. Eight, sixteen and thirty-two are all intensifications of the number four. I think this ‘intensification’ of number with in the circles is of great importance. Intensification of thought, or consciousness, brings about transformation. Anyone who has obsessively an intensely engaged with any subject often breaks through the mundane and the superficial; they delve into the deeper layers of meaning and connection not accessible in normal states of consciousness. To me, it gives them another dimension, where this intensification of number in the crop circles occurs, and a power that is very hard to quantify – a very deep power.

This idea is expressed directly by the numbers at play in this formation – particularly four and eight. Four (as I am sure you all know by now) is the number of ‘material reality’ – the physical world.

Finalised drawing with colour to imitate both a church window and the spiritual quality of the formation

In the Geometer’s creation story it is the first ‘thing’ to be born from the Vesica, it is also the first ‘square’ number. Eight, is an intensification of four in that it is the first ‘cubic’ number (two times two times two), it is therefore four, with an extra dimension. This is an intensification of the number four, a deepening of dimension. Eight has been called the number of ‘periodic renewal’ or the number of ‘resonance’ It is the number that sounds the octave, after the seven notes of the musical scale, it returns to the beginning, but simultaneously takes us somewhere new. Again the idea of an intensification (resonance) and ‘periodic renewal’ (a repetition adding depth, dimension, or scale) is also played out. The fact that this process carries on into sixteen, then thirty-two only repeats the whole pattern, to greater intensifications and we begin to see glimpses of a fourth dimension emerging from within the numbers. The tesseract (fourth dimensional cube) has sixteen corners…

Resonance, echoes, intensification, the deepening and addition of dimensions are all part of the geometry of this formation. It is truly remarkable. It speaks to me of the transformation of the world springing up from within itself – it is perhaps a dangerous, subversive formation, yet one that seems completely in tune with the transformations occurring in our world right now.

The beautiful central lay of the formation, showing an octogram shape.

It is a reflection of this shift in consciousness that is underway.

These ideas of intensification, the emergence of the fourth dimension and the interconnectedness of things are also part of Gebser’s idea of a new emerging state of consciousness which he called the Integral. We currently stand on the cusp between our Mental/Rational age of science and objectivity and a newly emerging Integral state. It seems that sometimes the crop circles provide an uncanny and a-rational commentary upon that process. Gebser also talked of the ‘concretisation of the spiritual’ in relation to the Integral state. What are crop circles, if not spiritual ideas made manifest and concrete on the face of the earth?

Drawing this crop circle was to dive headlong into the depths of this process of intensification and transformation. It required an intense concentration of mind, and was yet simultaneously a wonderfully spiritual experience. If the formation made the spiritual concrete in the field – the act of drawing it made the spiritual concrete on the page.

KAREN ALEXANDER – FEBRUARY 2012

Post Script
As I was searching the web I found these two images, one of a rose window divided into sixteen and another divided by thirty-two. The sixteen window is only shown as a diagram here, but the glass shows Christ at the centre with his twelve apostles and four saints and the thirty-two window is Christ at the centre with twelve apostles and twenty angels. Note the life-giving number five at the centre of each of these windows; Christ said “I am the way, the truth and the life”.