this is normal

Angus McMahan

1947 Kinsley St.

Santa Cruz, Ca. 95062

(831) 475-6286

vesica@cruzio.com

Circle Casters

by Angus McMahan

Late at night, in an open field, under Mother Moon, sentient intelligences gather. Energy is raised. A circle is created. The energy is released. Magick happens. The lingering effects can be felt at the site. And the loving relationship between nature and humans is deepened a bit more.

Wicca? Naah. That's so old. We're talking crop circles! Different animal, right? Wicca is a Neolithic farming religion viewed through a Victorian prism. The crop circles are quantum art as seen from the millenium. Wicca is worship and the circles are science. Wicca is hands on and the circles are no footprints. Do it yourself versus buying the calendar. Action versus appreciation. What do the stone age and the information age have to talk about?

Quite a bit, as it turns out.

Both Wicca and crop circles are nature oriented and seasonally astute; both attract undue criticism from the uninformed (and are the subject of hilariously awful documentaries). Both are manifestations of a higher intelligence (those of you who have 'drawn down' will know of this); both have a terrific sense of humor (those of you who have researched crop circles will know of this). And both are intimately concerned with bending things: Wiccans bend energy to use nature - and the circle makers use energy to bend nature.

Even the methodology is similar. Consider that spellwork is much more powerful and effective if you line up all sorts of conditions in your favor: Right moon cycle, right astrological patterns, right season, day of the week, time of night, location, tools, mood and intent. Lose one of these and you'll probably be okay; lose 'em all and you might as well be indoors with your clothes on watching Star Trek.

Crop circles use the same point-of-least-resistance plan. Almost all of the English glyphs appear in ripening fields that reside on top of chalk deposits, and all appear over underground water or quartz-heavy rock. In addition, most of the patterns are adjacent to Neolithic monuments, which carry their own buzz. So the seemingly random placement of the patterns is anything but: they manifest at the various junctions of nature's mosh pit.

Is Wicca modern? Yes. Are agriglyphs ancient? Well the first written account dates to 1678 but the oral legends go much farther back. Perhaps back to 5,000 years ago when the stone circles were put up, and we witches were casting our own circles.

So as we stumble giddily towards our calendars big odometer turning; as we snap candids of the universe in its diapers but can't get a quark to hold still; as the shamans and the scientists shine their flashlights on each other down in the tunnel of research; it is worth noting that the most ancient of archetypes and the most modern of miracles have plenty to talk about as they reach forward and back, proving once again that Time does NOT march on: it goes round and round and round......