Stonehenge 2014 Spring Equinox - Druid Ceremony

We swear by peace and love to stand, heart to heart and hand in hand. Mark our spirits and hear us now, confirming this our sacred vow. At the going down of the sun and in the morning, we shall remember them. And we shall honour them. And what we're talking about is certain cremated people from over there with the intention of possibly putting them in a museum. It is our intention to see them reburied. We are also talking here about skeletal remains and cremated human remains in trophy cabinets up there in the visitor centre. We want them reburied in the fullness. We are not against them studying for science and for education. What we are against is them keeping them out indeed. They were laid to rest. They remain at rest. And we have conducted a five-year campaign thus far and we will continue until they are returned. So we're here at Stonehenge on the morning of the Spring Equinox 2014. Behind me is Rollo and the Druids having a ceremony here, ushering the sun up. It's a bit cloudy but this is like the new Stonehenge really. They've just blocked off the road towards the A303. It's the first time I've seen it and there's a bit of a building site at the moment. Hopefully it's going to be all grassed over. It's going to be a beautiful, serene space again. They're doing a bit of chanting behind me. Let's get in a bit closer and listen to it. Chanting. Don't worry about a thing, don't worry about a thing cause everything's gonna be alright. Don't worry, don't worry about a thing, don't worry about a thing cause everything's gonna be alright. I woke up this morning, spoke to the rising sun, three little birds sat by my doorstep singing sweet songs, a melody pure and true, singing Happy Equinox Year. OK, well, ladies and gentlemen, how are we doing? Great. Go, go, go. We're not worrying. We swear, by peace and love to stand, heart to heart, hand in hand, mark our spirits and hear us now confirming this our sacred vow. We swear, by peace and love to stand, heart to heart, hand in hand, mark our spirits and hear us now confirming this our sacred vow. We swear by peace and love to stand, heart to heart and hand in hand. Mark us good, Moses, and hear us now, confirming this, our most sacred vow. Okay, ladies and gentlemen, so much it be. And we'll close in a moment, as we began. God, you've been joining us so nicely, you love that singing. Shall we do one last IAO to pick all our spirits up? Because it was a hard winter, was it not? Yeah, a very hard winter this one. So, a really nice spring, and we were able to do all the lovely things that lady over there was saying to us. And have lots of joy, and fun, and great times this summer. Make 2014 a year to remember. Yes, nice day for you. Had some music this year. Yep, all right. So, here we go, ladies and gentlemen. All right, shall we do, as we began to close the circle, we'll do the peace. In the four quarters, like we did. And everyone's happy, then we can go and enjoy being in Stonehenge. Anyway, lovely as she is. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you all. May there be peace in the East. And again. May there be peace in the South. And again. May there be peace in the West. And again. May there be peace in the North. Most importantly of all, ladies and gentlemen, because that's what the day's been all about, may there be peace throughout the whole world. May there be peace throughout the whole world. So mote it be. Do you think, is there significance to Stonehenge, the equinox? Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. The ancients from all over the world, I think, calculated their religious ceremonies in relation to what they could determine about the longest and shortest days. And so the two in-between days of the equinoxes had to be special to them as well. I remember one time, the English Heritage tried to believe that there was no such thing as equinoxes until various scientists and mathematicians and such like showed them the sight lines for the equinoxes and proved that ancient man, although the solstices were of greatest import, the equinoxes were very well important as well. Exactly. How do you set your calendar right? You can't wait a whole half year. That's good. And even the large postholes that are now blobs of paint in the car park, I read that they were kind of aligned east-west. They could be a much... Even though they're thousands of years older than Stonehenge, do you think they were marking perhaps the equinox? Or if not the equinox, they were marking this place geodetically as like a place of importance? Well, I think so, yes, absolutely. I mean, going back now, it was fashionable after the war for archaeologists to say, you know, Druids were priests of the Celts who only came in the 5th or... But it was 5th millennium, sorry, it was not millennium, 5th century BC. And then it got pushed back to the 10th century BC. And then it took Carv and Deity and Professor Lord round through to say, yes, but the people who were the original megalith builders were obviously astronomical priests. So even if they weren't called Druids, they were the original early proto-Druids. And then, of course, it goes back beyond time and structure that people have been plotting these things themselves even just with, you know, a couple of sticks. Maybe a little bit more than that. But nevertheless, it's always been a wonder to man how we fit into the universe. And always there have been those that wanted to try and sort of work it out a little bit more clearly exactly for the sake of everyone else. And what do you make of the new layout they've done with the whole kind of area, with the visitor centre, giving a more natural kind of feel for when people visit here? Do you think that's a good thing? Do you think that's going to help kind of preserve the stance? I can't work it out at all, to be perfectly honest with you at the moment. Perhaps because it isn't finished. But I remember going to lots and lots and lots of meetings of English Heritage over 15, 20 years when it was Lord Stephens at the time who was chairman of English Heritage was saying this will all be so that anyone who wants to can walk across Salisbury Plain and walk into Stonehenge and out provided they're prepared to walk. We'll only take charges for cars and car parking in the visitor centre. Well, that all seems to have been forgotten over the last five years with a tremendous push to get thousands and thousands and thousands of people round and through Stonehenge in a day like it's, you know, the world's going to end if we don't get another 100,000 through. So we're very privileged to have these Solstice and Equinoxes to stay free of all that. So we're here with Simon Banton and he was just telling me about what's happening in the distance over there where the sun rises actually on the Summer Solstice, is that correct? They're actually going to build some... There's a plan. The army's bringing back a load of troops from Germany and some of the sites that they've chosen include a pair of them that are out there on the Solstice line on the very top of the horizon in what is known as, and has been known as for a hundred years, the Sun Gap. Now, it's on the side of what was the old Lark Hill flying ground where military aviation started in Britain and when they put flying sheds up there at the start of the 20th century at the insistence of Antrobus who owned Stonehenge at the time a hundred yard wide gap was left between the flying sheds so it didn't obscure the sunrise on the Summer Solstice. Now, there's an MOD consultation going on about these plans. It's at the very early stages at the moment. That consultation runs out on the 1st of April and essentially what I'm saying is don't build houses across the Sun Gap because even though it's obscured by trees now you could still at some point take those trees down and restore the natural horizon and the sunrise down at the Stonehenge but if you build houses across it it'd be gone forever. And I'm pretty sure that all that's happened is the MOD have forgotten that there's this deliberate gap there and that they've honoured it in the past and I'm hopeful that they'll go Oops! and strike it. Is there anything anyone can do to help? Yeah, you can submit comments to the MOD saying that you'd rather they didn't build houses across the Summer Solstice line at Stonehenge and if you Google up the MOD basing plans B-A-S-I-N-G plans for Lark Hill you'll find the presentation document there and you've got until the 1st of April to comment you can do it by email or you can do it by e-mail address. Right, you want to be here looking to the trees to the left of the tip of the Heelstone the ones on the very horizon in the mist those tallest trees the very tallest ones you can see there to find the left edge of the Sun Gap and the tallest tree immediately to the right of the Heelstone's tip on the horizon you'll find the other end of the Sun Gap that stretch of about 150 yards that we're talking about. I think we've won before it even goes any further I'm a fan of not counting chickens Oh yes, I'm not counting chickens but I didn't think about it and if they get enough response not only that, if they get enough response from academia as well but they won't they may still build there but they'll leave a gap that's what I'm thinking they did in 1910 so they can now. Nothing like this place isn't it absolutely fantastic every time I'm in the centre here it brings a smile to my face. So are you a megalithomaniac? I am for this one yes, in general I am but I just love Stonehenge I've been working here for 34 years now and I wouldn't pretend that I understand everything about it and I don't think anybody ever will but it's a very special place.