Druids Go Home to Stonehenge by D. Trull Enigma Editor dtrull@parascope.com There's something magical about the reunion of long-divided partners who were always meant for each other, and recent years have seen an abundance of momentous reconciliations. Jimmy Page and Robert Plant. Michael Jordan and the Bulls. Steve Jobs and Apple. Germany. And now, Stonehenge and the Druids. As shocking an injustice as it may be, modern-day Druids were banned from performing ceremonies at Stonehenge in 1985. After years of lobbying the British government for admission to their beloved circle of megaliths once again, the Druids triumphantly returned to celebrate the summer solstice on June 21, 1998. Now let's back up and travel down the rocky road that led to this joyous reunion. First off, some may be surprised to learn that the Druids are still around today. The original Druids were a clerical order of the ancient Celts, who occupied the British Isles and parts of Europe as far back as the sixth century B.C. When the Romans conquered the Celts in the first century A.D., they virtually eradicated everything pertaining to the Druids, so it's pretty much true that no one knows who they were, or what they were doing. The Druids reemerged around the time of the Renaissance, when historians and poets took the scant written records on the ancient order and romanticized them into the cool mystical dudes familiar to us today. In the 17th century, English scholar John Aubrey introduced the notion that the Druids had built Stonehenge. It has since been proven that Stonehenge was around long before the Druids, and was most likely assembled in phases over a period of centuries by a number of long-lost societies. But it remains feasible that the Druids may have used Stonehenge as a temple or solar calendar of some sort, providing a factual basis for the popular association crucial to pagan and heavy-metal lore. New orders of Druids began to be formed in the 18th century, and over the years they splintered and recombined in various factions, each claiming it was they who hewed most closely the one true Druidic path. Seeing as the originals were so darn mysterious, there was plenty left open to fight about. A number of the groups intermingled their traditions with those of the Freemasons and the Rosicrucians, and one called the Ancient Order of Druids initiated Winston Churchill as a member. These latter-day Druids began to hold ritual assemblies at Stonehenge sometime in the late 19th century. The stone monuments were becoming massively popular among Druids and laypeople alike, and crowds of rambunctious visitors had begun toppling and vandalizing the rocks. In 1900, landowner Sir Edward Antrobus fenced in his property and began charging admission in an effort to control the havoc. The indignity of paying for entry to their temple ticked off the Druids but good, although the situation would get much worse for them later on. The observance of the summer solstice came to be the most important Druid celebration at Stonehenge, and eventually developed into a full-blown festival in the 1960s and '70s, where hearty-partying onlookers vastly outnumbered the Druids. The huge crowds became intolerable in the mid '80s, when organizers attempted to hold a Stonehenge music festival in conjunction with the solstice. Violent confrontations broke out between police and drunken revelers who wouldn't know a pagan from a pigeon. The threat posed to the ancient megaliths was only slightly less catastrophic than Clark Griswald's visit in European Vacation. The British government, which took possession of Stonehenge in 1918, decided it was time to stop the insanity. English Heritage, the government agency serving as the monument's caretaker, decreed in 1985 that Druids were forbidden from performing ceremonies at Stonehenge. Visitors would now be allowed into the inner circle of Stonehenge only by appointment and after approval of a lengthy questionnaire. Furthermore, a 1988 exclusion order prohibited anyone at all from entering a four-mile boundary around the monument in the days before and after the solstice. Indeed, the Druids' fortunes had hit rock bottom. Druid groups fought tirelessly for the right to return to Stonehenge, and for years their pleas were completely stonewalled. Then in 1997, English Heritage acceded to give the Druids one more chance. As a test run, small groups were admitted to the monument grounds to observe the autumn and spring equinoxes and the winter solstice. After these ceremonies went peacefully with only a single police officer on hand, English Heritage agreed to let the Druids come back for the summer solstice, on tightly controlled terms. The reasons for the agency's change of heart are unclear, but tourist revenue could be part of the equation. English Heritage finds itself between a rock and a hard place, protecting Stonehenge from malicious vandals while promoting it to well-behaved visitors with money to spend. The quaint local color of a peaceable Druid ceremony could be seen as a profitable investment in Stonehenge. Whatever the reasons behind it, the Druids were more than happy to have their homecoming. In the early morning hours of June 21, 1998, a congregation of about 100, made up of five different Druid orders, as well as various pagans, witches and ordinary locals, gathered amidst the rocks of Stonehenge to meet the summer solstice. Unfortunately, not everything went as perfectly as the Druids might have hoped. The most striking disappointment was the absence of the guest of honor: the sun. The first rays of summer sunrise should have struck the Stonehenge heel stone at 4:43 a.m., but dark, overcast clouds concealed the hallowed moment. Undaunted, the assemblage carried out a wide array of Druidic and pagan celebrations, presided over by Rollo Maughfling, archdruid of the Glastonbury Order of Druids. There was a Druid wedding, a Druid memorial service, and all manner of Druid prayers and chants, which were frequently drowned out by a police helicopter flying overhead. Police officers and security guards stood vigil around the circle of Stonehenge, as well as around a perimeter of the normal exclusion zone, determined to keep out unauthorized visitors. They later reported that 200 people had tried to sneak into the ceremony, and 12 had been arrested. There was also evidence of discord among the invited attendance. Despite the ecumenical makeup of the crowd, which seemingly encompassed everyone from wiccans to warlocks, many felt that the exclusionary nature of the ceremony was inherently wrong or doomed for disaster. "There will definitely be trouble if they grant exclusive access to one group and not another," said Kevin Carlyon, head of the Covenant of Earth Magic. "There are going to be 10,000 other worshipers turning up with just as much right to access as the Druids." The guardians of Stonehenge face the heavy task of preserving order while admitting all those deserving, and no fence or police cordon can fairly bound the blessed middle ground. People who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones, but is it right that people who worship in stone houses shouldn't throw parties? Sources: The Times (London); Electronic Telegraph; The Independent (U.K.); Earth Mysteries web site; Harper's Encyclopedia of Mystical and Paranormal Experience, Rosemary Ellen Gulley. © Copyright 1998 ParaScope, Inc. Fortean Slips Index Fortean Slips message board: Share your views