The Landscape Zodiac of Britain part 5 Halloween

In the last article in this series, part 4, I explained how the landscape zodiac centred in St Augustine's Abbey, Canterbury, 'affects' (for want of a better word) the landscape and the 'furniture' placed on it, within the zone assigned to a particular zodiac sign - in that case (part 4) the sign was Libra the scales or devices- chosen because that was the time of year as I wrote it..This article is mostly about neighbouring sign Scorpio, and for the same reason - we're in that sign and that time of year - and I'm trying to keep this in synch with that.

Y'know, I could've gone into a lot more detail than I did in Libra (and believe me there IS a lot more), but there are limits to what readers are prepared to 'wade through' before their eyes glaze-over and they switch off. I could've mentioned Glastonbury, Old Sarum, Maiden's Castle and a host of other really relevant places within that Libra zone worthy of attention, I could've mentioned the fact that 99% of all crop-circles appear within the Libran zone of the devices... but that would take a blog-series on its own - I've got the big-picture in mind.

It's because it IS such a big (and intricate/multi-layered/fractal) picture that I have to kind-of skim over the landscape mentioning this-and-that place here-and-there so that I can more-or-less get the general idea across that this thing I'm showing you laid-out on the British landscape lies-behind pretty-much everything our ancestors, ancient and semi-ancient (huh?) taught, believed and did - and that was quite a lot.

I mean - they invented language; Art; Architecture; Religion; Science; Agriculture; Politics.

They were contemporaries of, or were the culture that made the alignments, stone circles, hills (like Silbury) henges etc, etc. all over the British landscape.

As is clear to most investigators of such things - the reason they went to all that bother to build this 'landscape machine' is to enable and maintain the reception and transmission of what contemporary science doesn't even agree exists - the 'winds and waters*' of the heavens upon the earth.

*(Feng Shuei)

So, I drew some diagrams (part 4) showing the segment of this landscape zodiac allotted to and influenced by the sign Libra - as seen from the hub in Canterbury. But, as I showed elsewhere in other articles the spindle or hub in Canterbury is only one bit of this puzzle on the land. 'Cos there's another cog in this device, centred or hinged upon the Stone Hinge - that is - Stonehenge.

The coloured lines show the dates (approx) when the Sun enters certain signs of the zodiac, and the places on the landscape that align from Stonehenge to the rising Sun. I've knocked-up a pic below to show how the two cogs interact (as far as Libra and Scorpio go). Some interesting things begin to appear.

Stonehenge is itself in the sign of the devices, Libra (from the Canterbury hub), and, when we observe from the hinge or spindle called Stonehenge, Canterbury is itself also in the sign of the devices, Libra, from there. It's a synchronised device, a reciprocating relationship exists between the two 'cogs,' Canterbury and Stonehenge.

But, the purpose of this article is to describe what goes on when the Sun passes through the sign Scorpio, because it's in Scorpio that Halloween occurs. Before I go on to describe where these alignments from Stonehenge and Canterbury meet, I ought tell you what the meaning and attributes of the sign Scorpio are, and describe how this ought work-out on the landscape.

The tarot card associated with Scorpio is Death XIII. Given the time of year (Oct-Nov) the title of the card is easy enough to understand, nature is dying-off all over. But the meaning of the card is not actually death, but significant transformation, change and transition... containing elements of sudden, unexpected change.

Scorpio is also the sign of death, sex, sexuality and the genitals.

So, how would such things work-out on the landscape - do they?

Scorpio is the sign of death., and, as you can see, the alignment from Canterbury drops 530 ft off of the highest chalk sea cliff in Britain, Beachy Head - - perhaps the most infamous suicide spot in Britain. if-not the World,

It's 56 Miles from the abbey to the cliff- so we have the number 7 involved yet again - (7 X 8 = 56). Scorpio is the 8th sign of the zodiac, so the number eight as the multiplier is significant.

On the other hand and from the hinge on Salisbury Plain, the Scorpio alignment meets the shore at Hastings.

The spot where these two alignments cross is at another very famous 'black-spot' of death - the fields where 'Olde England' was forever transformed, and unexpectedly too, Battle Abbey and the site of the Battle of Hastings. In 1070 the Pope made the nasty Normans do penance for killing so many English during the genocide/conquest..

So William The Bastard as he was affectionately known in England got his stone-masons to chuck-up an abbey where the battle happened, with the high altar on the spot where King Harold fell on 14 October 1066 (in Libra).

For the first time in England, castles and cathedrals in stone appeared. A 'new-order' came into being with the arrival of the Normskis.

The folk had surnames - reflecting their trade or position in the heirarchy. - added for the first time - Smith, Baker etc. Very few Saxon Lords were able to retain their lands or their power- one or two managed it but these were the exception- 1066 was the 'end-of-the-road' for an entire culture.

And the birth of a new one. The nation was transformed.

The couple of examples just shown hints at what I can only call the 'reality-affecting' power of this zodiac - the events that unfold through history and the 'spirit-of-place' or 'character' of a given place are not-only affected by - but are actually 'caused' by the nature of the particular zodiac sign where the event or place is located. And further, this happens whether the persons, groups or culture involved knows about the landscape zodiac or not.

A heart beats for those who know it's function as a blood-pump - and beats for those that think it's an elf in the chest banging a drum, like wot I do. Ignorance has no effect on its function. People jump-off of Beachy Head not knowing it's in the zodiac-sign of death. A new nation was born at Hastings as an old one was killed - but did anyone know they were in an appropriate place (astrologically) for that?

If we track the Sun as it rises (in alignment from Stonehenge) along the south-coast, some 9 days after it entered Scorpio it rises in alignment with the landscape-furniture known as The Long Man. This alignment coincides with the ancient festival the ancients called Samhain, and we call Halloween - 31st October. Spooky huh?

The first thing I've gotta tell ya is that this ain't no dude - Long Man is a patriarchal deceit - for this is a female, this is The Long Woman. Anyone with the slightest understanding of the ancient mind should be able to see that - and that's the reason everyone (except Trinny and Susanna maybe?) has got it wrong - even the self-styled neo-pagans of Sussex. They don't seem to know much.

Y'see, no-one before me had an inkling that the architects and users of Stonehenge knew what lay over the horizon. Previously it's been assumed that they simply didn't care where and/or what the Stonehenge alignments aligned with. How ridiculous.

They spend several centuries building this device and had no idea that (for instance) the Equinoctial alignment coincided or lined-up with Canterbury, 126 Miles away - and Thanet 140 miles away. What an absurd idea that is - why wouldn't they know that?

Of course they did - the place-names prove it, as well as the things they put there - the Landscape Furniture.

So, as I was saying, on Halloween the Sun rises in alignment with The Long Woman.

The image above got fashionistas Trinny and Susanna into a spot of bother with the so-called neo-pagans of Sussex. who alleged that this gender realignment of the figure was 'disrespectful,' an act of vandalism. But the fashion-gurus got it right, I feel, and for all sorts of quite-obvious reasons you'd expect that the pagans would have known about.- as I'll attempt to explain.

The effigy is just outside the village of Wilmington. The place-name itself should have given someone a clue that this was no man on the hill-side - the village name itself almost sounds like Women-ton, dunnit? The Anglo Saxon Dictionary is, as ever, an indispensable aid in casting light on the buried past.

Don't ask me why no historian, archaeologist or scholar ever uses it - beats me.

Wilm the prefix in Wilmington means swelling, and inflammation, according to the AS Dictionary. Uh huh. The suffix 'ington' is 'ingon' pronounced pretty much the same, and that word means to go in, to enter - in combination the words Wilm ingon mean to enter the swelling.... or enter the belly. To this painter and decorator this is a very clever rune..... the Sun (in alignment with The Hinge) is entering the underworld here at Wilmington.... and the ancient figure-makers depicted that as a pregnant woman... the womb is the underworld..... dark in there innit?

This description of swelling is doubly appropriate because the slope on which the figure lies, is concave. The swelling goes inwards, in the direction of the underworld.

The figure is oriented with her head pointing south. In astro-speak north is summer and south is winter. Summer represents (obviously) the world of life and light, and winter is darkness and death. The Sun rules the Summer, and the Sun is male. The Moon rules the Winter, and the Moon is female. This 'directional' clue seems to have been inadvertently overlooked by every 'expert' from every field of investigation - archaeologists to neo-pagans, yet it speaks - no - shouts volumes: I'm a woman. I'm a woman.

When looked at from above the 227 ft tall figure is elongated and distinctly out-of-proportion. It was so cleverly designed and laid-out though that it looks perfectly in proportion when viewed from the ground.

The Long Woman is the scene of neo-pagan rituals on the Sunday closest to each of the eight festivals every year (See 'Ritual Wheel for these dates). At dawn on May Day, the Long Man Morris dances at the foot of the effigy - a date and fact I find interesting, as May Day is polarised with Halloween (see Ritual Wheel). Beltane and Mayday (in Taurus) are rituals of fertility - whilst Scorpio represents the death and rot that feeds that fertility - the inner life. Halloween (in Scorpio) is a rite when the spirits of the departed and the yet-to-be-born are communed-with and honoured. Samhain and Halloween recognises that death is of the physical form only - that its loss is a gain for the-all. And the indwelling 'spirit' or 'soul,' the energy that animates the form, is never lost; is recycled, transformed, resurrected anew.

Given that Halloween is a special time when (it is said) the membrane or veil between the worlds is thinner than usual.... and that the Sun rises in alignment with the Long Woman (from The Hinge), perhaps it will be easier now to understand why the figure holds those two staves?

As far as my zodiacally warped mind is concerned, the two staves held by Long Woman represent an entrance or portal.... to the underworld. Entrances and gateways are female-symbols aren't they? I'm sure I don't have to explain that any further.

Another indication that this is a female effigy is the distinct lack of a male-member. The ancient symbol-makers were not too shy or prudish to portray one... witness The Cerne Abbas Giant, also called The Rude Man for outstandingly obvious reasons..... he is VERY WELL endowed. Archaeological investigations of the Wilmington figure reveal no underlying artefacts or soil-disturbance in the effigy's genital region. The only conclusion is that this ain't no dude.

In further support of this is the zodiac itself (again)- each sign of the zodiac is either male or female... they alternate around the wheel- male/female, male/female, etc. This sign of the Samhain, Scorpio, is female.

And there are a few numerological pointers too - pointers that suggest that this chalk girly in Sussex is 'married,' in a relationship or otherwise related to the aforementioned Rude Man. And (forgive me gay pagans) I don't think the symbol-makers of yore would have portrayed a same-sex marriage in their zodiac laid on the hills. One of the pair would be male, and the other female.

So.... what makes me think the two English Giants are married? Err.... time for another picture, innit.

Well, there's the distance thing, and the numbers thing.... and the 'directional' thing... not to mention the genitals thing. The number 11 is highly significant too - it's all over Long Woman.

Of course, the first and most obvious number 11 are the staves or gate-posts themselves. The second 11 is in the distance from the astronomical device Stone Hinge, that's 92 miles distant; 9 + 2 = 11. The third 11 is in the month when this alignment is activated, November, as it's the 11th month. The fourth 11 is that the effigy is 227 feet long (toe to head) and 2 + 2 + 7 = 11.

11 is an 'odd' number, and odd numbers are female. 10 is the number of concretion, finality and death. 11 is the number that represents the beginning of a second cycle of experience - a new life ... number 11 is, like this effigy, an entrance portal.

It reads the same whether it is turned upside down or reflected on a mirror, or both.

The length of the staves is 230 feet and 235 feet - and they are half that length (116 feet) apart.... a 2:1 ratio (you'll recall the 2:1 triangles discussed briefly parts 2, 3 & 4?). I think that it's significant - and I think the number 116 is important too.

Why? Well, it is 116 Miles from Long Woman to Rude Man!!!

See the significance?

116.

The figures are related by this number. Measure it y'self if you don't believe me, on Google Earth.

Well... you could say that this is nothing but coincidence, some have. But there's other facts that confirm, absolutely in my addled bonce, these two figures are a couple. In another sense this signifies to me that the effigies are themselves the two staves - Rude Man is one and Long Woman the other - the 116 suggests it.

And as I've shown, Long Woman is Samhain, Halloween, Which - by logical extension - sort-of suggests that Rude Man himself must also be a solar alignment of some significance. And indeed, he is.

Though this is the subject of the Capricorn section of the wheel where we'll go into more detail about this, the Rude Man of Cerne Abbas is the Winter Solstice Sunset alignment marker. Given that Long Woman is one of the posts of the portal to the underworld, and Rude Man is the other post of the portal, then the entire stretch of the south-coast between these posts represents, in the ancient mind-set, the Underworld itself! Make sense?

For those readers who've read my book the Humanoid Landscape (now available on Amazon) there is of course another layer of meaning to all this, This Underworld is also the upper rear thighs and buttocks, anus and female genitalia of the giant cherub/god/angel/demon in the landscape. Looked at with this additional layer of meaning, the 'fertility' aspect ascribed to the Long Woman comes into its truest perspective. It takes on a physiological aspect which, I have to say, is quite amusing, as well as enlightening. One Image should suffice to show you why it's so funny. It also explains the success of the Normans in 1066 in a new light - they sneaked up and entered England through the 'back-door.'

To conclude this Scorpio section of the Landscape Zodiac I'd like to now go back to the Canti-lever in Canterbury and then follow the alignment from there all the way the the End Of The Road at Beachy Head. We'll just look briefly at major routes, woodlands, villages and towns and try and work out how they fit into the Scorpio pattern-set.

One of the routes we'll have to follow is called Shalmsford Street, and that's a name that fits very easily. The prefix Shalm is, in AS ‘salm' and that's ’shame, confusion, dishonour, private-parts, shameful circumstance, The road runs through Slut’s Wood (really it does) and that really needs no translation, neither do Scrubyer’s Wood, and the Rooting Road.

Singleton is the name of a village we pass through - that's an unmarried person, one likely to be sowing a fair-share of wild-oats - this IS the sign of the genitals, after all. We pass by Early Wood (it’s the name of a forest), otherwise known as a ‘morning-glory.’ There’s Cuckolds Corner (cuckold, a hen-pecked husband) and Hole Park. In the normal way of looking at these place-names they don't stand-out as particularly naughty, or suggestive - but when you do what we're doing now, grouping them together, they're all nudge-nudge, wink, wink... aren't they. Iden Green sounds innocent enough...., and it is. The prefix ‘Ides,’ in AS mean virgin, wife, lady, and Queen. Put Green on the end of Iden (green means young in AS) and you have another singleton on the look-out for lurve. Willow Bed is another village - could be the place to go with your lover. Cock Marling REALLY is a village name. It means quite simply more cock in our old tongue- suffix Marl is 'mara,' which is more or bigger, and the prefix Cock is, er.... cock. Also in the region we've got Upper Dicker, Lower Dicker, Great Dixter, Hardham and Ripe. No, these really ARE place-names, As are Hampton Wood, Netherfield, Uckfield, Tarring Neville, Three leg Cross and Bedingham. There are many,many others in similar vein down here in Sussex, but just too many to look at them all. The point is, you get the point? The area is astrologically themed - tuned to the vibration of Scorpio. Another none too subtle hint at the ‘song-line’ of Sussex is at English counties have historically been divided up into smaller administrative regions variously called hundreds, hides, lathes, manors etc. etc. but down in Scorpionic Sussex they were known as.... Rapes!

So, that's the nudge nudge part of Scorpio's speciality dealt with, but as I say, you could spend weeks poring over maps and find hundreds more. Once you know what it is you're looking for, the map fair-screams at ya. So now we’d better check the zone for mention of the other Scorpio speciality, death:

And likewise, they shout at ya when you know what you're looking for. These places are also all along and either side of the alignment.

Bilting,’Billhete,’ bil-hook, murderous hate;

Killingam Wood.

Longrope Wood.

Goodhanging Wood.

Gibbet Wood.

Dedmans Wood.

Staple Cross, ‘staple, = nail; Cross = cross.

Colliers Green, ‘Colian’ = cold Green = young.

Graffham, ‘Grafan’ = grave.

In this region there are, as you might expect, rivers with a distinctly sexy or seminal meaning. The River Rother gives its name to the Rother Valley, but the name of the river used to be, in ancient times, the Limen, which meant lime, milky white, A Milky-White River (remember, we’re in Scorpio). 35 miles from start to finish, or 5x7 miles, 3 + 5 = 8 (Scorpio is the 8th sign).

The Brede is another river. Brede is from Anglo Saxon ‘bredan’ meaning to produce a brood; to breed. I think that breeding is quite Scorpionic, quite sexy. It is 8 miles in length. The River Teste discharges into the Scorpionic Solent at Southampton, and we all know that a teste is a gonad. The river measures in at 5x7, or 35miles in length, the same as the Rother, and 3+5 = 8. And finally (for the moment) Sussex has a river called the Cuckmere, from ‘cucu’ living water, which is as good a description of semen as you’re ever going to get. The River Adur is the adder, the old serpent that lured mankind to original sin. Sex was - according to many - the original sin, and sex is ruled by Scorpio.

To bring this Scorpio section of the landscape zodiac to a close now, it just remains to follow that alignment from Canterbury's cantilever and see where it ends-up on the globe, marking which nation(s) with its distinctly sexy, distinctly deadly tail? Let's have a look....

The first thing to notice is that the Isle Of Wight is quite definitely in this Scorpion zone, though as I described in the Libra article (part 4) the island is in both signs, due to the proximity of the Libran alignment. So there we saw that one of the meanings ascribed to the name of the island was a weight. And that fitted perfectly into the Libran pattern-set, didn't it?But now I want to talk about the island's more Scorpionic flavours..... The so-called Beaker People named the island Veho, meaning ‘raised above the sea,’ or ‘what rises.’ Well, that would equate to what a scorpion's tail behaves like.... 'cos the scorpion carries its stinging-tail arched upwards, over head. But there are other meanings to 'wight' too..... such as a spirit..... a person, being, thing. Ooh, here comes Halloween..... The island also has a reputation for ghosties and ghouls.... there are a few websites entirely devoted to the various hauntings.... I've linked one of them here.

The island had three High Security prisons, Albany, Camp Hill and Parkhurst, though nowadays it's been amalgamated into one - HMP Isle of Wight., and downgraded. In a certain sense prisons are micro-cosmic underworlds.... a place you go to when your life is over... to be reborn when the 'price' has been fully paid.

Continuing along our alignment in the scorpionic direction south-west across the Channel, it just touches the northern-most tip of mainland France, which has a distinctly 'stinging-tail' look about it, to my mind. That kind of figures as this is Normandy, where those genocidal Normans launched their attack, occupation and anti-Saxon pogrom from. It's so scorpionically appropriate - they left from Scorpio, and they landed in England in Scorpio - what are the chances of that, eh?

Moving on with the alignment, we see it just kisses France one more time near Brest.... sounds a little sexy, huh? Just along the rue from Brest is a town name Conquet - that's conquest without the 's.' How odd. How Scorpio..... because 'conquest' is not only what the Normans did to England, it's also what lovers do to each other. A new partner, pursued and successfully wooed is a lovers latest conquest.

'Oo la la.' We English tend to think that the French tongue IS the language of love, amour. Even that - their language - is divided into genders - there are male words and female words.... well, I think that that is typically scorpionic.

And in the mind of the ancient English, the French were quite definitely connected with The Underworld. We called them (and still often do) 'frogs.' and then reason that this is because they eat frogs-legs. Yeucchh!, we say- AND they eat horses!!! But France has long been the foe of the English.... so when William The Bastard F8%ked England up the botty we called them 'frogs,' - code-word for devils! In the ancient English mind, lizards, frogs and reptiles were 'serpents,' and all these were connected with Scorpio - Scorpio being of The Underworld.

The eating of horses would have horrified our ancestors much, much more than the occasional frogs-leg. Because to the ancients in this land, horses were venerated as representatives of the gods. To kill, slice-up and eat the gods was devilish indeed! No wonder they were hated. William's little English escapade merely confirmed our ancient view.

It's a big-world, and there's a lot of water to cross before our Scorpio alignment makes landfall again.....

South-west, south-west, just skimming off the coast of Portugal but not pausing - though I'm sure that this uber-potent alignment will leave its stinging mark here.... subject for a future investigation.....? (anyone?) I do recall though (off the top of my head) that Portugal and the Portuguese navy were once among the worlds most dreaded forces..... the Portuguese Man O' War (a jellyfish named after a deadly Portuguese battle-ship) is noted for its nasty sting.....

As you can see from my wonderful illustration, it keeps on going and going right across the Atlantic and makes dry-land again on Continental South America... at Brazil, to be precise.

Now... at the outset I've gotta say that, for me, the land-mass of South America undeniably resembles a pointy-tailed creature with claws or pincers. Y'know.... a really-big scorpion.

Don't ask me how it works - the evidence of my own eyes tells me it DOES work - but I don't know how.

Which came first? The Landscape Zodiac spindled in Canter-Bury, The Weald, Kent, that itself defines which zodiac sign fits with which region of the globe.....? Or is it that the land-mass of South America is accidentally, serendipitously shaped like a gigantic scorpion, and that is somehow influencing the shaping and defining alignments - and the sign directions within the zodiac? Is that too much of an odd question? Am I making any sense?

Well, no matter. I want you to look at the scorpion's right claw - I referred to it in the previous article.... the claw is, on closer inspection, an entire scorpion itself! It's like Wow, innit?

Well, it is to me, awesome. As are the nations that inhabit the Bahamian islands - their musicality, sexiness, mystery, colour.... and what to us seems like preoccupation with the afterlife, the departed ancestors... and death. We are talking about Jamaica, Trinidad, Cuba, Haiti, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Grenada et al. We are talking about Scorpio, aren't we? Think zombies, voodoo and the obeah man. Think Underworld. Think Halloween. Think Government inspired and funded Death Squads. D'ya see what I mean? This shit is for real, I'm not imagining any of this. The Landscape Zodiac centred in Canterbury.... got power!!!

This Scorpion's claw is noted for another spooky, scorpionic thing..... the Bermuda Triangle..... you want mystery, Scorpio and the Bermuda Triangle's got all you can handle.

The big-scorpion's left claw is known as Central America - a narrow isthmus between Mexico of North America and Colombia of South America. It consists of seven nations: Costa Rica (42 active volcanoes and 60 dormant or extinct), Nicaragua, El Salvador, Honduras, Belize, Guatemala, and Panama..Geographically speaking, this claw of the big-scorpion is sometimes referred to as the ‘tail-end’ of the North American continent, but this is the mirror-image or reverse of the truth.... this is the claw-end of a scorpion.

Hmm, Central America - what can I tell ya? When it comes to mysterious ancestors, you can't do much better than the Central Americans, can ya? Home of the Maya, pyramid builders with a vengeance, temple-builders extraordinaire. And talk about (as noted in Hastings) whole civilizations disappearing, like the Saxons at the coming of the frogs - only more so. And the death thing we (rightly or wrongly) associate with this - and most other - ancient American cultures. Notably thirsty for the blood of their foes, as 'superstitious' and fearful (or respectful) of the ancestors as we Europeans can imagine. I copied this passage from Wikipedia:

Much of the Maya religious tradition is still not understood by scholars, but it is known that the Maya believed that the cosmos had three major planes, the Earth, the Underworld beneath and the Heavens above. The Maya Underworld was reached through caves and deep tunnels. It was thought to be dominated by the aged Maya gods of death and putrefaction.

I don't suppose I really need to remind you that Scorpio rules those very things - death and putrefaction?

Within the body of this continent-sized scorpion are too many mystery's - I don't know where to begin..... so I won't. I s'pose I'll just mention the names that I'm familiar with (ish) Toltec, Olmec, Inca, Maya... and all the images of skulls carved into walls all over the land, and the massed human sacrifices on blood-soaked pyramids..... and I just like to think that..... on Halloween when the Sun rose through a Mayan built Gate Of The Sun...... it was also rising through the English built Gate Of The Sun held in the hands of The Long Woman, back there in Sussex.

And I'll have to leave it there, with you.

On a completely different note, my earth-shattering book The Humanoid Landscape is available on Amazon about a week after Halloween. The delay is all down to the ISBN code that all books have to have. I've got mine sorted out now, so we've just got some this and that to do then it's all-go with that. Cool. Have a thoughtful Halloween not a scary one. It is good to remember and commune with the departed, not run away from them. I'd love nothing better than to have a chin-wag with Sascha or me ol' Dad, Mum or Grandma - honestly - and there's nothing spooky about that, is there?

Ta Ra for now, Fen :-)