Pictures at an Exhibition

I’m very grateful indeed to Judith Webb for permission to reproduce the above photo of her idealised painting of The Ancestor at Stonehenge, while from a personal point of view, there’s something that just very ‘right’ about a Giant being pictured at Stonehenge, on account of what Geoffrey of Monmouth had to say about the place.

Again, to my eyes, there is something else very ‘right’ about seeing The Ancestor of us all on his knees at Stonehenge, with arms and head thrown back to greet the first rays of the Solstice Sun. Congratulations to Judith for capturing this magnificent and inspiring scene, while still more congratulations are due because I hear that she’s just sold this painting. If anyone wishes to see more of Judith’s work, they can do so on this link to her mini-gallery, while if I hear of any further Stonehenge or Ancestor-related works from Judith, I’ll post them up here for the world to see.

Yet more congratulations are in order for Susan Simpson, as you can learn from this Spire FM link. Susan took some truly stunning photographs of Stonehenge and The Ancestor at this year’s Summer Solstice, and if you follow the Spire FM link above, you’ll find some more of her work on Flickr. It seems that her work has caught the eye of someone at English Heritage and they’re considering buying her photos for use with postcards, advertising and other promotional work.

I’ve yet to write up my own account of The Ancestor, but the moment I saw this colossus in steel, some months ago, I knew for a fact that many good things would result from a Giant being present at Stonehenge once again, and so it has proved in many ways. I’m personally delighted to see people benefiting from this amazing creation and the scene that existed at Stonehenge for a few days, while it would be a great thing if more individuals, groups and communities came to benefit from Stonehenge, The Ancestor or both, because that is surely what those long-dead people who built Stonehenge would have wished.

Many pagan and Druid groups and individuals lay claim to Stonehenge, inasmuch as it represents for them a living and undeniably pagan temple of enormous antiquity, while I’m reminded again of the findings from the dig carried out by Professors Darvill & Wainwright that suggest that ceremonies were carried out at the ruins as late as the seventeenth century. It seems to me that there are as many sets of pagan belief systems as there are pagans these days, so I’m not really interested in discussing lineage and I don’t have a clue how the ‘powers that be’ would distinguish between genuine claimants and those who are demonstrably just along for the ride, although I could supply a few suggestions.

Aside from the myriad pilgrims who flock to Stonehenge for one reason or another, who I feel deserve some ‘thing’ nearby where they can make themselves known in a dignified and orderly fashion to anyone who may be interested in these things, there is also the nearby town and community of Amesbury, which has been languishing for years in the shadow of Stonehenge.

To my mind, Amesbury could very easily become on a par with Glastonbury as a vibrant and prosperous place of interest to tens of thousands of visitors a year, but we shall just have to see how events unfold. In the meantime, The Ancestor is attracting more and more attention, while Michelle and Andy have some exciting plans of their own as a result; if Judith and Susan have been rewarded for their hard work, observation and initiative, then it is surely only the start of the benevolent reign of The Ancestor or Stonehenge Giant.

Photograph (above) of The Ancestor at the Solstice Park, surrounded by some of his many admirers, by kind permission of Pete Horne.