July 8, 2002

The second largest crop circle to date appeared in the U.K. on July 4, 2002, in Normanton Down Long Barrow, near Stonehenge, Wiltshire. The design formation was made in a field of young wheat, half a mile south of Stonehenge and due south of the location of the Julia set formation of 1996. It is estimated to be between 700 and 750 feet in diameter (Temporary Temples).

A crop circle is a design that usually appears in a field of cereal crops (wheat, corn, barley, or oats) or rape seed (the source of canola oil). Less commonly, these strange formations are found around the world in fields of rice, grass, trees, sand, and even snow.

Crop circles appear during the spring and summer seasons on almost every continent and in over 70 countries worldwide, including the U. K., U. S., Canada, Australia, Brazil, Russia, India, Germany, and South Africa. In fact, China is the only country in which crop circles have never been reported. Although thousands are reported every year, crop circle enthusiasts believe the vast majority go undetected (Paradigm Shift).

The main concentration of circles is found in southern England, many near ancient sites such as Stonehenge, Avebury, and Silbury Hill (the largest manmade mound in Europe). This tendency of crop circles to appear near ancient sites is worldwide.

Crop circles were first reported in the British media in the 1980s, although a carving from 1647, interpreted as a crop circle, indicates that this phenomenon may have been occurring for a long time. Farmers in the U. K. claim it's been going on for generations.

The early designs were mostly simple circles and patterns of circles in fields, hence the name "crop circle." Over the years, the designs have evolved in complexity. In 1990, the patterns metamorphosed into complex pictograms composed of straight lines, angles, and spiral rings (Paradigm Shift). Sacred geometry, such as the Golden Mean, and other complex mathematical concepts are illustrated in the designs.

Characteristic of crop circles is a circular depression within the field where the plants themselves are flattened at the very base, or bent at the lowest node junction, in a spiral pattern. The spiral can be either clockwise or counterclockwise, and generally the plant is bent over at 90 degrees to the standing crop around it. It is important to note that in true crop circles the crops are not damaged as a result of the design; they still grow and bear grain.

There are many theories, but no one has come up with a satisfactory explanation of how these designs are formed. They usually appear over the course of one night, and videotapes taken during this time often show small, bright lights hovering over the area. Some videos have captured images of these lights during the day. They appear to move with purpose and intelligence.

Some people associate the bright lights with UFOs, but the lights are too small to be considered spacecraft. Others propose that the lights are connected with Earth energy, Nature Spirits or other terrestrial energy beings, aliens — or even by Consciousness itself.

A full report on crop circles is contained in the December 2001 subscription issue of the Spirit of Ma'at.

For more information, see

Temporary Temples
Colin Andrews' site
Crop Circle Connector
Paradigm Shift
Morgana's Observatory


Update!!




This extract of Colin Andrews' report is based on his field examination of July 11, 2002:

While this crop design is the largest and most impressive design so far this year, much I find troubling.

The farmer is not welcoming the public and … wire fences and stinging nettles stand between the crop pattern and the highway, about half a mile away. [Consequently, few people have visited this site.]

The most noticeable thing … was the large number of buckled, bent tops to the wheat plants. These were distributed across the entire pattern, which is around 700 feet or so across. I was the only person in the entire field, but its difficult to think that, even had many others visited the past week, [there would have been so much damage]. The damaged plants were found in all parts of the pattern, including areas away from the trodden routes taken by the small number of visitors.

There are pressure marks where one would expect to find them if people made them, but I accept that my visit is after other visitors have trodden the ground. A very large number of plants are broken near head level suggesting a whiplash effect, often found when plants are pushed down with an abrupt horizontal motion by something like a stick or board. The breakage was over the entire area and [I find it] hard to accept that this would all be due to the small number of visitors to this remote site.

No unusual magnetometer readings were found but this … [is not] any kind of definitive test at this point. I no longer find plant analysis of value and hence do not remove them for laboratory tests. That said, I think it is important to observe the involved plants carefully and to compare them with controls or with plants flattened by weather, etc.

My general impression is that this pattern was likely made by the London based "Circlemakers" group (we have much to go on from the past), and it's even possible, if not likely, that they had the help of aerial photographs taken BEFORE the pattern was formed.

Extracted from Colin Andrews' Reports from England.

Colin Andrews will be a featured guest on the History Channel's "History vs. Hollywood: Signs" program, tentatively scheduled for August 3, 2002. He will also be appearing on the American Movie Classics (AMC) special program on Signs, scheduled for August 4, 2002.