Beltane Banners
by Chris 'Coifi' Turner
Alban Hefin 2000
Back in University, I spent a lot of time developing the idea of banners as
space- or area-modulators with some success. I made the link that under certain
circumstances, the banner modulates or qualifies a volume of space in much
the same way as a megalithic Standing Stone, and that a group of them make
a dynamic synthesis of a Stone Circle. I had always intended to put the theory
to the test but what with one thing and another, it never came together until
now.
Let me describe the banners. They fly from a 7-foot (2m25) pole. They are about
5 feet (1m50) tall and about 20 inches (50cm) wide. There is a sleeve at the
hoist, so they just slip on the pole. I have five or six ribbons a foot (30cm)
long attached to the fly so they dance and flutter in the lightest breeze.
I had my chance to try them out at Beltane. I had some friends up from England
who brought their robes and drums with them, and we made a Mayday of it up
in the hills. We had our celebration in a local Regional Park and used a level
patch of green by a stand of mature Spruce to set up the Circle. I made a Circle
about 40 feet (12m) across from 15 banners, set two more as entrance markers
and one outlier (yellow with a Sun symbol) away to the South East representing
the Sun in the Wheel of the Year. The effect was really stunning. Once the
system is worked out, you can set up a full-size Stone Circle in ten minutes
and (just as useful) take it all down in five.
The ritual was great. Back at the Visitor Centre, we met up with some more
friends from my work and other Druid/Shaman friends who knew about the ritual.
At the end, there were about 20 of us. We went in procession with drums and
rattles down to the stand of Spruce where we broke of and spent some time one-on-one
with the trees, then we processed on to circle which was waiting for us.
There we were, in a circle of fluttering banners, blue sky and sunshine, trees,
hills, a mountain stream and AWENs. What better! An experience to be recommended.
And then, it all packs away in the car till next time.
Of course, the best bit (as always) is the unplanned and unexpected. Because
of the danger of fire in or near woodland (we ALL know about THAT just now!),
we didn't use fire in the ritual at all. However, the Park does have a dedicated
barbecue area which they can monitor. As it happens, the path from the Visitor
Center down to where we had set up the Circle passes through this barbecue
area and while we were all meeting up, two separate groups of Park visitors
had started two cooking fires (in the hearths provided) so when we processed
to the Circle, we had to pass between the two fires - just as Tradition dictates!
The final touch!
If you want to do this yourself, here's some details of what and how -
For this particular Circle, I just wanted to go out and do one straight off
without having to get bogged down with fancy constructions and precise angles
and stuff. The ideal numbers for this are multiples of 8 (8, 16, 24) simple
because you keep on dividing in half. The actual mechanics I used are these
-
1) decide where the centre in going to be (by whatever means) and stick a pole
in the ground.
2) get a piece of string half the diameter of the size circle you want. Make
a loop in one end and slip it over the central pole. Wherever you place the
loose end will always lie on the circumference of your circle, so you don't
have to carve the circle into the ground (unless you want to).
3) decide if you want an alignment or not. If you do, line up the central pole
on the alignment, pull the string tight and put a pole in where the end of
the string is. Walk all the way round to the other side and line up the two
poles, pull the string tight and put a pole in where the end of the string
is. You now have three poles in a line pointing towards whatever you want to
point them at (East, mountain peak or whatever).
4) Make another alignment at right angles to the first. You can do this by
eye, or compass or really accurately with another piece of string which MUST
be longer than the full width of the Circle (it doesn't matter how long). Make
a loop in each end of this string and mark the exact middle. Slip a loop over
each of the outer alignment poles. Grasp the middle point and pull tight. The
line from the middle of the string through the centre pole divides the circle
into four exact quarters. Using the first piece of string, put two poles in
on this new alignment. You don't need the long bit of string any more.
5) Check. You now have five poles, one in the centre, two on your first alignment
through the centre and two on your second ditto at right angles to the first.
6) When you finish, you will take the centre pole out, but you need it for
now to get the rest of the poles in. What you have now is a circle of four
poles (the 5th will go). This actually is a valid form of Stone Circle in its
own right. There are several in Britain - mostly in Scotland where they are
known as 'four-posters', but I know a couple in England. To make an eight-pole
circle, take your string and move round until you see the centre pole is exactly
between two poles on the far side of the circle (this really is quite accurate),
pull the string tight and put a pole in where the end of the string is, then
put a matching pole on the other side. Do this again with the other quarter
and Lo! you have a Circle of 8 poles.
7) to make a Circle of 16 poles, just divide the distance between any two poles
in half by eye, pull the string tight and put a pole in where the end of the
string is. Do this all the way round and you have 16 poles. (This is the one
I used). To make 24, put two poles in the gap instead of one.
8) This is the easy one, and the 8x format gives you the Directions and/or
the Festas, position of the Sun in the Wheel of the Year and so on. Once you
have done this a couple of times, it is fun working out constructions for different
numbers of poles.
IMPORTANT! - There is NO traditional, or normal, or common number of stones
or sizes in ancient Stone Circles. Every one is different in some respect from
all others. The RIGHT number of stones/banners in a Circle as well as shape,
orientation etc is exactly what YOU choose it to be. (Very Druidic! And don't
the orthodox-tendency ritualists hate it!)
9) In addition, I set up four poles in the Directions around the Mundus (I
don't like the word 'altar') in the centre of the Circle.
So - I had 16 poles after I removed the central one. I took one pole out of
the ring to make an entrance gap and set the two removed poles outside this
gap to make the entrance obvious. I set one more pole a little distance outside
at the South East to represent the position of the Sun for Beltane.
I ended up with a ring of 15 + 2 entrance markers +1 outlier +4 in the Centre
=21
For the Circle, I used part of a set of 40 banners left from Uni days. These
are black with white ribbons and a thin orange sleeve for the pole. The colours
represent the Oystercatcher - a shore bird that we have numbers of here. Very
important to me personally. For the Four Directions I used white banners with
AWENs in black, red, gold and white (out of a black stripe) with matching ribbons.
These represent the colours of four tutelary animals of Britain - raven, dragon,
lion and unicorn which I use to mark the Directions (East West South and North
respectively)
For the Sun in the Wheel of the Year I used a larger yellow banner with a spiral
Sun symbol in red.
Bright Blessings,
Coifi
Copyright Chris Turner 1998