The Celts expressed their spirituality in many ways and although I Änd them inspirational in their poetry and artistry they also went round killing each other and anything else that didn’t move fast enough! They were people of their times, and we’re people of our times…we can express our spirituality in any way that inspires us, with the understanding that there are many, many more of us now putting pressure on landscapes and monuments in a way that they can’t sustain. And they have no guardians as they may have had when they were created to sweep up. Maybe the guardians of those sites (if there were any) et the offerings, just as Hindu and Buddhist priests in some temples do?
Clare
When the Rollright Stone circle in Oxfordshire was put up for sale in 1997, Karin and John Attwood set about raising money and support in order to purchase the site. They succeeded in their aims: to keep open access to the Rollrights; to ensure that any future management would be sympathetic to the needs of diverse visitors, and to safeguard the site itself.
In the months that it took to achieve all this they made contact with and gained support from many diverse groups. The Diocese of Oxford and Dragon Environmental Group. English Heritage and the Loyal Arthurian Warband. Save Our Sacred Sites and travellers groups. During negotiations for the Rollrights these and many other organisations and individuals, from as diverse backgrounds as you could dream of, worked in partnership towards the same goals, and achieved them, maintaining good humour and concord - something that was very rare until that point.
Karin and John were impressed with the energy that such partnerships had created and were aware that the destruction of sacred sites was Änally becoming of national concern. So they contacted everyone who’d been associated with the Rollrights Appeal and asked if they’d be interested in forming a new group who would, with their varying backgrounds and resources, be able to send a united message to everyone, be they Secretary of State for Culture or the Pagan community, that conservation and access are compatible and desirable.
The response was one of unanimous enthusiasm, and within a couple of meetings, the name Ancient Sacred Landscape Network (ASLAN) was agreed upon, and a ‘Code of Conduct’ drawn up to give guidance to visitors to sacred sites. So far, National Trust and several Druid groups, as well as many other Pagan groups, have welcomed the code. The code has also, without a formal launch, reached the States via the web and is being enthusiastically embraced there too.
“The beauty, and the strength, of ASLAN is partnership,” says Clare Slaney from Save Our Sacred Sites. “Because such diverse groups are working together we’re learning from each other and creating strategies that will work for all visitors to the sites as well as the bodies responsible for their upkeep. All of us agree that sacred sites are of importance to the nation. We may have different reasons for holding this belief, but the belief itself means that we can work effectively together.”
Groups involved in the project are The Rollright Trust, Save Our Sacred Sites, the Pagan Federation, the Diocese of Oxford, University of Bristol, English Heritage and the National Trust.
With the Power of Place report exposing the damage done to sacred sites from development, poor conservation and unsympathetic management and usage, such partnerships are timely. At last the nation’s sacred sites - too often modern cultural battlegrounds - have brought together rival groups and made them realise that such rivalry is not only unnecessary, but harmful to the sites themselves.
ASLaN
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