Nine Ladies Stone Circle

[cookie192]

Earlier this year about April when we had a spell of warm weather. Myself and my other half took a trip out to Derbyshire one Sunday for a picnic in the Peak District. We decided to visit Stanton Moor where the Nine Ladies stone circle is located, we have been before and it is a pictureque and popular tourist stop off. We got lost in the car as it was some years since our last visit and ended parking on a lane and walking in the general direction of the moor through a footpath near some sort of electrical sub station. The path winded through a rather dark and dank wooded area and there was a noticable absence of bird song, which gave the place a sort of oppressive atmosphere. Eventually we came through a gate and onto the moor and could see the stone circle. There were plenty of people about as we walked arround it and it was a pleasant sunny day. Within about ten minutes I started to feel a bit queasy and light headed but thought nothing too much of it. I walked over to a clearing where someone had at some time had a camp fire and there was a small statue of a Budha set on the ground, candles and lots of strange hangings made from twiggs, leaves and bird feathers hung from a tree. A thought crossed my mind that this place that is ancient and obviously has been / or is sacred to some people had been defiled in some way. At that point I was overcome by a terrible feeling of dread and had to cling to the nearest tree to stay standing. I felt an intense feeling of being drained of all my energy and started to shake all over uncontrollably. I called to my other half to come over who was over the other side of the cirlce and said for him to get me away from here right now! He had to physically hold me up as I my legs had gone to jelly. As we moved away from the site I began to feel better by degrees and by the time I was at my car apart from being a bit shaken still, I was my normal self again. I was left with a feeling of sadness about the place and wondered if anyone else had experienced any overpowering feelings at this particular site? I am quite a sensitive person when it comes to relating to people and their emotions, but this was the firts time a place has ever had such a strange effect on me.

 

[gyrtrash]

I was left with a feeling of sadness about the place and wondered if anyone else had experienced any overpowering feelings at this particular site?

Hi Cookie.

I've got to admit, the last time I was there I was rather p1ssed off by the amount of crud left lying around the place. The night before, a large group of people had had a party there, leaving beer cans, camp fires (fuelled by ripping off the branches of the nearby trees),and all manner of sundry crud.

The place was full of tents and pissed-up tw@ts with ghetto-blasters.

Not the sort of gentle reverance for a supposedly 'sacred' site I was expecting...

And to think some folks fought to stop the nearby quarry company from encroaching closer to the stone circle

 

[Anonymous]

Gyrtrash, I share your bewilderment with the way self professed 'eco-warriors' treat the environment.

I have yet to see a green festival, or any festival, that leaves the site clean and tidy RUBBISH TAKEN HOME by those that generate it! Instead, the revellers, or protestors, pile back into their diesel wagons, belching black smoke and drive away, possibly congratulating themselves on what sterling work they've done in raising eco-awareness, whilst the campsite is left looking like a set from 28 Days Later. I have a great respect for those who have a likewise respect for the environment - I have none for those who display such a careless attitude.

With sacred sites; I've seen them treated with disrespect too. I live not far from Avebury, West Kennet Long Barrow, Stonehenge, Wayland's Smithy - that area. I've often found the barrow marked with grafitti, along the spiritual lines of 'Daz luvs Kaz' and worse, beer cans and candles left lying about. OK, people, chill out if you want to, but remember what attracted you to the site in the first place.

Rant over.

Cookie, I'm sorry you had such a negative experience - it does sound very distressing. The items you found at the clearing do sound an odd mixture - it would be very difficult to say for certain the ideas of the people who left them. On the one hand the Buddha, and you mention things hung from the tree - were there strips of cloth (maybe fulfilling the role for prayer scarves)? If so, and this was largely 'Buddhist' in it's intention, there would have been no intended malice. Feathers left on the tree may symbolise a reverence for nature in the form of birds, or symbolise the element of air.

It may seem odd to celebrate one path in the vicinity of another, but having a foot in both camps is something you find a lot all over the world. In Indonesia Christianity is practised alongside the older religions and people seem to get on. The same can be said for Iceland and other places. Showing due respect wherever you are can't be a bad thing.

One of my wife's colleagues went on holiday to the Isle of Man. One night her party went to a local casino for which they had to cross the Fairy Bridge. As they went over everyone paid their respects to the wee folk, except one cynical fellow. Guess what? Everyone in the party came home that night with winnings, except this guy, who lost money.

PK

 

[CarlosTheDJ]

Gyrtrash, I share your bewilderment with the way self professed 'eco-warriors' treat the environment.

I have yet to see a green festival, or any festival, that leaves the site clean and tidy RUBBISH TAKEN HOME by those that generate it! Instead, the revellers, or protestors, pile back into their diesel wagons, belching black smoke and drive away, possibly congratulating themselves on what sterling work they've done in raising eco-awareness, whilst the campsite is left looking like a set from 28 Days Later. I have a great respect for those who have a likewise respect for the environment - I have none for those who display such a careless attitude.

Burning Man in Nevada and Nowhere in Spain.

Their ethos is "Leave No Trace"....the Nevada site is a prehistoric lake bed, and if any damage is caused the authorities will not let the event go ahead the following year. Not even cigarette ash is allowed to fall to the ground! No feathers, sequins etc on costumes, all your dirty water has to be carted away...we went in 2004 and believe me it actually works. 99% of people respect the rules, and those that don't get lambasted by the rest!

Considering over 30,000 people camp there for a week or longer, it is pretty amazing. Some of our friends stayed an extra week after the festival itself finished. They undertake a fingertip search of the site to make sure it is all clean.

http://www.burningman.com

http://en.goingnowhere.org/

 

[Anonymous]

Burning Man in Nevada and Nowhere in Spain.

Their ethos is "Leave No Trace"....the Nevada site is a prehistoric lake bed, and if any damage is caused the authorities will not let the event go ahead the following year. Not even cigarette ash is allowed to fall to the ground! No feathers, sequins etc on costumes, all your dirty water has to be carted away...we went in 2004 and believe me it actually works. 99% of people respect the rules, and those that don't get lambasted by the rest!

Considering over 30,000 people camp there for a week or longer, it is pretty amazing. Some of our friends stayed an extra week after the festival itself finished. They undertake a fingertip search of the site to make sure it is all clean.

CarlostheDJ: Nice to hear it. My faith in humnity is restored.

 

[witchflame]

Been to nine ladies many times. But no Ive never had an experience like that.

It also pisses me off greatly when the idle gits cant shift away from the circle, and clear up there own crap.

There are also many other things up on that moor, circles and stuff other than nine ladies. You just have to know where to find em.

 

[CarlosTheDJ]

Burning Man in Nevada and Nowhere in Spain.

Their ethos is "Leave No Trace"....the Nevada site is a prehistoric lake bed, and if any damage is caused the authorities will not let the event go ahead the following year. Not even cigarette ash is allowed to fall to the ground! No feathers, sequins etc on costumes, all your dirty water has to be carted away...we went in 2004 and believe me it actually works. 99% of people respect the rules, and those that don't get lambasted by the rest!

Considering over 30,000 people camp there for a week or longer, it is pretty amazing. Some of our friends stayed an extra week after the festival itself finished. They undertake a fingertip search of the site to make sure it is all clean.

CarlostheDJ: Nice to hear it. My faith in humnity is restored.

It was pretty amazing! Take the people away from the 21st Century (it takes place way out in the desert, about 150 miles from the nearest town, no mobile phone signals, no internet, no TV etc) and you would be amazed how everyone gets on with each other.

 

[joncfc]

I was left with a feeling of sadness about the place and wondered if anyone else had experienced any overpowering feelings at this particular site?

Hi Cookie.

I've got to admit, the last time I was there I was rather p1ssed off by the amount of crud left lying around the place. The night before, a large group of people had had a party there, leaving beer cans, camp fires (fuelled by ripping off the branches of the nearby trees),and all manner of sundry crud.

The place was full of tents and pissed-up tw@ts with ghetto-blasters.

Not the sort of gentle reverance for a supposedly 'sacred' site I was expecting...

And to think some folks fought to stop the nearby quarry company from encroaching closer to the stone circle

there is still a camp of crusties at the circle...i wouldn't be surprised if they are responsible for the mess! they can often be seen begging in matlock.

 

[Keithhea]

Hi Cookie,

The only time I've experienced something similar was one time at Glastonbury when I performed a small (and private) ceremony to dedicate a new set of runes I had made. As soon as I finished my legs gave way and I had to rest for around 20 minutes.
Certain places do instill different feelings, but I've never been drained without doing something to warrant it first.

 

[Lys617]

Afraid Stanton moor, like Avebury and Stonehenge is a focus for many people of the 'Paganistic' interests. Many are responsible and leave only footprints and take only memories. Some though are pains in the arses. Even leaving little votive offerings such as flowers and such can have a detrimental effect over the long term on an ecological site such as this.

Stanton is very delicate, and many people seem to think that because it is open access then they can do as they damn well please. This causes untold damage. One Derbyshire archeaologist even came across a stone circle that had been dug up and rearranged by a group who decided, that it was incorrectly set out after dowsing it. Give me strength.

As to your bad experience, it happens around ancient sites in this area. Stanton is/was affected by quarrying. Sometimes the energy of the place will go out of whack. However the nearby Arbor Low is in my experience totally dead. Very strange.
I know someone who had a similar experience at the Bridestones, the remnants of a neolithic tomb. She could see precisely how it was and what was happening, but it felt totally evil to her and we just had to high tail it. Same thing has happened at an area called Fools Nook.

Just seems to be when the are is physically changed, or in the case of Stanton emotionally abused by idiots that sometimes the badness just has to be released.

 

[rynner2]

There's a Merry Maidens stone circle in Cornwall (close to several other megaliths), and I had thought to visit there yesterday.

But my coast walk left me so knackered I didn't get further than Lamorna!

So here's a map instead:
http://tinyurl.com/2r9lqy

 

[frank_poulankh]

Ah, Stanton Moor... How I miss it! I'm a Derbyshire lad - now living in Wales - and I've spent many days and some nights up there. The absence of birdsong is quite odd and the disrespect shown to the site by some people is absolutely disgraceful. I once had my own strange experience up there, but nothing as nasty as the original poster.

Those who know the site will know that there's a medieval tower on the eastern edge of the moor which looks out to Darley Dale. Walking near there one Saturday afternoon, my friend and I got the shock of our lives as we rounded a corner and came face to face with a huge man, wearing some kind of animal skin, and a smaller man , who was wearing a grey tunic, standing or kneeling with head bowed before him. The only things that are clear in my mind - this was over 10 years ago - are: 1) the man in the animal skin was reading from a very old-looking, leatherbound book and 2) neither of them seemed to pay much attention to us. We didn't really know what we'd stumbled upon and, not wanting to stare, we headed back to the car.

The logical side of me thinks it was probably some kind of modern day ceremony, but the romantic in me wants to believe that we experienced a timeslip and witnessed something from the days of the druids.

Any ideas what kind of modern day ceremony this might have been?

 

[markbellis]

the man in the animal skin was reading from a very old-looking, leatherbound book

Would have had to have been a heck of a timeslip! Books weren't bound until the early Christian era in Rome and didn't become widely used until the fourth century AD - well after the end of the Druids. Before that it was scrolls, but I don't know if the ancient (pre-Christian) Celts ever wrote on any media like paper or parchment.
The two men probably were some kind of neo-Pagans, who think that the Druids used the standing stones (as near as anybody can say, the stone circles fell into disuse well before the culture that Druidism was part of arose) and who have a tendency to appoint themselves guardians of these places and sometimes interfere with serious archeology - the stones at Doll Tor were rearranged by persons unknown in the 90s - tidying the arrangement up a bit but changing it for people who want to study them.

 

[rynner2]

What little we know about druids suggests that they didn't practice reading or writing, but instead had elaborate systems for memorising things.

I suspect that an ancient druid would have had the brain-power to run rings around most modern folk, who remember very little because we now rely on books and electronics to be our memories...! 8)

 

[jefflovestone]

What little we know about druids suggests that they didn't practice reading or writing, but instead had elaborate systems for memorising things.

I suspect that an ancient druid would have had the brain-power to run rings around most modern folk, who remember very little because we now rely on books and electronics to be our memories...! 8)

Derren Brown's system for remembering stuff is pretty amazing. A genuinely talented bloke.

 

[Skeletonmaster]

Within about ten minutes I started to feel a bit queasy and light headed but thought nothing too much of it. I walked over to a clearing where someone had at some time had a camp fire and there was a small statue of a Budha set on the ground, candles and lots of strange hangings made from twiggs, leaves and bird feathers hung from a tree. A thought crossed my mind that this place that is ancient and obviously has been / or is sacred to some people had been defiled in some way. At that point I was overcome by a terrible feeling of dread and had to cling to the nearest tree to stay standing. I felt an intense feeling of being drained of all my energy and started to shake all over uncontrollably. I called to my other half to come over who was over the other side of the cirlce and said for him to get me away from here right now! He had to physically hold me up as I my legs had gone to jelly. As we moved away from the site I began to feel better by degrees and by the time I was at my car apart from being a bit shaken still, I was my normal self again. I was left with a feeling of sadness about the place and wondered if anyone else had experienced any overpowering feelings at this particular site? I am quite a sensitive person when it comes to relating to people and their emotions, but this was the firts time a place has ever had such a strange effect on me.

I find it interesting you had this reaction to Nine Ladies. I've visited the place quite a few times over the years, and i've never experienced a feeling like you describe at the place. if anything, I tend to get the opposite kind of vibe from it; I find it quite an uplifting, happy kind of place.

I have experienced similar feelings to what you describe in other places, which I have described in detail on this message board, but never on Stanton Moor. However, a couple of miles from Nine Ladies, across a small road there is another small Stone Circle alled Doll Tor. I've always found it to be a very oppressive, creepy place, even in broad daylight. I've been down there late at night too (not recommended), and it's pretty freaky. I wouldn't describe it as sense of overwhelming dread, or sadness as much as an insidious, unnerving feeling of malevolence, nothing I could really out my finger on, but the feeling is just there, in the background, if you know what I mean. It doesn't help that it's just inside a wood of tall pine trees, with a big stone wall blocking the view. It's a very oppressive place.

The amount of crap at Nine Ladies is depressing. There were some signs put up a few years ago saying that camping was tolerated as long as people respected the place, took their rubbish home with them, and only lit campfires on the metal sheets that somebody had left dotted around the place for that purpose. I don't kow who was responsible for the notices or the metal sheets. I've a hunch that it was friends of Nine Ladies. I'm going to stick my neck out and say that I have camped up there, with my partner. We did light a fire, but it was on the metal sheet they provided, and we certainly didn't tear wood off any trees to make the fire; there's no need, there's plenty of dead wood lying around, and green wood doesn't burn very well, and we certainly did respect the place, and take our litter home. I can honestly say we were the only people there that night with any respect for the place. It wasn't the nice camping we hoped for. Pissheads staggering about, tearing chunks of wood off the trees, shining torches at us, playing crap music at full volume etc. I wasn't a happy camper at all. There were empty cans and bottles everywhere the next morning.

I don't know if the problem is the eco-warriors, although I'm no fan of them either. I personnally don't have a problem with people camping out up there, having a drink, a smoke, whatever they fancy, but the point is they have to respect the place, for what is in itself, what it represents, for the environment and for the sake of everybody else who goes up there, whether it be to camp out or just to visit the place. As it is now, it's a disgrace.

In hindsght, I think the notices and metal sheets were a mistake, all be it a well intentioned one. It's a lovely idea to think you can camp out with your friends, or partners, or whoever at a site like Nine Ladies and everybody who goes there be of a similar attitude to yourself and respect the place. But the reality isn't like that; word gets around and it simply becomes the venue for a cheap piss up, and people simply "can't be arsed" to take their litter home, or worse, it simply doesn't occur to them, as seems to be the case at Nine Ladies. Plus those metal sheets are eyesore.

rant over.

 

[skinny]

Earlier this year about April when we had a spell of warm weather. Myself and my other half took a trip out to Derbyshire one Sunday for a picnic in the Peak District. We decided to visit Stanton Moor where the Nine Ladies stone circle is located, we have been before and it is a picturesque and popular tourist stop off. We got lost in the car as it was some years since our last visit and ended parking on a lane and walking in the general direction of the moor through a footpath near some sort of electrical sub station. The path winded through a rather dark and dank wooded area and there was a noticeable absence of bird song, which gave the place a sort of oppressive atmosphere. Eventually we came through a gate and onto the moor and could see the stone circle. There were plenty of people about as we walked around it and it was a pleasant sunny day. Within about ten minutes I started to feel a bit queasy and light headed but thought nothing too much of it. I walked over to a clearing where someone had at some time had a camp fire and there was a small statue of a Buddha set on the ground, candles and lots of strange hangings made from twigs, leaves and bird feathers hung from a tree. A thought crossed my mind that this place that is ancient and obviously has been / or is sacred to some people had been defiled in some way. At that point I was overcome by a terrible feeling of dread and had to cling to the nearest tree to stay standing. I felt an intense feeling of being drained of all my energy and started to shake all over uncontrollably. I called to my other half to come over who was over the other side of the circle and said for him to get me away from here right now! He had to physically hold me up as I my legs had gone to jelly. As we moved away from the site I began to feel better by degrees and by the time I was at my car apart from being a bit shaken still, I was my normal self again. I was left with a feeling of sadness about the place and wondered if anyone else had experienced any overpowering feelings at this particular site? I am quite a sensitive person when it comes to relating to people and their emotions, but this was the first time a place has ever had such a strange effect on me.

I find this poster's experience compelling, as I have a very few times experienced a warning off from a sacred or once-venerated place, a strong feeling that I was not welcome, but not to this degree. Some who visit crop circles claim also to have felt the symptoms described above.

There is a school of thought proposing that circles mark otherwise invisible portals into other dimensions. Given the rise of Heathenry over the past 50 years, it could be that there is mixed magic and contrasting ritual occurring in such places which angers the elementals who may be resident there. Disparate tribes of Neo-pagans seem rarely to agree over each others doctrines and beliefs, so perhaps there are curses placed on the landscape to ward off the unworthy or something. I don't know.

Why bump this old thread? I learned of The Nine Ladies just a moment ago while researching Odin, Gamla Uppsala and (post?)modern Heathenism. Fascinating stuff.

Some links for those interested
http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/nine-ladies-stone-circle/
http://pastscape.org.uk/hob.aspx?hob_id=311392

 

[Coastaljames]

Why bump this old thread?

Why not? It deserves it...fascinating stuff. Never been but would like to.

 

[Ulalume]

I find this poster's experience compelling, as I have a very few times experienced a warning off from a sacred or once-venerated place, a strong feeling that I was not welcome, but not to this degree. Some who visit crop circles claim also to have felt the symptoms described above.

There is a school of thought proposing that circles mark otherwise invisible portals into other dimensions. Given the rise of Heathenry over the past 50 years, it could be that there is mixed magic and contrasting ritual occurring in such places which angers the elementals who may be resident there. Disparate tribes of Neo-pagans seem rarely to agree over each others doctrines and beliefs, so perhaps there are curses placed on the landscape to ward off the unworthy or something. I don't know.

Hi Skinny,

I know nothing about that particular stone circle, but your post did bring something to mind.

There was a program about sacred sites in Sibera and the native people who are the guardians of the sites. One of the guardians makes the point that many tourists who visit these places have the idea that one should be "open" to spiritual or mystic influences there. On the contrary, the guardians believed that a person should be extremely careful about their level of openness. IIRC (it's been a while since I've seen the program) this is because the sites were so powerful that anything could come in.

The native tradition was to go there to receive a specific message or sign, while staying focused and shutting out everything else.

Unfortunately I can't find this program online. It was on PBS, though.

 

[rynner2]

There's a Nine Maidens in Cornwall too, but that is a Stone Row:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nine_Maidens_stone_row
https://www.cornwalls.co.uk/history/sites/nine_maidens.htm

 

[skinny]

Hi Skinny,

I know nothing about that particular stone circle, but your post did bring something to mind.

There was a program about sacred sites in Sibera and the native people who are the guardians of the sites. One of the guardians makes the point that many tourists who visit these places have the idea that one should be "open" to spiritual or mystic influences there. On the contrary, the guardians believed that a person should be extremely careful about their level of openness. IIRC (it's been a while since I've seen the program) this is because the sites were so powerful that anything could come in.

The native tradition was to go there to receive a specific message or sign, while staying focused and shutting out everything else.

Unfortunately I can't find this program online. It was on PBS, though.

Be great if you could track it down, 'Lumes. Siberia has a ton of associated phenomenon and mysteries ascribed to it mainly IMO by dint of its isolation. When Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman went there in 2004 they visited Lake Baikal and were instructed by a shaman to build her a shrine to extremely strict detail. After some time getting berated for errors, Ewan said "I've worked with some prima donnas in my time but she's something else". She snapped at them at every error, but maybe she was protecting the ignorant from danger and was frustrated that they behaved like schoolboys (they did) in such a sensitive location. Ewan commented to camera that he felt the whole ceremony had a distinctly unspiritual vibe about it. Anyway, he held his tongue in her presence and they meekly circled the sacred fire with their birch branches aloft while she railed at the lake. Good job. Don't Fuck With The Animists has always been my own sound policy in such situations.

Can't find that scene from Long Way Round, but this is the sort of thing:

 

[skinny]

Theory alluding to the 'sacred' geometry of the layout.

 

[Mrs Migs]

I have experienced the feeling of being distinctly unwanted only once at an ancient site, and that was at the Avenue into Avebury. I was there for the first time with a friend, and as soon as I stepped into the Avenue, I had a feeling that there was something or someone in my face, telling me to go, I wasn't wanted. It was a horrible feeling, and has never happened there again, in spite of me not taking the hint the first time!
Got to admit, I am about as "sensitive " spiritually as a loaf of bread, so it was specially weird for me.

 

[skinny]

It's quite a distinct sensation, isn't it.

 

[Coal]

It's quite a distinct sensation, isn't it.

Aye

 

[Scribbles]

I went to Avebury last year for the first time, after years of wanting to go. We did a tour of all the stones, went into the barrow, saw Silbury Hill. I felt nothing spiritual particularly, but hadn't expected to because I'm not sensitive to place, I was just happy to be there, rainy as it was.

Then before we went to the pub for lunch I put my hand on one of the stones, and wow! Did I get a message back! I was being all friendly, but that stone did NOT want to be touched. I stood back, quite shocked and stared at it, wondering what its problem was. Answer came there none. Went off for lunch feeling a bit put-out if I'm honest!

 

[Carl Grove]

Based on my research into the time slip mystery at Rougham, which was clearly connected with earth energy, my feeling is that some forms of earth energy (torsion waves) do produce the very unpleasant symptoms described. I know of four people who have experienced similar things in the Rougham/Bury St Edmunds area. The stone circles and henges were built to harness this energy, so visits to such sites carry the same sort of risk that people would run poking about in a lot of old electrical equipment -- something may still be "live" and give one a nasty jolt.

 

[Naughty_Felid]

Hanging things, (mostly cloth), from trees at ancient sites is fairly common. St Nectan's Waterfall springs to mind.

Also this fascinating article suggests that many cultures practice it.

Rag tying
It seems that the custom of tying rags onto sacred trees exists in almost every known human culture, going beyond the borders of religion, geography and time [[84]assim; [85]; I: 111; [12]:7–96, see [21] for a review]. Rag tying is largely distributed in the Moslem world [[16]:316]. Rix [[86]:32] noted that clothes that are left on sacred trees are not just gifts in the ordinary sense; rather, they are channels connecting the worshipper with the object or person worshipped. In the Moslem world, rags, used clothes, yarn and threads are tied, in the shrines or tombs of holy figures (Wellis) and on objects around them such as sacred trees, the wire netting which covers the windows of saints' tombs, fences, [[86]:180].

Curtiss [[43]:92; [18]: 562; [19]:103] in order to get the saint's divine blessing ("Barakeh"). Rix [86]:32] mentioned, "Holiness is, indeed, to the Palestine peasant a sort of liquid which may be absorbed by physical contact. The man who hangs a rag upon a tree will take from it and wear about his person another rag which has become soaked with the virtue of the place by hanging there..."

Dafni [21] found seventeen reasons for tying rags on sacred trees worldwide, twelve of which were recorded in Israel: Five reasons (the breaking of an existing oath, to mark a blessed tree, to mark the road to a blessed tree, to ask for permission to pick fruit and to leave rags for needy people) which are endemic to the Druze. Two reasons (to pacify the tree's spirit and a charm for new clothes) were previously reported from Israel but were not confirmed. Three other reasons (transference of one's illness to the tree, using a rag as a visiting card and to pacify the tree's spirits) are also known beyond the Middle East. Other reasons (such as ensuring good crops, offerings to the tree's deities/spirits, pacifying the ancestor's spirits, commemorating a death, pacifying a tree's spirit while picking fruit) were never reported from the Middle East and are connected with polytheistic religions.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1988790/


edit: I've no idea how that smiley got there, unless The Great God Pan has access to a computer.

 

[Lois Glasspool]

I have experienced the feeling of being distinctly unwanted only once at an ancient site, and that was at the Avenue into Avebury. I was there for the first time with a friend, and as soon as I stepped into the Avenue, I had a feeling that there was something or someone in my face, telling me to go, I wasn't wanted. It was a horrible feeling, and has never happened there again, in spite of me not taking the hint the first time!
Got to admit, I am about as "sensitive " spiritually as a loaf of bread, so it was specially weird for me.

I had an odd experience at Avebury as a child, a disconnected feeling, an iron taste in my mouth and when I touched one of the stones my palm throbbed for ages afterwards, along with the iron taste intensifying. Avebury is my favourite stone circle, it has a very female energy

 

[EnolaGaia]

.... edit: I've no idea how that smiley got there, unless The Great God Pan has access to a computer.

The forum smilies have ASCII codes as well as names. The one embedded in your quoted text is coded for 'colon-p' (the old ASCII smiley for sticking out one's tongue; no intervening space). The occurrence of that code text string in the quoted text triggered its replacement with the associated graphic.