People are always going on about celestial alignments with the neolithic stone circles of Britain, Ireland and beyond. But it’s a simple fact, these are, more or less, circles. Stand in the middle and eventually there well be a solar or other celestial alignment for every stone. The solstices, the equinoxes will usually line up someplace.

We tend to think of our lives in days, every day is important and we stick close to our calendars to know where we are in the year. But ask any old farmer you find standing in a field, bereft of his calendar how long till the first day of spring, and chances are he can tell you by instinct. Agriculture in the past, and certainly among the ancients didn’t require computing time down do the days, for there were many more important factors to consider than when the sun rises over the heel stone.

I’m not saying that these weren’t built with that in mind, at least in some cases. But in many, if not most, the search for the magic date is a red herring. The ancients didn’t think as we do. If we want to understand why these were built, we have to stop thinking like archaeologists, scientists and mathematicians, an more like shamans.

To order a fine art print of Sunrise through the trees and the Southwest entrance stones to Avebury Circle and Henge from the Wytchery, click here