Friends of Grampian Stones All Hallows newsletter 2000 vol.XII # 1

All Saints Newsletter Vol. XII number 1 November 1st 2000
(Includes scheduling of Auchmaliddie all-quartz stone circle by Rt.Hon. Alex Salmond, M.P. & obit for Rt. Hon. Donald Dewar, First Minister for Scotland)

Picts were converted to Christianity by early Brittonic saints

SAINTS AND ANCESTORS
WITH AUTUMN rolling into winter and little hope of a reprieve to help us through the impending dark, it is not difficult to see why early-mediaeval faith had its focus in the Celtic saints whose prayers, blessings and shield (lorica) could guide, protect and give light and whose relics – staff (Ir. bachuill, Lat. baculum), cloak and gospel book – held a power as potent as the saint himself to heal and give strength.

In an early Celtic society which believed more colourfully in the intercession by God and all saints with man, the faith shared by simple monks who travelled the realm to convert and preach to the people of Pictland was a tangible belief for people who already had respect for age and listened to wisdom. Ancestors were after all, only the wise ones in another place and the recitation of one’s genealogy kept that sacred connection alive.

Latin manuscripts which survive from early-Historic (or so-called ‘Dark Age’) times are redolent with terms which mean little in today’s usage, but which reveal the importance of ancestry to people then. Most of us understand the use of Lat. filius, son and nepos, grandson (sometimes used as a general term for ‘descendant’), but probably only modern genealogists would get excited about any generation further back than a third great.

It is therefore illuminating to see in the 9thC Pictish Chronicles frequent use of terms such as Lat. atavus for fifth-time ancestor, or, translated into a family history context: one’s great-great-great-great-great grandfather.

Alexander III was greeted at his coronation with recitation of her genealogy

When John of Fordun wrote his Kronikill in 1363, he gave an elaborate account of (for him) a recent historical event: the coronation of Alexander III in July 1249. This was notable not only because the king was a seven-year old boy, but also because of a striking occurrence at Scone. After the boy was consecrated on the coronation stone and had received homage by earls and nobles, he was suddenly hailed by a ‘mountain-man’ who saluted him in his mother tongue:

‘Benach de Re Alban Alexander mac Alexander mac William mac Henri mac David mac Malcolm.. (‘blessing on king of Scots’) repeating his royal lineage back to its source.’

If we have forgotten this connection or feel no need for saints or our ancestral roots, is it not our own loss?

Elizabeth Allan & Donald Dewar
IT IS WITH sadness that we note a joint achievement by a member and our first First Minister, who both died this year, no doubt wishing their deeds to be unsung. However because of their interest, progress was made:Mrs Allan pointed out the awesome beauty of the abandoned quartz stone circle of Auchmaliddie in New Deer. [See newsletters Vol.X no.4 &Vol.XI number 1, Jan. 2000]. Following our request to the First Minister to have it scheduled, the Rt.Hon. Donald Dewar initiated the process which resulted in its becoming a priority for scheduling on Historic Scotland’s list. We mourn their passing but thank them both for making a difference.

RCAHMS to lose Royal Warrant
Following exclusive coverage in our spring newsletter and your many letters to Parliament in support of RCAHMS, within the Scottish Executive review of Public Bodies, FOGS may have been instrumental in saving the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland from becoming disbanded or ‘un-departmentalised’. However we, among hundreds of individuals and heritage groups who wrote to the Scottish Executive in support of RCAHMS, have been unable to preserve it intact. In a thank you letter received from the Royal Commission, FOGS’ support is acknowledged, along with others who appreciate RCAHMS’ unique archival status, but a national outcry [albeit an esoteric one] was unable to save the Commission from losing its royal patronage. It appears that the Scots Parliament, while maintaining the important role which RCAHMS plays in recording the archaeological and historic man-made environment, believes that ‘further consideration be given to exploring a modern alternative to executive non-departmental public body status’. Procedures are already in hand for removal of the Royal Warrant. The reason given to the Commission by Allan Wilson is that ‘Royal Commission status is, I believe, only appropriate for bodies set up to undertake specific tasks over a finite period.’ For some reason, Ministers also believe a change of name would be ‘helpful in order to achieve greater transparency for the public both in understanding the important work it carries out and to encourage wider access to valuable public facilities.’ One wonders whether the gross funding required to implement this ‘visibility’ review and name change could not have been better spent in a large grant to continue the Commission’s dedicated work. It is also worthy of note that the Scots minister writing to the Commission does not even get its title right, so perhaps a dumbing down was felt necessary for some in office. In the tone of the ministerial letter, is it only our impression that the review body could find no fault in 95 years of meticulous recording, but felt it had to change something, and so concocted the removal of Royal status? Whatever our regrets may be, it is important not to lose sight of the fact that the Scots Parliament chose not to merge it with any other public body, nor to dilute its work by some other arbitrary means. RCAHMS Chairman Kathleen Dalyell feels our written support categorically made a difference. She states: ‘your support was, quite clearly, material in achieving this result and for that I offer you Commissioners’ best thanks.’

HISTORIC SCOTLAND is conducting a survey on the state of carved stones in Scotland, hoping to find solutions to prevent further decay. Volunteers may telephone 01313 668 8668 for free methodology handbook or Email cbrown.hs.scb@gtnet.gov.uk

©2000-2009MCY

Crystalline transmission from Jasper

When it rains, my skin gleams.

Jasper's volcanic red light

I am Jasper.   I live on the inside.  It’s what all you humans are searching for – this journey within to the heart of one’s being.  We crystalline entities have always known how to transmit this ability, to shine from the inside out.  Perhaps that is what we are here for: to show you.  It is difficult, I know, to look at me, rock that I am, albeit deep red scorched and gleaming from ancient volcanic fires, and think of me as a being.  But I am, like you, a child of the Earth.  The Earth breathes through me just as she does through you and we are all embedded in her skin – some of us more fixed and immovable than others.  

There was a time when I was envious of the human ability to move about, to walk, to anchor, to touch, to think, to feel, to interact with the Earth’s species.  Even longer ago, I remember a time when I was more fluid (but then I suppose that was when I was a liquid, not a solid, so you probably dismiss my thought as irrelevant).  In those days we were all important in helping create the Earth as you see her now.  Before the dinosaurs, even before plants and bacteria, before oxygen: now you see what I’m getting at.  

It is nice to remember all this because nowadays there aren’t a lot of beings I can share this with.  And humanity!  just so busy and self-consumed and planning the next thing – impossible to catch his eye and say, hey! slow down a minute, I’ve got something I want to tell you.   

So I pretty much sit here, shining in the rain, – a single jasper on a circumference of other very attractive but oh-so-plain stones – perched on the edge of a stone circle overlooking an ancient river basin; a circle created by your ancestors for reasons you and the rest of your kind can no longer remember.  What a calamity that must be: to have all your history spread in the countryside before you but with no inkling of which part fits where.  You know, they left you all the keys, so you could unlock the mysteries.  You’ve just forgotten that you mislaid them.  In your race to compete with each other to be the most intelligent, the most left-brained, the most accoladed, the most applauded of humans, you forgot your connection to the Earth, who gave birth to us all.  It is true: you were created to become the Earth’s antennae, to be her intellect, to use your circuitry to connect her to the spheres, but if you can’t remember that your feet, like mine, are supposed to be earth conductors to make that happen, then I am more likely to be a better conductor than you – to play the music of the spheres with more orchestration and verve than you, in your short-sightedness, will be capable of performing.

Forgive me – just feeling a little blue today, for all my fiery glow.  Give me another aeon; by then I’ll probably be feeling better.  

In the meantime, please try to remember where you misplaced your connection. It’s important for all of us.  We can’t do it without you. Seriously. Check and get back to me.  

We’ll speak again soon.   Love, Jasper.

Jasper guards the entrance to Easter Aquhorthies

Stones speak

We the stones wish to speak.  Mountains have had their say – shivering their pegs like mammoth tusks in the Earth’s crust until Humanity has started to listen.

Now it is our turn.  We may look gray or we may sparkle; we come in all sizes and forms; our most prized members are treasured as jewels by the human race.  

But it is our man-size companions who wish to speak at this time.  They are leftovers from a time when the human race understood the vibration issuing through and from rock.  

In Northeast Scotland, around the 57th parallel, we have had a voice these last five thousand years. Our Pictish champions allowed us speech for eight hundred of those years.  Before them at the start of the Piscean Age – the Messenger of Jerusalem’s sect of the fish predicted that this day would come at the dusking of Pisces and the dawning of Aquarius.  Aquarius dawned on February 14, 2009, by Gregorian reckoning.  So, with gratitude to the Kings of Picts for enabling our messages, we start again with the New People of  the Earth. 

We hope you will listen.  We have much to impart, to help prepare you for the new awakening, the tuning into Mother Earth, the Ship which has nurtured you and us for a billennium.

Over the next timeframe, we shall share our knowledge with you.  If you wish to listen and incorporate some of our message into your lives, we shall have played our part. 

Our helpers are the Bird Tribes.  If you cannot hear us at first, because our crystalline speech is difficult to understand,  listen to them.  They will show us all the way.  

We are all descended from stardust and it is from that genesis that these transmissions come.

Let the crystalline transmissions begin.

 

 

crop circle swallow bird tribes