Having been asked to write this article in the issue immediately after that which included Andy Norfolk’s article, I am very aware that I have a hard act to follow, but hopefully this will add information to that which has appeared already rather than being repetitious.
I have been informed that the ideal would be for two parts, one on how certain acts can and will damage sites, the second on how to design and conduct a ritual to have the least impact. So we will start with the first of these aims and see how we go.
There are several different types of site that are generally frequented by those who prefer to conduct their magical rites at places which have apparent pagan spiritual significance. I say apparent here, for as we do not have any way to access the thoughts and ideas of Neolithic and Bronze Age Man reliably, we can but hypothesise on the original purpose of these structures. Those sites tend to comprise stone circles or other standing stone structures, barrows, particularly chamber tombs, chalk figures and also occasionally hill forts. The commonest evidence of modern ritual use at these places comprises flowers, chalk markings, fire damage to grass or stones, nightlight remains, candle wax and joss stick remains. Other items which are often discovered include such miscellany as hand-written notes, jewellery, coins, crystals, food items and ash.
Leaving the question of whether it is appropriate to use these places for modern ritual practice aside, it is quite obvious that if such ritual remains were to be left in situ, they would have a number of effects on a site. The purpose of this article is to discuss those effects and explain why they are undesirable and may even threaten the physical and spiritual integrity of a site.
Flowers
While it may seem that a few pieces of foliage attached to some colourful petals make one of the most innocuous and benign ways to show spiritual reverence for a site, I’m hoping that I will be able to show how this is not, in fact the case. Each site, no matter what type of site, or even how old it is, whether it be a constructed ritual site or just a wild grove in the woods, will have its own ecosystem and that ecosystem may well be a delicately balanced one in this age of threatened habitats. On top of that, there is the fact that even decomposing organic matter produces certain unwelcome by-products. No one would argue that a compost heap in the process of degrading fresh material can produce some unpleasant fumes to say the least.
I have a photograph of a pile of material I removed from the Western chamber at Belas Knapp longbarrow in Gloucestershire. It looks like a compost heap, and indeed the vast majority of the material that we removed consisted of flowers, both native and exotic, and foliage of various kinds. There was also an incident in which I and two other volunteers clearing up after a ritual held at a stone circle somewhere filled an empty fertiliser sack with abandoned vegetation.
Anyone who takes any interest in composting for the garden will tell you that the resulting product is a wonderful substance rich in humus, which is very good for the soil being full of nutrients. The production of this humus also means the production of humic acid, however, and this can have a detrimental effect on sites, particularly those which have limestone as part of the structure. Limestone is chemically rather unsuited to life in the open air, as it has a tendency to erode very quickly in the presence of acid. This can be seen in the pockmarked appearance of any old limestone structure, such as that found at the Rollright Stones in Oxfordshire, as rain is itself slightly acid.
The reaction can be summarised in the following equation:
Don’t panic if you are not a chemist! This simply says that the major constituent of limestone, which comprises the compressed shells of tiny marine creatures that died a long time ago, is dissolved by an acidic substance (denoted by H+) . There is also carbon dioxide generated and a certain amount of heat if conditions are right. Degradation of vegetation does produce polluting by-products, which is one of the reasons that industrial composting comes under the jurisdiction of the Environment Agency, just as any other waste processing scheme does.
Also, vegetation typically has cellulose making up the major part of the weight supporting structure of the plant, and this can take a very long time to degrade. It is not as simple as assuming that because an item is organic it will be a natural addition to a site.
Often people will pick wildflowers from nearby a site and leave them within the part of the site that they feel is most significant. Not only does this mean that an organism that was once serving a healthy and constructive role in the ecosystem is now dead and decomposing and producing compost by-products, it is also an illegal act. Apart from which, I cannot see what purpose is served in picking flowers living at a site to leave them dead at the site. It is more like a bizarre form of ritual sacrifice than anything else. Given that many sites are visited by large numbers of people, even if only ten percent picked one flower from the site environs, that is an awful lot of plants that are prevented from living out their life as part of the ecosystem, particularly if those plants are rare. It can be difficult to think of a plant as being rare if there are lots of them to be seen, but it might just be that that particular spot is the only one in which they grow with such abundance.
Other forms of vegetation can also cause similar problems, and large items can be an encouragement for others to light fires using it.
Chalk Markings, Scratches and Incense
Chalk markings are another of those things that cause more damage than might at first be apparent, particularly on rock. The surface of the rocks at prehistoric monuments, indeed any old rock, is in itself a delicate ecosystem. Also, rocks at prehistoric monuments may yet have secrets to be revealed about the methods of their construction and the materials used in that construction, secrets that may well be hinted at by clues left in the coatings on the rocks. Those coatings are bare molecules thick and very prone to damage, but they also have their own protective covering formed over the years by a number of different processes, the chemistry and details of which I have insufficient space to delve into here. The use of incense on or near a rock that is part of a prehistoric construction, the scratching or marking of that rock, can contaminate or damage the delicate surface layers which could yet contain much information, and also changes the nature of the site by doing so, even if not on an immediately obvious level.
Apart from the question of archaeological preservation, there are also lichens to consider. Of the 2087 lichens to be found in the British Isles, 26 are on the Red List, which means they require the highest level of protection. Unless one happens to be a specialist, whether amateur or professional, it is not the easiest thing in the world to tell one lichen species from another. Lichens are symbiotic organisms, a partnership between a specific fungus and a specific algae, and are so sensitive they are used as reliable indicators of atmospheric pollution. They grow very slowly, and private correspondence with members of the Lichen Interest Group (contactable through the British Lichen Society) puts the rate of growth at 0.5-2mm/year radial increase. Even a small amount of damage can take decades to recover, if indeed the organism recovers at all. Marking a rock with chalk, scratching its surface, and of course setting fire to it or resting something hot upon it, will damage or perhaps kill the lichen.
Fire, Candles, Nightlights
I need not explain for the most part how fire can cause considerable damage, but even those who take the time to use fire dishes often do not realise that it is not the fire itself but the heat it generates that causes the damage. Thus the use of a fire dish may still cause considerable damage if the fire dish is not set up correctly, baking the soil upon which it stands and killing the grass. Fire and stone is a deadly combination, particularly if the weather conditions are wrong. Hannibal used fire to crack massive boulders when crossing the Alps to allow his elephants to pass. Fire can also crack and break standing stones and the stone structures of chamber tombs. Even if there is no immediate visible effect, fire has profound and irreversible effects on the internal structure of the rock. Rock consists of tiny particles of the various component substances, and frequently has tiny gaps between those particles. These gaps are called interstitial spaces and may contain some form of gas, or may contain water. Fire and incident heat causes gases in interstitial spaces to expand and the pressure to rise, leading to cracks in the rock which in turn can lead to catastrophic results at a later date. Water boiling out of those intersitial spaces can cause greatly increased erosion reactions and can also force new cracks as it seeks a way to escape the tiny spaces. The molecular structure of the rock itself can change – just think of the way that clay and brick change when they are baked. Soot from fires can also lead to the same sort of contamination and damage to rock coating as was discussed in the section on markings and incense. Carbon-14 dating, which most people have now heard of, uses charcoal or pieces of burnt organic material, and if the site is contaminated by modern materials, then any hope of dating possibly prehistoric material of the same nature is lost.
Candles can not only be a source of incident heat and soot, but they have their own problem – that of candlewax. Candlewax damages the rock, is unsightly, and also can cause untold damage to the lichens it smothers. It is also a much more difficult problem to treat then it may first appear, as some rocks are friable enough that even picking off candlewax can remove significantly sized pieces from the rock surface. Lifting candlewax also frequently means killing any lichen on which it may have fallen. It is not usually possible to leave it where it is, as such remains encourage others to do the same and eventually the entire rock would be smothered. Candlewax is a very obvious, sadly frequent and sometimes distressing result of thoughtless ritual practice. There are plenty of ways to prevent this sort of damage occurring, which I shall detail next time.
Nightlights are very prevalent. It seems that often people leave these to burn out in order to complete a ritual and they are one of the items that cause me most anger. Not only do they bring the problems of wax, incident heat and soot, they do not degrade and will only be removed if someone chooses to remove them. They are also a fire hazard when left to burn out, particularly in dry weather.
Miscellany
The following are items that may or may not be used as part of ritual, and which may at first seem to be innocuous or even beneficial, but which are most certainly not.
Coins are a real problem when inserted into erosion holes in rock. I remember the surprise on the faces of my workshop attendees when I demonstrated the effects of accelerated ageing on a standard 2 pence piece and a piece of limestone using some weak hydrochloric acid. The limestone turned green, there was a lot of fizzing and the results were not entirely pretty. When a coin erodes it expands and releases acid and can fuse with any other metallic objects lying next to it. Coins inserted into holes can cause damage on the way in and frequently it takes a lot of time and a lot of patience and dedication to remove them without causing more damage. Many people appear to think that coins are inert, but modern ones most certainly are not. While it may be possible to find Roman and other coins in good condition, it is simply because these are made from more precious metals. Gold and silver are found as pure metal in nature – the metals of which modern coins are made have to be extracted from ore because they are chemically unstable in the environment in their pure form. They will not remain as inert objects when left within a prehistoric site.
Jewellery can cause similar problems if not made from precious metals, but when it is made from precious metals it provides a surprising target for greedy people who do not mind causing a bit of damage to get their hands on something valuable. Also, by leaving any item at all one is changing the nature of the site and leaving something in it that was not there in the original building, and this is to be discouraged.
Notes cause a couple of problems. Firstly they do take some time to degrade, as paper is not actually all that biodegradable under normal conditions. It is, after all, largely made of cellulose, which I have already mentioned. To bring a more personal and esoteric angle to the discussion for the first time, intimate items of any kind will also provide a link for an unscrupulous person to use – you may describe me as paranoid but I still burn all my toenail clippings and would never dream of leaving anything personal lying around for just anyone to get hold of. The reasons for leaving notes seem to be as a formal kind of prayer – the ones I have found in the past almost all consist of prayer like sentiments. Those sentiments are just as likely to be heard if the note is not left behind. An alternative could well be to read the prayer aloud and then set fire to it in a suitable receptacle.
Crystals are my own particular least favourite. There are only two real reasons for leaving a crystal behind at a site – as an offering to the Spirits or as a tool for affecting the site in some way. If the first of these is the purpose, it does well to consider exactly what a Spirit would want with a piece of (usually) silicate rock that has probably been strip-mined from a third-world country by 8-year old slave labourers. The New Age crystal trade has a massive environmental impact on the countries where the crystals are sourced, and yet because we in Britain do not get to see the effects we do not tend to consider them. Spirits value as gifts things which mean something to the giver, and there are many things which one can give that do not need to be even of a physical nature. Gifts of time in the form of voluntary work, gifts of money in the form of donations to the organisation or individual responsible for the site upkeep, gifts of energy in the form of silent prayer or reverence or the act of clearing debris left by others are all things which Spirits will value and which will have meaning for the giver. Leaving a crystal behind to affect the nature of a site is misguided at best, sheer arrogance at worst. Crystals at sites can be very obvious, even when stuck down holes, and frequently seem to encourage others to do the same. It is not possible to heal the planet by leaving a quartz point under a megalith – if it were possible to heal the planet using quartz, it would not be necessary to blast it out of the Earth in the first place. I have also been given the reason that leaving a piece of quartz at a site can allow a person to contact that place on the astral in order to commune with it for the purposes of meditation. Personally I feel that if a site has such a profound effect on you that you feel the need to contact it on the astral, the site itself would be a much easier target than a small piece (or even a large piece) of quartz. Leaving anything at a site in order to use that site’s energies for oneself is selfish and arrogant and don’t let me catch you at it.
Food items offer the same problems as discussed in the section on flowers, although the nature of some food items means that these problems can be far, far worse.
Conclusion
The simple adage of "take nothing but photographs, leave nothing but footprints" is a good one. One should not go to a prehistoric site to perform ritual because it forms a pretty backdrop, every site has its own character and inhabitants, both physical and non-physical. The toads who live holes in certain rocks at certain prehistoric sites do not appreciate, I am sure, having objects dropped upon their heads or their homes blocked up by gifts of quartz or amethyst that are supposed to heal the planet in some way. Any item left at a site can affect the archaeological and environmental integrity of the site, as well as making it even more difficult for a modern visitor to see the site in the context which the builders may have intended. Even something as insubstantial as confetti can leave a lasting impression. The creation of a salt circle will kill grass and leave a scar that takes many months to heal – if you are passing the Rollrights in the next few months, ask one of the wardens to show you what happens when salt is used to cast circle, but be prepared to be ranted at. There is no cause to impart anything to a site that was not there already, although there is frequently cause to remove items that more thoughtless and uncaring visitors have left.
Next time I shall propose some ideas on ritual construction and organisation that allows the practitioner to incorporate certain key elements and principles without causing damage.