#calanais

[visionsofnightfall]

Calanais Stone Circle, Isle of Lewis, Scotland

alexmilton_photo

[autumncottageattic]

Callanish Photography

'The Wolf Moon' Calanais, Isle of Lewis

[scotianostra]

Callanish.

So this guy was on the bus to Callanish with me, we didn't talk on the way there, he headed straight for the stones and I went into the visitor centre for a coffee. When I came out there were a few tourists about, and this guy flat out on a stone. He stayed there like this for the time I wandered about taking my pics.

Anyway he is at the bus stop later waiting with me and I got chatting to him.

I ask if he gets a connection with the Pagans who erected the stones, he tells me he likes to explore places like this and has a interest in them, but he is a Christian.

The rest of the journey back he keeps telling me "Seek and you shall find" and that if I "knocked on the door, God would be there for me"

I tell him I'm not inclined to do that and that I didn't believe there was a God.

"Oh 110% there is", he tells me. I asked how he was for sure......

So he tells me God created a miracle for him.

He helped out at a church, one of his duties was watering hanging baskets, but some were high up and it was a difficult job.

So he pointed this out to a church elder, who said "Maybe you should ask for God's help."

A week or so later he was again, watering the flowers and the words of the Elder came back to him.

He asked god to help him water the hanging baskets, and he said the next thing he knew he was floating above them......

I asked if perhaps he dreamt it, but no, he said it was real. 🤓

[random-fandom-artblog]

Since it is was my header pic I thought I might as well post it here XD

Calanais at night

[earthstory]

The geology of Callanish

The United Kingdom contains a huge spread of geology for such a small landmass, representing nearly every major epoch in geological history. The Neolithic stone circle of Callanish on the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides off Scotland was hewn from its oldest rocks, the Lewissian Gneiss. These high grade metamorphics are rocks with a history that starts some 3 billion years ago during the Archaean period (3.5 to 2.5 billion years) and has seen them repeatedly squished and baked until the light and dark minerals that the original rocks were transformed into have separated out due to the immense tectonic pressures as continents collided and separated during these long aeons.

Consisting of a central circle of 13 monoliths with a surrounding cross shape of 5 rows of outer stones overlooking the great western Ocean, they were built some 5,000 years ago as part of a wider ritual landscape (like Stonehenge, see the posts linked below) and remained a ritual centre throughout the Bronze age over a span of some 3,000 years. They were posited to show alignments to the movements of the moon, though critics have suggested that these are due to chance, and they are less certain than those at Stonehenge. The ancient traditions link them to petrified giants who refused to convert to Christianity, though the Shining One is reputed to walk its avenues every midsummer morning, summoned by tjhe distinctive cry of the cuckoo.

The rocks themselves contain large black eye shaped crystals of hornblende known as porphyroblasts (large crystals that grow and are often rolled into eye shapes during high temperature and pressure metamorphic events) whose selection may have had a religious significance. The only place nearby where such rocks are found is just by the site. These are some of the oldest rocks in the Lewisian complex and have been caught up in several mountain building events, including the Variscan and Caledonian orogenies, when the first version of the Atlantic closed and the supercontinent Pangaea formed.

The original rocks were volcanic, consisting of a mix of basaltic and granitic composition magmas very common during the Archaean called TTG (tonalite, trondjeimite and garnodiorite) A set of dykes, vertical intrusions of magma separates these events, cutting the structures produced by the first and being folded during the second.

Other posts in our solstice series: The geology of Carnac http://on.fb.me/1w9p6Zy The geology of Newgrange:http://tinyurl.com/qhj3e4v Our past posts on the geology of Stonehenge:http://on.fb.me/1w9mLxE, http://tinyurl.com/mlqytj6

and http://tinyurl.com/nbaq8v5

Loz

Image credit: Dougie Cunningham

http://www.calanaisstones.co.uk/ http://www.orkneyjar.com/archaeology/dhl/papers/cr/index.html https://www.virtualheb.co.uk/callanish-stones-isle-of-lewis/ http://www.callanishvisitorcentre.co.uk/index.php/features http://www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk/lewis/calanais/ http://www.earth.ox.ac.uk/~oesis/nws/loc-scourie.html

[hamishsblog]

One of my gum prints currently on show marking the start of the Celtic new year. If you are in London on 3 November join us at the gallery from 14:00hrs and meet the photographers - link to details in my bio #calanais #celtic #lewis #gumprint #altphoto #sacredspaces #psychogeography #mythicallandscape https://www.instagram.com/p/BpoZR9YAuV0/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=mpsi39vnvn13

[coffeenuts]

HARVEST MOON (blue) by kenny barker http://ift.tt/2z5rEm2

[dun-scathach]

Calanais stones, Isle of Lewis (Eilean Leòdhais), Western Isles, Scotland 2016