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The Modern Antiquarian Forum » Why did you become a megarak? |
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Gwass 193 posts |
Dec 28, 2009, 04:33
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Sorry for starting such a psychofantic thread. But.....I am very drunk and am geniunely interested in waht makes my fellow TMAers tick. Personally I think it was the fact that it wasn't well known or appreciated. I wasn't into anything acaedmic when I was at school, not that many people were. I wasn't thick, but I wasn't a geek. I always enjoyed history more than any other subject but not enough to persue it out of school. But from about 11-14 I read Asterix books and loved Indiana Jones & mysterious cities of gold. Then I watched a programme about the iron age and had flash backs of being taken to Ivinghoe Beacon hill fort and five knolls barrow cemetry when I was a kid and couldn't get my head round that we had such a rich prehistory in the UK, it was like we were always told that we were functional & boring & christian prudes and other less 'civilised' cultures seemed to me to have such fascinating tribal identities. Yet we had an amzing culture which hardly anyone knows about or appreciates (accept us!) Also the fact that it is so old is an extra fascination. Most of my mates think I'm into cave men, cos when I tell them about Britain 4,5, or 6000 years ago they imagine people with clubs who couldn't even speak! In a way I prefer it to be under appreciated, I wouldn't want the masses to be down my local site! Sorry for the essay and I know this is the kind of post which julian posted when the site was first made but I'm quite new and this is what it's all about I suppose (hope) All the best x
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gjrk 370 posts |
Edited Jan 10, 2010, 23:52
Dec 28, 2009, 14:47
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From Lord of the Rings to nerdishly intense immersion in ancient legend and myth (Gilgamesh, Odyssey/Iliad/Aeneid/Ovid, Volsungs, Norse, Kalevala, Old Testament etc. etc.) to a reference in a book of Irish Sagas to a book connecting Indo Europeans to Stonehenge (?). To a book by Colin Burgess (The Age of Stonehenge) to a mention there of a stone circle near where I live to the realisation that I was surrounded by ancient monuments. ...Sorry, I had to delete what came after this. It wasn't right. I tried to get it exact and couldn't. According to Nietzsche; "we have art in order not to die of the truth" and there it is, the whole thing in just a few words. There'll be others to come after us.
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zerkalo 488 posts |
Dec 28, 2009, 15:32
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I find this really difficult to answer without sounding like some pretentious new-age type but with me it's a spiritual thing, and deep longing to disconnect from the modern world and reconnect with the ancient landscape and my ancestors and roots. Some folk find solace in going to church to pray, I guess I get something similar, albeit more powerful in my experience, from visiting these sites and having that quiet time there to reflect.
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megadread 1202 posts |
Dec 28, 2009, 16:54
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I was always into country walking, noticing all those lumps and bumps in the landscape whilst out, that's probably how i visited my first site, can't remember it though i do have a picture of me stood atop a cairn somewhere taken before i lost my head to all things megalithic, perhaps it was my destiny. It's the mystery i suppose, although we know quite a bit about our ancestors we know relatively little in reality, personally i want to find the rosetta stone of rock art, well i say that but in reality i suppose i don't, it'd lose the mystery that keeps me hooked wouldn't it. I dunno, can any of us really explain it, it's something etherial innit, unless it's linked to religion for you.
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postman 848 posts |
Dec 28, 2009, 17:01
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The short answer is..... for many many reasons. The long answer is...... well it's longer, but somewhere inbetween is this one 1 Ive always been interested in ancient places and the mysteries therein 2 Ive always loved nature and being amongst and a part of it. 3 I really like the hunt, from doorstep to photograph, when coflein says theres such and such here, its like a red rag to a bull 4 The superpowers gained from visiting maaaaany places of power. 5 The humility, to not take anything too seriously. 6 I want to give something back to the modern antiquarian, it really opened my eyes, if I can do the same to someone else I can die happy Plus many more
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thesweetcheat 6219 posts |
Dec 28, 2009, 17:54
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A number of things: 1. My Dad. He was really into the countryside and rights of way in particular. I spent much of my youth hanging out of a sidecar on byways in Shropshire and Mid-Wales and poring over maps in Record Offices. 2. Susan Cooper. Her Dark is Rising sequence is still my favourite set of books and there are various references to standing stones and Arthurian legend. 3. Holidays. My first holiday with my girlfriend in 1997, a week in the Peak District. We visited Arbor Low and that was it, I was hooked. This resulted in buying a copy of Burl's Stone Circles (the pocket sized softback one) from the lovely bookshop in Bakewell. 4. West Penwith. If the Peak District got me hooked, the end of Cornwall got me truly addicted. First visit there in 1999, accompanied by photocopied pages from TMA really raised the bar. 5. Death. The deaths of my closest family seem to have heightened the need to see as many places as possible. Any weekend not out looking for prehistory feels like a wasted opportunity. 6. Time. These sites represent lives lived so long ago, but they survive. They have seen so much time, so much history. Peoples have come - and sometimes gone again - but the stones and mounds endure. Julian made a comment in TMA about Mulfra Quoit (I think) being twice as old to Jesus as Jesus now is to us (using Jesus as a reference point in time, obviously, rather than in a religious way). As mentioned in posts by others, there is a real sense of "something" at these places, some more than others. I love the countryside of Britain and being on top of a hill that was sacred to someone else thousands of years ago makes me happy, simple as that.
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tjj 3606 posts |
Dec 28, 2009, 18:55
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Hestitated to answer this as am very much a novice megarak and am not sure how long the apprenticeship will take. I definitely have my proximity to Avebury to thank and some people whose enthusiasm I somehow caught. The thing about Avebury and the north Wiltshire landscape is that so much of it is hidden and each visit is coloured by the sky and weather ... from Windmill Hill for example Waden Hill, Silbury and West Kennet Long Barrow appear to be aligned with each other - though this is probably an optical allusion (and there are many associated with Silbury). Then I realised that really don't know the country I've lived in all my life - have been to Cornwall so many times but didn't realise all those amazing sites are down there. In fact there are so many places I want to visit and re-visit I know for sure life will never be dull. Thesweetcheat mentioned loosing a close family member - that too ... the realisation that life is fragile and temporary; all we can do is try to connect with the past and know that life will go on without us.
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Branwen 824 posts |
Edited Dec 28, 2009, 19:09
Dec 28, 2009, 19:09
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Sorry for your losses. In Scotland (maybe all celtic countries?) it used to be that when there was a death in the family, you had to remember to tell the bees and the stones about it. I used to escape my large family by visiting nearby ninestane rig. Never felt a need to study the stones (other than learning any folklore about them, which I didn't pursue seperately but just as part of all folklore I collect) until recently. A person that took my tour had a lot of misconceptions about stone circles always being on top of every other hill from a sci-fi romance series she had read, and she was disappointed by this not being true. She's coming back to take a two week tour next year with me, and I decided to help her re-find the magic by including some sites of mystery. I began looking at the TMA pages, then felt like I had gained so much from those pages, I should try and contribute, though I wasn't sure what, if anything, I could add. So far just pictures and folklore, and tons of questions to the forum. Will probably have to devote 20 years to it, like I did to druidry, before I'm a "megarek".
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FourWinds 10943 posts |
Dec 29, 2009, 11:09
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Branwen wrote: Sorry for your losses. In Scotland (maybe all celtic countries?) it used to be that when there was a death in the family, you had to remember to tell the bees and the stones about it. I know that you're supposed to tell the bees when their beekeeper dies. I've not heard of it in association with 'just anybody' dying. Where do they do that?
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Branwen 824 posts |
Edited Dec 29, 2009, 15:31
Dec 29, 2009, 15:14
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In Scotland in general, in the Highlands in particular. Its an old custom from folklore books, not one still in general usage, I think. People used to know which stones were soul-stones and contained the spirit of your ancestors, and these were the stones you told, in effect, telling your ancestors. Plus - you could avert an evil thing spoken of by telling it to the stones too.
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