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Tidying up offerings
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faerygirl
412 posts

Re: Tidying up offerings
May 22, 2010, 19:48
Mustard wrote:
Littlestone wrote:

And until we all agree on that it might, perhaps, be best to see sites (within our own cultural tradition*) as being 'ours' only while we are there. In other words, apart from having a duty to be respectful to others who may be visiting a site at the same time as ourselves, we shouldn't deposit anything there that might offend those who follow (or anything that might damage the site) and we shouldn't take any material features (however small) away from a site when we leave.

I really struggle with this issue. On the one hand, I detest seeing sites littered with plastic crap, but on the other hand, we'd have no stone circles if our ancestors had adopted this philosophy and left woods and glades undisturbed. However much we debate the philosophy, I think most of it comes down to a degree of common sense, which most reasonable people should be able to agree on.

One other point (unrelated to the quoted post). I don't feel comfortable seeing references to "pagans" as a generic group. It's such a loose term that it's almost meaningless.


Similarly the suggestion that its all "New Age" folk making a mess. I would say lots of the things I have seen resemble the things people leave EVERYWHERE; streets, forests, beaches etc are all littered with receipts, plastic and beer cans. The beer cans shoved onto the trees around Avebury are not offerings, just the rubbish left by idiots.

I also saw two middle aged women fishing around in their bags at Avebury and coming up with a bit of nylon cord to attach to a tree. I think the coloured ribbons and chimes people leave in some places look beautiful and make a place feel nice, but when it begins to be any old rubbish/ shoelace/ cord/ plastic bag that people have to hand you start to wonder where the limits are. If you are serious about it as an offering then it wont be a ceramic cow and a beer can! But a bundle of lavender tied with ribbon has an altogether different effect.

Maybe not everyone has the forethought to get a little engraved pebble but it doesnt mean its any less important. Everything offends someone, guess we all just have to do our bit to pick up the things that are obviously litter but have some respect for other things. I say that in reference to the entire country (and even world) and not just stone circles

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