Stonehenge and Conflict Resolution

[Karen Holmes (Suzeranda)]

The other night, a friend and I poured over a Google map of the area
surrounding Stonehenge, looking for evidence that Stonehenge was used
as a site for conflict resolution. Many people have hypothesized what
the ancients used it for, and I think we found enough proof to offer
this perspective.

During that time period, kingdoms were quite small. Disputes had to be
settled in such a way that, even if you won a war, you didn't weaken
your army to enable a third party to come in to overpower you. People
traveled to distant places; consider how kings and queens traveled to
Delphi to get spiritual advice from the Oracle. The body of a wealthy
man from the Mediterranean was found at Stonehenge. Traveling to
England to resolve disputes was not illogical. The journey may even
have given people a chance to cool their tempers.

I was struck by the fact that two rivers in the region are called
"Avon." This may not be factual, but the word's root is similar to
"avenue," and "on" means large. The two rivers run opposite directions
from the Salisbury plane, like a continental divide, and at their
closest point, are only a few miles apart. One runs north and south,
and the other, east and west. We followed the river from the south,
and imagined one king taking a small boat or barge north along the
river to the bend in the river closest to Stonehenge. The other king
might have come from the west to the plane, and traveled by horse
south to the site of Durrington, where a settlement was found, along
with huge piles of bones, leftovers from the feasts. If you are
entertaining kings and queens, you must stand on protocol!

They would have arrived close to the time of the solstices. There is
evidence of large wooden buildings which would have sheltered the
entourage during the oldest months. They would have walked along the
"Avenue" to the standing stones, and there performed their rites. (We
will go into that in greater depth later.)

Many burial sites have been found, including a man from the
Mediterranean. People have speculated that Stonehenge was a place to
worship the dead. If it was used for conflict resolution, there must
have been a reason for those people to have died.

A game continues on until an innocent person is crucified. Imagine how
the two kings reflected on their dispute when that innocent person was
sacrificed.

There is an area just north of Stonehenge called the Cursus. It
appears to be a place where games were held. England has a tradition
of tournaments. Imagine that the pent-up energy of the two armies had
to be released, and a competition would be the way to go about it. I
told my friend, "Imagine we are a king and a queen, and I have a
dispute with you. Our advisors insist on conflict resolution at
Stonehenge. We go there and arrive by boat, signal fires drawing
people from all over the region. We are powerful. We are feasted, and
then at the appointed time, we march to the standing stones. The
innocent person is sacrificed. Then our armies compete to see who
would have actually won the war."

That would have been enough to end the dispute. If you lost the
tournament, humble pie for lunch. If you won, you still would have had
to realize that it was a large price to pay. Draws would have been
worse, because the battles would have gone on and on.

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Our organization proposes re-enacting such an event to end the crisis
in Iraq. (Without the actual sacrifice!)

England was drawn into the conflict in Iraq, but we would like to
stand on its tradition of conflict resolution. This will allow England
to start to discover its niche.

We will introduce an actual rite for the event, and draw together the
people from the region with signal fires. My friend's ancestors were
from the area of Stonehenge, and were responsible for the fires.

We would like to use British troops who were injured in Iraq to help
them resolve their issues stemming from the crisis.

Other concepts will be introduced in future posts, including our plan
for a Military Olympics, which will help to transition war-based
thinking into tournament-thinking.

Karen Holmes, Principal
The World Peace Organization for the One World Government