{"id":159,"date":"2016-11-05T16:55:39","date_gmt":"2016-11-05T16:55:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/letscreate.sineadcullen.com\/?p=159"},"modified":"2025-12-18T18:15:05","modified_gmt":"2025-12-18T18:15:05","slug":"stone-circles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/letscreate.sineadcullen.com\/index.php\/2016\/11\/05\/stone-circles\/","title":{"rendered":"Stone circles"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"cropped-DSC07833.jpg\"<\/a>During last summer at the Findhorn Foundation I began to make lines in the shale edge on Findhorn Beach; placing stones of similar colours in rows of white, red, yellow, blue. This became a meditation and a ritual for me before and after swims as I took quiet time on the beach.<\/p>\n

\"dsc07428-sm\"What I loved about creating them over the summer was the simple interaction with peoples as they passed by. During high tide on the day that I finished one of my first lines a man walked up \u2013 he stopped at a simple line of white stones an asked \u201cwhat do I do?\u201d I responded, \u201cWhat would you like to do?\u201d He said: “I would like to say a prayer before stepping over”. I said, \u201cGo for it\u201d and I stood there; a witness as he said a quiet prayer and then took a deliberate step. He turned around and said \u201c…and now I continue on with the rest of my life”, and off he went. <\/p>\n

I just love the simplicity of a line that is formed by moving a few stones and I loved watching from distances as people negotiated these  lines: some walked over, seeing nothing, some stopped and investigated, some walked around them. Over the course of five weeks I created lines of different colours, I enjoyed the act of gathering stones of different colours creating the lines and then watching as they began to be taken apart by the waves. <\/p>\n

On a recent visit back to Findhorn beach I stood on top of the sand dunes and looked at where the lines had been; now long washed away. A friend who had seen the lines over the summer asked if I was going to rebuild them. No: for me they were temporary and fleeting elements. As I looked along the shoreline this time I had no desire to create lines and wondered if I would be creating anything new on the beach in the coming weeks.<\/p>\n

In the last week I have been visiting the beach and creating stone circles in the shale edge. I am loving the simplicity of the ceremony of creating simple installations in nature, its a mindful ritual, and a simple act of being present to the elements of nature around me.<\/p>\n

I was back on the beach again today – the sea was wild, windy and stormy and the circles almost gone. I simply sat watching the waves and the disintegrating shale forms, and marvelled at how blessed I am to have access to this wild and amazing beach. I realised that for me a crucial part of creating a better way of living is to choose to situate that life in an area where I can access the wildness of nature, a place I can spend time, maybe make a mark and let it join all of the other elements and witness how it changes and disintegrates over time.<\/p>\nngg_shortcode_0_placeholder\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

During last summer at the Findhorn Foundation I began to make lines in the shale edge on Findhorn Beach; placing stones of similar colours in rows of white, red, yellow, blue. This became a meditation and a ritual for me before and after swims as I took quiet time on the beach. What I loved about creating them over the summer was the simple interaction with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":156,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-159","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-findhorn","category-newbold"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/letscreate.sineadcullen.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/letscreate.sineadcullen.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/letscreate.sineadcullen.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/letscreate.sineadcullen.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/letscreate.sineadcullen.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=159"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/letscreate.sineadcullen.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":267,"href":"https:\/\/letscreate.sineadcullen.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159\/revisions\/267"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/letscreate.sineadcullen.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/156"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/letscreate.sineadcullen.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=159"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/letscreate.sineadcullen.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=159"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/letscreate.sineadcullen.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=159"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}