Once referred to as "Croppiedom's King of Controversy" Michael Glickman has long occupied a central space at the heart of public comment on the crop circle phenomenon. A former architect and teacher, he is now a renowned and inspirational speaker and writer. His work on the geometry and interpretation of the crop circles has spanned over 16 years. Michael has written several regular columns on the crop circles over his career, both in print and on the internet. Wheat from the Chaff is his latest incarnation. His book, I have never seen such a crowded season. We have worked, I suppose, for a greater recognition and, now it is here, I must admit, it carries a sting in the tail. All those buses, all those X-Files day-visitors, all that litter, all that carelessness. Andreas Muller commented despairingly that the fields looked as though they had been visited by a herd of blind elephants. The little star in East Field was packed, literally shoulder to shoulder. They could only look outwards. Last time I had my rant about bad behaviour in the fields and our lack of respect for the formations. A week or so later I realise that perhaps I was a little severe. Certainly the idea that people can so mindlessly damage such mysterious gifts is painful but maybe it is our fault. Perhaps those of us who have been around this for a year or two have neglected our obligations.
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Fig 1. Etchilhampton Cruciform 2008
The huge and lovely cross at Etchilhampton (fig. 1) carries simple and obvious numerical meaning. The cross is assembled of seven vertical and five horizontal components. But one unit is shared at the crossing point; numerologically we have seven components in the vertical element and four, not five, in the horizontal.
This gives us eleven, the first number of the Master Number sequence which relates to contact with other dimensions. The seven and the four carry specific meaning. Seven is Spirit, Revelation and what lies behind the veil; most appropriate for our shifting circumstance. Four is the Material Realm, the Earth. One interpretation then might be that the World is relating to Spirit as a prelude to Dimensional Shift.
Fig 2. Barbury Castle Menorah 1999
In simple formal terms it is a cross which (even ignoring for a moment the blather about the hand of God) is a powerful Christian religious symbol. On 31st May 1999 the Menorah formation appeared at Barbury Castle (fig.2). This is a powerful Jewish religious symbol and it employed the same numerological symbolism, through here switching the horizontal and vertical. The Menorah had seven horizontal elements and five vertical with one shared. Again eleven and again seven and four. These are two of the most forceful earthly religious symbols and they both used the same number systems.
Fig 3. Stonehenge Ribbons 2002
Fig 4. Stonehenge Diagram
We should look for a moment at the Stonehenge Ribbon formation of 4th July 2002 (fig.3 & Diagram fig. 4). It is an astonishment to discover that this most graceful of crop circles used only one curve in the whole design. The straight scissor-cuts across the six ends of the ribbons are 58 feet long and this is the single radius of curvature throughout the formation. The sharp-eyed will notice hat the central circle looks smaller and indeed it does. But the centre is made up of six standard 58 foot arcs, assembled like the overlapping elements of a camera diaphragm. This makes it appear smaller.
I have drawn the axis running through the formation as a red and green bar. The red sections, and the red numbers, show where the bar goes across the ribbon. The green sections, and the green numbers count both the ribbon-crossings and the spaces in the curves. Note that they are the same size - 58 feet. There are seven red numbers and thirteen green. Thirteen times fifty-eight is seven hundred and fifty-four feet, the size of the formation.
Let us apply a similar logic to the Etchilhampton cross. (Of course, it has absolutely nothing to do with “spiral imagery which takes us back to ancient times” whatever nonsense that implies and nor is it “Celtic”.) The Etchilhampton cross uses a similar knowing and economical geometry as the Stonehenge Ribbons. There are no “spirals”. The eleven circles have a diameter of 64 feet and they are linked together by a series of semicircular arcs of 64 foot radius (or 128 foot diameter). Thus between every pair of circles is a space of exactly the same diameter - 64 feet. Just like the Ribbons, the cross, while exhibiting seven vertically, is actually showing, with the spaces in between, thirteen modules.
Thirteen is the celebrated number of Transformation. If, as suggested earlier, the numerology proposes that “the World is relating to Spirit as a prelude to Dimensional Shift” then the addition of the number of Transformation is both apposite and optimistic.