{"id":1880,"date":"2012-07-18T10:33:28","date_gmt":"2012-07-18T09:33:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thewhiterock.co.uk\/?p=1880"},"modified":"2012-08-20T11:34:29","modified_gmt":"2012-08-20T10:34:29","slug":"the-green-road-into-the-trees-launch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thewhiterock.co.uk\/?p=1880","title":{"rendered":"The Green Road into the Trees \u2013 Launch"},"content":{"rendered":"

The book is now out – see the reviews in the Spectator<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Independent<\/a>\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

To celebrate the launch and what is supposed to be summer, despite constant rain, a small extract on meeting a leading Druid at the summer solstice celebrations at Avebury:<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

A few\u00a0<\/span>\"\"<\/a>people have gathered by the big stones that were once, when upright, set as a triptych and may have been orientated to<\/span>wards the rising sun.\u00a0 Loud snores are coming from a sleeping-bagged bundle at the bottom of the largest stone, where it looks as\u00a0<\/span>if someone is\u00a0 going to sleep\u00a0 through this year\u2019s dawn solstice.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I talk to a tall man in a grey cloak with a staff, who lives in Malmesbury.\u00a0 He has the languid, tired manners of an Anglican vicar.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2018Are you a Pagan?\u2019 he asks, as if it were the most natural question in the world.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I mumble the sort of non-committal generalities I usually do if someone asks if I\u2019m a Christian.\u00a0 My hesitancy is reinforced when he then asks if I\u2019m a Christian and I have to give a similar response.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

.<\/p>\n

\u2018Paganism,\u2019 he explains patiently, \u2018is tied to a sense of place, of being rooted in a landscape.\u00a0 If you\u2019re drawn to a place like Avebury, then you\u2019re probably a Pagan.\u2019<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I nod politely.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2018Not that it\u2019s easy being a Pagan,\u2019 he sighs, and leans on his staff to peer moodily at the ground. \u2018The problem about Paganism is that because it\u2019s all local, and about local places, we don\u2019t organise ourselves on a national basis very well.\u2019\u00a0 For a moment he sounds like a Liberal Democrat.\u00a0 \u2018What matters to a Pagan in Malmesbury is completely different to what matters to a Pagan in\u2019 \u2013 and he casts around for an exotic example \u2013 \u2018to a Pagan in, say, Devizes.\u2019\u00a0 He pauses.\u00a0\u00a0 \u2018Or for that matter in Aylesbury.\u00a0 There are a surprising amount of Pagans in Aylesbury.\u2019<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2018Trying to organise Pagans is like trying to herd cats,\u2019 he says, with bitterness. \u2018It\u2019s solstice day, the most sacred day of the year, and most of them have gone to the wrong part of the circle to celebrate!\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

From The Green Road into the Trees:\u00a0 An Exploration of England<\/em><\/a> by Hugh Thomson (Preface 18.99), with illustrations by Adam Burton<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The book is now out – see the reviews in the Spectator\u00a0and\u00a0Independent\u00a0\u00a0 To celebrate the launch and what is supposed to be summer, despite constant rain, a small extract on meeting a leading Druid at the summer solstice celebrations at Avebury:\u00a0 \u00a0 A few\u00a0people have gathered by the big stones that were once, when upright, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[42,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1880","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-britain","category-festivals"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thewhiterock.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1880"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thewhiterock.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thewhiterock.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thewhiterock.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thewhiterock.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1880"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/www.thewhiterock.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1880\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1925,"href":"https:\/\/www.thewhiterock.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1880\/revisions\/1925"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thewhiterock.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1880"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thewhiterock.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1880"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thewhiterock.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1880"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}