Tuesday 11 September 2012

Handfasting Ceremony inside Stonehenge, following the Celtic tradition

The most beautiful and memorable Handfasting and Marriage Ceremony is assured.
HandfastingThis is when the couple base the entire ceremony on and around the handfasting. Usually held outdoors, maybe in a forest or woodland area.
Stonehenge*
is a special location for handfastings. The inner circle has been closed to public access since 1978. However, we are able to obtain permission to have a wedding ceremony and/or handfasting within the inner circle of stones. This can be arranged at dawn or dusk. A Full handfasting will include 'Calling on the Elements within a Ceremonial Circle'.

Handfasting, following the Celtic tradition, is a betrothal or wedding ritual in which the couple's clasped hands are draped with a cord or ribbon while the couple holds hands.
The ‘tying the knot’ is sometimes referred to as 'Bonds of Matrimony'.

This is an ancient, Celtic, nature-related, spiritual tradition that took place long before weddings became a legal function of the UK government. It is an old ceremony of commitment, first recorded 4,000 years' ago!

This Celtic ceremony of unity represents the intention of two people to make their lives together and ideally to love and cherish one another. Their hands, or more accurately, their wrists, were literally tied together. Each partner holds the hands of the other - right hand to right hand, left hand to left - their wrists crossed. The ribbon is wound around the wrists over the top of one and under and around the other, thus creating the infinity symbol.
ONE YEAR and ONE DAY Handfasting
a betrothal of a year and a day, which the participants can then decide whether to renew or not at the end of that period.
PARTIAL Handfasting
Sometimes a couple prefer a Traditional Wedding Ceremony and include a handfasting as part of their ceremony - immediately after saying their vows.

CALLING ON THE ELEMENTS
:
According to Celtic Spirituality, God is found in all things, not only the human heart, but also in all of God's creations.
The elements of Earth, Fire, Air and Water are called upon to cast blessings upon the couple. The ritual is designed to enable us to get in touch with the life force within ourselves, to sense an interconnectedness with all life, and to access the energies of the living earth.
THE CEREMONIAL CIRCLE
Handfastings are conducted in a circle, which is a symbol of eternity - sign that life, love and happiness have no beginning and no end. All who enter the circle must do so in perfect love and keep sacred the ceremonial space.
"The most beautiful and memorable Handfasting and Marriage Ceremony is assured"
*STONEHENGE: Since 1978 visitors are no longer permitted access within the circle of stones.
It is highly probable we can arrange your ceremony WITHIN the Circle of Stones at sunrise or sunset.
Just how special will that be? Wedding, Renewal of Vows or a Handfasting?
N.B If you have the slightest interest in arranging our Celebrant perform your ceremony, you are encouraged to check availability.
Special Access into Stonehenge is often booked 5 to 6 months in advance, with a few open dates in between. Weekday weddings are generally easier to schedule at shorter notice
Link: http://www.stonehengetours.com/handfasting-marriage-ceremony-stonehenge.htm

Stonehenge Tour Guide

Saturday 8 September 2012

Artificial reef planned in style of Stonehenge

A South Florida entrepreneur is working on an artificial reef that will be a smaller-scale replica of England’s Stonehenge and placed 3 miles off Key Biscayne.

A Miami-Dade County’s collection of artificial reefs includes sunken ships, Army tanks, pieces of a passenger jet, radio towers and a cemetery modeled after the mythical Lost City of Atlantis. In the next year or so, Stonehenge may be added.

 A scale replica of England’s mystical stone monument is slated to be deployed in waters 40 to 60 feet deep about three miles off Key Biscayne in a special management zone that already harbors several other artificial reefs. Built of carved limestone from a Homestead quarry and reinforced with fiberglass composite rods, the concentric stone circles are expected to be a haven for marine creatures and scuba divers.
“Stonehenge will be the largest artistically-inspired, manmade reef ever created,” declared project mastermind Gary Levine of Hollywood, president of Reefbuilders International. “It will be beneficial to the ocean and to divers.”
Levine says Stonehenge, taking up about a half-acre of the ocean floor, will be larger than the neighboring Neptune Reef, the Atlantis-like graveyard Levine created in 2007 that was taken over by the Neptune Society, a cremation services company. Levine says Stonehenge will have more than 15,000 cubic feet of stone weighing 1.2 million pounds. The tallest of the stone structures will rise 24 feet from the bottom, he said.
“We’re going to build it in its completed form — not in its current form where half of it is missing,” he said.
Levine and his Reefbuilders colleagues have recently begun carving limestone blocks into Stonehenge configurations. They plan to transport the structures in 200-ton barge loads out to the deployment site, with the first phase placed in early spring 2013. Levine said the columns will be oriented just like the real things standing in the English countryside — lining up with the summer and winter solstices.
The original Stonehenge was constructed by unknown architects beginning about 5,000 years ago and believed to be a burial ground and celestial observatory.
The new artificial reef has the tentative blessing of Miami-Dade’s Department of Regulatory and Economic Resources/Environmental Resources Management section, according to Steve Blair, chief of the restoration and enhancement section.
“As far as we’re looking at it, the materials are appropriate. It can be enhanced to increase habitat benefits from it,” Blair said.
Blair said he would like to see smaller enclosed spaces added to the collection of stone columns to create hiding places for smaller creatures such as lobsters and reef fish. Once that issue is resolved and a specific site selected, the county will look at final approval.
Meanwhile, Levine — an entrepreneur with ventures including selling aircraft, running a weight-loss clinic and raising live rock for aquariums — is looking for help to fund the project, which he estimates will cost $400,000 to $500,000.
He said he’ll offer 65 “naming opportunities” for individuals or groups who support Stonehenge.
“We want to talk to people who use the ocean and love the ocean to support the project,” Levine said.
The last major artificial reef deployed in Miami-Dade coastal waters was the 210-foot freighter Ophelia Brian in December 2009.
Link source:
scocking@miamiherald.com

Stonehenge Tour Guide

Saturday 1 September 2012

Could Stonehenge feature in Hollywood blockbuster ?


Could Stonehenge be about to feature in a Hollywood Blockbuster?

Film crews have been at the famous site and it's thought they're working on Thor: The Dark World.

English Heritage have confirmed cameras have been at the historic monument in the early hours of August 29th although  aren't able to reveal which production company is involved.

The sequel to the 2011 film Thor is directed by Kenneth Branagh and stars Australian heartthrob Chris Hemsworth, Oscar winning actress Natalie Portman as well as Anthony Hopkins and Christopher Ecclestone.

It is due to be released in Autumn 2013.
Source: http://www.spirefm.co.uk

Stonehenge Tour Guide