From Solstice To Solstice

As I watch the growth and progress of "our little family" of Canada geese, I can't help but think back to last Christmas Day when I saw the huge gathering and migratory flight of Canadas, and now, the ever lengthening days remind me that we are approaching the Summer Solstice. Nearly six months have passed since I was so captivated by the silent flight of those hundreds of north bound geese and I remember that a friend had suggested they might be following "ley lines."

The lengthening hours of daylight and the recent re-discovery of an ancient Woodland Indian mound near the town where I presently live, also carried me back to childhood summers and midsummer celebrations. I live in a state which was part of the old "Northwest Territory" added to the land area of the fledgling United States in the year 1787. This territory was east of the Mississippi River and was sort of nestled in between the Ohio River and the Great Lakes. Many First Peoples had called this region their own over a span of many centuries. Before the Shawnee Prophet and his brother Tecumseh formed a federation of Eastern Woodland Indians, and fought the white Europeans to hold possession of their homelands, before Columbus "discovered" the New World, and even before the birth of Christ, this land (which eventually became the five states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin) belonged to a group of Woodland Indians who are today identified as the Adena and the Hopewell cultures. These people were "mound builders" who constructed earthwork monuments which are similar to those found in eastern Europe. Today, the few remaining mounds are treated as historical and archaeological treasures and are recognized to be thousands of years old. But, before the Twentieth Century, and into my childhood, when there were so many of them in this rich farming land, it was said that the mounds were worthless "garbage dumps" and they were flattened and plowed under in the name of progress.

About two years ago, the State Department of Transportation, in preparations to widen a highway "discovered" a very distinctive ring of mounded earth hidden in a small stand of trees in the middle of a cornfield. Aerial photographs revealed the "curiosity" and a great deal of attention was paid to it in newspaper stories - speculation about the true nature and purpose of the "ring of earth" ran wild, with some "long time residents" saying that in the 1930s, the people who owned the land had used the ring as a race track for animals they raised - some said they were foxes, others said otters or mink. But there were others who, like me, knew a different story about that ring of earth.


The location of the field which held the "Ring" was within short walking distance of my grandmother's farm and lay along the east bank of a river that flowed southward through many counties. It was the custom of many of the farm neighbors in that area to gather in that woods for summer picnics and celebration of summer holidays. I recall being there on "mid summer" and also the short walk to the river and wading through the shallow waters to a sandbar where bonfires were lit as the sun settled into its night time bed. There was always "fiddle playing" and dancing, great amounts of food and socializing. As darkness settled lanterns would lead the way back to the "circle" for singing, more music and story telling. If the night sky was clear, stars were named and constellations were pointed out. This is where I learned to identify the Pleiades, the fabled "Seven Sisters." Stories were told about the people who had used this ring for many, many years, and in the telling became fairy tales and legends about the ancient people who had built the circle and used it for their own magical celebrations and social gatherings. Somehow, my own childish imagination (or intuition) knew that even before the Ring existed, there were other, and even more magical beings who inhabited this forested land. My sleepy eyes often believed I could see them peeking through the leaves, watching and enjoying the singing and story telling.


These days, archaeologists from the local university confirm that this "racetrack" is indeed an ancient Indian earthwork. It is, not surprisingly, located a relatively short distance from another area of significant earthworks situated along the eastern bank of the same river. The largest of the second group of mounds, called "The Great Mound" is a ditch mound and has been verified as

being more than two thousand years old. The second location includes ten mounds and was preserved nearly intact because it was located in a wooded area of land which belonged to a family who appreciated the cultural value of these mysterious, ancient earth works. The land changed hands several times, nearly always with some damage to the mounds, until finally the State received the land and created a state park in order to preserve the mounds. After many decades, a group of anthropologists/archaeologists did an extensive study of the large ditch mound, including some excavation. It was a given that the construct was of ancient origin, but the mystery of its purpose remained hidden until nearly the end of the excavation. There are three smaller mounds within a few feet of the large ditch mound. One is called the "Fiddle Mound" which has always reminded me of a double gourd, and its companion, a much smaller, circular mound which is nearly invisible unless one is looking for it. Both of these lie outside the high embankment wall which surrounds the "ditch" of the large circle mound. The Fiddle Mound lies to the north west, and the smaller circle mound is located at the southwest of the Great Mound. The third mound is the smallest and least conspicuous and is located to the east and slightly south of the entrance opening and moat of the Great Mound. The ditch mound is oriented north and south, with the ramp and opening which gives access to the platform area of the mound being due south in the circle. The platform area of the mound is very flat, almost like a stage and the circular embankment which surrounds the platform is a very tall wall. When standing outside the mound, one cannot see the center stage, but when one is on the platform of the Great Mound, there is a dip in the embankment through which Fiddle Mound is visible, and it is apparent that the Fiddle Mound aligns with the sunset at Summer Solstice. Likewise, the alignment of the smaller mound to the south west corresponds with the sunset at Winter Solstice. The sun, in effect, can be tracked across the dips and rises in the embankment wall as it travels across the sky from Solstice to Solstice.




The topography of the embankment is intended to reproduce the ancient vision of the horizon and the night sky ... a matter of orientation and reference for a people who lived in a heavily wooded land which offered no clear vision of the horizon. A representation of the universe as the mound builders knew it to exist. It has been further determined that the smallest mound, located south east of the mound corresponds to the rising of the bright star known as Fomalhaut, which is visible in the Fall. There is another set of mounds within the park with an east-west orientation and the openings in one of these correspond with the sun rise and sunset of the Equinoxes. With the recent "discovery" of the Ring-Track Mound, archaeologists are now speculating that it too aligns in some mysterious way with the earthworks not only in the state park, but with other mound sites in East Central Indiana. Perhaps there is some sort of "ley line" effect at work here as well. I know of other mounds between these two sites - but their locations are held secret by those who guard them.

The anthropologist who excavated and examined these mounds, has noted his belief that the mound groupings were centers for defining sacred space, gathering places for ceremonial use - there are no nearby sites which indicate the existence of permanent living sites or villages. There are other of these earthwork complexes within this area of the state, and they are all located on the east bank of the river which navigates the region. The river provided a ready access for the people who traveled to share the sacred meeting circles. It is not a great stretch of logic to conclude that these were gathering places for a people who came there to share sacred ceremony, social interaction, and to exchange knowledge or ideas about their lives and their perceived place in the universe.

In much the same way, the so-called medicine wheels of the western United States must have served not only to define sacred space, but also to aid the people who gathered there to define their understanding of themselves and their meaning in the universe as they knew it. As a young teenager, I traveled west with family members to a place which had not been discovered by the "white man." It was a sacred space, also a circle, atop a high plateau and marked not by mounded earth, but by rocks and cairns. At night, on the high plains, under clear skies, it was sometimes impossible to distinguish the white rocks of the circle from the stars in the sky ... it was as though a person were completely immersed in the totality of the universe. A story teller taught the gathering which cairns and pole alignments marked the Solstice and the Equinoxes, and which poles pointed

to the constellations and especially to the Pleiades. We learned how to tell by watching the stars when it was time to travel to the sacred space, and to watch for the "bull's eye star," (called now Aldebaran), because that star rose at the same time as the Sun on the day of the Summer Solstice. Then it was time for the Sun Dancing, and the summer days of learning and meeting and being together. And then, said the old one, when the Bright Star that comes in the golden weather moves across this pole, it is time to travel home for winter is coming. The Bright Star of the Golden Weather is Fomalhaut - the same star which is marked by a small mound of earth in the sacred space marked by the Great Mound and the Dancing Ring of my childhood