Tag Archives for texas

Scary Stuff! Caelum Moor, Arlington, Texas

caelum moorphotos by Robert Asplet, blogged from Flickr

“A wee bit o’ Scotland has come to the outskirts of Cowboys Stadium, and with it a foggy auld controversy over whether a Scottish sculpture park is also a pagan shrine that might hex the Dallas Cowboys.”  “ ‘I believe there’s a devil and that we tugged on his cape.’ ” (From this article, the second a quote from Michael Tummillo.)

Ah, Texas. Welcome to Caelum Moor. Five modern megalithic sculptures made of granite, three of them trilithons, that have been in storage since 1997 have recently been re-erected in a park near Arlington, to the great joy of many art lovers and to the alarm and even anger of some on-the-fringe Christians, led by nursing home chaplain Michael Tummillo, who assert that it is pagan, therefore evil and therefore likely to attract–yes–the devil!

caelum moor 2It is clear that Tummillo has more belief in the power of the sculptures than anyone else does and maybe he ought to be admired for that. Pagans, at least the ones I know, would be unlikely to expect that modern sculptures recently placed near two sports stadiums will draw in any kind of spirits, let alone a spirit who is, let’s face it, pretty much a Christian construct.

You know the drill–Tummillo and his gang somehow get from worrying about pagans and Wiccans worshiping at the sculpture park to talking about satanism, which is much closer to being a heretical sect of Christianity than it is to having anything to do with Wicca or paganism. And it all makes assumptions that don’t work, like that these sculptures are not art but religious objects, or that people won’t practice paganism or Wicca if the sculptures aren’t there.

Of course, the vast majority of Christians can enjoy these sculptures for their beauty and the resonance of ancient Britain they carry, without getting weird about it. They can instead chuckle at the bit about Scotland in that opening line above. Name a stone circle with lintels in Scotland–We didn’t think so!

caelum moor 3Controversy aside, the combination of landscape and sculpture in this park seems to transcend its site in the sports and business complex. You can see a walkthrough of Caelum Moor here. There is no circle, none of the other characteristics of Stonehenge, but it does have a grand feel, even over the internet. We give it 6½ druids. They’re not real druids, okay? We don’t want to scare anyone!

The artist’s name is Norman Hines. We applaud his beautiful work! And a note about Michael Tummillo: he has written a book about his experience fighting Caelum Moor the first time it was up (so we doubt he’s trying to drum up media coverage! 😉). And as for the Cowboys–their problems probably can’t be traced back to public sculpture. Just a hunch.

Our thanks to Karen Hetherington for telling us about this one. And again, we wish everyone a wonderful Halloween and Samhain!

[See the comments for a statement from M. Tummillo.]

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Henge Shui: A Garden Henge in Red Oak, Texas

Thos 3

photos and henge by Thomas, and Power Feng Shui, with permission

Building a large trilithon of stone is no easy task. The stones  have to be much larger than the portion visible above ground, and stone weighs a lot. We bring this up in order to underline the respect due to anyone who manages to build a large stone replica, no matter what the motivation.

And we bring that up because we suspect there are some among our readership who may be inclined to jeer, to cavil, indeed even to scoff, at the stated motivations of Thomas, the man who imagined and then built the replica above. He gives an explanation at this website, and in it he mentions Celtic magic and power and a bridge to the underworld, spirits and elementals–even white robes.

Thos 5Now we know that these topics rub many of our readers the wrong way, but they are, as inevitably as archaeology, engineering and astronomy, tied up in people’s perception of Stonehenge. And when the henge parasite hatches in the mind, it goes straight as if by instinct for the most vulnerable area. Sometimes it’s art, sometimes it’s science, sometimes it’s tourism, sometimes it’s bravado, sometimes it’s nostalgia, sometimes it’s play and sometimes it’s a mystical inclination. That last is the case here.

We’ve made the argument often that the Celts and druids could not have built Stonehenge, having arrived at least a millennium too late, but that does not technically preclude the possibility that those descended from Celtic peoples have some blood of the megalithic builders in their veins.  Celtic culture could have arrived as a style embraced by the indigenous people of the isles, rather than as a race who arrived to exterminate them–and some DNA testing suggests that is precisely the case.

Thos 7So scoff if you must, scoffers, but in the henging world there are many mansions and all who henge are welcome. You can read more by and about Thomas and his henging inspiration here.

Score for this nice garden trilithon and stone circle: 6 druids. He included a heel stone and a few small bluestone-like uprights. And to be honest, we would be thrilled to have this in our garden, an intimation of a magical world. We’re also thrilled to have another large, permanent replica!

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Odessa Henge, Texas Rocks!

odessa

photo by Texas Bob, with permission

When you talk about Stonehenge in Texas you have to specify which one. There are two–that is, two that are well-known–in the Lone Star State: one of stone and one we’ll get to another day. The Odessa Stonehenge, shown above, seems to us the nicer of the two.

Built in 2004 of limestone slabs, the monument is truer to the original than many and great care was taken in aligning it. As this article says, “The replica is across the street from society’s monuments of Home Depot, OfficeMax and Starbucks.”  Note the Texas flag waving behind the stones.

More nice pictures of Odessa’s Stonehenge can be seen here (winter comes even to Texas) and here (as does the moody dusk). While its proportions are a little off and the replacement of one slab with two detracts from the look a little, this is a remarkably impressive monument to be stuck in suburban America.  Some replica builders could learn much from it. Score: 8 druids!