This year I spent the spring equinox with friends in Derbyshire, visiting two of the stone circles from the Bull Tor triangle. The journey between these circles and the exercises carried out at each of them are the subject of the book The Dancing Circles (see an earlier article here). This time we visited Arbor Low and Eyam Moor Stone Circle, and I have a little bit to say about our time at Arbor Low.

Thursday was unusually warm and sunny, but approaching Arbor Low in the morning there was a white haze blanketing the hills, like a cocoon under which spring was being prepared. The trees were beginning to bud, and crocuses were in flower in the circle itself. Sky larks were trilling in the air above us.

The exercise for Arbor Low aims to still the mind, and consists of visualising the sun’s progress through the sky from sunrise to sunset, taking about ten minutes for the entire imaginary arc. The equinox is a good day to do this exercise, because the sun rises due east, sets due west, and rises to a point due south of the zenith at noon. This arch of course extends under the earth, where the sun travels at night, making a circle with a spindle through the centre which points towards the north star.

The exercise did seem to work, and perhaps there is something about the nature of the sun’s motion that helps. We know it moves across the sky, but it looks stationary. The exercise brings an awareness of this contrast into the mind, so that we can experience both change and stillness, and perhaps be aware of the bigger world we live in.

Happy Equinox!