Stonehenge Mushrooms

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While out walking, we saw in the distance what looked like a miniature Stonehenge. Upon closer inspection it turned out to be a cluster of mushrooms, but cool nonetheless! Stonehenge, along with many other megaliths, have a seemingly high concentration in the United Kingdom. Here’s just a partial list:

  • Stonehenge, Wiltshire, England
  • The Ring of Brodgar, Orkney Isles, Scotland
  • Avebury, England
  • Rollright Stones, England
  • Drombeg Stone Circle, Ireland

These massive prehistoric monuments are sprinkled elsewhere around the globe. For example, there are three in Africa: the stone circles of Senegambia, Senegal, and The Gambia.

A number of hypotheses exist regarding the origin and purpose of these structures, but they share a common denominator — a shroud of mystery. It’s been said that stepping inside standing stones unlocks the ability to travel between dimensions of time, both forward and back.

From books, music, art, and cinema, to ancient stone circles…

What is it that transports you?

Laurie Buchanan

“Whatever you are not changing, you are choosing.” — Laurie Buchanan

The Book—Discovering the Seven Selves
The Experience—Life Harmony

© Laurie Buchanan 2013

Find me on Twitter @HolEssence
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83 thoughts on “Stonehenge Mushrooms”

    • CultFit – Speaking of KINDNESS…

      …the shirt that you sent me arrived yesterday. THANK YOU! I’m sitting at Starbuck’s right now because we’ve been out of power at home since Sunday when we got hammered by the storm that swept through the midwest. The power company assures us that our “sector” should be back up and running by 3pm this afternoon.

      And yes, you most certainly may add CARHENGE to the list 🙂

      thank you, Thank You, THANK YOU again for the “Sit Happens” shirt!

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      • I’m relieved to hear that you and your family are safe, the storm that ravaged the Midwest is unfathomable in scale and the wrath it left behind. Tremendously heartbreaking …
        I’m also happy to hear you received your spiffy “Sit Happens” tee, in light of recent events? Wear it proud my friend!
        Take care and please be well. 🙂

    • Kathy – While we were getting battered by the storm I wondered about you and Barry up in your neck of the woods. Most of our damage was done by downed trees and you live in the thick of a forest. I hope that all is well with you. I’ll head over to Facebook shortly to get caught up there. While I’m riding this wave of electricity (thank you Starbuck’s), I’m going to make hay while the sun shines 🙂

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  3. When I am working creatively, planning a garden site, working on a new project, writing or recently as I am painting. All artists and craftsmen know of the Zone, when the work seems to fly under your hands, to appear as if by magic, and Time zips by you turning hours into minutes. The Zone is where I turn myself over to the Creator to be used for his purposes and energy fills me to be poured out with paint and canvas creating something that came who knows where. You cannot remain in the Zone for too long as you will deplete your physical body by ignoring its needs, but when you are there it’s like sailing before the wind!

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    • Sandi – “…like sailing before the wind!” I love your analogy. I’m familiar with the Zone as it pertains to writing. I try to maintain my footing on the board for as long as possible whenever I catch that wave 🙂

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  4. What transports me is being out in the natural world, sharing it with all of the creatures and plants. They help me to feel spacious and to breathe deep cleansing breaths.

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  5. Standing in the forest as it breathes and moves. Having permission to photograph those surroundings transforms me…

    I was once a retreat in Mass, which had a sacred circle within a field on the edge of a forest within that circle the energy to me was a physical experience! Very transformational!

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  6. When your post appeared in my email box, I was intrigued by the title. I loved the photo of your mushroom Stonehenge. It reminded me of another mystical place that inspires thoughts of magic: fairy circles, which are rings of mushrooms that are said to be places where fairies dance and participate in magical ceremonies.

    Dreams transport me to fantastical places and inspire the written word – and, of course, the Withershins! 😉

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  8. Books, books and more books . I sometimes wish I had three heads because I read three books at the same time and having three heads would make it easier ( when I say read three books at a time, I mean I read a chapter of one book at a time, but have three books on the go lol I’m not Harry Potter) Having said that, I love reading children’s books. I love to be transported back to a magical time .
    Cherry x ( thank you for saying you liked my name last week. When I was a child I got teased terribly at school for it lol)

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    • Cherry – We are such book addicts that we haven’t had a television in our home for over 33 years! We read, Read, READ all the time.

      A few of my favorite children’s books include: “Time at the Top,” “A Wrinkle in Time,” “Black and Blue Magic,” and “Thrumpomoto.”

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  9. Music transports me more than anything else.
    On a side note, we had a bumper crop of those exact type of mushrooms in our yard this season! Couldn’t get any of them to cluster together a la Stonehenge, though.

    Chris

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  10. Well Laurie I was transported by your mushrooms in this photograph. They are from this distance “Shaggy Mane” mushrooms and edible when young. I use to pick them as a kid and fry them up to add to dishes instead of canned mushrooms which was the only other choice. Here is the wiki link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coprinus_comatus and if you look at a search for images only you will see your Stonehenge over and over again. Hope you get your power back as planned this afternoon.

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    • Terrill – I’m glad for the link, thank you! So now we know — Shaggy Mane Mushrooms! Had we known they were edible when we saw them, we may well have “snagged” them. There’s nothing I like better than homemade mushroom soup! 🙂

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  13. We had a short power outage yesterday in a wind and rain storm and I was out raking leaves for 4 hours – I can relate to your cold and storm and hope you are dry and safe

    I so wanted to see Stonehenge when in UK, but It was too expensive so I had to stay outside the fence….I believe your ‘shroom stand maybe more powerful! I loved the picture

    taking another marketing class today which I hope will be transforming, as my “out of house experience” for a week to San Francisco- hope both will give me some fresh ideas and good thinking – creative thinking ahead.
    I also have a paid – lead a book discussion on Mr Penumbra’s 24- Hour Bookstore tonight – what a great fable. My workshop is 90 minutes and I think I have 4 or 5 hours worth of material to pare down. That book has been very transforming for me and it just makes me feel happy to read it.

    Thank you for this post,I thought it was very fun – hoping the power comes back soon and there is good recovery.

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  14. Thank you for this interesting post, Laurie. I’m inspired to add a few more stones to my front yard and see where I could travel. Imagine, I could go any where and not suffer jet lag. : )
    What transforms me: my writing.

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  16. Hi Laurie

    mega (large) lith (stone)
    Today we take the iron out of the stone and erect sky scrapers – most of the largest in worship of money itself.

    It is hard to tell if the old megalithic structures were about preserving information, or about worship, or about some sort of “one-up-man-ship”. I suspect that in most cases all motives were involved.

    As to mystery, it is everywhere, around us, within us. Our conscious awareness is so puny, even in relationship to the matter that is our bodies, without recourse to the rest of the universe, or the infinite realms of the possible.

    I don’t need transportation – I am!
    There is mystery in every breath, every movement, every thought!

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    • Ted – “I am.” Two of the most powerful words in the world for what we put after them shapes our reality. And I oh-so-agree with your sentiment that “our conscious awareness is so puny…”

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  18. LOVE your mushroom photos and I thought the same thing when I first looked at them. What transports me? Well, nature, obviously — and solitude … and a character-driven novel chock full of emotion.

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    • Melissa – I just finished reading Fannie Flagg’s “The All-Girl Filling Station’s Last Reunion.” I think you’d like it. Here’s the review I posted on Goodreads:

      “Fannie Flagg takes her readers on a humorous, high-flying look at finding oneself and releasing the notion that coming from a “good” family has anything to do with heirloom silver and real pearls; that a person isn’t defined by what they’ve achieved, rather by what they’ve overcome; all the while paying tribute to the WASP’s—Women Airforce Service Pilots—female World War II pilots who faced and overcame insurmountable obstacles with grace, bravery, and courage. Whose sacrifices, determination, and refusal-to-fail attitude opened doors for women today.”

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  19. Gosh, I love this post, Laurie. First of all, isn’t it amazing how the mushrooms look like huge stones? And secondly, so many things move me, language, art, nature. And stones move me–I’m forever picking them up and bringing them home, arranging them on windowsills, like altars.

    Hugs from Ecuador,
    Kathy

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  20. Well, Laurie, I pull out my drum and start drumming. Shamanic drumming can transport me all over the place and I’ve met some fabulous people, spirits, and creatures. Here in the middle world, really great songs do it for me every time.

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  22. First off Laurie, I do hope that light has descended on Crystal Lake during the dark. And that you are back in the saddle.

    Looks like I had my chance over the summer to see so much more as you have illustrated here. And this was originally a major priority. Maybe we’ll get another chance one day.

    Lately we’ve been “transported” to the U.K. and locally to Boston and Salem. But other trips are being discussed. Literature, opera, classical music, theater, the cinema and children’s books continue to dominate our sphere of interest. The entire family gravitates to these forms as well.

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    • Sam – Our power was restored this afternoon. Whoohoo!

      Yes, your family would make a great advertisement for PLANES, TRAINS, AND AUTOMOBILES, and I love the way Melanie is capturing it all on film 🙂

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  23. Thank you for your recommendations for children’s books…they look great . I love ‘A Little White Horse’ by Elizabeth Goudge and anything by David Almond .
    Sorry to hear about your storms glad you’re ok .
    Cherry x

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  26. i just had a funky thought – maybe, just maybe the ancients built these stones as a result of being inspired by the mushrooms? i mean, people paint/sculpt landscapes and objects all of the time. maybe an ancient artist saw a cluster of ‘shrooms and decided to make a piece of art? obviously in later years, they inspired salads:)

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  29. Being present with people at their darkest, most vulnerable moments… And on a lighter note, archaeology and ruins made of stone: Macchu Pichu, the Pyramids, Colosseum, Acropolis, Tulum, Newgrange, Welsh Castles — I could keep going, but (mercifully) I’ll stop.

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  31. I would have to say music and nature. Also, sometimes jogging will get me in the zone. Love the mushrooms – how interesting! 🙂 Have a great weekend and great holiday.

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  34. I once saw an art installation which consisted of an old (but clean) trash can…if you climbed inside and pulled the lid down over your head, it would transport you to anywhere in the world you wished to go…but if you lifted the lid to peep outside, you would end up exactly where you started!

    I have never seen a mushroom circle like yours, but living here in Ireland, I am surrounded by stone circles…and standing stones…and burial chambers…and we practically all have mounds in our back gardens, just most people don’t recognise them. But I do, and for me, it’s the Irish landscape and mythology which transports me…so I’m very lucky to live right in the middle of it!

    Loved the post!

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    • Ali – The art installation you described sounds like a fascinating concept! You are, indeed, surrounded by stone circles, standing stones, and burial chambers in Ireland. I’m a wee bit green with jealousy. Ahhhhh, but we’ll save that for St. Patrick’s Day 🙂

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