Monday 12th May 2025 12 noon, local time
Sun in Taurus, Earth, the Builder;
Moon in Scorpio, Water, the Magician.
Bartlow Hills – Photo The Modern Antiquarian
Dear Gatekeepers,
Welcome to our Lunar Beltane newsletter. This month our full moon is in the constellation of Scorpio and so we pilgrimage to south Cambridgeshire on the British Landscape Zodiac. Here we find the little known Bartlow Hills. As quoted on the Bartlow Village website: Bartlow Hills is a scheduled ancient monument, owned by the Trustees of the Bartlow Estate and in the guardianship of Cambridgeshire County Council.
The hills were originally the largest group of Roman Barrows in northern Europe and include the highest burial mound in Britain. The seven mounds covered extraordinarily rich burials containing a wonderful collection of artistic objects, the best found in Britain. Mound IV, the largest, is 45’ high and 144’ in diameter. Mound II is still visible as a low rise, I is just discernible, and III is totally destroyed. Their steep conical shape, originally surrounded by a ditch, is typical of Roman burial mounds.
A unique Roman artifact, a richly decorated bronze enamelled vessel – The British Museum
Large wooden chests with iron fittings were found in five mounds and there was a brick cist in another. Cremated burials, with food and drink in exotic vessels and decorated bronze, glass and pottery and other sacrificial offerings had been deposited in the chests, which were buried with lamps still burning in them. Items found included an iron folding chair and the remains of flowers, box leaves, a sponge, incense and liquids including blood, milk and wine mixed with honey. Burial Mounds of this type were built in the late first and early second centuries AD in eastern England and Belgium.
Most artefacts in them show the high status of the owner; they were usually imported from the Rhineland and northern Gaul, and are concerned with feasting and sacrificial offerings, rather than personal belongings which would be used in the afterlife.
The surviving mounds became overgrown before they were taken into guardianship by Essex County Council in 1978. The scrub was cleared and fences built for protection. The hills passed to the Cambridgeshire County Council in 1990 after a change in the County boundary. Built of chalk and unusable for agriculture, the surviving mounds are a refuge for the distinctive plants and insects of chalk grassland; the Pasque flower grew here until early this century.
There is a display on the Bartlow hills at Saffron Walden Museum and many other artefacts can be seen there and in museums in Cambridgeshire and Colchester and the British Museum. Other Roman barrows can be seen at the 6 Hills, Stevenage and Great Stukeley, Cambridgeshire. “ https://e-voice.org.uk/bartlow/the-village/village-history/tumuli/
A C17 engraving of the Bartlow Hills wrongly attributed to Danish burial mounds.
This links in with the Scorpio Full Moon at Lunar Beltane, which is a potent convergence of deep emotional energies, transformation, and fertility celebration. It brings intensity, emotional depth, and a call to confront what lies beneath the surface. Scorpio rules transformation, secrets, power, death, and rebirth. Here we meet Charlotte in the sign of Taurus: https://gatekeeper.org.uk/events/wheel-of-life-full-moon-meditation-taurus-sun-scorpio-moon/
Lunar Beltane is the time our ancestors would have celebrated Beltane, before the time of written calendars, when time was measured by the sun and moon. Beltane is the ancient fire festival marking the beginning of summer, leading up to the Summer Solstice on the 21st of June. The name of Beltane comes from the Celtic God Bel and the Celts’ belief that fire was protective. It was thought that rituals of walking around, or even leaping over bonfires would bring good fortune, fertility and happiness to people and their livestock. People created household fires, re-lit from the bonfires and houses were decorated with flowers. Naturally, the rituals were accompanied by much feasting and merriment! This is how it was celebrated this year in Glastonbury Town.
The Beltane King and Queen - Photo from Facebook
As the years went by, the festivities came to include the crowning of a May Queen and dancing around the maypole. Today Beltane is celebrated on May 1st and the rituals are still strongly celebrated today in some parts of Britain. In Lincolnshire we celebrated by dancing around the Maypole.
Maypole Dancing this year in Lincolnshire – Photo Gill Fiddies
With thanks to Amelia and the Trustees.
Sending love to you on your landscape.
Rose Rose.wol2022@gmail.com