Today is the Winter Solstice in the southern hemisphere, which means that it is the Summer Solstice in the northern hemisphere. So it is then that the thoughts of all good English pagans are bent towards the most defining symbol of English paganism, Stonehenge. By any persons standard this is a magnificent piece of human engineering and one that would have taken religious devotion to erect with the technology that was available at the time. I defy anyone with any degree of spirituality to stand amongst those Sarsens and not feel filled with awe.

Many come to marvel at this ancient temple but at the summer solstice it is the true domain of modern day pagans. Their worship at the site is somewhat contentious however and the fundamental disconnect that underlies this contentiousness is whether it is a historic ruin, the English Heritage view, or a living embodiment of pagan and druidic culture.

Summer Solstice is a big day for pagan celebrations and for many years modern day Druids were allowed access to the site to perform rituals on this day. This however is not a practice that has continued uninterrupted through the millennia. The modern Druids have reconstructed their religion based on some facts and some creativity. This lack of continuity has meant that their practices have been discredited by the mainstream community. This is, of course, incredibly presumptuous of the mainstream community since all religious practices had to start at some time and as such all current religious practices of the mainstream religions could be equally discredited.

Concerns by English Heritage that the Druids were damaging the site have lead to banning of them. This is somewhat like preventing Christians from entering York Minster at Easter because of the historical significance of the building and arises because English Heritage views the site as an archaeological ruin whereas the Druids view it as a working temple. Given that the Druids view Stonehenge this way it seems logical that they would want to preserve it and protect it and generally speaking this is, in fact, the case. So both sides of the debate are deeply interesting in the preservation of the site. The main obstacle is that the conservative elements view the Druids as a bunch of new-age whackos and the Druids view the conservatives as narrow minded middle-class propeller-heads. Dr Jenny Blain of Sheffield Hallam University and Dr Robert Wallis of Richmond University are undertaking some excellent work in connecting these two groups to achieve the objective of preserving the historical significance of the site whilst recognising its religious significance to modern day pagans.

Once again the real issue at stake is respect for the diversity of the community. When groups are prepared to accept that others have different views and beliefs from themselves and are prepared to accommodate these differences then workable solutions that satisfy all parties are usually achievable.

Read more of the work of Drs Blain & Wallis here.