When hearing the term crop circles many may think little green men or UFO’s, but the mystery is far deeper when you’re on the inside.
The Emergence of Crop Circles
It’s the early 70’s. A new conservative government has taken office, the shilling has given way to the pound, and a music revolution has taken England by the horns. But elsewhere, deep in the heart of Wiltshire, as spring subsidies and the crop season begins; rumours of flying saucer nests are meandering their way through the English countryside.
By the 80’s rumour had spread into a country wide phenomena thanks to heavy news coverage after a series of circular crop formations on military bases that were alleged to be UFO landing spots.
‘I lived in London at the time – I thought that Wilshire was another part of the world’
A thick London accent recounts, behind a black call screen with the username ‘Citizen D’ cast across in white. ‘Citizen D’ as we will call him is a retired crop circle maker who was operational from the late 90’s to the 2000’s.
‘When I did my first circle I went out as a stomper, that’s like a foot solider, you’re not experienced enough to plan your own so your just employed. Well I say employed, there’s no money in it. You’re just deployed to do the stomping and, y’know, to make sure the shading is done.’
I could hear him exhale his cigarette as he blew the abbreviated ‘y’know’ my way, a phrase that would be recurring throughout the interview, and I’ll be honest now, I did not know.
Out On Crop Circle Makes
Crop circle teams work using strings attached to poles acting as an anchor point so they can create perfect circle shapes. As well as rectangles of wooden board on string, pushed down by their foot and pulled up by their hand which they would use to stomp the crop below.
‘Something would happen on every single make, I mean whether it be comical or something a bit weird. Every single circle was eventful. Sometimes when you’re out making a circle you get a sense of ‘we really should be doing this’ and you feel sort of compelled.’
Citizen D’s first circle make appeared to be his most memorable. His team leader was a seasoned maker and designer involved in circles all over the South West of England. It was the middle of the night and they were almost done with their circle.
‘the very instant that it was finished we saw what looked like pinpoint flashlights that looked like the bulbs on those old instamatic Polaroid camera’s, y’know from the 70’s’
The flashes spread from left to right along the edge of the circle until they encompassed the whole of the outer rim.
‘It looked like a giant necklace. We called it the biggest necklace in the world
‘My first instinct was; oh my god, we’ve been done, someone’s been watching us all the time, that’s cameras. I said ‘oh shit we’re in trouble now, that’s the lot, y’know’.
But Citizen D’s team leader brushed him off and told him not to worry ‘it happens all the time’.
‘what do you mean?’ replied Citizen D who’s thick London accent had only gotten thicker while recounting this memory, I could hear him inhale the last breath in his cigarette.
‘it’s just them telling us that it’s finished and not to do anything else to it because if you do anything else to it you might ruin it’ Assures his team leader.
‘What are you talkin’ about?’
His team leader looked up and went ‘alright we’re done now, go on do your work’
‘Which means that when the circle’s done it then brings joy to people’ Citizen D explained to me, to avoid confusion.
‘T, who you talkin’ to?’ Citizen D asks, more confused than ever.
‘That lot’ The man now known as ‘T’ responds while pointing upwards and leaves the circle laughing.
Most crop circle makers will tell of similar experiences when out in the fields late at night, an uninhabited pasture is described in the croppie world as ‘a theatre of the unknown’. You may be forgiven as a reader for asking; What actually happened here? If this isn’t UFO’s then what is it?
‘We think that were actually tapping into something that our ancestors knew a lot more about’
Citizen D, with the preface of no man being able to grasp the true nature of these mystical goings on, goes onto explain the longstanding tradition of neolithic sites such as stone circles and long barrows and a connection with another unexplainable realm.
‘I had this really strange feeling, it was tantalising, I know what this is but I seem to have forgotten, and what I mean by that is not me personally but the collective consciousness’
The southwest of England is the crop circle centre of the world, it is also an extremely popular pilgrimage site dating back thousands of years to the present day. If one were to examine the leylines of the world the southwest of England would be at the heart of it.
‘I just feel as if, and it’s not just me – we all think this, the reason we are drawn to these central hubs of Wiltshire is because we are reconnecting with the – with whatever it was that our ancestors connected to’
‘sometimes we’ve gone to make a circle and someone’s already made it and we’re going – ‘what the fuck’ – they’ve put’in the same design that we were gonna put down – they’ve beaten us to it by like a day’
But who is ‘they’ and how would they have done this? What was described to me is a ‘storage cloud’ or ‘the broadband of brothers’.
‘We had this situation where we were all into this punk band and one season we thought let’s just do the band logo, cause their fans are gonna get it, we all had distinguishing tags like Banksy’
Citizen D’s trademark tag is a sharp crescent.
‘lets just sit down in the pub and lets just see if this logo is gonna be doable – let’s write it down 4 scraps of paper – put ‘em together and lets just see if we can do it’
The answer was yes they could.
‘But somebody said you do realise you’ve been wearing those band t shirts all season it’s not gonna take a genius to link it to you and we though ‘ahh shit that’s a good point you know’
But within a week, the four coordinators found four circles within 2 or three miles of The Barge Pub, where they’d sat down to do the design, each design containing strong similarities to their paper pieces.
‘I was doing a sharp crescent point that turned up in one circle and then another turned up in another circle – they looked like they’d been thought up afterwards’
‘We’re not so stupid as to believe that some unseen forces is telling us to do a punk logo but what we do think is that our intent somehow hovered in the ether there – and then was grabbed back by each team’
But I was still left wondering, why are crop circles and little green men so intrinsically tied in public perception? It appears the community is divided.
‘It all began with the 80s old-school ‘cookie cutter’ events. Those single circles were mistaken for where space ships had touched down, particularly those with four tiny satellites spaced outside that gave the impression of a craft with landing gear’
As we progressed in technique and technology circles evolved to extremely complex designs, now to the ‘believers’ within the community they are messages from aliens.
‘The bond though, which was a figment, was so ingrained in the psyche that it still can’t be severed’
He takes a pause and before I can ask another question he asks;
‘Have you ever heard of cultural tracking?’
I had not heard of cultural tracking.
‘Where we see lights and orbs now and they’re interpreted and ufo’s they were interpreted as spirits hundreds of years ago’
‘Its the same thing but it’s based on where we are in our technology and where we are in our understanding. So we’re saying that whatever this thing is culturally tracks us and we’re seeing the same phenomena but were interpreting it based on where we are in our evolution now’
He’d dropped the ‘y’know’ by now, he’d sparked up another cigarette too.
‘The reason I say It cant be people, 100% right 100% wrong, is because if you speak to the circle makers they will tell you that there’s some other sense when they’re making circles as if they’re experiencing very good luck and what I’m trying to say is that we think… even with the man made circles that there is some element of mystery there’
