The Serpent’s Tail Walk 2023
A Short Form Artist Film made to accompany the Survey Show, ’Monica Sjöö The Great Cosmic Mother’ 2023 – 2024, sharing the sense of place and intertwined symbolism of Avebury celebrating her pagan pilgrimages to this sacred site and Her visionary paintings of Avebury & Silbury celebrating her mantra, ’no spirituality without politics’.
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Serpent’s Tail Walk © 2021
South – West England
Start / Finish
Avebury Henge SN8 1RF
3 miles. 3hrs
Named after the ancient ritual of processing the route to the top of one of the prehistoric Dragon Hills on this walk being Silbury Hill. These hills were known to have artificially flattened tops where there originally stood stone circles and also to have coils of serpentlike earthworks encircling them and leading to their summits.
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The Serpents Tail Walk is a conceptual trail that follows through the Fibonacci Sequence in Nature of a Spiral Form often referred to as the Golden Ratio dating back to the Renaissance.
The walk is an unintended gem as it takes in the ancient sites that flow through its natural structure in the landscape walked by those in touch with Gaia and the language of goddess cultures. Setting out from Avebury Stone Circle the walk takes you down the avenue over Waden Hill to Silbury Hill via Winterbourne Stream, then over Pan Bridge and the Springs there to West Kennet Long Barrow and onwards to Swallowhead Springs Sacred Well. The Mary Energy Ley - Line comes through the Great River Kennet and through the Spring. The ancients believed that life began in the waters and rivers, streams, wells and springs that are sacred to Her. The walk follows back into Avebury on the Western Edge taking a short detour to the last two standing stones being colloquially known as Adam and Eve. The walk then takes you back through the village of Avebury where you can call into St James Church to see the font where there is the famous carving on the front of a bishop slaying a Dragon added in the 12th Century, alluding to the pagan site of Avebury itself.
‘The most universal legend is that of the power of the Serpent/Dragon, the magic powers of Water. She dwells in rivers and seas, in pools and wells, in the clouds, above the mountain peaks, in caves and underground caverns. The Avebury Monuments form the visual sculpted images of the Goddess within the centre of her longer and more ancient body.’ Part of the offbeat appeal of this particular walk is in the links in the essays of Monica Sjöö quoted here from Spiral Journey (Antenna, 2018) to the writing of the renowned archaeologist Marija Gimbutas in her Language of the Goddess (Thames and Hudson,1989) thereby offering a very feminine perspective to the landscape traversed, encouraging the walker to feel a connection between places and a remarkable Herstory.
Artist and Curator: Su Fahy / Research Associate Alan Poffley.
Bio
Patricia Brien, she/her is a UK-based curator, artist and researcher.
She is a Lecturer in Historical and Critical Studies (Design) at Bath Spa University. Her praxis is based around ecofeminist theory, multispecies thinking and ritual modes.
@patricia_brien
Dr Su Fahy, she/her, is an artist working in lens – based media, principally photography, drawing, and sculpture, Fahy’s research utilises the aura of the documentary photographic image in order to interrogate and contextualise our readings of natural or architectural environments.
Working principally to commission, Fahy engages with theorists, photographers and archive materials.
@memoryartpalace
Film Crew: The Serpent’s Tail Walk 2023 Su Fahy Artist & Curator Director /Lizzie White Filmmaker Producer /Patricia Brien Artist & Curator & Kate Dineen Shamanic Ceremonialist UK the walkers.
Reader Mariana Vodovosoff, Sweden.
Music by Culture Dub Orchestra.
Serpent’s Tail Walk © 2021
South – West England
Start / Finish
Avebury Henge SN8 1RF
3 miles. 3hrs
Named after the ancient ritual of processing the route to the top of one of the prehistoric Dragon Hills on this walk being Silbury Hill. These hills were known to have artificially flattened tops where there originally stood stone circles and also to have coils of serpentlike earthworks encircling them and leading to their summits.
The Serpents Tail Walk is a conceptual trail that follows through the Fibonacci Sequence in Nature of a Spiral Form often referred to as the Golden Ratio dating back to the Renaissance.
The walk is an unintended gem as it takes in the ancient sites that flow through its natural structure in the landscape walked by those in touch with Gaia and the language of goddess cultures. Setting out from Avebury Stone Circle the walk takes you down the avenue over Waden Hill to Silbury Hill via Winterbourne Stream, then over Pan Bridge and the Springs there to West Kennet Long Barrow and onwards to Swallowhead Springs Sacred Well. The Mary Energy Ley - Line comes through the Great River Kennet and through the Spring. The ancients believed that life began in the waters and rivers, streams, wells and springs that are sacred to Her. The walk follows back into Avebury on the Western Edge taking a short detour to the last two standing stones being colloquially known as Adam and Eve. The walk then takes you back through the village of Avebury where you can call into St James Church to see the font where there is the famous carving on the front of a bishop slaying a Dragon added in the 12th Century, alluding to the pagan site of Avebury itself.
‘The most universal legend is that of the power of the Serpent/Dragon, the magic powers of Water. She dwells in rivers and seas, in pools and wells, in the clouds, above the mountain peaks, in caves and underground caverns. The Avebury Monuments form the visual sculpted images of the Goddess within the centre of her longer and more ancient body.’ Part of the offbeat appeal of this particular walk is in the links in the essays of Monica Sjöö quoted here from Spiral Journey (Antenna, 2018) to the writing of the renowned archaeologist Marija Gimbutas in her Language of the Goddess (Thames and Hudson,1989) thereby offering a very feminine perspective to the landscape traversed, encouraging the walker to feel a connection between places and a remarkable Herstory.
Artist and Curator: Su Fahy / Research Associate Alan Poffley.
Bio
Patricia Brien, she/her is a UK-based curator, artist and researcher.
She is a Lecturer in Historical and Critical Studies (Design) at Bath Spa University. Her praxis is based around ecofeminist theory, multispecies thinking and ritual modes.
@patricia_brien
Dr Su Fahy, she/her, is an artist working in lens – based media, principally photography, drawing, and sculpture, Fahy’s research utilises the aura of the documentary photographic image in order to interrogate and contextualise our readings of natural or architectural environments.
Working principally to commission, Fahy engages with theorists, photographers and archive materials.
@memoryartpalace
Film Crew: The Serpent’s Tail Walk 2023 Su Fahy Artist & Curator Director /Lizzie White Filmmaker Producer /Patricia Brien Artist & Curator & Kate Dineen Shamanic Ceremonialist UK the walkers.
Reader Mariana Vodovosoff, Sweden.
Music by Culture Dub Orchestra.