Dear friends, I don't normally do this, but I feel so strongly, and was there to witness the desecration, that I am imploring you to to consider signing ... Here's the background, quoted from a two page spread in the Argus, our local paper down Sussex way, printed on Monday, July 2nd, 2007."Pagans object to Long Man filming" - Members of the Pagan community have been protesting over the use of the Long Man of Wilmington in a TV stunt for a new Trinny and Susannah show. The ancient hill carving, on the Sussex Downs to the north of Eastbourne, is considered "sacred" by the Council of British Druid Orders (CoBDO). A TV crew spent Sunday and Monday at the site, rehearsing and filming for a series about clothing and body shapes.
ITV said it had gained permission from the Sussex Archaeological Society. The stunt to be featured in Trinny and Susannah's new five-part series involved getting women to make a "human sculpture" which would alter the Long Man into the female form. But the CoBDO said it would "dishonour an ancient Pagan site of worship".
Speaking from a protest at the site on Monday, spokesman Greg Draven said: "They've placed breasts and pig tails on the Long Man, and they've thinned his hips. "A lot of people might see it as a bit of light-hearted fun, but we object to a site that we hold sacred being desecrated. "We had to make our objections noted and our presence felt," Mr. Draven added.
ITV said the theme of the Trinny and Susannah programme was to "encourage women to dress for their body shape and not their size"."
I watched the filming take place, 80 or so women in white boiler suits (and a few men thrown in as well!) clamber all over the ancient, sacred site with it's delicate archeology. I failed to see how this might "empower" women, as Trinny and Suzannah had claimed in an earlier interview with some of the protesters. I have been coming to the Long Man for the past 6 years, and I would never, consider climbing the fence to walk on top on the figure, as signs clearly state: "Keep off the Long Man- Soil erosion"... Does this mean that if you are in the business of making vacuous television shows, the rules do not apply? Does this mean that now anyone who likes can ignore the signs and traipse all over the Long Man?
The people observing, and protesting, weren't just Druids and pagans ... I spoke to quite a few local people and tourists who were as bewildered and disgusted as we were to see a a scheduled ancient site treated with such a lack of respect. Aside from the offence to people w ho hold this site sacred (try a stunt like this with a symbol from another religious group and watch the outcry!), I was concerned for the safety of the ancient archeology.
There is a row of iron age burial mounds (tumuli) at the top of the hill over-looking the Long Man, and I have always seen Wilmington as an ancient graveyard, where the Long Man is a guardian standing in the gateway between worlds. What others see as two staffs in his hands, I see as a doorway.
Sussex Archeological Society, gave their permission to use the site, but I don't think they realized the extent of tramping and and poking with sticks (to mark where the boiler suited ladies were going to lay) that would occur over the two days. One of their representatives justified giving permission by saying that cows walk across the site all the time.
Well, I have never seen the local cows form themselves into the shape of breasts and pigtails on top of the Long Man or anywhere else for that matter!
Now that the filming has occurred, the best way forward is the make sure this tripe never reaches the screens. You, the television consumer has the power!
To arm yourself with more information, check out these sites: http://www.sussexpast.co.uk/property/site.php?site_id=13 For historic information about the Long Man http://www.sussexexpress.co.uk/news?articleid=2997769&CommentPage=1&CommentPageLength=10#comments For a Sussex Express article with many comments posted. http://youtube.com/watch?v=aRygEvMfuCU For a YouTube video of the event. To have your voice heard GO TO: http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/Longmanabuse/
This petition is to demand that a sequence filmed by ITV (Trinny & Suzannah Undress) at The Longman of Wilmington on Sunday 1st July and Monday 2nd July showing approximately 100 women changing the shape of the Longman into a woman with pig-tails and breasts be stopped from being broadcast on the grounds of religious offence to the pagan community and promoting anti-social behavior on a scheduled ancient monument.
If this footage is broadcast by the ITV as part of the fashion programme it is believed it would contravene several of the OFCOM guidelines.
LOVE and LIGHT,
Carli @susumama
http://www.susumama.co.uk/
2 comments:
While many Pagans are currently concerned about our ancestors and the sacred landscapes in which they reside, the Counci of British Orders has no involvement at all in this campaign. I can only assume individuals are attempting to usurp the idea of ancestral landscapes as tools in political games that boost their misguided ego's. Black politics and the negative use of energy has nothing whatsoever to do with Druidry.
Focusing upon ancestral landscapes, and reburial is all about thinking about sacred landscapes, and pouring our love into them. Nothoing at all to do with Black Magic.
Paul Davies /|\
Reburial Officer
Council of British Druid Orders
www.cobdo.org
Paul Oddie is not a member of the Council of British Druid Orders. He has never been a member of CoBDO and has no right to use the CoBDO name for any purpose, or speak on behalf ofCoBDO. CoBDO has no reburial Officer. CoBDO has links and representatives with HAD (Honouring the ancient Dead) and Pebble.
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