THE NINE MAIDENS OF DARTMOOR - THE WITCHES' SABBAT
Imagine walking the high rolling hills of Dartmoor at dusk...the smell of heather permeates the westerly breeze and the screeling buzzards circle above. As your eyes wander over the carpet of gorse flowers and granite rock formations, you notice an unusual stone circle in the distance. Suddenly, an eerie realisation sets in...the stones are swaying.
WHAT ARE THE NINE MAIDENS?
Legend has it that the 17 stones (so why are they called the nine stones? Curiously, there is no logical explanation) are the petrified figures of nine maidens or witches turned into stone as a punishment for dancing on the sabbath (the harmless 'sabbath' was substituted for the original 'Sabbat'), but resurrected to dance again at every Hunter's Moon...'twixt dark of night and break of day'. At this time, the stones move rhythmically rocking back and forth before the eyes of countless witnesses.
The site is an un-restored Bronze Age barrow, sitting in a very bleak and isolated part of Dartmoor called, Belstone, which lies two miles south-east of Okehampton. The circle of seventeen stones are the retaining wall of a Bronze Age burial chamber (kistvaen) which was once housed within it.
At dusk, this place holds a very strange and melancholy atmosphere. This could be the reason it was used in ancient and recent times as a sacred place for coven's of witches to enact the 'Sabbat'. The meetings take place here during the pagan festivals. Yule, Imbolc, Ostara, Beltane, Litha, Lammas, Mabon and Samhain.
Note: Worth wrote about the stones (Dartmoor, 1953): "A fine kistvaen was unearthed in the centre of a sepulcral circle, and in a cavity in its north end were found two large coils of human hair. There is little doubt that this represents an act of attempted witchcraft in comparatively recent times".
If you visit Dartmoor, you are advised in the Dartmoor Ghost-hunter's guide, by R.W Bamberg, to keep away from the nine maidens during the pagan rituals and plan your expedition accordingly.
Sources: Ghost-hunter's guide, by R.W Bamberg
By J Reynolds, copyright 2010 @World Mysteries And True Ghost Tales.