If you want a holiday in the UK and you suffer from infertility problems, it may well be worth visiting Cerne Abbas in Dorset. There on a hill is a huge giant, carved into the hillside from chalk rock. He boasts a club and an impressive erection.
It is not known exactly when the giant was carved, or how, but was thought to be somewhere around the Iron Age. There are also speculations as to whether he was meant to represent Hercules, the Greek God who held a club.
For centuries this icon has been used as a fertility site and visited by couples wishing to get pregnant (as depicted in the film, ‘Maybe Baby’), with varying degrees of success.
Praying or meditating on the hillside prior to trying to conceive is rumoured to increase your chances as is making love on the giant’s member.
The site would have originally been for pagan festivals (the main pre-Christian religion) and for the celebration of events like Beltane, which was a traditional fertility ritual, in which couples would be sent on walks through the woods to gather flowers and fires would be lit to give thanks for the upcoming summer and a good harvest. Many people formed romantic attachments at these ceremonies and marriages were then performed almost immediately. Even the maypole dancing which was popular until the 19th century had intrinsically sexual symbolism.
If you’re visiting Scotland, they hold an annual fire festival on April 30 in Edinburgh, Carlton Hill, to represent fertility and renewal.
It is not known whether ancient sites or fertility rituals really do make a difference to fertility problems, or whether it is psycho-suggestive, but some couples have claimed to conceive after visiting such sites. Certainly it is a medically proven fact that having a positive attitude reduces disease, that those who are free of stress and optimistic have a higher chance of success at IVF, as well as higher rates of recovery from cancers and other illnesses. Ritual, faith, prayer, meditation and spiritual healings can all play a part in this.
In this month’s ‘Pregnancy and Birth Magazine’ (May 2007), Kate, who had had fertility problems for years, was on a four year waiting list for treatment.
‘We were told we might need intracytoplasic sperm injection. By now we’d been trying for 2 years. I felt despondent but had spiritual healing to help with depression. Later the same month, I found out I was pregnant.’
Kate went on to have a baby boy, Authur.
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