From the very earliest of times the Externsteine ('steine' is German for 'stones' ) were a cultplace, a place of worship: by the Celts, by the Germanic peoples, by the Romans. It is thought that perhaps the Goddess Ostara/Eostra was worshipped here and it has been suggested that the Bruchterian prophetess/oracle Veleda (front a tribe along the lower Rhine) about whom The Roman historian, Tacitus, wrote, resided, unseen by men, in the upper sanctuary - a space where men were not allowed to enter. This upper temple on the rock pinnacle - the only one of the rocks that has retained its original peak - was probably originally an enclosed cave-chamber within which the prophetess/astrologer studied the heavens, the movements of the stars, moon and sun, through the circular opening in the rock wall. Probably the shadows cast on the walls from this light-beam enabled her to prophesy about coming events and to heal. This space was an observatory and has an almost exact northeasterly alignment.

The roof of this rock-chamber was either deliberately destroyed or it eroded naturally and it is now only semi-enclosed. But considering that (according to the Carolingian annals) the "Irminsul" was destroyed, or broken off by Charlemagne in 772 AD one can be excused for thinking that it was deliberate. This pinnacle was, according to legend, the site of the sacred "Irminsul", the Saxon spiralling Tree Pillar (looking like a unicorn's horn) and Charlemagne was an early German king set on unifying Germany under his rule. He was a Christian and saw the church as a useful tool in creating a hierarchic state.

As everywhere else the church and state worked hand in glove to destroy the ancient religion of the Goddess and Her son, the Horned One. They tried to wipe out the millennia old love that the peasantry of the land felt for the Great Mother. In the 15th century this would lead to the following 300 years of the "witch hunts", the destruction of the ancient know ledge and healing. '

On June 18th 601, Pope Gregor the Great instructed the Anglo-Saxon mission with the following words: "One should under no circum stances destroy the sanctuaries of the idols but only the idols themselves, because if they are well constructed, these places of worship for demons can easily be transformed into places where the true God is served. If people do not find their temples destroyed, they may, with all their heart, become aware of their error, and recognise and worship the true God and thus return to the familiar place..."

It was also recommended to transform the sacrificial rites and to take over traditions of the consecration of the church or of martyrs' birthdays. There are several examples in south-west Germany of the transformation of Celtic and Roman places of worship into Christian ones (all according to the official tourist pamphlet).

So... the "Irminsul" (embodying the sacred energy) was broken off... but the rocks themselves were used first by hermits as cave-dwellings and then in Medieval times they were taken over by Benedictine monks who made this into an important Christian place of pilgrimage.

The upper sanctuary had been transformed into a mainly solar temple, and first Mithras, the Roman/Persian sun god and then Jesus, another god said to have been born at the midwinter solstice, were worshipped here. In the temple with its now semi-enclosed room there is a free-standing niche with an altar under a circular window with a beveled edge. There is apparently no historical source that can tell us about the origin of this little chapel formed from the ruin of the original cave-chamber. This "window" faces almost exactly north east and the sun can be seen to rise through it on 22nd June. Nerthus was the ancient Nordic Sun Goddess, and perhaps she was seen to give birth here on midwinter solstice as the dying rays of the sun entered the vaginal circular opening of the cave to be reborn again from Her. This death and rebirth of the Sun at midwinter from the Mother was watched by the Neolithic peoples also at New Grange in Ireland and at Stonehenge in England and other places.

The Christians saw the Externsteine as a replica of the holy places at Jerusalem during the time of the crusades, with the upper sanctuary as the chapel of Calvary. Close by there is a human-sized rock-cut tomb which was said to be a copy of the tomb of Jesus in the church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. My guess is that initiates actually slept in this grave to experience in themselves the death of Jesus.

The main cave is however at ground floor level and is the womb of the Earth. In here there is a large hollow in the wall that continues into the floor. Did the initiates originally lie in here, embraced by the Earth-Mother? Did water collect in here from the rock walls?

Everywhere in the rocks it seems that rock-dust has been scraped out making hollows and holes. Here, as with the standing stones, the substance of the rocks and its waters must have been considered healing and holy to partake of.

It is interesting that the Christians compared this cave to the chapel of St. Helena. Helle was the ancient Nordic Goddess of the Underworld and the chtonic powers: in Denmark ancient healing and sacred wells are dedicated to Helena and in the Celtic world Helena was the Goddess of the ancient tracks and underground waters!

The Old Hag Goddess in the Harz Mountains Kästeklippe watching over Her land.
 (Near Brocken-Blockberg where the Wicce celebrated Valpurgisnacht)
31/7/84 Monica Sjöö 

There is a "Rocking Stone" balanced on one of the summits of the Externsteine. After vain attempts to topple it down it was fastened by iron hooks in 1813. Everywhere one sees gigantic heads, figures and shapes in the rocks. They appear to have been originally natural shapes, slightly altered. On the Kasteklippe, in the Harz mountains, it is clear for example that the gigantic head of the old Hag Goddess - seen watching over Her distant lands - has been shaped deliberately to resemble the head of a powerful, but sorrowing, old woman. (Of course she is called "the old man of the mountain" by people who cannot imagine a woman looking powerful!)

Many of the other astonishing rocks are balanced in strange ways - one of the rock formations is even called "The Witches' Kitchen" -presumably to channel the energies of the Earth and Her underground waters. There are some very powerful and crazy energies in this place.

On the Externsteine was carved a huge and very early relief showing Jesus being taken down from the cross. It is from 1130 AD. and is very powerful. Jesus's head is resting lovingly on his mother's face, Nicodemus is shown standing on the "Irminsul", here a bent stylised tree, and the Moon and the Sun are mourning and crying.

Below this relief is another, and apparently older, carving which is partly destroyed and difficult to read. The tourist blurb says that it is thought to show Adam and (a fully dressed?) Eve standing on their knees while entwined by a huge and powerful dragon which looks like a combination of a bird and a spiraling serpent. It is a strange image...

The carving above the Cave Entrance

What is even stranger is the fact that close by, above one of the entrances to the main large cave, there is the hollowed-out shape of a large Bird Goddess. Again, it is called an "Eagle" but it is also said that no-one knows the actual significance of this image. We were two women visiting these rocks and to our eyes the image had a distinct female shape- the Goddess as bird, butterfly or/and Double Axe. Perhaps at the Externsteine the Goddess was worshipped in the upper sanctuary as Bird/ air/sky and in the groundfloor large cave as Dragon/serpent of the underworld chtonic powers of the magnetic waters. Perhaps Ostara, to whom Easter and fertility and our menstrual cycle belongs, was served here by oracular priestesses who told the people of the important lunar positions; when to sow and to reap; when to concieve and to give birth; when the healing wells were miraculously healing etc. After all, the Neolithic stone circles were a kind of Lunar and menstrual calendars standing in the landscape and aligned to the spiraling energies of Earth and the Heavens. Women were the ancient Shaman/astrologers and the guardians of these energies.

This sacred place was also used by the Nazis and they practiced solar rites here in the service of extreme patriarchy.

We must reclaim these Goddess sites of powerful Earth energies and reactivate them with our positive, menstrual, life-enhancing and life-creating womanenergies. Our Mother needs us as we need Her... in this last and dangerous hour of sterile, barren and life-hating patriarchy.

Blessed Be,

Monica Sjöö

This Article was published in " The Pipes of Pan", Number 19
The Year of publication is unknown, but one of the drawings is dated 31/7/1984