During the early morning hours of June 21, 2003, nearly thirty thousand people gathered around an intricately arranged circle of large rocks located in the southern English city of Wiltshire. As 4:46 approached, their excitement grew. "This is not a rave," said a twenty—nine—year—old man named Andrew. "It is better than a rave . . . it is about the stones."¹ The revelers had come to observe the summer solstice, the longest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere and a holy day in many religious traditions. As the sun rose above Stonehenge's massive Heel Stone, the crowd beat drums and erupted into cheers.

There was more to the event than a beautiful sunrise. Stonehenge, a ring of stone circles, was constructed in such a way that the sun rises directly above the Heel Stone every summer solstice. It has done so for over three thousand years...