Wiltshire - The King's Somborne crop circle 'omen' is perfectly aligned with the local medieval Church of St John the Baptist two miles away at Upper Eldon.
It sprang up overnight in a barley field during the Solstice crossover ahead of Mid-Summer's Day, June 24th, the traditional feastday commemorating the Baptist's nativity.
Shaped like the cruciform insignia of the Most Venerable Order of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem its sudden appearance has startled much of Wiltshire.
"It's a dead ringer for the stained glass window design in Clerkenwell's Old Jerusalem Tavern," local historian Dave Posset observed.
"Is somebody taking the piss?"
The public house once occupied the Clerkenwell Priory gatehouse - medieval HQ of the Knights Hospitalier - and was subsequently renamed the Auberge of St John at St John's Gate, St John's Square.
Crop circle aficionados were studying reports today that most Mediterranean countries dedicate their Summer Solstice rituals to St John, their midsummer celebrations mimicking the original Anglo-Saxon rite.
The annual ritual celebrated the now whitewashed-over marriage of St John the Baptist to Mary Magdalene, whose nuptial union was subsequently trashed by Dan Brown in his somewhat spurious Da Vinci Code.
The Duke of Gloucester is the Venerable Order's current Grand Prior.
