A crop "circle" is a geometric pattern, often very intricate and complex, appearing in fields, usually wheat fields and usually in England. The earliest mention of a crop circle dates back to the 1500s. A 17th century English woodcut shows a devilish creature making a crop circle. People who lived in the area called the creature the "mowing devil."

Some believe that the crop designs are messages from alien spacecraft. Scientists have stretched their imaginations to come up with theories of vortexes, ball lightning, plasma, and other less occult explanations involving natural forces such as wind, heat, or animals.

Many crop circles are probably due to pranksters, but contrary to popular belief, trampling, breaking or bending the stalks of the plants affected does not explain many other crop circles. Even though the stalks are bent, they are not damaged. Most of the time, the crop continues to grow as normal. The stalk of each plant is softened at a precise point by an, as yet, unidentified force which causes the entire stalk to collapse. This same force, with incredible mathematical detail, lays the entire flattened area in interwoven, swirled layers .

According to Rudolf Steiner, the gnomes are root spirits and are responsible for pushing plants up out of the ground. With the fundamental force of their being they unceasingly thrust away from the earthly, and it is this thrust that determines the upward direction of plant growth. The gnomes cause the plant to have only its roots in the earth and to grow out of the earth; in fact, the gnomes force the plants to grow upwards and out of the earth.

Could the gnomes be using elemental forces to create the crop circles? For what reason? Their nature prompts them to play all sorts of tricks on the human being. Is this some alien joke on gullible humans? Or rather than tricks, could they be trying to awaken human beings with designs specifically arranged in such way as to awaken the collective unconscious? Have Robert Powell and Kevin Dann mentioned the gnomes in connection with 2012? A gnome was seen fleeing the scene of a recent crop circle in Wiltshire, England. Upon being discovered the gnome responded by mooning the crop circle researcher. This photo is now being used to support the "gnome trick" theory.