REVIEWS

The Saffron Walden Turf Maze by Jeff Seward
from Caerdroia Project, 53 Thundersley Grove, Thundersley, Benfleet, Essex. Price 35p plus postage.

This is ‘Caerdroia Project Booklet No. 1’ and as such is the first of a promised series of monographs on different extant British turf mazes. Jeff, whose work must be well known to all ANCIENT MYSTERIES readers, here details the origin of Saffron Walden, the design, form, dimensions and history of the unique turf maze. Illustrated with drawings, plans and photographs, it is the most comprehensive booklet ever written on this unique survival of a former age. Jeff details the design in relation to other known designs, and speculates too on the occult symbolism of it as a model of the universe. With details of the worthwhile Caerdroia Project, the booklet is rounded off with suggested further reading. ANCIENT MYSTERIES does not hesitate to recommend this publication to anyone who has an interest in the enigma of the British turf maze,
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Photographs of the Unknown by Robert Rickard and Richard Kelly.
New English Library £7-95.

The name Robert Rickard is synonymous with the collection of weird and wonderful facts, and this new offering from the wonderful world of Charles Fort. Strange life (Bigfeet, Loch Ness monster, Yetis etc.), UFOs, psychical phenomena, Kirlian photographs, spirit photos, a corpse of a miniature UFOnaut, religious masochism, psychic surgery, mind over matter, and poltergeists all are here, in glorious colour and monochromatic glory. The unfortunate thing about psychic pictures or UFO photos is that the better they are, the more they look like fakes – the classical Fortean dilemma. Here the reader can judge for herself whether she sees and believes or not. Whatever the truth about the photographs (if indeed there is any truth at all), they are truly remarkable, and the authors deserve a pat on the back for bringing them out of obscurity and before the public eye.
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Discovering Old Board Games by R.C. Bell,
Shire Publications Ltd. £1-25.

Old Board Games may appear unconnected with ANCIENT MYSTERIES, but a perusal of this excellent book will dispel any doubts of the utmost relevance of ancient games in geomantic studies. Old games like nine men’s morris, referred to in the famous Shakespeare line which also mentions turf mazes, and Dablot Prejjesne, are related to geomantic layout, as anyone who has studied geomancy must realize. Fanorona, a weird and magical board game played in Madagascar, home of much unique geomancy and divinatory magic, is overtly magical in function. This book gives details of such little-known but fascinating games as Tabula, Backgammon, Nyout, Pachisi, Pasang, Shaturanga, Burmese Chess, Siamese and Chinese Chess (all different from the game we know and love), Gala, Sho-gi, Four Field Kono, Surakarta (which bears some resemblance to the Saffron Walden maze reviewed above and pictured on our front cover), Alquerque, Fanorona, Draughts, Continental Draughts, Reversi, Ming Mang, Lambs and Tigers, Fox and Geese, Tablut, Dablot Prejjesne (the first time this game has ever been described in English), Ringo, Pang hau k’i, Mu Torere, Achi, Nine Men’s Morris, Renju, Halma, The Conspirators, Go, Ninuki-Renju, Tablan, Pallanguli, Gabata, Bare, Rithmomachia, Shut the Box, Four Numbers, Top and Five Balls, all worthwhile games. I have made a Fanorona board and hope to play it like they did at the siege of Antananarivo in 1895. Worthwhile.

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SACRED GEOMETRY: SYMBOLISM AND PURPOSE IN RELIGIOUS STRUCTURES
by Nigel Pennick Turnstone Books £4.25

This book, published by Turnstone press in paperback at £4.25 is the definitive work on the subject. It is aimed at those who are interested in earth mysteries and the nature and harmony of the Universe. Readers who already have the Fenris-Wolf paper on Sacred Geometry will especially enjoy the book. The author introduces the reader to the general principles and geometric forms at the beginning of the book, and their relationships with one another are explained. The rest of the book traces the history and use of sacred geometry from the earliest times to the present day. The chapter on Ancient British Geometry is of particular interest to IGR members, as familiar names such as Josef Heinsch, Ludovic McLellan Mann and William H. Black appear.

There are chapters on the sacred geometry of all the major past civilizations eg. Ancient Egypt, Ancient Greece and Mesopotamia. Vitruvian geometry has a chapter explaining the eightfold city plan. There is a large section covering the medieval period including Masonic symbolism, masons’ marks and the mysteries of medieval cathedrals; there are also chapters on the Renaissance and Baroque periods. The remaining two chapters explain how sacred geometry is an underlying feature in modern architecture, art and science.

The book is illustrated by the author with his own drawings, diagrams and photographs. It contains a wealth of information gleaned from the most obscure sources including previously-unpublished thoughts of Rudolf Steiner and his anthroposophy theories. Nigel Pennick has even used a drawing taken from one of his scientific papers showing the structure of a scale on a minute organism.

This work is recommended to all readers. If anyone has difficulty in obtaining a copy they can get in touch with the author at ANCIENT MYSTERIES.
Sheila Cann
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THIS IS THE TRUTH//THE SACRED ENIGMA//HE IS ONE OF US by Norah Cole,
First two £1; last one £1.60 available from Address, Andover, Hants.

The first of these three interesting publications concerns spiritualism, and communication with the departed by means of the pendulum. Psychic portraits, and the place of philosophy and religion complete this volume, evidence for the survival of bodily death. Continuing from This is the Truth, The Sacred Enigma deals with the mysteries of Glastonbury, and the evidence for the burial of Christ’s body at that place, and of the burial of the Virgin Mary there as well. Norah Cole draws on the work of Frederick Bligh Bond, and details his sacred geometry of the St Joseph’s Chapel which is said to stand on the site of the vetusta ecclesia founded by the venerable seafarer Joseph of Arimathea. Her third volume, He Is One Of Us is subtitled Research into Christianity from the Celtic Angle. It deals with the legends of Anna of Brittany, mother of the Virgin Mary, the Virgin Birth, Glastonbury Abbey, the key site in many of these tales, traditions of Jesus travelling to Britain with Joseph of Arimathea (of Blake’s Jerusalem fame “And did those feet …”) The Twelve Hides of Glaston, which never paid tax, and the Gematria of Glastonbury Abbey are entwined with Celtic Christianity to make a very interesting read. Even if we do not agree with everything explored here, these books certainly make interesting reading.
R.M. Bembridge
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