Journal of Geomancy vol. 2 no. 3, April 1978
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This issue of the Journal of Geomancy is a special issue mainly dedicated to the subject of Metrology. Whilst the
accurate meaning of the word metrology is the study of measure, it now has come to assume a more specialized meaning,
namely the study and use of sacred measure and measure in sacred context. The Metric System, a bone of contention in
certain circles, is covered in two articles, whilst a chapter of the exceedingly rare book Ideal Metrology
by Hermon Gaylord Wood is reprinted as a contribution to the study of the Cubit. Also in this publication is a hitherto
unsuspected article by Alfred Watkins, refuting his critics in 1931, and notes on yet another 3 terrestrial zodiacs.
N.P.
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Last November, Andrija Puharich, mentor/impresario of Uri Geller, held a small meeting in a room at King’s College in London in which he gave a detailed account of what he claims is a new weapon being tested by the government of the U.S.S.R. Puharich, who is basically a parapsychologist, described the weapon as being based upon the work of Nikola Tesla*, a Serbian/American scientist whose discoveries laid the basis for modern electrical and electronic science. Tesla transmitted power without wires, made the first radio-controlled boat, invented ‘death rays’ and other innovations. His ideas were largely suppressed owing to his desire to harness the world’s energy and transmit it free for all to use. Puharich, like many other less celebrated researchers, noted the supposed connexion between Soviet radio transmissions from various sites and various unpleasant phenomena recently observed in Canada. He believes that Legionnaire’s disease, the humming heard in the ears of many people in Britain; Canadian climatic disturbances and, least plausibly, riots, have been triggered off by these pseudo-Tesla transmissions. What, may one ask, have these wild theories to do with geomancy? At the talk, Puharich was assisted by a retired officer of the United States government’s military, Col. Tom Bearden. Bearden claims that ley lines are acupuncture points of the earth (not a new idea!). By exciting a particular point on the earth, a specific response may be generated thousands of miles away. Bearden claims that the giant earthquake in China was caused in this way by Soviet deviousness! It seems that the new geomancy of the hoped-for Age of Aquarius may, if Bearden is correct, backfire wickedly upon those who hope for harmony and understanding in the form of very low frequency transmissions from the U.S.S.R., and later, no doubt, the U.S.A., Britain, France, China etc., etc. …
* For a short biography of Tesla, see my article in the latest edition of the Cienfuegos Press Review (Vol. 1, No. 4), available from: Cienfuegos Press, Address, Orkney, Scotland.
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On February 19th 1978, I.G.R. members Michael Behrend, Prudence Jones and Nigel Pennick visited the ancient camp of Wandlebury to meet with officials of the Cambridge Preservation Society to arrange the scouring of the Gogmagog hill figure, which was excavated by the noted archaeologist T.C. Lethbridge early in the 1950s. The three officials (Warden of Wandlebury, Secretary and Assistant Secretary of the Society) and the County Archaeological Officer assured us that we could proceed with the scouring, so long as no actual digging on untouched sites was undertaken. We were thus hoping to inform you, the readers,and members of the I.G.R., of the dates upon which we were proposing to go to Wandlebury to unearth the giant. The Cambridge Evening News, the local paper, had expressed interest, as they had heard thru the grapevine that we were intending to rescue this important excavation from an ignominious fate.
Unfortunately, as seems all too prevalent in England at the present time, a phone call to the editor on March 15th informed the I.G.R. what everyone expected – that we were not to be allowed to excavate the figure’s overgrown {52} surface until a ‘resistivity study’ (which has not yet been arranged) is carried out ‘to see if the figures that Lethbridge claimed were there were there’. This study was originally proposed to be done alongside our scouring of the figure. Now the Society has effectively gone back on what we were told on Feb. 19.
Some time ago, the Society proposed to fill in what they have for years called ‘Lethbridge’s Diggings’, and minutes exist in their records to that effect. The vendetta against Lethbridge which led to his exodus from Cambridge seems to be continued beyond the grave. Some people in the Preservation Society wish to see the end of Gogmagog, despite the fact that numerous visitors ask the warden of the site to show them the figures. The official line is that Lethbridge was mistaken. This can be taken in two ways: that he was a dupe or a fraud. Neither are justified, and both are a slur upon the honour of a man who cannot answer back. Lethbridge, after his virtual railroading out of Cambridge by the archaeological establishment, wrote and had published several books on subjects frowned upon by that cabal of orthodoxy – witches, dowsing, and posthumously, ancient astronauts. Now ESP and dowsing is not on the curriculum of Cambridge University’s Archaeology Department, and neither is the work of Lethbridge, though he published many excellent and exemplary works in orthodox archaeology before he fell from the empyrean heights of Downing Street (Cambridge’s, that is).
Before Lethbridge, nobody had ever excavated a hill figure. The Red Horse of Tysoe was reconstructed by aerial photographs. Just as the excavation of hill figures is in its infancy, so is the resistivity survey of hill figures. In fact, nobody knows what a resistivity study of a former hill figure would actually show. Even if it takes place, which is not certain, the results will probably be inconclusive, in which case, the I.G.R. will not be given permission to clean the figure, as results are not ‘positive’. Thus, the Cambridge Preservation Society, Gog Magog House, Gog Magog Hills, Babraham Road, Cambridge, tel: 43830, have carried out the typically English blocking tactic, don’t say no, but don’t say yes either. The likelihood of the recovery of Gogmagog is now very slim. Powers that drove forth Lethbridge from Cambridge and the archaeology curriculum are now coming into play to forestall any attempt to bring it opt into the open. Worse, the vested interest in keeping Lethbridge’s name synonymous with liar still has the upper hand. The Gogmagog site is in this case in the worst possible hands for anyone who wishes to achieve the figures’ restoration. If the City or National Trust were in charge, then we would have a better chance.
The Society do not want publicity about Gogmagog: they find it embarrassing that Lethbridge’s work is not forgotten. BUT IT WILL NOT BE FORGOTTEN! A dispassionate reading of Lethbridge’s book Gogmagog: The Buried Gods will show whether or not he was a fraud, cheat, liar, con-man or whatever other epithets I have heard bandied about. His greatest discovery lies unattended on a southerly slope at Wandlebury.
That nobody has been permitted to excavate the figures for 25 years is evidence enough that someone is preventing it.
Various people for at least the last ten years including John Nicholson and Andy Munro have tried to save what remains,
but it has continued to deteriorate over this period. Perhaps the I.G.R’s abortive attempt will be the last which
had time to save what is left, and perhaps that’s what the ruling cabal of the Cambridge Preservation Society
really want. One can only speculate on the motives involved, but one can see the results.
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The official letter, which arrived after this editorial was written and typed up,
is even more conclusive than the phone call. “…considerable feeling … against any action being taken including cleaning.”
It may be read in its entirety on page 78 of this issue.