Journal of Geomancy vol. 3 no. 2, January 1979
{38}
Originally published in Hagal, May 1935. Translated by Michael Behrend. Original by courtesy of Paul Reece.
In all German provinces are the old sacred sites and meeting places, the boundaries and road networks, that from ancient times have been linked geometrically in a uniform system and precisely surveyed “with true measure and angle”.
This presupposes a nation-wide organization and leadership, and a consistent philosophy, stretching far back into prehistory, and provides clear and incontrovertible proof that our own ancestors had a level of culture quite as high as that of other peoples. The origin- and centre-point of this ancient cosmic–sacred landscape division and system of orientations appears always to be the former “world mountain” or “holy hill”, both in small local districts and in the wider tribal and national provinces.
These hills can often still be recognized as “holy hills” by their traditional place names. Thus the names “Asberg”, “Baumberg”, “Teutberg”, “Bergheime” not infrequently give clear indications that a site was originally important in this way.
The canonical angles for the holy lines radiating from these holy hills, – generally indicated in the surrounding landscape by old sacred sites, often occupied by churches and chapels on the imposition of Christianity – have been preserved for us in the ramparts surrounding the “Sternhof” at Oesterholz. As rediscovered by Teudt these are alined upon the rising and setting points – for the period around 1850 BC according to Prof. Neugebauer and Prof. Riem – of stars having a mythological and calendrical significance.
Of the eleven stellar lines recently recognized by Prof. Hopmann (Leipzig) and Prof. Müller (Potsdam), research to date indicates that those shown in the accompanying sketch of the Oesterholz system, with angles of 84°, 59°, 39°, 72°, 28·5°, 72·5°, 42°, 49·5°, 10·5° and 66° (this last being repeatedly occupied by old sacred sites), are the ones that particularly bear witness all over the country to the general validity of these lines and angles for the former sacred land survey.
The following, for example, are proved by their directional relationships with surrounding sacred sites, according to the Oesterholz system, to be old sacred centres of the “holy hill” type:
In the west, on the Lower Rhine, 8·4 km south of Xanten cathedral, the Haagscher Berg with alinements as shown on the sketch map first published in 1932 and reproduced here; the “sacred mountain” between Moers and the village of Asberg, known in Roman times as Asciburgium; the sites of Baumberg church SE of Düsseldorf and of Berg-{39} heim church west of Cologne; and the Asberg situated on the right bank of the Rhine south of the Siebengebirge near Bonn. In southern Germany, the summit of the Hohen-Asperg near Ludwigstadt (Stuttgart); and the sites of Ulm, Munich and Freising cathedrals.
In the east, the Mar-bod-berg near Wünschelburg in the Glatzer mountains, and, not far from the national capital Berlin, to the east the site of T-asberg church and to the west the obviously twice-named Gottesberg or “Weisses Ross” (white horse) near Gr.-Kreuz.
Further, the Oesterholz “Sternhof” itself has its eastern NS wall pointing towards the old Teutoburg (now crowned by the Hermannsdenkmal*), which, like the Falkenburg near the Externsteine, was recommended to competent archaeologists for more extensive study over a year ago, on the strength of its complex pattern of sacred lines. In ancient tradition the world-mountain was thought of as double-peaked, and indeed these two mountain summits corresponded, according to O.S. Reuter’s convincing interpretation (The Riddle of the Edda, vol. 2 page 13) to the day-mountains of the sun and moon, whose shifting paths may have given rise “in the mists of time” to “a belief in the swaying of these two celestial mountains”.
*A memorial to Hermann, chief of the Cherusci, who defeated the Romans in the Teutoburg Forest in 9 A.D. (Tr.)
In sacred geography there is a corresponding distinction to be drawn between the real centre, the holy hill (in a certain sense, the fixed pole), and, normally situated to the east of this with a deviation of 6°, is. on 84° or 96° azimuth, the solar site, the Paradise (garden) of mankind, the Gard (= gored, gorod, kart).
The particular significance of the layout at Oesterholz (“fanum Ostarae deae”) for lunar observations has already been emphasized by its discoverer Teudt in his book Germanische Heiligtümer, especially with reference to the 59° line, which is alined on Sirius, the brilliant star of the celestial virgin Ishtar Ostara, and the 39° line of the moon’s extreme position, observation of which allowed the experts in such matters to keep track of the 18-year lunar period, the so-called Saros so important for regulating the calendar.
It appears then that the true central world-mountain – for example the cathedral hills of Freising and Munich – was liable, on being ‘converted’ by the Christians, to be dedicated to God’s mother Mary (stella maris) and thus to the North Star; in complete agreement with Indian tradition, which states of the legendary Mount Meru:“Directly above it stands the Pole Star, and the heavenly bodies revolve around it in wide or narrow circular paths”.
Characteristic of the holy hill centre is the 8-fold or 16-fold division of the surrounding landscape, which was noted by Schmidt of Selb for the church of St. Mary the Virgin in Munich and was proved in the February 1935 number of Hagal to conform to the ideas of all ancient civilizations — in particular the Indian representation of Mt Meru with its summit divided into 16 parts, and the Chinese North Star Goddess with her 32 arms offering 32 gifts.
Remains of the old 8-rayed pattern can probably be found everywhere in the landscape, especially around gallows hills and boundary hills, as well as old army levying places; and while not all of these are to be interpreted as former images of the cosmic world-mountain, long experience has shown that they appear to be at least indirectly related to orientations from the old holy hill centres.
Among these orientations, incidentally,the 45° NW–SE axis seems to be particularly well-defined, a notable
example being an alinement over 50 km long (52·5 km?) from the Church of the Assumption on the Schwanenberg in
Cleves, passing over various old sacred sites, to the Galgenberg near Moers (Meerbeck). At the Haagscher Berg this line
intersects the still longer NS axis joining the cathedrals of Xanten and Gladbach-Rendt, thus covering the Nibelungland
of the Lower Rhine with a not-rune (the rune
answering to N – M.B.). The most notable
feature – after the 84° line leading to the solar site – is the 66° line, two of which normally go
out crosswise from the holy hill, and which Leugering (of Landsberg) and Schmidt (of Selb) frequently found occurring in
the German landscape. Leugering first observed it in the stone circle near Salisbury in southern England, found it
confirmed in sacred geography, and, finally surviving in the system of astronomical lines at Oesterholz. The possible
connexion between this fundamental line and the solar ecliptic has been pointed out with good reason in 1933, for the
obliquity of the ecliptic, during the period when the astronomical layouts in question were constructed
(c. 2000 BC), amounted to about 24°.
Also, as Professor Nissen of Bonn ascertained by measuring the axial orientations of hundreds of old churches and temples, and described in his 3-volume work Orientation, the alinement of the ancient temple towards sunrise on the day of dedication never went above the 66° mark.
As shown on the map, the 66° line on the {40} Lower Rhine, contrary to the usual rule, crosses the Haagscher Berg in the NW–SE direction only, while the corresponding NE–SW line passes over Xanten Cathedral. Besides the astronomical lines connected with the moon and pointed out by Teudt, the enclosure at Oesterholz also has solar orientations discovered by sacred geography, namely – apart from the meridian line defined by the NS wall on the east – the hitherto unnoticed diagonal lines on 49·5° and 10·5°.
It was these angles too that Leugering first became aware of through Albrecht’s essay on “Stonehenge of Salisbury” in the journal Das Weltall (Treptow, Berlin, 1913), and once he had found – while looking for similar observatories in Germany, as predicted by the Kulturkreistheorie – confirmation of the 49·5° line in particular as a typical sunrise line in his own part of Westphalia (Rhine and Munster, the ancient “Mimigardefort”), he became a keen investigator and defender of the ritual measuring and surveying techniques that formerly encompassed all forms of ordering. The author also became convinced of the universal validity of these principles, which when put to the test received remarkable confirmation in all parts of the country, and was stimulated to begin an intensive and fruitful collaboration in this matter, which in many ways is of world-wide importance. The layout of the holy lines around Xanten may be mentioned here to illustrate the central importance (after the holy hill) of the 49·5° orientation: from the solar site (now Wallach church) situated east of the holy hill on 64°, the line runs towards Xanten to the Cathedral of St. Victor, a Christian and latinized version of Siegfried, the sun-hero who kills the dragon of darkness.
With this universal angular value the times of sunrise and sunset throughout the year were indelibly stamped onto the landscape through sacred and festival places; and they remain recognizable to this day, for those who know the true meaning of measure. Like the number eight for the moon, the number twelve has been associated with solar reckoning from ancient times. To this corresponds the conventional 12-fold division of the solar year, within a circle of 360 days/degrees; so that in the organic development of the old cosmology, expressed through sacred geography, it seems natural that all over the Lower Rhine district the most important churches are related to the ancient ritual centre in Xanten of legend through 12 regularly spaced radii, as explained in the article The Xanten Mosaic as a pointer to prehistoric sacred geography published in the March 1935 number of Hagal.
Experience shows that such 12-rayed centrepoints are likely to be dedicated in later times to St. Michael, who in Xanten is particularly honoured by a chapel in the immediate neighbourhood of the Cathedral, or above all to be taken over by St. Peter. The following may be mentioned as further examples: the Michaelsberg in the Eifel district; the Petersbergs in the Siebengebirge near Bonn, and between Mainz and Wiesbaden; the churches of St. Peter in Munich, Heidenkam (an old, small and now insignificant church near Landshut, Lower Bavaria), and Tuntschendorf, Silesia (orientated on the above-mentioned Marbodberg), as well as St. Peter’s Cathedral in Bremen; further, though I do not know the Christian dedications, the Wurmling (Little dragon – M.B.) chapel near Tubingen, the churches in Unter-Riexingen by the Hohenasperg (east of Ludwigsburg), Salach east of Göppingen, Hohenschäftlarn south of Munich and finally Alt-Landsberg {41} in east Berlin with the churches of Blumberg, Wiegendorf, Eggersdorf and Petershagen. As proved by Dr Haase, an engineer from Munich whose researches into such architectural secrets as orientation and the proportions of ancient temples and medieval churches are supported by a wealth of documentary evidence, the design of sacred buildings in those days regularly made use of the measures and angles of the pentagram – the mysterious Five, the “number of the centre and of mankind”, and the star shape of the “golden section”. Professor Charlier of Lund, by making use of organic construction lines in diagrams showing the basic groundplans and elevations of Gothic cathedrals (including Cologne), has revealed a five-pointed star between the soaring towers, hanging in the air as it were, and known only to the initiated.
Since our ancestors, according to Tacitus, felt that to shelter the godhead in stone temples was unworthy of it and of their own spirit, preferring to worship in sacred groves and on lonely peaks beneath the free expanse of the sky, it follows that the corresponding proportions, cosmically-defined in the old philosophy, are to be sought in this country out-of-doors in the landscape. The astronomical enclosure (“Sternhof”) at Oesterholz, with a diagonal running from its western corner to the southern end of the NS wall, on an azimuth of 72°, again indicates the pentagram, while this figure appears “on cue” in sacred geography – and not only around Xanten where the archaic church at Ginderich and Bergefurt chapel are set at 36° apart. In the journal Jungdeutschen, 1932, Captain Freyer has already traced out the lines of the pentagram around the church at Questenberg in the Harz Mountains and the multiply-orientated ruins of St. Laurence’s church at Alt-Münden, together with historical evidence and remarkable legends.
We can get a clear explanation of the pentagram’s leading rôle in ancient religion by rediscovering the “quintessences” of time through the writings of the Swiss calendar-reformer Bestgen, of Arth, who suggests a 72-fold rhythm in cosmic activity. He finds this confirmed in the myth and ritual of Osiris, since not only was a festival day, ignored in calendar reckoning, inserted after every 72 days of the 360-day year (to make up the solar year of 365 days), but also every 44/5 years there was a further leap-day festival in order to restore the so-called hour-quintessences (and at the same time the minute- and second-quintessences), thus keeping our earthly human life in harmony with the cosmic five-fold rhythm.
The proportions of the seven-pointed star in ancient temple design were found by Haase only among the Egyptians, where it appears plainly in the holy of holies. Again hints of these proportions are given in the German landscape, where a possible connexion with the nine-fold division – the doubly sacred three-times-three of our ancestors – remains to be investigated.
As a fitting conclusion to this brief review, let us give special attention to the highly important and “canonical” N–S axis pointing to the pole: the world tree, about which everything in the old cosmology turns, and the “tree of measure” in the Edda, whose practical importance is indicated by its appearance in the Lower Rhine landscape as compared with the proportions of the holy hill as they have come down to us in Indian sources. Of the latter, Prof. Kirfel reports (Die Kosmographie der Inder, Bonn 1921):“Brahminism and Buddhism agree in giving, as the height of the part above ground, the number 84 000 (7 × 12 × 1000)”, and comments that the number 1000 plays a part “in the separation of heaven from earth”.
The distance of the Haagscher Berg from Xanten Cathedral, and of the latter from Haffen church further north, is (as measured and published by the author in 1933, in ignorance of the Indian numbers), 8·4 km, or 8400 metres, a surprising coincidence by any standards and surely not accidental; for the Indian unit, the Yogana, is according to Kirfel’s report 2·5 English miles of 1·6 km, and is therefore equal to 4 km. Hence it is a cosmic measure, like the metre, which has been defined in modern times as a ten-millionth part of the Earth’s quadrant. This is also true of the old Germanic rode, which with a value of π or 3·14 metres is still current in Denmark as an official unit of length. The distance 8400 metres is also 16 × 1000 × 0·525 metres and thus points to the old Egyptian cubit; to which Prof. Riem, in a letter to the author, added the comment that the stones of the powerful sacred site near Salisbury, being 4·2 metres high, thus measure 8 Egyptian cubits.
Again, the distance 8400 metres can be put as 3 × 4 × 700 metres or 4 × 2·1 km, a fact which also has significant consequences in sacred geography. These fundamental distances, deduced from the “tree of measure”, point “with true angles” from the holy hill towards genuinely ancient holy places “on red earth”, i.e. ritually surveyed sacred sites.