Journal of Geomancy vol. 3 no. 3, April 1979
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I find ley energies often impinge on my consciousness when I have not them in mind at all. A ley is not ‘alive’ to me all the time but when it is its radiations can be very strong indeed. At peak periods I have sometimes spent a little while walking to and fro to determine the direction and so have got some idea of the width of the ‘beam’. Perhaps you have read of the “Tides of the Day” and noted when they reach a peak 12·00–3·00–6·00 –9·00 am and pm. Clock time – only approximate. These peaks vary in strength for various reasons and must be taken at the flood, so to speak. The ley remains ‘Frozen’ for only a few minutes maybe little more than 10 mins. coming and going. Possibly a dowser could detect it for a longer period.
The sun at mid-day gives the strongest surge of energy, the moon at full on a clear frosty night quite strong and when a planet shining bright crosses the line this also can be felt. So you will see first you must pin point the ley line, have your means of detection at the right place at the right time and not spend too long over the job.
I must say I admire folks like yourself who are most meticulous in recording the more tangible side of Geomancy for all to see and marvel at. Keep it up and I hope a few comments will help on the less tangible side.
I’m sure there must be symbols hidden somewhere which portray the things I have spoken of. I seem to recollect seeing ‘The Three Archers’, a symbol which I am sure relates to the surge of ley energy at its peak. If you can find it I may be able to explain.
Perhaps I may add that I have spoken of only the centre core of a ley and that to most of us it has a much greater width than a ‘handsbreadth’. I have several times visited the alignments at Carnac and other places and have often wondered how far the energies extend naturally or if they can be spread out at will. I will still keep on looking and if I find the answer I will let you know.
Are optical effects ever reported at areas of concentration of Earth energies?
There are six locations in California at approximately 123 degrees west longitude where certain optical effects can be observed at places said by by some to be points of ley line convergence.
People appear to change height, and often motor vehicles traveling through certain Geomantic points of interest unexplainably slow down – or at least appear to do so. I suppose this optical part of Geomantic force concentration could account for widely known phenomenon of “uphill water” as well.
I are interested of learning of any sites anywhere which exhibit any optical effect or sensation – even if subjective, and to that end I would like to hear from anyone who has information to share.
Although undoubtedly it is good to set the record straight regarding the circumstantial details of Alfred Watkins’s “vision”, it is necessary to be wary of not only romantic mythology but of setting some kind of pseudo-scientific dogma in its place. Watkins may not, in 1921, have seen a ley stretching across the hills before him, but there are people today who do have such a sight, who see the soft blue lines that others dowse. Perhaps the inadvertent looseness of this history has served its function in presenting as a real possibility the vision which many have subsequently hoped for and believed in, seeding the ground of common consciousness in which this particular faculty is now beginning to flower. Thank you, John Michell, for what has in more than one way proved to be an eye-opener.
The Celtic Hypothesis. One of the most important questions still unanswered in TZ research concerns the date of origin of the structures and the culture responsible for building (or refining) {78} them. A number of answers have been proposed and the problem has been debated in the correspondence pages of The Ley Hunter. Here, for what it’s worth, is another point of view.
Terrestrial zodiacs were not built by emigrant Sumerians (pace K.E. Maltwood), and it’s unlikely that they date back to the 3rd millennium BC. As far as is known, the inhabitants of both Sumeria and Britain at that time practised a religion centered on the Great Goddess; although the Virgo figures in the zodiacs undoubtedly celebrate Her, the focal point is rather the struggle between the Archer and the serpent/whale. The widespread motif of the fatal battle between these two archetypes belongs not to the Mediterranean/Atlantic Goddess culture but to the nomadic and warlike Indo-European culture which replaced it.
There is a rather loose assemblage of evidence to support this claim. To dispose of the Sumerians, examination of their religious iconography as shown in the well-known cylinder seals will demonstrate that the themes and their delineation bear very little resemblance to the drawing of TZ figures. Furthermore, the incorporation of the constellations on the ecliptic into a systematic pictorial zodiac occurred in 2nd millennium Babylon, according to the best guesses of latter-day researchers into Middle Eastern culture; Sumeria c. 2700 BC is too early. Whether celestial or terrestrial, incorporating ten or twelve signs, the zodiac is a development that followed the Indo-European migrations.
The British extension of this cultural/linguistic ‘empire’ is represented by the Celtic peoples. The earliest date proposed for their arrival in these islands is c. 2000 BC; Myles Dillon (in The Celtic Realms, Cardinal) has suggested that the Bronze Age ‘beaker folk’ spoke an Indo-European ‘proto-Celtic’ tongue. They are renowned as a hierarchical and bellicose society with a strong interest in things spiritual and artistic. The pan-Indo-European cosmology gave them two religious themes which are highly relevant to the TZ question: the eternal battle between light and dark, and the incarnation of the light principle in a redeeming champion.
Celtic versions of this hero were the Irish Ogma (and, later, Lugh), and the British Beli (later, Arthur), but the archetypal form is the Greek Heracles. By common consent, this many-named figure takes his place in the zodiac as the archer, and I would claim this figure as the central feature of any TZ. (Where he is not an archer, he is a horseman/warrior, but the significance is the same). The oft-quoted reference to the Hyperborean temple of Apollo in the writings of Diodorus Siculus, might be cited to support this view. The Scandinavian myth of Thor using a bull’s head as bait to catch the world-serpent fits nicely into a TZ context, as does the Welsh story of Llew Llaw Gyffes (for details, see TZ Newsletter No. 4). It is no coincidence that there are links between Apollo and Beli, between Heracles and Ogma. There were trading and cultural exchanges between the Greeks and Celts in the Bronze and Iron Ages, and there is reason to suppose that there was some harmonization of their respective mythologies. The connexion between the Pythagorean and Druidic schools has been proposed and denied by a number of commentators; it is enough here to state that the Celtic priest-caste certainly knew of a divine figure with the attributes of Heracles/Sagittarius, whereas their Iberian predecessors in Britain almost certainly did not. It is interesting that in Mediterranean folklore Heracles is credited with the construction of artificial waterways, bridges and other large-scale engineering works, suggesting a link between the cult of the hero and such geomantic structures as TZs. In this country, Grim (Woden) and/or the Devil are placed in the same role, but they have doubtless replaced an earlier Celtic figure such as Ogma or Beli – there is limited place-name evidence for this view.
To pull these diverse threads together into something resembling a pattern: terrestrial zodiacs feature a divine hero of the Heracles type, a horseman-warrior whose exploits are figured in the zodiacal calendar and who was a product of Indo-European mythology. The cult of this figure was widespread in Britain and elsewhere in the last millennium BC. The TZs are claimed as works of Celtic landscape engineering, products of a culture settled in Britain but having strong links with the Mediterranean world. They can plausibly be ascribed to the much-maligned Druids, and seem to be a product of their interest in astronomy and the institution of a solar-hero cult to replace that of a resurrection-deity subordinate to the Bronze Age {79} Goddess. Later, the folk-hero Arthur assumed some of the attributes of both predecessors as he was associated with TZs as centres of Celtic resistance against the Saxons (but that’s another story).
This is not an attempt at a historical ‘proof’, rather a series of notes towards an answer to the question of date of origin. There are numerous other hypotheses that deserve examination. If a link can be demonstrated between TZs and Stone Age trackways (there is a suggestion of this in East Anglia), then the Celtic argument will not stand up. On the other hand, the peculiar placing of Roman roads in a number of TZs needs explanation: are they a product of Belgic imagery and Roman engineering in the first centuries AD? Whether these notes are ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ is unimportant; if they provoke others to examine the question and seek a better answer, they will have been justified. I look forward to seeing some feedback.
For comparison with the zodiac pavement in Canterbury. … the pavement in the Baptistery of John the Baptist in Florence. From the pattern (AD 1200), Florentine weavers inspired themselves for the designs of their famous fabrics: brocades, damasks and velvets. The central sun is aflame with the palindrome “En giro torte sol ciclos et rotor igne”.
A case of pure magic is the magic square surrounded by the symbols of the Evangelists in a parish church located in the diocese of Cremona (not in the town itself) (left). That palindrome (!) has also been identified in the church of Kokar Kilise, Turkey.
Another zodiac exists in the Cathedral of Aosta. The strangest mosaic floor is probably that in the Cathedral of Casale, with such rare centuries-old representations as of the Antipodes, Acefalus and the Septem Capite.
The IGR is interested in the pavements of any ecclesiastical or religious buildings, as they often incorporate sacred and mystic patterns both of the symbolic and geometrical varieties. The Cosmati Pavement at Westminster Abbey is only the most famous of a number in Britain. That at Xanten in Germany was actually related to landscape geometry, as elucidated by Josef Heinsch. – Ed.