The first draft of this editorial spiel was a11 about justifying the price increase. I didn't enjoy writing it and I don't think you'd enjoy reading it. So I've decided to come out positive. After all, what's 15p ? It'11 just about buy you a couple of uses of the public tiolet! But as far as QsM is concerned it keeps the thing going. This is the biggest issue yet and in it we continue our policy of mixing loca1 research with articles on the more general theory. Two recurring themes in this issue are the Wasteland and the regeneration of the land. This is the earth mysteries movement is basically about: the regeneration of meaning in in relation to the land.

NEXT ISSUE : Pau1 Screeton on J.F.Forbes. And J.F.Forbes on Old Brighton. Colin Bloy on the first results of the Fountain Project's healing of the landscape. Megalithic Holidays goes to Portugal. QUICKSILVER INTERVIEW, letters, a new news section and more.

The desacralised cosmos is a subject close to my heart, it is that dissolute and disintegrated afterstate in which we all have to live. The Fall of Babylon, Brixton rioters aside, has long been the rallying point of aficionados of the Apocalypse in both its guises. Babylon, as image of decadence and dissolution, is as good a name as any to describe the state of total destruction and negation I call 'the desacralised cosmos'. Babylon, the word chanted by the blacks who looted and burned parts of the most desacralised Brixton last year, has been taken by followers of the Rastafarian religion to mean the whole gamut of place and structure that is society in the widest sense-the buildings, customs, politics, and mataphysical structure of the world as it is now. The expression 'Babylon' as used by Rastafarians, comes from the history of Ethiopia. Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon, had a foray into Africa during his routing of the Jews and others, and carried off many Ethiopians into captivity, just as he did the more famous Jews whilst the decendents of these Ethiopians were spread abroad on the surface of the Earth in a 'diaspora' equivalent to that of the Jews or Armenians, the whole world to them is Babylon. Hence the chant as pubs and cars incinerated.

Disaffection of the Lumpenproletariat aside, the concept of Babylon is a useful one, as it encapsulates in a single word the ideas of alienation, forced removal and desacration which babylon implies. It infers a removal of people from their rightful environment and their placement in a situation without hope and in complete alienation from thier surroundings. Tellingly, the Rastafarian concept of Babylon is not retsricted to Jamacia or the Front Line, but refers to the whole world, including the now communist Ethiapia. Everywhere is Babylon, for the ancient values and systems are destroyed. No longer can anyone cling to the old systems and values of ancient times for they are outmoded, their powers are waning or dead, and even their holiest shrines are reduced and defiled. Just like the Jewish Temple, destroyed when Babylon overpowered Judea, there is no longer a centre to the spirit. It may be restored - indeed it must be restored - yet at present it is in abeyance, nullified and impotent, removed from its rightful place in this earth.

Babylon - the desacralised cosmos - lies all around us. In former times the ancient science of geomancy taught that several certain places were holy and that the earth herself was a holy receptacle of spirit, and must be treated accordingly. But no more. The desacralised cosmos, which began at the Reformation in Medieval (or was it Renaissance? take yer pick) Europe, when the concept that nothing is sacred was first put into practise, has since then taken on a life of its own and marched inexorably towards the total descaralia - a global pattern of dissolution where parking lot is of equal holiness to football-pitch, tram depot, housing project, bus stop, animal torture lab, prison, school, cemetry, 'church of your choice' liquor store, hospital, mortuary, sex shop, and T.V. studio. No longer does anything matter, all is reduced to the status of real estate and measured solely in terms of financial values (and sometimes in the mineral wealth buried deep below the desacralised surface).

Religious people of all persuasions save the modern financial wizard 'holy men' of the Midwest and South Korea (Sunni and Moony, Mormy and Loony you name 'em they're charities) recognized that the earth herself was a holy being, not to be blasted and ripped and hacked about for profit, no more than a civilized society allows one human being to own another. But whilst the constitution of many countries specifically forbids the ownership of people, it positively insists land must be owned, either by individual organizations or that non-specific disease known as the State.

In 1649, the Diggers, a group of English radical Christians, the forerunners of collectivist anarchists, stated that, "He who buys and sells the Earth removes his neighbors landmark", reference to the commination service which 'CURSES' people for various sins, and specifically for removing his neighbors landmark. Now this commination refers to the moving of landmarks being a crime not only against man but also against God himself. The Diggers, who believed that all people were equal, held that land and everything else must be held in a 'Commonwealth' (no relation to the ex-British Empire). This 'Commonwealth' meant that all things were to be distributed between all people, regardless of the niceties and nastities of class, race, or ability, - more radical than the Marxist-Lenninists who sit in opulence and luxury surrounded by armed men in the Kremlin today. The difference between the Diggers and later so-called 'Communists' was that they had a religious faith in the Earth, which they saw as God's treasury which ought to be apportioned to all mankind. This faith in the Earth, now dismissed as 'primitive' was also held by pre-Westernised societies. The Native Americans, now despisingly dubbed 'red indians' had a faith that revered the planet as their Mother, and treated her accordingly. Not for them the dominance that may be seen at every strip-mine, every open-east iron working. To them the sanctity of the world was so great that before digging prayers were offered, and an explanation was made that the digging was necessary for survival and a hope that the Earth would understand.

When the white settlers arrived in North America, all this went by the board. Although the continent was colonised by British, French, Dutch, Russian and Spanish colonists, their approach was as one-destroy the natives, wipe out ancient cultures and ways, and impose Babylon, though under the guise of Protestant Christianity, Roman Catholic Christianity or Russian Orthodox Christianity. In all cases, the ancient shrines were broken up, 'witch doctors' persecuted or killed, and holy places appropiated for the use of the New Order of the Clergy. Monasteries were set up at geomantic points in Arizona and California by Jesuits and Franciscans, and the many weird indigenous faiths of American white settlers built their 'First National Churches', 'Temples' and 'Tabernacles' 'Zions', 'Elims', Ertemolik's even! Pentecostal, hexacostal, Strict and, Particular, Reformed, United, everything proliferated along Main Street whilst the native religions were.relegated to museums or the tin shacks near the garbage dumps that passed for 'reservations' for the original inhabitants.

And it is this concept of 'Main Street' that is a key to this appalling desacralisation that continued with the blasting of Vietnam with thousand-acre swathes ripped through forests in the shape of U.S.Army regimental crests- a sort of acopalyptic Dysneyland. The Cosmic West, that destructive admixture of mayhem and buildings overlain with a thick swathe of insecurity and paronia, started there- with the actual layout of the country. Just as a country in antiquity was laid out according to cosmological schemata that reflected the beliefs and aspirations of pious inhabitants, so the layout of the Cosmic West reflects a quite different ethos, that of conquest and domination.

When America was seized from its original inhabitants by force, it was not laid out in saleable packages. There was no concept of Real Estate. The natives lived there, places had names, and certain places were held held holy and resorted to at ritualised times when saered ceremonies were performed. There were few towns, and those which did exist were laid out in harmony with the surrounding land, part of it, in no way intrusive or domineering, which is more than can be said for Chicago or New York!

In his razor-sharp exposition of the nature of the government, Pierre-Joseph Proudhon listed that to be governed was to be "weighed taxed assessed......" fundamental neecesities of the apparatus of the state. In order to rule a newly-conquered country, governments have always found it necessary to list and measure all the contents of that land like the inventory of an inherited business. In the Roman Empire, the areas were laid out in a grid. William the Bastard or Conquereor, insisted at the conquest of England that everything should be assessed- that was the notorious Domesday Book. When the United States of America finally gained the ascendency over all of the other colonial powers vying for a continent whose indigenous population they could outgun, the powers that were set about laying out the country in a vast grid- to tax, assess weigh and generally control the land seized from the tribes to whom the Great Spirit had entrusted it. Having gunned down the last tribesman (or woman or child), the agents of the U.S.Government set about laying down vast survey-lines- the U.S.Rectangular Land Surve which set out to 'grid' the whole of the continental United States.

The dominent ideas were now those of ownership. The Red Man had abdicated his right at the wrong end of the gun barrel, and now the new triumphant white man had all America at his disposal. "As much land as a Man Tills, Plants, Improves, Cultivates, and can use the Product of, so much is his property. He by his Labour does, as it were, enclose it from the Common." So wrote John Lock, in total opposition to the Digger ideals of all in common in a true 'commonwealth'. Ideas like Lock's from 'Treatises' on government went hand in hand with the genocide of the American natives. As these 'vermin' (so the Christian ministers who wiped them out called them) were exterpated utterly from the face of the land so the 'improvers' and 'civilizers' arrived to till the land and impose a literal new order on it. Thomas Jefferson and Hugh Williamson conceived the idea of laking out the whole of the continental possessions of the United States Government and its agents as a vast rectilinnear grid, without regard for the natural features it overlay. Jefferson, who wished to 'reform' the ancient weights and measures (he introduced decimal coinage to the US and invented the cent), wanted to lay out the land in geographical miles, reformed so that a square mile would contain 1000 acres, not the customary 640. In accordance with the hierarchical nature of such land division, Jefferson proposed that ex-officers and soldiers should be given 'land grants' - a copy of the Roman colonial system which he doubtless was emulating. A Major-General was to be given 1100 acres, a brigadier 650, a colonel 500, an ensign 450, and an ordinary soldier or NCO a meagre 100 acres. Thus the heirarchical system of the Military was to be institutionalized upon the landscape - a spiritual forerunner of the Vietnam Forest Syndrome.

After many reports and enquiries, the Jefferson plan was adopted in a modified form. It is interesting to note that an early form of Apartheid was institutionalised in, Tuscarawas County, Ohio, where 'Christianized Indians' were allotted certain tracts - the forerunner of the South African 'Bantustans'. In 1796, an act stipulated that "regulating grants of land appropriated for military services, and for Propagating the Gospel among the Heathen" should be divided into townships five miles square. This 'Apartheid' system developed along such lines a the time that a grid of lines two miles apart, designated by posts a mile apart, should become the norm for layout, and later subdivisions in strictly rectilinear form should be made between them. The unit was thus the statute mile, and three posts were the minimum land marks to delimit the area thus enclosed. A far cry from the 'He who buyeth and selleth the earth...'

By this time, about 1800, the extermination of the natives was taking place a few miles west of the surveyors. As the natives were driven out or killed, so the survey posts went in and the Rectangular Survey stamped the symbol of domination for ever upon the land. If some space beings could have looked, they would have seen a grid of straight lines slowly creeping across the country with the replacement of one brand of humanity for another, one faith and cosmology overriding a gentler and more natural way of life. In 1796, 'Sections' of 640 acres were designated by three posts errected along 'exterior' townships and section lines, run only every other mile. In 1800, half-sections (320 acres, orientated north-south) were designated by half section posts along east west section lines only. And by 1804, quarter sections were designated by posts erected every half mile along the section lines.

In 1820, half quarter sections (so designated), 80 acres, oriented north-south, were determined by the point equidistant from section and half section posts on east-west section lines, and in 1832, the ludcrously named quarter-quarter sections of 40 acres were laid out, being delimited by equidistant points between half section posts on north-south and east-west section lines. These last quarter-quarter sections were to form the 'Forty', a modular unit of land survey, taxation and government control.

QsM: In an article ou wrote called "The Myth of Darwinism", first published in Quicksilver Messenger, you pointed out that Darwinism is the basic myth of ratzonalist materialsm. This article and one or two others along the same lines caused quite a stir. Do you have any plans to develop these ideas in written form ?

J. M: In thinking what exactly it is in education which has the deculturising effect I've spoken of and has had the tendency of promoting materialism and the consequent scorn for the individual, I think that it's Darwinism that's had the leading part. When Darwinism came in in the l9th century a11 the ideas of the time which were current, that is scientific materialism, rationalism, imperialism the idea that the scientific minded white races were superior to those traditional people who'd kept their own customs : a11 that was dominant - and Darwinism gave it a pseudo-scientific justification. When it comes to a consideration of human nature, which I think is absolutely essential to any civilised philosophy, the ideas of Darwin seem to destroy the whole concept of human nature. Also the concept that any creature could have a nature of its own other than something that's in the process of formation. I think that human nature is the constant, that is, related to the universe. The whole of science should be based on the knowledge and consideration of human nature and human requirements. The same goes for a11 other species. To see for example a chicken in a chicken factory denied the whole of its nature, which any idiot can see consists in pecking around in a farmyard, to deny it its nature is one of the most evil things that can be done. Behind it are the ideas inherent in Darwinism that the best creatures are those which can adapt to any circumstances. It seems to be one of the greatest sources of error. We have it in the apology for the present society: those who don't get on are looked after by those who do get on. But, those who do get on are defined entirely by their ability to succeed in materialist terms - in making money, in making names for themselves. So as presently defined there are the successes and the failures. And yet it seems that human nature is not given any kind of consideration. An odd illustration of that is the now discredited feats of post-war architecture. People were placed in blocks in which, quite obviously, the architect had not considered normal human nature. In an organic town as you might see in Africa or the East where there are small alleys, small streets, secret dwellings and so on one can see how human nature likes to function in a city. By disregarding human nature as a standard we've committed the most obvious and glaring errors of which the results are becoming only too plain now. Basically, the whole argument against the Darwinian view of things boils down to the fact that it denies the existence of human nature as a constant. It makes it always in a process of becoming something and looking forward to tomorrow. It's like the idea that the technologists always put forward that society's not perfect now but its always moving towards something. I think that we should regard this earth as something which is intimately related to ourselves, a constant along with ourselves, and that we should concentrate on improving things as we are now and making use of the human material we have now, without thinking of utopiam schemes for improving either. That is, once you take human nature as a constant your whole view of the world will change radically.

QsM: What immediately springs to mind in this context is the problem of atomic power. We have a fairly small group of individuals who've taken it upon themselves to byproduce dangerous wastes that'll be around for tens of thousands of years in the hope that a future generation will learn how to clean it up.

J.M. I see this as the last throw of the o1d centralist materialist philosophy that the reaction against it now is based upon a perfectly normal consideration of human values. Looking at it dispassionately, the whole idea of atomic power and dependance on atomic power is dangerous, evil, inhuman and incompatable with any humane way of looking at the world. It's by a reaction to such excesses that a complete reformation of the way we view things. will come about.

Another example:- as you know I've had a long campaign against the metric system because that again is a system based on abstract scientific rational values and takes no account of human standards or requirements. There are measures based on both the measurements of the human body and of astronomical intervals. This demonstrates perfectly the true philosophy of human nature as a microcosm of the universal system. Therefore, it establishes a true standard in things. Whereas the metric system is related to the spread of atomic power. It's related to an inhuman view of things which regards people as units to be conveniently slotted into a rationalist one world system.

Women keep up the customs. Usually in a11 societies women decide how one is going to be married, buried, how one's going to eat, how one's going to everything in a society. Once there's uncertainty and standards are abolished and everything's down to innovation and inventiveness then it's natural that traditional people- women and such, become confused and discriminated against, and that's what's happened. I know women like to deny the traditionalist role of women but it seems that history demonstrates that as a fact of nature.

QsM: What about the Amazons and gangs of female bandits in the Sierra Nevadas in Spain?

J.M: Well, as there are only two sexes there's bound to be quite a lot of crossing of roles. I speak very generally.

QsM: Going back to what you were saying about monoculture : the whole idea of a one world culture seems so damm soulless to me. I was recently in Portugal and noticed the gypsies there : they've got a twinkle in their eye that the mainstream of Western culture doesn't know about. At present we're going through a period of rapid sub-cultural growth in this country - especially amongst the youth- how important do you think this is?

J.M. I think that the richness of the earth consists in the diversity of its cultures. In general the more independant groups, or tribes as it were there are, the better. In a healthy society one should feel in control of one's own destiny, look after one's own affairs, make one's own laws and customs and so on in accordance with how one functions in the place one lives. When people lose culture and become dependant on other people then its a great impoverishment that takes place in their lives: They are no longer in control of their own affairs they become apathetic, there's nothing to replace loca1 independance. If we go back to the stone age we find in places like the remote islands of Scotland, where no-one lives, several different societies on each of these islands. Each presumably with their own laws, sacred places, customs and each in control of their own societies. So it might appear that the wisest and greatest people of the earth we're living among are made up of one's own people - instead of having to have remote heroes and becoming oneself a helpless peasant at the bottom of the pile as it were. Even though one's creature comforts are looked after by some central body who, one suspects would be quite willing to give up its responsibilities the moment it suits it, leaving people a1l over the world feeling completely helpless.

Even in the remotest parts of those islands where no-one can apparently live now they had a mythology as rich as that of Greece.

QsM: Getting back to earth mysteries John, "Megalithomania" is going to be your next book out. When will it be coming out and could you say something about it ?

J.M: I'm not sure when its coming out- sometime in 1982. These things always depend now unon a publisher finding an American publisher. In this case, we've found an American publisher - Cornell University. They wanted certain changes made, for instance they wanted the reference to the "living earth" removed. But I rewrote the passage and kept the reference to "the living earth" and they were quite satisfied. (laughing!) I think that one of my private beliefs is that any good writer coming up against any system of prohibitions can always get round those prohibitions. That one of the hallmarks of a good writer : anything that's not allowed you can say exactly the same thing in a way which is not offensive.

QsM: Any system works as long as you know how to side step it.

J.M: Yes : as 1ong as you know the rules. If they just object to your attitude then they can always get you.

QsM: What will the book be concerned with. megaliths?, maniacs? or both?

J.M: Wherever you get megaliths you always get maniacs. The history of archeology illustrates that very well. The whole of archeology has been the history of incredible crank theories put up and demolished by the next generation then re-established by the next. Many of the current ideas in earth mysteries have been promoted and even accepted at certain times. They've been discredited by later archeologists and then re-established by those who came later.

This book is largely about the succession of follys, of theories, amazing ideas, which have been projected upon megalithic ideas in the past. Also about the current emergence of a quite new way of looking at the past and those monuments.

I spoke earlier in this interview about deculturisation. I believe that awareness of the traditional landmarks of one's own country is the first necessary step of the invigoration of cultures a11 over the world. In England by our prophesies we have a special responsibility because according to the o1d chroniclers it was England which lead the world into priestcraft, Druidism and so on. Then into things like the Industrial Revolution. England's always lead the way in launching a11 these plagues and curses upon the world. Our prophets tell us that in England would be the first reformation made. That's why possibly this country is most interesting to live in. Because despite a11 its evident horrors it still seems to me to be the country where things are happening first. That is why we are having our nervous breakdown first, we will make the Reformation first. Having led the world into a11 kinds of errors we'11 probably be the first to discover how this can be reformed. I think that the E.M. movement is crucial in this.

QsM: I notice on the last page of "Megalithomania", the proof of which I have before me, there is a quote from Professor Glyn Daniel which says "The problem in archeology is when to stop laughing" ('Antiquity' Dec. 1961).

J.M: Yes indeed. That's made plain in the book throughout. If you review the succession of incredibly crank theories put up by a succession of orthodox sounding people the whole thing becomes a question of when to stop laughing.

QsM: Tel1 me a little about the illustrations. I notice there are some beautiful illustrations, a lot of which I've never seen before.

J.M: The publisher first wanted a megalithic picture book. By looking in country museums and o1d books of topography and antiquarianism I found a rich bunch of illustrations. Particularly in Brittany. It seems to me there's so little knowledge in every country of the antiquities of every country. This in the past has lead to absurdities of extreme nationalism : people claim that their own antiquities show that they are the earliest people and therefore, the greatest people of a11. This has happened : the Swedes have fallen for this, so have the Danes and Germans, the French, we ourselves invented the Piltdown 5ku11 as being the first Englishman ........ I've forgotton what I was saying now,

QsM: So have I ......... (both laughing) ....... talking about picture research.

J.M.: Oh yes, it's amazing how little known the antiquities of other countries are. I've been able to find some excellent illustrations of Carnac and so on.

QsM: Did the picture research take a long time?

J.M: Quite a long time. As you know it takes quite a long time to locate the right sources. But it's very rewarding because I came across books and authors I'd never heard of before.

QsM: O.K. Let's finish up by talking about the future. First of a11 the future for you, John Michell. Have you got plans for the future?

J.M. Yes indeed, I'd like to stop. I don't intend for a while to do more books for commercial publishers. There's a number of things I'd like to do and maybe publish privately. I've always been interested in the reflexive nature of the universe. The way in which what gou project on it is what gou get back. That's why I'm interested in what I call 'cosmological reform'. The image of the universe that one projects is very much what one gets back. I've always been interested in Plato's idea that whatever image you make of the universe that is the image that you experience. So one of the books I want to do is on co-incidences, particularly literary co-incidences: the way in which if one gets obsessed with a subject you can find in a11 directions information connected to that subject coming at gou. That is if you pick up a book it'11 have just that very information you need. I've been collecting from various writers, various accounts of this effect. Some of them are almost literally incredible. I'd like to do a collection of those. I've got other work I'd like to do towards rediscovering the Pythagorian numerical canon, which Pythagoras was himself in quest of. That is, the ancient code of number. This had correspondences in terms of geometry and music which, by a11 accounts, ruled the ancient world by keeping things in harmony. It was claimed that this was a true image of the universe reflecting the original creative thought. This has always been a crucial interest of mine and a11 I've written has been round that subject. One day I'd like to do a kind of alternative cosomology. That is a kind of Plato's Republic or a Darwin's 'Origin of Species' but with different conclusions.

There's also minor things which I've been keeping for o1d age like inquiry into the authorship of Shakespeare. I'd like to be able to do the work that I want and to publish it as I want. How I'm going to do that I don't know but that's what I'd like to aim for.

QsM: I remember going to a lecture you gave in the early summer in which you went from co-incidences into a new cosmology which you also touch on in the 'Myth of Darwinism'.

J.M.: Was that at the embassy?

QsM: Yeah. I think you touched on something very essential there in that a new cosmology does need to be written to challenge the o1d cosmologies like Darwinism

J.M: It seems to me that the need for a radical change in the education system, and the whole way we're educated to regard. the nature of the universe and the nature of reality, is overwhelming. This is becoming quite evident. We see, for instance, so many ecology groups, preservation groups and so on - what they a11 lack is some central philosophy which can answer on its own terms the philosophy of their opponents. So I see the emergence of a completely new system of values expressed in a new way of looking at the world. To give one example : if we regard the earth (in a traditional way), a natural living creature then our whole way of relating to it would be different. If you get, for instance, an argument between the natives of Australia and a mining company about how the land should be used because the sacred places are often the places of mineral or uranium deposits, then this argument could be settled very very clearly, by consideration of what was in the best interests of the living earth. Now of course, we have to balance things and speak about the needs of technology but we don't hear much about the needs of the people themselves. But these should be paramount. If these are in accordance with the needs of the living earth there would be no question as to where the priorities should be.

QsM: So the ideas that are coming up in the earth mysteries movement could be essentzal to a new cosmology for mankind.

J.M: I think that that is one of the chief interests of the E.M. movement that the people concerned with it are a11 people who see a quite different view of the earth and human relations to it. It's quite different to that which is now dominant. I think the o1d view is rapidly fading. The new view is coming into being and is simple in accordance with the requirements of the time. I think this will come about anyway simply by human self preservation. We now see for the first time in the E.M. movement the way in which the ancients regarded the balance between human interests and the interests of the living earth. The fact that the ancient science, which was quite invisible in the 19th Century, is now becoming clearly understood and studied. This is a healthy sign for reform for cosmology which is the wag we regard the earth.

QsM: What's the future for E.M.? Will it become academically respectable with the new discipline being taught in universities or will it remain on the fringe with radicals and lunatics invo1ved ?

J.M.: The whole E.M. field is still in it's infancy. There is so much to investigate. For instance, the phenomena published last year of the straight line phenoinena of shrines being linked by straight paths in South America. We know the phenomena and yet there's no way to get funding to investigate it. I'm sure there's terrific opportunities for research in the whole field of E.M. and-ancient science. As soon as the need for that kind of study becomes more clearly seen, I imagine there will be people who'11 become specialists and academics in it. And yet, of course, there's always an element in it that can't be reduced to any system. That is the way in which one can go out into the field and experience the landscape and certain places within it in the way that 'A.E.' did. When A.E., the Irish mystical poet saw the earth in its true form with a11 its veins and its living energies visible within it and a different light over the earth, he saw invisible fountains of light and so on. It's exactly the image in E.M. that dowsers have spoken about. It's an image that'a just a hair's breath away from normal vision as A.E. said. I always remember one thing he said: "At one moment I realised that the Golden Age had never departed from this earth, it's only we who've become blind to it". In E.M. we are investigating the earth in its true aspect, that is a living creature with its living energies which we can relate to as the ancients did.

QsM: So A.E.'s vision was similar to good old Watkin's flash in Hereford. What about the future for man. Wil1 he inherit the Aquarian Paradise Refound that A.E. referred to or wil1 mankind inherit an Aquarian Nightmare as predicted by Orwell in '1984' as some of the paranoid Ufologists believe.

J.M.: You can look at it either way. Rationally considered it seems quite obvious that we are moving towards the system of total centralised control with people reduced to a kind of serf-like state as consumers, helpless victims of a central system. On the other hand, I'm not a pessimist; I'm not a rationalist and I don't believe that any rationalistic system can ever control human nature. The reactions now occuring seem to be a certain sign that there will be a reformation in our entire view of the world. It will be a rejection of the exclusive claims of rationality. The outcome will be more as A.E. saw it rather than as Orwell saw it. That knowing that the true image of the world is a glorious thing of which we're part will justify the mystics who've always seen it like that. To see the world in its true colours will no longer be a heresy or the preserve of madmen or mystics, it will become the inheritance of everybody.

J.M.: I don't think there is any evil in the natural processes of the earth. Things are as they were meant to be. This is our place of birth. It can become our potential paradise. A11 those schemes for colonising space, having made the earth uninhabitable, are dangerous fantasies. This earth is our paradise. If we ruin this earth, we've got no chance of finding angthing half as delightful in which a11 our natural senses are so perfectly fulfilled, perfectlg catered for. This is our paradise and it's in our interest to make it such.

QsM: The colonisation of space fits into the scheme of things in which life is extended by hundreds of years. Again Robert Anton Wilson talks about this a lot and if it does become possible that life processes are discovered and people do live longer then the world becomes very crowded. In this situation it might become necessary to colonise space. But this could be seen as repeating a pattern that has had unsavoury overtones in recent history.

J.M.: I once wrote a pamphlet against population control and against Malthus. It seems to me that if people are in control locally of their own lives, they'11 limit their population to whatever they can take care of. The whole movement towards population control is a complete red herring. It's blaming the women and children for a situation which is not of their making at a11. It's blaming the innocent for the crimes of the guilty. The resources of the world are so great that if properly used, that is, whether to be many societies with their own culture who can make their own decisions things would come into balance again. I believe with Palagius, who's called the English heretic, that human nature is essentially perfect for this earth. You don't judge a good society by the number of policemen it has to employ but by the other criteria altogether. That is if people are left to themselves and put into a good situation that are manifest the finest qualities that'11 make possible a state like Plato's ideal Republic. Or, in more traditional terms, the Golden Age.

QsM: John Michell thank you very much.

Here follows a complete list of all the books that John Michell has had published.

1. 'The Flying Saucer Vision' (1967). First published by Sedgewick and Jackson, then Sphere in paper.
2. 'The View Over Atlantis' (1969)
3. 'City of Revelation' (1971)
4. 'Ancient Metrology'
5. 'A Short Life at the Land's End'
6. 'The Earth Spirit-It's Ways, Shrines and Mysteries'.
7. 'A Little History of Astro-archeology.
8. 'Phenomena-A Book of Wonders' (with Robert Rickard, Fortean Times Editor).
9. 'Simulcra'.
10. 'The Old Stones of Land's End'.
11. 'Megalithomania'
12. 'Livin Wonders' (together with Robert Rickard).

John fuller M.P. must surely rate as one of the most intriguing members ever to sit in Parliament. He died in 1833, having been an M.P. from 1801 to 1812 and was known as 'Honest Jack' because he refused a peerage from Pitt. He was also known as 'Mad Jack' but for other reasons. He once drove frantically to Westminster to speak against the abolition of slavery, to his discredit. He derived his income from sugar plantations and became so incensed in debate that he insulted the Speaker and had to be escorted from the House. Interestingly, his portrait shows that he may have had some Creole blood.

His estate, Brightling Park, was then known as Rose Hill and is situated at Brightling, a wooded distrct about ten miles behind Eastbourne and Bexhill. It is near Bateman's, the house where Rudyard Kipling ended his days. The estate is situated in the lower half of the Virgo figure in the Stonegate Zodiac and is surrounded by a stone wall which at one point has a gate where dowsing has revealed a ley running through. A few hundred feet away from Brightling Beacon and at a height of almost 650 feet above sea level he errected 'The Obelisk' or Brightling Needle on a ley intersection. It is forty feet high, built of stone and geomantically sited. He had it built to provide work for the poor of the parish and there is a curious parallel to this at Oban in Argyll, Scotland. Here the town is dominated by a circular folly built on a hill at the turn of the century. Dowsing shows that three leys cross in the centre of this structure and enquiries revealed that it was built to give work to the unemployed. Which raises the more than interesting question : did either gentleman know exactly what he was doing?

John Fuller

Near the obelisk he built an observatory with the latest instruments of the time including a Camera Obscura. In fact the obelisk was purported to be a meridian mark for his transit instrument, NL 57' 54" EL 22' 42".

Jack was a patron of J.M.W. Turner and commissioned him to paint. At least one picture was of a sunset viewed from the observatory, others were painted in the neighborhood.

He gave £10,000 to the Royal Institution Qf Great Britain to found the Fullerian Professorship and one was taken up by Michael Faraday, the greatest pioneeer of electro-magnetism. A great lover of music he donated nine basoons to the church, which if played together must have made a curious mantra-like noise.

What was regarded locally as the best thing that he ever did was buying Bodiam Castle and presenting it to the nation, thus preventing it from being pulled down by builders for the use of its materials. The castle is adjacent to the body of Scorpio in the Zodiac.

In his estate he built a small one-roomed Grecian Temple with a domed roof. Nearby is a folly known as the Sugar Loaf with a trig. point a few yards away. The story of this is the usual one about a wager with a guest concerning the number of church spires that could be seen from the house and then he consequently had the thing built. There is something about this much repeated story that somehow is not entirely convincing.

J. Fuller's Mausoleum

He erected his own mausoleum in Brightling churchyard from a design by Sir Robert Smirke, who also designed the observatory. The mausoleum is a striking stone pyramid that he was only allowed to erect if he moved a nearby public house to a position further removed from the church. Before he died he sought for a hermit to occupy it, the conditions being that the applicant was to occupy the structure for one year and was not, during that time, to shave, to cut his hair or wash himself; nor was he to hold any sort of intercourse with the outside world. His bust in the church carries the inscription- "Nothing is of use which is not honest". (How true)

Brightling Needle

The sighting of The Needle is remarkable. Michael Berend, author of 'Landscape Geometry of Southern Britain' (published by the Institute of Geomantic Research), has accurately checked this and found out that it is on a line that starts at Whiteleaved Oak, which is where Herefordshire, Gloucestershire and Worcestershire meet. Therefore his accuracy is uncanny and it also indicates the much larger scale of siting of structures than we hitherto have realised.

To revert to the question, did they know? Most unlikely, but certainly some very strong instinct appears to have been active within him. It is a fact that modern churches are still being sited accurately on leys and if there is not some secret, esoteric knowledge being used then it must be by some form of instinct. Always assuming, of course, that some subtle manipulation from somewhere is not at play.

AS well as the features which attract Northern Europeans to any part of the Med-sun, sea and cheap wine, Malta is part of an archpelago which was the centre of a great megalithic culture.

The mainland of Malta offers all the facilities of a Meditarranean holiday centre with cheap hotels etc. Being small (Malta is 17 by 8 and Gozo 8 by 4 miles) you can travel easily and very cheaply by bus, and in some style! Drivers customize their own buses with all manner of kitsch.....

Having arrived at Luqa airport and sorted out your accomodation, make your way to Valetta by bus (or taxi for the fainter of heart) [there are no faint hearts in earth mysteries research. Ed.] and search out a map of the islands. If, like me, you read maps like books, you will delight in the loca1 colour expressed in such Arabic sounding names as Mosta, Mdina, Zebbug and Rabat as they float off the contours at you as you sip your favourite nip in some quayside bar.

A day or two of acclimatization is recommended especially in the July or August heat before you begin your megalithic action. You will have found out where the following places are: Hagar Qim and Mnajdra, Tarxien and the Hypogeum. For these are the main neolithic sites of Malta itself.

HAGAR QIM and MNAJDRA can be reached by taking a bus from the Porte des Bombes, Valetta to Qrendri village and walking on a little further towards the sea to the templs. (Local people will direct you, nearly everyone speaks English). These are two obviously linked sites. They are intervisible. Huge limestone blocks enclose sequences of rounded chambers. Research shows that there is a solar significance to an arrangement of holes and stones in one chamber at Nagar Qim. Walk down the paved track to Mnajdra overlooking the glittering sea. Notice a small island not far out. This island provides a nice sight for some sort of alignment from the temples. However, more recently this sight has become the target for RN gunnery practise! (For the possible geomantic significance of this see 'The Desacralised Cosmos'in this issue. Ed.). Meanwhile Mnajdra hums with its own poetry. Rounded chambers, 'oracle holes', altars, gateways of beautiful proportions and stones inscribed with decorative motifs apparently drilled: these are some of the treats of the place.

Both these temples are complex in plan, being very developed forms from a period some 1500 years after the earliest temples at Skorba, Mgarr and Zebug which are from the 5th millenium BC. You can easily spend a complete day at these two sites especially if you include a precipitous climb down to the sea below. But, don't forget to take a straw hat or the sun will surely get you!

Another day should be spent visiting two sites close to Valetta TARXIEN and the HYPOGEUM Temples. Both are in Paola. Tarxien is the most extensive and elaborately carved temple and is in fact a long series of developing temples. Great double spiralled 'oculos' slabs confront you at every turn. Huge stone dishes remind the megalithic traveller of their parallels in the Boyne Valley mounds in Ireland. Huge wall slabs are delicately placed edge to edge. Then there are the legs of the goddess. Don't miss those legs! They imply a figure ten feet high. More or her later. Now look for the bull - a relief carving in a small chamber off the main temple. There is also a sow, piglets and other animals.

A few streets away is the Hypogeum (Gk. under ground) of Hal Saflieni. You enter a house from the street and descend a spiral staircase into the superbly shaped rooms carved from the rock. It is said that these rounded shapes give a clue to the original appearance of the interiors of the above ground temples. With its wonderful reverberant sound qualities and the traces of original 5,000 year old red ochre spirals on the ceilings and walls, it is certainly one or the great neolithic wonders of the world.

These four sites are the principal surviving temples of mainland Malta. There are several other lesser, somewhat ruinous and more ancient ones at Mgarr, Skorba, Bugibba, Tal Qadi and elsewhere.

The national museum in Valetta's main street is a must. Most of the more important carved stones from the temples are here, having been replaced by somewhat harshly cast replicas at the sites themselves. Numerous stone artifacts, many of great beauty, are to be seen. Then suddenly one is confronted by many versions of the goddess image. She appears in many different sizes but mostly in the same pose, seated with legs tucked under her and hands on her lap.

She wears a pleated skirt and is extremely voluminous-the essence of fullness, roundness, warmth, motherhood. Quite often she is headless, but heads have been found that indicate that thay may have been articulated onto the goddesses shoulders in some way- (or deliberately smashed off, perhaps? Ed.) like some sort of puppet maybe. The scale of these sculptures varies from the huge standing version at Tarxien (already mentioned) to little twists of clay an inch or two long, with many superb variations in between. One of the more interesting of these is a terracotta lady about 7" long, reclining on a bed, and dreaming, most probably, her oracular dreams. She was found in the Hypogeum.

It seems that this culture, whose temple reflect in thier plan the same rounded forms as the ones we've observed in these figures and figurines, was truely under the spell of the Goddess. A matriarchal culture one would say. And in some ways one can still see the same thing going on in Malta. The mother is respected if not to say voluminous! Great homage and obeisance is paid in August to Mary, mother of God with festivals and celebrations. I was in Malta for thr'festa' to see the whole town decked out in banners and exploding with deafening fire crackers.

But during the last phase of the use of Tarxien, during the early part of the Maltese Bronze Age, the image changes. The roundness turns into fiery inscribed discs with erect excressances, like phalluses, with legs and- little legs supporting them. There are several examples in the museum, a graphic demonstration of the polarisation of matriarchy to patriarchy. You didn't expect that on holiday did you.

The north island, Gozo, should be visited for its Ggantija temple, and the Ta Cenc hilltop. A small ferry runs from Mafra on the northern most tip of Malta to Mgarr on Gozo. I recommend the hiring of a small motor bike when you get there. You can thus travel to the more out of the way parts along tracks that take you through the terraced fields. It can also be a useful way of cooling off in the mid day sun. Great domed churches are visible everywhere shimmering in the white haze. The valleys are well farmed and full of figs, olives, vines and other fruits. Gozo is more harmonious than Malta. There is a balance of fertile valleys and rocky hills crowned with small towns.

The 'inland sea' at Dwejra manifests more examples of the goddess cult. Swim through the irridescent cave to the sea beyond. Feel the power of the place. Then there is Calypso's cave above Ramla Bay where Odysseus is thought to have been entertained by the goddess after his shipwreck.

Looking out south across the valley from the huge Ggantija temple various hills are visible. Nuffara, directly opposite, is the site of an ancient settlement and in the far distance is Ta Cenc.

History is everywhere written in the stone walls: from prehistory, through the terraced gardens of the Moors' three centuries occupation and the Knight's of Malta's bastions to the grandiose 20th century churches. Layers and layers of history. Go and see the Malta that the Maltese peasants know about: it's the Malta that the British Empire overlooked. And, it'l1 be time well spent.

A thorough survey of the grail literature can involve one in a great deal of eye strain culminating in a possibly expensive visit to the optician. There's a whole forest of books using the grail story line and another forest of books commenting on them. I suppose one could argue that all this activity has helped to alleviate unemployment through the ages (for writers, academics, publishers, printers and so on) and you can't knock that. However, the end product of this process is that the essentials have become obscurred: it's difficult to see the forest for the trees. What I attempt to do here is to hack a path through this jungle, find the essential meaning of the symbols and returning home apply this knowledge to one particular place. Not wishing to delude anyone let it be stated quite clearly that this place HOVE, is not seen as the exclusive home of the grail.

An analysis of the Hove mound's contents and the significance of its folk ritual has already been undertaken in a previous issue of this publication. The purpose of this article is to extend some of the lines of thought already started to indicate that the cup found in the mound has much in common wlth the grail, and to show that when the destruction of a sacred centre is carried out that centre loses its harmony.

A brief description of the site is appropriate both to serve as an introduction to those who are new to the subject and to refresh the memories of those already familiar with it. The mound stood very close to Palmera Square in Hove and was destroyed in the winter of 1856-57. Its destruction ensured the dissipation of a nature ritual which had been going on at the site for thousands of years. Every Good Friday hundreds of people went there to play certain 'games' actually on the mound. The Christian religion had a far more important place in the national culture in the 1850's than it does in the 1980's and it seems more than a little strange that the most solemn day of the Christian calender should be celebrated with singing and dancing and on a pagan mound to boot! At the base of the mound an oak coffin was discovered in which were placed CUP, SWORD, DOUBLE HEADED AXE, and WHET-STONE(?) [the function of the last item is only guessed at] These articles were placed on top of bones.

Anyone familiar with the grail stories will immediately be struck by the fact that in many of these stories four treasures are told of one of which is the grail. The Irish tales of the Tuatha de Dannan also contain this motif of four treasures one of which is a cup. This information alone clearly points vs in the direction of firstly an important pre-Christian ritual lasting into modern times and secondly a vital link with the traditional grail symbols.

The cup is small, rather like a tea cup and is made of amber. It's estimated value has been put at a quarter of a million pounds upwards by Egerton Sykes the world famous pre-historian now living within a mile of the site. Amber has the quality of being able to give off a static electrical charge when rubbed with a cloth. Imagine the significance to a Bronze Age people of a cup that would give off light of itself. It could well represent the sun to them in its' aspect of being a producer of inexhaustible light.

The grail story has been interpreted as a symbolical representation of the annual natural cycle of growth and decay as told in the classical Adonis myth (1). It is this interpretion that links the Hove Mound to the grail legends. In the grail story the grail hero must go to the grail castle, always located near water, and, by finding the grail heal the wounded Fisher King. The healing of the King ensures the restoration of life to the Wasteland. In the Adonis myth, Adonis spends half a year in the underworld with Persephone during which time the earth is barren and waste. He spends the other half of the yaer with Aphrodite when the earth is fertile. In order to ensure the restoration of life to the land primitive people acted out the ascent of Adonis to the upper world. They performed it with great jubilation. Throughout Europe the Spring Folk Festivals and Adonis cults had the aim of awakening the representative of the vegetation deity. Song and dance were used in this process. The pattern is that of the awakening or restoration of the god/king being closely involved with the fertility of the earth. The Karneval that takes place in Cologne in late February may well have its roots here. It's a celebration that lasts for days and culminates in a huge procession and on-going street party in which the drum in the most popular instrument - the noise is enough to wake up any sleeping deity.

So, what we have is this: a tradition widespread throughout Europe of Spring Festivals whose aim is to restore life to the land through song and dance. The grail legend has the grail hero going to the grail castle and it is his aim to restore life to the land by healing the the king and seeing the cup of light. In the Hove Mound there was buried a kingly figure upon whose chest was placed a cup of light. The dancing on the mound can be seen as a symbolical way of being friction to bear upon the cup and thus bringing light into the earth.

In the Parzival of Wolfram von Eschenbach it is exactly on Good Friday that the grail is achieved.

"Today is Good Friday, and they wait
There a dove winging down from heaven
It brings a small white waffer, and
Leaves it on a stone."

The grail in this story is represented by a stone. For our purpose here the important thing s the descent of the spiritual light into the stone on Good Friday. This parellels with the Good Friday Hove ritual: as a process which generated light in the earth.

As a child I was often perplexed by the contradictions between the name Good Friday and what went on in church. The crosses were draped in black, and we were constantly reminded about the crucifiction and that it was our fault. It didn't make me feel good and I remember saying to some of my chorister chums, "why don't they call it Bad Friday?" And of course the mumbo-jumbo coming from the pulpit didn't clarify matters one bit.Of course depends where you put your emphasis: either on the joy or on the guilt. By looking at the pagan significance of Good Friday we can see the joy and in doing so, it helps to show where the joy is in the Christian story. Friday was the day sacred to the god Venus-the god of love (all kinds). Jesus was, above all other things a god of love. And it is a Friday that he makes his supreme sacrifice of love. He allows himself to be tortured and killed and at the moment that the blood of the incarnating Christ touches the earth strange things happen. And we are told, that when he dies on the Friday the light of his spirit enters the depths of hell. Again we have this pattern of light penetrating darkness and bringing a restoration.

Each locality in the ancient world had its own sacred centre or omdphalos. It was at this place that the community focused its spiritual and Psychological attention. The earth was seen as a living spiritual being and as such deserving appropriate respect. If this centre was lost or destroyed the community in turn lost its spiritual centre, its spiritual focus. When this happens fragmentation sets in.

When the sacred centre of Hove was treeted as no more than an inconvenient pile of mud to be cleared so that 'good' use could be made of the land, it represented another victory of crass, gross materialism over an ancient way of seeing the subtle relationship between man, earth and heaven. Hove has indeed lost its centre. There is no centre in Hove. It's become a ghetto for the elderly, The streets are strewn with dog excreta image of the number of people forced into lookin for companionship with their pets. The suicide rate gives cause for concern.

How can life be restored to the wasteland? The re-establishment of the traditional welcoming of the return of the life force to the land may go some way towards this. For the community to focus its mind on this event once a year will help to keep it touch with the Great Movements of the natural cycle. Without such a focus one can become lost in a sea of meaningless materialism or worse still, some form of dogmatic fundamentalism. The realit of our situation is that we are living in a natural world. The earth, our living mother breathes in and out in one great long breath lasting one year. The start of this great inhalation could be said to be in on Good Friday. The day when light penetrates the earth.

AFTERWORD.

At present QUICKSILVER MESSENGER is, involved in negotiations with various dance groups in an effort to re-establish the dancing that took place at the mound. At present we can't be sure, but we hope, that this Good Friday (1982) there will be dancing there.

A Guide To The Megaliths Of Europe by Alistair Service and Jean Bradbury
Granada 1981. 284 pgs. photos. maps.

There's a popular misconception that megalithic structures and especially stone circles are peculiar to the British Isles. This book helps to put the records straight by presenting a survey of megalithic structures throughout Europe.

The introduction has got to rate as one of the best concise and scolarly accounts of the subjects that I've read. The authors demonstrate their familiarity with the techniques and theories of both teams in the megalithic ball park: the archeologists and the "lunatic fringe" [for want of a better expression, of course]. Far from being a dry academic text the book is eminently readable. The authors have researched extensively throughout the literature and at the sites themselves and express some very interesting conclusions. It will serve as a good companion to our own 'Megalithic Holidays' series.

JILL BRUCE and BRUCE LACEY : Brighton Art College. Friday 12.1.'82.

The performances consisted of two separate rituals. Both were pleasant to watch and created a contemplative atmosphere. No doubt, good therapy to create and perform.

Jill Bruce began on a ground plan of a huge rainbow made out of coloured streamers laid out on the ground adjacent to circle outlined by candles and earthenware pots. On entering the circle she began to light candles and flares at the four axis points. A slow drum beat helped to create the right atmosphere. This ritual was suggestive of the setting out of a sacred structure or mandala. Wholesome magic.

Bruce Lacey began the second ritual in the same circle by tracing the outline of a female form in sand upon the floor. From a tray decked with candles and flowers he then proceeded to bring the form to life in a sort of shamistic fertilty ritual. The organs of perception and conception were given were endowed with their appropriate sensory attributes : a mirror was held to eyes, a sound was made at the ears the whole body was touched with a feather. This ritual was the creation and bringing to life of the fertility goddess.

The artists were clearly not just expressing something about themselves but also something of the essence of experience. That is what makes this kind of work all the more interesting.

Worlds Beyond: The Everlasting Frontier
And/Or Press. 1978, 300 pgs. photos.

Since the Russian invasion of Afganistan two years ago the popular vision of the future has been one most fearful and paranoid. CND has been resurected and nuclear shelter construction has become a new growth industry [though admittedly a small one and limited to only one small section of the community i.e. those most likely to call the shots if a nuclear crisis arose].

Into this confusion of paranoia comes a book called 'Worlds Beyond' which far from indulging in apocalyptic fantasy explores the future potential for mankind in a positive way. It's written chiefly by scientists and looks at the possibilities afforded by new technologies and by space travel.

It is made up of 27 sequences or essays by a variety of conrtibutors who are leading experts in their field. Astronaut Edgar Mitchell contributes a piece on the effects of space travel on perception. There are contributions on space industries, possibilties and projects afoot to contact extra-terrestrial life, the UFO phenomena, and space age myths. The last section contains pieces from Doctors Lear and Wilson. Dr. Leary is as bright and amusing as ever making statements like "When you mutate, you've got to migrate .. when you've got new ideas you can't hang around the old hive; you've got to move out." And Dr. Wilson making statements like "Hope is created out of a belief in yourself, which gradually extends to a belief in others and belief that there's a sane centre to the universe, in spite of appearances..." Beautiful stuff.. If you're feeling down, read it - it'll get you up. If you're feeling up, read it - it'11 keep you there.

It's a well known psychological fact that one's belief system has a strong influence in forming one's reality. This being the case consider if you will the effect the press is having on making our future. It's just as well that there's books like this being published to offer a positive viewof the future, to combat the negative one being formed daily.

The Cup of Destiny: the quest for the grail. by Trevor Ravenseroft
Rider. 1981. 194 pages. Paper.

Mr. Ravenscroft has basically written an esoteric commentary on Wolfram von Eschenbach's 'Parsival'. He has written it partly as a response to the reaction to his previous book 'The Spear of Destiny', and with the intention of showing how 'Parsival' is a commentary on the development of the soul as a bridge between the world of sense and the world of spirit. The principals of this esoteric interpretation are based on the Rudolf Steineresque teachings of one Dr. W.J. Stein under whose guidance the author studied techniques of attaining higher levels of consciousness. The mysterious Dr. Stein will be remembered by readers of the 'Spear' as the man who put Mr. Ravenscroft hot on the scent of the Nazi leadership's involvement with the occult. The book has also been written with the aim of developing and expounding the grail teachings of Dr. Stein.

At times the author ask's for a lot to be taken for granted. For example, we are told quite plainly that "at the end of this century the Order of the Knights Templars will re-emerge to change the whole existing social order" (p.143). And, that they will fight against the anti-christ and "the Great Dictator" who will be trying to sieze world power. However, this statement is in no way backed up or developed.

The rather crypic extracts from the 'Parsival' and their commentaries serve to underline the fact that one really needs to read the 'Parsival' and 'The Cup' side by side to get a fair idea of what's happening. In this respect the book is not altogether satisfying. Read on its own it lacks a coherance which presumably could be found by studying the poem.

THE HOLY BLOOD AND THE HOLY GRAIL by Baigent, Leigh & Lincoln
Jonathan Cape 1982

Any book that claims that Jesus did not die on the cross, that Mary Magdeline was his wife, they had children who were the progenitors of the Merovingian kings of France, that the line survives to this day, that they represent the truth behind the legends of the Holy Grail in various European families, that a society of initiates - the Priory of Sion - has and does and does exist to further their claims to be the rightful heirs of the throne of France, if not Europe, and that the Davidic line that preceded Jesus was decended from the Elohim, the sons of Gods who looked upon the daughters of men and found them fair etc.............is unlikely to be greeted by ecclesiastical and academic establishments with open hearted rapture.

Predictably this book has been dismissed out of hand by these quarters. "Rubbish" is the summation of their reaction. How could it be otherwise? It is not their business to agree with such versions of events nor would it be psychologically possible.

Less committed reviewers have treated the book with fascinated curiosity and indeed the Sunday Telegraph reviewer predicted it would have a huge impact on Christianity. Be all that as it may. 40,000 copies in the first week is evidence of huge public interest in the matter and the two afore mentioned establishments might profitably ponder the reasons for this. Let me declare my interest. I had the privilege of being of very minor assistance to the authors, and also had the pleasure of their friendship over the years and hosted several weekends of intense discussion about the whole affair with them.

Of course, it is a rattling good story and as Anthony Burgess has said in the Observer, would make the basis of a good novel. That the authors spent so long, 10 years on their researches, denying themselves more immediately gainful activities, is impressive. To bear personal testimony of their integrity in the matter is a pleasure. The research was painstaking but this version of events is not presented by the authors as gospel, to coin a phrase, but is a testing of certain claims by that 'shadowy secret society the Priory of Sion, and an attempt to get at the truth about the mysterious treasure of Rennes-le-Chateau in Lanquedoc. The claims stand up in so many unexpected ways, that the authors came to the conclusion it might well be true, and at any rate the Priory genuinely believes it, and genuinely is involved in the restoration of the Meringovian line to the French throne and has subtly behind the scenes of many events that have marked European history.

The Priory has the alternative title of "Order of the Rose-Cross Veritas" and may be seen as the father of various initiatory societies throughout the ages. A study of their sites reveals a knowledge of geomancy. They may have been involved in the planning of the Gothic cathedrals which reorganised the system of the great telluric lines of Europe, previously organised by the megaliths, so as to raise the collective consciousness of the Western peoples.

Certain articles by myself in earth mystery magazines have been translated by the Priory and circulated to members. None of my contacts with the Priory or the authors has led me to view that this version of events changes in any way, the spiritual truths of the Christian message. For my part, I believe this book will eventually have a huge impact on Western cultural and religious attitudes and is only the precursor of much more to come.

Followers of earth mysteries and esoterica will find the idea of the Priory's existence and history a plausible identification of the group who have maintained and deployed that seeret knowledge over the millenia.

(Reviewed by Colin Bloy)

I was pleased to see that Wolstonbury is more than just a beautiful hill (or probably is - must keep an open mind ). I've plotted the two proposed leys on my 1:25,000 map of the area and have found two possible points on the ley passing through Ditchling Church. One point is at the Ditchling end, being a place where 5 footpaths cross/meet at grid reference 53466/11595. The other point, also marked by the meeting of 5 ways, is at the other (Newtimber) end of the ley, grid ref, 52347/11217. (Between this point and Newtimber Church there is also a spring close (about 50 yards) to the ley). Going back to the extra point at the Ditchling end, it lies at a distance from Ditchling Church just a little (about 100 yards) more than the distance between 'Halfway' and the Church.

I have also plotted another ley ( a possible ley, I should say), although I have not researched it in the field- I hope to get time to do so at Christmas time. I have enclosed a sketch map of the ley showing the five points through which it passes. The ley covers just over 3 miles, running approximately West-East and passing through the centre of the circular alignment at Wolstonbury. I don't think you'll need grid references for this ley as all points are well marked on the O.S. map. The road-alignment is a short distance south of Keymer on a lane leading to Underhill Lane. You'l1 see on the O.S. map that the hedges at each end of the road-alignment follow the ley a little further, and at the Eastern end the hedge crosses the ley to run along its other side. (In Paul Devereux and Ian Thompson's 'The Ley Hunter's Companion' they write that experience has shown that 'roads and tracks fall along side or immediately parallel to leys, never on them!' See p.208). The hedge which starts at the Wolstonbury ley-point also follows the lines of the ley.

I realise that even on 1:25,000 scale an O.S. map cannot be regarded as perfect and that fieldwork is necessary to back up evidence so far found, but it's a good possibility that this is another ley in the 'Wolstonbury Enigma'.(I've just noticed that the ley also crosses both 'bridges' over the moat of Newtimber Place).

Tom Costick, Burgess Hill, Sussex


I found the last issue very interesting, particularly the article on the Dodman and the John Michell material, though I'm afraid I disagree with some of his views, particularly his over-riding geocentric attitude. In the 60's ley hunting sprang out of UFO interest and a desire to contact extra-terrestrials. This went hand in hand with a greater understanding of our own planet. In fact, John Michell first heard about leys through a lecture I gave to BUFORA. So then, for a brief period, it seemed that everything was in balance - all channels were open both to earth and sky. Now it seems that balance has largely been lost as the current fashion is to think of UFO's as "psychic phenomena"- or archetypes, which is even more wooly terminology, I'm sure John would accuse me (judging from his comments in the interview) of "wanting to believe someone is in control rather than face the world without rulers" etc. I have always adhered to the concept of higher, wiser beings trying to help us as best they can. Of course this does not confliet with John's idea of the purpose of "orthoteny" - to make us more aware of the hidden significances of the countryside in a subtle way.

From JIMMY GODDARD, SURREY


I travelled to Wilmington to visit the Long Man and while walking through the village I passed a house with a Celtic style stone head above the doorway. These type of heads are fairly common in the West of Yorkshire (where I come from) but, I suspect it's totally out of place here. Can you throw any light on the mystery?

The Long man did not fully reveal himself either. The winter sun only just rose over the Downs. I wonder if he is a summer symbol?

A Celtic head would not necessarily be out of place in Sussex as the Celts were here before the Saxons. In fact, only a few miles away in Alfriston, Celtic burial urns have been uncovered. Watkins suggested that the LONG MAN represented the surveyors of the ley sestem. Plus, there is evidence to suggest that since his Victorian 'restoration' he has never fully revealed himself to anybody - but not on account of the position of the sun in the sky. Several dowsers feel sure that the figure once had a phallus rather like that of the CERNE ABBAS GIANT and that he was emasculated out of a sense of Victorian propriety - ED.

From Phil Reeder, Falmer, Sussex.


The LONG MAN, who is not really a man, reminds me of an amusing little article in a recent issue of the 'Defence of Literature and the Arts Society's mag, about the Cerna Abbas Giant. "The Giant of Cerne Abbas has just had a clean up. As he is 180 ft. long this is a considerable task. The outline has been cleared of undergrowth and dressed with fresh chalk. This reveals more clearly that the Giant is sexually well endowed. He bears an errect phallus of 25 feet. A nude to be proud of ......... Not everyone thinks so, however. A local resident, Mr. L.M. Middleton of South Perrott, has complained to the magazine 'Dorset'. Propriety demands, says Mr. Middleton, that after at least 2000 years of rude existence the giant should now be equipped with a loin cloth.

Such reactions are nothing new. They arise everytime the giant is restored to full condition. A Home Office file reveals that on one occasion a complaint was received about the figure's 'IMPASSIONED OBSCENITY'. an official minuted: "What does the complainant want us to do? Plant a grove of fig trees?" The objector was robustly told the the Giant of Cerne is a natioal monument which there is a statutory duty to preserve not conceal. The National Trust gave a similar reply to Mr. Middleton." [Franeis Bennion).

From Magda Graham, Blackburn, Lancs. [Editor. OCCULT WORLD]