Magic Earth Lines 1: “Discovering” Ley Lines

At Bad Archaeology, a skeptical look at Alfred Watkins and the “discovery” of ley lines:

According to a later account, all this [discovery of a hidden web of straight lines in the English countryside] came to him “in a flash” on 21 June 1921 during a visit to Blackwardine; according to his son Allen, this happened while poring over a map. A variation on the ‘origin myth’ quoted by John Michell holds that the revelation happened whilst out riding in the hills near Bredwardine in 1920, observing the Herefordshire landscape he loved. It is unclear why there are two different versions of the story; Tom Williamson and Liz Bellamy note wryly in their excellent Ley Lines in Question (Tadworth: World’s Work, 1983) that John Michell’s version reflects how “ley hunters would like to think it happened”.

Speculations about “trackways” and astronomical alignments go back well into the nineteenth century, before even Watkins’ time.

A critique of the Wikipedia entry for ley lines is included.

Read the rest.

2 thoughts on “Magic Earth Lines 1: “Discovering” Ley Lines

  1. Pingback: Letter from Hardscrabble Creek » Blog Archive » Magic Earth Lines 2: The 37th Parallel

  2. Planet Earth radiates energies, generates energies, and deflects energies. But I think that mostly these energies arc, curve, slalom, swerve, and twist in their paths. Even straight line alignments like ley lines, which follow points on the surface of the more or less spherical Earth.So strightness may reflect planes defined by curves. Or some such.

    Nonetheless, Earth energies and Earth alignments have long interested me. I still recall with marvel and delight the moment when a friendly Cal State Park Ranger announced that the small group of us kids were standing on the San Andreas Fault Line…which runs kinda straight through the Northern California Coast…sometimes on land and other times into the Pacific…And is, among other things, a source of occultish energies…

    And I admit that I’m not all that sensitive to noting ley lines across the landscape (as opposed to with maps).

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